Category: Doreen

Pavane by Keith Roberts

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 …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/07/04/pavane-by-keith-roberts/

How To Be Both by Ali Smith

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 …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/07/04/how-to-be-both-by-ali-smith/

One Life: My Mother’s Story by Kate Grenville

So how to describe this book without devolving into a slew of Personal Issues that had me sobbing so hard at points in the book that I had to set it aside and just cry from the relief of knowing that someone, somewhere, experienced the same pain and came out intact and even, dare I …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/07/04/one-life-my-mothers-story-by-kate-grenville/

The Mistborn Trilogy Boxed Set by Brandon Sanderson

Ugh, Brandon Sanderson, why are you so good at writing?!?! Stayed up the other night just to finish this, and cried my way through the ending. Not as badly as I cried through 40 entire pages near the end of Way of Kings (which was also partly due, I feel, to the Mistborn trilogy being …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/07/04/the-mistborn-trilogy-boxed-set-by-brandon-sanderson/

The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside the Perfume Industry In Paris And New York by Chandler Burr

I read Chandler Burr’s original New Yorker article on Un Jardin Sur Nil when it came out and remember being absolutely fascinated. Mr Burr is an excellent journalist and writer, and he really drew me into a world which I never really give much thought to otherwise. This book expands upon that original article and, …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/04/02/the-perfect-scent-a-year-inside-the-perfume-industry-in-paris-and-new-york-by-chandler-burr/

Material Girls by Elaine Dimopoulos

I would likely have considered this YA novel just a smidge above average, if not for that thoughtful, bittersweet ending. I thought it was entertaining overall, but at times it felt a little too self-consciously political. The Hunger Games trilogy trod that line (mostly) successfully when dealing with its anti-war and anti-propaganda narratives in books …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/03/10/material-girls-by-elaine-dimopoulos/

Render by Elizabeth C Mock

Not as good as the first in the series, but still above average. Once again, the magic theory was compelling, and I love Ms Mock’s overall plotting and world-building. The characters are flawed and believable, but… as with the first book, the overall writing is horrendous. Grammar and spelling are secondary, and what is it …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/03/05/render-by-elizabeth-c-mock/

The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson

The main reason I enjoyed this book is the impressive way in which Peter Swanson sucked me into Lily Kintner’s psyche. I was originally repulsed by her philosophy of ending lives (and still am, tbh) but as the book progressed, I desperately wanted her to get away with all the marbles. Conversely, her murderous spree …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/02/07/the-kind-worth-killing-by-peter-swanson/

The Giant Book Of Stories by Various

It seems a bit odd, tbh, to lump together the many contributors to this compendium of short stories under the one word “various” but Galley Press never named an editor, and there were enough anonymous contributors that I don’t feel all that bad doing it. Anyway, this book was one of several I brought home …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/01/25/the-giant-book-of-stories-by-various/

Therese Raquin by Emile Zola

I don’t know how I feel about this book. On the one hand, the depictions of violence and its physical aftermath were gripping and convincing, but something about the internal lives of Therese and Laurent felt off. I don’t know if Emile Zola was intending to moralize, or to present their guilt as the inevitable …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/01/19/therese-raquin-by-emile-zola/