books

125d

Just finished reading BRAWLER, by Lauren Groff. These stories pack a punch, tell us a lot about ourselves, and make us so involved that we start telling the characters what to do and what not to. The author who impressed you with the story collection of FLORIDA, is back, and more skilled than ever before. #books @bookstodon #bookstodon

Cover depicts a fiercely focused swimmer on the dive team. She is mirrored in the water by her own reflection, but her gaze is, perhaps unsettlingly, directed at you, like she has something to tell you that you aren't prepared to hear. That level of trepidation informs the entire collection.

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151d

Skies of blue

In the early 1800s, in the city of Suzhou in eastern China, two striking large-format maps were printed in vivid Prussian blue. One map depicted the terrestrial world of the Qing empire, the other, shown below, depicted the heavens. Look closely and you can see the curve of the Milky Way.

via @knowablemag.bsky.social

https://www.leventhalmap.org/digital-exhibitions/heaven-and-earth/catalogue/4/?utm_source=Knowable+Magazine&utm_campaign=d8f9d358c7-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_05_20_07_13&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_150f6a5cbe-6b2b776029-546465172

Books about Ancient Astronomy at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/15624

#Books #Science #Astronomy

Complete Map of Unified Star Configurations in the Heavens.

A large Chinese celestial map printed in white on deep indigo blue. A circular star chart dominates the centre, showing constellations as dot clusters with connecting lines, surrounded by concentric rings marking celestial divisions and the 28 lunar mansions. Dense columns of classical Chinese text fill all four borders, providing astronomical annotations. Large seal-script characters down the right edge read 渾天壹統星象全圖 — roughly "Complete Map of Star Patterns Unified with the Celestial Sphere."

https://www.leventhalmap.org/digital-exhibitions/heaven-and-earth/catalogue/4/?utm_source=Knowable+Magazine&utm_campaign=d8f9d358c7-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_05_20_07_13&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_150f6a5cbe-6b2b776029-546465172

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151d

From Jessica Luther in our magazine: Once the majority has decided a marginalized group is the demon in one part of a story, it’s easier to paint them as demons in another. To counter this, we need to look at gender-expansive athletes in a detailed and holistic way. https://www.texasobserver.org/trans-athletes-inclusion-sports-culture/

#sports #gender #trans #politics #USpol #books #bookstodon

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76d

Step into 19th-century Ireland!

Forbidden love, family secrets, and a sweeping saga await in A Scarlet Woman.

Start reading The Fitzgeralds of Dublin series today in Kindle Unlimited.

Amazon - https://mybook.to/ascarletwoman
Other Retailers - https://lornapeel.com/fitzgeralds/a-scarlet-woman

#TheFitzgeraldsOfDublinSeries #Books #BooksByLornaPeel #Ireland #BookSeries #HistoricalFiction #KindleUnlimited #Romance #HistoricalRomance @bookstodon

Promotional image for the Irish historical fiction novel A Scarlet Woman by Lorna Peel, book one in The Fitzgeralds of Dublin series, a 19th-century Irish family saga. The image shows a Kindle device displaying the book cover, which shows a late 19th-century woman with dark hair and a pink flower on her white dress, looking down pensively. Text on the ad reads: “Love that defies society. Secrets that shape a family.” and “Step into 19th-century Ireland and meet the Fitzgeralds of Dublin. Start the series today! Free to read with Kindle Unlimited.” The background is a faded image of Georgian townhouses on Merrion Square in Dublin, Ireland.

