books

183d

<p>📚 Twist by: Colum McCann</p><p>Anthony Fennell, an Irish journalist and playwright, is assigned to cover the underwater cables that carry the world’s information. The sum of human existence words, images, transactions, memes, voices, viruses—travels through the tiny fiber-optic tubes. But sometimes the tubes break, at an unfath...</p><p><a href="https://bookblabla.com/book/twist" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>bookblabla.com/book/twist</a></p><p><span class="h-card"><a href="https://fedigroups.social/@bookstodon" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>bookstodon</span></a></span></p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/reading/" rel="tag">#reading</a> <a href="/tags/libraries/" rel="tag">#libraries</a> <a href="/tags/fiction/" rel="tag">#fiction</a> <a href="/tags/literaryfiction/" rel="tag">#literaryfiction</a> <a href="/tags/familylife/" rel="tag">#familylife</a> <a href="/tags/generalfiction/" rel="tag">#generalfiction</a> <a href="/tags/psychological/" rel="tag">#psychological</a></p>

$Anthony Fennell, an Irish journalist and playwright, is assigned to cover the underwater cables that carry the world’s information. The sum of human existence words, images, transactions, memes, voices, viruses—travels through the tiny fiber-optic tubes. But sometimes the tubes break, at an unfathomable depth. Fennell's journey brings him to the west coast of Africa, where he uncovers a story about the raw human labor behind the dazzling veneer of the technological world. He meets a fellow Irishman, John Conway, the chief of mission on a cable repair ship. The mysterious Conway is a skilled engineer and a freediver capable of reaching extraordinary depths. He is also in love with a South African actress, Zanele, who must leave to go on her own literary adventure to London. When the ship is sent up the coast to repair a series of major underwater breaks, both men learn that the very cables they seek to fix carry the news that may cause their lives to unravel. At sea, they are forced to confront the most elemental questions of life, love, absence, belonging, and the perils of our severed connections. Can we, in our fractured world, reweave ourselves out of the thin, broken threads of our pasts? Can the ruptured things awaken us from our despair? Resoundingly simple and turbulent at the same time, Twist is a meditation on the nature of narrative and truth from one of the great storytellers of our times. INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER. An urgent and ingenious (The New Y$

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1y

<p>Warburg’s Werewolf: An Anamnesis</p><p>Aby Warburg spent his life finding forms that could hold their own against the flow of time. All the while, as Kevin Dann explores, he was churning on the brink of madness with the sense that he himself was changing — into a terrifying animal. What kind of history would a werewolf write?</p><p>By Kevin Dann</p><p><a href="https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/warburgs-werewolf-an-anamnesis/?utm_source=newsletter" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="publicdomainreview.org/essay/warburgs-werewolf-an-anamnesis/?utm_source=newsletter"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">publicdomainreview.org/essay/w</span><span class="invisible">arburgs-werewolf-an-anamnesis/?utm_source=newsletter</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a></p>

“Les Révélations Brutales”, illustration by Bertall (Charles Albert d’Arnoux) from Balzac’s Petites misères de la vie conjugale (1846)

The illustration “Les Révélations Brutales” by Bertall (Charles Albert d’Arnoux), from Honoré de Balzac’s Petites misères de la vie conjugale (1846), is a satirical and dramatic depiction of a domestic confrontation. In the scene, a husband and wife are caught in a moment of intense emotional tension—likely following a blunt or painful revelation, as the title suggests ("Brutal Revelations").

The artwork captures the stiff posture and stunned expressions typical of 19th-century caricature, emphasizing the discomfort, irony, and dark humor Balzac often used to expose the complexities and hypocrisies of married life.

