Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About denesteak

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denesteak's Reviews:

‘Hill House is vile, it is diseased’: People may be haunted, but Hill House being the way it is probably didn’t help

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

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“Fear and guilt are sisters” — this simple declaration comes mid-way through Haunting of Hill House as Eleanor and Theodora decide to go wandering out in the middle of the night. Author Shirley Jackson appears at first glance to be portraying both women as either emotion, as they are locked in a sort of childish standoff, so fixated on remaining engaged in their emotions that they don’t seem to notice that they were traipsing out of Hill House at night — at night! — into […]

Polyandry in a world where Big Brother demands to know all

An Excess Male by Maggie Shen King

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It’s been a while since I’ve read a novel. Though if I’m honest, it’s been a while since I read, period. So I’m glad my jump back into fiction was with “An Excess Male” by Maggie Shen King, because this was an interesting meditation into what-could-be if China were to maintain its one-child policy (also if the world didn’t end in the next 20 years due to climate disasters). “An Excess Male” is set in the not-so distant future – the blurb says 2030 – […]

An 11-year-old chemistry enthusiast explores potions, pies and philately

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

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In March, Myanmar was descending into near-daily violence under a junta about a month in after the military ousted democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi from power in a lightning-quick coup. Sixteen-hour days were common for our newsroom in Bangkok as we tried to navigate safety concerns for our reporting staff in Yangon, while dealing with a really intense news cycle. Any time off I had, I just couldn’t do anything “serious” — I stopped watching dramas and switched to 20-minute comedies. I re-downloaded a […]

‘I’m shadowed by doubt that I didn’t have it bad compared to others. But racial trauma is not a competitive sport.’

Minor Feelings: A Reckoning on Race and The Asian Condition by Cathy Park Hong

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This will be a tough one to review. Cathy Park Hong’s Minor Feelings wasn’t just good – and it was unbelievably good. It was both recognizable – like a familiar friend who I just nodded along to as they spoke – and a revelation. She skillfully put into words a shade that has maybe always been super-imposed over my world view, feelings I never knew were nagging at me before. Her seven essays also covered so much ground that any review I write – and anything […]

Three friends, a revolution, and (for me) a look at our literary biases

Good True Thai by Sunisa Manning

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Last year came and went with the stillness of a thrashing fish out of water — I certainly don’t need to recap what an astoundingly not-normal year 2020 was. We were all just doing our best, gasping for air while picking up new hobbies to distract ourselves from the pandemic, racial injustice, the world ending, etc. And this is where I let you non-Asia readers in on a secret: While the US and Europe played cat-and-mouse with the virus (seriously, does anyone really know what […]

A city whose fate can change as suddenly as the monsoon rain

Bangkok Wakes to Rain by Pitchaya Sudbanthad

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From the very first pages describing Bangkok’s early evening crowd of school children, food vendors and no-shits-given receptionist that a character encounters as she walks into a condo building, I knew I was in for the real thing. Literally, Pitchaya Sudbanthad could have been describing my walk home after work. It’s even the details in the condo’s lobby that he gets right, like the random coffee venture that pops up to please management or the “pre-fabricated panels of exposed brick” and the trendy Scandi-but-really-Thai-imitation furniture […]



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