Immigration – Page 6 – Cannonball Read 17

“Turned out that being with someone is an acquired skill. There is an art to it. Basically, you have to watch your partner take a chisel—or a war hammer, depending on the day—and chip away at the ideal version of them that you’ve created in your mind. The person you fall in love with is always slightly different from the person you need to stay in love with. More real and more flawed, but also more complex and better defined.”

The Bad Muslim Discount by Syed M. Masood

June 8, 2021 by narfna Leave a Comment

This was a selection for my IRL book club that I’m pretty sure I never would have picked up on my own, but I’m glad I did. If nothing else, I’ve discovered that Syed Masood has a fantastic way with words. I don’t usually care about the actual writing in books very much; I prefer for it to fade into the background, but here he’s just so smart! And clever and funny. I wish I had liked the story he was telling more. This is […]

But did they try more cowbell?

Severance by Ling Ma

March 23, 2021 by dsbs42 Leave a Comment

In the spirit of not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good/adequate/completed review, I’m just going to try and get my thoughts down about this book. Severance was one of my it’s->$4.99-on-Kindle-so-if-I-have-even-the-vaguest-interest-I-will-buy-it impulse purchases. I read the critics’ reviews on Amazon and friends’ ratings on Goodreads, skimmed the free sample to get a sense of what it was about, and was hooked. Unfortunately, my interest had waned by about the third chapter. Severance, which was written in 2018, takes place in 2011 and […]

The Voices of the Ignored

The Colors of Courage: Gettysburg's Forgotten History, Immigrants, women, & African Americans in the Civil War's Defining Battle by Margaret S. Creighton

January 19, 2021 by Ale 2 Comments

Until I joined a reenactment group about 6 years ago, I’d never had any interest in the Civil War since its most popular focus is white men shooting each other. Now, this isn’t to say that the experiences of the white, male soldiers consumed by the jaws of war aren’t important, it just means I don’t particularly care what Gen. So-&-So did at noon on July 2nd, 1863. And unfortunately, at least at Gettysburg, ninety-nine percent of the focus is what white men did in […]

Dodger Blues

Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between by Eric Nusbaum

January 7, 2021 by Jake 2 Comments

If you’re a sports fan with a social conscience, you’ve probably had that moment where you realize that sports, professional and collegiate, are a labor-exploiting racist racket. It’s comparable to being a kid and realizing Santa Claus isn’t real. I’ve had those moments too, long before the backlash to Colin Kaepernick’s protest or seeing the words “Black Lives Matter” on a basketball court. Eric Nusbaum, a sports fan like me, had it when he was a kid, when an octogenarian former activist and HUAC victim […]

Sadly, one of my biggest disappointments of the year

Gul book (Yellow Book) by Zeshan Shakar

December 27, 2020 by Malin Leave a Comment

Official book description (any errors in translation are mine): Mani is a newly graduated economist and has just secured a job at the Ministry of Education and Research. He is a young man who lives with his father in a flat at Haugenstua, in the east of Oslo, and has a girlfriend he thinks he’s going to marry someday. Preferably, he’d like to use his abilities in the private sector, where the prestige and the money lies, because he’s painfully aware that both his girlfriend […]

She Used to Meet Me on the (Lower) East Side

The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream by Patrick Radden Keefe

Lush Life by Richard Price

December 3, 2020 by Jake Leave a Comment

Read two consecutive books whose geographies bumped up against each other; one set in Manhattan’s Chinatown, the other set partially in it, as well as the adjacent East Village. Both were excellent in their own respective ways. The Snakehead How is Patrick Radden Keefe so damn good at writing non-fiction? This doesn’t reach the heights of Say Nothing (really what can?) but it’s a fascinating story in its own right and Keefe tells it well and thoroughly, providing enough detail without larding the narrative. He also takes […]

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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