Books I Was Reading On This Day Over the Last Ten Years: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-books-i-was-reading-on-this-day-over-the-last-ten-years/
amreading
August is Kobo Plus Fantasy month! Got a subscription (or thinking about one) and not sure where to start? Try this selection: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/p/kobo-plus-fantasy-reads
Do you also sometimes read a wholesome story, and when you're done with the chapter, you realize you're smiling like a maniac?
Or is it just me?
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What am I reading and do you care?
- Not finished the Heythwaite series by Annie Rogers yet... the antics of a Yorkshire town.
- All at Sea by Johnathan Whitelaw, cosy crime, quite light as I wanted some easy reading to counter the heavy topics of late.
- Time for Ursula by Lorna Foyle, paranormal about Mother Shipton of Knaresborough in North Yorkshire.
Edited 112d ago
I've finished: I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger
While I Cheerfully Refuse hits most of the usual post apocalyptic genre tropes, it is no regular post apocalyptic adventure novel.
Rainy is a quietly competent protagonist, and viewing this dystopian world from his perspective is what setts this novel apart.
Reminiscent of Station 11, it is a more literary work.
Literally (Actually) pitting Rainy and Lark, with her used book shop, against the illiterate anti-intellectualists.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/73d19b03-b69f-476b-9e63-6e3d9f6ab14b
@bookstodon @audiofiction
#dystopia #postapocalyptic #literary #amReading #bookstodon #AudioBooks
Me buying a discounted book here, splurging on a bulk sale there, all in the touching hope that someday I'll have time to read them all.
" We are starving 💔😭
We are starving 💔😭
We are dying of hunger. My family has no food, and donations have stopped
We urgently need $50 to buy food. Any help could save my family 🙏
Please don't ignore us, we have nothing left to live 💔🙏"Please post this for me—please share it on your page. ❤️
https://chuffed.org/project/164090-help-omar-and-his-family
#Gaza #Palestine #Design #Tech #introduction #policy #CreativeToots #MastoArt #WebDev #SoftwareEngineering #softwaredesign #SoftwareDesign #Programming #OpenSource #CreativeToots #DigitalArt #MastoArt #Fediverse #Introductions #Photography #FF #FollowFriday #Fediverse #CatsOfMastodon #News #AmReading #Books #DigitalDesign
Options: (choose one)
Edited 28d ago
Yes, yes; I am rereading Little, Big.
Again.
There’s always time.
There’s only time.
#AmReading #AmRereading #Bookstodon #JohnCrowley #LittleBig @bookstodon
All goofy smiling after finishing Blame This on the Boogie by Rina Ayuyang, a graphica memoir about growing up, school bullies, motherhood, fandom and above all, loving movie musicals.
Edited 42d ago
Quote of the Day:
"It was a very expensive lesson. But that does not mean that I learned it."
--John Hodgman, Vacationland
It's #SilentSunday now you know what to do 😁
@reading @bookstodon @books @humor @humor@lemmy.world @aiop @joinin
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I've finished: Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone
I accidentally entered Gladstone's Craft universe through the wrong door. Starting with: Dead Country, The Craft Wars #1. I decided to go back to the beginning of the Craft Sequence.
Thee Parts Dead was a delight. So many neat ideas, such a rich world.
It is a perfect mix: of the ancient and modern, of the magical and scientific, of old tropes and new.
I love the glimpses we get of a wider world and a deeper history. Hinting at a bigger universe beyond the limits of this novel.
It is both a light read and a complex tapestry of original twists on old tropes and new ideas that will peak the interest of an experienced fantasy reader.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/320caeca-00f8-4312-a2ba-7c04f7a5405a
@bookstodon @audiofiction
#fantasy #SFF #amReading #bookstodon #AudioBooks #MaxGladstone
#AmReading All Roads Lead to Austen, a memoir/travelogue about an American English teacher who decides to spend a year in Latin America and see if Austen hits the same way in translation. She's also exploring recommendations for local literature. Very engaging, especially for an Austen fan.
I've finished: Knock Knock, Open Wide by Neil Sharpson
I'm not a big fan of horror.
I loved Knock Knock, Open Wide, mostly because the physical horror bits are few and far between.
Sharpson is mostly interested in how the horrific events traumatize the victims. We follow two timelines, two generations trying to live and love while a curse hangs over them.
Following their struggle, their failures and successes is what Knock Knock is about.
The thing that captured me was that at the core of this dysfunctional family are two couples that truly love each other. The proposal scenes just melted my heart. These scenes of mutual consent stand in stark contrast to the coercive powers that haunt them.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/3aea5cb7-513b-4e83-a4a9-7e27101aac81
@bookstodon @audiofiction #horror #fantasy #amReading #bookstodon #AudioBooks
Edited 26d ago
In January 2026, a group of Hugh Cook fans began republishing his 10 book series, Chronicles of an Age of Darkness.
This is noteworthy since these novels were basically out of print and weren't available in e-book or audio. Untangling them from copyright limbo was no small feat.
In August, these fans, operating as Zenphos Press, published the first audio edition of The Wizards and the Warriors. The first novel in the series.
I was lucky enough to snag an early copy via the r/hughcook sub.
The narrator, Morgan Scott, is also a fan, and does an excellent job, you can feel that this is a labor of love for him.
Originally published from the mid 1980s to the early 90s, Chronicles of an Age of Darkness stands out as a critique of the heroic fantasy tropes so common in that era.
While other novels in the series use humor as part of this deconstruction, The Wizards and the Warriors is deadly serious. It is not Pratchett's The Color of Magic. It is more like Saving Private Rian. Working within the format of a heroic tale, exposing its dirty underbelly.
