Eggplant.place

139d

The Race to Save a Medieval Palestinian Library

Ryan Byrnes on the Khalidi Family’s Battle to Protect Their Library From Ultra-Orthodox Settlers

https://lithub.com/the-race-to-save-a-medieval-palestinian-library/

#books #libraries

Khalidi Library, from the opening c. 1900. From right: Hajj Raghib al-Khalidi, Sheikh Taher al-Jaza’ireh (from Damascus), Sheikh Musa Shafiq al-Khalidi, Sheikh Khalil al-Khalidi, Sheikh Muhammad al-Habbal (from Beirut)

Costumes and characters, etc. Mohammedan sheikhs and effendies in front of Bibboth Khaldieh, Jerusalem

https://loc.gov/pictures/resource/matpc.06804/

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1y

"Of the life of Benjamin Button between his twelfth and twenty-first year I intend to say little. Suffice to record that they were years of normal ungrowth."

#OTD in 1922.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is published in The Smart Set magazine. It was subsequently anthologized in Fitzgerald's 1922 book Tales of the Jazz Age.

Tales of the Jazz Age at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/6695

#books #literature

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, published in Collier's Magazine, May 27, 1922, New York. Vol. 69, No. 21. Illustrations by James Montgomery Flagg. Front cover illustration by James Montgomery Flagg.

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1y

American lexicographer, editor, and author Noah Webster died #OTD in 1843.

His early contributions to education include a series of textbooks known collectively as the "Blue-Backed Speller." His first dictionary, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, was published in 1806. However, his most significant achievement came with the publication of An American Dictionary of the English Language in 1828.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/139

#books #dictionaries #lexicography

Title page of "A Dictionary of the English Language," written by Noah Webster, L.L.D. Springfield, Mass. Published by G. & C. Merriam. State Street.

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138d

"And all of us, looking up, suddenly understood what lightness was. We understood what life could be like for someone who really did whatever he wanted, who believed in nothing and obeyed no one; we understood what it would be like to be such a person, and we understood that we would never be such people."
~~ from 'Tyll' by Daniel Kehlmann, trans. Ross Benjamin
#WednesdayBookQuote #BookQuote #books #reading @bookstodon

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127d

Lost Jack Kerouac story found among assassinated mafia boss' belongings Takahe has limited support for this type: See Original Page

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138d

Famous Books I Don’t Plan to Read: https://lydiaschoch.com/wednesday-weekly-blogging-challenge-famous-books-i-dont-plan-to-read-2/1

#WednesdayWeeklyBloggingChallenge #Books

@bookstodon

Photo of a road closed sign that has been erected in the middle of a road that looks like it’s headed toward the beach.

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1y

Clytemnestra, in Greek mythology, was the wife of Agamemnon, and the half-sister of Helen of Troy.

In Aeschylus' Oresteia, she murders Agamemnon – said by Euripides to be her second husband – and the Trojan princess Cassandra, whom Agamemnon had taken as a war prize following the sack of Troy; however, in Homer's Odyssey, her role in Agamemnon's death is unclear and her character is significantly more subdued.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14417

https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/1728

#books #literature #mythology

Clytemnestra by John Collier, 1882..

Classic artwork featuring a woman with long hair holding a large axe.

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138d

📚 You Weren't Meant to Be Human by: Andrew Joseph White

Festering masses of worms and flies have taken root in dark corners across Appalachia. In exchange for unwavering loyalty and fresh corpses, these hives offer a few struggling humans salvation. A fresh start. It’s an offer that none refuse.

Crane is grat...

https://bookblabla.com/book/you-werent-meant-to-be-human

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #horrorfiction #sciencefiction #lgbtq #transgender

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1y

THE BEAUTIFUL RIVER: A COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE OHIO RIVER

This new book from one of our editors documents the history, industry and pollution of the Ohio River.

#Ohio #Pittsburgh #Cincinnati #OhioRiver #ClimateChange #Pollution #Books #Author #Journalism #Illinois #Conservation #History

https://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-River-Complete-History-Ohio/dp/B0D6N46CG2/

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138d

I've given people that look, it doesn't work 😂

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

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

An old painting of a woman holding a book and looking unamused.

Caption: When someone assumes that when you are reading a book, that you are "doing nothing" and therefore can be interrupted. Repeatedly.

