books

The Declaration of Love (c1724) by Jean François de Troy.

The painting depicts an intimate and elegant moment of courtship in an 18th-century refined interior or garden setting. At its centre, a young gentleman kneels before a seated young lady: he extends a small bouquet of flowers with one hand while placing his other hand to his heart.

The lady, dressed in sumptuous silk‐embroidered attire, receives the gesture with composed modesty: she looks somewhat downward and sideways.

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

https://everybodyslibraries.com/2025/12/10/why-not-both/

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310d

Why not both?

There is some international overlap. Swiss composer Arthur Honegger (1892-1955) published his first symphony in 1930, a commission for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

By John Mark Ockerbloom

#books #music #publicDomainDayCountdown

Arthur Honegger (1892-1955), Swiss composer. Picture taken in 1928 : glass negative, restored and cropped print.

Agence de presse Meurisse - This file comes from Gallica Digital Library and is available under the digital ID btv1b9041196z

The formal black and white image shows Honegger in his mid-30s wearing a dark suit with patterned tie, his distinctive wavy hair and intense gaze capturing the serious demeanor of this prominent 20th-century composer. From the Gallica Digital Library collection.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Arthur_Honegger#/media/File:Arthur_Honegger_b_Meurisse_1928.jpg

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

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346d

Celebrating Sir Tim Berners-Lee, 2025 Internet Archive Hero Award Recipient https://blog.archive.org/2025/11/05/celebrating-sir-tim-berners-lee-2025-internet-archive-hero-award-recipient/

#books

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2y

"The dusk crept out across the fields wiping out the day's light."
Black April (1927)

American author Julia Peterkin died #OTD in 1961.

In 1929 she won the Pulitzer Prize for Novel/Literature for her novel Scarlet Sister Mary. She wrote several novels about the plantation South, especially the Gullah people of the Lowcountry. She was one of the few white authors who wrote about the African-American experience.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/72611

Doris Ulmann and Julia Peterkin.

Julia Peterkin, an author who focused on similar themes in her writing, might be seen standing or sitting beside Ulmann, engaged in conversation or simply sharing a moment of quiet reflection. Peterkin might also be dressed in a similar style, with her hair possibly pinned up. The background of the photograph is likely simple, perhaps a natural outdoor setting or a rustic interior, consistent with the subjects of their work.

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

Edited 2y ago

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310d

Blue Are the Hills – a character-driven scifi novel about transhumanism and hope

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347d

[REVIEW] Sohachi Hagimoto - That's My Atypical Girl

cross-posted from: lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/56892944

A Human Made of Words.
This has been one of the best manga I have ever read.
Oftentimes, you hear about how an author “paints with their words” or something to that effect – Hagimoto does something different. It’s not painting, it’s not even sculpting… They do something more akin to Prometheus shaping a Human out of clay. Every page pulls you in and forces you to face the characters in such a realistic way, that you simply can’t help but wholeheartedly believe that they’re real people; Breathing humans of flesh and blood, that just happen to be made of lines and words.
Something that bothers me to no end, when it comes to a lot of manga that deal with bullying and topics of self-harm and suicide, is that they are gratuitously violent. I understand that that sort of representation matters, but it falls flat more often than not, I find. Not in That’s My Atypical Girl – here, everything feels real. It’s a little hard to explain, actually, because I feel like I can’t possibly hope to do justice to the pages, but it simply feels like it happened.
It’s reality; It’s raw and hard to read at times; It’s painful and violent; But it’s true. It speaks to you in such an undeniable way, that it transcends its medium.
This isn’t the sort of manga that transports you into its world; This isn’t an immersive experience that makes you forget reality. No. This is the sort of manga that changes your reality. After reading this, the world of the manga becomes your reality. This has changed the way I think, the way I see other people, and I’m sure it has changed the way I act. It’s the sort of manga that will stay with me, even if I forget it.
Truly, a life-changing experience, and a heartfelt depiction of depression, anxiety, and ASD.
It is a little odd how self-referential it is, though. It’s not bad in any regard, mind you, it’s not even off-putting, but it is just noticeable enough that you begin wondering how much the author wants you to pay attention to it. It is a manga about a mangaka, after all, so I guess it makes sense, in a way. Still.
Morita’s art is good (and actually gets significantly better as the manga goes on, I think, but I would argue that it is by far the weakest point of this work. Occasionally, the characters do look a little off. I suppose this opinion is a consequence of my being spoiled with lots of very high-quality art in other manga, but I can’t let it go unsaid.
I know I didn’t really speak too much about the plot or the characters in this review, but I feel that I shouldn’t. The characters are complex and deep, all of them; However, I can’t bring them to life in a short Lemmy review, so I simply won’t attempt to describe them at all. It would be a disservice to the work. The plot is moving and compelling; However, I can’t make you believe it happened, so I simply won’t attempt to summarize it.
Please, read this.
…and let me know what you think!
Rating: 5/5
Read on Bato.to!

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346d

📚 The Chrysalids by: John Wyndham

David lives in a tight-knit community of religious and genetic fundamentalists, who exist in a state of constant alert for any deviation from what they perceive as the norm of God’s creation—deviations broadly classified as 'offenses' and 'blasphemies'. Offenses consist of plants and animals tha...

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #sciencefiction #dystopianfiction #literary

David lives in a tight-knit community of religious and genetic fundamentalists, who exist in a state of constant alert for any deviation from what they perceive as the norm of God’s creation—deviations broadly classified as 'offenses' and 'blasphemies'. Offenses consist of plants and animals that are in any way unusual, and these are publicly burned to the accompaniment of the singing of hymns. Blasphemies are human beings—ones who show any sign of abnormality, however trivial. They are banished from human society, cast out to live in the wild country where, as the authorities say, nothing is reliable, and the devil does his work. David grows up surrounded by admonitions: KEEP PURE THE STOCK OF THE LORD; WATCH THOU FOR THE MUTANT.

At first, he hardly questions them, though he is shocked when his sternly pious father and rigidly compliant mother force his aunt to forsake her baby. It is a while before he realizes that he too is out of the ordinary, in possession of a power that could doom him to death or introduce him to a new, hitherto-unimagined world of freedom.

The Chrysalids is a perfectly conceived and constructed work from the classic era of science fiction. It is a Voltairean philosophical tale that has as much resonance in our own day, when genetic and religious fundamentalism are both on the march, as when it was written during the Cold War.

THE COLD WAR SCI-FI CLASSIC: Following a global nuclear war, a telepathic young boy searches for freedom in a fu

#books #reading #fantasy #gayRomance #indieAuthor #historicals #ReadingCommunity @bookstodon

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347d

@neve thank you for hosting the #writephant bi-monthly check-in, very useful timing for me at the transition from one project to the next 😊

#SelfPromo

I write fantasy with romance, mostly queer. My next book is out November 16 and features the ghosts of Hampton Court Palace, a Maremma named Max, and a friends-to-lovers gay romance.

Might be on preorder at your favourite retailer, definitely will be available on #KoboPlus, #Everand and #Hoopla, and you can always ask for it at your library.

Or you can get it right now directly from me: https://payhip.com/b/A3P2i

And receive a free 2026 calendar featuring public-domain nineteenth-century artworks illustrating relevant book quotes.

Read about all my books here: https://wendypalmer.au/

Cover of Grace & Favour. Blue and brass-yellow colours predominant. The title is in fancy font at the top, and there's what looks like a photo portrait in an ornate frame, of two men, one in a top hat, one holding a pocket watch, and a large white dog. In the background of the photo (actually a daguerreotype, but anachronistically in colour), there is the faint impression of a woman, transparent...you could say, almost ghostly...

Mood board for Grace & Favour. Has a painting by Turner (a watercolour of Hampton Court Palace from across the river), a daguerreotype in a case, a ghost postcard, a Scots phrasebook, and a big picture of Max, a Maremma livestock guard dog, big, white and fluffy.

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

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2y

"We know an object only by acting on it and transforming it."

Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget was born #OTD in 1896.

He is known for his work in developmental psychology and epistemology through what he called genetic epistemology. His work sheds light on "intelligence", understood as a specific form of the adaptation of living organisms to their environment, on the evolutionary stages of intelligence in children, and on his theory of learning.

#books #psychology

Photograph Jean Piaget at the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor.
Unidentified (Ensian published by University of Michigan) - 1968 Michiganensian, p. 91

The photograph of Jean Piaget taken at the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor shows the renowned Swiss psychologist during his visit in 1968.

