Book Review: All that We See or Seem, by Ken Liu
A challenging novel that fearlessly faces a world full of AI
http://www.nerds-feather.com/2025/10/book-review-all-that-we-see-or-seem-by.html
@princejvstin.com
tackles the book at the NOAF blog
#books #ai #sciencefiction #sf #review #bookstodon @bookstodon
"Acclaimed author #OmarElAkkad writes a powerful reflection [on] #WesternHypocrisy over #Gaza in his book, #OneDayEveryoneWillHaveAlwaysBeenAgainstThis. We speak to El Akkad on the immense suffering that has occurred over the past two years of #Israel's genocidal war and examine how #WesternLiberals failed the people of Gaza."
https://omny.fm/shows/the-take/glb-omarelakkad
#Palestine #WarOnGaza #GazaGenocide #USpol #USpolitics #USforeignPolicy #liberalPosturing #NiOubliNiPardon #books @bookstodon
Portuguese writer Camilo Castelo Branco died #OTD in 1890.
One of his most famous novels is "Amor de Perdição", a tragic love story that is often compared to Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet." Camilo Castelo Branco's life was marked by personal and professional challenges, including periods of financial difficulty, imprisonment, and ill health, yet he remained a central figure in Portuguese literary circles.
Books by Camilo Castelo Branco at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/6699
French mathematician Évariste Galois died #OTD in 1832.
Galois developed a deep understanding of the relationship between polynomial equations and group theory. He showed how the solutions to polynomial equations are related to the structure of certain groups, now called Galois groups. This connection helps determine whether a polynomial can be solved by radicals (i.e., using a finite number of root extractions).
Galois at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/40484
I am re-reading one of my favorite #books: "The Snow Leopard" by Peter Matthiessen. It is a #travel book set in 1973 in #Nepal as the author accompanies a #science expedition into the #Himalayas. It is a book about #nature and a #Buddhist introspection on grief and change.
The cool thing is that I am #reading the chapters on the day they were set. A really nice experience if you have never read such a book like that before.
German poet Georg Herwegh was born #OTD in 1817.
Herwegh's poetry is characterized by its passionate advocacy for freedom and democracy. He became famous with his collection "Gedichte eines Lebendigen", published in 1841. This work was widely acclaimed for its revolutionary zeal and critique of the existing social and political order.
Books by Georg Herwegh at Projekt Gutenberg-DE:
https://www.projekt-gutenberg.org/autoren/namen/herwegh.html
📚 A Sudden Light by: Garth Stein
Twenty-three years after the fateful summer of 1990, Trevor Riddell recalls the events surrounding his fourteenth birthday, when he gets his first glimpse of the infamous Riddell House. Built from the spoils of a massive timber fortune, the legendary family mansion is constructed of gi...
https://bookblabla.com/book/a-sudden-light
#books #reading #libraries #fiction #generalfiction #ghostfiction #literaryfiction #familylife
finished reading Slade House 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑
by David Mitchell.
Every nine years, people disappear into a house which otherwise can't be found. The author's usual layering of stories across different time periods gradually reveals the truth, though it's not particularly clever this time around. Dark arts & illusions, bit creepy, not really my thing.
There’s a scene in a Ramona Quimby novel where Ramona is sent home from school in the 1950s or 1960s because she was sick.
When I was school aged in the 1990s and 2000s, students who missed too many days were punished. One would still generally go to school with, say, a cough or mild fever unless you were ill enough to see a doctor or be hospitalized.
Older people of Mastodon, do you know when and why this changed?
Danish writer Martin Andersen Nexø died #OTD in 1954.
Nexø is best known for his novel "Pelle Erobreren", which is a significant work in Danish literature and has been widely translated. It follows the life of Pelle, a boy from a poor family who grows up to become a labor leader. The novel is celebrated for its detailed portrayal of working-class life and its strong social and political themes.
Books by Martin Andersen Nexø at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/2530
Jane Austen and theory of mind: how literary fiction sharpens your ‘mindreading’ skills
by Carmen Barajas and Noelia López-Montilla
Austen at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/68
"Taking the Civil War as his starting point for this trenchant survey of the #AmericanLeft, Hartman offers us dozens of portraits of #Marxism’s main protagonists [...] and charts their triumphs and travails all the way up to the present."
Robin Blackburn reviews #AndrewHartman's #KarlMarxInAmerica
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/karl-marx-in-america-marxism-in-us/
#Marx #AmericanMarxism #USleft #UShistory #AmericanHistory #USpolitics #books @bookstodon
Alphabets From The Zanerian School of Penmanship, c.1910
These satisfying handwritten alphabets are from the 1900 and 1910 editions of penmanship guides, The New Zanerian Alphabets.
by Sheldon D.
Alphabets at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subjects/search/?query=alphabets
Spanish dramatis, writer and poet Pedro Calderón de la Barca died #OTD in 1681.
