Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

French Colonial India You Say?

Small Days and Nights by Tishani Doshi

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Did you know France had established colonies in India?  I had no idea.  Not terribly big ones, mind you, mostly four totally unconnected coastal cities.  The first was established in 1674, with the rest coming along in the 1700s.  Today, they form the Union Territory of Puducherry (AKA Pondicherry).  I looked this up because of the European vibe I was getting from this tale. Grace was born in Pondicherry to an Italian academic and his wife, daughter of one of the established local landowning families.  […]

Apocalypse (S)now – The End of the World at the end of the world

Moon on the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

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There’s a moment in the ’90s movie Independence Day where the Americans lead the charge against the alien invaders by rallying the various nations of the world together. In its rally-raising way, you can almost see the cultural change that came in the following decades. The move away from the centering of Western perspectives to a blend of voices which better represent the world as it is that’s still happening. This book feels like it’s sitting in that ’90s apocalypse window, where the enemy was […]

Definitely a debut novel

The Devil in the Marshalsea by Antonia Hodgson

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The story: Tom Hawkins, the son of a gentleman, is sent to debtors’ prison, Marshalsea, in 1700s London. While there, he learns about the murder of another prisoner, Captain Roberts–and that the main suspect is his cellmate, Samuel Fleet. Fleet is kind of a menacing weirdo, and Tom begins to worry that he might be next. He realizes he needs to solve the murder before he meets a similar fate to Captain Roberts. Why I read it: A few months ago, I read The Raven […]

The Outsiders

She Who Became the Sun: The Radiant Emperor Duology Book One by Shelley Parker-Chan

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Beginning in 1340s China, She Who Became the Sun opens with a 10 year old girl, never named, living in utter poverty in a small village. She has already lost her mother and several siblings to starvation. The girl, her father and an older brother named Zhu are the only survivors. Zhu was meant to be sent to a monastery when he was old enough, and a fortune teller predicted greatness for him, but for the little girl he predicted, literally, nothing. Yet the girl […]

How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang

How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang

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Format in which I consumed this book: audiobook Did I like it/love it/hate it? Loved it What’s it about? Helen is a successful YA author whose book series is being turned into a tv show. She will be one of the show’s writers despite the fact she has no television experience. Grant is one of the head writers on the show. He knows Helen from high school, but not for good reasons. Grant happened to be driving the vehicle that Helen’s younger sister threw herself […]

When the source material lets you down

Hopscotch by Brian Garfield

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A few weeks ago I wrote about how delighted I am when I read the source material for a beloved movie and it turns out that the movie was a fantastic adaptation of a fantastic novel. I had a less rewarding experience with Hopscotch, which is rather a dull but light spy thriller written in 1975 and adapted into a charming (if dated) comedy action film starring Walter Matthau in 1980. The novel is about CIA field agent Miles Kendig, who is being forced into […]



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