Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Crimes Against Our Own Humanity

They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, and Steven R. Scott

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I’ve spent a career at the margins of politics, learning a lot about how people interact and how the most insignificant seeming interaction can have massive ripple effects and how political discourse flows in certain directions, mainly towards fear. It’s a world of real-politik which can best described with the world-weary quote from Men in Black, “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals.” Nowhere is this more evident than in George Takei (Yes, Sulu from Star Trek)’s graphic novel rendition of his […]

Allende can still capture the grand narrative of time

The Japanese Lover by Isabele Allende

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  The many tropes of South American literature can be cloying if not done well. Magical realism can move into absurdist fantasy, sweeping epics can become confusing, and political messages more text than subtext. In this book, Allende shows how she’s able to balance these with her usual prowess.   Generations passing along traits and trauma is a common theme in Allende’s work. The Japanese Lover reaches across the tragedy of the Polish Jewish community’s persecution under the Nazi, following the story of Alma’s escape […]

War and a family

Shell Song: Based on a True Family Story by Sharon Fujimoto-Johnson

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Shell Song: Based on a True Family Story by Sharon Fujimoto-Johnson and also illustrated by Fujimoto-Johnson is currently available, but I read via an online reader copy. The start of the story is set right before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Afterwards, the narrator’s grandfather is sent to an internment camp with other men. In age appropriate language (at least five and up) the experiences of the grandfather and family back home unfold. As set in Hawaii, seashells will play a role in keeping the […]

A little love

Love in the Library by Maggie Tokuda-Hall’

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Around seventh grade I first heard about the Japanese American internment camp stories because my aunt is Japanese American. But it was not until I was much older that it clicked. My aunt, her siblings, her mother, and my cousins, not to mention her aunts, uncles and cousins would have been incarcerated. And while I was able to find a little here and there, it was difficult until the last few years to find things that were well done or interesting enough to keep me […]

I am a rule breaker….And can be unlike Kiku and her family in this graphic novel

Displacement by Kiku Hughes

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#cbr12bingo Book Club I am 100% cheating on this Bingo Block as I can’t find a Book Club book that I really want to read right now. However, this book should be 1000% in a book club.  We need to remember a piece of our own history and how history is currently repeating itself. Displacement by Kiku Hughes was not a perfect read for me. As much as I loved this book, I needed a bit more. It is a beautiful story about family, history, […]

Gyo Fujikawa Drew her way into our hearts

It Began with a Page: How Gyo Fujikawa Drew the Way by Kyo Maclear 

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It Began with a Page: How Gyo Fujikawa Drew the Way by Kyo Maclear and illustrated by Julie Morstad is a different picture book. It is a picture book about someone who fought not only to be seen themselves, but for others to be seen too. In the 1920’s Gyo Fujikawa did what few women and even fewer Japanese people did: she went to college. She did what few people in the 1960’s did: she put pictures of all races of babies on the same page in […]



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