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:

Oh the weather outside is frightful!

Season of Love by Helena Greer

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I was sorry to miss the recent Zoom with Helena Greer. I was not quite finished with this, her first novel when it occurred but more importantly life was kind of imploding here. Season of Love was just the right book to be reading — a romance set during the holiday season in a cold snowy upstate New York. It’s sort of like one of those Hallmark movies but this time for lesbians. Unlike a Hallmark movie though it gets into some heavy areas regarding […]

Job burn out takes a turn for the literal

A Witch’s Guide To Burning by Aminder Dhaliwal

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This graphic novel is the story of a journey in which magical outcasts, thrown together by fate, must learn to trust and rely on one another in order to heal, grow and find the strength to battle demons. Aminder Dhaliwal has created a magical world with its own unique set of rules. Witches are valued and esteemed so long as they do their job for their towns. Once their magic weakens, they are “cleansed” by fire and a new witch takes over. It’s an old […]

“How many Reenas are there in this goddamn world?”

Under the Bridge: The True Story of the Murder of Reena Virk by Rebecca Godfrey

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This is a very well written work of non-fiction. The author is in fact a writer of fiction, but she spent years investigating the crime at the center of the story (now a series on Hulu) and interviewing the many people involved. She attended trials and spoke with legal and law enforcement agents. This story of the murder of a 14-year-old girl by her peers is both chilling and difficult to put down. Godfrey paints a vivid picture of a community rocked by the shocking […]

A novel set in Jamestown but that is all over the place

The East Indian: A Novel by Brinda Charry

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The East Indian is a work of historical fiction set in the Jamestown settlement circa 1640. The main character, an East Indian boy who goes by the name Tony, finds himself an unwilling indentured servant there, and through him author Brinda Charry shows the reader the early days of Jamestown and the rise of slavery and bigotry based on skin color. Charry includes plenty of interesting historical facts about Jamestown as well as bits and pieces about witchcraft, Shakespeare, medicine and herbs, Native Americans, colonialism, […]

Stormin’ the Normans

Essex Dogs: A Novel by Dan Jones

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Whenever I’m at a bookstore, I seem to be drawn toward historical fiction more than any other genre. A month or so ago, I was browsing a table full of books when this one caught my eye. I’d never seen historical fiction set in The Hundred Years War, and the blurb made this sound like a “band of brothers” type of story — a company of men called the Essex Dogs who fight like hell, not for fame or riches or country, but for each […]

Be a bonobo

The Bandit Queens: A Novel by Parini Shroff

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This book might end up one of my favorites for CBR16. It was a shockingly funny delight about women who murder their husbands. Parini Shroff was inspired to write this story after a visit to India many years ago, where she learned about the micro loan program there. Women receive loans to start their own businesses, forming small support groups that ensure participants repay their loans regularly. Shroff wondered about two things: why women receive the loans and not men (because women were seen as […]



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