Jun 04 2026
First of all, best wishes to the author, who has hopefully overcome the bout of ill health that affected the completion of this fabulous book! I’m a huge fan of non-fiction for children, as it’s often the most elegant and efficient way of communicating a factual subject. Authors in this field, and especially the more …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/04/notre-dame-the-worlds-cathedral-by-lynn-curlee/
Jun 03 2026
Deeeeeep siiiiiiigh. I know I touted this as the seminal guide to understanding the Arsenal fan — as that’s how it’s long been sold to me — but after actually reading the book, I unhesitatingly recant my endorsement. This was the most excruciating nonsense I’ve read in a long time. And here’s the thing, as …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/03/fever-pitch-by-nick-hornby/
Jun 02 2026
Hello, dear readers! In conjunction with her birthday yesterday, today we have an immersive excerpt from a Young Adult novel featuring the ghost of Marilyn Monroe herself! From the publicity materials: “High school senior Lexa Donovan longs to be more than a bit player in her own drab life—and when she’s chosen to be part …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/06/02/channeling-marilyn-by-mima-tipper-excerpt/
May 29 2026
Hello, readers, and welcome to the last Tantalizing Tale of May! It’s been a very low energy day for me today, but I’ve got a big weekend planned, so hopefully it’ll all work out (cue Sampha’s Indecision because iykyk!) Our first pick for upcoming reads this week is Lee Goldberg’s Murder By Design, the intriguing …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/05/29/tantalizing-tales-may-2026-part-five/
May 28 2026
Honestly grateful to the Hugo Awards for continuing this category after last year’s trial balloon, and thereby forcing me to think more about and read more poetry. I’ve discovered that, generally speaking, there are two kinds of poetry I enjoy. One is the story in verse, structured much like a short story but with far …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/05/28/hugo-awards-2026-best-poem/
May 27 2026
I am a naturally vindictive person, but disordered eating is a hell I wouldn’t wish on even my worst enemy. To The Last Gram tells the story of Divya, who realizes from an early age that she isn’t as petite as most of the other girls around her. Perhaps shockingly for an Asian kid growing …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/05/27/to-the-last-gram-by-shreya-davies-vanessa-wong/
May 26 2026
I was feeling very intellectually chipper last week and decided to get a head start on some of my Hugo 2026 Awards reading, beginning with a nominated novella from a podcaster I adore. Automatic Noodle is the story of a restaurant’s robot employees in a California that has successfully seceded, at some cost, from the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/05/26/automatic-noodle-by-annalee-newitz/
May 22 2026
Woof, living with autoimmune disease is tough. At least I’m starting to recognize when I’m having a bad day early on, so I don’t collapse halfway through my scheduled activities and take even longer to recover. It’s been particularly brutal to me in that it’s also affecting my reading and writing — I sleep A …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/05/22/tantalizing-tales-may-2026-part-four/
May 21 2026
What a charming throwback this is to the days when my young children would fixate on a seemingly simple thing and take it to often hilarious extremes! A child and their dad are getting ready to leave the house when Dad makes a seemingly innocuous request, extending a water bottle to Child and saying, “Hold, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/05/21/hold-by-randy-ribay-zeke-pena/
May 20 2026
I’m gonna be so for real with y’all, idk if I would have picked this up had I known it was a reprint from 1994. Which I also only realized after riffling through the Contributor’s Notes at the back of the book and finding that the authors here are, as far as I could tell, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2026/05/20/shadows-over-innsmouth-edited-by-stephen-jones/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
Emily Lauer
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire