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:

Stand Tall and Reach Deep

Wishtree by Katherine Applegate

by 4 Comments

Wishtree is a lovely and charming story for children ages 8-12, but I’m 56 and adored it. I heard about this book from a friend whose little girl loves it and reads it repeatedly. I can totally understand why that is. Wishtree is about friendship, community, diversity, and acceptance of those who are new in our “messy garden.” It’s full of delightful characters, gorgeously detailed ink illustrations, and an important message about speaking up for your neighbors. The narrator of Wishtree is a 216-year-old red […]

“White supremacy … is gravity. It is a ceaseless pressure intended to keep blackness ground-bound and sick.”

What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker by Damon Young

by 3 Comments

Damon Young is a Black Pittsburgh writer who has gotten national attention thanks in part to a blog he co-writes called Very Smart Brothas (now part of The Root). I started following it on social media a few years ago and have found it to be funny, entertaining, informative and a source of sharp social criticism. The local story that really put Damon Young and VSB on my radar had to do with a local white female newscaster who stepped in it with some horribly […]

“…I hunt monsters. And I got a sword that sings.”

Ring Shout or Hunting Ku Kluxes in the End Times by P. Djeli Clark

by 2 Comments

P. Djeli Clark continues to amaze me with his writing. In this short novel, he leaves behind the “steampunk” and adds plenty of horror to a story set in 1922 Macon, Georgia. As with his previously reviewed works, Clark creates a world where magic is real and plenty of strong women of color stand ready to wield it. Ring Shout or Hunting Ku Kluxes in the End Times focuses, unsurprisingly, on American racism and white supremacy. I think we all accept that Klansmen are monsters, […]

A good read for Mardi Gras

The Black God’s Drums by P. Djéli Clark

by 2 Comments

P. Djéli Clark won a 2019 Alex Award for The Black God’s Drums, which was also a finalist for the Nebula, Hugo, Locus, and World Fantasy Awards. The Alex Award is given to 10 books annually by the Young Adult Library Services Association to books written for adults that appeal to readers aged 12-18. This is a short but riveting, action-packed novel set in New Orleans, 1884. As with his previous two works set in 1912 Cairo (A Dead Djinn in Cairo, The Haunting of […]

Steampunk Cairo!

A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djeli Clark

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djeli Clark

by 1 Comment

I only recently became aware of award-winning author P. Djeli Clark, although he has been writing sci-fi/fantasy novellas and novels for at least 5 years. Novels that involve djinn are especially interesting to me, and when a couple of different folks (including our own Emmalita) mentioned Clark within days of each other, I decided to check him out and I downloaded EVERYTHING!! These first two offerings feature not just djinn and magical entities but also Cairene investigators whose backstories and interactions will, I hope, be […]

I’ve got the music in me!

Soul Music: A Novel of Discworld by Terry Pratchett

by 1 Comment

Soul Music is the third novel in Pratchett’s Discworld “Death” series, and as in the previous two novels, we see Death abruptly abandon his duties and behave, or try to behave anyway, as a human would in his attempt to deal with an unexpected problem. Unlike the previous novels though, Death this time has an able replacement — his granddaughter Susan. This does not mean, however, that there won’t be trouble, and in Soul Music, the trouble has to do with a young musician and […]



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