Apr 19 2026

Chevengur by Andrey Platonov

Translated from the Russian by Robert Chandler and Elizabeth Chandler

Once again, I have finished a Platonov novel and I am left with the question of where to even begin. Chevengur is horrifying, and hilarious. It is surreal, and realistic; it is a blistering attack on Bolshevism, and full of characters asserting the correctness of Lenin’s proclamations. It is full of yearning for communism and shows that no two characters agree on what communism is; characters in Chevengur insist that when the conditions are right communism is inevitable and spontaneous, and that communism can only happen through the most strenuous and continuous efforts of the vanguard of the proletariat. It is nonlinear, picaresque, and wouldn’t know what a character arc is if one hit it in the dialectic. Chevengur is brilliant and baffling, exciting and exhausting. As I wrote about The Foundation Pit, “This is a journey to another world, recognizably human, but seen through the veils of history, language, culture and the author’s own imagination to make it more distant than what is found in much of science fiction. … Platonov’s Soviet Russia of the 1920s is far, far more alien than Asimov’s New York millennia hence.”

Chevengur by Andrey Platonov

To begin before the beginning, Andrey Platonov was born in Russia in 1899, the son of a railway worker. His formal schooling was over at age 13, and he went to work. He was an ardent supporter of the revolution in 1917, and in the following year he had the opportunity to study electrical technology. At the beginning of the 1920s, he was a prolific full-time writer but by 1922 he abandoned writing and took up work in electrification and land reclamation in central Russia, in the region near Voronezh where he had grown up. He worked to make Soviet power visible and productive in these fertile but poor lands, leading work brigades that dug wells and ponds, drained swamps and brought electricity to rural areas. By 1926, Platonov had returned to writing, and by 1928 he had finished Chevengur. Soviet censorship forbade its publication; some excerpts were published in 1928 and 1929. No more of Chevengur was published in Platonov’s lifetime; complete publication in Russia was not permitted until Gorbachev’s years of glasnost and perestroika.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/04/19/chevengur-by-andrey-platonov/

Apr 18 2026

City of Oranges by Adam LeBor

City of Oranges, which was published in 2006, must have been a difficult book to write, even in the comparatively less fraught time of the early 2000s. Adam LeBor — whom I knew a little bit many years ago in Budapest, so I will refer to him as Adam — attempts an open-minded and honest reckoning with the history of the city of Jaffa from the early 20th century to the early 21st. Inevitably, the twenty years that have passed since the book’s publication have made it a piece of history as much as a record of history, but the years have not erased the book’s value. Given the large number of people Adam interviewed in their old age, many of them have passed on by now, making their recorded recollections all the more valuable.

City of Oranges by Adam LeBor

This is a book of people and personalities. As Adam writes in his introductory author’s note, “This book is based on hours of interviews with several generations of Jaffa families, their recollections of parents and grandparents and their memoirs, letters and personal archives, reaching back to the early twentieth century. These are their stories of their lives as they remember them. This is what they want to say, and the quotes of every interviewee have been checked back with them for accuracy.” (p. xxiii) Jaffa today is a part of the larger Tel Aviv conurbation. At the beginning of City of Oranges, it was very much the other way around. Jaffa was the political and cultural center of Palestine, which in the aftermath of the Great War was placed under a British mandate. “[Jaffa’s] oranges, especially the sweet and juicy Shamouti, were famed the world over and kept many thousands in gainful employment, including the Jewish traders who bought and sold the fruit.” (p. 2) Adam has consciously chosen to write a small-scale history, in which he can always focus on individuals. The larger currents of history are inescapable, and their ebb and flow are clearly visible in the personal stories he tell. One thing that the book really brings home is that the tides of history are never uniform; there are always exceptions; sometimes even within the same family, people will have different perspectives on the same events. Adam writes, “I hope the people featured in this book give a sense of [the Israeli-Arab conflict’s] complexity and its human dimension. They are Muslim, Christian and Jewish. They are middle class and working class. They are artisans and intellectuals, artists and businessmen. Some are left-wing, others right-wing. In short, human beings, in all their variety and contradictions.” (p. 3)

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/04/18/city-of-oranges-by-adam-lebor/

Apr 17 2026

Tantalizing Tales — April 2026 — Part Three

Lol, just as I thought I was coming out of the woods, I’m back to being bedridden and canceling chamber orchestra rehearsals because I’m feverish, fatigued and, in a new development, achey at primarily my extremities instead of all over. Is that progress? I’m so tired, I don’t even know any more.

