Jun 30 2026
This adorable book for beginning readers is perfect for anyone who loves cute animal illustrations, and especially those of delightful little pugs. Hugo is a charming pug puppy who is ready for a day of big adventure! With his small child owner, he goes to explore the wider world, finding both enchanting experiences and significantly …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/30/uh-oh-hugo-by-jonathan-stutzman-jay-fleck/
Jun 29 2026
accompanied in the volume I received by the short story Johnny Hollowback And The Witch, which I actually preferred. Which isn’t to say that the main novella here is at all bad! I very much preferred it to the last thing of hers I read, the wildly overrated This Is How You Lose The Time …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/29/the-river-has-roots-by-amal-el-mohtar/
Jun 28 2026
Galen, the paladin of the third Saint of Steel book, was seen in Paladin’s Strength as Istvhan’s second in command. He also had a reputation as happy-go-lucky, willing to bed more or less any man who struck his fancy, and able to catch them too. Paladin’s Hope begins less cheerfully: with a corpse. Observing the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/28/paladins-hope-by-t-kingfisher/
Jun 27 2026
Dickie Bow got left behind by the spy game after the collapse of European communism, and never really found anything else. By the time that Dead Lions begins — it was first published in 2013 — he’s barely holding on with a job in a sex shop and a routine of steady drinking that will …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/27/dead-lions-by-mick-herron/
Jun 26 2026
Okay, but what happens neeeeeext?! That is less a complaint than a plea for Kirsty Applebaum to keep writing more books about the garden at the heart of The Strange Disappearance Of Imogen Good. The book itself opens with Imogen about to sneak into a forbidden garden, in hopes of ditching her once best friend …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/26/the-strange-disappearance-of-imogen-good-by-kirsty-applebaum/
Jun 25 2026
I’m pretty sure that this is meant to be an illustrated poem, but that’s not the only thing that baffles me about this purported graphic novel. Leaving heartbreak behind, the protagonist pares down their physical existence and decides to go on a long hike in the woods. Things get weird very quickly, as the narrator …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/25/oracles-by-olivia-sullivan/
Jun 24 2026
Unlike Doug, I knew that this would be a variation on Cinderella from the very first page, steeped as I am in my love for all fairy tale and mythological retellings. But like him I was immediately hooked by the premise that Ella, our heroine, essentially shuffles off her mortal coil on that very same …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/24/cinder-house-by-freya-marske-2/
Jun 23 2026
The Emergency Playbook: A Bunker-Free Guide to Disaster Preparation is out today! It combines practical to-do lists for before, during and after disasters, with big-picture context for how disasters often play out. The authors, Amy Edelman and Chris Begley, present all this information in an enjoyable, easy-reading format. I learned a lot from it: I …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/23/the-emergency-playbook-by-amy-edelman-and-chris-begley/
Jun 22 2026
Along with many others lucky enough to do so, I took Juneteenth off last week (and wound up having to accompany my best girl while she hit on men in kilts, lol, instead of having the restful day I’d otherwise anticipated.) This week’s Tantalizing Titles column is thus a double header for this week AND …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/22/tantalizing-tales-june-2026-part-three/
Jun 21 2026
What does an intelligence agency do with its fuck-ups? Not the operational mistakes, or even the policy disasters, but the people who, for one reason or another, cannot be kept as part of the active service but cannot just be let go. Maybe they embarrassed the agency in some way, and giving them the boot …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/21/slow-horses-by-mick-herron/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
Emily Lauer
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire