Tag: Doreen

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

This book was haunting in a different way than I usually use the word. In general, I’ve found that I use it when I mean poignant and memorable, but in this case, there’s an actual tinge of fear in my description. I’m not sure if that’s just an intensely personal reaction, but Ruth’s description of …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/09/19/housekeeping-by-marilynne-robinson/

Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch

A testament to how good I think this book is: not only do I want to binge-read the whole series, I’m also willing to shell out the full price on Book 2, as it’s the only one with an absurd wait list from the library. I am voting with my dollar here, people! Midnight Riot …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/09/14/midnight-riot-by-ben-aaronovitch/

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

It should have been painfully obvious to me from the blurb that this would involve retellings of fairy tales, but I did not realize till I was well into the Beauty And The Beast tale and then ZOMG, THIS IS MY JAM!!! Andrzej Sapkowski has written a terrific fantasy novel with a sympathetic hero, and …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/09/11/the-last-wish-by-andrzej-sapkowski/

This One Is Mine by Maria Semple

After the wise and charming Where’d You Go Bernadette? I really wanted to delve into this author’s back catalog and be as similarly enthralled. Alas, Maria Semple’s debut novel This One Is Mine lacks the wit of WYGB, instead drawing on a cast of unlikeable characters who spend most of the book being mean or …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/09/11/this-one-is-mine-by-maria-semple/

The Once And Future King by T. H. White

When I first started reading this, I was so completely taken aback by the Boys’ Own, jolly-good, public school vibe of the writing that I honestly wasn’t sure whether I was going to like it. The first part was, thus, slow-going for me, used as I was to depictions of Arthurian romance that were a …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/09/08/the-once-and-future-king-by-t-h-white/

The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins

I think I would have liked this book more were it not marketed as the next Gone Girl. On its own, it’s a decent mystery novel with an excellent framing device, but I was expecting something far more diabolical and cautionary than the “don’t marry a psychopath” takeaway which, while good advice, is also fairly …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/09/01/the-girl-on-the-train-by-paula-hawkins/

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

I gained an incredible amount of depth and nuance from re-reading this book as a minority member of American society with African-American friends and neighbors and co-workers, with firsthand experience now of their culture and struggles, as opposed to my first encounter with To Kill A Mockingbird when I was a 13 year-old member of …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/08/31/to-kill-a-mockingbird-by-harper-lee/

Pack Of Strays by Dana Cameron

After the verve and uniqueness of the first book, this installment of the Fangborn series was a definite let down. Too much happens to Zoe too quickly, with only the sketchiest of explanations: whereas the globe-trotting of Seven Kinds Of Hell felt exotic and fast-paced, everything that happens here just feels rushed and jumbled. While …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/08/28/pack-of-strays-by-dana-cameron/

Lila by Marilynne Robinson

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 …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/08/23/lila-by-marilynne-robinson/

In The Woods by Tana French

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 …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/08/21/in-the-woods-by-tana-french/