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150d

Beyond Disney: A 1616 portrait of Pocahontas shows how English colonizers saw Indigenous Americans

by Peter C. Mancall

https://theconversation.com/beyond-disney-a-1616-portrait-of-pocahontas-shows-how-english-colonizers-saw-indigenous-americans-282221

Pocahontas at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/1236

#Books #Colonialism #NativeAmericanHistory

Engraved portrait of Matoaks or Rebecka, the Native American woman better known as Pocahontas, made in 1616 during her trip in England, where she died shortly after. It is the only known representation of her made during her lifetime. By Simon van de Passe (1595–1647)

A formal engraved oval portrait of a young woman aged 21 (noted Aetatis suae 21, 1616) dressed in English Jacobean style — a tall hat with feather, elaborate lace ruff collar, and richly embroidered coat. She holds a feathered fan. The Latin inscription around the oval reads "Matoaka als Rebecca Filia Potentiss. Princ. Powhatani Imp. Virginiae" — identifying her as daughter of the powerful Prince Powhatan of Virginia. Below, English text describes her as converted to Christianity, baptised as Rebecca, and wife to "Mr. Joh. Rolff."

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pocahontas_by_Simon_van_de_Passe_(1616).png

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150d

How Henry James Became the American Giant of English Literature

The life of Henry James, who left America for a cosmopolitan life in Europe before settling in England and contributing multiple masterpieces to its literature.

by Dr. Victoria C. Roskams

https://www.thecollector.com/henry-james-english-literature/

Books by Henry James at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/113

#Books #Literature

Portrait of Henry James, charcoal drawing by John Singer Sargent (1912).

A charcoal portrait drawing of Henry James, a heavyset bald man with deep-set eyes and a serious, introspective expression. He wears a dark jacket and bow tie.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_James#/media/File:Portrait_of_Henry_James_1913.jpg

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150d

#OTD in 1897. First publication of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Let's celebrate #DraculaDay!

The novel was mostly written in the 1890s, and Stoker produced over a hundred pages of notes, drawing extensively from folklore and history. He probably found the name "Dracula" in Whitby's public library while on holiday, selecting it because he thought it meant 'devil' in Romanian.

Dracula at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/345

#Books #Literature

Henry Irving is widely considered to have inspired Dracula.

John Bernard Partridge - The Lyceum "Faust." By Joseph Hatton ... with illustrations from drawings by W. Telbin, Hawes Craven, W. H. Margetson, J. Bernard Partridge, and Helen H. Hatton

Taken from "The Ilustrated London News"

A black-and-white engraving of a theatrical figure in a sweeping dark cape, one arm thrust skyward, the other outstretched. He wears a pointed cap, tight hose, and an ornate belt, with a pallid, wide-eyed expression of dark exultation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula#/media/File:Mephistophles_on_the_Brocken_(cropped).jpg

Handwritten notes about the novel's characters.

A handwritten manuscript page headed "Historiae Personae — Dracula" — Bram Stoker's early working notes listing characters for his novel, with many names cross…A handwritten manuscript page headed "Historiae Personae — Dracula" — Bram Stoker's early working notes listing characters for his novel, with many names crossed out and revised. Recognisable entries include Jonathan Harker (the lawyer's clerk), Wilhelmina Murray (called Mina), Lucy Westenra, Dr. Seward, and Count Dracula. Earlier rejected names are heavily struck through. Notes at the bottom mention a "secret room" and "dinner of 13," revealing the novel's plot still in formation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula#/media/File:Stoker_Dracula_Notes_Personal.jpg

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150d

📚 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by: Mark Haddon

Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic. Everyday interactions and admonishments ha...

https://bookblabla.com/book/the-curious-incident-of-the-dog-in-the-night-time

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #literaryfiction #familylife #general

Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic. Everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning for him. At fifteen, Christopher&s carefully constructed world falls apart when he finds his neighbour&s dog Wellington impaled on a garden fork, and he is initially blamed for the killing.

Christopher decides that he will track down the real killer, and turns to his favourite fictional character, the impeccably logical Sherlock Holmes, for inspiration. But the investigation leads him down some unexpected paths and ultimately brings him face to face with the dissolution of his parents& marriage. As Christopher tries to deal with the crisis within his own family, the narrative draws readers into the workings of Christopher&s mind.