In this black-and-white image, Piaget appears as an elderly man with a thoughtful expression, wearing glasses and a suit. His hair is white and neatly combed, reflecting his advanced age. The photograph is featured on page 91 of the 1968 edition of the Michiganensian, the yearbook published by the University of Michigan.

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2y

British astronomer and astrophysicist Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin was born #OTD in 1900.

In 1925 she proposed that stars were composed primarily of hydrogen and helium. Her groundbreaking conclusion was initially rejected, because it contradicted the science of the time, which held that no significant elemental differences distinguished the Sun and Earth. Independent observations eventually proved that she was correct.

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73996

#books #astrophysics

Photograph of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (1900-1979) at Harvard College Observatory Local number: SIA Acc. 90-105 [SIA2009-1326]

Smithsonian Institution/Science Service, restored by Adam Cuerden - Air and Space Museum online gallery

Stellar atmospheres: a contribution to the observational study of high temperature in the reversing layers of stars, by Cecilia H. Payne.

https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/ways-learning/reading-list/?campaign=FE7LQA2

Edited 2y ago

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2y

c. 1813, London. Reading List

John Stuart Mill turns the page. via @laphamsquart

"I have no remembrance of the time when I began to learn Greek. I have been told that it was when I was three years old...."

Replica of a portrait of John Stuart Mill commissioned to G.F. Watts by Sir Charles Dikes.

John Stuart Mill is depicted as a mature man, likely in his late middle age. He has prominent features, including a high forehead, deep-set eyes, and pronounced cheekbones. His hair is sparse, and he sports mutton-chop sideburns, which were characteristic of his time.

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

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343d

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

On a world long thought to have no moon, its sudden appearance inspires wonder and terror. Hasty research links the full moon and catastrophe, revealing the existence of the so-called 'Harbingers of Doom', creatures from the moon that harvest souls. Can everyone survive or will they become part of the dark harvest?

(Left) The cover of dark moon, by Owen Tyme, illustrated by Ryan Johnson.

In the foreground, a redheaded witch and a dark haired wizard fight back to back, holding some rather large pistols. The witch is in a black dress and the wizard is in a black robe with golden decorations. Both looked a bit purple, due to the lighting. The witch's hair blows on the wind and she wears a necklace of bone beads.

Behind them, there's dust, mist and fog lit by twilight as a moon rises, framing their heads. Objects that look like shooting stars fall from the moon and there's a few visible impacts.

(Right) A poem, in two parts, on a background of the stars of space, with a moon between the two parts:

Witch and wizard fight,
The wizard thinks he’s right.
The grudge match ends,
But not quite as friends.
Survive the night they must,
Lest all the world be dust.

Prophesy foretold in stone,
Of the moon no one had known.
‘Harbingers of Doom’ harvest souls,
For the sake of their own goals.
A kingdom dead and long past
Collecting that it might rise at last.

Between the two halves of the poem is Owen Tyme's publishing mark, the yin and yang symbol that has the dots of white and black replaced with hourglasses.

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

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

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343d

Jason Koebler for 404 Media: "AI Is Supercharging the War on Libraries, Education, and Human Knowledge"

“Fascism and AI, whether or not they have the same goals, they sure are working to accelerate one another” - Maggie Tokuda-Hall

https://www.404media.co/ai-is-supercharging-the-war-on-libraries-education-and-human-knowledge/

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2y

English civil servant and author E.R. Eddison died #OTD in 1945.

He is best known for The Worm Ouroboros (1922) and for the Zimiamvian Trilogy set in the imaginary world Zimiamvia. The Worm of Ouroboros shaped the landscape of contemporary science fiction and fantasy. When The Lord of the Rings first appeared, the critics inevitably compared it to this landmark work. Tolkien himself frankly acknowledged its influence, with warm praise for its imaginative appeal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._R._Eddison

#books

Eric Rucker Eddison c.1922 by George Beresford.

The photograph of Eric Rucker Eddison, taken around 1922 by George Beresford, depicts the English author and civil servant known for his fantasy novels. In the portrait, Eddison is seen with a poised and dignified demeanor. He is dressed formally, wearing a suit and tie, with a high-collared shirt that was typical of the period. Eddison's hair is neatly combed back, and his facial expression is thoughtful, with a slightly serious, introspective gaze. The photograph is in black and white, adding a timeless quality to the image, and it captures the intellectual and refined presence of Eddison, who would later be recognized for his influential work in fantasy literature, particularly The Worm Ouroboros.

