Eggplant.place

209d

“There’s no conflict in Death Comes for the Archbishop, except for the grinding of tectonic plates, the breaking of treaties, the murder of nations.”

by Patricia Lockwood

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n06/patricia-lockwood/supersensual-ear?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=campaign&utm_id=01KMQRP0Q8ZXZ5KZJ37PEDJH14&_kx=3MZUehzXM-41qlWAMPUiuNZadX2p0SByuNf_t0eMLB0.U5D8ER

Death Comes for the Archbishop at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69730

#books #literature #literarycriticism

1st edition cover of Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather.

The central illustration shows a black silhouette of a robed rider on a rearing horse.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Comes_for_the_Archbishop#/media/File:DeathComes_ForTheArchbishop.jpg

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Edited 209d ago

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182d

My review of Conan: Cult of the Obsidian Moon by James Lovegrove just went up at Grimdark Magazine!

This book has a meandering start, but a thunderous conclusion, and a healthy dose of cosmic horror along the way.

(As always, boosts are appreciated!)

https://www.grimdarkmagazine.com/review-conan-cult-of-the-obsidian-moon-by-james-lovegrove/

#BookReview #Books #Bookstodon #Booksky #Fantasy #SwordAndSorcery #Conan #JamesLovegrove @bookstodon

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209d

RE: https://sunny.garden/@lichendust/116217917003025888

Not knowing what I'm doing is how I do everything 😂

@bookstodon @books @joinin
@worldbuilding @humor @humor@lemmy.world @aiop

#SpeculativeFiction #FantasyBooks
#FantasyMemes #SciFiMemes #Fantasy #SciFi #Meme #Memes #Humor #Humour #Funny
#Low #High #Epic #Science #Opera #Hard #CottageCore #SolarPunk #Comedic #Whatever #GiveMeAllYouveGot
#Book #Books #Novel #Novels #Bookstodon #Bookworm #Bookwyrm #BookLove

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208d

📚 The Poppy War by: R. F. Kuang

When Rin aced the Keju—the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies—it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d fi...

https://bookblabla.com/book/the-poppy-war

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #fantasy #historicalfiction #epicfiction #romancefiction

When Rin aced the Keju—the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies—it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise; and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free of the servitude and despair that had made up her daily existence. That she got into Sinegard—the most elite military school in Nikan—was even more surprising.
But surprises aren’t always good.

Because being a dark-skinned peasant girl from the south is not an easy thing at Sinegard. Targeted from the outset by rival classmates for her color, poverty, and gender, Rin discovers in this grimdark fantasy that she possesses a lethal, unearthly power—an aptitude for the nearly-mythical art of shamanism. Exploring the depths of her gift with the help of a seemingly insane teacher and psychoactive substances, Rin learns that gods long thought dead are very much alive—and that mastering control over those powers could mean more than just surviving school.

For while the Nikara Empire is at peace, the Federation of Mugen still lurks across a narrow sea. The militarily advanced Federation occupied Nikan for decades after the First Poppy War, and only barely lost the continent in the Second. And while most of the people are complacent to go about their lives, a few

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127d

A Review of Hearth Stories, Summer Solstice 2025: https://lydiaschoch.com/a-review-of-hearth-stories-summer-solstice-2025/

#Books #Fantasy #BookReview #LGBTQ

@bookstodon

Book cover for Hearth Stories, Summer Solstice 2025 (Hearth Stories Book 4) by J.C. Pillard, Erin Keating, Amanda Fetters, Alicia Adams, T.R. Steele, Kendra Recht, T.S. Weaver, and Christian Emecheta. Image on cover is a drawing of green leaves still sprouting from the tiny branch they grew on. The leaves are long and thin with rough edges and curl slightly at their ends. They are set against a black background.

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182d

Ebook omnibus: https://books2read.com/TheWizardsScion

Levi Jacobs always dreamed of being like his father, the greatest wizard in the world, but had no understanding what it would be like. Follow Levi’s journey from bumbling teen to a great hero, while the young wizard learns to master magical powers that are initially completely beyond him and barely under control.

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

The ad flyer for the series The Wizard's Scion.

(Background) View of a planet from space.

(Top Center) A black flying saucer surrounded by this text:
Trolls, boogeymen and witches, oh my!
Just another day for a young wizard.

(Top Left) The cover of Troll Song displays a woman in battered, muddy armor with her two swords crossed against the neck of a dwarf.

(Lower Left) The cover of Forgotten Legends displays a child reading in bed as a black, smoky monster with red eyes peeks out from under the bed.

(Lower Center Left) The cover of The Third Wish displays a wizard on top of a mountain, looking to the sunset, over a city of sky scrapers that have plants growing on them. In his shadow is the red eyed creature from Forgotten Legends.

(Lower Center Right) The cover of Dark Moon displays a witch and wizard fighting back to back, holding pistols, while objects fall around them, with the moon behind their heads.

(Lower Right) The cover of The Inverted Glass displays a line art hourglass with a white figure in black sand at the bottom, with a black figure in white sand upside-down in the top. Balanced on a scale are a heart and a feather.

(Upper Right) The cover of The Wizard's Scion: The Complete Series displays several figures in silhouette representing the main characters, as they traverse a wormhole. Behind them is a red-eyed octopus.

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182d

Saturday is Independent Bookstore Day!📚

Some links for what's happening in the Portland metro area beyond the obvious (Powell's)

The 2nd Annual North Portland Book Crawl is Saturday-Sunday, April 25-26

https://northpeninsulareview.com/2nd-annual-north-portland-book-crawl-to-celebrate-independent-bookstores/

"Thirteen bookstores. Two days. One incredible prize package. A free book for every participant!"

2 more links (Axios, KOIN)

https://www.axios.com/local/portland/2024/04/26/celebrate-independent-bookstore-day-powells

https://www.koin.com/local/portland-area-shops-to-support-during-independent-bookstore-day-042624/

@bookstodon

#PDX #Portland #IndependentBookstoreDay #Bookstores #Books #Bookstodon

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202d

I'm going to be in Europe soon, and I'm looking for good SF/F books that might not have reached Australia. What do you have?
#books #bookstodon

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182d

"We have come to this cultural agreement that convenience is so important that it trumps everything else, forgetting that anything that matters in life is inconvenient [...] I think we should re-value difficulty, overcoming difficulty, and take pleasure in gaining mastery, because it is a form of empowerment"

#SpeakingOutOfPlace welcomes #CarissaVéliz, author of #Prophecy

https://speakingoutofplace.buzzsprout.com/2084729/episodes/18709720-bullshit-and-infinity-why-ai-cannot-predict-anything-a-conversation-with-carissa-veliz

#AI #tech #artificialIntelligence #techCriticism #techFutures #BigTech #books @bookstodon

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198d

Then all of a sudden, with a joy that I had not known within myself, I said: “If you want to spend the rest of your life listening and watching this nonsense, that’s up to you, but just now I’ve realized I want to spend my life doing something beautiful.” -- from 'The Gowkaran Tree in the Middle of Our Kitchen' by Shokoofeh Azar; (translator is anonymous for security reasons)

#WednesdayBookQuote #books #reading #ReadingJournal @bookstodon

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180d

Does reading do us any good?

Stripped of easy moralising, literature makes us relish the search for truth in an age when many believe truth to be dead

by Flora Champy

https://aeon.co/essays/the-role-of-literature-as-the-key-to-personal-freedom

Classics of Literature at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/bookshelf/649

#books #literature

Photo de Marcel Proust par Otto Wegener (1849-1924).

A sepia studio photograph of Marcel Proust with dark-haired and a moustache, seated pensively with his chin resting on his hand.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marcel_Proust_vers_1895.jpg#/media/File:Otto_Wegener_Proust_vers_1895_bis.jpg

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181d

The many literary lives of Mary Wollstonecraft – author of novels, travel writing and children’s books

Wollstonecraft’s literary career was dedicated to questioning power, society and the roles assigned to women.

by Aditi Upmanyu

https://theconversation.com/the-many-literary-lives-of-mary-wollstonecraft-author-of-novels-travel-writing-and-childrens-books-279885?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20Weekender%20-%203747638388&utm_content=The%20Weekender%20-%203747638388+CID_a5f7e1691899811906f2c3a5b8213e91&utm_source=campaign_monitor_uk&utm_term=The%20many%20literary%20lives%20of%20Mary%20Wollstonecraft%20%20author%20of%20novels%20travel%20writing%20and%20childrens%20books