But I’ve been trying to distract myself with reading, as one does, and am super looking forward to two upcoming releases (as well as to finally finding the time to go over some books from 2025 that I still really want to get to!) First of the former category is Kat Cho’s Gods & Comics, which touches on multiple deeply relatable topics to me, a former teenage overachiever whose own creative pursuits often felt like they spilled over paracosmically into real life.

Grace Bak is seventeen, junior class vice president, and wholly determined to follow in the footsteps of her doctor parents. The debilitating panic attacks she occasionally suffers from are not part of the plan. Neither is the death of her beloved grandmother, who stepped in and helped keep their little family together after the death of Grace’s mom. Bereft of her support system, Grace finds solace in anonymously creating and publishing a webcomic called Sun God, based on the Korean folktales that her recently departed halmeoni used to tell her.

Her tale of the sun deity Haemosu and his beloved Yuhwa becoming accidentally trapped in the bodies of high schoolers goes unexpectedly viral. Even more surprising for Grace is Haemosu himself somehow taking corporeal form due to this newfound fandom. Bereft of his divine powers, he needs Grace’s help in order to get home. The more time they spend together, tho, the more reluctant Grace is to lose him. Complicating matters is the fact that her webcomic brought more than one god to the mortal realm, as Hae’s divine nemesis is hellbent on destroying the Sun God, no matter who stands in the way.

Also, that Take On Me-esque cover is just the best, 10/10, no notes!

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/04/17/tantalizing-tales-april-2026-part-three/

Apr 16 2026

Be Right Back by Bill Wood

The sequel to the bestselling Let’s Split Up finds the Sanera Four assembled again in the town that catapulted them to macabre fame only one short year earlier.

Jokester jock Cam never actually left, choosing to take on a role as assistant at his former high school instead of going to college. Meanwhile, both his boyfriend Jonesy and one-time new girl Buffy got into Stanford, while Amber studies nursing at UCLA. The four have remained in as close contact as you can for 2002, and while they’re thrilled to finally be getting back together in person, the circumstances aren’t ideal.

In order to cash in on the town’s notoriety in the wake of the Carrington Ghoul killings, Sanera Mayor Gomez has decided to throw a festival coinciding with Halloween, ostensibly to honor the fallen. The Sanera Four — as the group of crime-fighting teenagers who actually figured out who the killer was and stopped him, risking their lives in the process, are known — think the whole thing is beyond tacky, and would have nothing to do with it if they could. Unfortunately, reporter Rick Field is launching his nationwide book tour in Sanera during the festival. His “tell-all” book claims a much more important role for him in the apprehension of the Carrington Ghoul than is actually truthful, to the chagrin of the Four. To set the record straight, they’ve agreed to an interview with a rival investigative reporter, Juliet Lopez, who’s coming to town for the festival.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/04/16/be-right-back-by-bill-wood/

Apr 15 2026

Let’s Split Up by Bill Wood

Let’s Split Up was the fastest selling UK Young Adult debut of 2024. It’s said to appeal to the demographic that loves both the Scream movie franchise and Scooby Doo fans, but I suspect that this leans more to the former than the latter, at least if my reaction to it has been anything to go by.

Cam is one of those effortlessly cool kids in high school who can be both a jock and a nerd. His best friend is an outright nerd named Jonesy, who moved to their small town of Sanera, California, from England when they were both kids. Lately tho, things between Cam and Jonesy have gotten a little weird.

Amber, the last member of their tight little trio (and who I feel is very Black-coded,) knows that Cam and Jonesy are into each other, but is wise enough not to say anything until the boys figure it out for themselves. She’s smart and empathetic, and tho her traditionally-minded parents don’t understand why and how she could possibly be platonic best friends with two boys, they’re okay enough with it as long as she keeps her grades up and doesn’t get into trouble. She has absolutely not told anyone besides Cam and Jonesy that she’s bisexual tho. It may be 2001, but being out and proud certainly isn’t an option for everyone.

When new girl Buffy moves to town, the gang swiftly adopt her, tho not without some resistance from Jonesy, who’s a little suspicious of new people. Buffy is super perceptive, so it doesn’t take her long to figure this out. A greater mystery befalls them tho when their school principal interrupts lunch period to announce terrible news.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/04/15/lets-split-up-by-bill-wood/

Apr 14 2026

Just One Oak by Maria Gianferrari & Diana Sudyka

subtitled What A Single Tree Can Be. And in the case of the oak, the answer is “a lot!”

Growing up in Virginia, I had two massive oak trees in my front garden which, along with the red maple I spent hours climbing, were my favorite trees for the longest time. My dad made a plank swing that hung from a bough of the oak closest to the house, and I spent plenty of time either vigorously sailing through the air on it or just idly swinging to and fro with my thoughts and/or a book. I’d spread a picnic mat at the foot of the oaks when the weather was nice, and read or daydream while staring up into the leaves. So believe me when I tell you that I was very much inclined to love oak trees even before I read this beautiful and informative book on how important they actually are.

