zinka – Page 3 – Cannonball Read 17

When adventures are actually hard stuff and the characters are made all the better for it

European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman by Theodora Goss

January 31, 2020 by zinka 1 Comment

I love it when I come across fiction of the fantasy and science fiction variety that I can and want to devour ravenously. This happened in college when I discovered Octavia Butler and then read everything she’d ever written in a week and last year when a friend introduced me to N.K. Jemisin and spent several months reading two of her series. This only ever happens with fiction for me and I think I may be doing the same with Goss, albeit a bit slower […]

I’m as bad as the fool: filling up greedily, wanting more, loving it but not feeling satisfied

Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord

January 28, 2020 by zinka Leave a Comment

It’s been difficult for me to write about Redemption in Indigo. Karen Lord’s novel feels familiar and good in so many ways. It reminds me of the kinds of fairy tales and fables we’re told as children of normal but brave lives interrupted by magic, gods or other mystical beings hidden in sight, and important lessons drawn from their exchanges. But this familiarity, which is partially drawn from the brevity of the tale, was also a draw back for me. I wanted even more from […]

Amid every adventure is also drudgery, lady adventures have a specific kind

The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter by Theodora Goss

January 25, 2020 by zinka 2 Comments

This is the first book I read as a direct result of a Cannonball review, so thank you very very much to long_pig_tailor for that! The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter begins with the death of Mary Jekyll’s mother, and with a host of characters that you eventually meet breaking the fourth wall to add commentary to the story. With her mother’s death, Mary is left destitute and must dismiss all of her staff, excepting her housekeeper Ms. Poole who refuses to leave having […]

Grandparenting is the balancing act of having done it all before but having never really done it

Nanaville: Adventures in Grandparenting by Anna Quindlen

January 14, 2020 by zinka Leave a Comment

It’s a complicated relationship, being a good grandparent, because it hinges on a series of other relationships… Because being a grandparent is determined by the relationship your child has with you, partly determined by the one a son or daughter has with his or her spouse, partly determined by the relationship you have with the person your child has chosen to have a child with. Like so many books I read I picked Nanaville: Adventures in Grandparenting off the shelves of my little town’s library […]

Home is something carried with us, in our blood, for better or worse

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

January 12, 2020 by zinka 5 Comments

“What I know now, my son: Evil begets evil. It grows. It transmutes, so that sometimes you cannot see that the evil in the world began as the evil in your own home. I’m sorry you have suffered. I’m sorry for the way your suffering casts a shadow over your life, over the woman you have yet to marry, the children you have yet to have.” I have friends who talk about memory like it is a living thing, ancestors like they have never died, […]

Fewer gifts than expected

The Girl with all the Gifts by M.R. Carey

January 9, 2020 by zinka 5 Comments

The Girl with all the Gifts features Melanie, an obviously brilliant child, surviving the mysteriously strict and small world of her school and trying to discover who she is and how she fits in the world around her. The story unfolds to reveal other heroes and a larger world that these folks must survive together in a strange survival road trip. I hesitate to say much more, because although the surprises are not hard to see coming, the story is more valuable with them. I […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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