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

#books #literature #womeninart

Wollstonecraft in 1790–1791, by John Opie

An oil portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft with powdered curly hair and a white headband, wearing a dark teal dress with a white fichu, holding an open book beside a quill and inkwell .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Wollstonecraft#/media/File:MaryWollstonecraft.jpg

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181d

World's largest collection of Olympiad-level math problems now available to everyone

by Rachel Gordon, edited by Lisa Lock, reviewed by Robert Egan

https://phys.org/news/2026-04-world-largest-olympiad-math-problems.html

Mathematics at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/bookshelf/102

#books #mathematics

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95d

A glorious recap - Marvels (1994) Review cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/50316606 I can’t talk about this comic book without stressing the important fact that much of the joy and wonder and amazement that I got out of this book was due to the fact that I was already familiar with a lot of the stories in this comic book. That’s one of the strengths and weaknesses of this book, it relies on you as a fan of these stories and much of the themes of this book depend upon you knowing these characters beforehand. Now, I have never read more than a handful of comic books but I have seen a lot of the movies which helped a lot. Marvels is about our main character Phil Sheldon, a photographer in New York as he lives through the 40s and 50s and 60s and 70s and witnesses the stories of many of the major characters from Marvel Comics. We see Captain America fighting the Nazis, the rise of Fantastic Four and the arrival of Galactus, we see Avengers forming and taking on new members and of course the X-Men and how they differ from other heroes. I have no idea how it would feel to read these stories if you were unfamiliar with most of the stories because one of the reasons why this book works is that it reflects our own childhood wonder and amazement of these characters onto us. We see people marveling at them just as we used to, just as I did when I was a kid watching Spider-Man on an old CRT. Without that reflection, I think much of the appeal would be lost. Of course, Alex Ross’s drawing is amazing and it feels even more cinematic somehow than Kingdom Come. In that story the amount of busy action sequences left me disoriented at times but here even though there are some really cool battles against foes, much of the focus is on everyday people. I like how these scenes have a momentum to them, the sense of pace as Phil walks the streets or runs toward his house feels impactful even though there’s nothing grand going on action-wise. What I love about also is how people are hostile towards these heroes, especially the mutant X-Men who are treated like commies and hunted down at every turn. The scenes of human brutality hit a lot harder than any large scale action sequences could. The book also manges to be consistently grounded, this is not one of those stories where an average guy gets in a team-up with superheroes and forms a relationship with them. Instead, spoilerthe only time he comes too close them, he ends up losing his right eye. spoilerIt’s not a criticism per say but I find it very strange and interesting how this book forms it’s own version of superhero fatigue within the story. Phil Sheldon towards the end gets so sick and tired of people admiring these heroes whenever they get saved and accuse them of villainy when things are peaceful that he doesn’t want to be a part of it and retires, leaving the story at an inconclusive end for him and the reader. Page · lemmy.ml

cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/50316606

I can’t talk about this comic book without stressing the important fact that much of the joy and wonder and amazement that I got out of this book was due to the fact that I was already familiar with a lot of the stories in this comic book.
That’s one of the strengths and weaknesses of this book, it relies on you as a fan of these stories and much of the themes of this book depend upon you knowing these characters beforehand. Now, I have never read more than a handful of comic books but I have seen a lot of the movies which helped a lot.
Marvels is about our main character Phil Sheldon, a photographer in New York as he lives through the 40s and 50s and 60s and 70s and witnesses the stories of many of the major characters from Marvel Comics. We see Captain America fighting the Nazis, the rise of Fantastic Four and the arrival of Galactus, we see Avengers forming and taking on new members and of course the X-Men and how they differ from other heroes.
I have no idea how it would feel to read these stories if you were unfamiliar with most of the stories because one of the reasons why this book works is that it reflects our own childhood wonder and amazement of these characters onto us. We see people marveling at them just as we used to, just as I did when I was a kid watching Spider-Man on an old CRT. Without that reflection, I think much of the appeal would be lost.
Of course, Alex Ross’s drawing is amazing and it feels even more cinematic somehow than Kingdom Come. In that story the amount of busy action sequences left me disoriented at times but here even though there are some really cool battles against foes, much of the focus is on everyday people. I like how these scenes have a momentum to them, the sense of pace as Phil walks the streets or runs toward his house feels impactful even though there’s nothing grand going on action-wise.
What I love about also is how people are hostile towards these heroes, especially the mutant X-Men who are treated like commies and hunted down at every turn. The scenes of human brutality hit a lot harder than any large scale action sequences could. The book also manges to be consistently grounded, this is not one of those stories where an average guy gets in a team-up with superheroes and forms a relationship with them. Instead,
spoiler
the only time he comes too close them, he ends up losing his right eye.
spoiler
It’s not a criticism per say but I find it very strange and interesting how this book forms it’s own version of superhero fatigue within the story. Phil Sheldon towards the end gets so sick and tired of people admiring these heroes whenever they get saved and accuse them of villainy when things are peaceful that he doesn’t want to be a part of it and retires, leaving the story at an inconclusive end for him and the reader.

