Oct 01 2024
Happy October, readers! With Black History Month starting in the UK, what better time to explore a book on Africa and its diaspora? Ayo is a young boy in America whose parents are doing a wonderful job teaching him about his heritage. While he’s proud to be a Black American with a rich generational history …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/10/01/ayos-adventure-across-the-african-diaspora-from-afro-to-zulu-by-ain-heath-drew-erin-robinson/
Jun 17 2024
Hi readers! This week, I’m thrilled to be able to bring you an excerpt from the latest book in the Vera And Tolliver series, The Blasphemers. Justin Tolliver is on the brink of an enormous change. The younger son of an English peer―that is, the son with no money and no prospects―he had joined the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/06/17/the-blasphemers-by-annamaria-alfieri-excerpt/
Jun 03 2024
Hi readers! This week, we have an excerpt from The Idol Of Mombasa, the second novel in the Vera And Tolliver historical mystery series by Annamaria Alfieri, after the debut title
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/06/03/the-idol-of-mombasa-by-annamaria-alfieri-excerpt/
May 28 2024
Hi readers! We’re in for a treat today, as we begin a series of semiweekly excerpts from Annamaria Alfieri’s recently reissued historical mystery series set in 1911 British East Africa, Vera And Tolliver. The Vera of the series is Vera McIntosh, the rebellious daughter of Scottish missionaries. Having grown up in Africa with Kikuyu playmates, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/05/28/strange-gods-by-annamaria-alfieri-excerpt/
May 04 2024
The back cover asserts that A Song of Comfortable Chairs is “the one where Mma Potokwani saves the day,” and indeed she does, but this deep into the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, getting there is all of the fun. Which is just as well, because all of this book’s storylines emerge from actions …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/05/04/a-song-of-comfortable-chairs-by-alexander-mccall-smith/
Mar 29 2024
Good characters keep revealing more of themselves over time. Mr J.L.B. Matekoni has been around the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency for quite a long while, first as the owner of the garage next to the agency, and then as husband to Precious Ramotswe, father to their adopted children. He is a steady, low-key man, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/03/29/the-joy-and-light-bus-company-by-alexander-mccall-smith/
Mar 25 2024
Abioye is only eight years old when her father, the king, suddenly dies. As per Yoruba tradition, if the king dies without a son to take his place, his daughter will rule as regent for three months, until the village chiefs can select three men to nominate for kinghood. The villagers will vote on these …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/03/25/the-little-regent-by-yewande-daniel-ayoade-ken-daley/
Feb 02 2023
Happy Black History Month! I’ve been so backlogged with work that the only volume I knew I could do justice to with regard to the occasion this week is this graphic novel, a part of the Cautionary Fables & Fairytales Book series printed by Iron Circus. I got the entire collection several crowdfunds ago (and …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/02/02/the-girl-who-married-a-skull-and-other-african-stories-edited-by-c-spike-trotman-kate-ashwin-kel-mcdonald-taneka-stotts/
Sep 11 2022
The name Solomon brings the word “wisdom” almost immediately to mind. Belatedly, it makes me think of the Temple. Now that I have read Medieval Ethiopian Kingship, Craft, and Diplomacy with Latin Europe by Verena Krebs, I will also remember the Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia. That dynasty took power in the late 1200s and ruled, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/09/11/medieval-ethiopian-kingship-craft-and-diplomacy-with-latin-europe-by-verena-krebs/
Jul 23 2022
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 …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/07/23/how-to-raise-an-elephant-by-alexander-mccall-smith/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire