For someone who’s not terribly outdoorsy, I really enjoy birds. I love bird art and have somehow, over the years, amassed a shocking amount of knowledge for someone who’s never really studied birds outside of appreciating their artistic depictions. I mean, I recently made it to the Championships of the latest Birds Mini League on …
Tag: Doreen
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/11/14/vintage-birds-a-guidebook-and-matching-game-by-roger-j-lederer/
Nov 13 2024
Detective Beans & The Case of the Missing Hat by Li Chen
I am all about the comfort reads this week, and I’ll be blessed if I read anything as charming as this graphic novel is anytime soon! Detective Beans is a young cat obsessed with being a detective, even if that usually just takes the form of acting out his favorite movies for his mom and …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/11/13/detective-beans-the-case-of-the-missing-hat-by-li-chen/
Nov 12 2024
Sticky Notes by Matthew Eicheldinger
subtitled Memorable Lessons from Ordinary Moments. I’ve been kind of a mess these past few weeks, even before the dismal US election results and definitely after, so this book was a wonderful antidote for despair. It isn’t entirely perfect — the vignette about Hiking Boots made me go “yeah, sure, he wound up going back …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/11/12/sticky-notes-by-matthew-eicheldinger/
Nov 08 2024
A Christmas Ghost Story by Kim Newman
I don’t know if this is the perfect complement or counterprogramming to my eldest child and I watching and really enjoying Agatha All Along together. Probably a little of both — tho my kid will likely have little interest in this book, alas. That might be for the best tho, as it’s A Chilling Tale …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/11/08/a-christmas-ghost-story-by-kim-newman/
Nov 07 2024
The Department of Truth: Wild Fictions by James Tynion IV & Martin Simmonds
with a host of incredibly talented guest artists! So I went into this book assuming it was a graphic novel, like the rest of the series. Readers, it is not! While it is 100% based on The Department Of Truth comic book series — and there are two issues from the main series at the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/11/07/the-department-of-truth-wild-fictions-by-james-tynion-iv-martin-simmonds/
Nov 05 2024
Esma Farouk, Lost in the Souk by Lisa Boersen, Hasna Elbaamrani & Annelies Vandenbosch
As a third culture kid, this book really hit home, perfectly depicting not only fairly commonplace events (travelling to see family, getting separated from a parent while shopping) but also the existential angst of feeling lost and disoriented in a place of wonders that, one feels at one’s core, should feel more intimately familiar. Plenty …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/11/05/esma-farouk-lost-in-the-souk-by-lisa-boersen-hasna-elbaamrani-annelies-vandenbosch/
Nov 04 2024
Afterlife: The Boy Next Realm by Gina Chew & Nadhir Nor
If you enjoyed Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, then you will probably also be swept away by the romance of this sepia-toned graphic novel, as a teenage girl fights Death itself to bring her little brother back to life. If, however, you found TNC as wildly mid as I did, then you’ll probably feel the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/11/04/afterlife-the-boy-next-realm-by-gina-chew-nadhir-nor/
Nov 01 2024
Tantalizing Tales — November 2024 — Part One
Happy November, friends! I’ve been so overwhelmed with work that I had to take yesterday off from posting, though Halloween always feels like a good reason to work less and celebrate more. While I originally thought that I’d just be reading last night between bouts of handing out candy to trick-or-treaters, I ended up sharing …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/11/01/tantalizing-tales-november-2024-part-one/
Oct 30 2024
Sitting On A Rock by Gary L Brinderson
Oh poetry, thou fickle siren, luring thousands of writers into your gentle-seeming embrace only to let them flounder on the sharp rocks of skill that underpin you. So here’s the deal, dear readers. Poetry is about image and emotion. Back in the day, it also used to be about form and rhyme. For better or …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/10/30/sitting-on-a-rock-by-gary-l-brinderson/
Oct 29 2024
Clay Footed Giants by Alain Chevarier & Mark McGuire
Extremely well-meaning but — and I hate to use this word because of the way it’s morphed so far from its more neutral original meaning — problematic. Pat is a 40-something American academic living in Montreal. His wife Ester has an important job, so he does his fair share of housework while they raise their …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2024/10/29/clay-footed-giants-by-alain-chevarier-mark-mcguire/