https://archive.org/details/petitesmisres00balz/page/272/mode/2up

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158d

<p>The deaf blacksmith who married in 1576 – and the history of sign as a legal language</p><p>The medieval church’s acknowledgement that signs were equivalent to a spoken language was transformative for deaf people.</p><p>by Rosamund Oates</p><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-deaf-blacksmith-who-married-in-1576-and-the-history-of-sign-as-a-legal-language-276686?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20March%209%202026%20-%203699037833&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20March%209%202026%20-%203699037833+CID_4dad2f3a225cc1558f32f04d20318006&utm_source=campaign_monitor_uk&utm_term=The%20deaf%20blacksmith%20who%20married%20in%201576%20%20and%20the%20history%20of%20sign%20as%20a%20legal%20language" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="theconversation.com/the-deaf-blacksmith-who-married-in-1576-and-the-history-of-sign-as-a-legal-language-276686?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20March%209%202026%20-%203699037833&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20March%209%202026%20-%203699037833+CID_4dad2f3a225cc1558f32f04d20318006&utm_source=campaign_monitor_uk&utm_term=The%20deaf%20blacksmith%20who%20married%20in%201576%20%20and%20the%20history%20of%20sign%20as%20a%20legal%20language"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">theconversation.com/the-deaf-b</span><span class="invisible">lacksmith-who-married-in-1576-and-the-history-of-sign-as-a-legal-language-276686?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20March%209%202026%20-%203699037833&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20March%209%202026%20-%203699037833+CID_4dad2f3a225cc1558f32f04d20318006&utm_source=campaign_monitor_uk&utm_term=The%20deaf%20blacksmith%20who%20married%20in%201576%20%20and%20the%20history%20of%20sign%20as%20a%20legal%20language</span></a></p><p>Sign language at PG:<br><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subjects/search/?query=sign+language" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subjects/search/?query=sign+language"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subje</span><span class="invisible">cts/search/?query=sign+language</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/history/" rel="tag">#history</a></p>

Detail of an historiated initial 'S'(sponsus) of a man placing a ring on a woman's finger. By James le Palmer / anonymous illustrator

British Library Royal MS 6 E VI, fol. 104

A historiated initial S from a medieval illuminated manuscript, painted in blue, pink, ochre, and olive green. Within the curved body of the letter, two figures face each other: on the left a young man in a blue tunic, on the right a woman in a white veil and rust-coloured garment. Between them, the man places or holds a small ring, their hands meeting at the centre. Both faces are simply rendered with calm expressions. The initial is framed by a blue and pink border with a dark speckled ground filling the background behind the figures.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Omne_Bonum_Royal6EVI104_Anulus.jpg

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118d

<p>How Georges Méliès Brought Magic to the Movies</p><p>Georges Méliès created worlds of magic and adventure that revolutionized filmmaking when filmmaking itself was still a novelty.</p><p>by Kat Bello (from the archives)</p><p><a href="https://www.thecollector.com/georges-melies-magic-movies/" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.thecollector.com/georges-melies-magic-movies/"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.thecollector.com/georges-m</span><span class="invisible">elies-magic-movies/</span></a></p><p>Movie books at PG:<br><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/bookshelf/49" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/bookshelf/49"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/books</span><span class="invisible">helf/49</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/movies/" rel="tag">#movies</a> <a href="/tags/culture/" rel="tag">#culture</a></p>

Screenshot from Le Voyage dans la lune (A Trip to the Moon) (1902)

by Roger-Viollet

One of cinema's most iconic images: the Man in the Moon with a rocket capsule lodged in his eye, from Georges Méliès's "Le Voyage dans la Lune" (A Trip to the Moon, 1902). The moon is rendered as a grimacing human face, the capsule embedded like an arrow.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_M%C3%A9li%C3%A8s#/media/Fichier:Le_Voyage_dans_la_lune.jpg/2

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1y

<p>Time Travel</p><p>What do we hold fast, what do we let go? The question, like a living being, hovers onstage in The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov.</p><p>By Cynthia Zarin</p><p><a href="https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2025/04/18/time-travel/" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.theparisreview.org/blog/2025/04/18/time-travel/"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.theparisreview.org/blog/20</span><span class="invisible">25/04/18/time-travel/</span></a></p><p>The Cherry Orchard at PG:<br><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7986" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7986</a></p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a> <a href="/tags/theatre/" rel="tag">#theatre</a></p>

Scene from The Cherry Orchard, Moscow Art Theater, 2001. The MAT setting demonstrates a conscious attempt to avoid the stiffness and artificiality of the perfectly symmetrical box set. Variation of planes and glimpses into other rooms in the house continue the environment beyond the stage room and help to combat unintentional rigidity.

