February 2021 archive

Feathered & Fabulous: Wit And Wisdom From Glamorous Birds by Alison Throckmorton

When I was first pitched this book for review, I was sent a pdf copy. Suspecting that I needed to hold this book to get a better idea of its worth, I requested a physical copy, and oh dear reader, it is absolutely the difference between seeing a picture of a bird and being gifted …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/02/09/feathered-fabulous-wit-and-wisdom-from-glamorous-birds-by-alison-throckmorton/

The Iron Raven (The Iron Fey: Evenfall #1) by Julie Kagawa

I’ve never read the original Iron Fey series Julie Kagawa is famed for, and as far as I can tell given my tastes, that’s actually for the best. The original books are a YA fantasy romance revolving around Meghan Chase, a human teenager who discovers that she’s the daughter of the Summer King of the …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/02/08/the-iron-raven-the-iron-fey-evenfall-1-by-julie-kagawa/

Drive Your Plows Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

Nobel laureate, Polish literature, what’s not to like? It turns out that for me the more relevant question was what’s to like? Tokarczuk’s first-person narrator and protagonist, Janina Duszejko lives alone in a small group of houses on a plateau in southern Poland, hard up against the border with the Czech Republic. Most of the …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/02/07/drive-your-plows-over-the-bones-of-the-dead-by-olga-tokarczuk/

Blind Spots: Why Students Fail And The Science That Can Save Them by Kimberly Nix Berens

As someone who grew up studying under the American, British and (the absurdly simplistic) Malaysian New Curriculum systems, as well as a mom to kids with special needs, I found this book endlessly fascinating in how it interrogates mainstream educational thought and offers solutions to the continuing problem of falling student standards. With primarily an …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/02/05/blind-spots-why-students-fail-and-the-science-that-can-save-them-by-kimberly-nix-berens/

Sisters by Daisy Johnson

This is one of those books that’s so propulsive that you want to devour it in one sitting, even as the harrowing nature of what you’re reading is telling you to maybe put it aside and take a nap, for the sake of your own mental health. Sisters follows September and July, two teenage girls …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/02/03/sisters-by-daisy-johnson/

Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins written by Eric Kimmel

Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins by Eric Kimmel

Kid One first fell in love with this book as an elementary school student, a Protestant child living in an Orthodox country enjoying a very Jewish story. And what’s not to like? Hershel of Ostropol wanders into an unnamed Central European village on the first night of Hanukkah expecting celebration and hospitality. Instead, he finds …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/02/02/hershel-and-the-hanukkah-goblins-written-by-eric-kimmel/

Real Men Knit by Kwana Jackson

Happy Black History Month, everyone! I’m so excited to have just read a strong slate of contemporary novels featuring Black protagonists and casts living their best lives, whether it’s via superheroics, sleuthing or, in this latest case, shop-keeping while falling in love. Real Men Knit follows Jesse Strong, the youngest of four very different adoptive …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/02/01/real-men-knit-by-kwana-jackson/