Feb 23 2026

The Spider Strikes by Michael P Spradlin

It continues to frighten and infuriate me that books like these aren’t merely a snapshot of a period in time but a very necessary and urgent warning of the road we must not presently travel.

As with the prior books in The Web of The Spider series, set during Hitler’s rise to power in 1930s Germany, we have a different narrator, one of a group of young friends. Joshua Greenburg hasn’t always been aware of antisemitism, growing up in the small town of Heroldsberg. But with Hitler Youth coming to town and the German economy crumbling, it’s nigh on impossible to avoid the way that the Nazis are increasingly blaming Jews like himself for all the troubles befalling the country.

Germany has become so oppressive and awful for people who don’t sympathize with the ruling regime that Joshua’s friend Rolf and his father are planning on moving to America soon. They have family there, and hopefully distance will allow them to get over the heartbreak of losing Rolf’s older brother Romer to Hitler Youth.

Rolf and Joshua have only just helped their other friend Ansel rescue his journalist father from the Nazis. Ansel’s dad’s only crime was in reporting the truth, which has come under increasing attack from the government. It’s been a pretty awful several months for the three friends, who just want to play football, read adventure stories and brush up on their Scouting skills.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/02/23/the-spider-strikes-by-michael-p-spradlin/

Feb 22 2026

Nine Goblins by T. Kingfisher

Nine Goblins is not just the story of nine goblins, one elf, and some weird things that happen, it’s also the origin story of T. Kingfisher. Under the author’s real name of Ursula Vernon, she had a successful and award-winning webcomic named Digger and more than a dozen published children’s books. But she had more stories that she wanted to tell and, as she relates in her author’s note “I had run headlong into the great problem of writing children’s books, which is that you are not allowed to write certain things. Arson, murder, and stacking bodies like cordwood are frowned upon.” Vernon continues, “I often say that inside every children’s author is a frustrated horror author. It’s not an exaggeration to say that T. Kingfisher was that horror author.” So she wrote Nine Goblins “based on my love of Pratchett and James Herriot … and then discovered that no one had any idea how to sell a weird goofy novella by a children’s author, particularly a novella with such a high body count.” (p. 149)

Nine Goblins by T. Kingfisher

Enter self-publishing. Despite hiccups in production and a decidedly non-systematic approach to advertising and promoting the book, Nine Goblins found an audience. As Vernon explains,

…year in and year out [the book] kept buying me groceries. It almost felt as if the goblins were taking care of me. Moreover, it was proof of concept. I could write a book for adults. Suddenly I had something to do with various stories floating around that were definitely not children’s books.
So I wrote another one. And another one. Nobody stopped me. Eventually T. Kingfisher was getting bigger royalty checks than Ursula Vernon, and T. was allowed to swear in interviews. (p. 150)

Nine Goblins is where it all began. And it begins with gruel for breakfast. The goblins of the Nineteenth Infantry begin nearly every day of the war by having some gruel to get them going. It doesn’t matter much where they’re going, or why. The Nineteenth — better known as the Whinin’ Niners — are grunts, and they know it. The higher-ups may or may not know what they’re doing, but the lower-downs know what they will be doing. Camping out, moving out, and if they are unfortunate duking it out with the enemy. In the broader sense, the goblins know why they are fighting: human expansion has pushed them almost into the sea, so there was no choice but to turn and fight. In the narrower, day-to-day sense, who really knows for sure, and anyone who does know isn’t telling the Niners.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/02/22/nine-goblins-by-t-kingfisher/

Feb 20 2026

Tantalizing Tales — February 2026 — Part Three

Welp, I suffered a bit of a health setback in the lead up to Ramadan, but at least I was able to make it out to rehearsal today, even if my body keeps screaming at me to rest more. Fortunately, I can rest and read at the same time! And yes, I know, the impulse to constant productivity is a curse, and definitely something I’m working on curbing this 2026.

But first up this week, we have for you the recently released English-language translation of Cho Haejin’s award-winning Simple Heart. Translated from the original Korean by Jamie Chang, this story of an adopted woman on the cusp of motherhood examines Korean history and international relations through a deeply heartfelt lens.

Nana was born in Korea but raised in France by her adoptive parents. Now she’s a playwright who’s pregnant with the child of her ex-boyfriend. When she receives a request from a Korean filmmaker who wants to shoot a documentary of her life, she impulsively makes plans to fly to Korea to explore her own murky history, even as she prepares to become a mother herself. For before she was Nana, she was a little girl named Esther Park, who grew up in a Korean orphanage after being brought in from where she was abandoned, with another name altogether, on the railway tracks of Cheongnyangni station in Seoul.

This exploration of identity and belonging won Korea’s prestigious Daesan Literary Award in 2019. It’s a treat to finally have it able in English today.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/02/20/tantalizing-tales-february-2026-part-three/

Feb 19 2026

A Ramadan Night by Nadine Presley & Asma Enayeh

Salam Ramadan to all who celebrate! One thing I love about this month is how it highlights how different Muslim experiences are all over the world, with this book being a particularly fine example.

