Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Fiat.Luxury's Reviews:

We all find refuge any place we can.

Refuge by Dina Nayeri

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Refuge is, appropriately, about the places we seek refuge: partnerships, houses, families, communities, meals, spaces.  The narrative is mostly about Niloo, a young Iranian-American who emigrated to the U.S. with her mother and brother in the 80s.  Niloo’s father, a dentist with a proclivity for opium, remained in Iran.  Niloo is now a 30 year old living in Amsterdam and married to a French dude who by all accounts adores her, and her father is divorcing his third wife and apparently interested in rekindling some […]

Well, that was wonderful.

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia

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I definitely picked up this book because of the cover.  But I bought it because: Mayan mythology, immortal gods, mortal humans, supernatural tricksters, deity family grudges, set in 1930s Mexico?  YES, PLEASE. Casiopea is kind of a Cinderella characters, living in her family house in rural Mexico, and treated as a servant.  Her cousin Martin lords it over her, and she doesn’t quite have the wherewithal to escape–although she does fight back, and get in lots of trouble for it.  One day, she discovers something […]

I finally read it: The Hate U Give

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

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As everyone knows, this book (deservedly) got a lot of praise when it came out, so I put it on my list, where it sat for a while.  I didn’t pick it up because I don’t usually go for YA.  It’s just not my cup of tea.  Even YA books that I recognize are very good usually leave me feeling a bit dissatisfied at the end, either because the plot/style was too simplistic, or because I feel like the author pulled too many punches.  Anyway, […]

Murderbot: I finally read it.

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

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This book has been reviewed so many times!  Everyone loves it!  And I liked it.  I’m glad I read it.  It didn’t change my life, but it is a well-crafted and fresh novella, easy to read, with great worldbuilding and endearing characters, especially for a novella. Our narrator, the Murderbot, is a sarcastic, socially awkward robot.  Murderbot has hacked the software that controls its actions — space robot gone rogue!  Well, kinda – but this Murderbot just wants to watch videos and avoid people, mostly.  […]

This is what it means to be a woman in the world. Every step is a bargain with pain.

Six-Gun Snow White by Catherynne Valente

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I’m a big fan of Catherynne Valente (go read her Fairytale series, do it!) and Six-Gun Snow White does not disappoint.  In this Wild West retelling of Snow White, Snow is a mixed race gunslinger. Here’s the summary from the Subterranean Press: A plain-spoken, appealing narrator relates the history of her parents—a Nevada silver baron who forced the Crow people to give up one of their most beautiful daughters, Gun That Sings, in marriage to him. With her mother’s death in childbirth, so begins a […]

Who gets to be American?

Passage West by Rishi Reddi

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This book hit a lot of sweet spots for me.  Debut novel, historical fiction, unlikely-group-of-outsiders-forming-a-community.  An intriguing setting – 1914 ,California – with intriguing characters – Sikh immigrants.  So I really enjoyed this book.  I loved how spot-on Reddi’s descriptions of homesickness and otherness are: the deep distrust Ram feels of anyone, everyone, upon arrival in his new Californian home; the homesickness “like an infestation”; the confusion and frustration of wanting to belong, but not really wanting to belong; the gradual acceptance that you have […]



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