Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Sometimes things should be left in the past

Atlantis Found by Clive Cussler

Raise the Titanic by Clive Cussler

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Why can’t I learn this lesson? Some books shouldn’t be re-read if you want to continue to remember them fondly. But maybe it’s better to have ripped the band-aid off so you don’t recommend them and regret it later? When I was in middle school, I discovered the books of Clive Cussler. They read like a cross between Robert Ludlum and Indiana Jones. A dashing hero, his best friend, obscure bits of history woven into a densely plotted adventure, classic cars, and while they’re all […]

Sure didn’t love it

Machines of Loving Grace by John Markoff

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I’m kind of convinced that this book was meta-non-fiction. It follows the history of artificial intelligence and the various ways that machines interact with humans, ostensibly with an eye to the future of the relationship humanity will have with robots once they tiptoe closer to sentience. That sounds like a good book. This is not that book. This book, I’m pretty sure, may have been the first full length book put to press written by an automaton. It would explain a lot – why the […]

Take 52 Steps Away from this Book

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Normally I like to add the cover image.  I’m not going to do that this time. This book is not worth that kind of energy. The blurb says this: An elderly woman is found poisoned in the upstairs bedroom of her home whose front door stands 52 steps above the street in an old-fashioned whodunit that blends clues, red herrings, suspects, and humor. It has a solid 4 stars. I wanted something fast to read and this promised me funny.  It was free.  I got […]

50 shades of “oh my, no! Really?! Yikes…Oh come on!”

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Never has a book seduced me like this. It was page up and page down of sexy sexy seductioness. Christian wants Anastasia to eat all the food. Several times they eat pancakes and there is always bacon. They visit an IHOP for Christ’s sake! How is that fair to a girl like me, an ex-pat that can’t just visit an IHOP whenever I crave maple pancakes with delicious creamy syrup? How is my boyfriend supposed to compete with that? My relationship has lost its shine. […]

Please do not enter

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I’ve read a few other Matthew Pearl books before. They’re decent historical mysteries, for what they are. Pearl’s writing is fine, for what it is. But then there comes a point where one has to say “enough.” I pretty much always read every book to the end, no matter how bad it is. Not this time. Observe: Hammie’s jet-black hair was parted smartly, impervious to the breeze, but his bulbous forehead and gourdlike chin, inexpertly shaved, overshadowed his otherwise bland facial features, which seemed to have […]



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