Eggplant.place

17d

Read the Dramatic 17th-Century Memoirs of Alice Thornton, Who Wrote Four Versions of Her Life Story

Researchers have digitized all four volumes, which are now available online. The autobiographies offer a compelling window into a tumultuous period in English history

By Sonja Anderson

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/read-the-dramatic-17th-century-memoirs-of-alice-thornton-who-wrote-four-versions-of-her-life-story-180987167/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&lctg=93133550

The autobiography of Mrs. Alice Thornton is available at @internetarchive
https://ia801308.us.archive.org/9/items/autobiographyofm00thorrich/autobiographyofm00thorrich.pdf

#books #literature

Alice Thornton autobiography title page from 1875.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Alice_Thornton#/media/File:Alice_Thornton_title_page_from_1875.png/2

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14d

Jane Austen at 250: Why we shouldn’t exaggerate her radicalism

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14d

Reading For Fun Is Plummeting in The US, And Experts Are Concerned Takahe has limited support for this type: See Original Page

reading-for-fun-is-plummeting-in-the-us-and-experts-are-concerned

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15d

Library of Congress acquires only known lyrics sketch of 'Over the Rainbow'

By Chloe Veltman

https://www.npr.org/2025/08/25/nx-s1-5511391/library-of-congress-wizard-of-oz

Wizard of Oz at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/25089

#art #music #culture #books

Screenshot of Judy Garland performing Over the Rainbow for the film The Wizard of Oz.

Dorothy is pictured from the waist up, standing in a modest Kansas farmhouse setting. She wears her well-known blue-and-white gingham pinafore dress over a light blouse with puffed short sleeves. A neat ribbon ties back her dark hair in pigtails, emphasizing her youth and innocence. Her gaze is slightly upward, her eyes wide and expressive.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Judy_Garland_Over_the_Rainbow_2.jpg

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16d

7 authors in a dark, gothic horror fantasy 👼😈

7 spotlights to introduce them! ✍️📖

Also wanna about the stories.

I'll start the ball rolling. 😁 Call me Etaski.

#Books #ComingSoon #HorrorAnthology #FallenAngels #DarkReads #DarkFantasyReaders #HorrorBooks #HorrorRomance #RomanticHorror #GothicReads #DarkFantasy #UrbanFantasy

@bookstodon @bookstadon @horror @lgbtqbookstodon @sffbookclub @paranormal @romancelandia

Fallen: Darkness Ascending Vol. 1. Meet: A.S. Etaski. Author Spotlight. A gothic background of a dark forest with a transparent image of a hand reaching for a pair of white wings.

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14d

FYI: I've updated my Speculative-Fiction Showcase at bookshop(dot)org based on some of my recent reads. If you're searching for some new books and authors, give these a try!

https://bookshop.org/lists/michael-shotter-s-speculative-fiction-showcase

@specfic @scifi @horrorbooks @fantasybookstodon @bookstodon

#specfic #scifi #horror #fantasy #books #bookrec #bookrecs #whattoread #booksoffacebook #readersoffacebook #reading #readingcommunity #bookstodon #booktodon

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17d

William Blake’s painting The Ghost of a Flea speaks to processing childhood trauma

White paint dots the flea’s eye, so that he appears to be both looking ahead and looking at us.

By Sarah Corbett

https://theconversation.com/william-blakes-painting-the-ghost-of-a-flea-speaks-to-processing-childhood-trauma-234131

William Blake at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/295

#books #art #literature

The Ghost of a Flea, c. 1819–20. Tate. Tempera mixture panel with gold on mahogany, 21.4 cm × 16.2 cm (painting), 38.2 mm × 32.4 mm × 5.0 mm (frame).

The muscular and nude Flea is depicted using its jutting tongue to gorge on a bowl of blood. Part human, part vampire and part reptile, the beast strides from right to left between heavy and richly patterned curtains.

In his left hand he holds an acorn and in his right a thorn, both items drawn from the tradition of fairy iconography.

His massive neck is similar to that of a bull and holds a disproportionally small head, marked by glaring eyes and open jaws, and a venomous slithering tongue.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ghost_of_a_Flea#/media/File:William_Blake_002.jpg

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Edited 16d ago

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16d

The Pieces of "8" are a great way to get a quick sample of The Nod/Wells Timelines and my style of writing but they're just the tip of the iceberg. Explore a vast universe of speculative fiction that's only getting bigger!

http://michaelshotter.com

@bookstodon @specfic @scifi @horrorbooks @audiobooks

#specfic #scifi #horror #paranormal #thriller #book #books #read #reads #reading #readingcommunity #booksofmastodon #readersofmastodon #whattoread #bestreads #yournextread

An image featuring positive reviews of the four "story singles" from Michael Shotter's book "8: Tales of the Big Men from The Nod/Wells Timelines" - "Paper or Plastic?," "Office Hours," "Hostile Takeover," and "Fair Game"

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15d

Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival

Without Christopher Marlowe, there might not have been a Bard.

by Nina Pasquini

https://www.harvardmagazine.com/books-literary-life/harvard-shakespeare-marlowe-literature

Christopher Marlowe at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/410

#books #literature

A 1585 portrait believed to be of Christopher Marlowe, by an unknown artist.

It depicts a young man, with long hair and a light beard, with his arms folded. He is expensively dressed in a dark doublet, possibly velvet, with rows of golden buttons. The doublet has a zig-zag pattern made by cuts in the cloth, exposing the orange lining.

The upper left hand corner of the portrait contains the date anno dni 1585, together with the age of the sitter expressed by the Latin text ætatis suæ 21, meaning of his own age 21.

