books

66d

finished reading The Mars House 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
by Natasha Pulley.

A sci-fi romance set on Mars, where recent refugees from climate-riven Earth are so strong in the low gravity that they are a mortal accidental risk to Martians. Excellent premise, and the contradictory reactions of the protagonist feel real & difficult. But some of the underlying science is dubious (MW ≠ MWh!!!), the romance had potential but felt a bit weak and the ending used up its momentum too soon. Mammoths!

#BookReview #Books #Bookstodon #SFF

@WildWoila @wildwoila@wyrms.de

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91d

Strongheart the German Shepherd Catapulted to Fame for His Heroics in Silent Films. Later, Spiritualist Writings Immortalized Him in Death

"The beloved dog starred in six movies during the Roaring Twenties. After Strongheart died in 1929, author J. Allen Boone chronicled their enduring connection in a pair of nonfiction books"

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/strongheart-the-german-shepherd-catapulted-to-fame-for-his-heroics-in-silent-films-later-spiritualist-writings-immortalized-him-in-death-180987212/

Strongheart and his "love interest" Jule from the movie "The Love Master"

#books #animals

Caption: Strongheart & Jule in "The Love Master" Trimble-Murphin Picture.

The black & white photo shows two dogs in the snow. Strongheart on the left has darker markings than Jule on the right.

Edited 91d ago

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91d

" ‘Silence must reign’, ordered the head of the colonial administration in #Cameroon in 1958. The demand was all the more pressing because #France was simultaneously fighting the war in Algeria, provoking outcry at home and international censure of the self-styled ‘homeland of human rights’."

NLR speaks w/ #ThomasDeltombe, author of #TheCameroonWar: A History of French #Neocolonialism in #Africa

https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/the-secret-war

#Cameroun #Françafrique #violencesColoniales #livres #books @bookstodon

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91d

The Inquisitive Biologist turns 8! Here's the latest review...

How would life have evolved had the dinosaurs survived? This facsimile reprint of Dougal Dixon's second classic work of speculative zoology imagines the answer and remains as captivating and entertaining as it was in 1988.

https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2025/09/19/book-review-the-new-dinosaurs-an-alternative-evolution/

#Scicomm #SpeculativeZoology #Dinosaurs #Palaeontology #Paleontology #Books #BookReview #Bookstodon @bookstodon

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14d

📚 The Favorites by: Layne Fargo

She might not have a famous name, funding, or her family’s support, but Katarina Shaw has always known that she was destined to become an Olympic skater. When she meets Heath Rocha, a lonely kid stuck in the foster care system, their instant connection makes them a formidable duo on the ice. Clinging to skating—a...

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

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #womenfiction #sportsfiction

She might not have a famous name, funding, or her family’s support, but Katarina Shaw has always known that she was destined to become an Olympic skater. When she meets Heath Rocha, a lonely kid stuck in the foster care system, their instant connection makes them a formidable duo on the ice. Clinging to skating—and each other—to escape their turbulent lives, Kat and Heath go from childhood sweethearts to champion ice dancers, captivating the world with their scorching chemistry, rebellious style, and roller-coaster relationship.

Until a shocking incident at the Olympic Games brings their partnership to a sudden end.

As the ten-year anniversary of their final skate approaches, an unauthorized documentary reignites the public obsession with Shaw and Rocha, claiming to uncover the “real story” through interviews with their closest friends and fiercest rivals. Kat wants nothing to do with the documentary, but she can’t stand the thought of someone else defining her legacy. So, after a decade of silence, she’s telling her story: from the childhood tragedies that created her all-consuming bond with Heath to the clash of desires that tore them apart. Sensational rumors have haunted their every step for years, but the truth may be even more shocking than the headlines.

To the world, they were a scandal. To each other, an obsession.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An epic love story set in the sparkling, savage sphere of elite figure skating, starring a woman determi

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91d

@books - Get your DISCOUNT COPY of SHOCKWAVE on Amazon TODAY & please give it a review. They're hitting us harder now! bit.ly/buyshockwave -- Pls Retweet, Share, Repost, & Write a REVIEW 😃#books #bookreview #goodreads

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91d

📚 Billion-Dollar Ransom by: James Patterson, Duane Swierczynski

Five members of a billionaire’s family. In different locations. All kidnapped at the same moment.

Two children taken from a private-school bus. A film producer and a movie star grabbed at a hideaway resort. A beautiful wife whisked off the stre...

https://bookblabla.com/book/billion-dollar-ransom

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #thrillers #suspensefiction #crimefiction #psychological

Five members of a billionaire’s family. In different locations. All kidnapped at the same moment.

Two children taken from a private-school bus. A film producer and a movie star grabbed at a hideaway resort. A beautiful wife whisked off the streets of Beverly Hills.

A patriarch wants his family back. The cash, gold, jewels, and crypto are all ready.
There’s only one problem: a brilliant, very stubborn FBI agent. Special Agent Nicky Gordon doesn’t want to pay the kidnappers.
Not a dime.

Instant New York Times Bestseller!

