Oct 14 2025

Snap! Crunch! Munch! by Diana Castillo

Oh, I shouldn’t have read this while I’m hungry, now I’m craving Cuban food!

This delightful picture book* tells the story of a young boy whose relatives come over for family dinner. As they all sit around the table and dig in to the various dishes that they’ve contributed, the narrator begins to imagine everyone as a kind of animal, based on their dining preferences a/o eating habits. As he himself loves all the food on the table, he imagines himself as an omnivore, and thus turns into the cutest fox as he tucks into his meal.

There’s really not much else to this story but there doesn’t need to be, as the point is just to talk about things that will engage beginning readers — in this instance, animals, family and food — in simple enough language that they’re encouraged to follow along, whether with a more seasoned reader or by themselves. It’s what goes unsaid and is, instead, depicted in the illustrations that really sets this lovely book apart from the crowd.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/10/14/snap-crunch-munch-by-diana-castillo/

Oct 12 2025

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

In deepest, darkest Kent, Coopers Chase is a retirement community built from what was once a convent. As part of its sale to private investors, the development has kept its original chapel and the burial ground where the sisters were laid to rest from the 1870s until the late twentieth century. Coopers Chase is bucolic, pleasant and apparently well run. It offers residents who are in reasonably good health a wide range of activities, one of which is solving murders.

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

That’s not strictly true, in that the Thursday Murder Club is by invitation, and thus not provided by the community and its management. On the other hand, the club does have a fixed time in the official schedule of the Jigsaw Room, one of the community spaces where residents can get together outside of their own rooms or apartments. Mum’s the word about murder, though. “It was Thursday because there was a two-hour slot free in the Jigsaw Room, between Art History and Conversational French. It was booked, and still is booked, under the name Japanese Opera — A Discussion, which ensured they were always left in peace.” (p. 18)

The Club began with Penny, who had been an inspector in the Kent Police for many years and Elizabeth, whose professional background is never stated explicitly, but she is described at various points as “terrifying,” “effective,” “not likely to take no for an answer,” and “occasionally played fast and loose with the Official Secrets Act.” She reminisces about past times in East Berlin and Leipzig, knows people in Cyprus, and is capable of calling in all manner of favors. They went through files that Penny had, against regulations, kept following her retirement. They would comb through cold cases “line by line, study every photograph, read every witness statement, just looking for anything that had been missed.” (p. 18)

Ibrahim, a semi-retired psychiatrist, soon joined them, as did Ron, a firebrand labor leader who had his heyday before Thatcher did her various things. “[Elizabeth] soon spotted Ron’s key strength, namely, he never believes a single word anyone ever tells him. Elizabeth now says that reading police files in the certain knowledge that the police are lying to you is surprisingly effective.” (p. 19)

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/10/12/the-thursday-murder-club-by-richard-osman/

Oct 10 2025

Tantalizing Tales — October 2025 — Part Two

It has finally gotten cold here in Maryland, which is making me rethink my daily outdoor walks for daily indoor spin sessions instead… which I admittedly also use to catch up with my reading via Kindle. Here are some great selections coming to bookstores soon, if you’re looking for some great books to keep you company while acclimatizing to the weather and hopefully getting a little more reading in!

First up is the latest installment in Kashiwai Hisashi’s deliciously cozy Kamogawa Food Detectives series, Menu Of Happiness. Looking at the cover alone is enough to give me the warm fuzzies, tbphwy.

The Kamogawa Food Detectives are Nagare and her father Koishi, who run the Kamogawa Diner together. Aside from cooking scrumptious daily meals, their forte lies in recreating the food that their clients describe to them but don’t know how to recreate on their own. By figuring out how to reconstitute the dishes that linger in their clients’ minds, the father-daughter duo help said clients reconnect with the past. Whether serving a formerly renowned pianist who longs to taste once more the yakisoba that she shared with the only man she ever loved, or the client who can’t forget the gyoza fed to him by the parents of the woman he jilted, the food detectives perform amazing feats in their quest to bring memories back to life through flavor.

If this book is anything like its predecessors, I highly recommend not going into it hungry, as the author is incredible at writing about food. Just thinking about my experience with the delightful first book in the series is making me crave sushi and ushiojiru so much rn.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/10/10/tantalizing-tales-october-2025-part-two/

Oct 09 2025

A Palace Near The Wind by Ai Jiang

One of these days, I’ll like a piece by Ai Jiang, but today is not that day.

I’m just so baffled by her writing, and in a way that doesn’t even make me want to lay the blame at her feet necessarily. This is actually one of the few, perhaps only, times that I’ve questioned the professional choices of a Titan editor, because (for a start) what is with the weird ass grammar in this? Maybe it’s just an effect of having an ARC — or maybe it’s an effect of the current allergy in genre writing towards the perfect tenses — but I was two pages in and already wanted to bring out the red pen to fix the most glaring errors.

Thankfully, the grammar gets less glaringly bad as the book progresses, which is one small mercy. Another is that the premise of this first novella in a duology remains as interesting as when I originally said yes to it. Our main character Lufeng is the Eldest Daughter of the Feng people. One by one, her mother and sisters have left their forests to marry into the Palace, as the realm of the Land Wanderers is known. The Palace is constantly encroaching on the Feng woods, uprooting plant life and sending the indigenous Feng away in search of a better life, often into the heart of the Palace itself (or something: the details are vague.)

Now it’s Lufeng’s turn to leave the forests and marry the King. She’s determined to find her family and bring them safely home. If she has to kill the king in order to do that, then so be it. But the more time she spends at the Palace, the more secrets she uncovers about what’s really going on between the Palace and Feng. Will she be able to save her family? Will they even want to be saved?

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/10/09/a-palace-near-the-wind-by-ai-jiang/

Oct 08 2025

Night Light by Michael Emberley

I continue to be confused by the distinction between picture book and graphic novel in this line of I Like To Read comics, but when the results are as outstanding as they are here, it seems unusually pedantic (even for me!) to quibble.

Night Light is another beautiful book from Michael Emberley’s series featuring a caretaker and child of indeterminate species. They’re snuggling down for bedtime reading when the lights in their city suddenly go out. This is a problem because Child wants one more story, and the one flashlight that they have handy is running out of batteries. So what are a creative caretaker and child to do? Turn to the skies, ofc!

This is a sweet story about not only adapting to adversity but also being considerate and, perhaps most importantly, learning to find the beautiful in the unconventional. There is a bit of unspoken commentary regarding light pollution towards the end, tho it’s entirely likely that I’m reading a little too much into that.

What I can say for certain is that Mr Emberley’s art continues to charm as much as his story does. The colors are especially gorgeous as Caretaker and Child experience different permutations of light and darkness in their quest to get just one more bedtime story in. The palette of blues, purples and golds is rich and arresting.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/10/08/night-light-by-michael-emberley/

Oct 07 2025

The Betrayal by Heather Ogden (EXCERPT)

Hello, readers! Today we have a scene-setting excerpt for you from Heather Ogden’s debut Young Adult dystopian novel, The Betrayal.

This first book of the The Lies We Fear series centers on Angelette Arabella, the seventeen year-old daughter of the most powerful man in Libertis, a megalopolis large enough to be considered a nation.

From the publisher: “Angelette Arabella has spent her life in the shadow of the man the nation calls a hero—her father, Valerius, the revered leader of Libertis. To the world, he’s a savior. To her, he’s simply “Dad.” But when a staged kidnapping spirals into something far more dangerous, Angelette is forced to face the truth: her life, her family, and the world she’s always known are carefully crafted illusions. And the man who built them is hiding more than secrets—he’s hiding control.

“As betrayal bleeds from every corner of her life—her brothers vanished, her mother silenced, and her only friend not who she seems—Angelette must decide: remain the obedient daughter, or become the threat her father fears most.

“Because the truth isn’t just dangerous in Libertis, it’s treason.”

Read on for a peek into the book, and into the true heart of Valerius!

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/10/07/the-betrayal-by-heather-ogden-excerpt/

Oct 06 2025

The Holy Roller: Volume One by Andy Samberg, Rick Remender, Joe Trohman, Roland Boschi & Moreno Dinisio

Yes, it is absolutely ludicrous to have a vigilante whose main weapon is a bowling ball, but he’s out there fighting neo-Nazis and we 100% need more of that nowadays!

And it isn’t just some cut-and-dried good guy vs generic white nationalists story either. There’s a lot of nuance in this book, as well as plenty of pointed allusions to the nightmare of governance currently in charge of the USA. The wild thing is that I’m sure Andy Samberg, Rick Remender and Joe Trohman were all “how far can we push the bounds of credulity in this book?”, saw The Holy Roller go to print, then turned on the TV or social media in recent days to discover that reality is even more ridiculous than half the stuff in here! There are no guardrails on this administration, which is partly why it’s so important that popular culture fights back, loudly and with both humor and integrity. And that’s exactly what this book does. Sure it gets violent and ugly — I mean, is there a pretty way to fight with a bowling ball? — but it’s an important reminder that sometimes you just gotta punch the Nazi.

Anyway, the story opens on young Levi Coen, a middle schooler whose dad is obsessed with bowling. Levi only goes to the bowling alley to play video games and crush on pretty Amy Henry, the owner’s daughter. Unfortunately, Amy’s brother Clyde is a huge jerk who taunts Levi, then bans him from the alley for life when Levi loses a bet.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/10/06/the-holy-roller-volume-one-by-andy-samberg-rick-remender-joe-trohman-roland-boschi-moreno-dinisio/

Oct 05 2025

Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törless by Robert Musil

Where Miklos Banffy spends nearly 1500 pages of his Transylvanian Trilogy chronicling the life of Hungarian nobility across their half of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, in The Confusions of Young Törless, Robert Musil compresses much of the experience of the Austrian half into less than a tenth of that in a tale of life in a pre-WWI military academy. (Not to worry about Musil, though. His magnum opus, The Man Without Qualities, runs well past 1500 pages.) The academy is meant to be preparing the boys — co-education of girls was barely thinkable at that time, the first young Austrian woman having passed the general qualification for university studies just ten years before Törless was published in 1906, and co-education at a military institute was definitely not thinkable — for service to the empire, and to Kaiser Franz Josef who had reigned for more than half a century. Musil, though, is not interested in the routines of school, drills and lessons, or the kind of plot that drives many boarding-school novels. His subject is adolescence, the inner life of young Törless.

Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törless by Robert Musil

Indirectly, Musil also comments on the kind of education that was thought normal, even ideal, for the young men who would one day assume leading positions in Austro-Hungarian society. It could hardly be further from the contemporary approach shown, for example, in The Incandescent by Emily Tesh. First and foremost, the school is concerned with its own reputation; all of the students know that scandalous behavior will result in expulsion, most likely done over a break when the errant cadet would simply not return and no one would mention him ever again. Secondarily, the school is concerned with the appearance of good order in its routines. The book shows very little class time and a great deal of scuttling about at night, sneaking into inaccessible corners of the institute and occasionally visiting beerhalls or prostitutes in the adjoining small town. As long as the cadets return by curfew and do not bring the academy into disrepute, they seem to be allowed to do what they want. The teachers are not completely indifferent; when Törless reveals that certain mathematical constructions (imaginary numbers, for example) are causing him philosophical distress, the math lecturer receives him at home one afternoon, and talks him through some of the propositions and helps relieve a few of his worries. He also inspires Törless to acquire a copy of some of Kant’s works, which Törless tries to read on his own but does not make much headway.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/10/05/die-verwirrungen-des-zoglings-torless-by-robert-musil/

