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 Banality of Racism

Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine

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Citizen: An American Lyric (2014) was a finalist for the National Book Award for poetry, the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in poetry, and winner of many other literary prizes. It is a series of reflections written as poetry on racism in its many forms, from childhood through adulthood, from everyday personal experiences to those that make national news. Rankine, with precise and evocative language, provides a series of images with words that demonstrate the relentlessness and predictability of racism in America […]

Are you a good monster or a bad monster?

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This incredible graphic novel is Emil Ferris’ first but not, thank goodness, her last. Volume 2 is due out next March and I’ve already pre-ordered my copy. My Favorite Thing is Monsters is a graphic novel that deals with intense issues and features stunning artwork. Set in 1960s Chicago, the novel involves contemporary events, an illness, child abandonment and abuse, a murder with possible connections to Nazi Germany, and an abiding love of fine art and monsters. The fact that it is narrated by a […]

The Romance/Murder Mystery/Thriller/Ghost Story You’ve Been Looking For!

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The Ghost Bride is a great summer read which I thoroughly enjoyed and raced through in no time. I picked it up based on a list of recommended fantasy reads that are one-off’s and not part of a multi-volume series. This novel was so good, I now wish it was part of a series (and it seems to me, based on the ending, that it could become one). I came for the fantasy/ghost aspect and its historical overtones, but the romance part of it was […]

Constant Craving

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This novel was translated from Spanish by Sophie Hughes and was the winner of an English Pen Translates award This is Women In Translation month #WIT Umami is a novel about loss, grief and craving told from 5 narrative points of view over 5 years. From the beginning we know certain facts: Ana is planting a milpa or garden instead of going to camp; it is the third anniversary of the drowning death of her little sister Luz; Pina’s mother, who had been absent for […]

Indonesian best-seller about poverty, education and hope

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The Rainbow Troops: A Novel is not so much a novel as a memoir or collection of vignettes from the author’s childhood in Indonesia. It is an eye-opener about life in the world’s fourth most populated country, the largest Muslim-majority country. Hirata is Indonesia’s best selling writer of all time (according to the book blurb) and The Rainbow Troops was a huge best-seller in Indonesia and abroad. Hirata provides a vivid depiction of the poverty that many Indonesians experience and of the hope that education […]

The Persistence of Memory

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Salt Houses is Hala Alyan’s first novel, but not her first book. She is a published poet with a doctorate in psychology, and in Salt Houses, she demonstrates both her beautiful way with words and her remarkable ability to delve into the psyches of the members of one family. Each character in this book has his/her own unique voice and way of seeing the world. And that world changes from generation to generation, quite literally, as they are forced to move from one city and […]



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