Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A country without a language is a country without a soul

The Speckled People: A Memoir of a Half-Irish Childhood by Hugo Hamilton

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The speckled people is a memoir of a childhood in Ireland in the 1950’s, growing up between languages. Hugo’s mother is a german emigrant and his father is an Irish nationalist determined that his children will revive the Irish language. Hugo himself is just a boy who wants to fit in with the other kids – who all speak English. The book is written in a soft language, floating in and out of the memories of a young boy. His father is a brutal tyrant […]

Even better on re-read.

Broken Harbor (Dublin Murder Squad, #4) by Tana French

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This is one of my favorites from this series, and I’m kicking myself for not writing this review immediately upon finishing it for the second time, because I got something different out of it this time than I did on my first read. But I don’t remember what that was! The only notes I left myself consisted of the temporary review I left over on Goodreads, which read, “This one whomped me good.” So helpful. Maybe it was something about Scorcher and his black and […]

A multi-voiced anthology of original texts, translations and responses

Migrant Shores: Irish, Moroccan and Galician Poetry by Manuela Palacios

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Migrant Shores: Irish, Moroccan and Galician Poetry edited by Manuela Palacios was a choice for a local poetry reading group. I was looking for something to expand my poetry reading, I gave it a try. What came out of the reading was several months of trying to figure out what was happening and what the meanings of everything was. Most poems you can feel and hear the theme of immigration, emigration and migration. Some of the people had to leave homes due to wars and […]

“The Departed” set in Giuliani’s New York

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This is what may be termed as a “bad sandwich” book: nothing wrong with the bread but what’s in the sandwich is awful. In other words: the first and third act are a lot of fun, the second act soured me to the point where it’s tough to appreciate the book in its totality. I’ll start with the positives. I liked the Michael Forsythe character. Immigrating from Ireland to get work, Michael is stuck with a violent gang tied to the Irish mob in early-90s […]

If you wonder what the Irish were doing in World War II this might answer it….

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This is the Award Winner. The Dorothy Canfield Fisher award is a Vermont state award that the books are picked by adults (though I am not always sure why they were the pickers as one was a professor at my college who had no English or child background that I knew of) and then voted on by the kids. Of course, the year I did this award the “cool kids” pick won. But that is the perfect lead in to this book. It is 1943. […]

Unflinching

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One of the best parts of reading Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad books (and there are many best parts, I’ve gotta say) is that you can dive into any of them and get nearly the full experience and feeling even if you haven’t read all of them.



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