Author's posts
It is so very difficult for me to review Marilynne Robinson’s works, because I always feel like my own prose is inadequate to describing hers. I cried a lot reading Lila, because I understand what it feels like to fall in love with someone even when you don’t trust love or people or existence, when …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/08/23/lila-by-marilynne-robinson/
There was a lot I enjoyed about this book, but I had two very large problems with it, both to do with Rob Ryan. The first is fairly spoilertastic, and less to do with his character than with what I felt was a strange choice on the part of the author. Essentially, you never find …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/08/21/in-the-woods-by-tana-french/
I was initially resistant towards reading this book. If it was bad, I would feel a certain kind of “malu,” the nearly indescribable shade of embarrassment Malaysians feel when one of their own commits a faux pas, akin but not quite the same as the East Asian concept of losing “face.” And if it was …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/08/18/spirits-abroad-by-zen-cho/
This was over 400 pages, really? It was a total breeze to go through: entertaining without sacrificing meaning, hilarious and suspenseful by turn. I was completely in love with Madeline throughout, even tho she and I differ in one important respect: she adores conflict, but I too often find myself dragged unwillingly into it. I …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/08/16/big-little-lies-by-liane-moriarty/
I wasn’t inclined to like the novel itself, but the really cool interactive app made this worthwhile for me. I loved the film posters and publicity photos I uncovered that way (and that creepy diary!) tho the audio clips were more hit and miss. If I never have to encounter the tedious and whiny Love …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/08/15/night-film-by-marisha-pessl/
Deeply moral and achingly romantic, this is a book about a woman inadvertently reaching into the past to try to fix problems in her marriage to a man she desperately loves. Rainbow Rowell is a terrific writer of dialog and characters, and though Landline felt a bit shallow in places (by which I don’t mean …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/08/11/landline-by-rainbow-rowell/
A cut above the standard urban fantasy novel. A lot of the books in the genre read as if they’re written by people emotionally stunted in middle school, but Dana Cameron evades the worst of the genre tropes to present an exhilaratingly globe-trotting paranormal thriller. It was also really nice to see an author care …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/08/09/seven-kinds-of-hell-by-dana-cameron/
I think that if I hadn’t read and loved The Fault In Our Stars first, I’d likely be more charitable to this book, which was pretty good overall, just not as good. And I guess that’s unfair to Paper Towns, which is a pretty good mystery on its own (and I really liked how convincingly …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/07/29/paper-towns-by-john-green/
I had so many problem with this book! And so many compliments for it, too! First, the good bits: G Willow Wilson’s politics are solid and smart and she clearly knows what she’s talking about regarding the Middle East and class and social distinctions. I also really liked her ventures into metaphysics, theology and, with …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/07/27/alif-the-unseen-by-g-willow-wilson/
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/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire