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:

This will be one of my CBR13 favorites

Finding Freedom: A Cook’s Story; Remaking a Life From Scratch by Erin French

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Cbr13bingo Flora I would guess that fewer than 5% of the book reviews I’ve done over the years have been non-fiction, and I can only think of one that had anything to do with cooking, so reading a memoir about a chef (even though she calls herself a cook, not a chef) would seem way outside my area of interest. And yet, this memoir is probably going to be one of my CBR13 favorites. It is an incredible story of resilience in the face of […]

Remembering

Rememberings: Scenes From My Complicated Life by Sinead O’Connor

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Cbr13bingo Pandemic This book got a lot of attention when it was released a few months ago, largely because of a story O’Connor tells about Prince which puts him in a none-too-flattering light. As far as I’m concerned though this memoir is more impressive for the honesty and soul-bearing of its author. Full disclosure: I have been a fan of Sinead O’Connor since I first heard the single “Mandinka” in 1987/88. She is one of those female artists who have been kicked around over the […]

Clytemnestra’s story

Helen Had a Sister: A Tale of Ancient Greece (formerly Princess of Sparta) by Penelope Haines

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Cbr13bingo Mythic I was excited to see the “Mythic” square on this year’s bingo card. I do enjoy myths and there are so many excellent re-tellings out there, including Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls, Madeline Miller’s Song of Achilles and Miller’s Circe. Penelope Haines’ Helen Had a Sister, like these other novels, takes a lesser known female character from the Trojan War/Iliad and gives us her story. This time, it’s Clytemnestra (aka Nestra), a Spartan princess, older sister to Helen, wife of Agamemnon, […]

Code Switching Times Two

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

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Cbr13bingo Book Club (Good Morning America Book Club selection) The J.P. Morgan Library in New York is world renowned for its manuscript and art collections thanks to its first librarian Belle da Costa Greene. She served as J.P. Morgan’s first and only personal librarian from 1905-1913, and then as the librarian for the Morgan Library until 1948. Belle became famous in her time with J.P. Morgan because she was the only woman working in a field of trained specialists and wealthy collectors from around the […]

Violently in love

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

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Cbr13bingo Old Series Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2009) is the first book in a trilogy that centers around Elizabeth Bennet and the zombie infestation of England. The second book, Dawn of the Dreadfuls, is a prequel, and the third book, Dreadfully Ever After is a sequel. The second two books in the series were written by Steve Hockensmith. Those familiar with Jane Austen’s novels will recognize expressions such as “violence of affection” and “violence of love” as they crop up frequently in her writing. […]

The GOAT

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

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Cbr13bingo Self care Pride and Prejudice is my favorite novel of all time. As I believe I have related before, it is the first and only book that I’ve read which, upon finishing for the first time, I immediately returned to page one and read it all over again. For many years, I did a reread around the holidays as a gift to myself. My first ebook download was Pride and Prejudice. I’ve seen a couple of the adaptations (the definitive A&E/Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle series, […]



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