Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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Red Panda Time Travel Agency

The Discovery of Fireworks and Gunpowder: The Asian Hall of Fame by Oliver Chin and Philip Amara with Juan Calle

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Perhaps it was the subject matter (I am not a huge gunpowder fan, though I am a bit of a fireworks enjoyer) or the fact that I have read read several titles by Oliver Chin and Philip Amara, that made this book, The Discovery of Fireworks and Gunpowder: The Asian Hall of Fame, feel a smidgen weaker due to the similar tones their work has. However, I like the characters and it is a fun way to introduce a subject that might not immediately be […]

Neighbors

My Beijing: Four Stories of Everyday Wonder by Nie Jun and  Edward Gauvin

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When I get on a browsing spree, I find myself down so many rabbit holes, I twist my brain. This means, I will find something I like the looks and/or sound of and find a copy. But when I do finally get the copy, I forget why it drew me in. So it is a wonderful surprise. This happened with My Beijing: Four Stories of Everyday Wonder by Nie Jun and  Edward Gauvin (author/illustrator and translator respectively).  In the end, the reason I wanted to […]

Belonging

Until We Meet Again by Lily Kim Qian

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Until We Meet Again by Lily Kim Qian is thoughtful and reflective. Qian gives us a coming of age story of a young herself, who is a Chinese-Canadian girl who deals with her family dynamics such as her mothers mental illness, her mother and fathers volatile relationship, and dealing with growing up with a caring father, but one who is just doing the best he can, and the attitudes of immigrant parents and “old school” Chinese values vs her western world. The cultural differences of […]

Brutally beautiful historical fantasy

A Beast Slinks Towards Beijing by Alice Evelyn Yang

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I was immediately drawn to this book, but struggled with eyeball reading, so I was so glad when I got an advance listening copy as well, especially so I wouldn’t be butchering the Chinese words and intonations. This is really intense and deals with a lot of really difficult topics, and it’s hard to say any of the characters (though especially Ba) were likable, but the ending left me with a feeling of hope and healing. Told through three (four?) perspectives, A Beast Slinks Towards […]

Banned in China doesn’t mean what people think it does.

Marrying Buddha by Wei Hui

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  The Community Bookshelf inspired me to reflect on books I’d read around the times I was living in a place. A bit of Googling, which wasn’t really a verb when I read Shanghai Baby, I came across this sequel. Marrying Buddha continues the story of Coco in (probably) largely fictional auto-biographical tale of her bouncing once again between 2 lovers, her Japanese boyfriend Muju, and a “George Clooney lookalike” Nick. I’d almost forgotten how much of a sex symbol George was in the late ’00s. […]

Dangerously in Love

My Beautiful Enemy by Sherry Thomas

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My Beautiful Enemy by Sherry Thomas was a historical romance book club pick from The Ripped Bodice. I sped-read the first half and didn’t return to it last year. And then in February, I remembered, and it was so worth finishing. Ying-Ying, aka Catherine Blade, is a badass. She was trained in martial arts because her guardian/stepfather, Da-Ren, was a Chinese warlord. She makes an enemy of Lin, a dangerous assassin, who relentlessly hunts her across the globe. When the story begins, she is hiding […]



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