Stop in and have some tea with Mma Ramotswe, or maybe head out to the orphan farm for a piece of Mma Potokwani’s fruitcake, or perhaps head into downtown Gaborone for lunch at the President Hotel with a side order of people-watching. In many ways, the books of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series are extended periods of people-watching in a part of a big city that’s small enough to be a village. Readers don’t see every person in every novel, but the village’s leading characters will be there, as will some new people who have come to visit, or to present the agency with a new case.
In From a Far and Lovely Country, one of the new cases turns up unexpectedly, outside of office hours, and outside of the office for that matter. Mr J.L.B. Matekoni has taken Mma Ramotswe to a new peri-peri restaurant for her birthday, a birthday that he and apparently everyone else in Mma Ramotswe’s immediate circle spent the first couple of chapters forgetting. “And that is not what a good husband does.” (p. 41) Not quite everyone: Mma Potokwani had made a fruitcake for her, and it is in some way thanks to her that the woman with case came over and spoke to Mma Ramotswe in the restaurant.
As the proprietor went off to fetch the other customer [who had told him she would like to speak to the detective], Mr J.L.B. Matekoni lowered his voice and said to Mma Ramotswe, “You are too soft-hearted, Mma. You cannot take all the problems of the world onto your shoulders.”
“You cannot be sure that this lady wants to talk to me about a problem.”
He shook his head in disbelief. “But she must do,” he argued. “Why else would somebody who doesn’t know you want to speak to you in the middle of a restaurant?2
“For any number of reasons,” said Mma Ramotswe, although she was struggling to think of one. (p. 47)
Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/03/01/from-a-far-and-lovely-country-by-alexander-mccall-smith/
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 in the most delicious way.
Ramona and her best friend Grace are thrilled to be accepted into The Dollhouse Academy, a bootcamp-style school for aspiring entertainers that churns out some of 1990s Hollywood’s biggest stars. As they train relentlessly in all things showbiz, Grace’s star begins to rise while Ramona discovers that her skills may not be up to par. When they meet their idol — singer, actress and Dollhouse graduate Ivy Gordon — Ramona soon realizes that life for the pop princess is not all that it seems.
Struggling to keep up with Grace’s rise to fame, Ramona soon begins receiving threatening anonymous messages telling her to leave The Dollhouse Academy while she still can, leading her to uncover the dark, secretive underbelly of the school’s star machine. Does she have what it takes to become the ultimate star, or will the cost be too great?
I’m ngl, I watched every episode of the sci-fi TV show Dollhouse back in the day and 100% picked up this book because of the name and the tangentially related concept. But I’m also fascinated by the idea of talent bootcamps, from the ones that created so many of the 90s boybands I love, to the KPop academies still extant today. I’m really hoping I have time to eventually slot this into my reading schedule, as I love everything about this concept.
Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/28/tantalizing-tales-february-2025-part-two/
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 book that is aimed at children but has plenty of food for thought for adults as well.
The text of the book is simple, as a young girl describes the effect that the title songs have on her. They make her feel proud of who she is and who she came from, and give her hope and courage and strength and faith. Interspersed with her thoughts are lines from several famous spirituals, including Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen and Go Down Moses.
Perhaps more importantly, each two-page spread illustrates a scene from either the young girl’s life or from Black history in America. The latter are especially powerful, whether portraying Harriet Tubman leading the enslaved to freedom, or Martin Luther King Jr, Coretta Scott King and John Lewis leading Civil Rights marches. London Ladd’s work is excellent throughout, as he uses mixed media techniques to bring the many emotions and situations of the book to life.
To provide further context, there’s a rich section of resources at the end, with an author’s note and glossary as well. I’m 100% listening to the list of YouTube videos referenced as I type, and very much enjoying this expansion of my musical education. So if you’re looking for a book about the role of spirituals in Black history and how they can help instill pride and joy in Black children, then look no further than this beautiful volume.
Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/27/when-i-hear-spirituals-by-cheryl-willis-hudson-london-ladd/
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, preserving and illuminating American history and the contributions of Black American artisans to the crafting traditions of this country, while presenting all its information in a highly accessible and engaging manner.
