books

355d

New #BookReview on our #library #blog: 'White Poverty.'
https://libraryguides.berea.edu/blogs/system/from-our-shelves-iwhite-povertyi

#FromOurShelves #books #reading #review #poverty #Christian #ThisIsAmerica 💙📚

@bookstodon
@bookstodon@a.gup.pe
@librarians

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358d

Book Review: The Nameless Land by Kate Elliott
Elen’s story continues and finishes in a land of lost magic, royal intrigue and much more
@Princejvstin has our review at the NOAF blog
http://www.nerds-feather.com/2025/10/book-review-nameless-land-by-kate.html

#bookstodon #books #review @bookstodon

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312d

Thanks for hosting #Writephant, @neve

My books, low-key fantasy with romance, mostly queer, are currently in the annual end of year #Smashwords sale — they’re already affordable but now they’re extra affordable, all 25% off:
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/wendylpalmer

but you’ll also find them on #KoboPlus or #Hoopla, or any of your favourite ebook retailers. They’re not for everyone…but the readers who like them…REALLY like them 😊

@bookstodon #books #reading #GayRomance #IndieAuthor #HolidayReading

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357d

📚 The Reformatory by: Tananarive Due

Gracetown, Florida.

June 1950.

Twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens Jr. is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory, for kicking the son of the largest landowner in town in defense of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie’s journey further into the terrors of th...

https://bookblabla.com/book/the-reformatory

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #historical #generalfiction #horrorfiction

Gracetown, Florida.

June 1950.

Twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens Jr. is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory, for kicking the son of the largest landowner in town in defense of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie’s journey further into the terrors of the Jim Crow South and the very real horror of the school they call The Reformatory.

Robbie has a talent for seeing ghosts, or haints. But what was once a comfort to him after the loss of his mother has become a window to the truth of what happens at the reformatory. Boys forced to work to remediate their so-called crimes have gone missing, but the haints Robbie sees hint at worse things. Through his friends Redbone and Blue, Robbie is learning not just the rules, but how to survive. Meanwhile, Gloria is rallying every family member and connection in Florida to find a way to get Robbie out before it’s too late.

The Reformatory is a “hallucinatory, haunting, terrifying, and moving” (S.A. Cosby, bestselling author of All the Sinners Bleed) work of historical fiction written as only American Book Award–winning author Tananarive Due could, by piecing together the life of the relative her family never spoke of and bringing his tragedy and those of so many others at the infamous Dozier School for Boys to the light in this riveting novel.

*Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winner * New York Times Notable Book * Locus Award Finalist * Winner of the Bram Stoker Award and the Shir

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355d

📚 The Lost Bookshop by: Evie Woods

On a quiet street in Dublin, a lost bookshop is waiting to be found...

For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives.
But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are ever...

https://bookblabla.com/book/the-lost-bookshop

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #womenfiction #historical #generalfiction #romance

On a quiet street in Dublin, a lost bookshop is waiting to be found...

For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives.
But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder... where nothing is as it seems.

Readers have fallen in love with The Lost Bookshop:
‘Beautifully written and captures the wonder and awe that a story can bring to its reader...a delightful story for any book lover...an ode to storytelling and the connections that books can make!’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘Wowwww!! It’s been awhile since I read something so fascinating, captivating and special all in one...It takes you on a journey like most books do, but this one, I just want to inscribe on my back and hope that it becomes a part of me so that I can carry it with me always’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘A must read for readers that love books’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘A beautiful story that begs to be read in one sitting...a magical story filled with beautiful prose and many surprises that readers will not soon forget’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘This spellbinding book hooked me from the very beginning and I couldn't put it down til the end’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘A love story, one with books and booklovers at its heart. A war

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2y

In July 1917

Siegfried Sassoon issues a "Soldier's Declaration" against prolonging World War I. He is sent by the military (with assistance from Robert Graves) to Edinburgh's Craiglockhart War Hospital, where Wilfred Owen introduces himself on August 18. At Sassoon's urging, Owen writes his two great war poems, "Anthem for Doomed Youth" and "Dulce et Decorum est", although like almost all his poetry they remain unpublished until after his death in action next year.

#books #literature

A scan of a final draft of Anthem for Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen, penned by the author.

Wilfred Owen (d. 1918) - This image is taken from The Wilfred Owen Multimedia Digital Archive, which scanned it from the printed edition of Wilfred Owen: The Complete Poems and Fragments (Jon Stallworthy, 1994) from the Oxford Text Archive.

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357d

Medieval Inventions We Still Can’t Fully Recreate Today

The Middle Ages were a time of remarkable innovation, when new technologies flourished. Yet the knowledge behind many of these inventions has been lost. Here are several medieval technologies that remain impossible to fully recreate, even with modern science.

https://www.medievalists.net/2025/10/medieval-inventions-we-still-cant-fully-recreate-today/

Medieval science at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subjects/search/?query=medieval+science

#books #science #inventions

Image from an illuminated manuscript, the Madrid Skylitzes, showing Greek fire in use against the fleet of the rebel Thomas the Slav.

"The Roman fleet burn the opposite fleet down" – An Eastern Roman / Byzantine war ship using their "secret weapon" Greek fire against a ship belonging to the rebel Thomas the Slav, AD 821. (12th century illustration from the "Madrid Skylitzes").

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_fire#/media/File:Greekfire-madridskylitzes1.jpg

Edited 356d ago

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356d

The Lessons of Due Process in Julius Caesar

Shakespeare’s tragedy offers a telling parable about the administration of justice—and rife mishandling thereof—in our day.

By: Philip Goldfarb Styrt

https://daily.jstor.org/the-lessons-of-due-process-in-julius-caesar/?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=campaign&utm_id=01K87ETKMS0EZD48BZ10CE3FVQ&_kx=3MZUehzXM-41qlWAMPUiuNZadX2p0SByuNf_t0eMLB0.U5D8ER

Julius Caesar at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1522

#books #literature

Aftermath of the attack with Caesar's body abandoned in the foreground, La Mort de César by Jean-Léon Gérôme, c. 1859–1867.

In 44CE a group of senators banded together to kill Julius Caesar, who they believed was taking too much power for himself and endangering the Roman Republic. Rather than show the dramatic moment that the conspirators attacked, as artists had often done before him, Gérôme chose to depict the moment immediately following Caesar’s murder. His body is abandoned in the foreground next to a toppled throne, and the senators rush out into the sunlight with their swords held aloft. Only one man is left in the seats to the right, brooding over the scene. The dramatic use Gérôme makes of architecture, lighting, and props is a lesson in scenography. His highly choreographed paintings influenced early filmmakers and continue to resonate in movies and serials set in ancient Roman.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Julius_Caesar#/media/File:Jean-L%C3%A9on_G%C3%A9r%C3%B4me_-_The_Death_of_Caesar_-_Walters_37884.jpg

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356d

Looking for recommendations for good Sci-Fi mystery novels

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2y

Italian philosopher, poet, essayist, and philologist Giacomo Leopardi died #OTD in 1837.

Around 1816, Leopardi experienced what he called his "literary conversion," shifting his focus from philological studies to poetry and philosophical reflection. His early lyrical poems, or "canti," began to reflect his developing philosophical ideas. In 1816 the idylls Le rimembranze and Inno a Nettuno were published.

Books by Giacomo Leopardi at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/8593

#books #literature #poetry

Domenico Morelli, Portrait of Giacomo Leopardi, 1842, believed by acquaintances to be most faithful to the poet's physical appearance.

Portrait of a man wearing a stylish blue suit in a painting.

Manoscritto autografo de L'infinito. (Visso, Archivio comunale)

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2y

#OTD in 1822.

Charles Babbage proposes a difference engine in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society.

The difference engine is based on the method of divided differences, a way to interpolate or tabulate functions by using a small set of polynomial co-efficients. Some of the most common mathematical functions are built from logarithmic & trigonometric functions, which can be approximated by polynomials, so a difference engine can compute many useful tables.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/71292

Portion of Babbage's difference engine.
Benjamin Herschel Babbage, printed in Harper's new monthly magazine - Harper's new monthly magazine. / Volume 30, Issue 175, p.34

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132d

New release coming! Ebook available June 12 and paperback on June 19.

https://books2read.com/PrincessOfKurg

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

The cover of Princess of Kurg, by Owen Tyme.

The background is a spiral galaxy with a pink color, which has been divided into hexagonal jigsaw puzzle pieces.

Near the top is an attractive woman's face framed by light blond hair that's almost colorless. She has blue eyes and looks directly ahead. Around the edges of her face, she fades away, allowing the background to be seen to either side of her head.

Below her is a group of seven hexagonal brassy coins arranged in a circular fashion, each showing a different scene at the center.

The central coin shows blood spatter on a black background. The top one has a red-haired fairy with insect wings, in a dress that looked like an upturned red flower. She stands in a forest with glowing points of light along the forest floor. Upper right shows the eye of a pink-scaled dragon. Lower right shows a monkey in a tree, eating a banana. The bottom shows a white swan floating in water, beside a reflection of the moon. Lower left is a smiling snail with little red hearts near its head. Upper left displays an alien saucer ship beaming someone into it, presumably an abduction in progress.

