Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Things could probably be okay if it wasn’t for that meddling, dead, Abuela

Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland

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As a teen I might have been a bit more into Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland. The twist to the plot point was a bit of a slap, even though the description tells you what it will be. By going with a real “not dead” aspect, considering the spiritual aspects of the rest of the book was awkward. The pacing of the story is a slowly building up that at first was a great way to keep me […]

Black Lives Matter in Norway too

Eg snakkar om det heile tida (I talk about it all the time) by Camara Lundestad Joof

Ikkje ver redd sånne som meg (Don't be afraid of people like me) by Sumeya Jirde Ali

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Eg snakkar om det heile tida (I talk about it all the time) – 5 stars Official book description: I call a friend. Did the man in the bar call me a black b*tch when I didn’t want to give him my number? That time we had arranged to drink beer, but we drank tequila instead? She goes quiet. No. He called you the n-word. Thank you, I say. Thank you for remembering. I talk about it all the time is a witness statement, an […]

The Horrors of Replacement Theory Conspiracists

Weeping Waters by Karin Brynard

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Some have pegged Karin Brynard as the “South African Stieg Larsson.” For good and not so good reasons, I can see why. I’m not an expert on South Africa. I know the broad strokes of the fall of apartheid and how it functioned before the rise of President Mandela, but as far as how the country is adapting today, I’m mostly clueless. I have no doubt that a herrenvolk government doesn’t just switch to multicultural democracy overnight, and that South Africans are probably several generations […]

An excellent book but not my cup of tea

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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I read Gods of Jade and Shadow and thought it was enjoyable, so I was excited to read Mexican Gothic.  I’m not sure my expectations were met. Noemi is a socialite in the upper-class of 1950s Mexico City. She goes to parties, she flirts, she wears beautiful gowns because she actually enjoys them, and she wants to go university against her family’s wishes. Noemi’s life gets upended when her father asks her to go check on her cousin Catalina who has written a strange and disturbing […]

Drop whatever you’re doing and read this book right now

The Devil Comes Courting by Courtney Milan

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Disclaimer! This was an ARC granted to me by the author, which has in no way influenced my review. I had also pre-ordered the books many months ago, because Courtney Milan is an auto-buy for me, every time. Amelia Smith is a Chinese woman raised by English missionaries in China. When she was just a little girl, her birth mother, a woman fleeing during one of the many conflicts in the country, asked Mrs. Acheson, the woman who Amelia has thought of as her mother […]

Some Scientists Keep Searching for Biological Difference

Superior: The Return of Race Science by Angela Saini

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Best for: Those interested in the history of science used in support of and to further racism. In a nutshell: For centuries, racism has received some support from those who seek to use science to suggest there are biological differences (and inferiorities) among race. This book explores many of the ways they are wrong, and many of the ways they continue their racist work. Worth quoting: (I tried to narrow this down, but there’s so much good in here) “Because of the narrow way Europeans […]



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