Jun 25 2025
Translated from the original German by Michael Hofmann. It’s weird: this book smells to high heaven of being very firmly Literary Fiction, one of my least favored genres, yet I really enjoyed it. There were definitely parts where the narrator has a thought process so decidedly masculine that I scoffed at the idea of her …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/06/25/in-a-deep-blue-hour-by-peter-stamm/
Jun 24 2025
I’m becoming a curmudgeon as I age, but I really do wish this book had explicitly stated at the outset that it’s set in New Orleans. I no longer have time to read blurbs or back matter, so when I realized partway through that this was set in historical America and not fantasy Europe, all …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/06/24/the-confessional-by-paige-hender/
Jun 23 2025
Oh, huh, I didn’t realize that this second book in The Web Of The Spider series would have a different protagonist than the first one, but it makes sense! In Rise Of The Spider, our narrator was young Rolf, who watched with growing horror as the Nazi Party’s hatefulness infiltrated not only his beloved hometown …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/06/23/threat-of-the-spider-by-michael-p-spradlin/
Jun 20 2025
I feel like every one of these columns recently starts with me marveling over how fast time is passing but for real, readers, how is it almost the end of June already? On the plus side, we have several great books publishing soon, to close out our featured titles this month before turning to July …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/06/20/tantalizing-tales-june-2025-part-three/
Jun 18 2025
Wow, reading this poetry collection really brought up a lot of issues I have with media and identity, none of which are meant to cast aspersions on this book at all, but which definitely distracted from my enjoyment of it. So let’s table that discussion for at least the end of this review, and discuss …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/06/18/in-the-bone-cracking-cold-by-m-bartley-seigel/
Jun 16 2025
subtitled Flaco The Owl’s Dreams Take Flight. I cannot be the only person who keeps confusing Flaco the owl with the red tailed hawks who also famously made New York City their home. Fortunately, this picture book helps clear up any misunderstanding caused by the unwittingly cognate names! Told in the first person, this anthropomorphized …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/06/16/free-bird-by-christine-mott-ofra-layla-isler/
Jun 13 2025
Hello, dear readers! Has your June been as busy as mine has? It’s probably because my kids are finishing the last years of their respective schools before they launch into their new ones, but I’ve been run ragged keeping up with all their activities (and let’s not even get started on MY activities.) Fortunately, there …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/06/13/tantalizing-tales-june-2025-part-two/
Jun 12 2025
Quick aside before we get to the meat of the book itself: being one of the few Malaysian American book critics in the industry sometimes makes it extra hilarious when I read claims like Arvind Ethan David’s in his opening dedication, where he says that elc International School is Malaysia’s “preeminent private school”. Insert me …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/06/12/raymond-chandlers-trouble-is-my-business-by-arvind-ethan-david-ilias-kyriazis-cris-peter/
Jun 11 2025
subtitled Discover Earth’s Amazing Ecosystems. And oh what a lovely and surprisingly topical look this is at not only the ways that plants and animals form mutually beneficial ecosystems in nature, but also how integral they all are to human life! A lot of science books talk about humans almost as if we’re separate from …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/06/11/friends-in-nature-by-marina-ruiz/
Jun 10 2025
Hello, dear readers! It’s been a while since we’ve published an interview with an author, so I’m super pleased to share with you a brief Q&A conducted with debut novelist Wendy Gee! As a volunteer at the Charleston Fire Department, Ms Gee had a front row seat to the hustle and intrigue common in firefighters’ …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/06/10/an-interview-with-wendy-gee-author-of-fleet-landing/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
Emily Lauer
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire