Hello, readers! I decided to keep my final 2024 recap of books on my TBR pile for the very last day of the year instead of trying to shoehorn it into last Friday’s slot. Mostly, I needed the time off from writing and publishing. It has been a very busy year filled with a tremendous …
December 2024 archive
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/12/31/tantalizing-tales-december-2024-part-two/
Dec 30 2024
Darkly by Marisha Pessl
You know how sometimes you have an author whose first work you encountered was so life-altering that you’re down for whatever they write after, no matter the quality of the subsequent output? Marisha Pessl is one of those authors for me. I fell in love hard with Special Topics In Calamity Physics, which was a …
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Dec 28 2024
Three in the Rivers of London Series by Ben Aaronovitch
I have more than a sneaking suspicion that Ben Aaronovitch wrote Amongst Our Weapons to deliver one particular joke. People who recognize the source of the book’s title will expect that some variation on the joke is coming, but they will have to wait until page 287. Nightingale delivers the setup in Latin, though he …
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Dec 27 2024
Wrapping Up
Time for some short takes to clear the desk for the coming year. In Urs Widmer’s Der Geliebte der Mutter (My Mother’s Lover) the first-person narrator tells the story of his mother’s life, beginning with the death of her lover, many years after her own death. Erwin died as he lived best, leaning over a …
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Dec 25 2024
Merry Christmas
Luke 2:1-14, Old English: Soþlice on þam dagum wæs geworden gebod fram þam casere Augusto, þæt eall ymbehwyrft wære tomearcod. Þeos tomearcodnes wæs æryst geworden fram þam deman Syrige Cirino. And ealle hig eodon, and syndrige ferdon on hyra ceastre. Ða ferde Iosep fram Galilea of þære ceastre Nazareth on Iudeisce ceastre Dauides, seo is …
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Dec 24 2024
That’s Dickens with a C and a K, the Well-Known English Author
Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge’s name was good upon ’Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead …
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Dec 23 2024
Gastronogeek: The Book Of Potions by Thibaud Villanova & Stephanie Simbo
Honestly, I didn’t know what I would think about a cookbook devoted to liquids alone, but this was a really magnificent compilation of pop culture media-related recipes, covering both drinks and soupy dishes. There are definitely more than enough of the latter to give this volume pride of place in the kitchen and not just …
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Dec 22 2024
Landschaften nach der Schlacht by Juan Goytisolo
What was good about Landschaften nach der Schlacht (Landscapes After the Battle)? Well, it’s short. It’s also written in short sections, which I tend to appreciate when I’m reading in German. Looking through the table of contents, I don’t think that I see any sections longer than five pages; most of them are two or …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/12/22/landschaften-nach-der-schlacht-by-juan-goytisolo/
Dec 21 2024
Hugo Awards 2024: Wrapping Up
When I read for the Hugos, I like to write a full review for each novel and novella that I finish, but I also like to finish all of my reviews from a given calendar year by the end of that year, and so here I am. There’s not a whole lot of December left, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/12/21/hugo-awards-2024-wrapping-up/
Dec 20 2024
Suitor Armor, Vol. 1 by Purpah
Okay, this might be the best of the covers Ten Speed Graphic has picked for its books recently but even this one barely hints at the charm of what lies inside, IMO. Suitor Armor is the tale of a young lady-in-waiting named Lucia, who’s been the companion and best friend of the king’s betrothed, Kirsi, …
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