Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

J.D. Salinger et al

On Moral Fiction by John Gardner

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On Moral Fiction “A book as wide-ranging as this one needs a governing metaphor to give it at least an illusion that all is well.” Like most polemics, there’s some righteousness that John Gardner is working with here on an issue I think that was relevant for the literary moment and for our current literary moment. One of the things that’s kind of funny here is that John Gardner is decidedly less remembered than many of the people he’s criticizing in this piece. So for […]

I’m living Athena’s life. I’m experiencing publishing the way it’s supposed to work.

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

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I know what you’re thinking. Thief. Plagiarizer. And perhaps, because all bad things must be racially motivated, Racist. Hear me out. It’s not so awful as it sounds. Readers, it is exactly as bad as it sounds. Juniper Song Hayward is bad person, but don’t worry, she has forgiven herself. Yellowface is told to the reader by June. We are her confessor. She tells us all of her resentments, fears, manipulations, and triumphs. Most of all, she tells us her rationalizations. Athena Liu and June […]

Wild, Inventive, Fascinating Mystery

Build Your House Around My Body by Violet Kupersmith

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Are you in a book rut? Would you like a jolt to your reading life? Please pick up this novel and dive into not only the puzzle, but (if you’re anything like me) various internet rabbit holes about the history of Vietnam that it’s possible (likely?) you have never been taught. This story moves through time, with a larger cast of characters, but the framing mystery is the disappearance of Winnie. Winnie is half Vietnamese and an American, but traveled to Saigon to teach English. […]

A moving story, even if it was a little flat for me

Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

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I feel as though I SHOULD have liked this novel much more than I actually did. It is related to the shameful history of forced sterilization that took place in the US, mostly impacting poor, non-white women, that was exposed shortly after the revelations of the Tuskegee experiment came to light. If you don’t know much about the Tuskegee experiment, I highly recommend the Nova documentary on it, which is a little dated but still relevant. The section that explains how many researchers, especially black […]

Looking to the Mountains

Woman Running in the Mountains by Yuko Tsushima

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CBR15 Passport Japan Takiko, a young unwed mother, has these dreams.  She is running “faster, faster.. . . When she has run until her body is empty, she stops abruptly and lets her gaze return again to the distant, delicately sparkling world below.  Rivers trace silver lines.  The sea is in sight.  . . . drifting ice appears and expands into a world of white.” But that is very far from her actual life.  She has a father who is physically abusive when drunk (most […]

My attempt at fantasy failed

Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

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This review is a bit reflective of my experience with this book – fragmented and maybe incomplete. I started Poison Study years ago on audio book and for whatever reason, didn’t finish until just a few days ago. Excuses aside, the story didn’t invest me enough to overcome them. So what follows will be a really bare-bones review of what this book is about. Poison study is a fantasy novel (and the author’s first!) that takes place in Ixia – a society that seems like […]



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