Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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:

Race, Zombies and US History

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland

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I read and reviewed Dread Nation a couple of years ago but felt that I needed to do a re-read to refresh my memory before starting book 2 — Deathless Divide. In these novels, Justina Ireland imagines the US in the period immediately following the Civil War but with a strange twist. At the Battle of Gettysburg, the war ended when the battlefield dead rose up as zombies or shamblers, forcing Union and Rebel soldiers to work together against the undead. A new kind of […]

A timely mystery written over 50 years ago

The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side by Agatha Christie

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The Mirror Crack’d is a Miss Marple mystery, and while I generally prefer Hercule Poirot, this is a story that made quite an impression on me when I first read it as a kid. I have thought of it often over the years but especially over the past few years for reasons that I cannot divulge since it would totally spoil the mystery. Let’s just say it’s timely and a fun, quick read. Christie published this story in 1962 and it has gotten the film/TV […]

This one did not meet my expectations

Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan

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This novel should have been an easy like for me. Set in New York during the pre-war and WWII period, Manhattan Beach explores women’s factory work, the dangerous world of diving, and the merchant marine. It also involves a mystery — that of the missing father. The problems for me involve both character and plot development. At the end, I was wondering why characters behaved as they did and why the significance of their actions was not better explained.  The central character of Manhattan Beach […]

A little history, a little mystery

A Deadly Penance: A Templar Knight Mystery by Maureen Ash

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The Templar Knight Mysteries are set around 1200 AD in England and feature a sleuth named Bascot de Marins, a Templar Knight who has seen action in the Holy Land, lost an eye, and acquired a mute sidekick named Gianni. I suspect that more of Bascot’s background was revealed in previous mysteries, but the reader can enjoy this one without necessarily going back to read the previous stories. Bascot is 40-ish, still fit, and a man who cares deeply for the less fortunate. He has […]

Our Town, Crosby, Maine

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

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Cbr13bingo Shelfie BINGO BLACKOUT Elizabeth Strout’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Olive Kitteridge reads more like a short story collection than a novel. Set in the seaside town of Crosby, Maine, this book takes the reader into the lives and histories of its inhabitants with Olive at the center of many stories and on the periphery of others. Olive is a complicated woman, prone to moodiness and judgment but also capable of deep and unexpected compassion for her neighbors. Through the relationships of Crosby’s residents, Elizabeth Strout examines […]

Octavia Butler Predicted MAGA

Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler

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Cbr13bingo Reader’s Choice (sub for New Series), bingo #12 Book two of Octavia Butler’s Earthseed Series delivers an astounding gut punch follow-up to Parable of the Sower. Her imagining of what would happen in America’s future is frighteningly accurate. Set in the 2030s and beyond, Parable of the Talents takes us back to Northern California and the Earthseed community known as Acorn. Lauren Oya Olamina and her followers have escaped the upheaval and violence of Southern California and built a commune based on the principles […]



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