What I liked most about Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams is how clearly Charles King tells the early stories of Odessa’s founding. For while there had been a small settlement at the site under khans and Ottomans, none of the extant written records gives an unambiguous account of long-term settlement [at …
December 2014 archive
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/18/odessa-by-charles-king/
Dec 17 2014
Watership Down by Richard Adams
I’m deeply troubled by the thought that my young adolescent self was not as hard-hearted as I’ve always believed. See, I first read Watership Down while either 11 or 12, on a family vacation, and I remember bawling my eyes out at some point near the end, thereby casting a pall on the rest of …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/17/watership-down-by-richard-adams/
Dec 16 2014
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
I just finished this book, and now I am almost speechless. I laughed out loud through the first half of it, which now seems irreverent and almost blasphemous considering the way it turned out, but about halfway through it I perceived that it was heading toward some kind of mysterious and profound resolution, and after …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/16/a-prayer-for-owen-meany-by-john-irving/
Dec 16 2014
The Days of Anna Madrigal by Armistead Maupin
In this ninth Tales of the City novel, The Days of Anna Madrigal, Armistead Maupin is content to show his characters being themselves. That’s no mean feat, for it requires creating characters who are both believable and interesting in themselves, and sustaining it over one or several books. Many authors do not appear to have …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/16/the-days-of-anna-madrigal-by-armistead-maupin/
Dec 15 2014
The House of Hades by Rick Riordan
One of the nice things about not being in a book’s target audience is being able to stand back a bit more and see what the author is up to, what’s happening structurally within a book or series, to generally chew on it a bit more. The House of Hades reaches its main intended audience …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/15/the-house-of-hades-by-rick-riordan/
Dec 15 2014
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
Some people come away from this play with the impression that it is anti-semitic, but Shakespeare puts such eloquent defenses and rebuttals in the mouth of Shylock, on behalf of himself and his people, that for me the charge does not ring true. The more serious theme of this drama is the balance, at times …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/15/the-merchant-of-venice-by-william-shakespeare/
Dec 13 2014
Carpe Demon (Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom #1) by Julie Kenner
The twists are quite clever, and the main character really is, as promised, like an alternate universe Buffy if she’d retired to the suburbs. A somewhat slight book, but not an unintelligent piece of escapist fiction.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/13/carpe-demon-demon-hunting-soccer-mom-1-by-julie-kenner/
Dec 11 2014
Game Changer by Mihir Bose
Mihir Bose is a terrific investigator, resourceful, thorough and intrepid. The amount of work he’s put into uncovering the facts and organizing the data is just astonishing. I only wish his writing skills were up to that standard. Beyond even the silly mistakes that appear more a result of slapdash composition than anything else, the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/11/game-changer-by-mihir-bose/
Dec 08 2014
A Monarchy Transformed: Britain 1603-1714 by Mark Kishlansky
The introduction conveys the author’s enthusiasm for the study of this period, but the expectation of excitement rapidly peters out in what amounts to a rather dull narrative. Nevertheless, this was a time of tremendous change and development in British history. Aside from the Civil War, the Commonwealth, the Restoration, and the Glorious Revolution, this …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/08/a-monarchy-transformed-britain-1603-1714-by-mark-kishlansky/
Dec 08 2014
Finding Poland by Matthew Kelly
Did you know there was an Association of Poles in India? Did you even have the faintest idea that there had been Poles by the thousand in India during the Second World War and in the first few years afterward? I certainly didn’t, and I know a thing or two about Poles and Poland. Which …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/08/finding-poland-by-matthew-kelly/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire