Author's posts
Happy June, everybody! The English Premier league season is over and the World Cup is right around the corner, with plenty of other things to celebrate in a world grown increasingly malevolent for people just trying to live our lives (in other words, Happy Pride!) In keeping with that thought, we have our first selection …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/05/tantalizing-tales-june-2026-part-one/
First of all, best wishes to the author, who has hopefully overcome the bout of ill health that affected the completion of this fabulous book! I’m a huge fan of non-fiction for children, as it’s often the most elegant and efficient way of communicating a factual subject. Authors in this field, and especially the more …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/04/notre-dame-the-worlds-cathedral-by-lynn-curlee/
Deeeeeep siiiiiiigh. I know I touted this as the seminal guide to understanding the Arsenal fan — as that’s how it’s long been sold to me — but after actually reading the book, I unhesitatingly recant my endorsement. This was the most excruciating nonsense I’ve read in a long time. And here’s the thing, as …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/03/fever-pitch-by-nick-hornby/
Hello, dear readers! In conjunction with her birthday yesterday, today we have an immersive excerpt from a Young Adult novel featuring the ghost of Marilyn Monroe herself! From the publicity materials: “High school senior Lexa Donovan longs to be more than a bit player in her own drab life—and when she’s chosen to be part …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/02/channeling-marilyn-by-mima-tipper-excerpt/
Hello, readers, and welcome to the last Tantalizing Tale of May! It’s been a very low energy day for me today, but I’ve got a big weekend planned, so hopefully it’ll all work out (cue Sampha’s Indecision because iykyk!) Our first pick for upcoming reads this week is Lee Goldberg’s Murder By Design, the intriguing …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/05/29/tantalizing-tales-may-2026-part-five/
Honestly grateful to the Hugo Awards for continuing this category after last year’s trial balloon, and thereby forcing me to think more about and read more poetry. I’ve discovered that, generally speaking, there are two kinds of poetry I enjoy. One is the story in verse, structured much like a short story but with far …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/05/28/hugo-awards-2026-best-poem/
I am a naturally vindictive person, but disordered eating is a hell I wouldn’t wish on even my worst enemy. To The Last Gram tells the story of Divya, who realizes from an early age that she isn’t as petite as most of the other girls around her. Perhaps shockingly for an Asian kid growing …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/05/27/to-the-last-gram-by-shreya-davies-vanessa-wong/
I was feeling very intellectually chipper last week and decided to get a head start on some of my Hugo 2026 Awards reading, beginning with a nominated novella from a podcaster I adore. Automatic Noodle is the story of a restaurant’s robot employees in a California that has successfully seceded, at some cost, from the …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/05/26/automatic-noodle-by-annalee-newitz/
Woof, living with autoimmune disease is tough. At least I’m starting to recognize when I’m having a bad day early on, so I don’t collapse halfway through my scheduled activities and take even longer to recover. It’s been particularly brutal to me in that it’s also affecting my reading and writing — I sleep A …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/05/22/tantalizing-tales-may-2026-part-four/
What a charming throwback this is to the days when my young children would fixate on a seemingly simple thing and take it to often hilarious extremes! A child and their dad are getting ready to leave the house when Dad makes a seemingly innocuous request, extending a water bottle to Child and saying, “Hold, …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/05/21/hold-by-randy-ribay-zeke-pena/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
Emily Lauer
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire