I’m gonna preface this by saying that I’m sure there are tons of readers who love this book, who just adore this Belle Epoque-inspired fantasy romance novel. And I’m glad for readers who find joy and comfort in its pages. But if you, like me, find shitty historical romance tropes utterly tiresome to the point …
April 2021 archive
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/04/30/the-beautiful-ones-by-silvia-moreno-garcia/
Apr 29 2021
Beatrice Bly’s Rules For Spies: The Missing Hamster by Sue Fliess & Beth Mills
This absolutely charming picture book series debut follows young Beatrice Bly as she applies herself to the business of being an investigative spy. Armed with her notebook and, more importantly, her keen powers of observation, she’s solved many a household mystery, tho no one save her best friend knows her true vocation. When the class …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/04/29/beatrice-blys-rules-for-spies-the-missing-hamster-by-sue-fliess-beth-mills/
Apr 28 2021
Münchnerinnen by Ludwig Thoma
It will not surprise a contemporary reader that a young housewife, neglected by her husband, will find affection elsewhere. Nor did it likely surprise Ludwig Thoma’s audience in 1919 when Münchnerinnen (Munich Ladies) was published. The book is set in the late 1800s, when people would have felt it necessary to affect surprise, though given …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/04/28/munchnerinnen-by-ludwig-thoma/
Apr 27 2021
Slingshot by Mercedes Helnwein
I found this book shockingly, uncomfortably relatable, and would fight anyone to defend its heroine, the precocious 15 year-old Gracie Welles. I, too, was sent to a “prestigious” boarding school at that age by a well-meaning dad who didn’t really understand the realities of what I needed to survive it, and I too spent countless …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/04/27/slingshot-by-mercedes-helnwein/
Apr 25 2021
Firstborn by Louise Glück
I have to confess that I didn’t get a lot of, or get a lot out of, Firstborn, the debut collection of poems from Louise Glück. It was published in 1968, when she was 25. Fifty-two years and a dozen or so collections later, she won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Like my reading of …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/04/25/firstborn-by-louise-gluck/
Apr 24 2021
The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix
Wasn’t this fun! Susan Arkshaw has grown up in a rural corner of southwestern England, with an absent father and a very absent-minded artist mother. Two minutes before The Left-Handed Booksellers of London opens — on May 1, 1983 — Susan turns 18. She’s also just had one of her recurring dreams, full of giant …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/04/24/the-left-handed-booksellers-of-london-by-garth-nix/
Apr 23 2021
From Page To Screen: WandaVision
By the time I finally got around to watching Disney+’s WandaVision, I’d been thoroughly spoiled by the Internet as to what to expect. And not just because the Internet loves its reaction gifs, but because even when sources were being circumspect, my longstanding familiarity with mainstream and especially Marvel comics meant that I instantly understood …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/04/23/from-page-to-screen-wandavision/
Apr 20 2021
Childtimes: A Three-Generation Memoir by Eloise Greenfield & Lessie Jones Little
Background on why I picked up this book: apparently, it was one of the three selections available to my 10 year-old for an autobiography reading assignment he had for school. I’m not sure how he wound up with this book instead of the other two, but it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that he …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/04/20/childtimes-a-three-generation-memoir-by-eloise-greenfield-lessie-jones-little/
Apr 19 2021
Astro Mouse And Light Bulb #1: Vs Astro Chicken by Fermín Solís
In the absurdist tradition of Sergio Aragones comes the work of his compatriot Fermín Solís, who goes forward in time instead of back a la Aragones’ Groo to bring us the adventures of Astro Mouse, a mouse who’s an astronaut, and his companion Light Bulb. The comic starts off quite cleverly, as our heroes are …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/04/19/astro-mouse-and-light-bulb-1-vs-astro-chicken-by-fermin-solis/
Apr 16 2021
Malice by Heather Walter
This book was such a struggle to get through, and I might not have done it if I hadn’t been grimly determined to see how Heather Walter made good on the terrific premise of Sleeping Beauty’s true love actually being the dark fairy who cursed her. In the land of Briar, bordering on the fae …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/04/16/malice-by-heather-walter/
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Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire