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:

The Outsiders

She Who Became the Sun: The Radiant Emperor Duology Book One by Shelley Parker-Chan

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Beginning in 1340s China, She Who Became the Sun opens with a 10 year old girl, never named, living in utter poverty in a small village. She has already lost her mother and several siblings to starvation. The girl, her father and an older brother named Zhu are the only survivors. Zhu was meant to be sent to a monastery when he was old enough, and a fortune teller predicted greatness for him, but for the little girl he predicted, literally, nothing. Yet the girl […]

Exciting historical fiction for the kids

The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin

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The Bletchley Riddle, a novel for readers age 10-14, was co-written by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin. The two authors take turns writing chapters from the points of view of 14-year-old Lizzie (Sepetys) and her 19-year-old brother Jakob (Sheinkin). It’s a fast-paced, thrilling and educational mystery/spy novel set in the early days of WWII at Great Britain’s top secret location for code breaking — Bletchley Park. Sepetys and Sheinkin include tons of fascinating historical facts and real historical figures in their story. When the story […]

“What I am is the Indian who can’t die. I’m the worst dream America ever had.”

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter: A Novel by Stephen Graham Jones

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The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is a wild and bloody novel, and I’ve never read anything quite like it. Stephen Graham Jones takes the vampire story into new territory – late 19th and early 20th century Montana, the Western frontier where whites are violently encroaching and native peoples find their communities and their environment subject to horrendous brutality and destruction. What better or more appropriate way to tell American History than through a horror story. The novel begins in contemporary Wyoming where 42-year-old Communications and Journalism […]

“…your ambitions are a feast, Amina Al-Sirafi…”

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

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I’ve seen Shannon Chakraborty’s The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi on a lot of book lists as an entertaining fantasy novel not to miss, and it has been given good reviews here on CBR, too. I enjoyed it immensely and was excited to see that a sequel, The Tapestry of Fate, is coming out on May 12. Based on The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi, I would imagine that several more novels will be forthcoming. If they are as imaginative and well written as this one, I […]

Smashing the patriarchy is a brutal business

The Poet Empress: A Novel by Shen Tao

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I picked up this novel based on Narfna’s recommendation, and I’m glad I did. This is an intense fantasy novel about power, magic, literacy and women. And as Narfna says, it is NOT romantasy, no matter how it might be marketed. This is Shen Tao’s debut novel, and she warns readers that it contains violence, sexual abuse, and torture, and some of this involves children. It can be a lot but if you can handle it, it’s worth the ride. The Poet Empress is set […]

“The dream dies. Which leaves you with a choice: you can settle for reality, or you can go off, like a fool, and dream another dream.”

Heartburn: A Novel by Nora Ephron

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Heartburn is a short humorous novel about an unfunny topic — a marriage falling apart. It is based on true events — Ephron’s marriage to Carl Bernstein and his infidelity. The main character and narrator is Rachel Samstat, a cookbook author and TV personality married to Mark Feldman, a prominent syndicated journalist. Both Rachel and Mark are on their second marriages, and Rachel is pregnant with their second child when she discovers Mark’s infidelity. This novel is about her reaction to that discovery and the […]



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