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137d

Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai wins the Nobel Prize in literature Takahe has limited support for this type: See Original Page

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127d

You need to read the epic Argentinian horror novel Our Share of Night Takahe has limited support for this type: See Original Page

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78d

📚 The Compound by: Aisling Rawle

Lily, a bored, beautiful twenty something wakes up on a remote desert compound, alongside nineteen other contestants competing on a massively popular reality show. To win, she must outlast her housemates to stay in the Compound the longest, while competing in challenges for l...

https://bookblabla.com/book/the-compound-a-gma-book-club-pick

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #psychologicalfiction #literaryfiction #dystopian

Lily, a bored, beautiful twenty something wakes up on a remote desert compound, alongside nineteen other contestants competing on a massively popular reality show. To win, she must outlast her housemates to stay in the Compound the longest, while competing in challenges for luxury rewards like champagne and lipstick, plus communal necessities to outfit their new home, like food, appliances, and a front door.

Cameras are catching all her angles, good and bad, but Lily has no desire to leave: why would she, when the world outside is falling apart? As the competition intensifies, intimacy between the players deepens, and it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between desire and desperation. When the unseen producers raise the stakes, forcing contestants into upsetting, even dangerous situations, the line between playing the game and surviving it begins to blur. If Lily makes it to the end, she’ll receive prizes beyond her wildest dreams but what will she have to do to win?

Addictive and prescient, The Compound is an explosive debut from a major new voice in fiction and will linger in your mind long after the game ends.

GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK

Nothing to lose. Everything to gain. Winner takes all.

“Every bit as addictive as your favorite guilty pleasure binge-watch, but with all the substance of a literary classic.”—Oprah Daily

It’s fun to watch hot people do psychotic things in this novel... Smart and provocative [and] so damn ad

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131d

📚 Grandes Contos e Novelas da Língua Portuguesa 📚

O #ProjectoAdamastor acaba de publicar uma nova antologia. Fruto de um trabalho de investigação que envolveu a análise de mais de setecentos textos, esta obra apresenta uma amostra da melhor produção contística em português, do início do séc. XIX até meados do séc. XX, evidenciando a evolução do género e as diferentes tendências literárias que o caracterizaram.

#livros #ebooks #books #bookstodon #literatura

https://projectoadamastor.org/grandes-contos-e-novelas-da-lingua-portuguesa/

Capa de «Grandes Contos e Novelas da Língua Portuguesa». Letras azuis sobre um fundo cinzento-claro. Na parte superior, são apresentados os nomes de todos os autores incluídos na antologia enquanto na parte inferior constam o título, o organizador e o logótipo do Projecto Adamastor.

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127d

📚 The Android's Dream by: John Scalzi

A human diplomat creates an interstellar incident when he kills an alien diplomat in a most . . . unusual . . . way. To avoid war, Earth's government must find an equally unusual object: a type of sheep ("The Android's Dream"), used in the alien race's coronation ceremony.

To find the sheep, the government t...

https://bookblabla.com/book/the-androids-dream

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #sciencefiction #humorous

A human diplomat creates an interstellar incident when he kills an alien diplomat in a most . . . unusual . . . way. To avoid war, Earth's government must find an equally unusual object: a type of sheep ("The Android's Dream"), used in the alien race's coronation ceremony.

To find the sheep, the government turns to Harry Creek, ex-cop, war hero and hacker extraordinare, who, with the help of a childhood friend turned artificial intelligence, scours the earth looking for the rare creature. But there are others with plans for the sheep as well. Mercenaries employed by the military. Adherents of a secret religion based on the writings of a 21st century SF author. And alien races, eager to start a revolution on their home world and a war on Earth.

To keep our planet from being enslaved, Harry will have to pull off a grand diplomatic coup, a gambit that will take him from the halls of power to the lava-strewn battlefields of alien worlds. There's only one chance to get it right, to save the life of the sheep—and to protect the future of humanity.

From New York Times bestseller and Hugo Award-winner John Scalzi, a trade paperback repackage of his wild-and-woolly caper novel of interstellar diplomacy—now with a new cover!