From bestselling author James Patterson, six kidnappers pursue a whopping ten-figure payout in this thrilling novel featuring “breakneck pacing and loop-the-loop plotting” (Publishers Weekly).

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100d

'We usually understand “divide and rule” as a tactic for dividing populations, preventing them from unifying to overthrow the colonial power. But “divide and rule” also divides people from their own pasts.'

Samuel Hayim Brody reviews #TheJewelersOfTheUmmah, #ThreeWorlds: Memoirs of an Arab Jew, and #WhenWeWereArabs: A Jewish Family’s Forgotten History

https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/in-search-of-arab-jews/

#ArabJews #JewishHistory #MENA #MiddleEast #MizrahiJews #SephardicJews #Palestine #books #memoirs @bookstodon

text (at right):

[rubrics ] ARTS IN SOCIETY, PHILOSOPHY

In Search of Arab Jews
Can a culture be resurrected?

Samuel Hayim Brody
[tags] Books & Ideas, Criticism, History, Middle East, Religion

image (at left): Ariella Aïsha Azoulay

Edited 100d ago

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66d

"The steering committee elected to remove eight [of the 20] books from the list, not only narrowing the breadth of titles being discussed by teens across the state, but also narrowing the number of books they will be reading in anticipation of voting for the Georgia Peach Book Awards... All of these books are published for the young adult audience, meaning that the Bowl’s steering committee elected to remove books that are appropriate for the teens involved in this competition.

Seven of the eight banned books are written by female-identifying writers, while at least five are written by writers from demographically marginalized backgrounds."

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

https://bookriot.com/helen-ruffin-reading-bowl-book-ban-2025/

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90d

New on my #blog: "My 20 Books that influenced me list."
https://itinerantlibrarian.blogspot.com/2025/09/my-20-books-that-influenced-me-list.html

Instead of doing the #SocialMedia #20Books or #20BooksIn20Days one at a time, I just put them all on a list in one place. Feel free to check them out.

#books #reading #ItinerantLibrarian #bookstodon 💙📚

@bookstodon@a.gup.pe
@bookstodon

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99d

Your fun-packed, not at all murder and political intrigue-packed voyage through the stars will depart shortly…

#books #SciFi #sciencefiction #LittleBluePlanetTours #XanaduAffair @bookstodon #teasertrailer #upcomingreleases #humoroussciencefiction #newbooks

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99d

Inside the Rooms Where 20 Famous Books Were Written

From The House of Mirth to Go Tell It on the Mountain

By Emily Temple (from the archives)

https://lithub.com/inside-the-rooms-where-20-famous-books-were-written/?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=campaign&utm_id=01K4SYGVEQ7NXKDYCBYWQE28YS&_kx=3MZUehzXM-41qlWAMPUiuNZadX2p0SByuNf_t0eMLB0.U5D8ER

#books #literature

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99d

A Review of The Last of What I Am: https://lydiaschoch.com/a-review-of-the-last-of-what-i-am/

#BookReview #Books #CivilWar #Paranormal

Book cover for The Last of What I Am: A Novel by Abigail Cutter. Image on cover shows a figure standing in the second story window of an old wooden farmhouse. There is a light on in that room that is illuminating everything and obscuring the figure’s features. It is dusk outside and you can see the last bit of light fading away as a few birds fly through the sky.

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1y

English novelist and poet Charlotte Brontë died #OTD in 1855.

She is best known for her novel Jane Eyre, which she published under the gender neutral pen name Currer Bell. Along with "Jane Eyre," her other notable works include "Shirley" (1849) and "Villette" (1853). Brontë's writing is celebrated for its exploration of social issues, particularly the role of women in Victorian society.

Books by Charlotte Brontë at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/408

#books #literature #poetry

Portrait by George Richmond (1850, chalk on paper)

Cover page of The Search After Hapiness [sic]: A Tale by Charlotte Brontë

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66d

What book(s) are you currently reading or listening to? October 14

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99d

Dan Brown Returns With a Hyperactive Testament to the Power of Books Takahe has limited support for this type: See Original Page

the-secret-of-secrets-dan-brown.html?unlocked_article_code=1.lE8.YEYo.5cs3GSxC116m

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14d

Ughhhh, et tu calibre?

New features
- Allow asking AI questions about any book in your calibre library. Right click the "View" button and choose "Discuss selected book(s) with AI"
- AI: Allow asking AI what book to read next by right clicking on a book and using the "Similar books" menu
- AI: Add a new backend for "LM Studio" which allows running various AI models locally

Release: 8.16.1 04 Dec, 2025; or here on their GitHub

Calibre is one of those pieces of software that I use from time to time but don't follow closely. I wasn't aware they'd been sipping from the poisoned chalice.

#calibre #FOSS #OpenSource #books #eBooks #eBookManager #AIPoisoning #InformationOilSpill

Edited 14d ago

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89d

Breaking the chain

The role of the conscious observer has posed a stubborn problem for quantum measurement. Phenomenology offers a solution

By Steven French

https://aeon.co/essays/why-quantum-mechanics-needs-phenomenology?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=12e10a8cc1-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_09_20&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-4ef8a26106-72664972

Quantum theory at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/20207

#books #philosophyofscience

The 1927 Solvay Conference in Brussels was the fifth world physics conference.

