Literature – Page 3 – Cannonball Read 17

We Should Have Seen It Coming

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

February 7, 2023 by Owlizabeth Leave a Comment

I am a mood reader prone to slumps and I also rely on my public library (and four additional in-state systems who have reciprocal relationships with my county – libraries are a miracle and you should support yours more) so I don’t always get to read the hot new book when it is hot and new. I know this was the big book around here last year, I read the stats post. So I doubt I’m adding anything new to the conversation here when I […]

Art Is Power

Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li

January 10, 2023 by Owlizabeth 5 Comments

I’m not sure I can discuss this book coherently. I’ve started and stopped and rewritten this review so many times I’m starting to feel dizzy. How do I convey the perfect writing, the depth of emotion, the complex characters, the history and meaning and joy and sorrow Grace D. Li has managed? In a freaking heist novel??!? The audacity! Let’s start with the basic plot: steal back the five bronze zodiac animal heads that were looted after the burning of Beijing’s Old Summer Palace and are […]

More than 40 sisters inside. And I have trouble with one!

Spectacular Sisters: Amazing Stories of Sisters from Around the World by Aura Lewis

June 13, 2022 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

Spectacular Sisters: Amazing Stories of Sisters from Around the World by Aura Lewis includes some sisters you know, others you might have heard of, some you have probably never heard of and others are so well known even my dad has heard of them! The woman featured in the couple pages biographies, cover all walks of life from political leaders (ancient and modern), warriors, pop culture, artists, and writers. We see the gambit of siblings who call each other sister. Some were terribly close, others had […]

Three stars, for now. It’s not the book it’s me??

Moon Witch, Spider King (The Dark Star Trilogy, #2) by Marlon James

May 4, 2022 by narfna Leave a Comment

This book has been holding up my review queue since I finished it in late March. I was surprised at my reaction to it when I read it, and wasn’t sure what I wanted to say, because I wasn’t sure if I liked the book or not. And, if I didn’t like it, why not? I feel like nothing much has changed in James’s style in the last three years. I think it’s me, and that I just wasn’t in the mood at all to […]

“Children long to be eaten. Everyone knows that.”

XO Orpheus: 50 New Myths by Kate Bernheimer (editor)

April 18, 2022 by andtheIToldYouSos 2 Comments

Am I typing this up while wearing a tee featuring the cover of the d’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths? YOU KNOW IT! That strange tome of simplified myth and ultra-bright illustration cracked open a need in me when I was very young. I re-read that book countless times, and used it as the entry point into the larger world of mythology. Combined with a Catholic upbringing that was far more focused on the deaths of the saints than on anything else, you could saw I […]

Hands-Down My Favorite TITLE of 2022

Please Miss: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Penis by Grace E. Lavery

April 6, 2022 by andtheIToldYouSos 5 Comments

Please Miss: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Penis Let that title sink in. It’s so great! Also great: hearing Grace Lavery say it aloud herself. If you have any interest in diving into this piece (and holy moly, you should!) I HIGHLY recommend listening to the audio performance- and I do mean performance! Grace, Danny Lavery, and Marc Vietor do not skimp on the drama and pomp. Grace, in particular, has a lovely elastic and elegant lilt- cliché of clichés, but I do think I […]

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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