Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About ElCicco

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Married, mom of two, history PhD, feminist. I've been participating in Cannonball Read since CBR4. I love to read, and writing reviews keeps me from reading without thinking. I feel like I owe it to the authors who entertain me to savor their creations. It's like slowing down and enjoying a delicious meal instead of bolting your food. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: ElCicco's Quick Questions interview.)

ElCicco's Reviews:

The overlap of horror and reality

The Last Temptation by Neil Gaiman, Alice Cooper, Michael Zulli

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I was looking on the bookshelves for something to read that wouldn’t require too much thought, and this copy of the Neil Gaiman/Alice Cooper collaboration The Last Temptation jumped out. A horror graphic novel seems perfect for July 4 in America 2022. It’s weird how I have learned to tolerate gore and horror, even going so far as starting a Stranger Things watch. But I suppose given the daily shitshow of gun violence, intolerance and repression in the land of the free and home of […]

Witches, demons and cops

Black Magick Vol 3: Ascension 1 by Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott

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I reviewed the first two volumes of Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott’s Black Magick series for Cannonball 10. Given the gap in time, I did a quick reread so that I could remember what was going on for this third volume. This series is pretty cool, dealing with police work and witchcraft/demons. The main character Rowan Black is a witch and police detective who finds her worlds colliding when a series of murders seems to indicate the presence of dark forces that are coming for Rowan […]

Truth, Justice and a Better World

Superman Son of Kal-El Vol. 1: The Truth by Tom Taylor, John Timms

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A couple of weeks ago, I got a surprise delivery — a book I had ordered back in January and completely forgotten about. And it took me a minute to remember why I had ordered it. I do enjoy comics/graphic novels, but usually Superman is not one of my “must reads.” But last year DC Comics introduced a new iteration of Clark Kent’s son Jon and people lost their minds. Jonathan Kent is not just the new Superman, he is also bisexual. Moreover, Jon is […]

Write and remember

Daughters of the Occupation: A Novel of WWII by Shelly Sanders

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Daughters of the Occupation, published this year, is “inspired by true events” and a real gut-punching piece of historical fiction. Author Shelly Sanders discovered some truths about her family’s past as Jews in Riga when both Soviets and Nazis overran the country and persecuted them. She used this information as a springboard to write a novel about Miriam and Sarah, a grandmother and granddaughter who embark on harrowing journeys in very different time periods to find their family members and preserve their history. Chapters alternate […]

So much left unsaid

Somewhere in France: A Novel of the Great War by Jennifer Robson

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Historical fiction is one of my “go-to’s” when I need something to read, and fiction about WWI is usually grim but compelling. Pat Barker’s Regeneration Trilogy is brilliant, as is the classic All Quiet on the Western Front. WWI lit and films bring home the terrifying reality of trench warfare and its horrifying psychological impact on soldiers who endured it. Somewhere in France looked interesting to me because it centers on the experiences of a young woman, an ambulance driver at the front. Author Jennifer […]

“Words are our tools of resurrection.”

The Dictionary of Lost Words: A Novel by Pip Williams

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I would not have expected the story of the creation of the first Oxford English Dictionary to be a gripping topic for a novel, but I stand corrected. Pip Williams’ historical fiction encompasses not only the work of compiling the first Oxford English Dictionary but also events of historic importance that occurred during that same time period— WWI and the women’s suffrage movement. Many of the characters in this novel are real people, such as Dr. James Murray and Edith Thompson, but through the main […]



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