And herein lies the key to the brilliance of Mark Haddon and choice of narrator: The most wrenching of emotional moments are chronicled by a boy who cannot fathom emotions. The effect is dazzling, making for one of the freshest debut in years: a comedy, a tearjerker, a mystery story, a novel of exceptional literary merit that is great fun to read

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A modern classic—both poignant and funny—about a boy with autism who sets out to solve the murder of a neighbor's dog and discovers unexpected truths about himself and the world.

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150d

Today is Dracula Day.

Some monsters never die 🧛‍♀️
Bram Stoker gave the world more than a vampire. He created a shadow that still follows us through books, films, dreams, and nightmares.

#DraculaDay #Dracula #BramStoker #Stoker #books #vampire #literature #reading #today #onthisday #bookstodon @bookstodon #booksky #BookTok #readers #novel #horror #horrorbooks #bookstagram

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150d

Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery, Romance, #kindle

A collection of 176 #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

https://books.bookfunnel.com/kureviews-may/9ncayvxar6

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123d

"Where do you begin to make sense of it being #Palestine that must deradicalise? How do you credit the viciously oppressed being told that it is they who must commit to offering no threat to #Israel, their oppressor?"

#FintanDrury, author of Genocide: Sponsoring the Destruction of Palestine

https://www.irishnews.com/news/northern-ireland/how-the-west-sponsored-the-destruction-of-palestine-OQQHTLXG2BHU5GM5RTFKN4LTBI/

#Gaza #GazaGenocide #imperialism #colonialViolence #books @bookstodon

Edited 123d ago

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124d

Scholar Claims Van Gogh Hid Secret Homage to Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’ In His ‘Café Terrace at Night’

Did you know about his "Sacred Realism"?

by Lorena Muñoz-Alonso (from the archives)

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/vincent-van-gogh-last-supper-cafe-terrace-at-night-275282

Books by Van Gogh at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/40599

#books #Art #Culture

Van Gogh - Terrace of a Café at Night (Place du Forum) 1888.

It depicts a café on the Place du Forum lit by gaslight, glowing yellow against the deep blue starry night sky, with cobblestones rendered in van Gogh's characteristic brushwork.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caf%C3%A9_Terrace_at_Night#/media/File:Van_Gogh_-_Terrace_of_a_Caf%C3%A9_at_Night_(Place_du_Forum)_1888.jpg

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76d

Ebook and paperback: https://books2read.com/JigsawCity

Nicole’s brain is slowly being taken over by an ancient, magical artifact, a small fragment of a magic city. She seeks a cure, before the city can destroy her sanity and then eventually, take her life by replacing her mind. Racing against time, she gathers pieces of the city, hoping to find an answer among them.

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #sciencefantasy #scifi #actionadventure #fiction #books

(Left) The cover of Jigsaw City, by Owen Tyme.

The background is a futuristic city of sky scrapers covered in greenery, with water ways in place of some streets. The background has been divided by dark lines that cut it up, into a jigsaw puzzle.

The foreground is a hexagonal coin with an indentation in the center that follows the same shape, with raised lines forming a hexagram in the center, which has a smaller one turned at a ninety-degree angle inside the hexagon at the center of it. The smaller hexagram has another inside it, a pattern that repeats until the lines become so fine and indistinct, they blend together.

(Right) There's a pool of lava at the base of a rocky slope, with some sharp rocks sticking upward out of it and the following text over the top:

“I’m immune to heat and fire. I can easily carry and protect one of you…”

“Ye’d need to deliver an army to make a difference, not one person!”

“I *am* an army.”

