That's my favorite part of the holidays! 😂
#Introvert
#ReadingMemes #Memes #ReadAllTheBooks #Humor #Humour
#Reading #Readers #ReadersOfMastodon #ReadingCommunity
#Book #Books #Novel #Novels #Fiction
#Recommendation #Bookrecommendation
#Bookwyrm #Bookworm #Bookstodon #BookLove #BoostingIsSharing
Who was Homer, author of the Odyssey?
by Tom Hercules Davies
https://theconversation.com/who-was-homer-author-of-the-odyssey-287969
The Odyssey by Homer at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1727
Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica by Hesiod at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/348
Just finished The Great Gatsby. Is the American Dream a lie? Is Tom Buchanan a fascist? And does the book beat the DiCaprio film?
My full review is up now 📚🟢
finished reading Legends & Lattes: The Graphic Novel
I love the expressions in this book. Tandri's face when Amity first shows up was hilarious.
This was every bit as excellent as the original novel. Strongly recommended.
cross-posted from: lemmy.ca/post/72797259
The story takes place some years in the aftermath of a war that ended with a reunited Korea, in a future where robots are ubiquitous. Ruijie is a disabled young girl who walks with the aid of automated braces. While exploring a scrap yard she finds a damaged but charming robot in the shape of a boy. Jun and Morgan are estranged brother and sister, each with emotional scars from the disappearance of their older brother, a lifelike robot created by their visionary roboticist father. Jun, now a cop, is investigating the disappearance of an older model child robot, and Morgan, now a roboticist herself, is preparing for the rollout of her company’s new line of advanced child robots. The story has a lot going on, with a number of interesting characters, both human and robot. There’s a little too much coincidence in the circumstances that reconnect the siblings for my tastes, but the story is otherwise interesting, with a lot of exploration of how we’re shaped by memories and what it means to be human.
Mini, spoiler free review of *Luminous*, by Silvia Park
In 1969, Kurt Vonnegut offered this sharp and still remarkably timely critique of American attitudes toward poverty through the voice of Howard W. Campbell Jr. in Slaughterhouse-Five.
The belief that anyone can become wealthy encourages people experiencing poverty to blame themselves rather than question the economic and social structures that shape their circumstances. #books
9 Works That Complicate the South Asian Diaspora Novel - Electric Literature
"The Best Land Under Heaven: The Donner Party in the Age of Manifest Destiny" by Michael Wallis. My rating: 5 out of 5 stars. Published in 2017.
Book description: In the spring of 1846, a restless caravan prepared for what they hoped would be the most rewarding journey of a lifetime. But in eagerly pursuing what would a century later become known as the "American dream," this optimistic-yet-motley crew of emigrants was met with a chilling nightmare; in the following months, their excitement would be replaced by desperate cries for help that would fall silent in the deadly snow-covered mountains of the Sierra Nevada. We know these early pioneers as the Donner Party, a name that has elicited horror since the late 1840s. This is an account” (of the notorious saga which recounts how the unlikely band of early pioneers met their fate.
This book is detailed and graphic. It is much more than the overview written in the school history textbooks I read.
Description
“New Poland” represents the remnants of the surviving government of the Republic. They live in a state of comfort unattainable for others, maintaining access to electricity, clean water, high-quality goods, medicine, and advanced technology. Their ultimate goal is to wait until the surface is cleared of radiation and restore the Polish state.
They consider themselves the only legitimate heirs to civilization and the sole carriers of “pure genetic material.”
History
1. Origins: The Legacy of the Third Reich and Billions of Euros (1997–2013)
The history of “New Poland” began long before the nuclear warheads fell. In 1997, during the catastrophic “Millennium Flood,” Polish authorities received an unexpected gift from a German researcher: a map of secret Nazi underground facilities beneath Wrocław. It was revealed that in 1945, SS forces had built a vast, sprawling network of tunnels under the Fortress of Breslau.
Starting in 1998, the Polish government began a secret study of these sites under the codename “Project Abyss.” In 2001, a large-scale, highly classified modernization of the bunkers began. Billions of euros were siphoned from the state budget under the guise of highway construction. The goal was simple: to create an absolutely autonomous super-shelter for the elite—the country’s top political, financial, and military leadership (designed for approximately 1,000 people).
Simultaneously, in the Owl Mountains, the state completed and modernized another massive German site—the legendary “Riese” (The Giant) complex. The official date for the formation of the unified organization under the codename “New Poland” is considered to be 2013, when the entire infrastructure of the super-bunkers was finalized and mothballed in preparation for the Apocalypse.
