Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

They’re All My Friends, And They Died…

Long Bright River by Liz Moore

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I haven’t ugly cried over a book in a hot minute, but man, I sure ugly cried over this one.  This is one of those books that everyone recommends to you and for whatever reason you dig your feet in that it’s probably not going to be for you but you politely say, “Thanks for the recommendation” and then go on about reading anything but that book.  Does anyone else do that? And then invariably, when you sit down to read the book that your […]

Jump Up and Feel Down

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe

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Reading about the rise and fall of the Sacklers, I kept thinking about the futurism of the 1950s. I had been to Futureland in Disney this past fall and it reminded me how obsessed people were in the post-war world with discovering things that dramatically enhanced life. This isn’t a bad sentiment to have, I suppose. I’d love nothing more than a robot butler to cook my food and clean up after me. But how does one deal with pain? It calls to mind Linda […]

“I’ll die young, but it’s like kissing God”

Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe

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Bingo: Monster (The Sacklers themselves, in case that’s not obvious) I read Say Nothing a few months ago, and it was excellent–so good that Empire of Pain immediately shot to the top of my TBR list. Empire of Pain is the story of the Sackler family–the family behind Purdue Pharma, the pharmaceutical company responsible for Oxycontin. I’ve read books before about the opioid epidemic and the Sacklers and Purdue Pharma have been mentioned–but this deep dive into the family was FASCINATING. Empire of Pain is divided into three parts: the first […]

“Outrage is conditioned not by the nature of the atrocity but by the affiliation of the victim and the perpetrator”

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe

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After having read two of his books in (relatively) quick succession I can say with full confidence that Patrick Radden Keefe is an excellent writer and a dogged journalist. He was starting with topics that I wanted to read about, even if they were difficult, but he was able to draw me in in ways I wasn’t expecting and achieved more than I had anticipated. Say Nothing Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland takes on the bitter conflict in […]

Philanthropy is not the same as charity, or, how the Sacklers gaslighted a nation

Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe

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Living in the UK, there are certain things about the USA which are very alien to me – non-socialized medicine,  for example. I was also unaware of the opioid crisis in the States which has led to thousands of deaths from overdoses and the misery of addiction. Much of this can be laid firmly at the door of Purdue Pharmaceutical, inventor and manufacturer of a proprietary version of oxycodone (an opioid narcotic used for pain relief, which is more powerful than morphine), OxyContin. Other drug […]



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