Alexander Bakshy - The Path of the Modern Russian Stage

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cherry_Orchard#/media/File:The_Cherry_Orchard_MAT.jpg

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157d

<p>Books About My Favourite Topic: <a href="https://lydiaschoch.com/wednesday-weekly-blogging-challenge-books-about-my-favourite-topic/" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="lydiaschoch.com/wednesday-weekly-blogging-challenge-books-about-my-favourite-topic/"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">lydiaschoch.com/wednesday-week</span><span class="invisible">ly-blogging-challenge-books-about-my-favourite-topic/</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/wednesdayweeklybloggingchallenge/" rel="tag">#WednesdayWeeklyBloggingChallenge</a> <a href="/tags/nonfiction/" rel="tag">#Nonfiction</a> <a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#Books</a></p><p><span class="h-card"><a href="https://fedigroups.social/@bookstodon" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>bookstodon</span></a></span></p>

ook cover for Raising Hare: A Memoir by Chloe Dalton. Image on cover is a sketch of a young hare whose ears are pointed up and who is looking around at her surroundings.

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183d

<p>Ah, Valentine’s Day ❤️ . The annual tradition where I think, I should really do some promotion to tie in, and then I decide to overthink whether I really write romantic enough romances in my fantasy books to qualify for it, and end up doing nothing.</p><p>Meanwhile, some joker writing tips for writing romance had the audacity to claim you don’t need a HEA. You can write an anti-romance all you like, my friend, just don’t list it in the romance genre!</p><p>ANYWAY, I did update my list of favourite queer romance trilogies for 2026:<br><a href="https://wendypalmer.au/2024/02/11/books-favourite-queer-romance-trilogies/" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="wendypalmer.au/2024/02/11/books-favourite-queer-romance-trilogies/"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">wendypalmer.au/2024/02/11/book</span><span class="invisible">s-favourite-queer-romance-trilogies/</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/valentinesday/" rel="tag">#ValentinesDay</a> <a href="/tags/queerromance/" rel="tag">#QueerRomance</a> <a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <span class="h-card"><a href="https://fedigroups.social/@bookstodon" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>bookstodon</span></a></span></p>

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1y

<p>New <a href="/tags/intro/" rel="tag">#intro</a>!</p><p>I’m a hyperjack musician, writer & video artist. My latest album, ‘Status’, is mainly about escaping Big Tech dystopia. </p><p>My website <a href="https://meljoann.com" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>meljoann.com</a> includes nerdy blog posts on Faircamp, Owncast & leaving mainstream social media. </p><p>Some stuff I love: </p><p><a href="/tags/musicproduction/" rel="tag">#musicProduction</a> <a href="/tags/videoproduction/" rel="tag">#videoProduction</a> <a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/experimentalmusic/" rel="tag">#experimentalMusic</a> <a href="/tags/electronicmusic/" rel="tag">#electronicMusic</a> <a href="/tags/randb/" rel="tag">#RandB</a> <a href="/tags/earlymusic/" rel="tag">#earlyMusic</a> <a href="/tags/improvisedmusic/" rel="tag">#improvisedMusic</a> <a href="/tags/science/" rel="tag">#science</a> <a href="/tags/knitting/" rel="tag">#knitting</a> <a href="/tags/history/" rel="tag">#history</a> <a href="/tags/sciencefiction/" rel="tag">#scienceFiction</a> <a href="/tags/horror/" rel="tag">#horror</a> <a href="/tags/alternativecomedy/" rel="tag">#alternativeComedy</a> <a href="/tags/anarchism/" rel="tag">#anarchism</a> <a href="/tags/foss/" rel="tag">#foss</a> <a href="/tags/linux/" rel="tag">#linux</a> <a href="/tags/introduction/" rel="tag">#introduction</a></p>

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1y

<p>Fantastic Novels was an American science fiction and fantasy pulp magazine published by the Munsey Company of New York from 1940 to 1941, and again by Popular Publications, also of New York, from 1948 to 1951. It was a companion to Famous Fantastic Mysteries.</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantastic_Novels" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantastic_Novels"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasti</span><span class="invisible">c_Novels</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/pulpfiction/" rel="tag">#pulpfiction</a> <a href="/tags/sciencefiction/" rel="tag">#sciencefiction</a></p>

Cover of Fantastic Novels, March 1948.

