Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

About RaRaGabor

CBR14 Participant

Public librarian reading in Western NY.

RaRaGabor's Reviews:

Who are you going to be, Lily Hu?

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

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Very happy that I’m getting my review in just under the wire! This is not a book that I probably would have picked up on my own, but I’m very glad that I read it. Lily Hu is a good Chinese daughter, living in San Francisco’s Chinatown in 1954 with her parents and two younger brothers. Lily studies hard, has a Chinese best friend, Shirley, and dreams of working at the Jet Propulsion Lab with her Aunt Judy. But Lily doesn’t quite seem to fit […]

“I am a bad Mother, but I am learning to be good.”

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan

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I finished this book several days ago, but I feel like I might need even more time to fully digest it. I think this review is going to be difficult to write, just because I’m still sorting through all of the feelings that the book brought up. Frida Liu is a struggling single mother, living in the near future in Philadelphia. She gave up her career to have her baby, Harriet. When her husband, Gust, leaves her shortly after Harriet’s birth, Frida is forced to […]

Women’s work and worker’s rights in 1920s Appalachia

The Widows by Jess Montgomery

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My work book club read for May, I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while. Set in the early 1920s in the Appalachian region of Ohio, The Widows is based on the true story of Ohio’s first woman Sheriff. Daniel Ross, the Sheriff of Kinship, Ohio, is shot while transporting a prisoner. His wife, Lily, is temporarily appointed to fill the vacancy, at least until a special election can be called. What no one counted on, however, was Lily using her new position […]

The Pandemic mystery that got me out of my thriller slump

56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard

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I have been deeply disappointed by the last handful of thrillers I’ve read. It seems like each one has some over the top plot twist or framing device designed to make the author look super clever and creative, but actually just gets my eyes rolling so far back I give myself a headache (see Survive the Night or All I Want). But, I needed something light after finishing How the Word Is Passed, 56 Days was available on Libby, and multiple coworkers raved about it. […]

Fresh Setting, Familiar Story

Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

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I was ready to absolutely love this book. Honest! Fantasy, based on Chinese mythology, super stunning cover: check, check, check. Xingyin lives on the moon with her mother, Chang’e, the Moon Goddess. Chang’e is loving, but sad, pining for her mortal husband. Xingyin leads a sheltered life, not realizing that her mother has hidden Xingyin’s very existence. When Xingyin reaches for her innate magic for the first time, it sets off a chain of events that lead her to flee from her home on the […]

“At some point it is no longer a question of whether we can learn this history but whether we have the collective will to reckon with it.”

How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith

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When I was growing up, my parents rarely took us on “vacation.” But every summer, we would pile in the station wagon and drive some number of hours to visit family, in Ohio, Maryland, Virginia, New York. My mother was both a US history buff, and operating on a shoe-string budget. This, my friends, means that my brother and I have visited almost every Revolutionary or Civil War battle ground or relevant historic home within a 50-mile radius of Baltimore, DC, or Wilmington, DE. Plus […]



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