Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“The first year is when some of us lose our lives. The second year is when the rest of us lose our humanity.”

Iron Flame (The Empyrean Saga #2) by Rebecca Yarros

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Well, I’ve hit Book Two, and it’s almost as good as the first, which I’ll take as a rare yet wonderous thing; I have read too many series where the first book is fantastic, and then we hit Disney’s Tower of Terror for the rest. There have been some changes in my opinions of the characters, some good, some bad. Dain, Mira, and Lilith (Violet’s mother) all grew on me over the book; I actually finished it not really wanting any of them to die. […]

“An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.”

Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R. F Kuang

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1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to England by Professor Lovell, a mysterious Englishman who happened to appear at his mother’s deathbed . Once there, he trains for years at a grueling pace in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel. (And yes, it’s a tower; subtlety, this England doth not have it.) Babel is the world’s center for translation and, more importantly, magic. […]

Surviving is an act of resistance!

Beasts of Carnaval by Rosália Rodrigo

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This book fulfills the “border” square on CBR17 bingo; Sofia exists on the border of conquered and conqueror, and explores the complexities of her mixed heritage. As soon as I saw the cover for Beasts of Carnaval, I knew I wanted to read it, and the synopsis just cemented it for me. I love stories that are about resistance and revolution and proving that the colonizers and oppressors won’t be the last ones standing. And this delivers so beautifully! Sofia’s twin brother, Sol, vanished to […]

Finding Home

As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh

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If you want a really tough read, and not just because of the theme, then pick up As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh. None of the difficulties I had with this book comes from the story or even technically the writing itself. However, my issues were that the beginning is slow. There is a lot of build up, taking what feels like forever to “get to the point.” The author, like her main characters, are terrible flirts (as in they like […]

Perang Kemerdekaan Indonesia.

Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World by David van Reybrouck

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After making Majaphait one of the last reads of last years Cannonball Read, I decided to keep with my South East Asian history roll with Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World by David van Reybrouck. As you can see, I’m also continuing with my long standard interest in Australia’s immediate northern neighbor. It just boggles the mind that such a large, diverse country has such a small impact on the public consciousness. I think a lot of this has to do with […]

The littlest (quietest) revolutionary

The One & Only Googoosh: Iran's Beloved Superstar by Azadeh Westergaard

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Azadeh Westergaard’s The One & Only Googoosh: Iran’s Beloved Superstar is an interesting biographical book about a performer of Iran who is probably not well known to the general public. Even though she did a concert in the 2000’s I had never heard of her. But then again, I am not familiar with many international performers. But also, maybe her decades long forced silence in her homeland of Iran had something to do with it (and the fact that the concert mentioned in Westergaard’s book […]



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