Dominating the composition is a heroic man and a mystical woman standing amid churning green sea waves. The man, with a stern and focused expression, clasps the woman's waist as she swoons backward, her golden hair and flowing white gown adding to her ethereal presence. Behind them, a glowing golden ship sails across the water, symbolizing the fantastical journey within.

The background features a vivid swirl of deep blues and greens, evoking both the sea and a cosmic or magical atmosphere. Above the artwork, bold yellow and red typography shouts the title: “Fantastic Novels Magazine”, priced at 25¢, with a banner highlighting A. Merritt’s sensational fantasy classic, The Ship of Ishtar.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Fantastic_Novels_covers#/media/File:Fantastic_novels_194803.jpg

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1y

<p>What Is The Library of Congress and What Does the Librarian of Congress Do?: Book Censorship News</p><p>By Kelly Jensen May</p><p><a href="https://bookriot.com/what-is-the-library-of-congress/" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="bookriot.com/what-is-the-library-of-congress/"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">bookriot.com/what-is-the-libra</span><span class="invisible">ry-of-congress/</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/libraries/" rel="tag">#libraries</a></p>

The Library of Congress, then located in the Capitol Building in 1853.

The grand reading room features high ceilings, large arched windows that flood the space with light, and rows of bookshelves and desks arranged for scholarly work. The neoclassical architectural elements—such as columns and ornate detailing—reflect the period's reverence for knowledge and public institutions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Congress#/media/File:The_Library_of_Congress_in_the_U.S._Capitol_Building_LCCN2010649528.jpg

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183d

<p>"Heaven did not seem to be my home; and I broke my heart with weeping to come back to earth; ..."</p><p>Don’t fall in love this Valentine’s Day – read Wuthering Heights</p><p>Emily Brontë’s novel celebrates the head-spinning, hair-raising, all-consuming experience of falling in love.</p><p>by Andrew McInnes</p><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-fall-in-love-this-valentines-day-read-wuthering-heights-275600?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20Weekender%20-%203675037557&utm_content=The%20Weekender%20-%203675037557+CID_d1468951185c9327ba8ce1dd485dfe68&utm_source=campaign_monitor_uk&utm_term=Dont%20fall%20in%20love%20this%20Valentines%20Day%20%20read%20Wuthering%20Heights" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="theconversation.com/dont-fall-in-love-this-valentines-day-read-wuthering-heights-275600?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20Weekender%20-%203675037557&utm_content=The%20Weekender%20-%203675037557+CID_d1468951185c9327ba8ce1dd485dfe68&utm_source=campaign_monitor_uk&utm_term=Dont%20fall%20in%20love%20this%20Valentines%20Day%20%20read%20Wuthering%20Heights"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">theconversation.com/dont-fall-</span><span class="invisible">in-love-this-valentines-day-read-wuthering-heights-275600?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20Weekender%20-%203675037557&utm_content=The%20Weekender%20-%203675037557+CID_d1468951185c9327ba8ce1dd485dfe68&utm_source=campaign_monitor_uk&utm_term=Dont%20fall%20in%20love%20this%20Valentines%20Day%20%20read%20Wuthering%20Heights</span></a></p><p>Wuthering Heights at PG:<br><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/768" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/768</a></p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a></p>

Photo of Sir Laurence Olivier knighted 1947-page 144 and Merle Oberon from the 1939 film Wuthering Heights.

This is a publicity still from the 1939 film adaptation of "Wuthering Heights," showing Laurence Olivier (later knighted in 1947) as Heathcliff and Merle Oberon as Catherine Earnshaw seated together on the Yorkshire moors. The romantic scene captures the passionate, doomed lovers from Emily Brontë's classic novel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuthering_Heights#/media/File:Laurence_Olivier_Merle_Oberon_Wuthering_Heights.jpg

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1y

<p>I've never read any Richard K. Morgan, but watching the brilliant Netflix show Alerted Carbon and reading about him and the books definitely want to read the series.</p><p><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_K._Morgan" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_K._Morgan"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richar</span><span class="invisible">d_K._Morgan</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a></p>

