Eggplant.place

95d

This week's #NewBooks at the library: I bought second-hand copies of Fevered Planet: How #Diseases Emerge When We Harm Nature by the late John Vidal and #Dust: The Modern World in a Trillion Particles by Jay Owens, and picked up a review copy of Uncommon Ground: Rethinking Our Relationship With the #Countryside by Patrick Galbraith.

#AtmosphericSciences #Pandemics #Epidemics #PublicHealth #Zoonoses #Books #Scicomm #Bookstodon @bookstodon

A photo of three books standing upright on a small, brown, wooden table. The out-of-focus background shows black shelves full of books.

On the left, Fevered Planet, showing a black-and-white photo of the rocky landscape of a hand-dug open-pit mine. In the foreground is a small, lone human figure resting one leg on a pile of shattered rocks. The title is written across the photo in neon-orange, with the last letters of each word rendered as if they are powdering into fine dust at their edges.

In the middle, Uncommon Ground, showing part of the oil painting "Wivenhoe Park, Essex" by John Constable, showing a bucolic landscape with a grazing cow behind a wooden fence. The fence runs across the picture in the foreground, while there is a large pond in the background. Behind the pond can be seen a small planted grove of large trees, and on the right, part of what looks like a mansion. The centre of the image has been rendered as if part of the drawing has been ripped out, showing the rough edge of torn paper and at the bottom, a curled-up piece of torn paper.

On the right, Dust, showing a NASA satellite photograph of planet Earth at night. Next to artificial lighting, several colourful swirls are visible in blue, red, and purple. This is a composite image that was taken on the 23rd of August 2018 that shows the various aerosols in our atmosphere. You can read more about this particular image here: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/92654/just-another-day-on-aerosol-earth

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93d

finished reading The World We Make 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑
by NK Jemisin.

New York finishes the job against the Multiverse, despite the conservative reticence of the Old Cities. Clunkier and without the freshness of the original. But fun to see more city avatars. I think Mamdani could easily be a character in these books!

#BookReview #Books #Bookstodon #SFF

@WildWoila @wildwoila@wyrms.de

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73d

Words and Music

https://justin-farrimond.pixels.com/featured/words-and-music-justin-farrimond.html

A throne of words and music in Hay-on-Wye, a town of books.

#PhotoOfTheDay #BelieveInFilm #Photography #Art #Print #MediumFormat #Travel #Books #HayOnWye

Colour film photograph showing a wooden throne like seat beneath a plaque for Hay-on-Wye.

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94d

"Here’s what the line wasn’t: a gray inert nowhere. Imagine instead an all-Soviet public square, a hurly-burly where comrades traded gossip and insults, caught up with news left out of the newspapers, got into fistfights, or enacted comradely feats." -- from 'Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking' by Anya von Bremzen

#BookQuote #books #reading @bookstodon

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1y

Spanish writer Francisco Gómez de Quevedo y Villegas died #OTD in 1645.

Along with his lifelong rival, Luis de Góngora, Quevedo was one of the most prominent Spanish poets of the age. His style is characterized by what was called conceptismo. This style existed in stark contrast to Góngora's culteranismo.

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

Books by Francisco de Quevedo at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/35792

#books #literature #poetry

Portrait of celebrated Spanish poet and writer, Francisco de Quevedo, attributed to Juan van der Hamen, 17th century (Instituto Valencia de Don Juan).

In the portrait, Francisco de Quevedo is depicted as a middle-aged man with a serious, contemplative expression. His distinctive facial features include a long, narrow face, a prominent mustache, and a goatee. One of the most notable details is the presence of Quevedo’s signature pince-nez glasses, which rest on his nose. These round spectacles are closely associated with Quevedo and emphasize his scholarly image.

Quevedo is dressed in the formal attire typical of a Spanish nobleman and intellectual of the 17th century. He wears a dark, austere robe, which contrasts with the lighter tones of his skin and the dark background.

