May 26 2023
I’d never had any interest in reading the memoirs of a political spouse till after I picked up this book. It’s an adaptation of Chasten Glezman Buttigieg’s 2021 autobiography, originally written for adults, but with a message that’s so, so necessary for younger readers, too. I mean, even for a grown person like myself who …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/05/26/i-have-something-to-tell-you%e2%80%95for-young-adults-a-memoir-by-chasten-glezman-buttigieg/
Apr 26 2023
Okay, I know that no retrospective of Jane Austen’s work is complete without Anne Elliott, but why on earth would she have her own chapter here when she is about as far from a Mean Girl as I can think of in this canon? Elizabeth Elliot, absolutely. Ending on Anne is just a weird thematic …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/04/26/bitches-in-bonnets-life-lessons-from-jane-austens-mean-girls-by-sarah-j-makowski/
Feb 22 2023
This graphic novel might be the most relatable thing I’ve ever read about marriage, especially from the perspective of a white man. When gay marriage was legalized in 2013, Robert Kirby and his partner John had already been together for about a decade. They shared a dog and a house, and were thrilled that marriage …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/02/22/marry-me-a-little-by-robert-kirby/
Feb 21 2023
I’ll be honest, I and likely loads of others picked up this book because it has Ellie Goulding’s name on the cover. Lights is such a terrific album (I’m listening to it again as I type) and I always thought the media hubbub over her moving on from Ed Sheeran to Niall Horan was overblown. …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/02/21/fitter-stronger-calmer-a-mindful-approach-to-exercise-and-nutrition-by-ellie-goulding/
Dec 16 2022
What an absorbing, educational and ultimately devastating graphic novel depicting the artist’s own journey with cancer, from diagnosis through treatment until her own untimely end. Catherine Pioli never got sick or injured as a child, so thinks she’s finally outrun her long streak of good health when her back and shoulder pain get so bad …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/12/16/down-to-the-bone-a-leukemia-story-by-catherine-pioli/
Dec 03 2022
Once I got into it — this winter, after failing last winter — this went by fast, and why not, it’s a collection of short autobiographical, ostensibly seasonal snippets from a Norwegian author who’s often mentioned as a potential Nobel laureate. As an object, the edition of Winter that I have is a lovely book: thick …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/12/03/winter-by-karl-ove-knausgaard/
Oct 26 2022
Czeslaw Milosz has a captivating mind. In Native Realm he invites readers to join him on what his subtitle calls “A Search for Self-Definition,” and is a journey from the wooded interior of what is today Lithuania, where he was born into a family of Polish-speaking gentry, through his young adulthood in interwar Warsaw, past …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/10/26/native-realm-by-czeslaw-milosz/
Oct 23 2022
Seldom does a book’s title fit so perfectly, so terribly as Inhuman Land by Jozef Czapski (pron. “Chap-ski”). He was born into an aristocratic Polish family in Prague, at a time when that city was ruled from Vienna as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Czapski grew up near Minsk, in present-day Belarus; he finished his …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/10/23/inhuman-land-by-jozef-czapski/
Oct 15 2022
If not for Donald Fucking Trump, Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch would have had a long, distinguished and inspiring career serving the United States of America that nevertheless remained practically unknown outside the circles of her work. Perhaps she would have been best known for providing a crucial piece of local knowledge when the embassy in Mogadishu …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/10/15/lessons-from-the-edge-by-marie-yovanovitch/
Sep 09 2022
Author Christina Soontornvat wasn’t sure whether anyone would care about her experiences with middle school, but was eventually persuaded to write about one of the most cringe episodes of her own pre-teen career in this wryly moving graphic novel. I’m so glad she did. It’s not easy being one of the few Thai people in …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/09/09/the-tryout-a-graphic-novel-by-christina-soontornvat-joanna-cacao/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire