Jan 06 2025
I purchased (that’s right, I BOUGHT a book! Granted this was in 2023 and I’m only now getting around to reading it, lolsob) this beautiful collection of fairy tales, myths and divine stories because I deeply love Yoshi Yoshitani’s Tarot of the Divine, with which this book is inextricably linked. In order to illustrate the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/01/06/beneath-the-moon-by-yoshi-yoshitani/
Dec 27 2024
Time for some short takes to clear the desk for the coming year. In Urs Widmer’s Der Geliebte der Mutter (My Mother’s Lover) the first-person narrator tells the story of his mother’s life, beginning with the death of her lover, many years after her own death. Erwin died as he lived best, leaning over a …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/12/27/wrapping-up-4/
Oct 25 2024
Coatlicue help me, I’m pretty sure my kids have infected me with their brainrot, because as soon as I realized that this story was set in Ohio, I began chortling to the tune of Swag In Ohio. But that Midwestern state (and Gen Alpha shorthand for weirdness) is honestly the perfect setting for this tale …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/10/25/monster-locker-vol-1-by-jorge-aguirre-andres-vera-martinez/
Oct 03 2024
This book really does have to be seen to be believed. The mammoth illustrated version of Stephen Fry’s first Mythos book is absolutely stunning, from its foiled covers and sprayed edges to its painted endpapers and gold bookmark ribbon. And that’s even before getting into Jesús Sotés’ evocative artwork, which reimagines the iconography of the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/10/03/mythos-the-illustrated-edition-by-stephen-fry-jesus-sotes/
Aug 21 2024
One of the weird things about reading an author’s entire body of work from the start of their oeuvre, especially if you’ve already cherry picked parts of it as a lifelong avid reader, is that you can see the themes develop throughout the creator’s lifetime and echo back and forth through the books. Dogsbody, for …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/08/21/dogsbody-by-diana-wynne-jones/
Aug 08 2024
The second book in the A Year Of Diana Wynne Jones challenge that I could join in on was this, Eight Days Of Luke. I’m honestly still torn over how I feel about the various covers: some seem a little spoiler-tastic, but if I’m being perfectly honest, I didn’t even look properly at the cover …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/08/08/eight-days-of-luke-by-diana-wynne-jones/
Jul 30 2024
Oh dear. This book starts out so promisingly, as a woman on her deathbed makes her lover swear to speak with the daughters the latter gave up for adoption. A grief-stricken Sylvie Swift has no idea how to approach the two girls she gave up as babies, so decides to write them a series of …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/07/30/daughters-of-chaos-by-jen-fawkes/
Jul 10 2024
OKAY, I am still inordinately pissed at the absurd, regressive, anti-feminist retcon that DC Comics gave Wonder Woman’s origins with the New 52. I know that people say that comic book back stories are like changeable weather: if you don’t like it, wait a short period of time and it’ll change again. But between the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/07/10/wonder-woman-historia-the-amazons-vol-1-by-kelly-sue-deconnick-phil-jimenez-gene-ha-nicola-scott/
May 20 2024
I love pretty much everything First Second Books publishes. My relationship with them started with the excellent Sailor Twain by Mark Siegel, and while I haven’t had the time to cover as many of their books as I’d honestly like to, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to review their latest title that also features …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/05/20/plain-jane-and-the-mermaid-by-vera-brosgol/
May 01 2024
subtitled An Encyclopedia of the Spirits, Monsters, and Yokai of Japanese Myth: The Stories of the Mischievous Kappa, Trickster Kitsune, Horrendous Oni, and More. Happy Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month! This year, I have a big slate of topical books by AAPI authors and artists (and adjacent) that I’m hoping to be able …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/05/01/the-book-of-japanese-folklore-by-thersa-matsuura-michelle-wang/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
Emily Lauer
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire