Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About ElCicco

CBR 4
CBR 5
CBR 6
CBR 7
CBR 8
CBR 9
CBR10 participant
CBR11 participant
CBR12 participant
CBR13 participant
CBR14 Participant
CBR14 Bingo Badges
CBR15 Participant
CBR16 Participant
CBR17 Participant
CBR18 Participant
CBR18 Levels

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:

It’s not easy being teen

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

Boxers by Gene Luen Yang

Saints by Gene Luen Yang

by Leave a Comment

I hadn’t originally planned to review all three of these books together, but after reading them, I found that they had more in common than just their author. American Born Chinese, Boxers and Saints all center on teens who are dealing with issues related to their identity and how to live within the community in which they find themselves. Do you adapt to others’ expectations, try to remake the community as you wish it to be, or leave it for something new? American Born Chinese […]

YA + Alternative History + Zombies!!

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

by 1 Comment

Justina Ireland’s 2018 YA novel Dread Nation was one of New York Public Library’s Winter 2018 Picks for Young Adults. When I read the brief description about alternative history and zombies and then saw the totally badass cover over on Amazon, I had to read it. Although it clocks in at over 400 pages, I zipped through it in no time, and all I can say is that there had better be a sequel soon! Set in the 1870s, Ireland shows her readers an America […]

I wish for more

The Djinn Falls in Love and Other Stories by Mahvesh Murad, Jared Shurin, eds.

by Leave a Comment

I picked up this 2017 collection of short stories because it featured contributions of several writers whose work I’ve reviewed before and liked, and the subject of djinn (or jinn or genies, whatever term you prefer) has been popping up on my radar quite a bit lately. The Djinn Falls in Love and Other Stories was a brilliant way for me to start CBR11 — immensely entertaining, sometimes provocative, and an entree to the works of writers new to me but whose work I will definitely be tracking down. The stories are a wonderful mix of styles and settings and shed light not only on the nature of the djinn but on human nature as well. The djinn, created by Allah from smokeless fire, are sometimes depicted as tricky and/or evil, but in some ways they are no different from humans.

You better watch out! Cannonball!

by 7 Comments

I’ll be honest. One of the reasons I chose this graphic novel was because it’s short and an easy read, and this is my final review of the year (cannonball!!) so I wanted to just get it done before the holiday crush. Krampus! was an impulse buy at our local comic book store a couple of weeks ago. They had a display at the checkout and it was the selection of the month. The artwork by Dean Kotz, with its bold inks and coloring, features a […]

Attention!

by 2 Comments

This highly acclaimed, award-winning 2016 novel is a provocative look at a fictional “small bomb” blast at an open air market in India in 1996 and the aftermath for the victims and the perpetrators. Karan Mahajan explores racism, religious intolerance, problems of assimilation, the notion of justice, and the work of activists — whether peaceful or terrorist — as his characters deal with their losses over the next seven years. The novel is full of surprises, especially when we see how similar the two sides […]

Detective Novel from Morocco, kind of a mixed bag

by Leave a Comment

Whitefly is a short detective novel by Moroccan writer Abdelilah Hamdouchi. Hamdouchi writes crime fiction and has had success as a screen writer of police thrillers. This novel was first published in Arabic in 2000 and translated by Jonathan Smolin in 2016. It is a noir-ish story of bodies washed up on the shore in Tangier. Are the deaths related? And why does one of the bodies have gunshot wounds? Detective Khalid Ibrahim, aka Laafrit, must rely on his instincts and connections both in the […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo