Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Sparks in the Wind

Sunrise On The Reaping by Suzanne Collins

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Readers of the Hunger Games are familiar with Haymitch, the drunken mentor of Katniss and Peeta, and with how he won his Games, and what happened afterward – but not all is as it seems on the big screen. I love The Hunger Games series, and I really enjoyed The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, so even though I am not as interested in Haymitch’s Games as many other fans are, I was still incredibly excited when this book was announced, not only for the chance […]

For the Trees!

Franklin's Trees by AJ Schenkman

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In July 2024 Franklin’s Trees was published. I wasn’t able to read a (online) copy until early 2025. Now, it is not a book I went WOW over, or feel that it was worth waiting for, but it is a book that is a nice book when you find it. It never really wowed me, but AJ Schenkman’s book did interest me. I was not sure what to expect, but went about it with an open mind. We know some about Franklin D. Roosevelt, but […]

The World Gone Mad

Our Man in Tokyo: An American Ambassador and the Countdown to Pearl Harbor by Steve Kemper

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The attack on Pearl Harbor was shocking and unexpected to the American public and government, but for Joseph C Grew, the American ambassador to Japan, it was the only logical outcome to a decade’s worth of missed opportunities for peace. For all the many times we rehashed World War Two in school, I never learned much about what led Japan to side with the Axis, and why they seemingly so suddenly launched into war with the United States – Pearl Harbor always arrived as a […]

Final 2024 Leftovers

1876 by Gore Vidal

Joe Country by Mick Herron

James by Percival Everett

Slough House by Mick Herron

Kiss Her Goodbye by Allan Guthrie

The Contemplative Tarot: A Christian Introduction to the cards by Brittany Muller

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Hope everyone had a wonderful 2024. Remember that while we can’t control the horrors of the world, there is joy to be found in the presence of those we love. 1876**** Didn’t hit as hard as Burr; Burr’s presence was the center of the story that made it go, whereas this book wants to highlight every major player in the 1876 election. But Vidal does a good job of evoking the atmosphere of the time: the unapologetic corruption, the paranoia of another war and the […]

Camelot Was Always a Lie

Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed by Maureen Callahan

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CBR16 Bingo: Golden – Callahan attacks the golden myth of Camelot and the Kennedy family, revealing the dark and dangerous truth underneath. Lurking in the darker corners of the Kennedy family legacy are the many women whose lives turned out worse for the association. In this book, Maureen Callahan tries to bring them to light. I’m familiar with many of the people and stories in this book, but Callahan does an excellent job of placing them in context of each other, weaving across generations and decades to […]

C I Yikes

Libra by Don DeLillo

Poisoner In Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control by Stephen Kinzer

The Ghost by Robert Harris

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Recently, I read three different books featuring CIA chicanery (two were fictional). This was unintentional but I figured since the themes were similar, I’d just batch review them rather than do individual ones. Libra***** This was a re-read. I liked it the first time. I loved it now that I: a. had a better since of the Oswald timeline after reading Posner’s Case Closed and b. could appreciate the meta-narrative structure in a way I couldn’t before. This is the only DeLillo book I can really […]



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