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1y

127 pages of very short 'sketch' scenario narratives that I use to help create the Sub Orbital Machine universe; almost like adventure starters! You might like it. You might think it sucks. You might get confused. Regardless, I am putting it out there for all to download for the tiny cost of a subbing to my newsletter (which you might find interesting!)

https://iamgerardthomas.com/b/TyE

#WIPWednesday #MastoArt #FediArt #ConceptArt #books #artist #design #ArtistOnMastodon #SciFiArt #SciFi #scifibooks

Mock book cover for my Sub Orbital Machine pdf book

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1y

"Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience."
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (ed. 1793)

British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights Mary Wollstonecraft was born #OTD in 1759. In "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" (1792), Wollstonecraft argued that women are not naturally inferior to men but appear so only because of a lack of education.

Books by Mary Wollstonecraft at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/84

#books #literature

A classic oil painting depicts Mary Wollstonecraft wearing a white v-neck gown with a soft, flowing texture. The attire seems to be of a delicate fabric that drapes elegantly around the figure's arms and chest. The background is predominantly dark, contrasting with the bright white of the gown. The figure's hair appears to be styled up and away from the face, with hints of brown tones, which suggests a sense of sophistication and poise.

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An old, worn book opened to the title page which reads "A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN: WITH STRICTURES ON POLITICAL AND MORAL SUBJECTS. BY MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT. PRINTED AT BOSTON, BY PETER EDES FOR THOMAS AND ANDREWS, FAUST'S STATE, NO. 45, NEWBURY-STREET, MDCCXCIX." The text is in black capital letters centered on the page with a decorative monogram between the author's name and the printer information.

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73d

📚 Echo of Worlds (The Pandominion, 2) by: M. R. Carey

Two mighty empires are at war - and both will lose, with thousands of planets falling to the extinction event called the Scour. At least that's what the artificial intelligence known as Rupshe believes.

But somewhere in the multiverse there exists a force - the Mother Mass - that could end the war in an instant, ...

https://bookblabla.com/book/echo-of-worlds-the-pandominion-2

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries

Two mighty empires are at war - and both will lose, with thousands of planets falling to the extinction event called the Scour. At least that's what the artificial intelligence known as Rupshe believes.

But somewhere in the multiverse there exists a force - the Mother Mass - that could end the war in an instant, and Rupshe has assembled a team to find it. Essien Nkanika, a soldier trying desperately to atone for past sins; the cat-woman Moon, a conscienceless killer; the digitally recorded mind of physicist Hadiz Tambuwal; Paz, an idealistic child and the renegade robot spy Dulcimer Coronal.

Their mission will take them from the hellish prison world of Tsakom to the poisoned remains of a post-apocalyptic Earth, and finally bring them face to face with the Mother Mass itself. But can they persuade it to end eons of neutrality and help them? And is it too late to make a difference?

Because the Pandominion's doomsday machines are about to be unleashed - and not even their builders know how to control them.

From the author of the bestselling The Girl With All the Gifts comes the thrilling conclusion to the spectacular Pandominion duology, an exhilarating science fiction story perfect for fans of The Space Between Worlds, The Long Earth and Children of Time.

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96d

Space Worms now on preorder everywhere! Only 99c. When the galaxy gets absurd, it's Space Squad 51 to the rescue! This extra adventure goes back in time to when Nikili Echols gets her calling to join Orbital Rescue Services. https://books2read.com/u/4NBlGz #books #WritingCommunity #sciencefiction #humor #readers

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76d

The big reveal…

So I wrote up a lot of these little stories a few years ago but I’ve added some new ones, cleaned it all up and now I’m the happiest with it that I’ve ever been. You can definitely get a copy in time for Christmas, if you’re so inclined…

https://amzn.eu/d/2kbNn7k

#bookreveal #newreleases #books #bookstodon #selfpublishing #author #shortstories

A man with glasses is smiling and holding several copies of a book titled "With So Many Sagas in the World..." by David Olsen. The background shows a cozy room setting with warm lighting.

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94d

Medieval Apps Takahe has limited support for this type: See Original Page

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1y

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into an enormous insect."
First lines

In October 1915.

Franz Kafka's seminal novella The Metamorphosis (Die Verwandlung) is first published in Die Weißen Blätter. Kafka finishes writing The Trial this year, but it will not be published until 1925, the year after his death.

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

The Metamorphosis at PG, translated by David Wyllie:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/5200

#books #literature

Edited 1y ago

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95d

📚 Stranger in a Strange Land by: Robert A. Heinlein

Raised by Martians on Mars, Valentine Michael Smith is a human who has never seen another member of his species. Sent to Earth, he is a stranger who must learn what it is to be a man. But his own beliefs and his powers far exceed the limits of humankind, and as he teache...

https://bookblabla.com/book/stranger-in-a-strange-land

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #sciencefiction #literaryfiction #classics

Raised by Martians on Mars, Valentine Michael Smith is a human who has never seen another member of his species. Sent to Earth, he is a stranger who must learn what it is to be a man. But his own beliefs and his powers far exceed the limits of humankind, and as he teaches them about grokking and water-sharing, he also inspires a transformation that will alter Earth’s inhabitants forever...

Robert Heinlein's Hugo Award-winning all-time masterpiece, the brilliant novel that grew from a cult favorite to a bestseller to a science fiction classic.

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97d

#OTD In 1858, Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf was born.

"She published her first novel, Gösta Berling's Saga, at the age of 33. She was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, which she was awarded in 1909. In 1914, she was the first woman to be granted a membership of the Swedish Academy"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selma_Lagerl%C3%B6f

Books by Lagerlöf at PG:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1717

#books #literature

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97d

📚 The Dream Hotel: A Read with Jenna Pick by: Laila Lalami

Sara has just landed at LAX, returning home from a conference abroad, when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pull her aside and inform her that she will soon commit a crime. Using data from her dreams, the RAA’s algorithm has determin...

https://bookblabla.com/book/the-dream-hotel-a-read-with-jenna-pick

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #literaryfiction #dystopianfiction #political

Sara has just landed at LAX, returning home from a conference abroad, when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pull her aside and inform her that she will soon commit a crime. Using data from her dreams, the RAA’s algorithm has determined that she is at imminent risk of harming the person she loves most: her husband. For his safety, she must be kept under observation for twenty-one days.

The agents transfer Sara to a retention center, where she is held with other dreamers, all of them women trying to prove their innocence from different crimes. With every deviation from the strict and ever-shifting rules of the facility, their stay is extended. Months pass and Sara seems no closer to release. Then one day, a new resident arrives, disrupting the order of the facility and leading Sara on a collision course with the very companies that have deprived her of her freedom.

Eerie, urgent, and ceaselessly clear-eyed, The Dream Hotel artfully explores the seductive nature of technology, which puts us in shackles even as it makes our lives easier. Lalami asks how much of ourselves must remain private if we are to remain free, and whether even the most invasive forms of surveillance can ever capture who we really are.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER, READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY, From Laila Lalami, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist and a maestra of literary fiction (NPR) comes a riveting and utterly original novel about one woman's fight

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95d

📚 Les Femmes du bout du monde by: Mélissa Da Costa

Si tu te demandes ce que nous faisons ainsi, loin des hommes, je vais te dire : nous veillons sur notre petit univers, nous veillons les unes sur les autres. C'est ce que font les femmes du bout du monde.

À la pointe sud de la Nouvelle-Zélande, dans la région isolée des Catlins, au coeur d'une nature sauvage, viven...

https://bookblabla.com/book/les-femmes-du-bout-du-monde

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries

Si tu te demandes ce que nous faisons ainsi, loin des hommes, je vais te dire : nous veillons sur notre petit univers, nous veillons les unes sur les autres. C'est ce que font les femmes du bout du monde.

À la pointe sud de la Nouvelle-Zélande, dans la région isolée des Catlins, au coeur d'une nature sauvage, vivent Autumn et sa fille Milly. Sur ce dernier bastion de terre avant l'océan Austral et le pôle Sud, elles gèrent le camping Mutunga o te ao, le bout du monde en maori. Autumn et Milly forment un duo inséparable, jusqu'au jour où débarque Flore, une jeune parisienne en quête de rédemption... Hantées par le passé mais bercées par les vents et les légendes maories, ces trois femmes apprendront à se connaître, se pardonner et s'aimer.

Mélissa Da Costa - autrice la plus lue en France en 2023 - nous offre un voyage inoubliable à travers des paysages d'une stupéfiante beauté, aux côtés de personnages inspirés et inspirants. Un nouveau roman magistral et une ode à la liberté.

Palmarès les 100 meilleurs livres de l'année 2023 du magazine Lire. Prix des lecteurs Babelio 2023 - Catégorie littérature française.