Robell Awake carefully chooses ten iconic items and succinctly discusses the artisans and traditions behind them. Whether discussing something as well-known and inarguably attributed to the Black community as the Gee’s Bend Quilts, to the equally famous wedding dress of Jacqueline Kennedy and its less publicized couturier Anne Lowe, to the very design of American porches, Mr Awake goes over the myriad ways in which enslaved people and their descendants made an outsized impact on American craftsmanship. Lamentably, too many of these contributions were either minimized or whitewashed, with white slave owners often taking credit for the work of those they exploited, as in the case of the furniture-maker who went by the single name Boston. Both he and the ceramicist known as Dave the Potter risked harsh punishment for even signing their works, in a time when it was illegal for Black people to be literate. As Mr Awake describes the items and the circumstances under which they were produced, he also paints a vivid picture of what it was like to be Black in America, and how that legacy is felt in and continues to the present day.
Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/26/a-short-history-of-black-craft-in-ten-objects-by-robell-awake/
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 began with The Witness for the Dead and continued in The Grief of Stones. It comes out March 11th from Tor.
I remember when The Witness for the Dead was coming out, I had a lot of conversations with other fans of Katherine Addison’s book The Goblin Emperor about it. Of course we were all excited to return to the world of The Goblin Emperor, but many of us were also a little puzzled that Thara Celehar, Sad Man with a Tragic Job who is only on the page briefly, was going to be the hero of a new series. Now that we are concluding Thara’s trilogy, I feel like his appeal has grown on me for all three books!
In The Tomb of Dragons, not all of the interpersonal stuff in the trilogy is wrapped up exactly how I’d like it to be? But it is indeed all wrapped up. Thara Celehar is dealing with the fallout from The Grief of Stones, and trying to do several jobs all at once, ethically, and kindly. I think many of us can sympathize with that. The murder mystery aspect is not really at the forefront of this one. As usual, Celehar is surrounded by more people who care about him and respect him than he believes, and that’s always a cozy time, even though the actual events that befall him are often harrowing. As my smart friend Levi commented about Thara Celehar, ““truly here is a man who has not fucked around all that much and is incessantly finding out regardless.” By the end of the book I felt both that this trilogy had concluded in a satisfying way, and that the characters are embarking on greater adventures to come. I look forward to seeing what Katherine Addison will introduce us to next in this world!
Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/25/speculative-mysteries-coming-soon/
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 a leap of deduction far too great for any puzzle that purportedly relies on logic. For an example from a recent mini-Murdle, we’re told that the murder occurred in a historic building. Of the three possible locations, one is the history building with “so much history that you spend most of the history classes studying it” (so an obvious candidate) while another is The Old Main, which is described as “The first building on campus, the most important, and the least maintained.” That sounds like a very historic building to me but was not, apparently, a plausible answer according to the site. Perhaps I am being overly pedantic, but that’s the kind of thing that bugs me enough to make me decline to add Murdle to the list of quick brainteaser games I play on the daily.
Luckily, Murdle Jr. does not seem to have this problem, at least not in this first volume of the series geared towards Junior Detectives. In a book of 40 puzzles, there was only one that I thought relied on an assumption that was not necessarily founded in the text. Otherwise I had no quibble with the logic of it all. Perhaps more importantly, having all the puzzles tied together with an overarching story very much enhances the charm of the book, as we get to know our four budding sleuths and follow along as they solve dastardly crimes, both individually and together.
Continue reading
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/
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 of some of the novels, and sometimes he wrote smaller bits that were complete on their own and did not need to go into a larger work. Tales From the Folly collects a baker’s dozen of these. Six are Peter Grant stories, seven feature other characters in the leading role. They are all quite short — the longest is just over 30 pages — and three are what he calls “moments,” something “more of a mood than a story, something that will last a page or two and conjure an atmosphere.” Aaronovitch closes the collection with those three, and they make a good coda. He says he included them for completeness, but I think that they do more than that. They demonstrate one of the strengths of the series: that all of the characters are more than what gets shown on the page, that things keep happening to them when they are not the focus of the Aaronovitch’s narratives.
Aaronovitch is right that Tales From the Folly is not a good place to start reading the series. The stories are too short to give much context about the interconnected characters of his magical London, although the four that were introductions to the special Waterstone’s editions are good about whetting the appetite for a longer story. “That’s great! More, please” was my reaction to each of them. If, for some reason, you are reading this review and considering diving in but aren’t sure where to start, begin at the hilarious and enthralling beginning and enjoy the whole ride.
One of the hallmarks of the series that’s present from the start and continues all the way through to this collection is Arronovitch’s deep and specific love for London. It is a patchwork, contradictory and many-layered place. Aaronovitch can’t get enough of it, warts and all, and happily he shares that enthusiasm with his readers, as in this bit from the collection’s first story “The Home Crowd Advantage.”
Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/22/tales-from-the-folly-by-ben-aaronovitch/
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. Peter Brown’s first children’s novel is a charming tale that deftly presents an entirely plausible future where humanity’s reliance on technology (and, more subtly, disregard for climate change) has created a strange but not unfamiliar world.
Rozz is a robot whose crate gets washed up on a remote island during transit. A playful troupe of otters accidentally awakens her by pressing down on the button in the back of her head. Rozz is initially confused, but her survival programming leads her to swiftly set herself to the task of learning about her surroundings.
The temperate island is bucolic and pristine, as the only inhabitants are wild animals. All of these animals treat Rozz with suspicion, despite her best efforts to learn about and communicate with them. When Rozz accidentally gets caught in a rockslide that destroys a pair of geese and their nest, she finds herself in custody of the sole surviving egg. Her attempts to raise the little hatchling eventually encourage the animals of the island to assimilate her into their ecosystem.
But danger lurks, as a possessive corporation becomes aware of her survival. Will Rozz and her new friends be able to secure her freedom?
Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/21/the-wild-robot-by-peter-brown/
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. You can tell that Mr Toledo feels really passionately about his time in social work, and how he’s been called to help young people not only survive but thrive.
I do think that this collection would have gained so much through the services of both an editor and a beta reader tho. Aside from the basic grammatical corrections, an editor likely would have recommended that the entirety of Part 2 be saved for another book. While the idea of a middle-aged couple seeking to outdo each other in a contest of who can be more loving to one another is outstanding, the actual depiction feels discomfitingly out of place in a book that had previously been aimed at younger readers. The tone shift is just too jarring, even coming on the heels of the first autobiographical essay that closes out Part 1.
That essay (titled either The Dream And The Dreamer or The Dreamer And The Dream, depending on whether you’re looking at the Table Of Contents or the chapter heading itself) starts out appropriately enough in its description of the author’s childhood. Unfortunately, it devolves into what I fear are borderline libelous accusations about people whom he clearly still holds a grudge against. All the stuff about mentally ill ex-wives and cheating bosses could have been excised and saved for another, more adult book: including them here only dilutes the effect of trying to give hope to troubled kids.
Fortunately, Part 3 is a return to the YA tone, with Mi Familia/My Family especially being a great story for teen readers. Even the closing story, Father To Son, feels like it fits thematically. While both of the characters here are older, they’re neither of them terribly mature, so the struggle between them feels quite relatable to a teen audience.
Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/20/be-limitless-be-love-by-michael-toledo/
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 in the Air (1990)
Castle in the Air takes place in the same world as Howl’s Moving Castle, and some of our beloved characters from Howl make cameo appearances. The main character and setting, however, are quite different. In Howl, Diana Wynne Jones comments on European fairytale tropes, with protagonist Sophie making assumptions about what life might be available to her based on who gets to have adventures in stories. In Castle in the Air, Diana Wynne Jones is similarly commenting on story assumptions, but this time she is working with the British consumption of “Eastern” stories, especially from the Thousand and One Nights. Her protagonist Abdullah is a rug merchant who falls in love with a beautiful maiden, secluded in a garden by her wealthy father, and hijinks ensue. There’s a roadtrip, and a chaos-loving genie.
Continue reading
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/02/19/a-year-of-diana-wynne-jones-the-early-1990s/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
Emily Lauer
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire