Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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People Who Made a Difference” Or “People Who Tried”

Joey: The Story of Joe Biden by Jill Biden and Kathleen Krull

Dr. Fauci: How a Boy from Brooklyn Because America's Doctor by Kate Messner

King Of Ragtime: The Story of Scott Joplin by Stephen Costanza

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I do not care what you think about Joe Biden, Dr. Anthony Fauci, or Scott Joplin (he fits my theme, if not a smidgen loosely, which is “People Who Made a Difference” Or “People Who Tried”), but these books are really cool. Okay, not “cool” as in The Fonz was cool or a snowman is cool, but in the way that a good book can be cool. Each of the below titles (though all are available, I read via online reader copies) talks about how […]

Obama-rama pt.1

A Promised Land by Barack Obama

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Like many people, I’m sure, I was very excited to read President Obama’s memoir. As I do almost exclusively now, I listened to it and was delighted to find that he narrates it himself. It was absolutely delightful to listen to him speak for hours. I started my year off with this book as I hope it would set the proper tone for the new year. A whole lot happened while I listened to this book, namely the insurrection at the Capitol, so it was […]

He’s Running, but also, Let’s Fight!!! – aka I wrote 1000+ words because I hated it

The Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming-of-Age Crisis—and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self-Reliance by Ben Sasse

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Oh boy! I have so many thoughts that I took notes on the things I wanted to write about for this one.  Let’s do this: I read this book because I know a little bit about Senator Sasse.  I knew he has a Ph.D in history from Yale and was a university president all before becoming a senator at age 41.  I knew he was a Republican who was savvy on social media, specifically Twitter.  He first gained notoriety, to me at least, by penning […]

Founded on a tautological proposition that no one challenges.

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It’s easy to pick on Richard Nixon. The list of his crimes, aspersions against his character, and embarrassments he forced on this country is long enough that it could take up this entire review. He was a blight on the office he felt so entitled to. He is the avatar for nefarious public officials limited by a base cunning and furtive guile. His promise was ambrosia; his delivery: brinksmanship. Richard Nixon savored attention, but skulked in the darkness of public derision. Every friend was an […]

In a room with Jefferson, Wilson, Truman, and Ike, but generally mistaken for a waiter.

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The first I remember hearing about James K. Polk was in my high school US history class. He was described as the greatest president you’ve never heard of, and probably the only president to achieve every goal he set for his administration. Now, I don’t typically speak very highly of my high school history classes (the teacher was given a relatively small canvas on which to paint the picture of history, and he painted with the broadest of brushes), but in this one instance, at […]

A world of broken promises lit only by the flames of a burning village.

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First off, my goal was a half-Cannonball. So, yay me! The age of Jackson (roughly 1820-1860) is like a glimpse of movement in an otherwise dark and empty room: poorly understood and full of foreboding. I’m reasonably familiar with the preceding 50 years of US history, and have a more comfortable grasp on the succeeding 70 years, but the 40 years that tie them together isn’t an era I’ve read much about. I know that there were some Indian Wars, and the fervor to push […]



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