2. The Nuclear Strike and Isolation (Post-2013)
When the nuclear conflict erupted, things did not go according to plan. The strike was so sudden that the evacuation plan in Wrocław failed by 70%. Only about 300–350 people—politicians, officials, scientists, and a handful of military personnel—managed to descend into “The Abyss.” Slightly more reached the Owl Mountains (“The Giant”)—about 1,075 selected citizens.
Isolated from the world, these people quickly developed a rigid ideology. They declared themselves the “sole legitimate heirs of civilization.” They despised the ordinary people surviving in metro tunnels and stations, viewing them as “sub-humans” and “genetic trash” (reminiscent of the Enclave from the Fallout series).
In the early years, the leaders of “New Poland” attempted to go to the surface. However, embittered survivors dying of radiation, seeing clean, well-fed officials, hunted them down and brutally executed them. Following this, the organization went deep underground and shifted to a tactic of secret conspiracies.
#Administrative Structure and Political Model
By structure, “New Poland” is a totalitarian technocracy with elements of caste segregation. Society is strictly divided into “Citizens” (pre-war elite, scientists, military, and their purebred descendants) and “Subjects/Slaves.”
Higher Caste: The Nomenklatura Elite
At the top of the pyramid were the survivors of the pre-war government and high-ranking military officers. In “The Giant” complex, absolute dictatorial power belonged to Colonel Andrzej (a former political strategist); in Wrocław’s “Abyss,” it was held by Katarzyna Bondarczuk. This layer lived in luxury: drinking elite pre-war alcohol, using silverware, and engaging in political power games.
Middle Caste: Citizens (“Purebloods”)
This group included rank-and-file scientists, engineers, and technicians who maintained the bunkers’ life-support systems, as well as regular army soldiers. They had access to quality medicine, clean water, and proper nutrition.
Psychological Note: Most ordinary citizens were victims of internal propaganda. The leadership skillfully hid the most horrific details of their operations. For instance, citizens in the Owl Mountains sincerely believed that the blind workers serving the bunker were “mutants” whom the elite had “nobly rescued” and were gradually curing in hospitals.
Lowest Caste: “Skoptsy” (Bio-robots)
The most disenfranchised and numerous category. These were former surface dwellers captured by “harvesting squads.” Their social status was that of a living tool. They were deprived of names, personal space, and basic human traits. They were surgically deprived of their eyes and vocal cords. The Skoptsy were at the bottom of the hierarchy, performing grueling physical labor on dynamos and water pumps in exchange for food and security.
Enclaves (Geography)The faction is decentralized into two main enclaves:
The General Command Headquarters (Complex “Riese” / The Giant): Located in the Owl Mountains, this is the supreme political center ruled by Colonel Andrzej. It houses the main military forces, archives, surviving art pieces, and the strategic leadership for expansion.The Wrocław Sector Administration (Complex “The Abyss”): Located directly beneath Wrocław and led by Katarzyna Bondarczuk. “The Abyss” serves as a forward outpost, a R&D hub, and the primary “resource collection point.”
Propaganda and Mind Control
Social stability was maintained through psychological pressure managed by scientists:
Internal Lies: Colonel Andrzej used his pre-war PR skills to build a system of fake news. Any dissent was suppressed, and information about the outside world was strictly filtered to maintain the illusion that they were the last island of civilization on Earth.
Audio-Hypnosis for Slaves: To prevent riots among the blind Skoptsy, “sweet propaganda” was broadcast 24/7 via megaphones. A calm, soothing voice convinced the mutilated workers that their injuries were a “temporary quarantine measure” and that after 1,000 days of faithful service, their sight and speech would be restored, their children returned, and they would become full citizens. This mental conditioning was more effective than torture.Economy and Logistics
“New Poland” controls the Kamionki valley in Lower Silesia, where they grow oats and vegetables and raise poultry on radiation-cleared fields. The farmland is protected by machine-gun nests, moats, and powerful searchlights.
The energy needs of “The Giant” are met by fuel reserves. Their armored trains, operated by the “Shadows” unit, made dangerous runs to Czech oil terminals (Unipetrol refineries), crossing zones of extreme radiation and biological contamination.
Military
Abyss Garrison: They wear hazmat suits and are armed with Beryl assault rifles (5.56 mm), Glocks, and grenades. Despite their superior gear, they lack combat experience; their commander, Major Wydrzycki, has never been in a real battle.
Giant Garrison: They use camouflage (sometimes with ghillie elements), HK416 rifles, night vision, and Apple-branded radios. Their armored trains are equipped with “Scorpions”—automated ballistae firing iron rods—and heavy flamethrowers for clearing tunnels.The Shadows: An elite unit (commanded by Łukasz Dąbrowski) responsible for high-risk railway missions.
