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While this book didn’t have the same “Wtf, did that actually just happen?!” plot twists that are a Sanderson hallmark (I mean, I knew what would happen to Lessie and who Mr Suit had to be pretty quickly,) this was definitely a solidly entertaining, if not downright excellent projection of progress in Scandria (is that …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/07/24/the-alloy-of-law-mistborn-4-by-brandon-sanderson/
Realized after I posted my last review that I hadn’t posted this one of a book I’d read earlier. Apologies. I briefly consider each book in the compendium below: Animal Farm — It’s weird to think that I’ve lived this long, as voracious a reader as I am, and still have never read this slender …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/07/24/the-penguin-complete-novels-of-george-orwell-by-george-orwell/
Having just finished a bunch of Orwell, this was both mind-boggling and horribly sympathetic. She describes growing up in a state of repression more suited to communism or a paranoid dictatorship a la North Korea than to any religion that purports to help people self-actualize. I applaud her for having the intelligence to see that …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/07/24/beyond-belief/
So I’ve long been fascinated by the relationship between Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms (due to Personal Issues,) but my greatest takeaway from this novel is, in the end, who can explain these things? I’m not sure if that was A. Manette Ansay’s point (and if it was, I completely missed it) but I felt …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/07/04/good-things-i-wish-you-by-a-manette-ansay/
Given my recent run of disappointment with books I’ve been rereading, this was quite the refreshing change! As muscular as I remembered, and convincing, it was yet better written and more complex than I’d given it credit for in my rememberings. And that ending! Once, I’d believed it incurably optimistic: now, I’m still convinced of …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/07/04/the-day-of-the-triffids-by-john-wyndham/
First off, it is really weird reading a book about anorexia while fasting. There are parallels (and great divergences, of course) that really help you sympathize with the narrator even as you shy away from the excesses of control. I’ve never suffered from an eating disorder, tho I know people who have, but I have …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/07/04/wintergirls-by-laurie-halse-anderson/
Bought this in college, and kept it at my bedside for years. B acted in an adaptation of Absurd Person Singular, which I think was the driving force behind the purchase (also, I love scripts,) and I found Ayckbourn on the whole witty, trenchant etc. And then I grew up and got married. And let …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/07/04/three-plays-bedroom-farce-absent-friends-absurd-person-singular-by-alan-ayckbourn/
Fascinating insight into the world of medicine and health at the turn of the 20th century. Lydia Pinkham was certainly a pioneer in her frank discussions with women regarding their health. Essentially a collection of the advertising material created for her medicines, this book presents the most up-to-date (for the time) science regarding women’s health …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/07/04/treatise-on-the-diseases-of-women-by-lydia-estes-pinkham/
So that was weird. I first encountered this book in college where, haunting the oddly stocked shelves of the library, I stumbled across the Gollancz version: no blurb, no explanation, just a bright yellow dust jacket with the title, author and the symbol of the Crab people in brick red on the cover. Desperate for …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/07/04/pavane-by-keith-roberts/
So I got the Eye/Camera version, and I’m probably in the minority of people who found Francesco’s side more compelling than George’s, if only because it felt like a whole arc, unlike George’s half, which just sorta ended. But I’ve never been a fan of the grief narrative, as evidenced by my disdain for the …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/07/04/how-to-be-both-by-ali-smith/