Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time
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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:

Skillfully tackling serious issues in a YA graphic novel

June 30, 2018 by ElCicco 2 Comments

This short (about 140 pages) graphic novel was created by the same Canadian cousin team that gave us This One Summer. In fact this graphic novel was their first. Nominated for an Eisner (among other awards), Skim is the story of Kim (aka Skim), a Japanese Canadian teen who is struggling with a variety of issues, including matters related to sexuality, depression and suicide.  The story is told in three parts. Part I: Fall, takes place in fall but is also about falling. Kim serves […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Graphic Novels/Comic Books, Young Adult Tagged With: #CBR10, Canada Day, ElCicco, Fiction, Graphic Novel, Jillian Tamaki, Mariko Tamaki, ReadWomen, Skim, Young Adult

ElCicco's CBR10 Review No:28 · Genres: Fiction, Graphic Novels/Comic Books, Young Adult · Tags: #CBR10, Canada Day, ElCicco, Fiction, Graphic Novel, Jillian Tamaki, Mariko Tamaki, ReadWomen, Skim, Young Adult ·
Rating:
· 2 Comments

The magick continues

June 26, 2018 by ElCicco Leave a Comment

The detective/noir/occult tale continues! Volume 1 introduced the reader to Rowan Black, Portsmouth Police detective who is also a witch. She has a good relationship with her work partner Morgan and with her friend (lover?) Alexandra Grey, who is also a witch. These relationships are in peril, however, as a series of crimes shows that dark forces are at work, and they are targeting Rowan. The first installment ends with a shadowy group of technologically savvy investigators tracking down Rowan. We cannot yet guess who […]

Filed Under: Fantasy, Fiction, Graphic Novels/Comic Books Tagged With: #CBR10, Black Magick Awakening Vol. 2, detective, ElCicco, fantasy, Fiction, Graphic Novel, Greg Rucka, Nicola Scott

ElCicco's CBR10 Review No:27 · Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Graphic Novels/Comic Books · Tags: #CBR10, Black Magick Awakening Vol. 2, detective, ElCicco, fantasy, Fiction, Graphic Novel, Greg Rucka, Nicola Scott ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

The Greatest Generation

A Girl Stands at the Door: The Generation of Young Women who Desegregated America’s Schools by Rachel Devlin

June 22, 2018 by ElCicco 1 Comment

Perhaps you have heard of Ruby Bridges, the little girl shown at right. She was the first African American child to desegregate an all-white elementary school in 1960. But have you heard of Lucile Bluford or Ada Lois Sipuel? What about Marguerite Carr, Karla Galarza, Barbara Johns, Betta Bowman and Elaine Chustz? In Rachel Devlin’s A Girl Stands at the Door: The Generation of Young Women who Desegregated America’s Schools, we have an outstanding history of the unsung heroes of the American Civil Rights movement — […]

Filed Under: History, Non-Fiction Tagged With: #CBR10, #history, A Girl Stands at the Door, desegregation, ElCicco, non fiction, Rachel Devlin, ReadWomen

ElCicco's CBR10 Review No:26 · Genres: History, Non-Fiction · Tags: #CBR10, #history, A Girl Stands at the Door, desegregation, ElCicco, non fiction, Rachel Devlin, ReadWomen ·
Rating:
· 1 Comment

I Am Somebody

June 6, 2018 by ElCicco Leave a Comment

In 1994, when Clemantine Wamariya was 6 years old, she and her 15-year-old sister Claire had to leave their family in Kigali, Rwanda, due to the “conflict.” The two girls spent the next 6 years as refugees, traveling through 7 African countries, having to learn new languages and find the means to survive, not knowing whether their parents and younger siblings were alive. In The Girl Who Smiled Beads, Clemantine Wamariya tries to come to terms not only with the upheaval and trauma of her […]

Filed Under: Biography/Memoir, Non-Fiction Tagged With: #CBR10, #memoir, Clemantine Wamariya, ElCicco, Elizabeth Weil, Non-Fiction, ReadWomen, Rwanda, The Girl Who Smiled Beads

ElCicco's CBR10 Review No:25 · Genres: Biography/Memoir, Non-Fiction · Tags: #CBR10, #memoir, Clemantine Wamariya, ElCicco, Elizabeth Weil, Non-Fiction, ReadWomen, Rwanda, The Girl Who Smiled Beads ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle

May 29, 2018 by ElCicco 5 Comments

The Surface Breaks: A Reimagining of The Little Mermaid is a wonderful feminist take on the popular fairy tale. Louise O’Neill stays very close to Hans Christian Anderson’s original classic story (as opposed to the Disney version), but gives her little mermaid (Gaia/Muirgen) a much darker back story and provides a fuller description of the world that exists under the sea. Little mermaid Gaia has grown up under a misogynistic patriarchal system, where women are valued for their beauty alone. Gaia and her five sisters […]

Filed Under: Fantasy, Fiction, Young Adult Tagged With: #CBR10, ElCicco, fantasy, Fiction, Louise O’Neill, ReadWomen, The Surface Breaks: A Reimagining of The Little Mermaid, YA

ElCicco's CBR10 Review No:24 · Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Young Adult · Tags: #CBR10, ElCicco, fantasy, Fiction, Louise O’Neill, ReadWomen, The Surface Breaks: A Reimagining of The Little Mermaid, YA ·
Rating:
· 5 Comments

Hope is the thing with feathers

May 25, 2018 by ElCicco Leave a Comment

This Newberry Medal winning YA novel is a fantasy/fairy tale about hope’s triumph over sorrow. Kelly Barnhill writes about a world populated by witches, dragons, monsters, and humans. She writes of bogs, forests, and towns separated by fear and magic. In this world, one town in particular, the Protectorate, engages in a terrible human sacrifice every year, wherein the youngest child in town is left in the forest as a tribute to an evil witch. It is an age old practice, perpetuated by the town […]

Filed Under: Fantasy, Fiction, Young Adult Tagged With: #CBR10, ElCicco, fantasy, Fiction, Kelly Barnhill, ReadWomen, The Girl Who Drank the Moon, YA

ElCicco's CBR10 Review No:23 · Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Young Adult · Tags: #CBR10, ElCicco, fantasy, Fiction, Kelly Barnhill, ReadWomen, The Girl Who Drank the Moon, YA ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments
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