Even as an amateur naturalist, I was surprised to discover how crucial the oak’s position is as a keystone species in whichever ecosystem it’s in. Maria Gianferrari goes into this in greater detail, showcasing not only the oak’s importance in the diet of numerous insects, birds and mammals, but also how its adaptive traits have made it easier for pretty much everything in its surrounding area to thrive. Whether this comes from providing safe a/o nourishing habitats, or from rebalancing the environment through creating microclimates more suitable for the living organisms around it, the oak tree does a lot more (and in a lot more places!) than I knew of before I read this book.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/04/14/just-one-oak-by-maria-gianferrari-diana-sudyka/

Apr 13 2026

The Counterfeit by Ralph DeFalco (EXCERPT)

Hello, dear readers! Today we have an excerpt from a thrilling novel that reads like it could have been ripped from tomorrow’s headlines!

In his debut novel The Counterfeit, historian and national security intelligence veteran Ralph DeFalco depicts a disturbingly plausible near future in which China has won a Pacific War against the United States of America. Now Beijing is maneuvering to control the next US president, while the corrupt regime that has presided over the US’ defeat, bankrupcy and political fracture entrenches power through a sprawling Internal Security Division that is essentially America’s own Gestapo.

Not everyone is ready to take this lying down, tho. Philip Nolan, Commander, U.S. Navy is a former POW who finds himself paroled into an America starkly divided between privilege and deprivation. His own twin brother — a near identical lookalike — is now chief of the secret police. Recruited by a rising Resistance, Nolan undertakes an audacious mission to infiltrate the secret police by replacing his own twin. Embedded in the highest levels of power, Nolan will have to navigate political treachery, foreign manipulation and moral peril, risking torture and execution to undermine the regime from within.

Mr DeFalco blends the insider realism of a five decade career in intelligence with the urgency of contemporary geopolitics in this gripping dystopian thriller that explores loyalty, identity and the cost of freedom in a world where the truth itself has become a weapon to be used and manipulated.

Read on for a pulse-pounding excerpt!

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/04/13/the-counterfeit-by-ralph-defalco-excerpt/

Apr 12 2026

The Wonder Engine by T. Kingfisher

The Wonder Engine continues and concludes the story begun in Clockwork Boys. To recap: Three misfits have been offered reprieves from their respective criminal sentences (two death, one life in prison) if they can find a way to stop the Clocktaurs, semi-mechanical, semi-magical contraptions that are slowly but surely conquering the lands surrounding the misfits’ home city on a campaign clearly aimed at the city itself. The army’s regular forces have slowed the Clocktaurs some but by no means halted their drive. Previous missions to Anuket City, the source of the marauders, have failed or simply disappeared. It’s desperate measures all around.

The Wonder Engine by T. Kingfisher

As I wrote previously, Slate is a convicted forger with a death sentence hanging over her head; she also has the mild magical knack of smelling rosemary when danger is near. Brenner is her ex, an accomplished assassin and jack-of-all-crimes with a death sentence of his own. Caliban is a paladin who killed nearly a dozen people while he was possessed by a demon. The possession modified his guilt, in the eyes of the local law, and so he was not hanged but tossed into the dungeon forever. To keep them on task, all three were given magic tattoos that can cause them pain if they begin to stray from their mission, and kill them if they abandon it entirely. In Clockwork Boys, the three gained the assistance of a young scholar, the Learned Edmund, whose abstruse knowledge may be helpful in unraveling the mysteries of the Clocktaurs. More pragmatically, his order also had sent a senior scholar to Anuket City, and his correspondence contained hints about the Clocktaurs, but he, too, seems to have disappeared. If they can find him, maybe he knows how they work and how to stop them. Finally, the group gained a gnole named Grimehug.

Gnoles, in this world, are intelligent bipedal beings with badger-like features. They can speak human languages (humans cannot get far in gnole languages because communications often involve things like the position of a gnole’s whiskers or the angle of their ears) and have partly integrated themselves into human societies, often taking on menial jobs such as street cleaning or removing dead bodies. Like underclasses everywhere, they are often overlooked and underestimated. Gnole society is complex and caste-based; they are not immune to overlooking and underestimating either.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/04/12/the-wonder-engine-by-t-kingfisher/

