Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Languages for the power

My Mother's Tongues: A Weaving of Languages by Uma Menon

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My Mother’s Tongues: A Weaving of Languages is a clever story of a young girl and her family’s talents with languages. Well, her mother can speak two different languages. She has one for her mother and daughter, and another for the cashier. However, sometimes the two are mixed. And the young girl explores her family and how they learned to speak several languages, and what that means. The connection between the generations is sweet and the cultural connections are delightful to learn. Uma Menon introduces […]

The world in your hands

A Garden in My Hands by Meera Siram

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I have found several picture books of late. One of them, A Garden in My Hands is a sweet, contemporary book that explores the Indian culture of one child’s family. While the mother of the story shares her own stories about the family, their culture, and more, the little girl watches them come alive as her mother applies to her hands some henna. There is a little humor and a lot of love. Meera Siram has tapped into a special world to share with those […]

It’s time for the girls to get the job done

Aru Shah and the End of Time: the Graphic Novel by Roshani Chokshi

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Step aside all you Pandavas (heroes), Aru (and Mini) are in town! Aru Shah and the End of Time: the Graphic Novel is a heavy feminist take on the hero/heroine story arc. Two Indian American girls (who are two of the reincarnated Pandava brothers who battled in a civil war with their 1000 cousins), must battle mythical beings, with help from the Gods that claim them. With quirky humor mixed in, this heavy on text graphic novel has some fun illustrations, interesting adventures and a […]

History and its Bastards. Greedy, Greedy Bastards.

King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa. by Adam Hochschild

The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company by William Dalrymple

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I think I am going to spend my Memorial Day weekend writing about history. And it’s not going to be about the nice bits of history, either. I have been holding off on a number of these reviews because sometimes the subject matter was just a little too depressing. At best, we are dealing with a conga line of arseholes. At best. And at worst? Well, we’re dealing with some pretty bad ‘at worsts’ here…  The first book is Adam Hochschild’s King Leopold’s Ghost: A […]

A classic twist

The Runaway Dosa by Suma Subramaniam

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“The more you eat, the more you crave! You can’t catch me, no matter how brave!” In another review I mentioned that I like folk tales, though if one is retold just to retell it by adding a few diverse elements, but keep the rest, I am not really a fan. However, The Runaway Dosa showed me that might not always be the case. Suma Subramaniam took The Gingerbread Man story, but added an Indian twist that pays tribute to the old and new. Based […]

The Whirling Desert Queen of Rajasthan

Desert Queen by Jyoti Rajan Gopal

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Well HOT DARN!  (Only I was not saying darn!) Desert Queen has probably been written for several reasons. The first, to give representation to the people of India. But also, to show how one middle class boy would grow up and show the world how to bend perceptions. Queen Harish was the alter ego of a boy from a small community, who became an orphan young, and left with two sisters to raise. His love of dance and his talents would make him dare to […]



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