Category: Doreen

Hugo Awards 2021: Best Short Story Nominees

There was a wealth of authors I very much enjoy reading in this slate, and new-to-me authors I was pleased to make acquaintance of! On reflection, I don’t feel that this year’s list was as good as last year’s, tho was still solidly entertaining. As with last year, I’ll go over each (mostly) alphabetically. A …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/10/21/hugo-awards-2021-best-short-story-nominees/

Salt Magic by Hope Larson & Rebecca Mock

This stunningly original graphic novel tells a tale of life in Oklahoma after the Great War, when a young soldier returning from Europe triggers a curse, leaving his younger sister to find a way to save their family farm. Vonceil Taggart is the youngest of five children growing up on a farming homestead ten miles …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/10/20/salt-magic-by-hope-larson-rebecca-mock/

Meranda And The Legend Of The Lake by Meagan Mahoney

Meranda is an 11 year-old girl whose parents moved away from their Nova Scotia home and close-knit family to live in Calgary when she was only 3. While she has regular video visits with her dearly loved relatives back in Cape Breton, her helicopter parents have always been cagey about returning, until the death of …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/10/19/meranda-and-the-legend-of-the-lake-by-meagan-mahoney/

Hugo Awards 2021: Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form Nominees

Hello, everyone, it’s Hugo season once more! Doug and I are both voting members, and I’m waffling on whether or not to go in person to this year’s awards, seeing as how they’re basically in my city this time and who knows when that will happen again! Decisions, decisions. Speaking of decisions, we’ll be talking …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/10/18/hugo-awards-2021-best-dramatic-presentation-long-form-nominees/

North by Brad Kessler

I read a lot of books where I praise the empathy displayed, but after reading Brad Kessler’s brilliant North, I realized that there’s another, rarer quality I appreciate even more in writing: the quality of compassion. It’s one thing to understand where another person’s pain is coming from, to find common ground no matter how …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/10/14/north-by-brad-kessler/

Men To Avoid In Art And Life by Nicole Tersigni

One of the most fun things about owning a Sharing Library (which is the un-trademarked name of the more ubiquitous Little Free Libraries) is finding treasures like these generously popped in by an anonymous donor. I’m so glad I decided to peek in to mine when I did, so I could snag this before anyone …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/10/13/men-to-avoid-in-art-and-life-by-nicole-tersigni/

Magic Ramen: The Story Of Momofuku Ando by Andrea Wang & Kana Urbanowicz

I was exceedingly tickled when my older twin, 7 year-old Joseph, came rushing home from school to show me the two library books he’d picked out. One (which I’ll hopefully get to review later) is about a trumpet player like his older brother. The other was this terrific picture book about one of our favorite …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/10/12/magic-ramen-the-story-of-momofuku-ando-by-andrea-wang-kana-urbanowicz/

Magical History Tour #5: The Plague, History Of A Pandemic by Fabrice Erre & Sylvain Savoia

Technically, this is a children’s book, but honestly, I wish everyone would read this! In the fifth volume of this deeply intelligent, highly accessible history series, our intrepid guides, Annie and Nico, go on a tour of historical pandemics, focusing primarily on the plague. They cover the historical and geographical spread of the disease — …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/10/07/magical-history-tour-5-the-plague-history-of-a-pandemic-by-fabrice-erre-sylvain-savoia/

Turning To Wallpaper: Poems And Art by Heidi Wong

Wow, this book is a gut punch, in several very excellent ways. First, ofc, there’s the art, all by Heidi Wong, which is primarily dark to macabre. My review copy was a black and white Kindle version, so there’s only so much I can say about something I can’t observe in its full glory, but …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/10/06/turning-to-wallpaper-poems-and-art-by-heidi-wong/

Needle And Thread by David Pinckney, Ennun Ana Iurov & Michah Myers

Oof, this graphic novel hit me in my comic book-loving heart. I’m not saying I was Azi growing up — I mean, her dad is nuts even by Asian parent standards — but certain of her trials hit me as hard as a hammer blow to my psyche. The story goes like this: Noah Ramirez …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/10/05/needle-and-thread-by-david-pinckney-ennun-ana-iurov-michah-myers/