Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A special cup of tea

The Amazing Leaf in the Cup: A Tale of Tea Retold in English and Chinese by Yiping Wei

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It is probably a copout to just copy and paste the publisher’s description of The Amazing Leaf in the Cup: A Tale of Tea Retold in English and Chinese by Yiping Wei. However, I’ll summarize it “a man, named Ding Xian, has qualified for the imperial examinations. In his travels, he passes through Wuyi Mountain, where he meets a monk that helps him by giving him a drink that restores his energy. It is just hot water and leaves, but makes an impact on the […]

“Women were built to endure the rules men make.”

The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff

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I would think it a real challenge to make a story about women suffering under abusive husbands and the difficulties of living in the caste system in India incredibly funny, but this book managed to do that. The humor is dark, but the characters (mostly women) are authentic, interesting and very relatable as they try to navigate the world of men while finding ways to advocate for themselves in a world that doesn’t want them to do much at all. Geeta’s awful husband disappeared 5 […]

An archaeologist, an amusement park employee, a talking pig. Everyone is doing their best.

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

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In 2020, when many of us began working from home, I started listening to a podcast series called The Happiness Lab. The creators had produced a string of episodes dedicated to coping with the pandemic, and one episode in particular stuck with me. The theme was that, at some point, we would come out on the other side of our current global challenge, and one way to get through it was to think about what kind of story we want to be able to tell […]

Two five stars in a row from me for this series. I love it so much!

The Marquis Who Mustn't (Wedgeford Trials, #2) by Courtney Milan

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As often happens with books that I five-star love and gobble up in a mindless pleasure fest of reading indulgently, I am finding it hard to have anything to say beyond BOOK GOOD READ NOW. But let’s try anyway. This is the second book in Courtney Milan’s Wedgeford Trials series, about a small town in Victorian England that is full of mostly Chinese emigrants (as always, the author’s notes are a must-read for historical context) but other members of the Asian diaspora as well. The […]

“I realized I didn’t want to carry them around for the rest of my life.”

Nude Model and Other Stories by Tsubasa Yamaguchi

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This is a very interesting and striking manga collection of three pretty dark short stories. I haven’t read the author’s other work, Blue Period, which is about a teenager discovering art in high school, but I had looked at it before and liked the art style, which convinced me to pick this up. Since it’s a standalone consisting of three short stories, I figured it would be a good insight into her style and I liked the striking cover a lot. I liked all three […]

“I exist as either a small canid with thick fur, pointed ears, and neat black feet, or a young woman. Neither are safe forms in a world run by men.”

The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo

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I added The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo to my Libby queue after reading narfna’s Cannonball Read review, because their description of a slow (but not in a boring way), slightly melancholic but heartfelt historical fiction/fantasy novel sounded like catnip (foxnip??) to me. I’ve been in a review rut since…last September…(despite having read quite a few excellent books in the meantime!), and this short, engaging, lovely little story seemed like the absolutely perfect book to get back on the ol’ wagon with.  The Fox Wife […]



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