Cook takes the wizards and the warriors, two major examples of toxic masculinity and exposes the folly in their quest for power.
I originally learned of Cook's novels in the early 2010s. As a blind person I had to use a synthetic voice to listen to them.
Cook had a website on the early internet where he published the full text of, The Wordsmiths and the Warguild, the second book of the Chronicles. After reading that I had to resort to bootleg e-book versions scanned and uploaded by fans.
I'm very glad this series is finally getting a proper audiobook edition.
This is my original 2013 review:
Hugh Cook inserts some reality into his Fantasy.
While the setting is fantastic, Cook makes sure to break our expectations of a regular fantasy adventure, with his less than heroic heroes and less than clear path to ultimate goal.
My favorite scene is a battle where we first hear about the general's well laid plans and then watch them crumble in the face of reality.
So many books place a brilliant commander in charge and then you watch his brilliant plan unfold like clockwork. Hugh Cook is way beyond that kind of fantasy.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/95351200-2bf6-40d0-86ee-83dbe316e541
@bookstodon @audiofiction #fantasy #HughCook #AudioBooks #ChroniclesOfAnAgeOfDarkness #SFF #classics #amReading
Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery, Romance, #kindle
A collection of 171 #books for you to read free on #KU. My book is DRM-free.
#spaceship #magic #aliens #legendary #fedibookfair #boost #amreading #writing #dwarfs #readers #rogue #heroes #bookwyrm #reading #goodbooks #space #time #dwarves #dystopia #sorcery #monsters #futurism #planets #sciencefiction #science #scifi #writing #young #newadults #teen #teens #ya #books #booktoot #booksky #bookfunnel #bookstagram @bookstodon
Book Series I Want to Catch Up On: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-book-series-i-want-to-catch-up-on/
"The #FirstResponders - The black men from Pittsburgh who made up #America’s original paramedic corps wanted to make #history and save lives—starting with their own."
by Kevin Hazzard
https://magazine.atavist.com/2019/the-first-responders-paramedics-pittsburgh-civil-rights-ems
#longform #writing #atavistmagazine #amreading #BlackMastodon #BlackFedi #BlackHistory #BlackExcellence #AmericanHistory #EMS #paramedics
I need to see the rewritten version of this poem 😂
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I've finished: The Fortunate Fall by Cameron Reed
It is hard to discuss The Fortunate Fall without spoiling it.
The first half is great mid 90s Cyber Punk. With some neat ideas and much more depth than just; Maya is a camera.
I enjoyed the historical aspects of the novel, as Maya works to uncover past atrocities that the current regime is working to memory hole.
The cycle of revolution where the alternative is just another type of repression is the main theme.
The second half of the novel goes off the beaten path and I guess that's why I only heard about this novel in the 2020s.
It is definitely worth it, despite some bad writing. This is a novel that will make you think about the author's intent.
I think it's championing free will and consent.
That's why I accept the notion that The Fortunate Fall may exist in the same universe as the author's new novel (published 30 years later), What We Are Seeking.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/authors/36be4c2d-6059-4151-bc43-c87147f8aa0a
PS.
I enjoyed the Wizards vs. Lezbians episode about The Fortunate Fall.
Note that the episode is from 2021, before the author's transition. So they are still referring to her by her former name.
https://wizlez.libsyn.com/the-fortunate-fall
@bookstodon @audiofiction
#ScienceFictioni #CyberPunk #dystopian #lgbtqia #amReading #bookstodon #AudioBooks
Book Promotion: Epic Sci-Fi & #Fantasy books for #August
A collection of 39 #books for you to read. Read my #spaceopera
#kindle #spaceship #magic #aliens #legendary #fedibookfair #boost #amreading #writing #dwarfs #readers #rogue #heroes #bookwyrm #reading #goodbooks #space #time #dwarves #dystopia #sorcery #monsters #futurism #planets #sciencefiction #science #scifi #writing #young #newadults #teen #teens #ya #books #booktoot #booksky #bookfunnel @bookstodon
https://books.bookfunnel.com/sci-fi-fantasy-paranormal-ku-aug-sept-2026/zijbicypro
Reading Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson. Almost done, but gods below will this fight ever end? Please end me with a shardblade, but this is boring.
@bookstodon
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Finished Oathbringer by Sanderson at long last, and immediately picked up The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Stout. Not too far in yet, but it's beautifully written. Really enjoying this fairly slim book so far.
@bookstodon
#AmReading #Bookstodon #ElizabethStrout #BookerPrize
I've finished: Blind Lake by Robert Charles Wilson
This is my first Wilson novel since the Spin trilogy.
This time the quarantine is of a scientific facility, not the entire planet.
Blind lake starts as an examination of the scientific method, as it applies to studying alien intelligence. At first I thought I was going to get something in the vain of His Master's Voice by Stanislav Lem.
I'm happy to say this was not the case, it is a much more human story, focusing on the characters and their relationships.
It is strange to read a novel published in 2003, so close to the mobile data revolution yet not quite there. It has some good predictions but the mix of correct projections of technological progress and outdated concepts is uncanny.
Printing out documents in order to read them is so 2003.
Worth it for a good aliens, and some sympathetic humans. Content warning for a bunch of workplace and relationship stress.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/e35c8323-c7c4-42a8-ac58-7c9a29feabd2
@bookstodon @audiofiction #ScienceFictioni #Aliens #amReading #bookstodon #AudioBooks
Tomorrow is National Read a Book Day.
Are you ready for it? 📖