Cannonball Read 9

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

Are you a good monster or a bad monster?

My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris

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This incredible graphic novel is Emil Ferris’ first but not, thank goodness, her last. Volume 2 is due out next March and I’ve already pre-ordered my copy. My Favorite Thing is Monsters is a graphic novel that deals with intense issues and features stunning artwork. Set in 1960s Chicago, the novel involves contemporary events, an illness, child abandonment and abuse, a murder with possible connections to Nazi Germany, and an abiding love of fine art and monsters. The fact that it is narrated by a 10-year-old girl who thinks of herself as a werewolf/detective, and who may not understand all […]

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8/15/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:35 |

A last year’s book revisited, with splendid results

LaRose by Louise Erdrich

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The Chancellor has chosen Louise Erdrich’s LaRose for his September book club pick, and I was really excited. I read it for CBR8 last year, and I gave it a solid 4.5 stars. I was still on a readers’ high from The Round-House, which colored my judgment of LaRose. The beauty of a re-read is that you can really dig into major themes and ideas, because you know how the book already ends. Since I reviewed this book last year, I won’t reiterate the plot for you here. I will, however, link to ElCicco’s most excellent and comprehensive review, which […]

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8/12/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:106 |

The Romance/Murder Mystery/Thriller/Ghost Story You’ve Been Looking For!

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo

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The Ghost Bride is a great summer read which I thoroughly enjoyed and raced through in no time. I picked it up based on a list of recommended fantasy reads that are one-off’s and not part of a multi-volume series. This novel was so good, I now wish it was part of a series (and it seems to me, based on the ending, that it could become one). I came for the fantasy/ghost aspect and its historical overtones, but the romance part of it was unexpectedly delightful, reminiscent in some ways of Jane Austen and her keen observations about society, […]

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8/8/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:34 |

Constant Craving

Umami by Laia Jufresa

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This novel was translated from Spanish by Sophie Hughes and was the winner of an English Pen Translates award This is Women In Translation month #WIT Umami is a novel about loss, grief and craving told from 5 narrative points of view over 5 years. From the beginning we know certain facts: Ana is planting a milpa or garden instead of going to camp; it is the third anniversary of the drowning death of her little sister Luz; Pina’s mother, who had been absent for three years, has returned; Alf, a retired anthropologist, is coming to terms with the death […]

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8/4/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:33 |

Indonesian best-seller about poverty, education and hope

The Rainbow Troops: A Novel by Andrea Hirata

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The Rainbow Troops: A Novel is not so much a novel as a memoir or collection of vignettes from the author’s childhood in Indonesia. It is an eye-opener about life in the world’s fourth most populated country, the largest Muslim-majority country. Hirata is Indonesia’s best selling writer of all time (according to the book blurb) and The Rainbow Troops was a huge best-seller in Indonesia and abroad. Hirata provides a vivid depiction of the poverty that many Indonesians experience and of the hope that education can provide. It is an honest, thoughtful, sometimes humorous, sometimes sad, frequently provocative portrayal of […]

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7/29/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:32 |

The Persistence of Memory

Salt Houses by Hala Alyan

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Salt Houses is Hala Alyan’s first novel, but not her first book. She is a published poet with a doctorate in psychology, and in Salt Houses, she demonstrates both her beautiful way with words and her remarkable ability to delve into the psyches of the members of one family. Each character in this book has his/her own unique voice and way of seeing the world. And that world changes from generation to generation, quite literally, as they are forced to move from one city and country to another in the wake of wars in the Middle East. Salt Houses is […]

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Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.

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7/18/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:31 |

Meta Mystery!

The Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

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Here’s your 2017 beach read. It’s a murder mystery set within a murder mystery, a meta-mystery, if you will, that peers with a gimlet eye at both the process of writing and the publishing industry. This book is great fun to read and stocked full of characters who draw you in and/or repulse you. Both mysteries will keep the reader firmly planted in his/her seat until all whodunnits have been revealed in a most satisfactory way. The novel opens with Susan Ryeland just home from a business trip and ready to dive into the latest installment of the Atticus Pund […]

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Funds raised are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name.

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7/11/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:30 |

To live for or to die for? That is the question.

The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish

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The Weight of Ink is a fascinating work of historical fiction set in London of the 17th century and 2000-2001. It is brimming with compelling characters and interwoven plots related to scholarship, feminism, academia, anti-semitism, love, guilt and atonement. Throughout the novel, across time, the question that torments our main characters has to do with how one lives one’s life and supports one’s beliefs: is it better to die for what you believe or to live at all costs? And what do you do if the person you love does not see it as you do? Can these seemingly opposing […]

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7/6/2017 | 's CBR9 Review No:29 |

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