Jul 23 2025
Managed another reading category for the Hugos this year! Will review the other categories I’ve read through after tonight’s voting deadline, but figured I’d start with the next fastest to read: the nominees for Best Novelette. As is my wont (but not Doug’s!) we’ll go from my favorite on down. Tho I must say that …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/07/23/hugo-awards-2025-best-novelette/
Jul 22 2025
We have another terrific excerpt for you today, dear readers, with an absorbing, dual viewpoint look at one of the most traumatic experiences of a person’s life, and the mysterious circumstances that precipitated it. Leslie Rasmussen’s When People Leave is subtitled A Story Of Love, Lies And Finding The Truth. It follows the three Weiss …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/07/22/when-people-leave-by-leslie-rasmussen-excerpt/
Jul 21 2025
My kingdom for pdfs properly formatted for Kindle! That gripe aside, wow, was I finally glad to be able to read Oliver K Langmead’s novel in verse. And I get it, the pdf was meant to preserve the gorgeous art and design of the book, which it definitely does. It just took way longer to …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/07/21/calypso-by-oliver-k-langmead/
Jul 18 2025
Was July this huge a month for books in previous years, dear reader, or is this another case of my time blindness? Regardless, we have some delicious reads that have either just or are freshly coming out, beginning with Tess Sharpe’s No Body No Crime, a twisty and gripping romantic thriller about enduring love, true …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/07/18/tantalizing-tales-july-2025-part-three/
Jul 17 2025
I was digging myself out from the bottom of the 270 or so emails in my inbox when I came across this press release announcing the recent death of acclaimed and accomplished author Martin Cruz Smith: ~~~~~~~ We at Simon & Schuster are saddened by the death of Martin Cruz Smith, who passed away peacefully …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/07/17/martin-cruz-smith-1942-2025/
Jul 16 2025
I have become even more time blind than usual lately, and am woefully behind on any emails that may be reminding me of voting deadlines. Nevertheless, I’m glad that I’m finally getting a chance to look at this year’s Hugo nominees, beginning, as is tradition, with Best Short Story! And, as is tradition, let’s start …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/07/16/hugo-awards-2025-best-short-story-nominees/
Jul 15 2025
So it’s weird sometimes, when I’m trying to review the first book in a series where a large part of the plot revolves around a mystery. There’s a very delicate balance that authors have to hit in order to make the book feel both satisfying for the reader and like we really need to read …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/07/15/hourglass-by-barbara-mazzi/
Jul 14 2025
Aside: this is the second zombie-related book I’ve read in a row, how odd for the middle of July! It’s Halloween and the normally quiet graveyard by Honey Hills is abuzz. Literally, as strange creatures begin to rise from the tombs and wend their winding way through town. Could these flying apparitions be… bees? But …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/07/14/the-zombees-by-justin-colon-kaly-quarles/
Jul 11 2025
Hey, I’m on Jeopardy! today. I had a really great time (as you can probably tell if you watch what is, in my entirely biased opinion, one of the best regular season episodes you’ll ever see) but it’s super cut into my reading time, unsurprisingly. So I wanted to make sure in this round-up column …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/07/11/tantalizing-tales-july-2025-part-two/
Jul 10 2025
In all earnestness, the teenaged narrator of this affecting novel desperately needs sports. A sport, any sport: even a sedentary bookworm like myself can recognize that the kid has too much energy and too few healthy outlets. The kid in question is Armie Bernal, the son of two semi-famous writers who divorced when he was …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2025/07/10/the-agonies-by-ben-faulkner/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
Emily Lauer
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire