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:

“Today I am choosing to love the person in front of me.”

They Went Left by Monica Hesse

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A few years ago, I reviewed Monica Hesse’s YA novel Girl in the Blue Coat, a story of intrigue and mystery set amongst the resistance in Amsterdam during WWII. It was an excellent novel, and Hesse has done it again with They Went Left. This YA novel features another teenaged girl as protagonist, but this time the story is set in the immediate aftermath of the war. Nazis exterminated Zofia’s parents, grandmother and aunt, and they nearly killed her as well. She is suffering from […]

A novel for Juneteenth

Daddy Was a Number Runner by Louise Meriwether

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As I started to write this review, I did a little search on Louise Meriwether and it turns out the NYT ran a story on her today. I first heard of Meriwether only recently, which seems to be a common story despite the fact that Meriwether’s much lauded first novel Daddy Was a Number Runner was published in 1970. Did you know that there is a prize in her name? The Louise Meriwether First Book Prize …was founded in 2016 to honor author Louise Meriwether […]

Believing is seeing

A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark

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In A Master of Djinn, writer P. Djeli Clark takes his readers back to Cairo, 1912, and a world where magical creatures such as djinn have become a normal part of life along with their incredible magical mechanical inventions. This book, which is a full-length novel rather than a novella like his previous works, features Agent Fatma el-Sha’arwi, special investigator with the Egyptian Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities. She was the main character in A Dead Djinn in Cairo, and it’s wonderful to […]

The one percent control magic, too!

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

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I received this book as part of last year’s holiday book exchange (thank you coffeeshopreader for yet ANOTHER outstanding choice!). Having never read any of Leigh Bardugo’s books but having seen them glowingly reviewed here, I thought it was time to see what the fuss is about. Ninth House is definitely worthy of fuss, and I am already looking forward to the next volume. This fantasy novel is set in New Haven, Connecticut, at Yale University, and at heart it is a detective novel with […]

“Sometimes, there’s a story we tell ourselves. And sometimes a story is told about us.”

Cyclopedia Exotica by Aminder Dhaliwal

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I first read about artist/writer Aminder Dhaliwal in this NYT piece, then started following her Instagram account. The premise behind Cyclopedia Exotica and Dhaliwal’s art led me to purchase the book, whose message is pertinent in the current xenophobic climate in the US. Through characters who are Cyclopes in a world of the two-eyed, Dhaliwal examines the daily micro aggressions and prejudices that minorities encounter, as well as the Cyclopes’ responses to them. Anyone who does not fit the WASP-y cis/het norm will probably be […]

Disarming and Charming

Fence: Disarmed by Sarah Rees Brennan

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An original novel based on C.S.Pacat’s Fence comic series, illustrated by Johanna The Mad I read volume one of this series, Fence: Striking Distance, about a month ago and loved it. The love affair continues and I am very much hoping that another volume is in the works. In Fence: Disarmed, we return to the exclusive boys boarding school known as Kings Row and its fencing team. When last we left them, relationships among the members of the fencing team were fraught. Would they come […]



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