Cannonball Read 12

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Solve your longing for travel and a mystery

Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon

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I picked this up from my library just before everything shut down. Having read the book, I instantly regretted having gotten just the first in the series.  This book is a little slow to get started, but once you are in it, it is everything you want in a police detective mystery. Bonus that it takes place in Venice, Italy, so while no one can physically visit right now, this book will take you there in your mind. Police Commissario Guido Brunetti finds himself investigating […]

Detective of the People

The Day of the Owl by Leonardo Scascia

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There are plenty of crime novels at home and abroad that function as social critiques for their nation/state/metropolitan setting. Crime fiction is a good stalking horse for social commentary, because much of what passes for social commentary in crime fiction focuses on injustice real or perceived: racism, gender and economic inequality, urban decay, social despair, etc. Some books are better than others at doing this. All could take a lesson from Leonardo Sciascia’s The Day of the Owl. Less a murder mystery and more an examination […]

Call and Answer

Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman

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What a lovely read. The language was lovely, almost lyrical. Very little actually happens but the author takes us on such a journey that we believe so much has happened. This is a relatively short review, simply to resist giving away the pieces of the book you should enjoy by reading it yourself. Elio is a young man falling for an older man who is visiting his house over the summer. The story slowly builds into an obsession. The tension is built through everything that […]

Italian Football (Soccer/Calcio): Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction

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Read for Cannonball Read Bingo: place I want to visit. It’s tough to know where to begin describing this book because it is a wild 528-page ride. John Foot is a competent writer and a quality historian but he’s been tasked with a subject that’s overwhelming: the story of soccer in Italy. Foot does a great job at covering the history of Italy as a backdrop to its nation’s favorite sport and I learned a lot. I had no idea how young of a nation […]

The Glory of my Favorite Illustrator

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The end of March 2018 saw a reissue of a Tomie dePaola classic Big Anthony and the Magic Ring (now called Strega Nona’s Magic Ring). The beginning of March saw a reissue of The Clown of God (last night was the first time I could read without crying my eyes out). And early April saw a rare site: dePaola’s text and illustrations by Doug Salati with, In a Small Kingdom. It is a miracle I can tear myself away from reading them! (Yes, my friends, […]



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