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73d

'In the grand tradition of jailhouse literature, #LeJournalDUnPrisonnier is a conversion narrative.[...] “A Champions League match on my first night in prison—it was either a coincidence or another sign from Providence.” (He’s being serious.) So much for a cruise on the Danube: #Sarkozy vows, “If I get out of this hell, I’ll go to Lourdes to see the sick and the desperate.” '

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/critics-notebook/how-nicolas-sarkozy-survived-twenty-days-behind-bars
https://archive.ph/eYRXY

#rionsUnPeu #FrenchPolitics #polFr #justiceFr #books @bookstodon

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94d

Books from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance Takahe has limited support for this type: See Original Page

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96d

Absolutely not me IRL, but I know people like this 😁

@reading @bookstodon @books @humor @humor@lemmy.world @aiop

#ReadingMemes #Memes #ReadAllTheBooks #Humor #Humour
#Reading #Readers #ReadersOfMastodon #ReadingCommunity
#Book #Books #Novel #Novels #Fiction
#Bookwyrm #Bookworm #Bookstodon #BookLove

Meme with three pictures of the actor playing Pablo Escobar in Narcos looking dejected in diffrent places.
Caption: me, trying to recover after finishing a great book no one else knows

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96d

Scientists found the key to accurate Maya eclipse tables

Eclipse tables in the Dresden Codex were based on lunar tables and adjusted for slippage over time.

by Jennifer Ouellette

https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/11/study-how-the-maya-created-such-accurate-eclipse-tables/

Original article:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adt9039

#books #old_manuscripts #astronomy

Pages of the Dresden codex on eclipses .

The image shows several adjoining pages of the Dresden Codex, an ancient Maya manuscript. The pages are filled with dense Maya hieroglyphs, numbers, and symbols arranged in horizontal rows and vertical columns. Much of the imagery uses black and red ink on a cream-colored, weathered surface.

Across the pages are repeating patterns of dot-and-bar numerals, used in Maya calendrical calculations. Interspersed among the glyph blocks are stylized drawings of deities and serpent-like figures, characteristic of Maya cosmology. These particular pages are known for containing astronomical tables related to eclipses, and the highly structured numerical sequences suggest predictive calculations.

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96d

The 100 Greatest Novels of All Time, According to 750,000 Readers in the UK (2003)

https://www.openculture.com/2025/10/the-100-greatest-novels-of-all-time-according-to-750000-readers-in-the-uk-2003.html

#books #literature

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96d

More festive decorations going up, although we fear Jack & Olivia are more tangled up than a hyperactive kitten in a knitting shop (we are trained professionals, do not try this at home)

#Edinburgh #Edimbourg #Bruntsfield #books #livres #bookshops #librairies #bookstodon #Christmas #Noel #ChristmasDecorations

booksellers Jack and Olivia on a ladder in the window of the Edinburgh Bookshop, untangling a line of fairy lights

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96d

Drowning in the Light of Monet’s Venice

Venice turned out to be the ideal environment for the artist to explore the relationship between water and light that long preoccupied him.

by Natalie Haddad

https://hyperallergic.com/1057971/drowning-in-the-light-of-monet-and-venice-brooklyn-museum/?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Golden%20Toilet%20Sells%20for%20%2412%201M&utm_campaign=D111925

Monet at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=claude+monet

#art #books #painting

Claude Monet, "San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk" (1908).

It depicts mysterious buildings that seem to magically appear from the surrounding landscape, they almost seem to float in the background. The forms are gently inserted, though not enough to disguise their identity. The painting focuses on the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore with its bell tower rising to the top of the painting. To the right are the faintly visible domes of Santa Maria della Salute and the mouth of the Grand Canal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Giorgio_Maggiore_at_Dusk#/media/File:Claude_Monet,_Saint-Georges_majeur_au_cr%C3%A9puscule.jpg

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1y

Finnish violinist and composer Jean Sibelius died #OTD in 1957.

The core of his oeuvre is his set of seven symphonies, which, like his other major works, are regularly performed and recorded in Finland and countries around the world. His other best-known compositions are Finlandia, the Karelia Suite, Valse triste, the Violin Concerto, the choral symphony Kullervo, and The Swan of Tuonela (from the Lemminkäinen Suite).

Books about Sibelius at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19557

#books #art #music