Dec 28 2025

Two From the Singing Hills Cycle by Nghi Vo

In the two most recent Singing Hills books — The Brides of High Hill and A Mouthful of Dust — Nghi Vo takes her protagonist, the historian Cleric Chih, to much darker places than in the three previous books of this series that I have read. (Those are, in order, The Empress of Salt and Fortune, When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, and the fourth, Mammoths at the Gate. I’ve not yet read the third, Into the Riverlands, but it’s on order so I hope to have read and written about it by the time the seventh, A Long and Speaking Silence is published in May 2026.) As a refresher, all of the novellas are set in the Anh Empire, which draws on the history, fantasy and folklore of East Asia. Singing Hills is an ancient cloister, devoted to preserving history. To that end, they dispatch their clerics throughout the known world to collect stories, not just of the famous and the powerful but also of the everyday. Their efforts are aided by neixin, memory spirits that take the form of talking hoopoe birds. Clerics from Singing Hills wear distinctive indigo robes, shave their heads and use the pronoun “they.” Vo’s novellas all follow Cleric Chih on their journeys, accompanied by their hoopoe, Almost Brilliant.

The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo

The Brides of High Hill begins with Chih awakening from a dream. They are traveling on an ox cart that belongs to the Pham family, and Almost Brilliant is not present. Vo starts the story in media res, with no details of how they came to be traveling together, or whether Chih has had a particular set by the abbey. Master and Madame Pham are taking their daughter Nhung to be married to the Lord Guo, master of Doi Cao. The bride-to-be is young and nervous. Chih is quite taken by Nhung; maybe the feeling is reciprocated?

“I like stories,” said Nhung, and she took Chih’s hand in hers, smiling shyly.
“That’s good, I have a lot,” Chih said, momentarily enchanted by Nhung’s smile. She smiled close-lipped with one side higher than the other, and it was the prettiest thing Chih had ever seen.
The ox-cart swayed, and Nhung momentarily fell against Chih’s side. Her silk robes puffed with the scent of rosewood, and underneath that, Chih, blushing, could smell her skin and her sweat… (p. 3)

Nhung has been trained in how to run a household, and she hopes she will be a good wife. Chih says they hope her new husband will be worthy. The Phams are proud, and they have guards and retainers in more ox-carts behind them, but the family’s fortunes are not what they once were, as Madame Pham is quick to point out.

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Dec 27 2025

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

I’m glad someone told me that nothing much happens in Orbital, Samantha Harvey’s novella that won the 2024 Booker Prize. If I had been expecting action — anything from a mechanical crisis as six astronauts in the ISS orbit the earth to an alien encounter – I might have been disappointed. The book relates one day on the station, broken into 16 orbits that the ISS makes in a 24-hour period. It begins just as the astronauts wake up to start their new “day,” and ends as they are well into their next period of sleep. Orbital captures the magnificence and mundanity of human life in low earth orbit.

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

The story is a little bit of an alternate history, in that Harvey mentions that some of the astronauts recall the Challenger explosion from childhood while late in the first orbit a crewed mission to land on the moon launches and passes the ISS. “You aren’t even the farthest-flung humans now, says ground control. How does that feel?” (p. 10) The first item places their birth years in the mid-1970s, which makes me think their ISS mission would be in the 2010s, while the Artemis program is still years away from a landing mission. The alternity frees Harvey up a bit to concentrate on the things that interest her, while the other mission gives the astronauts a reason to consider the position of the ISS in humanity’s exploration of space, along with the relative safety of low earth orbit versus anywhere else deeper into space.