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356d

What are some good books on Emotional Intelligence?

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2y

#OTD in 1893.

The Shelley Memorial is inaugurated at University College, Oxford, from which the poet was expelled in 1811. It is designed by Basil Champneys, with a reclining nude marble statue of Percy Bysshe Shelley by Edward Onslow Ford. Although Shelley was expelled from the college, he remains one of its most famous alumni and is now held in high honour there.

Shelley Memorial all washed up?
By Josh Pull via @Cherwell

https://www.cherwell.org/2005/04/22/shelley-memorial-all-washed-up/

#books #literature

Percy Bysshe Shelley, by Alfred Clint (died 1883).

Portrait of a man wearing a black jacket and white shirt, exuding elegance and style.

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356d

I saw this sweatshirt. I was like "Oh yeah, True!" Lol

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356d

Published in 1986, "INTERLISP: The Language and Its Usage" by Stephen Kaisler was the only book on Interlisp printed by a publisher. It extensively covers the Interlisp language and environment with many code snippets and examples.

https://interlisp.org/documentation/1986-interlisp-language-book-1.pdf

#interlisp #lisp #retrocomputing #books

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356d

More on school book bans from Kelly Jensen for BookRiot:

"There are now 19 books prohibited in any Utah public school. Of them, 16 are written by women, and their average publication date is 2011. This means that most of these books have been on shelves and available for many years and caused no issues until this manufactured crisis."

"There are 42 public school districts in Utah, but two districts account for nearly 80% of the books banned statewide"

#books #writing #writersofmastodon #WritingCommunity #bookstodon @bookstodon

https://bookriot.com/utah-bans-thirteen-reasons-why/

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356d

This week's #NewBooks at the library: I bought several second copies of
- How the Mind Changed: A Human History of our Evolving Brain
- Kate Raworth's Doughnut #Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist. We had hoped to get this signed when she recently spoke in London, but, alas, failed.
- An ex-library copy of an older classic on #Buffon: From Natural History to the History of Nature: Readings from Buffon and His Critics, of which I made a note after reviewing Every Living Thing some time back.

#Books #Scicomm #Bookstodon #Neurobiology #Degrowth #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #HistSci @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, standing up, How the Mind Changed, showing two pictures of a human brain on a black background. At the top, part of a connectome picture, showing a high-resolution brain scan of neuronal connections in green, red, and purple; at the bottom, part of the surface of the brain, using the same green, red, and purple colour scheme

In the middle, Doughtnut Economics, showing a close-up picture of a blackboard with a drawing in white chalk of two concentric circles, one inside the other. Two pieces of white chalk lie next to the outer circle.

On the right, From Natural History to the History of Nature, showing a plain hardcover book bound in navy blue cloth with gold lettering. This is an ex-library copy bound in transparent protective foil that gives it a slightly shiny look.

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354d

The waitlist for “A Man Called Ove” Fredrik Backman at my local library has shrunk from about a year to about a month, so I finally requested a copy.

Isn’t it nice when libraries are able to dramatically increase their supply of popular titles?

It’s a title I’ve been hemming and hawing about for ages. We’ll see if I like it! In the meantime, maybe I should finally watch the film.

#AmReading #Books #TBR #FilmMastodon #Library

Book cover for A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman.

Image on cover shows a realistic drawing of an elderly white man who is standing slightly slumped over on some grass and facing away from the viewer as he gazes at the cloudy sky. He’s wearing a blue suit jacket, loose slacks, and a greenish-grey cap.

A brown and white cat is leaning over near his feet to rub against his slacks.

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2y

Italian mathematician, astronomer and engineer Giovanni Domenico Cassini was born #OTD in 1625.

His observations & calculations helped to confirm & refine Kepler’s laws of planetary motion. He formulated Cassini’s Law, describing the rotational behavior of the Moon, which was crucial for understanding the Moon's synchronous rotation with the Earth. He was involved in measuring the meridian arc of Paris, contributing to the accurate determination of the shape of the Earth.

#books #astronomy

Fig. 1-6. Illustrations to the article Diversae motus periodi in Jove... published in the Acta Eruditorum of 1692

Drawings of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn
Robert Hooke, Giovanni Cassini - Observations Made in Italy, Confirming the Former, and Withall Fixing the Period of the Revolution of Mars. In: Philosophical Transactions. Band 1, Nummer 14, 2. Juli 1666, S. 242–245.

Edited 2y ago

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152d

#SpeakingOutOfPlace welcomes #QuinnSlobodian & #BenTarnoff to talk about their book #Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed.

'We see a mind that is profoundly troubled by any contagion spreading into seemingly closed systems—it can take the form of racial others, transpeople, “woke” populations, or most generally and dismissively, “Non-Player-Characters.” '

https://speakingoutofplace.buzzsprout.com/2084729/episodes/19188391-muskism-its-roots-nature-and-how-to-fight-it-a-conversation-with-quinn-slobodian-and-ben-tarnoff

#Musk #ElonMusk #tech #BigTech #SiliconValleyRight #techFutures #techCriticism #techOligarchs #books @bookstodon

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312d

Beyond Winnie-the-Pooh: On A.A. Milne’s Romance Novels

Gyles Brandreth Explores the Adult Side of an Iconic Children’s Author

https://lithub.com/beyond-winnie-the-pooh-on-a-a-milnes-romance-novels/

Milne at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/730

#books #literature

A. A. Milne, with his son Christopher Robin and the original Pooh Bear, at Cotchford Farm, their home in Sussex, photographed in the year that Winnie-the-Pooh was first published.

A 1926 sepia photograph by Howard Coster showing A.A. Milne with his young son Christopher Robin and the original Winnie-the-Pooh teddy bear at Cotchford Farm, taken the year Winnie-the-Pooh was published.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._A._Milne#/media/File:A._A._Milne_with_his_son_Christopher_Robin_Milne_and_Pooh_Bear_-_Howard_Coster_-_NPG_P715.jpg

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312d

The #SmashWords sale has started! Lots of discounts and free books for the rest of December.

Browse all sale items here:
https://www.smashwords.com/shelves/promos

Mine are cosy-adjacent fantasy with romance, often queer, all 25% off:
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/wendylpalmer

@bookstodon #books #IndieAuthors #ebooks

A decorative image saying the sale is December 8 to January 1 and it's a great opportunity to support indie authors and get DRM-free books.

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356d

📚 King Sorrow by: Joe Hill

Bookish dreamer Arthur Oakes is a student at Rackham College, Maine, renowned for its frosty winters and beautiful buildings.

But his idyll - and burgeoning romance with Gwen Underfoot - is shattered when local drug dealers force him into a terrible crime: stealing rare and valuable books from the ...

https://bookblabla.com/book/king-sorrow

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #generalfiction #fantasy #contemporaryfiction #horror

Bookish dreamer Arthur Oakes is a student at Rackham College, Maine, renowned for its frosty winters and beautiful buildings.

But his idyll - and burgeoning romance with Gwen Underfoot - is shattered when local drug dealers force him into a terrible crime: stealing rare and valuable books from the exceptional college library.

Trapped and desperate, Arthur turns to his closest friends for help: the wealthy, irrepressible Colin Wren; brave, beautiful Allison Shiner; the battling twins Donna and Donovan McBride; and brainy, bold Gwen. Together they dream up an impossible, fantastical scheme that they scarcely imagine will work: to summon the fabled dragon King Sorrow to kill those tormenting Arthur.

But the six stumble backwards into a deadly bargain - they soon learn they must choose a new sacrifice for King Sorrow each year or one of them will become his next victim. Unleashing consequences they can neither predict nor control, this promise will, over the course of four decades, shape and endanger their lives in ways they could never expect.

'A brilliantly Faustian fable with a heart as huge as a dragon's, and a stinging twist in its tail. I devoured it.' RUTH WARE
'A wild, genre-defying journey, packed with all sorts of unexpected twists and turns' DAILY MIRROR
'A glorious, wild ride' NEW YORK TIMES
'Epic! KING SORROW is Hill's best and most ambitious work to date' LINWOOD BARCLAY
'Magnificent - by far and away Hill's best book to date' SFX
'When they talk ab

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312d

The Mathilda Effect - The Missing Heroines of Science

If you believe the history books, science is a guy thing. Discoveries are made by men, which spur further innovation by men, followed by acclaim and prizes for men. But too often, there is an unsung woman genius who deserves just as much credit.

By Martha Rossiter

https://medium.com/s/the-matilda-effect

More about it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matilda_effect#:~:text=The%20Matilda%20effect%20is%20a,attributed%20to%20their%20male%20colleagues.

#books #womeninStem

Dr. Lise Meitner, Austrian physicist, three-quarter length portrait.

A formal black and white portrait of Dr. Lise Meitner, the pioneering Austrian physicist, seated in professional attire with a book in hand before a library bookshelf.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lise_Meitner#/media/File:Lise_Meitner_NatGeo.jpg

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