Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Family legacy and family secrets

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

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I think I picked this when I first saw previews for the Hulu show but never got around to reading it (or watching the show). However, since her other book is the March selection for my book club, I thought I might as well check this out first. After Eleanor Bennett dies, her two adult children meet with her lawyer and find out that she has left them one last black cake in the freezer and a recording that they must listen to together. Benny, […]

“Now and then the images from those years come into alignment, and I see something…”

Darkroom: A Memoir in Black and White by Lila Quintero Weaver

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I tend to think I have a pretty good handle on the state of the graphic novel/comic scene, which is why when I stumble across a great book like this that I missed, it thrills me and makes me think about what else is out there that I haven’t found yet. This was a random find at a used bookstore, which is often my favorite way to find a book. It’s like a little gift that suddenly pops into your life! I wonder if part […]

And the daughter who had no choice but to keep them all out of jail

Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto

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Ma’s hand flies to her mouth again. “Did I get boy killed because I say I want to eat his eggplant?”― Jesse Q. Sutanto, Dial A for Aunties This is the story of a loyal daughter, who accidentally murders her date, and the group of aunties who have no choice but to help her cover up the crime while running an over-the-top Indonesian Chinese wedding. It’s Dial A for Aunties. I bought this book while on vacation. Although I didn’t read it until I got […]

Dangled and Suspended in America

The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu

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First review ever and a confession! As a recovering humanities graduate student, I’m using CB14 as a way to re-teach myself how to read for pleasure, though that phase sits uncomfortably with me. I’m not sure ‘reading for pleasure’ really covers the full scope of what reading used to do for me and what I hope it will do in the future. The feeling of pleasure doesn’t capture at all what I experienced after finishing Dinaw Mengestu’s The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, and that […]

“I have learned that sometimes the simplest things are the hardest things to say. That sometimes there is no word for what you feel, no word in any language.”

Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga

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I read Jasmine Warga’s debut My Heart and Other Black Holes in 2016, and its one of the books that has stayed with me most as it contained some of the truest descriptions of being a teenager that I have ever read. When I was hunting for a book to fulfill the Muslim Middle Grade novel task for the Reading Women challenge and came across Warga’s name I decided that Other Words for Home would be the book I read, without looking any further into […]

“The space between two shores is the ocean and being caught in between feels like drowning.”

The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen

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A new forever favorite! If you like your fairy tales dark, and reading other cultural versions of them, read this book! If you like your graphic novels lush, detailed, and darling, read this book! If you like compelling family stories, immigrant stories, and queer characters, read this book! In the forefront of Trung Le Nguyen’s graphic novel is the story of a middle schooler named Tiên who is quietly dealing with coming out and his crush on a friend.  Alongside that is his mother’s story, […]



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