Other Tor Books by John Scalzi:

Agent to the Stars
Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded
Fuzzy Nation
Redshirts

Lock In
1. Lock In
2. Head On

The Interdepency Sequence
1. The Collapsing Empire
2. The Consuming Fire

Old Man's War Series
1

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137d

A Review of The Hunger We Pass Down: https://lydiaschoch.com/a-review-of-the-hunger-we-pass-down/

#BookReview #Mystery #Paranormal #Books

@bookstodon

Book cover for The Hunger We Pass Down by Jen Sookfong Lee. Image on cover is a dark watercolour painting of a young Asian woman who is looking over her shoulder at the audience with a serious and longing expression on her face. Her shoulders are slightly hunched as if she’s tired or maybe doesn’t have good posture.

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135d

📚 Brave New World by: Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley's profoundly important classic of world literature, Brave New World is a searching vision of an unequal, technologically-advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order—all at the cost of our freedom, full humanity, and pe...

https://bookblabla.com/book/brave-new-world

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries

Aldous Huxley's profoundly important classic of world literature, Brave New World is a searching vision of an unequal, technologically-advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order—all at the cost of our freedom, full humanity, and perhaps also our souls. “A genius [who] who spent his life decrying the onward march of the Machine” (The New Yorker), Huxley was a man of incomparable talents: equally an artist, a spiritual seeker, and one of history’s keenest observers of human nature and civilization.

Brave New World, his masterpiece, has enthralled and terrified millions of readers, and retains its urgent relevance to this day as both a warning to be heeded as we head into tomorrow and as a thought-provoking, satisfying work of literature. Written in the shadow of the rise of fascism during the 1930s, Brave New World likewise speaks to a 21st-century world dominated by mass-entertainment, technology, medicine and pharmaceuticals, the arts of persuasion, and the hidden influence of elites.

Now more than ever: Aldous Huxley's enduring masterwork must be read and understood by anyone concerned with preserving the human spirit

"A masterpiece. . . . One of the most prophetic dystopian works." —Wall Street Journal

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137d

Hungarian master of absurdist excess László Krasznahorkai wins Nobel literature prize Takahe has limited support for this type: See Original Page

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137d

📚 Mate by: Ali Hazelwood

Serena Paris is orphaned, pack-less, and one of a kind. Coming forward as the first Human-Were hybrid was supposed to heal a centuries-long rift between species. Instead, it made her a target, prey to the ruthless political machinations between Weres, Vampyres, and Humans. With her enemies closing in on her...

https://bookblabla.com/book/mate

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #romance #paranormal #shiftersfiction #vampiresfiction

Serena Paris is orphaned, pack-less, and one of a kind. Coming forward as the first Human-Were hybrid was supposed to heal a centuries-long rift between species. Instead, it made her a target, prey to the ruthless political machinations between Weres, Vampyres, and Humans. With her enemies closing in on her, she has only one option left—if he’ll have her.

As Alpha of the Northwest pack, Koen Alexander commands obedience. His authority is so absolute, only a fool would threaten his mate. It doesn’t matter if Serena doesn’t reciprocate his feelings, nothing will stop him from keeping her safe.

But power-hungry Vampyres and Weres are not the only threats chasing Serena. Sooner or later, her past is bound to catch up with her—and Koen might be the only thing standing between her and total annihilation…

A Human hybrid and an Alpha Were claw against the bonds of fate in the highly anticipated companion novel to the New York Times bestselling Bride.

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78d

New on my #YouTube channel: "The Internet Con: an Under 5 Review."
https://youtu.be/Ix2nqGrT7Sg?si=EVVEYZv4_OS0L8jo

#Under5Reviews: where I tell you about a book and help you decide if you want to read it or not in under 5 minutes.

#books #reading #ItinerantLibrarian #reviews #BookReview #vlog #blog #Bookstodon #Internet #BadEconomy #exploitation #corruption 💙📚

@bookstodon

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78d

Non-dystopian SF for a change!

A refreshing change from the depressing dystopian science fiction which seems to be de rigeur these days. And ironically, that makes it more like actual science fiction than the “realistic” SF that just brings me down.

Framed as a series of oral history interviews of survivors of the end of capitalism by the authors about the emergence of a post-capitalist society, or cooperating societies, it’s a surprisingly hopeful read, even though there are elements that may seem rather alien to the modern reader. Particularly straight older readers like me!

But the idea of a world of communes without money or wages, where people feed and care for each other simply because they’re human beings, is incredibly refreshing. It makes me want to read more.

There are a couple of points that did strike me as odd, though. One was the almost total lack of any mention of New England. The oral histories focus on New York, but the near-total lack of any sort of role for New England seemed a bit odd to this New Englander. It’s as if the whole region had been scraped off the map! Other areas were mentioned, such as New Jersey and New Orleans. But not one word about anywhere in New England except Maine, and that was very limited. I couldn’t help but wonder why.

Another odd point was the near-universality of trans-hood (if that’s the right word for it). Virtually everyone interviewed was trans to one degree or another, and I can’t recall a single cis person. In fact it was specified that the incidence of transsexualism had been constantly rising since the initial crisis point and failure of capitalism.

This was explicitly tied into huge technological advances in the field, including the option for any gender to gestate offspring. Although initially done via surgical alterations, it was specified later that gene therapy could also accomplish complete regendering - a process which was apparently a relatively casual choice.

This is the point where I’m guessing many readers of this review will find me hopelessly old-fashioned and sexist and contemptible, I suspect. I don’t find the notion of gender change particularly disgusting; Robert A. Heinlein was writing about that sort of thing in the '80s, as I recall - albeit in a frequently creepy way. The oft-neglected Justin F. Leiber (son of the great SF author Fritz Leiber) covered the same subject far more professionally in Beyond Rejection (1980). I just find it strains my suspension of disbelief to buy the notion that the majority of the human race would effectively abandon the whole notion of gender within a period of 50 to 80 years.

Maybe I’m wrong. We’ll see. That said, I would gladly adjust to any number of changes in order to live in a world where we survive the end of capitalism and fascism. And “Everything For Everyone” presents a vision of such a world in a way that gives me hope.

I’ll definitely read it again.

Takahe has limited support for this type: See Original Page

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135d

Looking for audiobooks for spooky season? 🎃

The Cauldron by Amber Collins is a High Heat Standalone Magic Witch Soft Vore Mind Control Size Fantasy! I narrated this as Adara Astin.

If you were a sexy witch who needed to swallow people whole to maintain your eternal youth, what would you do? Felicity throws herself a party in her rare book store — where the refreshments are the guests!

This is a hot, campy little size fantasy romp, perfect for fans of mind control, enchantment, shrinking, soft vore, and "group activities".

I can't emphasize enough how much fun this story is.

Get yourself in the Halloween spirit with this spicy story.

Available in audiobook format on Amazon, Audible an Apple Books. Also available in ebook format on Amazon.

https://geni.us/TheCauldron

1/n

@audiofiction @bookstodon

#NSFW #Audioook #Audioobooks #Books #Bookstodon #Halloween #Erotica #Vore #SizeFantasy #Shrinking #Threesome #GroupSex #Magic #MindControl #Witch #Halloween

On the left, there is a large, cast-iron witch's cauldron on a metal stand, emitting wisps of smoke. On the right, text says: "The Cauldron. By Amber Collins. Narrated by Adara Astin. A Size Erotica Shrinking Story. Available on Apple Books, Audible and Amazon." Logos for the three stores are in a row across the bottom right.

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1y

"The spirit of truth and the spirit of freedom — these are the pillars of society."
The Pillars of Society

Norwegian Dramatist & Poet Henrik Ibsen died #OTD in 1906.

Ibsen is renowned for his pioneering work in realism, a movement in theater that sought to depict everyday life & societal issues with honesty and accuracy. He moved away from the romanticized and melodramatic styles that dominated the 19th century.

Books by Henrik Ibsen at PG
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/861

#books #literature #theatre

Henrik Ibsen painted by Eilif Peterssen

An elderly man sits at a desk, engrossed in his work, surrounded by books and papers.

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Title page of a 1936 edition of the play Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen, illustrated by Arthur Rackham.

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1y

American journalist, editor, critic, translator, and women's rights advocate associated with the American transcendentalism movement Margaret Fuller was born #OTD in 1810.

She was the first American female war correspondent and full-time book reviewer in journalism. Her book Woman in the Nineteenth Century is considered the first major feminist work in the United States.

Books by Margaret Fuller at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/2829

#books #literature