There is a central conceit that I keep — not consciously, I swear! — returning to in my work. It takes different metaphorical guises, but at root it's always the same sense of something grand and worthwhile being abandoned by vicious and stupid men in favour of short-term profit and tribal hegemony. You see it in the regressive politics of the Protectorate in the Kovacs novels, the way both the Yhelteth Empire and the — so-called — Free Cities fail their duty as civilisations in A Land Fit for Heroes. So also with Thin Air — the landscape is littered with the markers of a retreat from the grand scheme of terraforming and building a home for humanity on Mars, in favour of an ultraprofitable corporate stasis and an ongoing lie of highly emotive intangibles sold to the general populace in lieu of actual progress.

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182d

The End of Books Coverage at the Washington Post

the-death-of-book-world

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1y

<p>Just in case, like me, you're in need of something wholesome to start a new week: Betty's Reading Room by the dock in Tingwall, Orkney.</p><p>Apparently set up by a couple in memory of their late friend Betty Prictor - a place for folk to hang out while waiting for the Rousay ferry and really just the loveliest memorial I can imagine.</p><p><a href="/tags/reading/" rel="tag">#reading</a> <a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/travel/" rel="tag">#travel</a></p>

The exterior of a small single-storey stone cottage with a metal sign by the door 'Betty's Reading Room' . An old metal mangle and various random bits and bobs outside, a small patch of grass speckled with daisies, a low slate roof.

The interior of the space, lined with books. There's a comfy old sofa, a low beamed roof, and some fresh flowers in a vase. Out of sight, there's a small fire and yet more books. An old stone floor, little coffee tables laden with things to read, squished cushions and a sense of a much-loved space.

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1y

<p><a href="/tags/otd/" rel="tag">#OTD</a> Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway was published.</p><p>What a Plunge! Teaching Mrs. Dalloway to High Schoolers in 2025</p><p>by Mia Manzulli</p><p><a href="https://lithub.com/what-a-plunge-teaching-mrs-dalloway-to-high-schoolers-in-2025/" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="lithub.com/what-a-plunge-teaching-mrs-dalloway-to-high-schoolers-in-2025/"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">lithub.com/what-a-plunge-teach</span><span class="invisible">ing-mrs-dalloway-to-high-schoolers-in-2025/</span></a></p><p>Mrs. Dalloway at PG</p><p><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/71865" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/71865</a></p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#literature</a></p>

Cover art for the first edition of Mrs. Dalloway by Vanessa Bell.

Edited 1y ago

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182d

<p>📚 Skirting Danger by: Kay Keppler</p><p>Suspended for a hunch gone wrong, CIA language analyst Phoebe Renfrew is desperate to get her job back. But when she uncovers a terrorist plot at a Las Vegas start-up car company owned by famed ex-quarterback Chase Bonaventure, no one listens to her. </p><p>The CIA doesn't care, the FBI is too busy, and th...</p><p><a href="https://bookblabla.com/book/skirting-danger" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="bookblabla.com/book/skirting-danger"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">bookblabla.com/book/skirting-d</span><span class="invisible">anger</span></a></p><p><span class="h-card"><a href="https://fedigroups.social/@bookstodon" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>bookstodon</span></a></span></p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/reading/" rel="tag">#reading</a> <a href="/tags/libraries/" rel="tag">#libraries</a> <a href="/tags/fiction/" rel="tag">#fiction</a> <a href="/tags/generalfiction/" rel="tag">#generalfiction</a> <a href="/tags/romance/" rel="tag">#romance</a> <a href="/tags/romanticcomedy/" rel="tag">#romanticcomedy</a></p>

Suspended for a hunch gone wrong, CIA language analyst Phoebe Renfrew is desperate to get her job back. But when she uncovers a terrorist plot at a Las Vegas start-up car company owned by famed ex-quarterback Chase Bonaventure, no one listens to her.

The CIA doesn't care, the FBI is too busy, and the cops are too tired. Even Chase rejects her wild story about Korean gun runners infiltrating his company to harm the secretary of state.

