Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Believing is seeing

A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark

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In A Master of Djinn, writer P. Djeli Clark takes his readers back to Cairo, 1912, and a world where magical creatures such as djinn have become a normal part of life along with their incredible magical mechanical inventions. This book, which is a full-length novel rather than a novella like his previous works, features Agent Fatma el-Sha’arwi, special investigator with the Egyptian Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities. She was the main character in A Dead Djinn in Cairo, and it’s wonderful to […]

The one percent control magic, too!

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

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I received this book as part of last year’s holiday book exchange (thank you coffeeshopreader for yet ANOTHER outstanding choice!). Having never read any of Leigh Bardugo’s books but having seen them glowingly reviewed here, I thought it was time to see what the fuss is about. Ninth House is definitely worthy of fuss, and I am already looking forward to the next volume. This fantasy novel is set in New Haven, Connecticut, at Yale University, and at heart it is a detective novel with […]

“Sometimes, there’s a story we tell ourselves. And sometimes a story is told about us.”

Cyclopedia Exotica by Aminder Dhaliwal

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I first read about artist/writer Aminder Dhaliwal in this NYT piece, then started following her Instagram account. The premise behind Cyclopedia Exotica and Dhaliwal’s art led me to purchase the book, whose message is pertinent in the current xenophobic climate in the US. Through characters who are Cyclopes in a world of the two-eyed, Dhaliwal examines the daily micro aggressions and prejudices that minorities encounter, as well as the Cyclopes’ responses to them. Anyone who does not fit the WASP-y cis/het norm will probably be […]

Disarming and Charming

Fence: Disarmed by Sarah Rees Brennan

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An original novel based on C.S.Pacat’s Fence comic series, illustrated by Johanna The Mad I read volume one of this series, Fence: Striking Distance, about a month ago and loved it. The love affair continues and I am very much hoping that another volume is in the works. In Fence: Disarmed, we return to the exclusive boys boarding school known as Kings Row and its fencing team. When last we left them, relationships among the members of the fencing team were fraught. Would they come […]

“…believing in ghosts — that’s believing that love never dies.”

The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan

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Amy Tan’s The Hundred Secret Senses is a ghost story, a history, and a testament to the power of hope and love. This is only my second Amy Tan novel, but I must say, I am riveted by her storytelling. In this novel, as with The Kitchen God’s Wife, Tan manages to tell stories of the past that have a direct relationship to the present. This time, Tan reaches 100+ years into the past, to 1865, as she tells the story of Nunumu, the peasant […]

“Writing is the most important thing.”

The Notebook by Agota Kristof

The Proof by Agota Kristof

The Third Lie by Agota Kristof

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This trilogy by Hungarian writer Agota Kristof is simply amazing. I read through the three novels quickly, and I’m still reeling from the story she tells about twin brothers who endured violence and privation in WWII, separation during the Cold War, and a troubling reunion afterward. Certainly, these novels can be read as the story of a divided and reunified Europe. They were written in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when Soviet Union was in dissolution and the wall came down in Berlin. How […]



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