A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre
The problem, for me, when trying to finish a whole Cannonball, is that I read a lot of very long books that take me a long time to finish, and then I spend a week in a book coma, and then it’s July. So around August/September, I think oh shoot this is not going to work, and then I find a ton of random novellas so that I can reach my goal. The choice of these shorter books is based solely on feasibility (length). Sometimes […]
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
I eagerly picked up Earthlings when I heard it was released. I loved Sayaka Murata’s English language debut, Convenience Store Woman, and was excited to see what the latest translation of her work had to offer. She has a unique and compelling style of prose, and a way of explaining the pressures of Japanese society that is sympathetic to her weird outsiders and totally rational in a slightly twisted way. The cover and back of Earthlings is full of praise for Convenience Store Woman, raving […]
I love a good mystery and The Ice Queen had a killer (pun intended) premise. German detectives find Jossi Goldberg shot execution style with a number drawn in blood near the body. As a 92-year-old Holocaust survivor, he isn’t the likeliest of murder victims. After getting him in for an autopsy however, they find that his arm has an unsuccessfully covered tatoo of his blood type, a sure sign that he was once part of the SS. Detectives Kirchhoff and Bodenstein must find out who […]
