Author's posts
I think I would have liked this book more were it not marketed as the next Gone Girl. On its own, it’s a decent mystery novel with an excellent framing device, but I was expecting something far more diabolical and cautionary than the “don’t marry a psychopath” takeaway which, while good advice, is also fairly …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/09/01/the-girl-on-the-train-by-paula-hawkins/
I gained an incredible amount of depth and nuance from re-reading this book as a minority member of American society with African-American friends and neighbors and co-workers, with firsthand experience now of their culture and struggles, as opposed to my first encounter with To Kill A Mockingbird when I was a 13 year-old member of …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/08/31/to-kill-a-mockingbird-by-harper-lee/
After the verve and uniqueness of the first book, this installment of the Fangborn series was a definite let down. Too much happens to Zoe too quickly, with only the sketchiest of explanations: whereas the globe-trotting of Seven Kinds Of Hell felt exotic and fast-paced, everything that happens here just feels rushed and jumbled. While …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/08/28/pack-of-strays-by-dana-cameron/
It is so very difficult for me to review Marilynne Robinson’s works, because I always feel like my own prose is inadequate to describing hers. I cried a lot reading Lila, because I understand what it feels like to fall in love with someone even when you don’t trust love or people or existence, when …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/08/23/lila-by-marilynne-robinson/
There was a lot I enjoyed about this book, but I had two very large problems with it, both to do with Rob Ryan. The first is fairly spoilertastic, and less to do with his character than with what I felt was a strange choice on the part of the author. Essentially, you never find …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/08/21/in-the-woods-by-tana-french/
I was initially resistant towards reading this book. If it was bad, I would feel a certain kind of “malu,” the nearly indescribable shade of embarrassment Malaysians feel when one of their own commits a faux pas, akin but not quite the same as the East Asian concept of losing “face.” And if it was …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/08/18/spirits-abroad-by-zen-cho/
This was over 400 pages, really? It was a total breeze to go through: entertaining without sacrificing meaning, hilarious and suspenseful by turn. I was completely in love with Madeline throughout, even tho she and I differ in one important respect: she adores conflict, but I too often find myself dragged unwillingly into it. I …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/08/16/big-little-lies-by-liane-moriarty/
I wasn’t inclined to like the novel itself, but the really cool interactive app made this worthwhile for me. I loved the film posters and publicity photos I uncovered that way (and that creepy diary!) tho the audio clips were more hit and miss. If I never have to encounter the tedious and whiny Love …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/08/15/night-film-by-marisha-pessl/
Deeply moral and achingly romantic, this is a book about a woman inadvertently reaching into the past to try to fix problems in her marriage to a man she desperately loves. Rainbow Rowell is a terrific writer of dialog and characters, and though Landline felt a bit shallow in places (by which I don’t mean …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/08/11/landline-by-rainbow-rowell/
A cut above the standard urban fantasy novel. A lot of the books in the genre read as if they’re written by people emotionally stunted in middle school, but Dana Cameron evades the worst of the genre tropes to present an exhilaratingly globe-trotting paranormal thriller. It was also really nice to see an author care …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/08/09/seven-kinds-of-hell-by-dana-cameron/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
Emily Lauer
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire