Nov 27 2024

Smarty The Brain: Stories by Brian S Hamilton

An interesting collection of short stories meant to be read by caregivers to their preschool children, focused on brain/concussion safety.

The main character of these ten stories is Smarty, a responsible young brain who knows that making sensible choices for his own safety can only help him in the long run. His foil, after a fashion, is the less safety-conscious Moody, whom we learn over the course of the book used to be something of a bully. Fortunately, the friendship he developed with Smarty helped him not only learn how to protect his brain, but also how to be a better person in general. He grows so much as a character that he even helps out his aunt and uncle with the safety of their new baby.

Tbh, I wish Moody’s character arc had been more smoothly described, as it tends to go back and forth over the course of the book. I’m not actually sure what guides the organization of these stories, tho there’s definitely a sense of increased affluence as the book goes on. It begins with fairly standard stuff that almost all kids will experience — biking, vehicle seat belts, babyproofing — before growing increasingly more niche, culminating in safety measures while riding horses and snowmobiles. I get that this is a book for children from all walks of life — brain injuries can happen any time and anywhere, after all — but I was still a little taken aback by the casual treatment of rather pricey expenditures.

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/11/27/smarty-the-brain-stories-by-brian-s-hamilton/

Nov 26 2024

Nothing Special Vol 2: Concerning Wings by Katie Cook

I love so much how this book features a cute guy named Declan, giving me further excuse to think of my kids’ future stepdad Declan Rice (not that I really need any excuses, lol.)

Anyway, Declan Hickey is the focal point of the second volume of the long-running web comic Nothing Special. He and our heroine Callie Benson have graduated high school and have started working at her father’s magical antique store with Lasser, the friend they picked up on their last big adventure through the magical world. Working with her dad is Callie’s dream come true, and having her half-human, half-fairy boyfriend Declan work with her is icing on the cake. Dad still does most of the sourcing of goods for the shop — and Lasser most of the actual shopkeeping when he isn’t busy immersing himself in romance novels — but Callie and Declan play important roles in growing both the business and each other’s recently discovered magical abilities.

Dad is actually away on a work trip when Declan’s injured fairy wing starts shooting off sparks, causing him to collapse with pain. Callie, Lasser and Radish (the vegetable spirit who is Callie’s constant companion) shut down the store and take Declan into the magical world in an attempt to find a fairy healer. What should be a simple enough four-day journey to a fairy enclave soon turns into a deeper exploration of who both Callie and Declan really are.

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/11/26/nothing-special-vol-2-concerning-wings-by-katie-cook/

Nov 25 2024

What I Must Tell The World by Jay Leslie & Loveis Wise

subtitled How Lorraine Hansberry Found Her Voice

Oh, y’all, I don’t even know why I’m crying. No, actually, I suspect I do: I am shamed, and for once not in a bad way, and challenged by the courage it took for playwright Lorraine Hansberry to follow her dreams and live honestly in an era potentially even more hostile to her than the one I live in now is to me. Every life is different ofc but her valor stands out through time, reminding me — and potentially many other readers — that courage takes work, and that even just using your voice to champion the oppressed is already an important step in reshaping the world to be a better, more just place for everyone in it. It’s definitely continuing a personal trend that I recently discussed in my weekly newsletter, where I was Writing About Writing. Who do we write for, I asked, and why is it important, even when the days seem darkest? If you too need further reason to keep making art, this amazing children’s book will likely help shore you up immeasurably.

Ms Hansberry grew up the daughter of a family that decided to challenge segregation by moving from their Black Chicago neighborhood of Bronzeville to the white neighborhood of Woodlawn. Despite enduring horrifying racism, the Hansberrys persisted in proving that they belonged, even going to court to defend their right to live there. In 1940, the Supreme Court ruled in their favor in the landmark case Hansberry v Lee. As her father Carl Hansberry told all his children:

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/11/25/what-i-must-tell-the-world-by-jay-leslie-loveis-wise/

Nov 22 2024

The Ultimate Guide To Dollywood by Erin K Browne

What a delightful way to either plan for a trip to the musical icon’s theme park or to just daydream about eventually going!

While this unofficial guide doesn’t go into the history of Dollywood, it’s certainly a loving look at the largest employer in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, near the birthplace of living legend Dolly Parton. The book occasionally alludes to the former incarnations of what is now Dollywood, but it’s clear that the amusement park as we know it today has been guided and stamped by Ms Parton’s vision. It’s actually pretty impressive how thoughtful, uplifting and inclusive a theme park can be — but that shouldn’t be a surprise for anyone who knows Ms Parton as more than a country music icon. With her early reading initiatives, investment in the poor and championing of equal rights for marginalized groups, she’s long been a quiet but firm backer of common sense approaches to making life better for everyone.

Thus, it’s a pleasure to read of all the ways in which Dollywood is a safe space for all of its visitors, from those with sensory issues to those with uncommon dietary needs. Erin K Browne makes a point of noting these little details and more in ways that make it easier for visitors to plan ahead, so that everyone going can have a good time. Divided into ten parts, this book focuses mainly on the sights of Dollywood actual, confining related attractions such as Splash Country and the Stampede Dinner Attraction to a single chapter at the end. It’s still a large amount of info, neatly distilled by Ms Browne so that visitors can make the most of their time in the area, assuming that they’re primarily there for the main theme park.

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/11/22/the-ultimate-guide-to-dollywood-by-erin-k-browne/

Nov 21 2024

Castle Swimmer Vol 1 by Wendy Martin

Y’all, I did not expect to tear up at this sweet and surprisingly substantial look at star-crossed mermen fated by prophecy to lose one another.

Kappa is born to be the Beacon. Almost immediately after he hatches from his egg, the God of the Surface informs him that his task is to swim around the ocean, fulfilling prophecies for its various peoples. Unsure what that actually means, Kappa finds himself drawn irresistibly from castle to castle, as a catalyst for blessings. Perhaps if his very first mission had gone better, he’d enjoy the task more. As it is, he feels little better than a thing, a cog cared for only for his utility and not for anything that actually makes him a person with needs and desires and dreams.

Siren is a prince of the Shark people. Years ago, they were cursed by a minigod to a tragic end, one they can be saved from if their unscarred prince kills the Beacon. Siren has thus been kept in a protective bubble his entire life, raised by his mother the Queen and her closest advisor, even as his father, the previous Prince, has disappeared on a quixotic quest to end the curse without resorting to murder. As tenderhearted and moral as his father, Siren does not relish the prospect of killing the Beacon, even before Kappa swims close enough to Shark territory to be captured and held in the castle dungeon, awaiting the lethal point of Siren’s spear.

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/11/21/castle-swimmer-vol-1-by-wendy-martin/

Nov 20 2024

One-Shot Wonders by Sam Bartlett, Beth Davies & Destiny Howell

With the caveat that I’m reviewing the sample set handed out for Free RPG Day 2024, which I must say feels fairly representative of how the book must be as a whole!

I’m actually finally coming around to writing a review of this because I got a chance to use a sample for one my own RPG sessions. I’ve been running Ghosts Of Saltmarsh as an overarching campaign for my local RPG group, dropping in the occasional one-shot between chapters for both cohesion and funsies. Interestingly, most of the adventures included in the GoS book don’t actually take place in the town actual, so I’ve been forced to look for outside materials to help build up Saltmarsh and its citizenry. One-Shot Wonders’ Fishy Business adventure was the perfect way to help do that!

And small wonder that it’s the adventure from which the cover illustration is taken. Over the course of a mere two pages (including the wonderfully evocative art,) Game Masters are given a comprehensive blueprint for an adventure that includes roleplay, investigation and two stages of combat, in an easy to follow layout that requires few additional notes. Important Characters are grouped in one section, with Quick Stats next to that, then Key Locations are provided on the facing page. Even tho there’s plenty of information available at a glance, nothing is crowded together. I ran the adventure with this two-page spread open in front of me (but behind the DM’s screen one of my players helpfully brings to each of my sessions,) with my phone for reference alongside and a notebook to jot down names as I made them up on the fly, often with input from my table. There’s a reason four of the sailors are called Summersby, Wintersby, Fallsby and Monsoonby, lol.

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/11/20/one-shot-wonders-by-sam-bartlett-beth-davies-destiny-howell/

Nov 19 2024

Cold Snap by Lindy Ryan

I can see what Lindy Ryan was trying to do here, given my steeping in world mythology, but I think it needed a little more explaining so that the average reader can figure out what’s actually going on in this horror novella of guilt and grief.

Just a few weeks ago, Derek Sinclaire died, falling off of the roof while putting up Christmas lights. His wife Christine has been guilt-stricken ever since: at her inability to save him, at her insistence on getting the lights up so soon, at all the things that aren’t her fault but that she blames herself for anyway. She feels like her fifteen year-old son Billy would much rather that she had been the one to die, as that’s pretty much what she feels, too.

Unable to take the suffocating sympathy of her neighbors any longer, she packs up Billy and their cat Haiku and takes them up to the mountains where Derek had made reservations for them to have a Christmas getaway out in the snowy wilds. The lady at check-in is kind of a bitch, but does warn Christine to look out for moose. She also tells her where to find the Wi-fi information, which Christine immediately palms in a futile effort to get her kid to talk to her instead of staying glued to his phone the entire trip. Still addled by grief, Christine finds that she packed over-well in some cases and poorly in others. And that’s before the lights start shattering in their remote mountain cabin and a strange horned figure begins to lurk outside.

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/11/19/cold-snap-by-lindy-ryan/

Nov 18 2024

The Weirn Books, Vol 1 and 2 by Svetlana Chmakova

I was so chuffed to receive a delightful box with the first two books in Svetlana Chmakova’s Weirn series just before Halloween! Deeply grateful to JY, an imprint of Yen Press, for sending not only the two volumes but also a cute selection of pens, bookmarks and posters, some of which found their ways into the baskets of trick-or-treaters who couldn’t have candy that holiday. Unboxing video will post soon at my Instagram, @DvalerisActual!

