Where to start when writing about a city as vast and storied as Istanbul? In Midnight at the Pera Palace: The Birth of Modern Istanbul, Charles King takes an inflection point in the history of a city that is itself a key inflection between East and West. Or rather, he takes a period of hinges …
Tag: History
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/02/25/midnight-at-the-pera-palace-by-charles-king/
Feb 05 2015
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield
This was a hoot. As the back cover says, “the Reduced Shakespeare Company‘s classic farce” presents, after a fashion, all 37 plays and does something to with the sonnets in just over 90 minutes of stage time. They do the comedies all at once, in a bit
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/02/05/the-complete-works-of-william-shakespeare-abridged-by-adam-long-daniel-singer-and-jess-winfield/
Dec 18 2014
Odessa by Charles King
What I liked most about Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams is how clearly Charles King tells the early stories of Odessa’s founding. For while there had been a small settlement at the site under khans and Ottomans, none of the extant written records gives an unambiguous account of long-term settlement [at …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/12/18/odessa-by-charles-king/
Nov 05 2014
Of Dice and Men by David M. Ewalt
Ewalt gives his slender volume the subtitle “The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and the People Who Play It,” at which point my inner copyeditor immediately reaches for the red pencil to change it to “A Story…” and “Some of the People…” There are a lot of stories of Dungeons & Dragons, and Ewalt surely …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/11/05/of-dice-and-men-by-david-m-ewalt/
Oct 06 2014
Paladin Of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold
After reading The Curse Of Chalion to prep myself for this book, that had come highly recommended to me by various sources, I made the mistake of reading the Wiki page and discovering that the Chalion saga is based very much on the historical House of Trastamara, the royal family that wound up uniting Spain …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/10/06/paladin-of-souls-by-lois-mcmaster-bujold/
Oct 03 2014
St Joan Of Arc by V Sackville-West
What student of English literature hasn’t felt the slightest prurient interest in the personal lives of the Bloomsbury group? My fascination with Vita Sackville-West stems, of course, from her role as muse to Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, but I found her own novel, All Passion Spent, to be tedious rather than reflective. But here in this …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/10/03/st-joan-of-arc-by-v-sackville-west/
Dec 22 2013
A History of Britain, Volume I: At the Edge of the World? 3000 BC – AD 1603
An extremely good source of British medieval history, with detailed information on the rebellions of Simon de Montfort and Wat Tyler that I have not been able to find in other sources. Readable and enjoyable.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2013/12/22/a-history-of-britain-volume-i-at-the-edge-of-the-world-3000-bc-ad-1603/
Dec 15 2008
Premature Evaluation: Sundown Towns
An important story, very badly told. Before and, more crucially, immediately after the American Civil War, African-Americans were widely dispersed throughout the country. By the 1940s, however, blacks living outside the South were concentrated in particular areas of the largest cities. In Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism James Loewen asks how that …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2008/12/15/premature-evaluation-sundown-towns/
Feb 12 2007
Five Germanys I Have Known by Fritz Stern
Fritz Stern was born in what was then Breslau, Germany, grandson of Jews who converted to Christianity, son and grandson of physicians and researchers, at a time when medicine was truly becoming a science and Germany was leading the way. His godfather and namesake was Fritz Haber, who discovered how to fix atmospheric nitrogen, won …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2007/02/12/five-germanys-i-have-known-by-fritz-stern/
Oct 23 2006
Under the Frog
Novermber 1955: Tired of trying to crack the problem of the informer, Gyuri settled down to think about being a streetsweeper while he gazed out of the window at the countryside that went past quite lazily despite the train’s billing as an express. The streetsweeper was a sort of cerebral chewing gum that Gyuri popped …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2006/10/23/under-the-frog/
Contributors
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Al Singh
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Doug Merrill
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Doreen Sheridan
- I Am Here by Karen Kilpatrick & Tammy Do
- The Book of Japanese Folklore by Thersa Matsuura & Michelle Wang
- Double Booking: The Tail of the Mummy Cat by Chas! Pangburn, Kim Shearer & Nic Touris
- Witch Hunt by Andrea Balis & Elizabeth Levy, illustrated by Tim Foley
- Terrorwar Volume 1 by Saladin Ahmed & Dave Acosta
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John Pitzel
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Lars N. Goldschlager
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L.M. Davenport
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Laura Eilers
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Professor X
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Robert Maedgen
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Sylvere Ap Leanan
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The Shire