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:

When White Allies are Enemies

Our Nig by Harriet E. Wilson

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Full title: Our Nig; or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, in a Two-Story House, North. Showing That Slavery’s Shadow Falls Even There Edited by Henry Louse Gates, Jr. with an Afterword by Barbara A. White In the early 1980s, the eminent scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., established that the 1859 novel entitled “Our Nig” was in fact written by an African American woman named Harriet E. Wilson. Previously, it had been assumed that the story was written by a white woman but […]

A heartbreaking YA mystery

Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson

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“This is the story of how my best friend disappeared. How nobody noticed she was gone except me. And how nobody cared until they found her … one year later.” Thus opens this riveting YA novel which deals with the topic of missing girls of color and our criminal indifference to them. Winner of the 2019 Coretta Scott King Book Award/John Steptoe Award for New Talent, Monday’s Not Coming is the story of the disappearance of Monday Charles, an 8th grader from a tough Washington, […]

No Sophomore Slump Here

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

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On the NYT book list for Young Adult/Hard Cover, Angie Thomas reigns as queen. Her debut novel The Hate U Give has been at or near the top of the list for 103 weeks. It is currently number two. The number one spot is held by Angie Thomas’ follow up, On the Come Up. Thomas takes us back to the Garden Heights neighborhood but we see it from a different perspective this time. Brianna Jackson, known as Bri, is a teenager who lives immersed in the […]

Happy Birthday, Toni Morrison!

Tar Baby by Toni Morrison

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Toni Morrison was born February 18, 1931. She is the GOAT of American Literature. Tar Baby is Toni Morrison’s fourth novel, published in 1981. Set on a private Caribbean island, New York City and a small Florida town, it is a novel that grapples head on with race, sex, class, and the relationship black Americans have with both the past and future.  The novel begins shortly before Christmas on L’Arbe de la Croix, a private island owned by an American candy magnate named Valerian Street. […]

History, politics and soap opera are a great combination

The House of the Spirits: A Novel by Isabel Allende

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Isabel Allende’s debut novel from 1982 is a sweeping historical drama set in Chile, though that country is never named. This is the story of multiple generations of one family as they deal with political upheaval and unrest, culminating in a right wing military dictatorship known for its human rights atrocities. Told from the points of view of the Trueba family patriarch Esteban and his granddaughter Alba, The House of the Spirits takes the reader from poverty stricken city streets, to mines and rural areas, […]

Goblins, Elves and Diplomacy

The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge by MT Anderson and Eugene Yelchin

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How to describe The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge? According to writer MT Anderson it’s “…a tragic meditation on how societies that have been trained to hate each other for generations can actually come to see eye to eye.” But is it?  According to illustrator Eugene Yelchin, “A crazy story about two fools blinded by propaganda is not a tragedy. It’s a comedy.” Who’s correct? Well, both are. This National Book Award Finalist for Young People’s Literature is a story of political intrigue and espionage, and […]



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