February 2018 archive

The Naive and Sentimental Novelist by Orhan Pamuk

If I had read The Naive and Sentimental Novelist before reading Orhan Pamuk’s novels, I probably would not have bothered with them. That would have been a pity because most of them are very good, and one, Snow, is among the best I have ever read. So there’s a considerable gap between this collection of …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2018/02/26/the-naive-and-sentimental-novelist-by-orhan-pamuk/

Delivering the Truth (A Quaker Midwife Mystery #1) by Edith Maxwell

Wonderful heroine, great setting, intriguing (but not super clever) mystery. I loved all the attention to period detail (even if my copy had some really weird lapses between the use of “thee” and “you”) and especially enjoyed the blunt way in which pregnancy and delivery are treated. As this book is set in 1800s Massachusetts …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2018/02/25/delivering-the-truth-a-quaker-midwife-mystery-1-by-edith-maxwell/

The Belles (The Belles #1) by Dhonielle Clayton

Ah, jeez, I feel like a total asshole criticizing this book but I got so huffily mad reading it. So much of this book, like over 70% is really terrific and smart and interesting and fun but the other 20-odd just made me want to break my Kindle, it was so dumb. First, that cover …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2018/02/23/the-belles-the-belles-1-by-dhonielle-clayton/

Embers of War by Gareth L. Powell

Intriguing space opera with lots of twists and turns that I kicked myself for not anticipating sooner (tho to Gareth L Powell’s credit, there were so many red herrings that I was constantly second-guessing myself!) The writing is wonderfully descriptive, and I loved the concepts and definitely want to see where our ragtag group of …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2018/02/20/embers-of-war-by-gareth-l-powell/

Beneath the Sugar Sky (Wayward Children #3) by Seanan McGuire

No sign of Jack and Jill in this installment, except for a reference to the events in the first book, and while I was a bit disappointed since I wanted a lot more of them after Book Two, the storyline here definitely made me feel a lot better about it fast. A girl falls out …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2018/02/17/beneath-the-sugar-sky-wayward-children-3-by-seanan-mcguire/

Real Tigers (Slough House #3) by Mick Herron

Oh my God, I finished all these books by the 13th! *collapses into oozing puddle before picking up her next work assignment.* I freaking love Mick Herron, and I’m not sure if there are very many authors I could have binged under such time pressures and still come out wanting more of. I love the …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2018/02/14/real-tigers-slough-house-3-by-mick-herron/

The House of Government by Yuri Slezkine

When it was built, the House of Government — maybe better known in English as the House on the Embankment thanks to the book by Yuri Trefonov — was the largest residential building in Europe. With The House of Government, Yuri Slezkine gives the building, its people and its first era an equally enormous treatment. The main …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2018/02/13/the-house-of-government-by-yuri-slezkine/

Dead Lions (Slough House #2) by Mick Herron

Good tho, to a certain extent, I enjoyed Slow Horses better because that one was undoubtedly a win for our agents. This one… well, it’s complicated. See, an old spy is found dead on a bus he didn’t have a ticket for, and no one seems to care except Jackson Lamb, who worked with the …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2018/02/12/dead-lions-slough-house-2-by-mick-herron/

The Case of the Missing Marquess (Enola Holmes #1) by Nancy Springer

A surprisingly unsentimental view of life in Victorian England, far removed from romance and riches. Our heroine, Enola Holmes, does start out moneyed, after a fashion: she lives on her ancestral estate with her mother, but Nancy Springer is quick to point out that the women aren’t rich in their own right, as all their …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2018/02/11/the-case-of-the-missing-marquess-enola-holmes-1-by-nancy-springer/

Kabale und Liebe by Friedrich Schiller

From the subtitle, “A Bourgeois Tragedy” to the Romeo and Juliet references that crop up in discussions of the play, it’s clear that Kabale und Liebe (Intrigue and Love, although I am glad to see that at least some translators go with the better order of Love and Intrigue) is not going to end well …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2018/02/10/kabale-und-liebe-by-friedrich-schiller/