Eggplant.place

118d

Why We Need Positive Climate Novels

63d

📚 People We Meet on Vacation by: Emily Henry

Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share ho...

https://bookblabla.com/book/people-we-meet-on-vacation

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #romance #womenfiction #contemporary

Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.

Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven't spoken since.

Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.

Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2021 by Newsweek, Oprah Magazine, The Skimm, Marie Claire, Parade, The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, PopSugar, BookPage, BookBub, Betches, SheReads, Good Housekeeping, BuzzFeed, Business Insider, Real Simple, Frolic, and more!

From the #1 New York Times bestselling a

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118d

“The UK’s state broadcaster … regularly pays me residual fees. I want to be clear that I intend to use these proceeds of my work, as well as my public platform generally, to go on supporting Palestine Action and direct action against genocide in whatever way I can.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/18/uk-warns-sally-rooney-after-novelist-pledges-to-fund-palestine-action

@palestine @bookstodon #Palestine #Israel #Gaza #bookstodon #books #reading

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118d

Can we talk about Anathem?

About 15 years ago I read though everything Neal Stephenson had written. It started with snow crash, then the cryptonomicon, then less popular works like zodiac and the diamond age. In general I loved them all. I stopped reading his books right before anathem came out…

But on a vacation last year I picked up a copy on my e-reader and started it. I enjoyed the concept, I loved the mat-as-philosophy, despite the difficulty getting into it. Anyway, vacation came to an end, I was about 40% through it, and I just stopped, picked up a couple other books, and moved on. No real reason, but a combination of how slow it moved, the extraneous details that seem like they could have been left out, etc.

Well, vacation this year hit so I picked it back up. After about the 50 percent point the book totally changed, as if I was reading an entirely different story. I’m trying to leave out spoilers, but now I am about 80% through and I’m having trouble with what the characters are doing in the book based on the history provided in the beginning.

Tap for spoiler

Like, these monks who shunned technology are suddenly flying space suits and plotting the takeover of an alien ship.

Don’t get me wrong… I follow the story and the plot tracks well, but there was so much character development in the beginning and suddenly what they are doing doesn’t track with any of that development.

The best summery I read by someone on reddit said “what do you think about Anathem? I think it is about 200 pages too long”. I’m going to push through and finish it. My e-reader says I have about 7 hours to go and I think I am enjoying it. I just was wondering how others feel about it.

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115d

A Medieval Peace Movement: The Bianchi of 1399

By Peter Konieczny

Sick and tired of war and violence, many people throughout Italy left their homes and cities to march for peace in the year 1399.

https://www.medievalists.net/2023/08/bianchi-medieval-peace-movement/

Leonardo Bruni at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/43839

#books #history

A 14th-century depiction of this miracle at Chiesa di Santa Maria del Monumento in Terni – photo by Silvio Sorcini

The painting is executed in tempera fresco on wall, with figures arranged frontally in a shallow, stage-like space. At the center, the miraculous event unfolds: a holy figure is shown as the source of divine intervention, framed by a luminous halo. The surrounding figures — clergy, townspeople, or witnesses — are rendered with expressive gestures, turning toward the miracle in attitudes of awe, reverence, or supplication.

Color plays a key role: deep reds, ochres, and lapis blues highlight sacred figures, while earthier tones distinguish ordinary people. Gold leaf or gilded details may once have heightened the divine presence.

https://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Miracolo_dei_tre_pani,_e_l%E2%80%99Apparizione_della_Madonna_dell%E2%80%99ulivo_(M.della_Dormitio_Virginis,_affresco_del_XV_secolo,_Terni,_Chiesa_di_Santa_Maria_del_Monumento).jpg

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142d

5 of the strangest books ever written

Some books are remembered for their lyrical prose or engaging stories. Others are remembered for simply being weird.

By Scotty Hendricks

https://bigthink.com/books/5-of-the-strangest-books-ever-written/

James Joyce at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1039

#Books #Literature

A picture of James Joyce taken in Paris in 1928. During this time, Joyce was writing Finnegans Wake. He wouldn’t complete it for another 11 years.

Dressed in his characteristic dark suit, tie, and round spectacles, Joyce appears composed, reflective, and slightly enigmatic—a fitting image for a writer then deep in the creation of one of the most challenging and experimental works of modern literature: Finnegans Wake.

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

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119d

My latest read: "Of Shadows, Stars, and Sabers" from Stars and Sabers Publishing @starsandsabers - See my Goodreads review for details but if you're looking for a smorgasbord of speculative fiction, this one's sure to satisfy!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7830355244

@specfic @scifi @horrorbooks @bookstodon

#horror #scifi #fantasy #book #books #bookrec #bookrecs #bookreview #bookreviews #read #reads #reading #readingcommunity #booksofmastodon #readersofmastodon #bookstodon #booktodon

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10d

Read my first Murakami today. Fun little ready and very lovingly illustrated.

If you enjoy your Kafka or Oyamada you might enjoy this one too.

@bookstodon

#fedibookclub #books #bookstodon

cover of the book: Super frog saves Tokyo: a simple abstract depiction of a frogs eye. pleasant and playful vibes

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10d

📚 The Illustrated Man by: Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury brings wonders alive. For this peerless American storyteller, the most bewitching force in the universe is human nature. In these eighteen startling tales unfolding across a canvas of tattooed skin, living cities take their vengeance, technology awakens the most primal na...

https://bookblabla.com/book/the-illustrated-man

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #classicsfiction #sciencefiction #generalfiction

Ray Bradbury brings wonders alive. For this peerless American storyteller, the most bewitching force in the universe is human nature. In these eighteen startling tales unfolding across a canvas of tattooed skin, living cities take their vengeance, technology awakens the most primal natural instincts, and dreams are carried aloft in junkyard rockets.

Provocative and powerful, The Illustrated Man is a kaleidoscopic blending of magic, imagination, and truth—as exhilarating as interplanetary travel, as maddening as a walk in a million-year rain, and as comforting as simple, familiar rituals on the last night of the world.

The Illustrated Man, a seminal work in Ray Bradbury’s career, whose extraordinary power and imagination remain undimmed by time’s passage, is available from Simon & Schuster.

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116d

How the Women of the Gothic Revival Inspired Christina Rossetti’s Poetry

https://www.thecollector.com/christina-rossetti-women-gothic-revival/

Books by Christina Rossetti at PG:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/7041

Books by Georgina Fullerton at PG:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/2774
'
Books by Ann Radcliffe at PG:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1147

Books by Letitia Elizabeth Landon at PG:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/46661

#books #literature #poetry

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10d

Possibly Stupid Question: best place to discuss books on the Fediverse?

As a bibliophile on the Fediverse, I’m flailing a little. I’m on Mastodon, Lemmy, and BookWyrm.social, but I don’t know which is the best place to reach the largest and most active number of fellow readers.

Currently I’m guessing that this is the largest book group in the Fediverse, based entirely on MAU - but I’ll be frank, I could easily be wrong.

I’m looking to discuss approaches to reviewing books. It occurred to me recently that the most meaningful and helpful reviews are the ones that tie in to emotion - that emotional impact is by far the most important aspect of art and writing, at least to me. I’m curious to hear what sort of approaches other have tried, and maybe sharing tips.

There’s also another issue that’s been bothering the hell out of me: BookSNS. It’s a book recommendation site that’s very active, with a lot of users. I’ve been following it for quite a while via Mastodon.

Posts from it are echoed or relayed to Mastodon, but replies don’t go the other way. Users there seem to think that they are posting on Reddit, at least some of the time. But there is no way to contact anyone at the website itself; no admin address, and you have to have an account there in order to respond on the site. But there are no openings for new accounts.

It drives me completely crazy, because I have a huge amount of experience recommending books, particularly older books. I used to be one of the top book recommenders on Reddit, before I walked away after their IPO sleaze. Hoover and over I’ve seen requests for recommendations for which I have the perfect answers, only to find myself absolutely on able to respond.

It’s torture. I really love recommending the rare old books that I know, particularly since almost no one else seems to even be aware of their existence. But I just can’t get through to those requesters.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

#Books#BookSNS#Mastodon

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93d

Songs of a Dead Dreamer & Grimscribe by Thomas Ligotti

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116d

My latest read: "Badlands" by Gary Kruse - See my Goodreads review for details but if you enjoy crime thrillers with hints of horror and the supernatural, this one's worth a look!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7838921296

@bookstodon @horrorbooks @specfic

#thriller #crimethriller #horror #book #books #bookrec #bookrecs #bookreview #bookreviews #booksofmastodon #readersofmastodon #readingcommunity #bookstodon #booktodon

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93d

The Scandalous Play in Mansfield Park

Jane Austen uses Elizabeth Inchbald’s Lovers’ Vows to explore the social boundaries, both public and private, of Regency England.

By: Emily Zarevich

https://daily.jstor.org/the-scandalous-play-in-mansfield-park/

Mansfield Park at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/141

#books #literature

An illustration from Mansfield Park depicting Maria Bertram and Henry Crawford rehearsing Lovers’ Vows.

Scan de Mansfield Park, London: Macmillan, 1897

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomson-MP-ch18.JPG

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116d

The Dangerous Legal Strategy Coming for Our Books Takahe has limited support for this type: See Original Page

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116d

Is the Inheritance (Eragon) series worth reading?

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116d

Denmark to end book tax to encourage people to read Takahe has limited support for this type: See Original Page

denmark-to-end-book-tax-to-encourage-people-to-read_6744543_143.html

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1y

American writer, literary critic and journalist Edmund Wilson was born #OTD in 1895.

Over his career, he contributed to numerous periodicals and his essays and reviews are often credited with influencing public and scholarly opinion on many subjects. Wilson was the author of more than twenty books, including Axel's Castle, Patriotic Gore, and Memoirs of Hecate County. He was a friend F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and John Dos Passos.

#books #literature #literarycriticism

Publicity photograph of literary critic and writer Edmund Wilson (1895-1972) taken at 52 W. 52nd Street in New York City by studio portraitist Ben Pinchot circa April 1936. As Wilson paid Pinchot for this publicity photograph, the copyright wholly resided with Wilson. The author distributed this publicity photograph to promote his upcoming 1936 book Travels in Two Democracies published by Harcourt, Brace & Company. According to archivists at the U.S. Library of Congress and the New York Public Library, Wilson's publicist Dorothy Larrimore of Doubleday & Company again freely released and distributed this publicity photograph without a copyright notice and with no use restrictions ten years later to promote the author's 1946 book Memoirs of Hecate County.

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10d

A Review of Hearth Stories, Winter Solstice 2024: https://lydiaschoch.com/a-review-of-hearth-stories-winter-solstice-2024/

#BookReview #WinterSolstice #Books #Fantasy

@bookstodon

Book cover for Hearth Stories, Winter Solstice 2024 by LM Zaerr, Alicia Adam’s, Coll Marshall, Sarah Connell, Michael M. Jones, A. Katherine Black, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Image on cover shows a teardrop-shaped leaf that has no color left in it. Some red and orange flowers have been embroidered onto it which makes me think the leaf was probably created by a human, too, as something this thin and translucent would crumble if someone actually tried to embroider it.

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93d

#OTD In 1846, Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning elope.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Barrett_Browning

Books by Elizabeth Barrett at PG:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/781

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Browning

Books by Robert Browning at PG:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/146

#books #literature #poetry

Paintings of Elizabeth Barrett on the left and Robert Browning on the right by Thomas B. Read

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1y

French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic writer Blaise Pascal was born #OTD in 1623.

One of his most famous contributions in Mathematics is the Pascal's Theorem. Along with Pierre de Fermat, Pascal is credited with founding probability theory. He also made significant contributions to the study of binomial coefficients, which led to the formation of Pascal's Triangle.

Books by Blaise Pascal at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/7913

#books #literature #mathematics #physics

Burin executed around 1689-1692 according to Bernard Dorival, "L'iconographie de Pascal au 17e siècle" in Pascal et Port-Royal, 1962, p. 96; probably 1691 according to R. P. Lelong, Bibliothèque historique, 1775. Bégon, wishing to glorify the century of Louis XIV, collected portraits of illustrious figures, had them engraved from 1689 by Jacques Lubin, had those he didn't have interpreted by Edelinck, Simonneau and Van Schuppen, and in 1692 commissioned Charles Perrault to write the texts. The publication of this engraving and Volume 1 of Hommes Illustres was delayed because Pascal's eulogy, published in Parallèles des anciens et des modernes in 1690, aroused the hostility of the Jesuits and the opposition of Louis XIV. Perrault therefore replaced the portraits and biographies of Pascal and Arnauld with those of Ducange and Thomassin. However, the publisher Dezallier clandestinely printed and circulated copies with notices and portraits of the two Jansenists in 1696 (plate 34). Guillaume Desprez, the publisher of Les Pensées, printed the portrait in reverse: Pascal is turned to the right, and the author of the drawing on which Edelinck took his model is cited: François II Quesnel.

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Machine arithmétique de Pascal - L’Encyclopédie.
Diderot et d'Alembert — Gallica
Planches de l'Encyclopédie de Diderot et d'Alembert, volume 4

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117d

An update from the Society of Authors on licensing deals for AI training rights currently being offered by a couple of big trad publishers.

You will be unsurprised to learn these deals are wholly inadequate on many levels, including the fact the publisher gets far too much of the cash.

https://societyofauthors.org/2025/08/07/bloomsbury-ai-deal/

#writing #books

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115d

My latest read: "Death of a Clown" by Catherine McCarthy - See my Goodreads review for details but if you enjoy speculative fiction that fills the heart as much as the mind, this is an experience you don't want to miss!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7847517238

@bookstodon @specfic @fantasybookstodon

#specfic #fantasy #fairytale #fable #book #books #bookrec #bookrecs #bookreview #bookreviews #read #reads #reading #readingcommunity #booksofmastodon #readersofmastodon #bookstodon #booktodon

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11d

What I read in November--excellent month, asterisks for my very favorites:

*Mother Mary Comes To Me—Arundhati Roy
Beartooth— Callan Wink
*Highway Thirteen—Fiona MacFarlane
*All of Us Murderers—KJ Charles
The Tensorate Series (1-4)—Neon Yang
The Black Wolf—Louise Penny
*The Mobius Book—Catherine Lacey
Helm—Sarah Hall
House of Hollow—Krystal Sutherland
Bog Queen—Anna North
Lavender House—Lev AC Rosen
*Sunbirth—An Yu
*Midnight Timetable—Bora Chung
These Memories Do Not Belong to Us—Yiming Ma
Pick A Color—Souvankham Thammavongsa
The Gulf - Rachel Cochran
The Vanishing Place - Zoe Rankin
**The Silver Book—Olivia Laing
Strange and Perfect Account from the Permafrost—Donald Niedekker