Science and Technology
**Electronics:**They use salvaged computers and radios protected from the EMP. Engineers daily intercepted shortwave broadcasts from a Russian radio amateur in Moscow (Artyom Chyorny).
Medicine: Despite expired medicines, they have professional surgical tools and anesthesia. They test the healing properties of mutated flora on rats.
Biological Warfare: Scientists in “Riese” developed the “Grey Plague” and poisonous neon mushroom spores, used to clear tunnels and control the population of survivors in Wrocław.Notable Representatives
The Abyss:
The Giant (Riese):
Interesting Facts
“New Poland” is the Polish equivalent of the “Invisible Watchers” from Moscow, the “Federals” from Omsk, or the “UK Government” from London.
The leaders possess the authentic Amber Room, which was lost during WWII and hidden by Nazis in the tunnels of “The Giant.”
Colonel Andrzej’s pre-war career involved “black PR” on the internet and creating fake scandals to discredit political opponents.
The “Skoptsy” are told they will be “healed” after 1,000 days of service—a blatant lie used to maintain productivity and prevent suicide.
“New Poland” — An organization from the novels Metro 2033: Abyss, Metro 2033: Tower, and Metro 2033: Giant by Polish author Robert J. Szmidt.
https://lemmy.world/post/53267470
"For you, who also despairs."
— Klee Benally: No Spiritual Surrender Indigenous Anarchy in Defense of the Sacred
First time I've seen myself in a published book's dedication.
@bookstodon#Books #Nonfiction #Quotes #Indigenous #Anarchism
I’ve been pontificating about what kinds of posts I want to make with this account and the thing that comes to mind often is half-remembered books that strike me like lightning bolts in the dark of the night.
Being the shadows of the cave wall of my own sheltered but also kind of neglectful childhood, they’re the sort of thing that I had no idea how much shaped me. At least until years later and then suddenly I’m like, “Oh, that’s where I probably where I got that” and have to do dishes in the middle of the night to explore the memory before I can sleep again.
Right now I’m thinking about How to Eat Fried Worms and the way I saw it as a child. It felt like such an unusual choice for required group reading. I thought, “This is clearly a boy book, it’s about eating worms!” Now, I’m not so sure. It’s a boyish premise, but the conflict in the plot is a kid having a life-changing trial of delayed gratification. In the contest he faces
the monotonous toil of a task drawing on despite having a set endpoint
visceral disgust being punctuated by the knowledge he can simply walk away at any time
peer pressure to quit by people who stand to profit from his failure
backstabbing by peers who, when all other obstacles fail, decide to cheat in order to subdue him
My dude, he wasn’t having a childish contest of eating filth. That child in the story was working a 9-to-5 job. What was this story actually preparing us for? As kids? Damn, Daniel.
Since growing up, I’ve had a pretty combative relationship with the concept of resilience. It was something I had to self-teach and once I got it, I wasn’t letting go. It also was a shackle holding me in situations where I should have GTFO’d way before the point I decided to stop eating worms. In late stage capitalism it’s obviously become a powerful cultural tool to manipulate people into exploiting themselves. However, divesting yourself of it in an attempt to stop being exploited leaves you a wreck of a person.
I don’t know for sure where I got my propensity to grit my teeth through discomfort or how to hold on to that virtue in a society that would turn it into my destruction. But I loved that I had it and there were triumphs along the way that often came in the dark of the night, on the eleventh hour before a deadline, after somebody else’s focused attempt to move goalposts, after I had already done the complete extent of what I could do to make the shit I was eating palatable, after I had completely broken the way I think about pain to accommodate a work style where the worse things get the better I perform.
All those things were events that happened in this kid’s book about eating night crawlers, so I have a pretty strong suspicion.
TLDR: OP is baffled and astounded how children’s literature has morals and capitalism exploits our best qualities like an abusive partner
How to Eat Fried Worms
Remembering Grazia Deledda, the Sardinian Nobel Prize-Winner We Should All Be Reading
Jeff Biggers on the Legacy of a Little-Known Writer on the 100th Anniversary of Her Prize
Books by Grazia Deledda at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/33472
I cannot recommend Perilous Enchantments: a True History of Faeries by Sarah Clegg highly enough
And for some reason it’s only AU$1.99 on Kobo at the moment despite being a very new release
https://www.kobo.com/au/en/ebook/perilous-enchantment-3
In 19th-century Dublin, a disillusioned doctor and a fallen woman discover that some meetings change everything.