Besides, he's expecting Swedish investors at any minute...Swedish investors who speak only Korean. Chase hires Phoebe to translate at his investor meetings and tries every game plan he knows to keep her from ruining his deal. But Phoebe fears the worst. With time running out, she must nail down the bad guys, her job, and her relationship with Chase. Can she do it all and save Madam Secretary before the Las Vegas All-Elvis Revue belts out the last chorus of "Jailhouse Rock"?

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181d

<p>This week's <a href="/tags/newbooks/" rel="tag">#NewBooks</a> at the library:<br>- I expanded my collection of <a href="/tags/tolkien/" rel="tag">#Tolkien</a> books with The Tower and the Ruin: J.R.R. Tolkien's Creation from W.W. Norton<br>- I used my employer's Christmas voucher to buy a copy of Simon Parkin's The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad: A True Story of Science and Sacrifice in a City under Siege from Sceptre (look out for a review in due course).<br>- I also found a second-hand copy of What Is Regeneration? from the University of Chicago Press. </p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#Books</a> <a href="/tags/scicomm/" rel="tag">#Scicomm</a> <a href="/tags/tolkien/" rel="tag">#Tolkien</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#Literature</a> <a href="/tags/developmentalbiology/" rel="tag">#DevelopmentalBiology</a> <a href="/tags/seedbank/" rel="tag">#SeedBank</a> <a href="/tags/botany/" rel="tag">#Botany</a> <a href="/tags/bookstodon/" rel="tag">#Bookstodon</a> <span class="h-card"><a href="https://fedigroups.social/@bookstodon" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>bookstodon</span></a></span></p>

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

On the left, standing up, The Tower and the Ruin, showing a black-and-white photo of J.R.R. Tolkien on a black background. He is wearing a suit and lighting his pipe.

In the middle, lying down, What Is Regeneration?, showing several blue drawings of hydras, a stalked underwater hydrozoan with a crown of tentacles at its free end.

On the right, standing up, The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad, showing part of a black-and-white photo of two women wearing head scarves, seated against a background of concrete rubble. The top half of the cover shows several technical botanical drawings of plants in colour and black-and-white.

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181d

<p>"Then she opens the book like she’s raising the lid of a treasure chest. Each illuminated psalm is vibrant as a sunrise. She pictures the monk who copied the verse and decorated the margins, but instead of ink, she imagines him dipping his quill in the colors of bluebirds and holly berries and bright spring moss." ~~ from 'Canticle' by Janet Rich Edwards</p><p><a href="/tags/bookquote/" rel="tag">#BookQuote</a> <a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/reading/" rel="tag">#reading</a> <span class="h-card"><a href="https://fedigroups.social/@bookstodon" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>bookstodon</span></a></span></p>

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182d

<p>📚 The Road to Roswell: A Novel by: Connie Willis</p><p>When level-headed Francie arrives in Roswell, New Mexico, for her college roommate's UFO-themed wedding—complete with a true-believer bridegroom—she can’t help but roll her eyes at all the wide-eyed talk of aliens, which obviously don’t exist. Imagine her surprise, then, when she is abducted by one.</p><p>Odder still, he...</p><p><a href="https://bookblabla.com/book/the-road-to-roswell-a-novel" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="bookblabla.com/book/the-road-to-roswell-a-novel"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">bookblabla.com/book/the-road-t</span><span class="invisible">o-roswell-a-novel</span></a></p><p><span class="h-card"><a href="https://fedigroups.social/@bookstodon" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>bookstodon</span></a></span></p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/reading/" rel="tag">#reading</a> <a href="/tags/libraries/" rel="tag">#libraries</a></p>

When level-headed Francie arrives in Roswell, New Mexico, for her college roommate's UFO-themed wedding—complete with a true-believer bridegroom—she can’t help but roll her eyes at all the wide-eyed talk of aliens, which obviously don’t exist. Imagine her surprise, then, when she is abducted by one.

Odder still, her abductor is far from what the popular media have led her to expect, with a body like a tumbleweed and a mass of lightning-fast tentacles. Nor is Francie the only victim of the alien's abduction spree. Before long, he has acquired a charming con man named Wade, a sweet little old lady with a casino addiction, a retiree with a huge RV and a love for old Westerns, and a UFO-chasing nutjob who is thoroughly convinced the alien intends to probe them and/or take over the planet.

