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:

“Never be afraid to be honest and stand up for what is right…. Just remember to balance your courage with wisdom.”

Stella by Starlight by Sharon M Draper

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Stella by Starlight is a work of youth lit by Sharon M Draper, who also wrote Out of My Mind (now a Disney+ movie). Draper has a knack for writing from the perspective of young girls on the outside. In Out of My Mind, the main character has a disability that affects her mobility and her ability to speak, but it doesn’t stop her from pushing forward for herself and her community. In Stella by Starlight, Stella is a Black 5th grader in rural 1932 […]

Unorthodox and Unashamed

Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner and a Saint by Nadia Bolz-Weber

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I have been following Nadia Bolz-Weber on social media for a few years now and I subscribe to her newsletter. I find her preaching to be witty, funny, cutting, provocative and deeply spiritual. It has been most welcome over the years as I have tried to deal with the problems of everyday life and the larger fucked up world. Bolz-Weber has written several books but I believe this was the first and it sort of provides the “origin story” for Pastrix Nadia, a Lutheran pastor […]

Thinking about the Roman Empire

Imperium: A Novel of Ancient Rome by Robert Harris

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“…he thinks politics is a fight for justice. Politics is a profession.” Back in the day, I attended an all-girls Catholic high school where Latin was a very popular class. My 9th and 10th grade Latin classes were packed. Within my own family it was a tradition not just to take Latin (as opposed to Spanish or French), but to take it for the full four years of high school. I probably would have continued that tradition if not for 2 things: the sudden availability […]

The Art of the Meal

Babette’s Feast by Isak Dinesen

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Babette’s Feast is only 45 pages long (does that make it a novella or a short story?), and while you can easily finish it in one sitting, it is the kind of story that makes one go back and re-read and ponder the message Dinesen is imparting. I remember when this story was made into an award-winning film back in the 1980s, many religious communities identified with its communal/eucharistic imagery. While that is undeniably there, what strikes me reading it today is its message about […]

An auspicious start to CBR17

Tea With Mr. Rochester by Frances Towers

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This is a collection of short stories that I picked up last month from a great little bookstore in Cincinnati. The Cincinnati Book Bus Depot is the only bookstore in the US to sell Persephone Books, which, as per their website, “reprints neglected fiction and non-fiction, mostly by women writers and mostly dating from the mid-twentieth century.” The title of this one, Tea With Mr Rochester, is what caught my attention, and it was a surprising and delightful find. Frances Towers did not live to […]

Slay Ride

The Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories by Martin Edwards, ed.

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This collection is from the British Library’s Crime Classics series and features 11 stories by some surprising (and surprisingly forgotten) crime writers. I found it at one of the coolest independent books stores I’ve ever seen. If you are ever in the Cincinnati area, particularly Sharonville (a northern suburb), check out out the Book Bus Depot. The store is a non-profit with the goal of raising money to promote childhood literacy and to build up classroom libraries. I met the owner when I visited, and […]



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