There are six astronauts, or rather four astronauts and two cosmonauts to keep the traditional name for the two Russian space travelers. Four men, two women; in addition to the two Russians there are astronauts from Italy, Japan, the US and the UK. They begin their days at the same time, with a wake-up call from mission control, making their ways out of the floating sleeping bags that they strap themselves into each evening. The station’s routines shape their days, particularly the need for exercise to counter the effects of months of microgravity. They do the scientific work that is a major reason for keeping the ISS, in addition to the overall ongoing project of studying how humans react to extended periods living and working in space. They take care of the maintenance that keeps the station in decent repair through years and years in an environment that’s relentlessly hostile to human life. And in the midst of all of this, they experience the wonder of falling around the earth, hour after hour, days after day.

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Dec 26 2025

Tantalizing Tales — December 2025 — Part Three

In our last Tantalizing Tales column of 2025, dear reader, let’s look back at some (more) of the books I wish I’d had time to read this year, as well as books publishing soon that sound super exciting!

First up is Nat Cassidy’s latest thrilling horror novel, When The Wolf Comes Home. Jess is a struggling actress whose life feels like it’s on a downward spiral. The last thing she expects to come across is a five year-old runaway hiding in the bushes outside her apartment building one day. Worse, a violent encounter with his father soon sends both her and the boy running for their lives.

As she helps the boy evade his increasingly desperate father, Jess realizes that the trail of blood springing up in their wake is not coincidental. Their pursuer’s viciousness only seems to grow the longer the chase continues. Will Jess and her unexpected charge be able to make it to safety? Does a safe place even exist given the terrifying nature of what’s hunting them down?

All good horror stories take on seemingly incomprehensible social issues and help readers better understand them. The best of these often offer solutions either specific (don’t build houses on stolen sacred land) or general (be brave in standing up for what’s right.) This one is no different, as it explores themes of trauma, parenting and anger through a genre lens.

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Dec 25 2025

Merry Christmas

Luke 2:1-14, Old English:

Soþlice on þam dagum wæs geworden gebod fram þam casere Augusto, þæt eall ymbehwyrft wære tomearcod. Þeos tomearcodnes wæs æryst geworden fram þam deman Syrige Cirino. And ealle hig eodon, and syndrige ferdon on hyra ceastre. Ða ferde Iosep fram Galilea of þære ceastre Nazareth on Iudeisce ceastre Dauides, seo is genemned Beþleem, for þam þe he wæs of Dauides huse and hirede; þæt he ferde mid Marian þe him beweddod wæs, and wæs geeacnod. Soþlice wæs geworden þa hi þar wæron, hire dagas wæron gefyllede þæt heo cende. And heo cende hyre frumcennedan sunu, and hine mid cildclaþum bewand, and hine on binne alede, for þam þe hig næfdon rum on cumena huse. And hyrdas wæron on þam ylcan rice waciende, and nihtwæccan healdende ofer heora heorda. Þa stod Drihtnes engel wiþ hig, and Godes beorhtnes him ymbe scean; and hi him mycelum ege adredon. And se engel him to cwæð, Nelle ge eow adrædan; soþlice nu ic eow bodie mycelne gefean, se bið eallum folce; for þam to dæg eow ys Hælend acenned, se is Drihten Crist, on Dauides ceastre. And þis tacen eow byð: Ge gemetað an cild hræglum bewunden, and on binne aled. And þa wæs færinga geworden mid þam engle mycelnes heofenlices werydes, God heriendra and þus cweþendra, Gode sy wuldor on heahnesse, and on eorðan sybb mannum godes willan.

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Dec 24 2025

That’s Dickens with a C and a K, the Well-Known English Author

Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge’s name was good upon ’Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

A Christmas Carol

Mind! I don’t mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country’s done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise? Scrooge and he were partners for I don’t know how many years. Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, and sole mourner. And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event, but that he was an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral, and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain.

The mention of Marley’s funeral brings me back to the point I started from. There is no doubt that Marley was dead. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate. If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet’s Father died before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, than there would be in any other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy spot—say Saint Paul’s Churchyard for instance—literally to astonish his son’s weak mind.

Scrooge never painted out Old Marley’s name. There it stood, years afterwards, above the warehouse door: Scrooge and Marley. The firm was known as Scrooge and Marley. Sometimes people new to the business called Scrooge Scrooge, and sometimes Marley, but he answered to both names. It was all the same to him.

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The rest.

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Why don’t you try W.H. Smith?

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Dec 23 2025

Candy Corn Christmas! by Jonathan Fenske

Y’all, there’s nothing quite like blearily turning to the last book you plan to review before Christmas and discovering that it might truly be the weirdest thing you’ve read all year.

Picture this: it’s one in the morning on Christmas Eve Eve and you’ve made enough of a dent in your emails that you’ll only have a hundred or so more to go through in the daytime (in your Inbox, anyway. You shudder to think of the state of your Promotions folder.) You figure, “Hey, I have time to quickly read this kids’ book I’ve been saving for the occasion” and pick up the brightly illustrated volume, figuring it’ll be a fun mishmash of Halloween and Christmas traditions. After all, its title is Candy Corn Christmas! It should be short and sweet, right?

Well, it’s certainly short! And there are a lot of sweets in it, as a miniature army of candy corn languishes in the pantry, unloved and forgotten now that Halloween is over. But strange sounds and smells lure them out of their, ahem, resting place, and off to the living room, where they discover the most magical night of all: Christmas!

The living room is decked out with all sorts of Christmas lights and decorations and sweets. The candy corn swarm over it all, to the chagrin of the actual Christmas treats. The candy corn are loud and messy and disruptive in their excitement. Candy Cane finally has enough, yelling at them to go home. They’ve already had their holiday, now shoo! But a visitor shows up to remind everyone of the true meaning of Christmas, more or less.

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Dec 22 2025

This Book Will Bury Me by Ashley Winstead

As a winter treat to myself — while I’m supposed to be on break with the rest of my industry, lolol — I decided to finally crack open one of my most anticipated books this year. Ashley Winstead broke my heart in 2023 with Midnight Is The Darkest Hour, so I was ready for This Book Will Bury Me… or so I thought, until I finished that last heart-wrenching page.

Janeway Sharp is enjoying college life as a slightly older student at the University of Central Florida when she receives devastating news. Her beloved father has suffered a heart attack. She immediately leaves the party she’d been attending to drive the two hours or so home, only to receive even worse news: her father is dead.

In the aftermath, neither she nor her mother knows what to do with their grief. A series of small, everyday occurrences leads Jane to a true crime message board. Her powerlessness in the face of death is alleviated by her involvement with the board, especially when she’s able to actually help solve a case by going in person to investigate a murder that occurred not too far from where she lives. Soon, she’s invited to an elite circle of crime solvers famous not just online but in real life — albeit to a fairly specialized audience — for being successful amateur online sleuths.

This small group soon feels like family to Jane, even with all their ups and downs. Tho they all learn each other’s names, it’s still easier to go by their nicknames from the board. Lightly is a retired cop, while Mistress is a retired librarian: both serve as de facto mom and dad to their little team. Goku looks like your stereotypical hacker, while Citizen is in the Navy (and one of the hottest guys Jane has ever seen.) They all call her Search, after her own handle. Together, they make a great team, successfully using their skills and intelligence to help the cops solve multiple homicides.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/22/this-book-will-bury-me-by-ashley-winstead/

Dec 21 2025

Two Short Reviews for December

I like seeing authors trying new things, and seeing Travis Baldree, who writes in a corner of fantasy that sometimes strikes me as authors and readers trying to connect over a menu of tags — “I’ll have a found-family, sapphic, friends-to-lovers tale with a side order of hidden magic, hold the prophecies and the Chosen One, please” — try something new is particularly welcome. Brigands & Breadknives is not entirely new, of course. He uses the same setting as in Legends & Lattes and Bookshops & Bonedust. The beginning of the book also features several of the same characters, although Baldree shifts his focus early on.

Brigands and Breadknives by Travis Baldree

In Bookshops & Bonedust, Baldree introduced Fern, a ratkin who owned the titular bookshop. She and her shop played important roles in the growth and adventures of that book’s heroine, Viv. It looked like Fern’s happily-ever-after was the revival of her shop in her hometown of Murk. The opening of Brigands & Breadknives shows that ennui was an enemy at least as dangerous to Fern as the previous volume’s necromancer. In Murk, Fern developed a near terminal case of is-this-all-there-is and decided that the cure was to move her shop to the city where Viv is now running a thriving coffee shop. Unfortunately, as the first chapters of Brigands & Breadknives shows, she got the diagnosis all wrong. The wrong cure also meant a lot of work and support from her friends was at best misdirected.

One night, after failing again to tell her friends about her unease, Fern falls in a drunken stupor into the back of a wagon. When she awakens, she finds that she is a day and a half outside the city, foodless, and penniless. On the positive side of the ledger, the cart belongs to Astryx, a legendary elf warrior known as the Oathmaiden. She is transporting a goblin prisoner to points northward with the intent of collecting a large bounty. Fern speaks some goblin, which Astryx does not; the prisoner gives no appearance of speaking the common tongue. Astryx agrees to take Fern under her wing as something of an interpreter and something of an assistant. With each step, Fern gets further away from the people who wanted only to help her, and who have no idea what happened.

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Dec 19 2025

Tantalizing Tales — December 2025 — Part Two

Another round-up column for you, dear readers, catching up with books I still haven’t yet had the time to read this year but really want to! First up is a book co-authored by four amazing thriller writers. In Desperate Deadly Widows, Kimberly Belle, Layne Fargo, Cate Holahan and Vanessa Lillie join forces once more to tell the continuing story of four women linked through the deaths of their partners.

In 1985, a plane carrying four Mafia-affiliated lawyers exploded over the Atlantic. Their widows — all wildly different but all resourceful and determined — joined forces to figure out what really happened and how best to protect each other and themselves. Two years and several changed situations later, the widows reunite. Krystle is still trying to save the law firm, while former model Justine is training to be a lawyer herself. Meredith now owns and operates the strip club where she once danced. And Camille works on the shadier side of the law, orchestrating honey pot schemes for women seeking vengeance.

Worlds collide once more when Camille’s latest target turns up dead in the champagne room. That would be bad enough, but the deceased Mayor Tom was also a well-connected person of influence. And Camille isn’t the only one of the widows implicated in his murder. It’s going to be up to the foursome to untangle a conspiracy that depended on the death of one powerful man. Will their bonds be strong enough to withstand the pressures seeking to turn them against one another? Find out in this wild 80s romp of a suspense thriller!

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/12/19/tantalizing-tales-december-2025-part-two/

Dec 18 2025

The Heartwarming Love Coloring Book by Gaynor Carradice

I don’t ever remember being this overwhelmed in previous holiday seasons but y’all, this year has been a doozy. Between work, holiday events, shopping and unexpected medical emergencies, this has already been A Month. I’ve had to let so many non-essential things fall to the wayside this December, including my weekly art sessions, while I tried to prioritize the things that I do in community and not just for me.

So I was extremely relieved to be forced, after a fashion, to finally work on this delightful coloring book. Don’t get me wrong, I love coloring, and especially coloring Gaynor Carradice’s adorable line drawings. The forty-five pages here truly run the gamut of heartwarming love, presenting all sorts of scenarios in which the love of sweethearts, family and other people dear to us are depicted using cute woodland animals in the coziest scenes. There are pictures without characters, too, for when you just want to think of a comforting place or object (or, perhaps, you want to give yourself a little self-care because you deserve love, too.)

The lines are large and bold, helpful for those who don’t want to strain their eyes or cramp their hands, with the added benefit of leaving space for more intricate patternwork if you like to add your own flair to the drawings. Speaking of space, there are generous borders for each single-sided, oversized sheet, allowing you to cut out and frame any particular masterpieces you create.

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