Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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About ElCicco

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Married, mom of two, history PhD, feminist. I've been participating in Cannonball Read since CBR4. I love to read, and writing reviews keeps me from reading without thinking. I feel like I owe it to the authors who entertain me to savor their creations. It's like slowing down and enjoying a delicious meal instead of bolting your food. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: ElCicco's Quick Questions interview.)

ElCicco's Reviews:

“…there are two things I simply cannot tolerate: feminists and margarine.”

Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder by Asako Yuzuki

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I learned about this book and its author from a recent Guardian interview. In it, Asako Yuzuki reveals that when she wrote both Butter and her novel Hooked, (English translation due out this month), she was very angry, especially about sexism and fat shaming in Japan. While Yuzuki’s books have been very popular in Japan and around the world, they have also been criticized in Japan for being too feminist. I found this novel to be a real eye opener. While I had been aware […]

For those with a literary sweet tooth

Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel by Shelby Van Pelt

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Remarkably Bright Creatures is a best selling novel that is apparently being turned into a movie starring Sally Field. I’m sure it will be very sweet because the story is cute/nice/sweet — choose your bland compliment. It was fine and a quick read, but I just didn’t love it. The character development (or lack thereof) was probably the biggest obstacle for me, and that issue contributed to a pretty thin plot in places.  The story is told by three narrators. Cameron Cassmore is a 30-year-old […]

Talking about my generation

Kills Well With Others: A Novel by Deanna Raybourn

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In the sequel to Killers of a Certain Age, Deanna Raybourn takes us on another thrill ride with four retired assassins and a couple of their significant others. Billie, Helen, Natalie and Mary Alice have been working together since the late 1970s for a secret organization called the Museum. Originally, the Museum was meant to track down Nazis and the works of art that they had stolen and smuggled out of Europe. Nowadays, the Museum, under the direction of a very competent young woman named […]

With friends like these…

In My Dreams I Hold A Knife: A Novel by Ashley Winstead

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If you like murder mysteries and want a quick read, this book could fit the bill. I found it hard to put down, even though (maybe because?) the characters are all pretty terrible people. Main character and narrator Jessica Miller is looking forward to her ten year college reunion, but when she returns to Duquette, some old ghosts get stirred up and the unsolved murder of her best friend and roommate will dominate the weekend’s activities. Could one of her friends, the infamous East House […]

This feels like the second book of a trilogy but it isn’t

A Forest, Darkly: A Novel by A.G. Slatter

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A Forest, Darkly is both a fantasy and a mystery. The Great Forest, where the action takes place, is a frontier where civilization seems to be slowly encroaching. Old magic and creatures are still very much alive here, and the presence of a witch has been tolerated by villagers for generations, but the world is changing. The village has grown since main character Mehrab, resident witch, arrived 20 years ago, and lately, something dark and insidious seems to be stalking the forest. This would be […]

Mostly Amusing, Sometimes Confusing

Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead, The Loyal Opposition Trilogy Book 1 by K.J. Parker

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As a product of the Catholic school system from second grade through university, I have sat through A LOT of religion and theology classes. Heresies, schisms, saints, martyrs, whatever, I feel pretty well versed in church history. While KJ Parker’s Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead is a fantasy novel, it leans hard into Christian church history and theology, setting up some good old fashioned good versus evil scenarios, but it’s not always clear who is good or evil. That’s intentional, but while Parker […]



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