books

The Declaration of Love (c1724) by Jean François de Troy.

The painting depicts an intimate and elegant moment of courtship in an 18th-century refined interior or garden setting. At its centre, a young gentleman kneels before a seated young lady: he extends a small bouquet of flowers with one hand while placing his other hand to his heart.

The lady, dressed in sumptuous silk‐embroidered attire, receives the gesture with composed modesty: she looks somewhat downward and sideways.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Declarationoflove.jpg

@audiofiction @bookstodon

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113d

One of my favourite romance books out of all the audiobooks I've narrated is Scar by Kelsie Calloway. (I narrated this one as Eden Cavell.)

Scar's a reclusive mountain man who's given up on love. Marilyn's the natural disaster he didn't see coming. When they face an Alaskan avalanche together, she turns his world upside-down!

Scar is a 6'6", rugged Alakan outdoorsman and I am a petite woman. I love that audiobook narration means I got to voice such a gruff, manly character -- who I would never be cast to play in a normal acting situation.

This story is a classic grumpy-sunshine pairing and it's also an Experienced Older Man + Younger Woman age gap romance. It's both sweet and spicy.

There's one particular spicy story element that deserves a content warning (you'll love it or hate it), so I'll put that under a content warning below so you only see the spoiler if you want to.

Available in audiobook on Apple Books, Amazon and Audible, plus in ebook on Amazon.

https://geni.us/scarh

#Romance #Audiobook #Audiobooks #Bookstodon #Books #Ebooks #Audible #Amazon #AppleBooks #RomanceBooks #Romancelandia

Square audiobook cover, showing a muscular, bare-chested man with a dark beard. He is pulling the hood of his unzipped grey hoodie up over his head. Text says "Scar: The Men of Devil's Peak. Kelsie Calloway. Now in Audio."

https://everybodyslibraries.com/2025/12/10/why-not-both/

Edited 113d ago

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75d

Why not both?

There is some international overlap. Swiss composer Arthur Honegger (1892-1955) published his first symphony in 1930, a commission for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

By John Mark Ockerbloom

#books #music #publicDomainDayCountdown

Arthur Honegger (1892-1955), Swiss composer. Picture taken in 1928 : glass negative, restored and cropped print.

Agence de presse Meurisse - This file comes from Gallica Digital Library and is available under the digital ID btv1b9041196z

The formal black and white image shows Honegger in his mid-30s wearing a dark suit with patterned tie, his distinctive wavy hair and intense gaze capturing the serious demeanor of this prominent 20th-century composer. From the Gallica Digital Library collection.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Arthur_Honegger#/media/File:Arthur_Honegger_b_Meurisse_1928.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Peterkin

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111d

Celebrating Sir Tim Berners-Lee, 2025 Internet Archive Hero Award Recipient https://blog.archive.org/2025/11/05/celebrating-sir-tim-berners-lee-2025-internet-archive-hero-award-recipient/

#books

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1y

"The dusk crept out across the fields wiping out the day's light."
Black April (1927)

American author Julia Peterkin died #OTD in 1961.

In 1929 she won the Pulitzer Prize for Novel/Literature for her novel Scarlet Sister Mary. She wrote several novels about the plantation South, especially the Gullah people of the Lowcountry. She was one of the few white authors who wrote about the African-American experience.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/72611

Doris Ulmann and Julia Peterkin.

Julia Peterkin, an author who focused on similar themes in her writing, might be seen standing or sitting beside Ulmann, engaged in conversation or simply sharing a moment of quiet reflection. Peterkin might also be dressed in a similar style, with her hair possibly pinned up. The background of the photograph is likely simple, perhaps a natural outdoor setting or a rustic interior, consistent with the subjects of their work.

https://bookblabla.com/book/set-on-you

Edited 1y ago

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76d

Blue Are the Hills – a character-driven scifi novel about transhumanism and hope

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113d

📚 Set on You by: Amy Lea

A gym nemesis pushes a fitness influencer to the max in Amy Lea’s steamy debut romantic comedy.

Curvy fitness influencer Crystal Chen built her career shattering gym stereotypes and mostly ignoring the trolls. After her recent breakup, she has little stamina left for men, instead finding solace in the gym - her place of power and...

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #romance #contemporary

A gym nemesis pushes a fitness influencer to the max in Amy Lea’s steamy debut romantic comedy.

Curvy fitness influencer Crystal Chen built her career shattering gym stereotypes and mostly ignoring the trolls. After her recent breakup, she has little stamina left for men, instead finding solace in the gym - her place of power and positivity.

Enter firefighter Scott Ritchie, the smug new gym patron who routinely steals her favorite squat rack. Sparks fly as these ultra-competitive foes battle for gym domination. But after a series of escalating jabs, the last thing they expect is to run into each other at their grandparents' engagement party.

In the lead up to their grandparents' wedding, Crystal discovers there’s a soft heart under Scott’s muscled exterior. Bonding over family, fitness, and cheesy pick-up lines, they just might have found her swolemate. But when a photo of them goes viral, savage internet trolls put their budding relationship to the ultimate test of strength.

One of....
Amazon's Best Romances of 2022
Bustle's Most Anticipated Books of May
Goodreads' Most Anticipated May Romances
SheReads' Best Romance Books Coming in 2022

https://bookblabla.com/book/the-chrysalids

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113d

[REVIEW] Sohachi Hagimoto - That's My Atypical Girl

cross-posted from: lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/56892944

A Human Made of Words.

This has been one of the best manga I have ever read.

Oftentimes, you hear about how an author “paints with their words” or something to that effect – Hagimoto does something different. It’s not painting, it’s not even sculpting… They do something more akin to Prometheus shaping a Human out of clay. Every page pulls you in and forces you to face the characters in such a realistic way, that you simply can’t help but wholeheartedly believe that they’re real people; Breathing humans of flesh and blood, that just happen to be made of lines and words.

Something that bothers me to no end, when it comes to a lot of manga that deal with bullying and topics of self-harm and suicide, is that they are gratuitously violent. I understand that that sort of representation matters, but it falls flat more often than not, I find. Not in That’s My Atypical Girl – here, everything feels real. It’s a little hard to explain, actually, because I feel like I can’t possibly hope to do justice to the pages, but it simply feels like it happened.

It’s reality; It’s raw and hard to read at times; It’s painful and violent; But it’s true. It speaks to you in such an undeniable way, that it transcends its medium.

This isn’t the sort of manga that transports you into its world; This isn’t an immersive experience that makes you forget reality. No. This is the sort of manga that changes your reality. After reading this, the world of the manga becomes your reality. This has changed the way I think, the way I see other people, and I’m sure it has changed the way I act. It’s the sort of manga that will stay with me, even if I forget it.

Truly, a life-changing experience, and a heartfelt depiction of depression, anxiety, and ASD.

It is a little odd how self-referential it is, though. It’s not bad in any regard, mind you, it’s not even off-putting, but it is just noticeable enough that you begin wondering how much the author wants you to pay attention to it. It is a manga about a mangaka, after all, so I guess it makes sense, in a way. Still.

Morita’s art is good (and actually gets significantly better as the manga goes on, I think, but I would argue that it is by far the weakest point of this work. Occasionally, the characters do look a little off. I suppose this opinion is a consequence of my being spoiled with lots of very high-quality art in other manga, but I can’t let it go unsaid.

I know I didn’t really speak too much about the plot or the characters in this review, but I feel that I shouldn’t. The characters are complex and deep, all of them; However, I can’t bring them to life in a short Lemmy review, so I simply won’t attempt to describe them at all. It would be a disservice to the work. The plot is moving and compelling; However, I can’t make you believe it happened, so I simply won’t attempt to summarize it.

Please, read this.

…and let me know what you think!

Rating: 5/5

Read on Bato.to!

Takahe has limited support for this type: See Original Page

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112d

📚 The Chrysalids by: John Wyndham

David lives in a tight-knit community of religious and genetic fundamentalists, who exist in a state of constant alert for any deviation from what they perceive as the norm of God’s creation—deviations broadly classified as 'offenses' and 'blasphemies'. Offenses consist of plants and animals tha...

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #sciencefiction #dystopianfiction #literary

David lives in a tight-knit community of religious and genetic fundamentalists, who exist in a state of constant alert for any deviation from what they perceive as the norm of God’s creation—deviations broadly classified as 'offenses' and 'blasphemies'. Offenses consist of plants and animals that are in any way unusual, and these are publicly burned to the accompaniment of the singing of hymns. Blasphemies are human beings—ones who show any sign of abnormality, however trivial. They are banished from human society, cast out to live in the wild country where, as the authorities say, nothing is reliable, and the devil does his work. David grows up surrounded by admonitions: KEEP PURE THE STOCK OF THE LORD; WATCH THOU FOR THE MUTANT.

At first, he hardly questions them, though he is shocked when his sternly pious father and rigidly compliant mother force his aunt to forsake her baby. It is a while before he realizes that he too is out of the ordinary, in possession of a power that could doom him to death or introduce him to a new, hitherto-unimagined world of freedom.

The Chrysalids is a perfectly conceived and constructed work from the classic era of science fiction. It is a Voltairean philosophical tale that has as much resonance in our own day, when genetic and religious fundamentalism are both on the march, as when it was written during the Cold War.

THE COLD WAR SCI-FI CLASSIC: Following a global nuclear war, a telepathic young boy searches for freedom in a fu

#books #reading #fantasy #gayRomance #indieAuthor #historicals #ReadingCommunity @bookstodon

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113d

@neve thank you for hosting the #writephant bi-monthly check-in, very useful timing for me at the transition from one project to the next 😊

#SelfPromo

I write fantasy with romance, mostly queer. My next book is out November 16 and features the ghosts of Hampton Court Palace, a Maremma named Max, and a friends-to-lovers gay romance.

Might be on preorder at your favourite retailer, definitely will be available on #KoboPlus, #Everand and #Hoopla, and you can always ask for it at your library.

Or you can get it right now directly from me: https://payhip.com/b/A3P2i

And receive a free 2026 calendar featuring public-domain nineteenth-century artworks illustrating relevant book quotes.

Read about all my books here: https://wendypalmer.au/

Cover of Grace & Favour. Blue and brass-yellow colours predominant. The title is in fancy font at the top, and there's what looks like a photo portrait in an ornate frame, of two men, one in a top hat, one holding a pocket watch, and a large white dog. In the background of the photo (actually a daguerreotype, but anachronistically in colour), there is the faint impression of a woman, transparent...you could say, almost ghostly...

Mood board for Grace & Favour. Has a painting by Turner (a watercolour of Hampton Court Palace from across the river), a daguerreotype in a case, a ghost postcard, a Scots phrasebook, and a big picture of Max, a Maremma livestock guard dog, big, white and fluffy.

#books
@bookstodon
#nature

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113d

I keep getting heart-warming updates from my brother that my little nephew is really enjoying the birthday present I sent: the young readers edition of An Immense World by Ed Yong. If you know a kid fascinated by animals or the natural world, consider pointing them to it. (Or if you know any adults like that!)

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79d

Finished: The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey.

Wow, that was a ride. I've posted before about having a hard time finding horror or thrillers that don't feel like their twists are predictable.

This is a sci fi thriller that didn't suffer from that problem at all. The twists are very good. I really enjoyed it. It was my book club suggestion so I'm curious what folks will think when we meet next week!

#SciFi #Bookstodon #Books @bookstodon #TheEchoWife

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111d

Portland Book Festival is this Saturday, Nov. 8, at "ten stages at six partner venues in downtown Portland’s south Park Blocks" (quoting their website)

Main page:

https://pdxbookfest.org/

Authors & Presenters:

https://pdxbookfest.org/lineup/

Map (PDF):

https://pdxbookfest.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/PBF25_ScheduleSignage_8.5x11_MAP.pdf

@bookstodon
#Portland #PDX #Books #Bookstodon #PDXBookFest

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109d

Jason Koebler for 404 Media: "AI Is Supercharging the War on Libraries, Education, and Human Knowledge"

“Fascism and AI, whether or not they have the same goals, they sure are working to accelerate one another” - Maggie Tokuda-Hall

#books #writing #writersofmastodon #WritingCommunity #bookstodon @bookstodon

https://www.404media.co/ai-is-supercharging-the-war-on-libraries-education-and-human-knowledge/

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1y

English civil servant and author E.R. Eddison died #OTD in 1945.

He is best known for The Worm Ouroboros (1922) and for the Zimiamvian Trilogy set in the imaginary world Zimiamvia. The Worm of Ouroboros shaped the landscape of contemporary science fiction and fantasy. When The Lord of the Rings first appeared, the critics inevitably compared it to this landmark work. Tolkien himself frankly acknowledged its influence, with warm praise for its imaginative appeal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._R._Eddison

#books

Eric Rucker Eddison c.1922 by George Beresford.

The photograph of Eric Rucker Eddison, taken around 1922 by George Beresford, depicts the English author and civil servant known for his fantasy novels. In the portrait, Eddison is seen with a poised and dignified demeanor. He is dressed formally, wearing a suit and tie, with a high-collared shirt that was typical of the period. Eddison's hair is neatly combed back, and his facial expression is thoughtful, with a slightly serious, introspective gaze. The photograph is in black and white, adding a timeless quality to the image, and it captures the intellectual and refined presence of Eddison, who would later be recognized for his influential work in fantasy literature, particularly The Worm Ouroboros.

https://daily.jstor.org/historys-footnotes/

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1y

History’s Footnotes

The addition of footnotes to texts by historians began long before their supposed inventor, Leopold von Ranke, started using them (poorly, as it turns out).

By: Matthew Wills via @JSTOR_Daily

#books #footnotes

A hand grasping a white cross against a purple backdrop.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla

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1y

Serbian inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist Nikola Tesla was born #OTD in 1856.

Some of Tesla´s inventions and innovations: alternating Current (AC) system; induction motor; Tesla coil; wireless transmission of electricity; radio technology; remote control; neon and fluorescent lighting; X-Ray technology; Tesla turbine; oscillators and frequency generators.

Books by Nikola Tesla at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/5067

#books #science #technology

Nikola Tesla, with Rudjer Boscovich's book "Theoria Philosophiae Naturalis", in front of the spiral coil of his high-voltage Tesla coil transformer at his East Houston St., New York, laboratory.

Tesla is typically shown standing confidently, either holding the book or with it placed on a nearby table, symbolizing the connection between theoretical knowledge and practical application. He is dressed formally, reflecting his professional demeanor and the serious nature of his work.

https://bookblabla.com/book/against-the-machine

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50d

📚 Against the Machine by: Paul Kingsnorth

How a force that’s hard to name, but which we all feel, is reshaping what it means to be human

In Against the Machine, "furiously gifted" (The Washington Post) novelist, poet, and essayist Paul Kingsnorth presents a wholly original and terrifying account of the technological-cultural ...

#books #reading #libraries #socialscience #essaysphilosophy #technologystudies

How a force that’s hard to name, but which we all feel, is reshaping what it means to be human

In Against the Machine, "furiously gifted" (The Washington Post) novelist, poet, and essayist Paul Kingsnorth presents a wholly original and terrifying account of the technological-cultural matrix enveloping all of us. With masterful insight into the spiritual and economic roots of techno-capitalism, Kingsnorth reveals how the Machine, in the name of progress, has choked Western civilization, is destroying the Earth itself, and is reshaping us in its image. From the First Industrial Revolution to the rise of artificial intelligence, he shows how the hollowing out of humanity has been a long game—and how your very soul is at stake.

It takes effort to remain truly human in the age of the Machine. Writing in the tradition of Wendell Berry, Jacques Ellul and Simone Weil, Kingsnorth reminds us what humanity requires: a healthy suspicion of entrenched power; connection to land, nature and heritage; and a deep attention to matters of the spirit. Prophetic, poetic, and erudite, Against the Machine is the spiritual manual for dissidents in the technological age.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclides_da_Cunha

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1y

“It's not the barbarian who threatens us, it's civilization that frightens us.”

Brazilian sociologist and journalist Euclides da Cunha died #OTD in 1909.

His most important work is Os Sertões (Rebellion in the Backlands), a non-fictional account of the military expeditions promoted by the Brazilian government against the rebellious village of Canudos, known as the War of Canudos.

Brazilian journalist and writer Euclides da Cunha.

Cover of the book “Os Sertões” by Brazilian writer Euclides da Cunha, published in 1902 and therefore in the public domain due to its age.

https://bookblabla.com/book/hole-in-the-sky

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109d

📚 Hole in the Sky by: Daniel H. Wilson

On the Great Plains of Oklahoma, in the heart of the Cherokee Nation, a strange atmospheric disturbance is noticed by Jim Hardgray, a down-on-his-luck single father trying to reconnect with his teenage daughter, Tawny. At NASA’s headquarters in Houston, Texas, astrophysicist Dr. ...

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #sciencefiction #thrillers #suspensefiction #indigenous

On the Great Plains of Oklahoma, in the heart of the Cherokee Nation, a strange atmospheric disturbance is noticed by Jim Hardgray, a down-on-his-luck single father trying to reconnect with his teenage daughter, Tawny. At NASA’s headquarters in Houston, Texas, astrophysicist Dr. Mikayla Johnson observes an interaction with the Voyager 1 spacecraft on the far side of the solar system, and she concludes that something enormous and unidentified is heading directly for Earth. And in an undisclosed bunker somewhere in the United States, an American threat forecaster known only as the Man Downstairs intercepts a cryptic communication and sends a message directly to the president and highest-ranking military brass: 'First contact imminen't.

A gripping sci-fi thriller—and Native American First Contact story—from the New York Times bestselling author of Robopocalypse, Daniel Wilson, who is a Cherokee Nation citizen and works as a threat forecaster for NASA.

This is where Daniel Wilson's fascinating novel begins. Heliopause is a real place—the very outer edge of our solar system where the sun's solar winds are no longer strong enough to keep debris and intrusions from bombarding our system. It is the farthest edge of our protected boundary (it was recently crossed by Voyager), and the line beyond which space experts look for extraterrestrial presences.

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

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108d

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

After encountering the worst life has to offer, including the death of his wife and child, destruction of his home world, an addiction forced on him by the one responsible and a third of the galaxy falling under the heel of that tyrant, Levi Jacobs, a wizard, seeks to unravel the secrets of time and fate.

(Left) The cover of The Inverted Glass, by Owen Tyme.

The Background is a pink and purple nebula in space.

The foreground is largely line art, in white, with a black shadow outline.

At the center is an hourglass. The bottom has black sand, with a white figure standing in it. The top has is an inverted mirror image of the bottom, with a black figure in white sand.

The hourglass serves as the balance point for a set of scales, which hold a heart and a feather. The heart is on the left and the feather on the right. The heart is lower than the feather.

(Right Background) Lying in blue sand is a heart made of the same sand, full of cracks. It glows from the inside in a warm, yellow color.

(Right Foreground) She sacrificed her life,
To save everyone from strife.
Feather against the heart,
Not knowing does really smart.

The necromancer calls,
And it really galls.
Dead, but not forgotten,
She thinks the necromancer’s rotten.

Judgment day delayed,
So she could use her blade.
In agony of soul,
Good or evil is this troll?

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

https://djo.org.uk/household-words/volume-xiv/page-1.html

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117d

COVER REVEAL! 🚀📷 We are delighted to unveil SHOESHINE BOY & CIGARETTE GIRL, a #scifi #romance novelette by award-winning author P.A. Cornell! Cover art by Kim Herbst! Launching February 3, 2026. Read all about this delightful book: https://www.starsandsabers.com/2025/10/30/cover-reveal-for-shoeshine-boy-cigarette-girl-by-p-a-cornell/
#books #scifi #romance #scifiromance #2026books

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50d

How do you organize your shelves?

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1y

#OTD in 1856.

Wilkie Collins' "Anne Rodway", a story in diary form about a needlewoman and her fiancé investigating the murder of a friend, appears in Household Words (first chapter), as the first English story to feature a woman as the main detective character.

The story is set in mid-19th century London, depicting the harsh realities of life for the working poor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prelude

Edited 1y ago

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1y

"Not uselessly employed,
Might I pursue this theme through every change
Of exercise and play, to which the year
Did summon us in his delightful round."

In July 1850.

William Wordsworth's The Prelude; or, Growth of a Poet's Mind: An Autobiographical Poem, on which he has worked since 1798, is first published about three months after his death by Edward Moxon in London in 14 books, with the title supplied by the poet's widow, Mary.

#books #literature #poetry

Portrait of William Wordsworth.

The poet is depicted in his middle age, reflecting his maturity and established reputation in the literary world.

Wordsworth’s expression is contemplative and serene, capturing his introspective nature and profound connection to nature and human emotions.