A glorious recap - Marvels (1994) Review

https://lemmy.ml/post/50318230

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180d

2025 Nobel Prize winner, Laszlo Krasznahorkai writes about collapse, fear, absurdity, and the strange comedy of human behavior when the world feels close to breaking apart.
His novels are famous for their long hypnotic sentences.

A perfect place to start is Satantango or The Melancholy of Resistance.

#books #writers #reading #Krasznahorkai #nobelprize #literature #book #bookstodon @bookstodon #booksky #BookTok #booklovers #bookish #absurdity #novel #satantango #melancholy

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181d

Books may do more than entertain us.

A large study using Health and Retirement Study data found that people who read #books had a survival advantage compared with non-book #readers, even after adjusting for factors like age, #education, health, and wealth.

Strong evidence that #reading is associated with living better and longer.

Source: A chapter a day: Association of book reading with #longevity.
#book #bookstodon #booksky #BookTok #booklover #bookstagram
@bookstodon

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169d

My #bookreview is brief/won't spoil, to spread good, great, and spectacular #horror #books far and wide.

Illuminating, concise, and chock-full of fascinating details— with images of pages and ephemera pulled from King's personal archives— this book provides a truly unique and one-of-a-kind window into the Writing World and Words of Stephen King. An absolute joy for any Constant Reader. (Hogarth)

#book #review #bookstodon #StephenKing
@bookstodon #mothersuspiriareview #MSReview @bookstodon@toot.community

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172d

Owen Jones welcomes #AdamJohnson, author of #HowToSellAGenocide: The #Media's Complicity in the Destruction of #Gaza (all royalties from which go to Middle East Children's Alliance)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETJv8ggAFA0

#GazaCoverage #Palestine #Israel #PalestineCoverage #USmedia #AmericanMedia #WesternMedia #mediaCriticism #MSM #books @bookstodon

Edited 172d ago

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259d

The Bloodhounds of Zirth by Lloyd Palmer

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64527

#books #reading #bookstodon #scifi #sciencefiction #scifiart #sciencefictionart #retro #retrofuturism #pulpfiction #pulp #bookart #bookcovers #coverart

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181d

Ebook and paperback: https://books2read.com/TymeStarwitch
Audiobook: https://owentyme.bandcamp.com/album/the-book-of-newts-starwitch

The undead queen of the space pirates kidnapped Amelia’s sisters and damaged her ship, leaving her with little fuel. Amelia’s a dead woman without her sisters, forced to attack the pirate’s mountain-sized star ship, despite how slim the odds are…

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

(Left) The cover of Starwitch, by Owen Tyme.

In the background is a red, orange and white nebula.

In the foreground is a line drawing of a red spotted newt, in white. The lines of the newt are outlined in black, to help it stand out. The interior is red, with an appearance similar to stained glass.

(Right) In the background is a red and orange galaxy, with a blue core, which bears a resemblance to an eye. It has the following text over it:

“First you turn my dog against me, then you steal my ship’s core? What’s next, pulling my teeth?”

“We didn’t ask for this! You attacked us! Why don’t you just let us go?”

“I might as well cover myself in tartar sauce, then go swimming in shark infested waters! My lieutenants would tear me to shreds, just the same!”

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

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181d

📚 Trouble with Lichen by: John Wyndham

Francis Saxover and Diana Brackley, two scientists investigating a rare lichen, discover it has a remarkable property: it retards the aging process. Francis, realizing the implications for the world of an ever-youthful, wealthy elite, wants to keep it secret, but Diana sees an oppo...

https://bookblabla.com/book/trouble-with-lichen

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #sciencefiction #generalfiction #geneticengineering

Francis Saxover and Diana Brackley, two scientists investigating a rare lichen, discover it has a remarkable property: it retards the aging process. Francis, realizing the implications for the world of an ever-youthful, wealthy elite, wants to keep it secret, but Diana sees an opportunity to overturn the male status quo by using the lichen to inspire a feminist revolution.

As each scientist wrestles with the implications and practicalities of exploiting the discovery, the world comes ever closer to learning the truth...

Trouble With Lichen is a scintillating story of the power wielded by science in our lives and asks how much trust should we place in those we appoint to be its guardians?

FROM THE RENOWNED CLASSIC SCI-FI WRITER AND AUTHOR OF THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS AND THE CHRYSTALIDS

'Ingenious' Evening Standard

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181d

This week's #NewBooks at the library: A toss-up of three different titles
- Having reviewed a biography about Edgar Allan Poe, I determined that Thomas Olive Mabbott's version, originally published by Belknap Press, is probably one of the more authoritative collections of Poe's work. I managed to find a 1979 hardback original of the first volume via eBay.
- I found a very affordable second-hand version of Cambridge University Press's Meteoroids: Sources of Meteors on Earth and Beyond in their Cambridge Planetary Science series.
- One more book from my employer's January clearance sale is Muhammad H. Zaman's Biography of Resistance: The Epic Battle Between People and Pathogens, published by Harper Wave.

#Books #Bookstodon #Scicomm #Gothic #Poetry #Astronomy #Astrodon #Microbiology #Disease @bookstodon

A photo of three books standing on a small, brown, wooden table. The out-of-focus background shows black shelves full of books and part of the beech-coloured laminate floor.

On the left, The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Volume 1: Poems, showing a hardback with a faded red dust jacket with a drawing of a black crow with wings outstretched.

In the middle, Meteoroids: Sources of Meteors on Earth and Beyond, showing a casebound hardback showing an aerial photo of a cloud-covered pine forest with a meteor streaking across the sky.

On the right, Biography of Resistance, showing a hardback with a slate-grey dust jacket with a stylised drawing of a bacterium. Numerous yellow dots are encircling a red globular structure that has many spiky arms sticking out in all directions. A circle drawn in a dashed line is all that is keeping the two apart.

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181d

Im looking for a book or an essay, I forget the title and author tho. It is about a failing economy and the only recourse is to eat the childeren. I want to say its Swift but can't remember can u help

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208d

Cover Reveal! Here is our next book, which opens for pre-orders soon, and it is a reprint of what some scholars say is a landmark publication, the first single-author collection of speculative stories from an African author (based on the continent and in contemporary times, we believe). First published in 2014, it went out of print when the original publisher folded. We are proud to bring it back to life!

https://www.ododopress.com/blog/cover-reveal-a-killing-in-the-sun/
#books #bookstodon #sff #sciFi #writing #writingcommunity #blog

The cover of a collection of short stories. It's blue, with the main image being a creature that looks like an octopus with a human face, and two of its tentacles are human hands. It is coming out of what looks like the circular hatch of a spherical vehicle. The title, at the top of the page, is A Killing In the Sun, above that is a blurb. "Well worth reading" Strange Horizons. Below the image is another blurb "So loving these sci-fi short stories... each one is memorable" Zukiswa Wanner. At the bottom of the image is the name of the author, Dilman Dila.

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206d

Today is the birthday of John Fowles, and it feels like a good moment to return to a writer who made novels feel intimate, troubling, and alive.

His books do not leave the reader untouched. They linger. They raise questions about love, freedom, illusion, loneliness, and the stories people tell themselves just to keep going.

If you have read him, which book stays with you most?

#books #reading #literature #writers
#bookstodon
@bookstodon

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