Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Magical realism at its most wonderful

The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova

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BINGO – Flora (there’s a small flower at the center of the cover and Orquídea means ‘orchid’ in Spanish) The Inheritance of Orquidea Divina is told with two narratives: one of the past life of Orquídea Divina, matriarch of the Montoya family and the other of the Montoya family in present day. Orquídea is dying and she summons her family to her home to receive their inheritance. The family gathers and soon realize that no one is getting the family cuckoo clock or heirloom jewelry. No, Orquídea […]

Sex, death, and queerness: a delightfully horrifying collection

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

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BINGO – Reader’s Choice in place of Home In Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado has compiled eight short stories that are all unabashedly queer and horrifying. Much like Mariana Enriquez, another Latina short story horror writer I’ve read this year, Machado erases the line between the natural and supernatural. Magical realism floods every sentence. Whereas Enriquez’s stories tend to focus on social structures and politics, Machado focuses on sex and gender identity. In these short stories, Machado manages to illicit dread and […]

“What broke your heart so completely that its splinters found their way through generations?”

The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova

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CBR13Bingo: Uncannon a beautiful work of fantasy that tells one story of generational trauma in fantastical terms Magical realism isn’t usually my thing, but I couldn’t resist that unbelievably gorgeous cover. And I am ever so glad I picked this book up. It’s about generational trauma and making a home and family secrets, about how bringing those secrets into the light can wound and heal. “Orquídea was so many things: evasive, silent, mean, secretive, loving, and a liar.” Orquídea Montoya was born unlucky, but early on she […]

I fell in love with you the day that I met you, and then I fell in love with the person you remembered you are. I got to fall in love with you twice.”

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

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CBR13 Bingo: they/he/she (the author is non-binary and bisexual (and uses any pronouns) and the book features pretty much all iterations of the queer spectrum, I’m not sure there is a straight character of any significance in the whole book) Official book description: Cynical twenty-three-year old August doesn’t believe in much. She doesn’t believe in psychics, or easily forged friendships, or finding the kind of love they make movies about. And she certainly doesn’t believe her ragtag band of new roommates, her night shifts at […]

This is about the woman and the house that had never been—until one day, they were undeniably there.

The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova

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When Orquidea Divina dies, she leaves behind questions, mysteries and a fractured, resentful family. She leaves behind magic, silence, solitude, debts and an enemy. The Montoyas are used to a life without explanations. They know better than to ask why the pantry never seems to run low or empty, or why their matriarch won’t ever leave their home in Four Rivers—even for graduations, weddings, or baptisms. But when Orquídea Divina invites them to her funeral and to collect their inheritance, they hope to learn the […]

In which I finally rectify having never read an American master of writing

Beloved by Toni Morrison

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[TW: violence against children, racial slurs, depictions of slavery, abuse] BINGO – UnCannon In high school I took two AP English classes. In college, I took a Comparative Western Literature course. Toni Morrison was not on any of my reading lists for those courses despite the fact that Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature and that Beloved was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1987 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988. Perhaps, Morrison is not read more at […]



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