July 2022 archive

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Earth has a problem. But as Project Hail Mary begins, the protagonist and first-person narrator has no idea what the problem is. He knows a lot less than that, in fact. He doesn’t know where he is, doesn’t know how he got there, doesn’t even know his own name. Why is the room round? Why …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/07/31/project-hail-mary-by-andy-weir/

Zatanna: The Jewel of Gravesend by Alys Arden & Jacquelin De Leon

I was so thrilled to pick up a copy of this and have it signed by Alys Arden at the recent American Library Association’s Annual Conference 2022! I’d never read any Zatanna before, despite being both fascinated by the character and curiously reluctant to read any of her solo books. I figured that a modern …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/07/29/zatanna-the-jewel-of-gravesend-by-alys-arden-jacquelin-de-leon/

Zara’s Rules for Record-Breaking Fun by Hena Khan

with the loveliest illustrations by Wastana Haikal. Like, I’m not joking, the pictures add so much to an already really terrific story. Bapak Wastana really captures all the different multicultural generations in his line drawings, and I’m wholly in love with them. The story itself far exceeded my expectations from reading just the blurb. Zara …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/07/28/zaras-rules-for-record-breaking-fun-by-hena-khan/

A Psalm For The Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

Ayfkm with this Eat, Pray, Love but make it sci-fi bullshit?! I saved the Becky Chambers novella for last on my Hugo nominations reading slate because I deeply love her full-length novels, even tho I was not a fan of her last novella, To Be Taught, If Fortunate. I found that effort too serious, too …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/07/27/a-psalm-for-the-wild-built-by-becky-chambers-2/

The Loud House Back To School Special by The Loud House Creative Team

The Loud Family is back… and back to school! If you need a fun way to help ease your kids into the end of summer and the beginning of a new school year, then there are certainly worse ways than to hand them this collection of short comics inspired by the Nickelodeon series, revolving around …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/07/26/the-loud-house-back-to-school-special-by-the-loud-house-creative-team/

On the Field of Glory by Henryk Sienkiewicz

On the Field of Glory by Henryk Sienkiewicz

Henryk Sienkiewicz, an early Nobel laureate, wrote historical novels set mostly in the days of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that, like Shakespeare’s history plays, have a resonance well beyond their initial audiences and historical settings. Sienkiewicz lived and wrote at a time when Poland’s imperial neighbors had erased it from the map of Europe, and yet …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/07/24/on-the-field-of-glory-by-henryk-sienkiewicz/

How to Raise an Elephant by Alexander McCall Smith

How to Raise an Elephant by Alexander McCall Smih

The long-running No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series relies on a careful balance between new stories — usually cases that the agency is called on to solve — and deeper development of its continuing characters. Too much of the former, and it runs the danger of reading like an episode of old-style television: dramatic events that leave …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/07/23/how-to-raise-an-elephant-by-alexander-mccall-smith/

Seeing Things by Seamus Heaney

Seeing Things by Seamus Heaney

Seeing Things returns to a greater length, though many of its poems — particularly the 48 in Part II, “Squarings” — are short; the squarings are all twelve lines each. “Glanmore Revisited” offers seven sonnets in its short sequence. “The Schoolbag” is also sonnet length, while “1.1.1987” and “An August Night” are three lines each. Compact …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/07/22/seeing-things-by-seamus-heaney/

Across The Green Grass Fields (Wayward Children #6) by Seanan McGuire

with Rovina Cai’s amazing illustrations. One thing I love about the books in Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series is how they’re all so readable. Even if I don’t like her protagonists or think characters are being daft or soapboxy, her pacing is usually so well done that I’m never bored with what’s happening, and keep …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/07/21/across-the-green-grass-fields-wayward-children-6-by-seanan-mcguire/

Gail Gibbons’ From Seed To Plant Workbook and Monarch Butterfly Workbook by Gail Gibbons

Oh, summertime, when the kids are in my hair 24/7. At least my eldest child has neighborhood friends to play with: my two youngest, being shyer and on the autism spectrum, have a harder time finding safe things they want to do. Fortunately, Gail Gibbons has a wonderful solution to help parents entertain their kids …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/07/19/gail-gibbons-from-seed-to-plant-workbook-and-monarch-butterfly-workbook-by-gail-gibbons/