Eggplant.place

163d

Book Promotion: Sci-Fi & Fantasy books on Kindle Unlimited

A collection of 44 #books for you to read free on KU. My book is DRM-free.

#spaceship #magic #aliens #legendary #fedibookfair #boost #amreading #writing #dwarfs #readers #rogue #heroes #bookwyrm #reading #goodbooks #space #time #dwarves #dystopia #sorcery #monsters #futurism #planets #sciencefiction #science #scifi #writing #young #newadults #teen #teens #ya #books #booktoot #booksky #bookfunnel @bookstodon

https://books.bookfunnel.com/may-sci-fi-fantasy-kindle-unlimited-may/edp52xojci

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163d

Looking for your next book on Project Gutenberg? Benjamin Laird has some suggestions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjVnReMlGHo&list=WL&index=8&t=41s

#books #literature

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154d

The Bayeux Tapestry tells only the winner’s story – but the other side can be found in old English texts

The story of the losers is full of meaningful silences and William of Normandy’s terror.

by Catherine Clarke

https://theconversation.com/the-bayeux-tapestry-tells-only-the-winners-story-but-the-other-side-can-be-found-in-old-english-texts-283339?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20May%2022%202026%20-%203777938688&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20May%2022%202026%20-%203777938688+CID_92df80263ee542f0b2508c19d4ddc106&utm_source=campaign_monitor_uk&utm_term=The%20Bayeux%20Tapestry%20tells%20only%20the%20winners%20story%20%20but%20the%20other%20side%20can%20be%20found%20in%20old%20English%20texts

Bayeux tapestry at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/4445

#Books #Literature #Tapestry #Old_Manuscripts

THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY ELUCIDATED.
BY
REV. JOHN COLLINGWOOD BRUCE, LL.D., F.S.A.,

Plate I.

Top panel shows:

A enthroned figure on the left (likely King Edward the Confessor) gesturing to figures before him
Latin inscription referencing "Anglorum" (of the English) and "milites" (soldiers/knights)
Mounted knights and hunting dogs racing to the right — possibly Harold's journey to Normandy

Bottom panel shows:

The label "ECCLESIA" on the left, with a church building
The inscription "HIC HAROLD MARE NAVIGAVIT" — "Here Harold sailed the sea"
A longship with oarsmen navigating waves, accompanied by figures on shore
Wind-filled sails and stylized waves typical of the tapestry's distinctive style

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/55614/55614-h/55614-h.htm

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163d

Today is Daphne du Maurier’s birthday!

Few #writers could create an atmosphere like Daphne du Maurier. Her #stories begin elegantly, then something shifts. A beautiful house can become a prison, love can turn into possession, and silence can be more frightening than a scream. Suddenly you are #reading faster than you planned.

Have you read any of her #novels?

#today #onthisday #birthday #DaphneduMaurier #Maurier #books #bookstodon @bookstodon #readingcommunity #booksky #book

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126d

"There are records of people being whipped for celebrating and being threatened for celebrating. And even outside the context of celebrations, there was retaliation against the Freedmen [..] There was a lot of hope in the middle of a lot of hostility."

Historian #AnnetteGordonReed, author of #OnJuneteenth

https://kpfa.org/episode/letters-and-politics-june-19-2024/
#Juneteenth #OTD #EmancipationDay #Emancipation #BlackHistory #UShistory #AmericanHistory #TexasHistory #BlackTexas #books @bookstodon

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162d

A little patch of land.
Bread on the table.
A dear friend you can talk to.
A small house you can call Home.
Rabbits…

Such a modest dream. And yet so impossibly out of reach.

Which character from this story stayed with you the most?

#Steinbeck #books #fiction #shortstory #OfMiceandMen #story #JohnSteinbeck #book #bookstodon @bookstodon #tragedy #loneliness #literature #discussion #classic #booksky #BookDiscussion #BookTok #bookstagram #bookstadon #bookstack #friends

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162d

Galileo’s handwritten notes found in ancient astronomy text

Discovery sheds new light on how famed astronomer came to lead a scientific revolution

By Joshua Sokol

https://www.science.org/content/article/galileo-s-handwritten-notes-found-ancient-astronomy-text

Galileo at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1629

#Books #Old_Manuscripts

Title page of *Istoria e dimostrazioni intorno alle macchie solari* (1613)

1613 title page of Galileo's Istoria e Dimostrazioni intorno alle Macchie Solari (History of Sunspots), published in Rome. Galileo's landmark sunspot letters to Marco Welser, featuring the Lincean Academy lynx emblem with crown.

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei#/media/File:Galileo_Macchie_solari.jpg

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126d

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

Nicole seeks to collect the missing fragments of the magical city of Kurg from her home world, but the remaining pieces were deactivated and are hard to find. Luckily, she just found the first piece of the Seventh Sage, an ancient stone man that knows the future, which she hopes knows where to find them.

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

(Left) The cover of Stone Prophet, by Owen Tyme.

At the center is a hexagonal coin with a golden appearance,. That bears a watercolor painting of a woman's face, which drips paint as if it were fresh.

Following the edges of the coin, the background is divided by a spiral of black lines into six images representing vital pieces of the titular stone prophet.

Upper right is an attractive woman with blue eyes and blond hair that's almost white. She stands in place of Memory.

Right is an eye with a blue iris surrounded by blue skin and golden decorations, representing Vision.

Lower right is a hooded woman in darkness, partially illuminated by a purple triangle that magically restrains her. She is Skill.

Lower left is a heart made of and resting in blue sand, with yellow light inside. That shines through cracks, hinting at fragility. This is Emotion.

Left is a gray sphere covered in black zeros and ones. More zeros and ones lay over the top, in blurred white. This is Reason.

Upper Left is a brass statue of justice, wearing a robe and blindfold. She holds a sword and scales. Behind her are the stars of space. This is Heart.

(Right) The same attractive woman from the upper right section of the cover, looking right at the viewer. The following quote frames her face, above and below:

“Does the Leader make the hard choices, or do the hard choices make the Leader?”

“Will she do what must be done, for the good of all?”

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

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161d

Fresh in for #FossilFriday, a new review! In Search of Sea Dragons is an engrossing tale of fossils and obsession.

https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2026/05/15/book-review-in-search-of-sea-dragons-a-fossil-hunters-odyssey/

#Books #BookReview #Bookstodon #Fossils #Paleontology #Palaeontology #Scicomm @bookstodon

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161d

Magic can give you just one thing. Choose wisely:

Knowledge?
Courage?
Love?
Or simply more time at home?

You will receive it today, because today is L.Frank #Baum’s birthday - the #author of The Wonderful #Wizard of #Oz.

Repost if you think the world needs a little more #magic & great #books

#WizardofOz #LFrankBaum #literature #book #today #birthday #onthisday #reading #readingcommunity #reader #fantasy #tale #readers #bookstodon @bookstodon #booksky #bookstagram #writer #authors #writers

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161d

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

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27d

The Women Who Sold Books Door to Door

By Livia Gershon

Three nineteenth-century memoirs reveal the risks and rewards of life on the road as a traveling bookseller.

https://daily.jstor.org/the-women-who-sold-books-door-to-door/?utm_source=mcae&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=jstordaily_09242026&utm_content=readmore

Original article:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/48647114?mag=the-women-who-sold-books-door-to-door&seq=1

#books #literature

Image of Frank Shay on his mobile book truck "Parnassus on Wheels" taken c. 1922. Autographed by Shay to Christopher Morley.

Photo postcard of Frank Shay's mobile book truck, "Parnassus on Wheels" (c. 1922), a traveling bookshop parked outside a decorative shopfront. A man sits in the vintage vehicle. Handwritten inscription reads: "To Christopher Morley — source of all inspiration, Frank Shay."

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154d

On Making Time to Read War and Peace and Other Great Literary Works

Laura Vanderkam Offers Some Suggestions to Help Meet Your Reading Goals

https://lithub.com/on-making-time-to-read-war-and-peace-and-other-great-literary-works/

"War and Peace" at PG:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2600

#books #literature

On the right in the foreground is an hourglass that has pink sand running through it. One the left is an out-of-focus metal clock with roman numbers.