His plays have been divided thematically: religious comedies (La devoción de la cruz), historical-legendary (El sitio de Breda), comedies of intrigue (Casa con dos puertas, mala es de guardar), comedies of honor (El médico de su honra), philosophical (El gran teatro del mundo), mythological (Eco y Narciso) and sacramental acts (A Dios por razón de estado).
Bird Grove review – George Eliot’s true story embellished in a tender drama
Elizabeth Dulau is terrific in Alexi Kaye Campbell’s new play as the young woman set to become a daring pioneer in fiction and real life
by Arifa Akbar
George Eliot at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/90
📚 The Berry Pickers by: Amanda Peters
A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a mystery that will haunt the survivors, unravel a family, and remain unsolved for nearly fifty years
"A stunning debut about love, race, brutality, and the balm of forgiveness." —People, A Best New Book
...
https://bookblabla.com/book/the-berry-pickers
#books #reading #libraries #fiction #indigenousfiction #familylife #siblings
American writer, historian and poet Elizabeth Fries Ellet died #OTD in 1877.
She is best known for her works on women’s contributions to American history, particularly during the American Revolutionary War. Her extensive research and writings helped to highlight the often overlooked roles that women played in significant historical events.
Books by Elizabeth F. Ellet at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/45321
It's here!! THE SECRET OF THE SAPPHIRE SENTINEL is now available! Written by me as J. Dianne Dotson, this is the sequel to my Nebula & BSFA finalist novel, THE INN AT THE AMETHYST LANTERN. Order from your favorite bookseller!
#scifi #fantasy #sff #newbooks #books
https://jendiagammon.com/the-secret-of-the-sapphire-sentinel/
Here are a few thoughts on Happy All the Time by Laurie Colwin, 1978. This was the perfect change of pace for me after a dark read, with touching scenes, sharp observations, and plenty of witty dialogue #BookReview #audiobooks #Storygraph #reading #books
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/2a6b271f-ff49-433b-b4e0-87d24c964db4
"And they talked about the mediocrity of provincial life, so suffocating, so fatal to all noble dreams."
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert was published #OTD in 1857. It tells the story of Emma, a doctor’s wife bored with provincial life. She seeks escape through affairs and overspending, leading to ruin. The novel caused scandal but became a major work of French literature.
Madame Bovary at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2413
"It's much more entertaining to live books than to write them."
Daddy-Long-Legs
American writer Jean Webster (pen name of Alice Jane Chandler Webster) died #OTD in 1916.
Webster's first novel, "When Patty Went to College" (1903), was based on her experiences at Vassar and reflected her humor and insight into college life. Her most known novels are "Daddy-Long-Legs" (1912) and its sequel "Dear Enemy" (1915).
Books by Jean Webster at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/99
I’m currently reading “Born: A History of Childbirth ” by Lucy Inglis and thought you all might find this amusing.
There is a section in the book that talks about how some ancient Egyptian physicans believed that migraines were caused by wandering wombs.
The treatment: rub oil on the patient and blow incense smoke at her to encourage her womb to move back into proper position. 😂
📚 Roadkill by: Dennis E. Taylor
Jack Kernigan is having a bad day…a bad year…a bad life. After being booted out of MIT, he’s back in his Ohio hometown, working for the family business, facing a life of mediocrity. Then one day, out on a delivery, his truck hits…something. Something big…furry…invisible. And, it turns out, something not of this Earth.
Fate can play funny tricks. ...
![A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a mystery that will haunt the survivors, unravel a family, and remain unsolved for nearly fifty years
"A stunning debut about love, race, brutality, and the balm of forgiveness." —People, A Best New Book
July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, vanishes. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother, Joe, sitting on a favorite rock at the edge of a berry field. Joe will remain distraught by his sister’s disappearance for years to come.
In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, her mother frustratingly overprotective. Norma is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem more like memories than imagination. As she grows older, Norma slowly comes to realize there is something her parents aren’t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she will spend decades trying to uncover this family secret.
For readers of The Vanishing Half and Woman of Light, this showstopping debut by a vibrant new voice in fiction is a riveting novel about the search for truth, the shadow of trauma, and the persistence of love across time.
"A harrowing tale of Indigenous family separation . . . [Peters] excels in writing characters for whom we can’t help rooting . . . With The](/proxy/post_attachment/886404/d1d876103b.jpg "A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a mystery that will haunt the survivors, unravel a family, and remain unsolved for nearly fifty years
\"A stunning debut about love, race, brutality, and the balm of forgiveness.\" —People, A Best New Book
July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, vanishes. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother, Joe, sitting on a favorite rock at the edge of a berry field. Joe will remain distraught by his sister’s disappearance for years to come.
In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, her mother frustratingly overprotective. Norma is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem more like memories than imagination. As she grows older, Norma slowly comes to realize there is something her parents aren’t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she will spend decades trying to uncover this family secret.
For readers of The Vanishing Half and Woman of Light, this showstopping debut by a vibrant new voice in fiction is a riveting novel about the search for truth, the shadow of trauma, and the persistence of love across time.
\"A harrowing tale of Indigenous family separation . . . [Peters] excels in writing characters for whom we can’t help rooting . . . With The")