#books #reading #HaymarketBooks #ice #politics #USA @books @bookstodon

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215d

Free Ebooks: Abolish ICE, Abolish the Border: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/blogs/525-free-ebooks-abolish-ice-abolish-the-border

'In solidarity with all those standing up for our communities against the brutality of immigrant detention and ICE occupation, we're offering free ebooks of three crucial books about migrant justice and border abolition.'

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2y

History’s Footnotes

The addition of footnotes to texts by historians began long before their supposed inventor, Leopold von Ranke, started using them (poorly, as it turns out).

By: Matthew Wills via @JSTOR_Daily

https://daily.jstor.org/historys-footnotes/

#books #footnotes

A hand grasping a white cross against a purple backdrop.

https://bookblabla.com/book/alchemised

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345d

📚 Alchemised by: SenLinYu

"What is it you think you’re protecting in that brain of yours? The war is over. Holdfast is dead. The Eternal Flame extinguished. There’s no one left for you to save.”

Once a promising alchemist, Helena Marino is now a prisoner—of war and of her own mind. Her Resistance friends and allies have been brutally murdered, her abilit...

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #fantasy #gothic

"What is it you think you’re protecting in that brain of yours? The war is over. Holdfast is dead. The Eternal Flame extinguished. There’s no one left for you to save.”

Once a promising alchemist, Helena Marino is now a prisoner—of war and of her own mind. Her Resistance friends and allies have been brutally murdered, her abilities suppressed, and the world she knew destroyed.

In the aftermath of a long war, Paladia’s new ruling class of corrupt guild families and depraved necromancers, whose vile undead creatures helped bring about their victory, holds Helena captive.

According to Resistance records, she was a healer of little importance within their ranks. But Helena has inexplicable memory loss of the months leading up to her capture, making her enemies wonder: Is she truly as insignificant as she appears, or are her lost memories hiding some vital piece of the Resistance’s final gambit?

To uncover the memories buried deep within her mind, Helena is sent to the High Reeve, one of the most powerful and ruthless necromancers in this new world. Trapped on his crumbling estate, Helena’s fight—to protect her lost history and to preserve the last remaining shreds of her former self—is just beginning. For her prison and captor have secrets of their own . . . secrets Helena must unearth, whatever the cost.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. In this riveting dark fantasy debut, a woman with missing memories fights to survive a war-torn world of necromanc

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

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2y

Serbian inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist Nikola Tesla was born #OTD in 1856.

Some of Tesla´s inventions and innovations: alternating Current (AC) system; induction motor; Tesla coil; wireless transmission of electricity; radio technology; remote control; neon and fluorescent lighting; X-Ray technology; Tesla turbine; oscillators and frequency generators.

Books by Nikola Tesla at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/5067

#books #science #technology

Nikola Tesla, with Rudjer Boscovich's book "Theoria Philosophiae Naturalis", in front of the spiral coil of his high-voltage Tesla coil transformer at his East Houston St., New York, laboratory.

Tesla is typically shown standing confidently, either holding the book or with it placed on a nearby table, symbolizing the connection between theoretical knowledge and practical application. He is dressed formally, reflecting his professional demeanor and the serious nature of his work.

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345d

New on my #blog: "Books reviewed: October 2025."
https://itinerantlibrarian.wordpress.com/2025/11/05/books-reviewed-october-2025/

My monthly wrap up of #reviews.

#BookReview #books #reading #AlchemicalThoughts #Bookstodon
💙📚

https://theconversation.com/agatha-christie-what-made-the-worlds-bestselling-author-so-successful-heres-a-clue-283347?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20May%2028%202026%20-%203784238755&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20May%2028%202026%20-%203784238755+CID_fc42dc4c9bab7c419e12dd4bb4483a9d&utm_source=campaign_monitor_uk&utm_term=Agatha%20Christie%20what%20made%20the%20worlds%20bestselling%20author%20so%20successful%20Heres%20a%20clue

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141d

Agatha Christie: what made the world’s bestselling author so successful? Here’s a clue

Besides wit, style and psychological insight, Christie had the capacity to generate a mood of ‘trustful mistrust’ and deceive her readers in a respectful fashion.

by Gill Plain

Books by Agatha Christie at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/451

#Books #Literature

Agatha Christie as a young woman, in the 1910s.

