February 2025 archive

Tantalizing Tales — February 2025 — Part Two

Hello, readers! It seemed like January just crawled on by but February hit the gas before we knew it! Let’s take a look at some of the delightful books I haven’t yet been able to cram into the shortest month, beginning with Margarita Montimore’s The Dollhouse Academy, a thriller that combines dark academia with celebrity …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/28/tantalizing-tales-february-2025-part-two/

When I Hear Spirituals by Cheryl Willis Hudson & London Ladd

The spiritual is a proud musical tradition created by enslaved Black people in America, who channeled the rhythms and singing of their African origins into subversive songs of solidarity and guidance, using their owners’ Christianity as a cloak for their own defiance. Cheryl Willis Hudson discusses the history of the genre in this gorgeous picture …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/27/when-i-hear-spirituals-by-cheryl-willis-hudson-london-ladd/

A Short History Of Black Craft In Ten Objects by Robell Awake

with illustrations by Johnalynn Holland and an afterword by Tiffany Momon. As Black History Month draws to a close, I decided to leapfrog past the other books in my schedule to make sure that I could provide coverage for this important title while the month is still ongoing. And this is a very important title, …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/26/a-short-history-of-black-craft-in-ten-objects-by-robell-awake/

Speculative Mysteries coming soon!

the cover of the orb of cairado by katherine addison has a figure in a robe, looking away towards a wall

If you like murder mysteries and speculative fiction, this Spring has a bunch of books that will appeal! Murders in fantasy empires, generation ships, fantasy empires, and … other fantasy empires. There may be a theme here? The Tomb of Dragons by Katherine Addison is a satisfying conclusion to the Cemeteries of Amalo trilogy that …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/25/speculative-mysteries-coming-soon/

Murdle Jr. Vol 1: Curious Crimes For Curious Minds by G.T. Karber

subtitled Solve Your Way Through 40 Puzzle Mysteries! I’m about to admit something deeply embarrassing for a puzzle aficionado: I think regular Murdle is too hard. Perhaps that is not even the best way to describe my reservations regarding the online game. I just think that certain information is implied in a way that requires …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/24/murdle-jr-vol-1-curious-crimes-for-curious-minds-by-g-t-karber/

Tales From the Folly by Ben Aaronovitch

Tales from the Folly by Ben Aaronovitch

Since Rivers of London was first published in 2011, the series has grown to nine novels, five novellas, and 12 graphic novels. Along the way, Aaronovitch wrote a fair number of shorter stories that were set in the world of the series; sometimes he was asked to write them, as when Waterstone’s published special editions …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/22/tales-from-the-folly-by-ben-aaronovitch/

The Wild Robot by Peter Brown

You can say a lot of things about movie adaptations, but you can’t deny how great they are for bringing books back into public attention. The Wild Robot totally passed me by when it was first published almost a decade ago, so getting the movie tie-in from a publicist’s box was a nice little surprise. …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/21/the-wild-robot-by-peter-brown/

Be Limitless, Be Love by Michael Toledo

I deeply appreciate what Michael Toledo is trying to do with this collection of short stories, interspersed with several illuminating autobiographical entries. The parts that were written with young readers in mind are trying hard to reach them at their level, especially the at-risk kids like Cielo in Grandfather To Granddaughter and Gracie in Heart. …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/20/be-limitless-be-love-by-michael-toledo/

A Year of Diana Wynne Jones: The early 1990s!

Emily's photo of her bookcase shows her copies of all the Diana Wynne Jones books to be read in the readthrough. Many are tattered.

In my quest to read all of Diana Wynne Jones’s books in one year, this month I read Castle in the Air, Aunt Maria, A Sudden Wild Magic and Hexwood! Honestly, it was a big month. Those are some hefty ones, and I think Hexwood is among her very best. It’s a high bar! Castle …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/19/a-year-of-diana-wynne-jones-the-early-1990s/

So Much Slime by Jason Lefebvre & Zac Retz

Matty is a grade-schooler who loves making homemade slime with his parents. When he gets permission to demonstrate how to make slime in art class at school, he’s super excited! He packs enough ingredients so that all his classmates can get some slime to take home with them, and repeats to himself the simple recipe …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/18/so-much-slime-by-jason-lefebvre-zac-retz/