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160d

This week's #NewBooks at the library: Three more books from our January clearance sale
- Jellyfish Age Backwards: Nature's Secrets to Longevity by Nicklas Brendborg, published by Hodder & Stoughton.
- Ancestors in Evolutionary Biology: Linear Thinking about Branching Trees, a more technical volume by Ronald A Jenner, published by Cambridge University Press as part of their series of Systematics Association Special Volumes (@SystAssn).
- #Acrocanthosaurus Inside and Out by Kenneth Carpenter, published by the University of Oklahoma Press.

#Books #Bookstodon #Scicomm #MolecularBiology #EvolutionaryBiology #Evolution #Paleontology #Palaeontology #Fossils #Dinosaurs @bookstodon

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, Jellyfish Age Backwards, showing a black hardback with a rainbow-coloured drawing of the outline of a jellyfish.

In the middle, Ancestors in Evolutionary Biology, showing a hardback with a colour photo of the moss-draped gnarly oak trees of Wistman's Wood in Dartmoor National Park, South West England, on a foggy day.

On the right, Acrocanthosaurus Inside and Out, showing a black hardback with a colour photo of the prepared fossil skull of a carnivorous dinosaur.

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221d

To say I’m excited about the impending publication of the new novel, The End of Everything, by M. John Harrison would be something of an understatement.

“Phillip Tennent makes his living at the tideline, collecting artefacts that wash up from the Channel. It's been years since the crisis changed everything, but its exact nature remains obscure. Government barely functions, the seas are full of new creatures, Europe has been mislaid. It feels like the end.

Now Phillip has fished out of the water an object he can't keep. A creature that keeps changing. An artefact he must take inland, before it destroys everything he thinks he knows.”

I love that cover design, the sickly way the “Everything” in the title collapses towards the bottom of the page, a metaphor for decay, runoff, entropy or perhaps something much worse.

As another (connected) Mike once asked “What is the exact nature of the catastrophe?”

#MJohnHarrison #TheEndOfEverything #SpeculativeFiction #Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

The front cover of the forthcoming novel by M. John Harrison, The End of Everything, published by Serpent’s Tail in June 2026.

The book’s title is overlaid on a cold scene of a shoreline, with a solitary figure at its edge, looking out towards the water. The word “Everything” in the title collapses towards the bottom of the page, a metaphor for decay, runoff, entropy or perhaps something worse.

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123d

Disappearing Scrapbooks
The fate of Willa Cather’s archives, real and fictional.

By Liz Cettina

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/willa-cather-archive-unl-cdrh-scrapbooks-letters-materiality/?utm_source=Los+Angeles+Review+of+Books+Subscribers&utm_campaign=4f2d70cdac-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_06_18_06_07&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-4f2d70cdac-346160725&mc_cid=4f2d70cdac&mc_eid=dcb55ac191

Books by Willa Cather at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/22

#books #literature

Photograph of Willa Cather by Van Vechten; smiling; looking toward the camera. (1936)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willa_Cather#/media/File:Cather_Van_Vechten.jpg

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153d

Avignon as Threat: How a Medieval Myth Became a Modern Weapon

For centuries, the Avignon Papacy has been portrayed as a period of corruption, weakness, and French domination over the medieval Church. But a modern political controversy involving the Pentagon and the Vatican has revealed how this powerful historical myth still shapes public perceptions today.

By Joëlle Rollo-Koster

https://www.medievalists.net/2026/05/avignon-papacy/

Avignon at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=avignon

#Books #Literature

Avignon - THE PONT BÉNÉZET.

A 19th-century photograph of the Pont Saint-Bénézet (the famous "Pont d'Avignon") in Avignon, southern France, spanning the Rhône River. Only four of its original arches survive. Behind it rise the Palais des Papes (Palace of the Popes) and the cathedral.

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/46035/pg46035-images.html#Page_175

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125d

Etaski writes Sister Seekers: #Mature #EpicFantasy with an ever broadening scope

#FoundFamily is a core theme with #D&D #TTRPG #Worldbuilding

#DarkFantasySeries begins underground with an isolated race of #DarkElves. #Horror to #Hope #GritToGladness - NOT for the faint of heart #EroticHorror

https://etaski.com

#Books #DarkElf #Drow #dnd #Demon #Dragon #Writing #Sapphic #Bisexual #Lesbian #lgbtqia #polycule #polyamorous

@bookstodon @ttrpg @fantasy @lgbtqbookstodon @readit @Literbook

12 book covers for Sister Seekers: Sons to Keep, No Demons But Us, Treasure Revealed, The Daedal Pit, Surfacing, Black Witch Death Mage, The Mark of Gold, The Guild's Design, Battle for Manalar, Awake in the Dark, Shadows & Hounds, Rising Guardians.

