Cannonball Read 11

Sticking it to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Remembering for both of them.

Salt Houses by Hala Alyan

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There are many ways to approach a review of this book.  “Salt Houses” is about a  family constantly displaced through the generations by war. It is about the loss of a cultural identity and the struggle to find one. It is about finding who you are and being true to yourself no matter how difficult it may be for those around you. I prefer to think of it as a love story. Steeped in the conflicts of the Middle East from after World War II to present day, the story follows four generations of the Yacoub family from Palestine to […]

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4/2/2018 's CBR10 Review No:20 |

I need to go back to school

Salt Houses by Hala Alyan

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One of the most wonderful things about the public library is the deliciously broad catalog it offers. There are so many books I would never have encountered, and I would be less for it. I tend to prefer genre fiction (sci fi and fantasy) and prefer the welcoming ease of young adult over challenging myself in my “me” time. But the library? I have to wait so long and then they’re only available for a short time and that creates this awesome urgency that means I read so much more broadly than I ever have before. Anyway, that’s how I […]

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1/24/2018 's CBR10 Review No:7 |

A lovely and devastating debut novel

Salt Houses by Hala Alyan

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I was library-shopping after a LONG week at school, when I stumbled upon Hala Alyan’s novel Salt Houses. I read the blurb and was instantly intrigued. I’ve been trying to read more works about Muslims from a variety of ethnic and national backgrounds, and reading about Palestine presented a double interest to me. This is a well-written and engaging novel, with a historical scope that reminds me a little of Homegoing. On her wedding weekend, Alia’s mother reads her fortune and predicts a life of strife and upheaval. The novel begins in the 1960s and unfolds over the next several […]

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11/4/2017 's CBR9 Review No:121 |

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


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