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:

Not my wheelhouse, but it could be (Bingo #2)

Carrie by Stephen King

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Cbr11bingo Not my wheelhouse I don’t like being scared. Never have. When I was a kid, I had to leave the room if a commercial for a scary movie or show came on. I never wanted to go to haunted houses at Halloween, and I would avoid trick or treating at houses where it looked like someone was going to try to scare me. A few cannonballs ago, I reviewed Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, which is a dark story but […]

I can’t say it improved with age

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

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Cbr11bingo Back to School Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage was one of the assigned texts for my 11th grade American Literature course some 37 years ago. I don’t remember much about the novel other than that I hated it and relied heavily on Cliffs Notes to get through it. Having now re-read it, I still don’t care for it. I can appreciate that this novel was probably shocking for its time (published in 1895) due to its realistic depiction of the violence of […]

Far and Away

Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay

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Cbr11bingo Far and Away I checked the antipodes map to see what the opposite end of the world from Pennsylvania would be. Turns out, it’s in the Indian Ocean, with the closest land mass being Australia. Picnic at Hanging Rock is a classic of Australian literature. Published in 1967, the novel tells the story of three teenaged girls and a teacher who go missing while on a picnic in 1900. This fictional story is famous for being an unsolved mystery, but it is so much more […]

No, her name ain’t baby, it’s Charlotte. Sherlock Holmes if you’re nasty!

A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas

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Cbr11bingo Remix This remix of Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet is clever and ingenious. It’s a fun read with interesting and sympathetic characters, most notably a female Sherlock Holmes. Sherry Thomas does an amazing job of reimagining this classic. Those familiar with Doyle’s first Holmes mystery will recognize certain traits of Sherlock and plot points in common, but this is a story with something original to say about women, class, justice and independence. It’s also a fine mystery. Charlotte Holmes is about 25 […]

Provocative, uneven collection of essays (Bingo!)

The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen Scientist by Richard P. Feynman

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Cbr11bingo Science. BINGO! These essays are by turns provocative and exasperating. Richard P. Feynman, who died in 1988, was a brilliant physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in 1965. He also was part of the Manhattan Project, was a distinguished lecturer at Cal Tech, and served as a member of the Rogers Commission which investigated the Challenger disaster. The Meaning of It All is a short collection of three lectures that Feynman gave in 1963. In these lectures his goal was to discuss the impact […]

Introducing Holmes and Watson

A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

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Cbr11bingo Pajiba Reviewing mysteries is tough. One has to be careful not to spoil the story for others, and yet often the very issue I would want to address in my review is directly related to the big reveal in the story. I will do my best not to spoil A Study in Scarlet for others while trying to convey my concerns with it. A Study in Scarlet, published in 1887, is the first Sherlock Holmes mystery. The reader sees Holmes through the eyes of […]



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