Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


The first person we lie to is always ourselves

Yellow Face by R F Kuang

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I use Storygraph to keep track of my book reading to de-Amazon my life. Reviews work a little differently, and you’re asked “Did you find the characters loveable?” For this book the answer is a big NO. Personally, narratives that engage me with unlikeable characters either end with them getting their karmic payback or learning to be better, if that happens here, we’re not sure. The book is written in the from Juniper’s view, whether she has pragmatic, real-world crash to earth and/or has had […]

The size of history

We Are American, Too by Kristen Mei Chase and Jieting Chen

The Memory Cake by Caroline L. Perry and Jen Bricking

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History is all around us. And history can be as large as World War II or as small as being the second person of your race being born in a town.  We Are American, Too tackles that second theme. Kristen Mei Chase and illustrator Jieting Chen follow a family on an important day of celebration. They are honoring their history, family, their people and even themselves. The originality of the book comes from how the story is told, instead of “just another immigrant story” which […]

Shaping the structures of the world

Mr. Pei's Perfect Shapes: The Story of Architect I. M. Pei by Julie Leung

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Mr. Pei’s Perfect Shapes: The Story of Architect I. M. Pei by Julie Leung and illustrated by Yifan Wu is a WOW! book. Not because it is the best book ever (though it is in the top 25 for 2024 so far), but because it is different from what I have been reading and it is about someone that I had never heard of before, or if I had, not someone who had “clicked” as he was not a mainstream name (such as Frank Lloyd […]

Food and family

Rainbow Shopping by Qing Zhuang

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The publisher’s description of Rainbow Shopping by Qing Zhuang says “Shopping for and preparing a delicious meal helps a young Chinese American girl feel connected to her family.” But it is more than that. It is a way of her having a connection with her past and the present. And it shows a piece of her old home and her new home. We are able to see that while she cannot find everything she and her mother wanted for their special dinners (the whole family […]

Oh how funny! Mom just ate someone’s body part.

The Night Eaters: Volume One: She Eats the Night by Marjorie M. Liu

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This weekend I devoured several titles. I was finally in the mood to read and the goodies I found were easy enough to read, even if they had a lot going on. And in fact, most of them deserve a second read (at least) as there was a lot going on and things probably were missed. And The Night Eaters: Volume One: She Eats the Night was one of the most-going-onest graphic novels I have read. This Marjorie M. Liu graphic novel is not for […]

She Used to Meet Me on the (Lower) East Side

The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream by Patrick Radden Keefe

Lush Life by Richard Price

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Read two consecutive books whose geographies bumped up against each other; one set in Manhattan’s Chinatown, the other set partially in it, as well as the adjacent East Village. Both were excellent in their own respective ways. The Snakehead How is Patrick Radden Keefe so damn good at writing non-fiction? This doesn’t reach the heights of Say Nothing (really what can?) but it’s a fascinating story in its own right and Keefe tells it well and thoroughly, providing enough detail without larding the narrative. He also takes […]



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