ElCicco – Page 63 – Cannonball Read 17

True Story that is reminiscent of Handmaid’s Tale

The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade by Ann Fessler

July 4, 2019 by ElCicco 2 Comments

Cbr11bingo True Story This book was recommended to me by a friend who was adopted and it is an amazing and powerful book. It’s the kind of book that breaks your heart and makes you angry. When we talk of “choice” and women, we generally think of the choice to have an abortion, but this book reveals a different kind of choice that was denied to countless young women and girls in the decades between WWII and Roe v. Wade — the choice to keep […]

This is a weird ass book

Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan

June 21, 2019 by ElCicco 2 Comments

I hadn’t heard of this novel before but saw it at the bookstore and thought it looked interesting. It’s a fantasy story of a young woman, a cleric, who has a unique and powerful connection to the gods. It is also the story of two nations at war over politics and religion. Wicked Saints has strong Slavic overtones, evident in names and geography, which I find appealing because of my own personal interests. I was not aware until I started writing the review that it […]

“Why am I only seen as someone who needs and not someone who can give?”

Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson

June 4, 2019 by ElCicco Leave a Comment

Piecing Me Together is a 2017 YA novel, a Newbery Honor book and winner of the Coretta Scott King Award. Jade, a teenager from Portland, Oregon, tells her story of being poor, black and on scholarship to prestigious St. Francis school on other side of town. Jade is an excellent student and an artist who has much to offer and who is eager to break out of her neighborhood. As she navigates two worlds — the neighborhood called the New Columbia and the world of […]

“Just because you’re the same kind doesn’t mean you’re all one happy family. The important thing is to understand each other. That’s love!”

The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly: A Novel by Sun-Mi Hwang

May 30, 2019 by ElCicco Leave a Comment

This short and utterly beautiful story is about following one’s dreams and maintaining hope in the face of despair. It is a meditation on family, motherhood, and selfless love. Published in South Korea in 2000, it became a bestseller and a classic of Korean literature. Hwang has written dozens of books and she has received multiple awards for them. The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly is poignant and gorgeously written, with translation by Chi-Young Kim and illustrations by Japanese artist Nomoco. While this might […]

A timely reminder that Nazis are evil and fighting them is heroic

D-Day Girls by Sarah Rose

May 30, 2019 by ElCicco Leave a Comment

D-Day Girls: The Spies who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis and Helped Win World War II is a work of non-fiction about the women who worked in secret, behind the lines in France in the years of WWII leading up to D-Day. These women were recruited, vetted and trained in England to be dropped behind enemy lines. There, they helped co-ordinate the resistance and lay the groundwork for the allied invasion. As their work was part of secret intelligence (the Special Operations Executive or SOE), […]

The Marriage Trap

The Widows of Malabar Hill: A Perveen Mistry Novel Book 1 by Sujata Massey

May 15, 2019 by ElCicco 7 Comments

According to the book jacket, this is “a mystery of 1920s India” and that was enough to make me very curious. “The Widows of Malabar Hill” is a murder mystery, and a fine one at that, but it is also a picture of Bombay (not sure why it’s Bombay and not Mumbai) shortly after WWI from the point of view of a young Parsi woman named Perveen Mistry. Through her, Sujata Massey immerses the reader in a world that straddles the traditional and the modern. […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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