The Fitzgeralds of Dublin series is a sweeping Irish family saga following Will and Isobel through hardship, secrets, and the choices that shape their lives in a changing Ireland.
Begin with A Scarlet Woman - free to read in Kindle Unlimited - http://mybook.to/ascarletwoman
#Books #BooksByLornaPeel #FamilySaga #HistoricalFiction #KindleUnlimited #Ireland #BookSeries @bookstodon
Ebook and paperback: https://books2read.com/FeyFighters
Two soldiers on opposite sides, pixie Commander Stargazer Candleflash and human Sergeant Edwin Harris, find their fates forever entwined, first by revenge, but as they crash together in a dangerous rainforest, they’re forced to work together, just to survive. Will they make it or will their bickering get them killed?
@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #sciencefantasy #scifi #actionadventure #fiction #books
« #EyalWeizman, Professor of Spatial and Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London and founder and Director of #ForensicArchitecture joins for a discussion about his book, #Ungrounding: The Architecture of Genocide. »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnzzXLWwFYA
#Palestine #GazaGenocide #warOnGaza #stateCrime #counterforensics #infographics #books @bookstodon
This book is amazing at pulling so much together. I highly recommend it. Very freaky stuff that we all know, but laid out clearly and coherently.
Naomi Klein new banger
The fact that marketing more than quality influences what becomes popular is proof that we live in an inherently unjust universe 😜😁
#WritingMemes #Meme #Humor #Humour #Geek
#Author #IndieAuthor #Indie #Writers #Writing #WritingCommunity #WritersOfMastodon
#Reading #Readers #ReadingCommunity
#Novel #Books #Fiction
#Recommendation #Bookrecommendation
#Bookstodon #FantasyBooks
#Marketing #Popular
The Best Shakespeare Comedies
recommended by Heather Hirschfeld
For Shakespeare, comedy was not simply about laughter, but about conflict and confusion giving way to resolution and a happy ending — at least by the standards of the Elizabethan era.
https://fivebooks.com/best-books/shakespeare-comedies-heather-hirschfeld/
Shakespeare at PG:
"I Will Be Good: A Dublin tenement girl's journey to freedom, by Peig McManus. My rating: 4 out of 5 stars. Published in 2023.
Book description: 'Peig McManus was born into the last of Dublin's tenements before moving to one of Ireland's first social housing estates in Cabra. Her father believed that children should earn their keep and learn to face reality as soon as possible. That reality was poverty, class prejudice and strict Catholicism. This book is the story of a girl who rebelled against societal expectations and dreamed of further education. It tells of a young woman whose hopes of marriage to a Scottish sailor ended in the heartbreak of a daughter given up for adoption; of a mother who needed something more than her 'place at home'; and of a pioneering citizen who became one of Ireland's foremost campaigners for educational reform.
As an opening line this is hard to beat 😂
#DouglasAdams
#ReadingMemes #Meme #Humor #Humour #Funny #Geek #Quote
#Reading #Readers #ReadingCommunity #AmReading
#Novel #Books #Fiction #Bookstodon
On “Derek,” Captain Ahab’s Evil Half Brother
“Your worst enemy ain’t Moby Dick, it’s your half brother, Derek.”
by John Hay
Moby Dick at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2701
In 19th-century Dublin, a disillusioned doctor and a fallen woman cross paths, sparking a forbidden love that defies society's judgments.
Amazon - https://mybook.to/ascarletwoman
Other Retailers - https://lornapeel.com/fitzgeralds/a-scarlet-woman
#BooksByLornaPeel #Books #Ireland #HistoricalRomance #BookSeries #HistoricalFiction #KindleUnlimited #Bookstodon #Romance @bookstodon
This week's #NewBooks at the library: some books I hope to review soon!
- I received a review copy of Jessica Riskin's The Power of Life: The Invention of Biology and the Revolutionary Science of Jean-Baptiste #Lamarck, published by Riverhead Books. This will be the finale of an upcoming Lamarck-review-extravaganza.
- I received my preorder of Cody Dahler's The State of This! A Thicky Thicky Dumb Dumb's Guide to #BritishPolitics, published by Bonnier Books. This was supposed to be, but through some miscommunications ended up not being, a signed copy. Cody, let us know if you're ever in Devon on a speaking engagement, and I'll make an effort to come out and remedy that! :)
- Lastly, happy publication day to @parismarx Hyperscale: Ambition, Power and the Relentless Rise of Data Empires, published by Profile Books!
#Books #Bookstodon #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #HistSci #EvolutionaryBiology #Evolution #Lamarckism #Politics #AI #NoToAi #ArtificialIntelligence #DataCenters #Scicomm @bookstodon
