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Jamie lives in a city of perpetual winter. Snow and ice blanket the island of Fairharbour, where he survives by scavenging for materials that he can use to make pretty trinkets he can subsequently trade for food and fuel. But when he puts together a kaleidoscope and tests it out, he catches an impossible glimpse …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/08/city-of-all-seasons-by-oliver-k-langmead-aliya-whiteley/
For quite a long time there, I’d treat myself every Christmas by reading a new volume of John Allison’s Bad Machinery while the kids played with their new toys. I eventually ran out of volumes (there are only ten, after all) so decided to go ahead and read all three books of the Steeple series …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/07/steeple-volumes-1-2-3-by-john-allison/
Y’all, I read my Looking Back On 2024 column in preparation for writing this one and have never been more depressingly reminded of the French aphorism “Plus ce change, plus c’est la meme chose” or as we say in English “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Ofc, not everything has been …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/06/looking-back-on-2025/
collecting both the original Winnie-the-Pooh short story collection as well as its follow-up, The House At Pooh Corner, in one delightfully velour-covered volume reminiscent of a particularly huggable (and decidedly yellow) stuffed animal friend. I did not, unfortunately, have a Winnie the Pooh childhood. I only really came to the property in my adolescence, after …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/05/winnie-the-pooh-100th-anniversary-edition-by-a-a-milne-ernest-h-shepard/
Happy New Year, readers! I hope you had a delightful celebration ringing in a year that is hopefully no worse than the last… tho given the state of the country I live in and the absolutely infuriating refusal of large swathes of it to take note of history’s lessons, who even knows any more. Apologies …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/01/02/tantalizing-tales-january-2026-part-one/
At the end of 2025, I hit pause on my overloaded schedule to try to get to books I’d been greatly anticipating this year that I just didn’t have the time for before this. So yeah, I basically used my industry-wide two-week end of year break to do more work but oh wow, was that …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/31/vera-wongs-guide-to-snooping-on-a-dead-man-by-jesse-q-sutanto/
The second book in the Cranberry Creek Word Search mystery series is just as delightful as the first, even if the solution to the mystery itself didn’t make the most sense this time. But let’s be honest, if we’re talking cozy mysteries, a thoroughly logical conclusion is often secondary to cozy vibes, and this story …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/30/murder-by-muffin-by-rosie-a-point-charles-timmerman/
In our last Tantalizing Tales column of 2025, dear reader, let’s look back at some (more) of the books I wish I’d had time to read this year, as well as books publishing soon that sound super exciting! First up is Nat Cassidy’s latest thrilling horror novel, When The Wolf Comes Home. Jess is a …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/26/tantalizing-tales-december-2025-part-three/
Y’all, there’s nothing quite like blearily turning to the last book you plan to review before Christmas and discovering that it might truly be the weirdest thing you’ve read all year. Picture this: it’s one in the morning on Christmas Eve Eve and you’ve made enough of a dent in your emails that you’ll only …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/23/candy-corn-christmas-by-jonathan-fenske/
As a winter treat to myself — while I’m supposed to be on break with the rest of my industry, lolol — I decided to finally crack open one of my most anticipated books this year. Ashley Winstead broke my heart in 2023 with Midnight Is The Darkest Hour, so I was ready for This …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/22/this-book-will-bury-me-by-ashley-winstead/