Based on Nadine Presley’s childhood in Damascus, Syria, this charming picture book explores the sensory experience of the fasting month, as a young boy named Sami thinks about what Ramadan nights signify to him. From the meal after dusk on the patio, to the walk to the mosque and then home again, Sami focuses on the sights, sounds, smells and feelings of nights made special by community and faith.

Illustrator Asma Enayeh also grew up in Damascus. Her background underscores the authenticity of this book, as she lovingly depicts the cityscape Sami and his Baba travel on their walk to the masjid and back. The characters are diverse in form and action, and Sami’s curiosity and openness are depicted vividly as he absorbs the world around him. It’s a colorful, transporting way to experience Damascus during a Ramadan night. The gorgeous patternwork and calligraphy are only the icing on this metaphorical cake.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/02/19/a-ramadan-night-by-nadine-presley-asma-enayeh/

Feb 18 2026

Space Opera series with installments coming up!

This Spring two of my favorite space opera series will be getting new books: the next book in the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, and the next book set in the universe of the Imperial Radch, by Ann Leckie! For me personally, either of these is a major event, and while I’ve already read them to write this review, I look forward to rereading them when they come out, in order to share the reading experience with pals.

someone in armor floats on the cover of platform decay by martha wells Platform Decay, the eighth book in the Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells, will be released May 5th from Tor Books. In it, Murderbot is on a rescue mission, extracting a group of humans from a terrible situation on a ring-shaped station that offers a lot of peril. The group includes both people who already know Murderbot, and new humans it needs to win over – and includes children. Murderbot interacting with children is one of my favorite scenarios,  so I am super into that part.

At 256 pages, Platform Decay is technically a novel, but in pacing and scope it feels more like the novellas of the series. For me, Network Effect, the fifth book in the series, is still an outlier with its much more novelistic scope and expansive page count.

Platform Decay offers one adventure with some dips into Murderbot’s recent past to catch us up since the events of the seventh book, System Collapse. If you don’t remember what happened back in System Collapse, I suggest a quick reread before reading Platform Decay. Not because the plot or even the setting continues, but because there are casual mentions of previous events that it is nice to understand effortlessly.

Platform Decay is the first new Murderbot book since the TV show on Apple+ launched and I imagine there are now a whole slew of new fans of Alexander Skarsbot who are curious about the books. To you, new fans, I say: read the books in order! They are all very good and you will appreciate the context as you go forward.

And then a week later, we get Radiant Star by Ann Leckie!

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/02/18/space-opera-series-with-installments-coming-up/

Feb 17 2026

Steep by Craig Yorke

Originally begun as a letter to his sons, Craig Yorke’s deeply thoughtful autobiography is a startlingly honest look at what it was like to grow up as a Black man of whom much was expected in the 20th century.

Subtitled A Black Neurosurgeon’s Story, this is a book that advertises from the start that it’s the tale of a high achiever. But it’s also the story of someone who, as he writes in his reader’s note at the beginning, seeks a friendship with his past in order to make space for his future. It’s a perhaps deeply unfashionable approach to the idea of truth and reconciliation — restorative justice is much messier than retributive justice, after all — but it works really well at an individual level. The author not only makes sense of his own life and purpose using this lens, but can translate his experiences into an inspirational story for the reader. And I’m not talking about the usual “up by his bootstraps despite poverty and racism” memoir, tho there are certainly elements of that. This is more of a “how do I reconcile my achievements with what I was forced to give up, in a way that allows me to embrace joy while still satisfying the doubts that haunt me?”

If you don’t have any idea what that means, then count yourself blessed. If you want to know what it’s like tho, to have grown up this way and to have come out of it with both grace and meaning, then you should definitely read this book.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/02/17/steep-by-craig-yorke/

Feb 13 2026

Tantalizing Tales — February 2026 — Part Two

Happy Friday the 13th, friends! I finally drove myself into the city for the first time since getting sick almost a month ago and it was Not Pleasant. But at least I have a bunch of more than pleasant books to look forward to reading soon, beginning with Fergus Craig’s delightfully titled I’m Not The Only Murderer In My Retirement Home.

Carol is anticipating a cozy, relaxing retirement in the luxury of the posh Sheldon Oaks community. Decades in a cramped prison cell were not, after all, the most conducive to pursuing her non-murderous hobbies. If she can keep her past criminal record as a serial killer quiet, maybe she’ll even be able to make a few friends with whom to see out the rest of her golden years in happy anonymity.

That dream unfortunately dies after a fellow resident, who just happens to have once been a police commissioner, is found dead from unnatural causes. Turns out that he wasn’t the only retired member of law enforcement or the judicial system to live at Sheldon Oaks either, as Carol soon learns to her consternation. Worse, the truth of her own past comes out, making for some very awkward Bingo sessions with her new-found friends. Suspicion for the murder quickly falls on Carol, who’ll have to resort to everything short of killing again to prove her innocence, and to find and catch who really dunnit.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/02/13/tantalizing-tales-february-2026-part-two/

Feb 12 2026

Maysoon Zayid, The Girl Who Can Can by Seema Yasmin & Noha Habaieb

As someone who enjoys but doesn’t follow much comedy (a lot of my favorites come from random clips passing through my Instagram,) I honestly don’t remember how I first became aware of groundbreaking comedian Maysoon Zayid. I do remember her inspirational TED Talk tho, which this book expands upon in a format more suitable for young readers.

(And yes, I know I said I’d spend the week discussing Middle Grade books. This biography is definitely still that, if a little on the younger end.)

Maysoon was born in New Jersey to Palestinian American parents. During her delivery, the doctor failed to extract her from the birth canal in time, leading to her brain not getting the oxygen she needed. She thus grew up with cerebral palsy, an unfortunately widespread disability that manifests in all sorts of ways, both physically and mentally.

After Maysoon was born, the doctors didn’t believe she’d even be able to walk. But her father would hold her up, placing her feet on his feet, and taught her, using the mantra, “Yes, you can can.” With this kind of start, how could Maysoon not grow up with a firm belief in herself? Her parents’ support was unwavering, even threatening to sue the public school her three older sisters attended when it tried to rebuff her enrollment (which was another reminder how lucky I am that I live in a county with copious student services.)

And so Maysoon never even thought that her desire to grow up to be an entertainer was out of her reach. When physical therapy turned out to be too expensive, her parents pragmatically enrolled her in dance classes instead. Maysoon began to learn some hard lessons then, not about her own limitations but about the way other people viewed her and her disability. While she worked hard to gain the technical proficiencies required to hone her abilities, even getting her acting degree from Arizona State University, she ran into the obstacle of other people constantly pre-judging her, as the cerebral palsy makes her shake and occasionally slur her words. Despite making strides in her acting career, it was only when she turned to stand-up comedy that she really began to shine.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/02/12/maysoon-zayid-the-girl-who-can-can-by-seema-yasmin-noha-habaieb/

Feb 11 2026

Serendipity by Gabbie Benda

Hahahahaha, I’m in this book and I don’t know if I like it.

Look, I know I do too much. The fact that I’m taking so long to recover from the flu rn has given me plenty of time to reflect on what I usually spend my days doing (a lot, tho it honestly doesn’t feel like it to me when I’m healthy and going full tilt.) In many ways, I currently feel very much like the title character of this book, as her usual good luck falters and she has to figure out how to cope with her overscheduled life.

Serendipity is a middle school star. She’s class president, captain of the basketball team, and has the leading role in the school play. Her grades are effortless, and she’s the kind of person who routinely wins radio station phone-in contests. She’s undoubtedly lucky.

When she has an adverse run-in with a fortune-telling machine at the carnival one evening, she tries not to think too much of it. But she wakes up the next morning with the very first bad hair day of her life. She gets a B+ on a test instead of her usual A. Her lines just aren’t coming to her as Lady MacBecky, her rival for student body reelection is making significant gains, and she hurts herself during basketball practice.

Her best friend Basil suggests that maybe she take a step back and reevaluate her bursting at the seams schedule. As all overachievers do, Serendipity immediately panics and doubles down on her efforts instead. Maybe she just needs a little shot of witchcraft to help fix her luck? What lengths will Serendipity go to in order to get her life back on track?

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/02/11/serendipity-by-gabbie-benda/

Feb 10 2026

Europa by James Ponti

This seventh installment in the terrific City Spies series finds our family of young secret agents (and their adult handlers) getting used to their new living quarters in London. Now that Le Fantome, the head of the terrorist group known as UMBRA, is in an English prison, the kids are focusing on their academics, both in regular schoolwork and in the on-going business of espionage.

But right as they’re finishing up their first lesson in spycraft history and techniques with the high-ranking agent they call Tru, they learn of a mysterious series of messages originating from Le Fantome himself. MI5 is on high alert, but the kids swiftly realize that the supervillain’s coded threats involve the city of Paris rather than anything within British borders. As covert agents under the umbrella of MI6, this means that the kids get to go on the ground in France, to the city that their eldest agent and de facto leader calls home.

Alas, things go sideways in what the City Spies soon learn is only the opening salvo in Le Fantome’s wicked plans. But of even greater concern to the kids and to the adults on their team is the fact that Le Fantome’s coded instructions keep referring to the former MI6 agent they all know as Clementine, who had gone deep cover to eventually rise to the position of one of his most trusted lieutenants in UMBRA. It’s taken years to bring her back in from the cold — years in which her loyalty had been severely doubted — and she’s in hiding now as a civilian. Le Fantome’s messages, however, hint that she’s anything but. The City Spies are torn as to her loyalties, even as they race to decrypt and stop UMBRA’s latest plans at sowing terror throughout Europe.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/02/10/europa-by-james-ponti/