Laila Lalami – Cannonball Read 17

Nightmares of the Fourth Reich

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami

March 31, 2025 by Jake Leave a Comment

Without a doubt, the best thing I’ve read so far this year. Quarter of the way through and not much comes close. As I’ve said many times, I don’t like dystopias that lean too hard into the dystopic-aspect. I like them with the axis of earth just tilted slightly; looking at reality through a cracked mirror. In other words, take scary parts of society and bend them a little to suit your story. Laila Lalami more than delivers that here. What’s frightening about The Dream Hotel is […]

a book that is well written but infuriating

The Moor's Account by Laila Lalami

December 27, 2024 by wicherwill Leave a Comment

Is it fair to downgrade this book because it’s hard to read? And by which I mean, the plot tears at your heart and makes you furious at times. I guess maybe not, but that is what I feel and so that is how I will rate this. Fair trigger warnings: this book has anything and everything you’d expect to see in a “faithful and true” recounting of Spanish conquistadors lathing their way through La Florida–there’s sexual assault, slavery, cannibalism, emaciation, the whole kit and […]

A little bit of everything

The Other Americans by Laila Lalami

February 6, 2020 by lowercasesee 3 Comments

The Amazon review (right before it tries to pitch me American Dirt, I mean, really?!) calls this a family saga, a murder mystery, and a love story, and yeah, that all tracks. The Other Americans starts with and centers on the hit-and-run death of Driss Guerraoui, a Moroccan immigrant living in California, but the real story is that of his daughter Nora and how it impacts her but there are also chapters from his wife, from Nora’s former classmate-turned-policeman-turned-love-interest, from the detective on the case, from a […]

Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story?

April 4, 2016 by expandingbookshelf Leave a Comment

This is a really hard review to write, because every time I try to start, I think about another genius aspect of The Moor’s Account. So let me start with this-this book is absolutely brilliant. It’s stayed with me since I finished it about a week ago, and I just want to kidnap someone so I can ramble on about how this book tackles issues like racism, slavery, and the difference between history and truth. I already know my review can’t do this book justice. […]

The Truth Will Set You Free

September 20, 2015 by ElCicco Leave a Comment

The only thing at once more precious and more fragile than a true story is a free life. A Pulitzer finalist and long-listed for the Man Booker Prizer, The Moor’s Account is a work of fiction based on real historical events and people. Through the eyes of our narrator Mustafa, aka Estebanico, a Muslim from Morocco, the reader experiences the life of a successful merchant in Portuguese controlled North Africa, enslavement, and an ill-fated Spanish quest for gold in La Florida. Lalami’s inspiration came from […]

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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