Oct 04 2025

Three from T. Kingfisher

One of the things about living in a country where English is not the dominant language is that when books turn up at your local English-language bookstore, you snag them because there may not be another chance any time soon. (People will say that a quarter of the way through the twenty-first century, I am ignoring options for online shopping. Yes, I am.) For whatever reasons within the UK publishing business, T. Kingfisher aka Ursula Vernon is enjoying a publication renaissance there, and many of her works from the mid-2010s to the present are appearing on Berlin booksellers’ shelves for me to snap up. Since May, I have acquired ten, read three so far, am looking forward to the rest, and regret nary a penny spent.

Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher

The three that I have read so far — Paladin’s Grace, Swordheart and Clockwork Boys — all share a setting: the world of the White Rat. It’s a recognizably low-magic fantasy world, long on details that matter to the story but otherwise uncluttered by languages, magic systems, maps, plate tectonics or any of many dozens of other things that can fill up a novel without filling out the characters or their stories. Kingfisher is writing about people first and foremost, and while she brings the setting sufficiently to life for me to believe in it, her world is not likely to inspire its own reference works. One aspect that is important in all three is that the world’s gods are real and demonstrably active in human affairs. Some people, paladins called to service and clergy above all, have direct contact with the god they have chosen, or that has chosen them. Divine effects are not as reliable as science or other crafts, but enough of them are real that acknowledgement of the gods is close to universal.

As of this writing, there are three different series set in this world. The two Clocktaur War books tell of a terrifying semi-mechanical, semi-magical army that seems relentless in its ability to conquer the lands around the city where they first appeared. Swordheart came about when

my husband and I were in the kitchen and I was ranting about how much Elric—Michael Moorcock‘s Elric—whined about everything. “If you ask me,” I said, “the real victim was the sword Stormbringer. The sword had to listen to him whine and couldn’t leave. But does anybody ever ask the magic sword’s opinion? Noooo.” (p. 437)

Swordheart has a lot to say about what the magic sword thinks about everything going on nearby. Since its publication in 2018, it has been a standalone novel, though one that very much wants a sequel. Earlier this year, Kingfisher revealed that a sequel, titled Daggerbound, will be published in the second half of 2026. The third series is called The Saint of Steel, and so far there are four — Paladin’s Grace, Paladin’s Strength, Paladin’s Hope, Paladin’s Faith — out of an expected seven. On her web site, Kingfisher recommends reading them in the order just listed: Clocktaur, Swordheart, Paladins.

I didn’t do that.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/10/04/three-from-t-kingfisher/

Oct 03 2025

Tantalizing Tales — October 2025 — Part One

Happy October, readers! This month is all about the cozy, the creepy or the criminal, and maybe a little bit of all three!

Our first selection for you is definitely on the cozier side, tho with a distinct frisson of crime. Juno Black’s Mockingbird Court is the last (at least for the foreseeable future) installment of the beloved Shady Hollow mystery series, which features anthropomorphic animals solving mysteries in their woodland town.

In this sixth book, however, the murder in question will take us outside the boundaries of Shady Hollow and into the big city! Shady Hollow itself is busy preparing for the Harvest Festival when an unexpected figure shows up. Bradley Marvel is a bestselling author whose last visit to the area probably didn’t go as well as anyone anticipated. This time things are worse, as he’s on the run. A body has been found in his penthouse apartment, and he skipped town before he could be arrested.

He swears he didn’t do it tho. Intrepid reporter Vera Vulpine and her friends will have to figure out what really happened at a remove… until Vera realizes that the victim is someone she knows. Worse, her connection to the victim implicates her in the crime too. Will she and her friends be able to unravel the mystery before an innocent person is convicted of murder?

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/10/03/tantalizing-tales-october-2025-part-one/