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153d

This week's #NewBooks at the library: Who is excited about the next few books he will be reviewing?

- After an impressive debut, I am looking forward to reading Cal Flyn's second book, The Savage Landscape: How We Made the Wilderness, published by HarperCollins.

- Time for another deep dive into the history of my favourite discipline, #EvolutionaryBiology. I really enjoyed Costa's annotated version of Wallace's notebook, and am very excited about delving into this annotated version of #CharlesDarwin's The Descent of Man, beautifully published here by @princetonupress. Expect me to go dark for a while, it's over 760 pages!

- And for context, I will be adding a review of Jeremy DeSilva's A Most Interesting Problem: What #Darwin’s Descent of Man Got Right and Wrong about #HumanEvolution, published a few years back, also by Princeton.

#Books #Bookstodon #Scicomm #Evolution #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #HistSci @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, The Savage Landscape, showing a hardback with a top-down aerial colour photo, likely shot with a drone, of a snow-covered landscape. A black tarmac road runs straight up from bottom to top. Halfway up the cover, red-hot glowing lava is covering the landscape.

In the middle, The Descent of Man, showing a landscape-format white hardback. The bottom half is covered by a fan-shaped collection of bird feathers from an argus pheasant. The feathers are brown and tan and show speckles. The left half of the fan shows male feathers, recognisable by eye-like circles running down the length of each feather, right next to the vane. The photo is by Kyle Black and called Argus Volans.

On the right, A Most Interesting Problem, showing a cream-coloured hardback with two drawings placed on either side of the title and subtitle. To the left, a skeleton of a chimpanzee rendered in yellow; to the right, a side-on view of a human skull rendered in green.

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153d

Why Beatrix Potter’s Stories Still Delight Generations

Defined by their colorful cast of characters and breathtaking illustrations, the storybooks of Beatrix Potter have brought joy to children around the world.

https://www.thecollector.com/beatrix-potter-stories/

#books #literature

Illustration from "The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher" by Beatrix Potter. Jeremy the frog is on the right wearing a bright reddish-pink coat over a pale patterned waistcoat and light-colored breeches. He is standing on two legs talking to Sir Isaac Newton (a newt) who is wearing a black and gold waistcoat frockcoat, and dark pants. He is standing with his hands behind his back.

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123d

"Everything you see in me is not mine, it's yours. Mine is what I see in you."

Erich Maria Remarque (June 22, 1898 - September 25, 1970)

#reading #books #quotes
#bookstodon #today #onthisday @bookstodon #literature #book #readingcommunity #bookstagram #BookTok #bookish

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153d

The Guardian's 2026 list of the 100 best novels of all time: https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2026/may/12/the-100-best-novels-of-all-time

"The most striking difference between this list and its predecessors is an increase in female writers: 36 out of 100 compared with 21 in 2015 and a paltry 16 in 2003, with only Jane Austen’s Emma and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in the top 10 of both previous lists. The number of women rises as the decades go by; half of the contemporary writers are female. This might not announce the decline of the great white male, but it does signal a much-needed reset."
#books #bookstodon @bookstodon

https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2026/may/16/story-behind-100-best-novels-all-time

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125d

22-year-old Mozart’s handwritten notebook unearthed in ‘major discovery’

The notebook was confiscated during the French Revolution, and has now been found in Paris.

https://www.classicfm.com/composers/mozart/handwritten-notebook-discovered-major-paris/

Books by Mozart at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1368

#Books #Music

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125d

Solved, Unsolved and Unsolvable: The Status of Hilbert’s 23 Problems in Mathematics

More than a century after David Hilbert presented a list of 23 mathematical challenges to the 1900 International Congress of Mathematicians, mathematicians have made significant progress, but there’s still much work to do.

By Evelyn Lamb

https://www.simonsfoundation.org/2026/06/18/solved-unsolved-and-unsolvable-the-status-of-hilberts-23-problems-in-mathematics/

Mathematical problems at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/71655

#books #mathematics