Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Amal El-Mohtar Excels at Writing Fairy Tales

Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar

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I really enjoyed this collection of short stories and poems, most of which are based in science fiction and fantasy and heavily influenced by themes of oppression and freedom. Some of them hit more than others, as was expected, with my clear favorites being the ones that had the most fairy tale-like feel. I loved that sort of “tip of my tongue” feeling for one of them because El-Mohtar was drawing from existing tales, and I appreciated the way she could make them feel like […]

Gotta Love a Book with Pictures

The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar

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I really enjoyed this little fairy tale novella that focuses on the bonds of sisterhood. The sisters, Esther and Ysabel, have a job of singing to two massive willow trees over the River Liss, a river that is imbued with magic. They live a fairly simple, happy life, though Esther’s love life is starting to come between them just a bit. I don’t want to say too much about this short (99-page) book because it’s too easy to spoil given its length. The prose is […]

The audiobook is a must.

The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar

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Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC. It hasn’t affected the contents of my review. Happy pub day to this lovely little book 🙂 Okay, I’m rounding this up to five stars because I can’t stop thinking about it. Setting aside re-reads, I think this might actually be the best book I read in February. This is a fairytale-esque novella about two sisters who sing to willow trees and have to deal with unwanted and wanted suitors, and it’s about the strength of […]

Skillful Language, Elusive Impact

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

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You can read this book quickly, but don’t. Take your time. This book calls for attention. There is so much wordplay, sometimes intricate and subtle, which calls for re-reading sentences or paragraphs. I’m sure that I missed quite a bit both because of the depth of wordplay and because I only have so much patience, but the authors are just so skillful in their use of language (e.g., “Who’s infecting whom? We know from our hoarse Trojans, in my time”). The novella follows Red and […]

Twitter Win Fizzles

This is How You Lost the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone

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Twitter was kind of saved from doom recently by a guy loudly and proudly promoting his favorite new book, and encouraging others to do the same. I approve of this behavior. I was with Bigolas Dickolas (a Monty Python reference, I hope) in his enthusiasm for about the first half of This is How You Lose the Time War, but then it lost me. The problem for me is that there is not enough world and character building to hold interest and keep the story […]

“I want to meet you in every place I ever loved. Listen to me. I am your echo. I would rather break the world than lose you.”

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

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Cannonball Read Bingo Square: Recommended I’m always eager for a good recommendation, and my friend Mindi gave me this one. She is one of my very best pals, but our book tastes do not often align, in fact, we are predictably unpredictable in giving each other solid recs. We’ve joked about needing to catalog our reads and likes to find the determining factors to create a Venn diagram of where our tastes comingle because it’s that ineffable. So far, of books we have both read, […]



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