Cannonball Read 14

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Hop on the bus, Gus You don’t need to discuss much…just say your ABCs

The Library Bus by Bahram Rahman

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The Library Bus by Bahram Rahman will see a paperback edition in August of 2022. This story is about how some Afghan girls are able to achieve an education. Once a week, a young girl’s mother, in the dark of the morning, takes a special bus with no seats but a lot of books off to a village and the refugee camp. Pari’s (our young narrator) mother also teaches the children the English alphabet. We, and Pari, learn a little about why this is happening, […]

James Ellroy meets the War on Terror in the search for Honor and Soul

Pukhtu Primo by DOA

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In the fast-paced depiction of the war in Afghanistan at the end of 2000s, French author DOA depicts the search for the Afghan soul, the “Pukthu” – the code of honor and justice, that his characters pursue in vain. Retired warlords, rogue mercenaries, lost soldiers and tired journalists look for meaning and truth in a chaotic world that does not make sense anymore. Though well researched and entertaining, the book’s characters feel somehow a bit unoriginal. A sense of deja-vue echoes through the narrative of […]

Let me tell you about a secret

Nasreen’s Secrete School by Jeanette Winter

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Jeanette Winter’s style comes alive in this 2009 picture book, Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan. The colors of the illustrations are rich, deep, and plentiful. I have always appreciated how things are fanciful and realistic at the same time. This story is based on the story of a girl of Afghanistan, who of course, has had her and her family names changed to protect everyone. This book has come back into our knowledge due to recent events in the country. Worries that […]

The Book We Need For This Moment

Reign of Terror: How The 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump by Spencer Ackerman

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The best, simplest review I can give it is to quote from political operative Robert Wheel (@bobbybigwheel on Twitter): You know it’s a good book because every page pisses you off. I was 17 years old when we invaded Iraq. At the time, I was a champion for the war because I believed our government. Why would our government lie? Even as I began to question things in 2003 and 2004, I still voted for George W. Bush in my first presidential election. I was […]

I’m just a girl living in captivity

The Pearl That Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi

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I’m a big fan of fiction set in the Indian subcontinent and have a sizeable reading history with these novels, so cracking this novel open felt almost familiar, even though a) I haven’t read it before; and b) its set in Afghanistan rather than the subcontinent proper.  I had been putting this one off in part because the novels I have read that have been set in Afghanistan tend towards the bleak- totally understandable given the events that have shaped the country in the last […]

It was “Untold”, don’t let it be unheard.

The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor by Jake Tapper

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The recommendation of a friend spurred the timing of my reading of The Outpost but I intended to read it for some time.  It’s written by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and made me a fan of his for life.  This is why it was originally a part of my to-read list: In 2009, I was deployed to Iraq.  I’d been in the Army almost three years and I spent the majority of my deployment on a staff in Baghdad.  I worked the night shift that […]



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