A sepia-toned photograph of Agatha Christie leaning out of a leaded-glass window set in a stone wall, gazing upward with a dreamy. Her hair is loosely pinned up, and she wears a striped blouse with a patterned necktie.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agatha_Christie#/media/File:Agatha_Christie_as_a_young_woman.jpg

https://bookblabla.com/book/against-the-machine

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284d

📚 Against the Machine by: Paul Kingsnorth

How a force that’s hard to name, but which we all feel, is reshaping what it means to be human

In Against the Machine, "furiously gifted" (The Washington Post) novelist, poet, and essayist Paul Kingsnorth presents a wholly original and terrifying account of the technological-cultural ...

#books #reading #libraries #socialscience #essaysphilosophy #technologystudies

How a force that’s hard to name, but which we all feel, is reshaping what it means to be human

In Against the Machine, "furiously gifted" (The Washington Post) novelist, poet, and essayist Paul Kingsnorth presents a wholly original and terrifying account of the technological-cultural matrix enveloping all of us. With masterful insight into the spiritual and economic roots of techno-capitalism, Kingsnorth reveals how the Machine, in the name of progress, has choked Western civilization, is destroying the Earth itself, and is reshaping us in its image. From the First Industrial Revolution to the rise of artificial intelligence, he shows how the hollowing out of humanity has been a long game—and how your very soul is at stake.

It takes effort to remain truly human in the age of the Machine. Writing in the tradition of Wendell Berry, Jacques Ellul and Simone Weil, Kingsnorth reminds us what humanity requires: a healthy suspicion of entrenched power; connection to land, nature and heritage; and a deep attention to matters of the spirit. Prophetic, poetic, and erudite, Against the Machine is the spiritual manual for dissidents in the technological age.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

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

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2y

“It's not the barbarian who threatens us, it's civilization that frightens us.”

Brazilian sociologist and journalist Euclides da Cunha died #OTD in 1909.

His most important work is Os Sertões (Rebellion in the Backlands), a non-fictional account of the military expeditions promoted by the Brazilian government against the rebellious village of Canudos, known as the War of Canudos.

Brazilian journalist and writer Euclides da Cunha.

Cover of the book “Os Sertões” by Brazilian writer Euclides da Cunha, published in 1902 and therefore in the public domain due to its age.

https://bookblabla.com/book/hole-in-the-sky

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343d

📚 Hole in the Sky by: Daniel H. Wilson

On the Great Plains of Oklahoma, in the heart of the Cherokee Nation, a strange atmospheric disturbance is noticed by Jim Hardgray, a down-on-his-luck single father trying to reconnect with his teenage daughter, Tawny. At NASA’s headquarters in Houston, Texas, astrophysicist Dr. ...

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #sciencefiction #thrillers #suspensefiction #indigenous

On the Great Plains of Oklahoma, in the heart of the Cherokee Nation, a strange atmospheric disturbance is noticed by Jim Hardgray, a down-on-his-luck single father trying to reconnect with his teenage daughter, Tawny. At NASA’s headquarters in Houston, Texas, astrophysicist Dr. Mikayla Johnson observes an interaction with the Voyager 1 spacecraft on the far side of the solar system, and she concludes that something enormous and unidentified is heading directly for Earth. And in an undisclosed bunker somewhere in the United States, an American threat forecaster known only as the Man Downstairs intercepts a cryptic communication and sends a message directly to the president and highest-ranking military brass: 'First contact imminen't.

A gripping sci-fi thriller—and Native American First Contact story—from the New York Times bestselling author of Robopocalypse, Daniel Wilson, who is a Cherokee Nation citizen and works as a threat forecaster for NASA.

This is where Daniel Wilson's fascinating novel begins. Heliopause is a real place—the very outer edge of our solar system where the sun's solar winds are no longer strong enough to keep debris and intrusions from bombarding our system. It is the farthest edge of our protected boundary (it was recently crossed by Voyager), and the line beyond which space experts look for extraterrestrial presences.