1927 Solvay Conference on Quantum Mechanics. Photograph by Benjamin Couprie, Institut International de Physique Solvay, Brussels, Belgium. From back to front and from left to right : Auguste Piccard, Émile Henriot, Paul Ehrenfest, Édouard Herzen, Théophile de Donder, Erwin Schrödinger, Jules-Émile Verschaffelt, Wolfgang Pauli, Werner Heisenberg, Ralph Howard Fowler, Léon Brillouin, Peter Debye, Martin Knudsen, William Lawrence Bragg, Hendrik Anthony Kramers, Paul Dirac, Arthur Compton, Louis de Broglie, Max Born, Niels Bohr, Irving Langmuir, Max Planck, Marie Skłodowska Curie, Hendrik Lorentz, Albert Einstein, Paul Langevin, Charles-Eugène Guye, Charles Thomson Rees Wilson, Owen Willans Richardson.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mechanics#/media/File:Solvay_conference_1927.jpg

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65d

"Did she invent this fairy tale? She herself doesn’t know. She has heard so many told, by her mother and her two aunts and her grandmother, so many about thumblings and golden eggs and wolves and knights and witches and good as well as evil sisters, that she doesn’t have to think; once you have begun, it continues of its own accord, and the parts assemble themselves, sometimes one way and sometimes another, and you have a fairy tale." ~~ from 'Tyll' by Daniel Kehlmann, trans. Ross Benjamin

#WednesdayBookQuote #books #reading @bookstodon

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65d

Books I Read on Someone’s Recommendation: https://lydiaschoch.com/wednesday-weekly-blogging-challenge-books-i-read-on-someones-recommendation-2/

#Books #WednesdayWeeklyBloggingChallenge

Closeup photo of someone’s hands as they hold open a book with two hands and read it.

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90d

The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup Takahe has limited support for this type: See Original Page

the-best-recent-and-thrillers-review-roundup

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65d

Prescient speculative fiction

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90d

📚 Exiles by: Mason Coile

The human crew sent to prepare the first colony on Mars arrives to find the new base half-destroyed and the three robots sent to set it up in disarray—the machines have formed alliances, chosen their own names, and picked up some disturbing beliefs. Each must be interrogated. But one of them is...

https://bookblabla.com/book/exiles

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #horrorfiction #thrillers #psychologicalfiction #sciencefiction

The human crew sent to prepare the first colony on Mars arrives to find the new base half-destroyed and the three robots sent to set it up in disarray—the machines have formed alliances, chosen their own names, and picked up some disturbing beliefs. Each must be interrogated. But one of them is missing.

In this barren, hostile landscape where even machines have nightmares, the astronauts will need to examine all the stories--especially their own--to get to the truth.

Exiles is a terrifying, taut, one-sitting read, and Mason Coile once again blends science fiction and psychological horror to engage some of humanity’s deepest questions.

A terrifying locked-room mystery from the author of William--this time set on a remote outpost on Mars.

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66d

📚 The Long Walk by: Stephen King

In a dystopian near-future, America has fallen on hard times. Sixteen-year-old Ray Garraty is about to compete in the annual grueling match of stamina and wits known as the Long Walk. One hundred boys must keep a steady pace of four miles per hour day and night, without ever stopping.

...

https://bookblabla.com/book/the-long-walk

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #horrorfiction #sciencefiction #generalfiction #thrillers

In a dystopian near-future, America has fallen on hard times. Sixteen-year-old Ray Garraty is about to compete in the annual grueling match of stamina and wits known as the Long Walk. One hundred boys must keep a steady pace of four miles per hour day and night, without ever stopping.

The winner gets “The Prize”—anything he wants for the rest of his life. But the rules of the Long Walk are harsh and the stakes could not be higher. There is no finish line—the winner is the last man standing.

Contestants cannot receive any outside aid whatsoever. Slow down under the speed limit and you’re given a warning. Three warnings and you’re out of the game—forever.

Written by King when he was a college student and published in 1979 under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, The Long Walk is an unforgettable and timeless masterpiece that showcases King’s genius for character building and his visionary storytelling.

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE

The brilliant and chilling first novel Stephen King ever wrote tells the tale of the contestants of a diabolically cruel competition where 100 boys start the “long walk” and there is only one winner—the one that survives.

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1y

"Every sensitive person carries in himself old cities enclosed by ancient walls."

Swiss writer Robert Walser was born #OTD in 1878.

One of Walser's most notable works is his collection of short prose pieces titled "Der Spaziergang" (1917). Walser's writing fell out of favor after his death in 1956, but experienced a revival in the late 20th century, thanks in part to the efforts of literary scholars and translators.

Books by Robert Walser at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/26294

#books #literature

Robert Walser, in Zürich, around 1900.

Cover of Der Spaziergang by Robert Walser

Edited 1y ago

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