The first book, Be Wary Of The Silent Woods, does a terrific job setting the scene for this middle-grade urban fantasy series. Told from the viewpoint of young Ailis Maeve Thornton, Volume 1 describes a coastal New England town where the local vampire, shapeshifter, mermaid and weirn kids go to school at night, in more or less the same building where the human kids study during the day. Magic, ofc, is what helps accommodate both groups, and is primarily wielded by the Weirns, who are witches born with Astrals, demon guardian spirits bound to them for life.

Ailis is a weirn, and your typical middle school kid otherwise. She lives with her grandma over the latter’s shop while her parents are away, and has a crush on Russ, the cute werewolf who used to pick on her when they were both smaller. Her neighbor is another weirn, Jasper, who has a crush on her cousin, Na’ya. Na’ya is obsessed with dragons, and isn’t thrilled that she constantly has to help look after her (adorable) little brother D’esh.

Most school evenings, Ailis walks over to pick up her cousins, dropping off D’esh at day care before heading into school with Na’ya. Their path takes them through the silent woods where tragedy once struck at a schoolhouse the local kids are all forbidden to go near. The cousins are happy to obey, even when a light goes on one evening at the supposedly abandoned structure. When curiosity gets the better of them on a subsequent evening, however, will they be able to face the horrors of the old schoolhouse and emerge unscathed?

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/11/18/the-weirn-books-vol-1-and-2-by-svetlana-chmakova/

Nov 17 2024

Das Lied von der russischen Erde by Michael Thumann

Any book about current events eventually becomes a book about history, and a bit of a historical object itself. If it’s a good one, its insights will transcend the immediate period of its writing, illuminating its subject over a longer period, showing readers how the long term looked at a particular time. Michael Thumann’s Das Lied von der russischen Erde — Song of the Russian Soil — was finished in late 2001, when Vladimir Putin was still Russia’s new president, when questions of that country’s future seemed far more open than they do today. More than 20 years later, the book is still well worth reading, both for comparing now and then, and for seeing how much is unchanged.

Das Lied von der russischen Erde by Michael Thumann

Thumann, whom I have not met but with whom I share friends and acquaintances, gave this book the subtitle “Moskaus ringen um Einheit und Grösse” — “Moscow wrestles with unity and size,” though it could just as easily be “Moscow wrestles with unity and greatness.” The book, which is admirably manageable at 250 pages, delves into how Russia’s rulers have struggled to actually rule the lands that their armies and explorers conquered. The volume is historically informed, but it is mostly about post-Soviet Russia, with four-fifths of it devoted to the years from 1991 to 2001.

Even in 2001, Thumann saw a touchstone of Vladimir Putin’s time in the Kremlin. He writes, “Today Vladimir Putin embodies this new gathering of the Russian lands. He is strengthening central power and is attempting to gain the greatest control possible over Russia’s regions.” (p. 8) More than 20 years later, it is clear that Thumann was more correct than he knew. Not only has Putin effectively controlled the regions and bent local rulers to his will, he has tried to take up the mantle of earlier conquerors. By waging a war of aggression against Ukraine he is attempting to put into practice his view of “gathering the Russian lands.”

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/11/17/das-lied-von-der-russischen-erde-by-michael-thumann/

Nov 16 2024

A Season of Knives by P.F. Chisholm

Sir Robert Carey is the very model of an Elizabethan courtier; he has skills equestrian, pedestrian and deductional. He’s met the Queen of England and he’s won the fights he chronicles, in England and in Scotland, and some in Lands Debatable. He’s well acquainted, too, with matters barely ethical; he understands corruption, both the venal and the gentry’s style.

A Season of Knives by P.F. Chisholm

Chisholm begins A Season of Knives with a character suffering from what modern readers will recognize as allergies, but which his wife thinks is something between laziness and dissipation. At any rate, his condition keeps Long George Little away from making hay — even after sundown — and in the streets of Carlisle, where a shortcut in down an alley turns out to be fateful for a surprisingly large number of people. Not least Sir Robert, who is nowhere near the alley at that time, being engaged in an evening of cards in Carlisle Castle, with his brother-in-law the Warden of the Western March, with his mortal enemy Sir Richard Lowther, and with various other members of the city’s highest society.

Long George discovers several of his cousins lying in wait in the alley. They have been hired by one Jemmy Atkinson to deliver a beating and a warning to Andy Nixon, who has been cuckolding Atkinson. They take care not to kill him, but leave him in the alley mud, hurt and unable to stand. Unfortunately for nearly everyone except Nixon, Carey’s servant Barnabus discovers him in the alley and, having pity, drags him through the doorway Nixon had been crawling toward. Being not entirely reformed from his London ruffian days, Barnabus takes the opportunity to cut Nixon’s purse.

Unfortunately for practically everyone in the story, some time between paying off his hirelings for beating up Nixon and late the next morning, Jemmy Atkinson is murdered, his throat slit nearly from ear to ear.

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/11/16/a-season-of-knives-by-p-f-chisholm/