Apr 11 2026

Emergent Tokyo by Jorge Almazan + Studiolab

Isn’t this neat? Tokyo is one of the world’s greatest cities, and is regularly praised for its success on a human scale even as the population of the metropolitan area has soared past 30 million. In Emergent Tokyo: Designing the Spontaneous City, Jorge Almazan and his team of more than two dozen researchers and editors try to answer crucial questions about the city. What are some of the key features that make Tokyo so vibrant and appealing? How did they come about? Are there underlying patterns? Can these successes be sustained, or maybe even replicated and extended? As they write, “But to use Tokyo as a source of inspiration, one must move beyond the awed gaze of the tourist and begin to ask questions about the why and how of the city. That, in a nutshell, is the purpose of this book.” (p. 4)

Emergent Tokyo: Designing the Spontaneous City by Jorge Almazan + Studiolab

The authors also warn throughout the book about just-so stories of the unique Japanese-ness of Tokyo and its development. Cities and cultures the world over have their unique aspects, but people in Tokyo were also responding to economic, legal and environmental challenges that have counterparts elsewhere. The choices that they made began patterns that contributed to Tokyo’s unique character, and path-dependency means that the options in other places will be different. The authors hope that showing underlying mechanisms can both contribute to greater understanding of Tokyo itself and help people, especially decision-makers, grasp the dynamics in their own cities so as to make more human-centric choices. Tokyo’s successes are neither impenetrable nor perfectly reproducible, but understanding how they emerged can make corresponding successes elsewhere more likely.

The bad news is that the answer to almost any question posed about Tokyo begins with, “It’s complicated.” The good news is that with diligent work and thorough research, comprehensible patterns emerge. “Instead of reducing the city’s diversity to a singular Tokyo model, we conceive Tokyo as having multiple neighborhood models or archetypes, each with its own distinct urban fabric—areas which are similar in terms of land use, street patterns, and building types, even if they’re on opposite ends of the city. (p. 7) The team describes their approach:

Tokyo’s metropolitan government now offers a wealth of quantitative information about every building, road, and plot of land in the city, data which can be analyzed algorithmically to lay bare the differences between Tokyo’s diverse neighborhoods. By poring through government databases, we have pinpointed several key characteristics of Tokyo neighborhoods that strongly predict their other contours, enabling us to compare and contrast at the scale of the city in concrete, quantifiable terms. For example, neighborhoods with a similar building scale and mix of land use often resemble each other in subtler metrics as well, such as their permeability to the public, accessibility for pedestrians, and the intimacy and vibrancy of their communities. Through this analysis, one can begin to grasp a common pattern language across Tokyo neighborhoods and gain a sense of how their essential characteristics give them a distinctive tenor and daily rhythm. (p. 7)

The research team took advantage of a long-standing city practice of dividing the city into small administrative units known as chōme. The full city has 23 wards, but within these wards each chōme is only about 0.2 km2 in area. By analyzing the city chōme by chōme, the researchers found six major archetypes: Village Tokyo, Local Tokyo, Pocket Tokyo, Mercantile Tokyo, Yamanote Mercantile Tokyo, Shitamachi Mercantile Tokyo, Mass Residential Tokyo and Office Tower Tokyo. The archetypes differ in their density, balance of residential and commercial building, scale of developments, street sizes, and other characteristics. The authors found that neighborhoods of a given type often had more in common with each other than with their immediate geographic neighbors.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/04/11/emergent-tokyo-by-jorge-almazan-studiolab/

Apr 10 2026

Tantalizing Tales — April 2026 — Part Two

Hello, dear readers! I haven’t been bedridden in over a week now, which feels like a small but important victory as I struggle to catch up with all the work that’s fallen by the wayside since mid-January. The weather, at least, has been lovely where I am, leading to lots of outdoor reading (after a hefty dose of allergy meds, of course.)

I’ve also been looking favorably at my pile of upcoming reads, with Kelly Yang’s The Take top of the list. I first fell in love with her writing when my eldest child introduced me to Front Desk, a book he’d been assigned in middle school, and I’ve loved everything I’ve read of hers since.

Her debut adult novel revolves around the relationship between Maggie Wang and Ingrid Parker, two women in very different positions in life. Maggie is a broke young Asian American writer, whose work is dismissed as not possessing enough life experience. Ingrid is an aging white Hollywood producer who isn’t willing to be sidelined in an industry that renders women invisible as they age.

Out of desperation, Ingrid makes Maggie an offer. She’ll pay Maggie three million dollars and act as her mentor. In exchange, all Maggie has to do is participate in an experimental age-reversal treatment involving ten blood transfusions.

Their strictly transactional arrangement devolves into a power play as both women discover that simply taking what they want — whether it be youth, wisdom or power — comes at a cost. As they begin to question who’s really benefiting from their relationship, they also have to confront what they’re willing to do and sacrifice in order to succeed.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/04/10/tantalizing-tales-april-2026-part-two/