Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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Good evening, everyone. I'm Leslie Monster, and this is Nightline. (Learn more about this Cannonballer: narfna's Quick Questions interview.)

narfna's Reviews:

“Maybe it wasn’t about the moving to new places, but about the challenge of staying put.”

The Leavers by Lisa Ko

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This felt like two separate books to me, and one of them I liked much better than the other. The two central characters in this novel are Deming Guo and his mother, Polly, who is a Chinese immigrant (undocumented) from the city of Fuzhou, now living in New York (I loved the specificity of Deming and Polly insisting they speak Fuzhounese, which is a dialect of Min Chinese; this book had great cultural and historical detail like this all throughout). The first third of the […]

“There isn’t ever going to be an end,” she said. “The point is that people have to continue always speaking up and not being afraid.”

She Said by Jodi Kantor & Megan Twohey

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Everybody said this was a good read, and it was. I love journalism books, and this was one of the truest to that form. In many ways, Kantor and Twohey had to make sure it was, that they crossed every ‘T’ and dotted every ‘I’ just so they didn’t leave themselves open to legal action, or worse, from the subjects of their investigation. This isn’t a long book, but it packs a big punch. Twohey and Kantor are extremely detailed in documenting their investigation, how […]

“If the ability to make use of experience and draw conclusions decided, we would have forgotten what war is a long time ago. But those whose goal is war have never been held back, nor will be, by experience or analogy.”

Blood of Elves (The Witcher, #1) by Andrzej Sapkowski

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Say it with me now, print it on a t-shirt: I should have written this review right after finishing the book. Or, I guess if it were on a t-shirt it would be better like: FINISH THE BOOK, WRITE THE REVIEW, DO IT NOW, NO NOW NOT TOMORROW, NO PUT DOWN THE BAG OF CHIPS, DON’T WATCH THAT EPISODE, YOU WILL REGRET THIS LATER!!! Something like that. Maybe that’s too much text for a t-shirt. Probably too niche of a market, anyway. I remember liking […]

“The nature of the criminal justice system has changed. It is no longer primarily concerned with the prevention and punishment of crime, but rather with the management and control of the dispossessed.”

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

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I wouldn’t make this your first anti-racism read, but it’s a must-read after you have some basis of the history of Black people and anti-Black racism in America. Two books I read previous to this one were particularly helpful: Stamped from the Beginning, a comprehensive history of anti-Black racism in America (and, by extension, Black history), and Locking Up Our Own, which has an interesting perspective on the War on Drugs, the justice system, and the history of mandatory minimum sentencing. If you just want […]

”My name, since you raise the topic, is Arthur Aloysius Kimberley de Brabazon Secretan. What would you do in my place?” “Leave the country … You poor bastard, you never stood a chance.” #CBRBingo – The Roaring 20’s

Slippery Creatures (The Will Darling Adventures, #1) by K.J. Charles

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I loved everything about this. K.J. Charles is honestly spoiling me for other historical romance authors. There’s just something about her style (very detailed, historically accurate, flawed but compelling characters) that gets me right in the pleasure center. She also doesn’t just write in one time period or keep it to straight-up romance. She’s always messing around with spy fiction or mystery or golden age pulp (here and Think of England) or jewelry heists or homages to Georgette Heyer regency fiction. Sometimes many of these […]

Loved this book except for one pretty big thing.

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

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Aside from one pretty big complaint, this is one of the most fun books I’ve read this year. I love Agatha Christie-style murder mysteries (a good house party mystery always gets me going). I love when books mess with time. And I love sf elements mashed with other genres. I was worried the ending wouldn’t be able to bring it all together, but it did, with an added element of human emotion that I wasn’t quite expecting. My advice to you on this one is […]



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