Previously Unknown Medieval Chronicle Discovered
A newly discovered chronicle from the early eighth century is giving medieval historians a rare new window onto the political shocks and religious debates that reshaped the eastern Mediterranean in the decades before and after the rise of Islam.
https://www.medievalists.net/2026/02/previously-unknown-medieval-chronicle-discovered/
More articles about Maronite Chronicle of 713:
https://medievalworlds.net/0xc1aa5572_0x004102d6.pdf
A Few Happy Memories From My Life: https://lydiaschoch.com/wednesday-weekly-blogging-challenge-a-few-happy-memories-from-my-life/
Born into a family of merchants, in 1271 a teenage Marco Polo set out for the court of the Mongol emperor – and he would not return to Italy for nearly a quarter of a century. This episode of You're Dead to Me traces Polo's extraordinary life and adventures.
Written by: Hannah Cusworth, Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow, Emma Nagouse, and Greg Jenner
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002913n
The Travels of Marco Polo at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/6046
How Georges Méliès Brought Magic to the Movies
Georges Méliès created worlds of magic and adventure that revolutionized filmmaking when filmmaking itself was still a novelty.
by Kat Bello (from the archives)
https://www.thecollector.com/georges-melies-magic-movies/
Movie books at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/bookshelf/49
Ah, Valentine’s Day ❤️ . The annual tradition where I think, I should really do some promotion to tie in, and then I decide to overthink whether I really write romantic enough romances in my fantasy books to qualify for it, and end up doing nothing.
Meanwhile, some joker writing tips for writing romance had the audacity to claim you don’t need a HEA. You can write an anti-romance all you like, my friend, just don’t list it in the romance genre!
ANYWAY, I did update my list of favourite queer romance trilogies for 2026:
https://wendypalmer.au/2024/02/11/books-favourite-queer-romance-trilogies/
finished reading Nervous Conditions 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
by Tsitsi Dangarembga.
Becoming a familiar refrain in African literature: girl fights for education & freedom against patriarchy & colonialism. This one, set in pre-independence Zimbabwe, might be the original (?) and the best, with carefully crafted & evolving characters. Ends very suddenly, though.
Maria Edgeworth’s Educational Philosophy in 5 Core Concepts
Maria Edgeworth's timeless educational philosophy focuses on practical skills, parental involvement, critical thinking, ethics, and individualized learning.
By Viktoriya Sus
https://www.thecollector.com/maria-edgeworth-educational-philosophy-core-concepts/
Maria Edgeworth at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/630
In September, I put in a purchase request for Enshittification at the library. In October, I was notified that Aarhus library now has it in stock. I reserved the audiobook. I just got a notification that it's ready for me to borrow. In one click, I have borrowed it. The library's simple, free, reader-oriented process is like the opposite of enshittification.
The Ur-“Conspiracy”: History of a Pseudoconcept
By Barrett Brown
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2026/02/12/the-ur-conspiracy-history-of-a-pseudoconcept/
#OTD in 1975, humorist P. G. Wodehouse died.
Wodehouse "was an English writer and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeves; the immaculate and loquacious Psmith; Lord Emsworth and the Blandings Castle set; the Oldest Member, with stories about golf...."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._G._Wodehouse
Books by Wodehouse at PG:
What Is The Library of Congress and What Does the Librarian of Congress Do?: Book Censorship News
By Kelly Jensen May
"Heaven did not seem to be my home; and I broke my heart with weeping to come back to earth; ..."
Don’t fall in love this Valentine’s Day – read Wuthering Heights
Emily Brontë’s novel celebrates the head-spinning, hair-raising, all-consuming experience of falling in love.
by Andrew McInnes
Wuthering Heights at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/768
I've never read any Richard K. Morgan, but watching the brilliant Netflix show Alerted Carbon and reading about him and the books definitely want to read the series.
Just in case, like me, you're in need of something wholesome to start a new week: Betty's Reading Room by the dock in Tingwall, Orkney.
Apparently set up by a couple in memory of their late friend Betty Prictor - a place for folk to hang out while waiting for the Rousay ferry and really just the loveliest memorial I can imagine.
#OTD Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway was published.
What a Plunge! Teaching Mrs. Dalloway to High Schoolers in 2025
by Mia Manzulli
https://lithub.com/what-a-plunge-teaching-mrs-dalloway-to-high-schoolers-in-2025/
Mrs. Dalloway at PG
📚 Skirting Danger by: Kay Keppler
Suspended for a hunch gone wrong, CIA language analyst Phoebe Renfrew is desperate to get her job back. But when she uncovers a terrorist plot at a Las Vegas start-up car company owned by famed ex-quarterback Chase Bonaventure, no one listens to her.
The CIA doesn't care, the FBI is too busy, and th...
https://bookblabla.com/book/skirting-danger
#books #reading #libraries #fiction #generalfiction #romance #romanticcomedy
This week's #NewBooks at the library:
- I expanded my collection of #Tolkien books with The Tower and the Ruin: J.R.R. Tolkien's Creation from W.W. Norton
- I used my employer's Christmas voucher to buy a copy of Simon Parkin's The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad: A True Story of Science and Sacrifice in a City under Siege from Sceptre (look out for a review in due course).
- I also found a second-hand copy of What Is Regeneration? from the University of Chicago Press.
#Books #Scicomm #Tolkien #Literature #DevelopmentalBiology #SeedBank #Botany #Bookstodon @bookstodon
📚 The Road to Roswell: A Novel by: Connie Willis
When level-headed Francie arrives in Roswell, New Mexico, for her college roommate's UFO-themed wedding—complete with a true-believer bridegroom—she can’t help but roll her eyes at all the wide-eyed talk of aliens, which obviously don’t exist. Imagine her surprise, then, when she is abducted by one.
Odder still, he...
Today is Nabokov’s birthday.
A serious butterfly specialist and a brilliant #literature professor in the US, famous for his lectures.
Speaking of Lolita: he did not write a #romance. He wrote a chilling masterclass in manipulation and self-justification.
Predators like #Epstein crave beautiful alibis. #Nabokov offers none. He gives us a liar so eloquent that the #readers has to struggle not to be deceived.
#books #bookstodon #today #writers #writer
@bookstodon #birthday
“Multitudes” is a #haiku from Library on Fire, my 3rd volume of #poetry available at https://www.nihtgengapress.com/product/library-on-fire
Thank you, Dolly Parton! ❤️
"Dolly Parton-led program has mailed 4 million free books to Oregon children"
"Oregon’s version of Imagination Library, an initiative launched by superstar Dolly Parton to send a free book each month to babies and preschoolers, recently mailed its 4 millionth book to an Oregon child."
Book Review: Lessons in Magic and Disaster
A Russian nested doll of stories, characters and relationships, and yes, magic
My review of @charliejane 's book at the NOAF blog:
http://www.nerds-feather.com/2026/02/book-review-lessons-in-magic-and.html
![Theophilus Schweighardt, The Temple of the Rose Cross, 1618,
The representation was created around 1604 and was published in the Speculum sophicum Rhodostauroticum by Theophilus Schweighart. At the center of the picture is a wheeled, fortress-like building. Look at the picture from the OCCIDENS, i.e. from the west. The lower image caption provides us with an indication of this (it is difficult to recognize here in the picture). The entrance to this building, which is directly revealed to the viewer, is marked by a lettering. Above the archway you can read "VENITE DIGNI" ("COME HERE, WORTHY"). To the right of the archway you can see a cross and to the left a rose. Directly below the entrance you can read the word "MOVEAMVR" spread over two lines. Above the archway there are two windows along which the lettering "IESVS NOBIS OMNIA" ("JESUS [IS] EVERYTHING FOR US") runs along. It therefore becomes clear that, in addition to all the many other symbolic representations, it could be a rose cruiserical representation. The cross and rose can be clearly identified, but not presented united, as in today's form.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Templeofrosycross_highres.png](/proxy/post_attachment/992973/736d78bcb1.png "Theophilus Schweighardt, The Temple of the Rose Cross, 1618,
The representation was created around 1604 and was published in the Speculum sophicum Rhodostauroticum by Theophilus Schweighart. At the center of the picture is a wheeled, fortress-like building. Look at the picture from the OCCIDENS, i.e. from the west. The lower image caption provides us with an indication of this (it is difficult to recognize here in the picture). The entrance to this building, which is directly revealed to the viewer, is marked by a lettering. Above the archway you can read \"VENITE DIGNI\" (\"COME HERE, WORTHY\"). To the right of the archway you can see a cross and to the left a rose. Directly below the entrance you can read the word \"MOVEAMVR\" spread over two lines. Above the archway there are two windows along which the lettering \"IESVS NOBIS OMNIA\" (\"JESUS [IS] EVERYTHING FOR US\") runs along. It therefore becomes clear that, in addition to all the many other symbolic representations, it could be a rose cruiserical representation. The cross and rose can be clearly identified, but not presented united, as in today's form.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Templeofrosycross_highres.png")