(Bottom) https://books2read.com/JigsawCity

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63d

Help me choose my 150th book! As the title says, I’m reaching the milestone of reading 150 books and I’d love you all to help me choose my 150th book to read! I’m not bound to a particular genre though romantasy, heavy horror or romance books are not my preferred genres to read. Everything else works! My favorite genres are thrillers, sci-fi, adventures, detective mysteries though I can read pretty much everything except the three genres I mentioned above. So you can recommend a wide range of books. The book that gets the most upvotes will be my next pick! If I already read that one, it will be the next most upvoted one and so on. If your book suggestion got few upvotes, worry not! I have a plan for it too. I’ll gather all the options that got fewer upvotes into a list and randomly choose a book from it as my next read. I think 3 days is enough to let everyone make their suggestions, so that’s when I’ll pick the book! Edit: 3 days have passed and we have a winner! The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin suggested by belluck! Page · lemmy.zip

As the title says, I’m reaching the milestone of reading 150 books and I’d love you all to help me choose my 150th book to read!

I’m not bound to a particular genre though romantasy, heavy horror or romance books are not my preferred genres to read. Everything else works! My favorite genres are thrillers, sci-fi, adventures, detective mysteries though I can read pretty much everything except the three genres I mentioned above. So you can recommend a wide range of books.

The book that gets the most upvotes will be my next pick! If I already read that one, it will be the next most upvoted one and so on. If your book suggestion got few upvotes, worry not! I have a plan for it too. I’ll gather all the options that got fewer upvotes into a list and randomly choose a book from it as my next read.

I think 3 days is enough to let everyone make their suggestions, so that’s when I’ll pick the book!

Edit: 3 days have passed and we have a winner! The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin suggested by belluck!

Help me choose my 150th book!

https://lemmy.zip/post/70129045

Edited 59d ago

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150d

What book(s) are you currently reading or listening to? May 26

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124d

Naming the Universe

How the quick thinking of internationally minded astronomers avoided stamping the solar system with petty European rivalries

by Stephen Case

https://aeon.co/essays/how-gods-beat-astronomers-in-the-solar-system-name-game?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=1e79debba6-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_06_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-4ef8a26106-72664972

Books by John Herschel at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/48095

#Books #Astronomy

Planetary System. Eclipse of the Sun. The Moon. The Zodiacal Light. Meteoric Shower. From Yaggy’s Geographical Study, 1887.

An illustrated educational diagram depicting the solar system with orbital paths around a central sun, comets, and the zodiacal light. The corners feature vignette illustrations of related astronomical phenomena: a solar eclipse, the moon, the zodiacal light, and a meteoric shower.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:Levi_Walter_Yaggy_Planetary_System_1887.jpg

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149d

How the Great Pyramid of Giza has survived 4,500 years of Egyptian earthquakes

by Colin Caprani an Scott Menegon

https://theconversation.com/how-the-great-pyramid-of-giza-has-survived-4-500-years-of-egyptian-earthquakes-283363

Full article (open access):
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-49962-6

Books in Egypt at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/bookshelf/121

#Books #Engineering #Natural_Hazards

PYRAMIDS, EGYPT

The Mentor: Egypt, the Land of Mystery, Serial No. 42

By Dwight L. Elmendorf

A black-and-white photograph of the Giza pyramid complex seen from a distance across a flat, dark plain. Three pyramids rise against a pale, overexposed sky, with the Great Pyramid of Khufu dominant on the right. A small low structure sits in the foreground, giving a sense of the vast scale.

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/50384/pg50384-images.html

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243d

📚 Flashlight by: Susan Choi

One summer night, Louisa and her father take a walk on the breakwater. Her father is carrying a flashlight. He cannot swim. Later, Louisa is found on the beach, soaked to the skin, barely alive. Her father is gone. She is ten years old.

Louisa is an only child of parents who have severed themselves from the past. ...

https://bookblabla.com/book/flashlight

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #literaryfiction #familylife #general

One summer night, Louisa and her father take a walk on the breakwater. Her father is carrying a flashlight. He cannot swim. Later, Louisa is found on the beach, soaked to the skin, barely alive. Her father is gone. She is ten years old.

Louisa is an only child of parents who have severed themselves from the past. Her father, Serk, is Korean, but was born and raised in Japan; he lost touch with his family when they bought into the promises of postwar Pyongyang and relocated to North Korea. Her American mother, Anne, is estranged from her family. But now it is just Anne and Louisa, adrift and facing the challenges of ordinary life in the wake of catastrophe. United, separated, and also repelled by their mutual grief, they attempt to move on. But they cannot escape the echoes of that night. What really happened to Louisa’s father?

A monumental new novel from the National Book Award winner Susan Choi, Flashlight spans decades and continents in a spellbinding, heart-gripping investigation of family, loss, memory, and the ways in which we are shaped by what we cannot see.

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker • Time • New York • The Washington Post • NPR • Los Angeles Times • The Boston Globe • The Guardian • Vanity Fair • Elle • Town & Country • Oprah Daily • The New York Post • 48 Hills • Financial Times • The Economist • Esquire (UK) • Kirkus Reviews • Electric Literature • PEN America • The Chicago Public Library • Los Ange

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149d

This past weekend, I thought I'd dip a toe into Fantasy, a genre I usually only get close to with SFF titles. Naomi Novik had a little novella out: The Summer War, and it turned out to be a quite satisfying read. (I had read one of her novels before: Uprooted.)

So, I thought "Why not give a full-length fantasy tome a try?" To that end, I picked up the highly rated This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me, by Illona Andrews. Are any of you familiar with it? It came out this year. The author seems to have put forth significant effort into world-building and story development. We shall see!

#Books #Reading #Fantasy

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125d

Rolling my eyes at Cory Doctorow

Edited 124d ago

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140d

Life is short. Read more.

#books #bookstodon @bookstodon #reading

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149d

Bay Area peeps! What are you doing this weekend? Why not join me and a bunch of other amazing authors at the Bay Area Book Festival?? It's all happening in downtown Berkeley! I'll be there Saturday and Sunday! www.baybookfest.org

PLUS!! If you love science fiction, fantasy, and horror, there is a special
@Locusmag festival for the Locus Awards on Friday and Saturday during BABF, so be sure to check that out too! https://locusmag.com/2026-locus-awards-weekend/

#books #scifi #sfba

Edited 149d ago

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148d

Ian Fleming (May 28, 1908 — August 12, 1964) didn’t invent James Bond out of nowhere. During World War II, he worked in British Naval Intelligence and saw from the inside how real secret operations were planned.

#IanFleming #JamesBond #books #reading #writers #author #readers #today #onthisday #BookTok #bookstodon @bookstodon #booksky #bookstagram #literature #spyware #intelligence #book

Ian Fleming

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148d

A Review of Afterglow - Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors: https://lydiaschoch.com/a-review-of-afterglow-climate-fiction-for-future-ancestors/

#SolarPunk #HopePunk #Books #ScienceFiction #LGBTQ

Book cover for Afterglow - Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors by Grist. Image on cover is a drawing of an alien with a small, curled snout who is holding a shovel and standing on a pink, blue, and yellow surface that seems to have vegetation of those colours, too.

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148d

Love Language

The undying dream of Esperanto

by Katie Thornton

https://harpers.org/archive/2026/06/love-language-katie-thornton-esperanto/?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=campaign&utm_id=01KSQ7JVHVABAKFRY3CGXJYDZ0&_kx=3MZUehzXM-41qlWAMPUiuNZadX2p0SByuNf_t0eMLB0.U5D8ER

Books in Esperanto at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/bookshelf/34

#Books #Literature

The Esperantist, Complete

Editor: H. Bolingbroke Mudie

The cover of The Esperantist, Vol. I (Nov. 1903 – Dec. 1904), published at Norfolk Street, Strand, London. The ornate black-and-white design features a central star — the symbol of the Esperanto movement — surrounded by circular medallions depicting the continents of the world. A small portrait, likely of L.L. Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto, appears at the centre bottom.

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/38240/pg38240-images.html

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