Cannonball Read 12

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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It’s Up To You, New York…

Social Creature by Tara Isabella Burton

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Some reviews are easy. I can churn out 400, even 500 words no problem, either because of the book itself or the context invoked by the book. Rarely can I tell what I’ll have to say before I sit down to write it. I just have to do it. Others, like Social Creature, are tough. It’s difficult to spit out 250 words about a book that has some substance but not much, some memorable scenes but not many, leaves a fingerprint more than an imprint on […]

Bawlmer

Four Kinds of Rain by Robert Ward

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One of the more memorable things I’ve read in the last few years is Robert Ward’s Red Baker. It’s your typical blue collar male midlife crisis story, only it’s set in Baltimore and is hardcore devoted to the city. Being a native, I love Baltimore tales. When I mentioned to someone that I really enjoyed Red Baker, they suggested I pick this one up. I’m glad I did. This one is an actual crime story set in Baltimore and it’s twisty. In the first fifty or so pages, […]

Lost It At the Movies

Double Feature by Donald Westlake

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I was fortunate to snag one of the new Hard Case Crime releases just before everything shut down. And it’s a good thing too because Donald Westlake is one of my favorite writers. I love how versatile he is, doing everything from mysteries to broad noir tales to geopolitical thrillers to biting satire works. When I saw that this would be a re-release of two movie-based novellas, I got excited. This is probably the most eager I’ve been for a new HCC in a while. […]

Oedipus and Electra

Cropper's Cabin by Jim Thompson

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The year of Jim Thompson continues with what is by far the best book of his I’ve read this calendar year. It may be a cut below his truly greatest works like Pop. 1280 and The Grifters but it’s really darn good. I once heard Jason Concepcion of The Ringer fame compliment Quentin Tarantino by saying that the director “democratizes pop culture.” In other words, he takes B-movie stuff like gangster films and martial arts tales and turns them into high art. Thompson can perhaps be thought of in […]

Too Cool For School

Shortcut Man by p.g. sturges

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You know a book you read and enjoy while acknowledging it’s not that good? I’m not talking about a “guilty pleasure” read, a term I’ve always found to be condescending anyway. I’m talking about something that you know is probably not well-written but it meshes with your taste and you wind up enjoying it? That’s how I feel about p.g. sturges’ (sic) Shortcut Man. sturges writes in an absurdist, Chuck Palahniuk-esque style that I don’t often enjoy. And he has no running plot, rather a series […]



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