But the more Francie gets to know the alien, the more convinced she becomes that he’s not an invader. That he's in trouble and she has to help him. Only she doesn't know how—or even what the trouble is.

Part alien-abduction adventure, part road trip saga, part romantic comedy, The Road to Roswell is packed full of Men in Black, Elvis impersonators, tourist traps, rattlesnakes, chemtrails, and Close Encounters of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth kind. Can Francie, stuck in a neon green bridesmaid’s dress, save the world—and still make it back for the wedding?

A delightful novel about alien invasions, conspiracies, and the incredibly silly things people are willing to belie

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182d

<p>On the Calculation of Volume, III. By Solvege Balle (trans by S Smith and J Russell) </p><p>part 3 of 7 - spoilers if you haven’t read prior ones!</p><p>You are still trapped repeating the same day in November, now for three plus years, and you can’t bear to interact with your unaware loved ones and friends; when suddenly you meet another entrapped person, you are joyful, but then it gets complicated.</p><p>4 of 5 library cats 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 </p><p><a href="/tags/reading/" rel="tag">#reading</a> <span class="h-card"><a href="https://fedigroups.social/@bookstodon" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>bookstodon</span></a></span> <a href="/tags/time/" rel="tag">#time</a> <a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/scifi/" rel="tag">#scifi</a></p>

Book cover with an irregular multi colored oval shape

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181d

Do you read in your native language or in English?

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1y

<p>English mathematician Henry Briggs died <a href="/tags/otd/" rel="tag">#OTD</a> in 1630.</p><p>He is notable for changing the original logarithms invented by John Napier into common (base 10) logarithms, which are sometimes known as Briggsian logarithms in his honour. The specific algorithm for long division in modern use was introduced by Briggs c. 1600 AD. Historically', the "common logarithm" was known by its Latin name logarithmus decimalis or logarithmus decadis.</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Briggs_(mathematician)" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Briggs_(mathematician)"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Br</span><span class="invisible">iggs_(mathematician)</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/mathematics/" rel="tag">#mathematics</a></p>

Front page of Arithmetica Logaritmica by Henry Briggs, 1624.

Roots of 10 from Arithmetica Logarithmica by Henry Briggs, 1624.

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184d

<p>Book Review: Lessons in Magic and Disaster<br>A Russian nested doll of stories, characters and relationships, and yes, magic<br>My review of <span class="h-card"><a href="https://wandering.shop/@charliejane" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>charliejane</span></a></span> 's book at the NOAF blog:</p><p><a href="http://www.nerds-feather.com/2026/02/book-review-lessons-in-magic-and.html" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="www.nerds-feather.com/2026/02/book-review-lessons-in-magic-and.html"><span class="invisible">http://</span><span class="ellipsis">www.nerds-feather.com/2026/02/</span><span class="invisible">book-review-lessons-in-magic-and.html</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#books</a> <a href="/tags/sff/" rel="tag">#sff</a> <a href="/tags/queer/" rel="tag">#queer</a> <a href="/tags/lgbtq/" rel="tag">#lgbtq</a> <a href="/tags/review/" rel="tag">#review</a> <a href="/tags/bookstodon/" rel="tag">#bookstodon</a> @bookstodon</p>

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1y

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne

twenty-thousand-leagues-under-the-sea.html

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1y

<p>Breakfast time: I am reading the book "The Last Goddess" by Kateřina Tučková.<br>(Translated from Czech by Andrew Oakland)<br>And it touches me because the book begins with themes that have also influenced my life - women, health care and intelligence service. I won't say any more so as not to spoil anything ;) </p><p><a href="/tags/thelastgoddess/" rel="tag">#TheLastGoddess</a> <a href="/tags/books/" rel="tag">#Books</a> <a href="/tags/iamreading/" rel="tag">#IAmReading</a> <a href="/tags/reading/" rel="tag">#Reading</a> <a href="/tags/literature/" rel="tag">#Literature</a> </p><p>@lesekreis<br>@boeken<br>@bookstodon</p>

A paperback copy of "The Last Goddess" by Katerina Tuckova sits on a white plate next to a cup of coffee on a white wooden table.

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