Below this is a Latin motto, Quod me nutrit me destruit, in English That which nourishes me destroys me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlowe_portrait#/media/File:Christopher_Marlowe.jpg

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14d

7 authors in a dark, gothic horror fantasy 👼😈

7 spotlights to introduce them! ✍️📖

Also wanna do some about the stories.

I'll start the ball rolling. 😁 Call me Etaski.

https://mybook.to/Fallen1

#Books #ComingSoon #HorrorAnthology #FallenAngels #DarkReads #DarkFantasyReaders #HorrorBooks #HorrorRomance #RomanticHorror #GothicReads #DarkFantasy #UrbanFantasy

@bookstodon @bookstadon @horror @lgbtqbookstodon @sffbookclub @paranormal @romancelandia @fantasy @books

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14d

Giorgos Garbis, founder of the anarchist publisher "Free Press," has died Takahe has limited support for this type: See Original Page

giorgos-garbis-founder-anarchist-publisher-free-press-has-died

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14d

Non-military space opera recomendations

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14d

Giorgos Garbis, founder of the anarchist publisher "Free Press," has died Takahe has limited support for this type: See Original Page

giorgos-garbis-founder-anarchist-publisher-free-press-has-died

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16d

Writer Elisabeth Wheatley explains Audible's new policy that aims to create a monopoly and keep audiobooks out of libraries and other stores

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1y

American writer Harriette Woods Baker was born #OTD in 1815.

She wrote under the pseudonym "Madeline Leslie." She devoted herself successfully to novels; but after about 15 years, she wrote popular religious literature. Some of her well-known titles include The Family in the Parsonage (1853), The Mother’s Mission (1854), and The Orphan Children (1856).

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

Books by Madeline Leslie at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/31136

#books #literature

Harriette Newell Woods Baker
G. Derby & J. T. White - T. White The National Cyclopædia of American Biography: Being the History of the United States as Illustrated in the Lives of the Founders, Builders, and Defenders of the Republic, and of the Men and Women who are Doing the Work and Moulding the Thought of the Present Time

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16d

From Renaissance Florence to today’s global stage, Guicciardini’s shrewd maxims show that medieval political wisdom never goes out of style.

https://www.medievalists.net/2025/08/medieval-wisdom-for-modern-politics/

Medieval history and literature at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/2863

#books #literature #history

Ritratto di Francesco Guicciardini.

The painting presents Guicciardini in the formal, sober style typical of early 16th-century Florentine portraiture. He is shown as a mature man with a thoughtful, somewhat severe expression.

Dressed in dark, dignified clothing, likely a scholar’s or statesman’s robe, he embodies intellectual authority and civic responsibility.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Guicciardini#/media/File:Ritratto_di_Francesco_Guicciardini.jpg

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16d

Practical Translation: Proust

A panel discussion moderated by Merve Emre

https://www.nybooks.com/online/2025/08/24/on-translation-practical-translation-merve-emre/

Marcel Proust (as an author and translator) at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/987

#books #literature #Translation

First galley proof of A la recherche du temps perdu: Du côté de chez Swann with handwritten revision notes by Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922). Auctioned by Christie's in July 2000 for £663,750 — a world record for a French literary manuscript.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%80_la_recherche_du_temps_perdu#/media/Fichier:MS_A_la_recherche_du_temps_perdu.jpg

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14d

Recommend me some good sci-fi short story collections and anthologies.

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11d

"Thanks to denial, I'm immortal" -Philip J. Fry 😂

@reading @bookstodon @bookbubble @humour

#Futurama #Quote
#ReadingMemes #Memes #ReadAllTheBooks #Humor #Humour
#Reading #Readers #ReadersOfMastodon #ReadingCommunity
#Book #Books #Novel #Novels #Fiction
#Bookwyrm #Bookworm #Bookstodon #BookLove

Post by Jonathan Edward Durham

I’m not a book hoarder. I’m prepping for the possibility that one day I might have 173 years to do nothing but read.

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13d

Recommendations?

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11d

Two Years After Cormac McCarthy’s Death, Rare Access to His Personal Library Reveals the Man Behind the Myth

The famously reclusive novelist amassed a collection of thousands of books ranging in topics from philosophical treatises to advanced mathematics to the naked mole-rat

By Richard Grant

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/two-years-cormac-mccarthys-death-rare-access-to-personal-library-reveals-man-behind-myth-180987150/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&lctg=93133550

#books #literature

Photo portrait of American author Cormac McCarthy used as the first-edition back cover of his 1973 novel Child of God.

The photo portrait of Cormac McCarthy, used on the back cover of the first edition of Child of God (1973), presents the author in a stark, unadorned style. McCarthy is shown in black and white, his face turned slightly toward the camera with a calm, contemplative expression. His features are sharply defined — high forehead, dark hair combed back, strong jawline.

He wears a simple collared shirt.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cormac_McCarthy#/media/File:Cormac_McCarthy_(Child_of_God_author_portrait_-_high-res).jpg

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10d

Practical Translation: ‘The Thousand and One Nights’

A panel discussion moderated by Merve Emre

https://www.nybooks.com/online/2025/08/28/on-translation-practical-translation-1001-nights-merve-emre/

The Thousand and One Nights at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=The+Thousand+and+One+Nights

#books #literature #Translation

The image is an ornate illustrated title page from The Thousand and One Nights, Vol. I, published in London by Chatto and Windus.

The central text is framed within an elaborate orientalist decorative border, filled with arabesques, flourishes, and small architectural motifs resembling arches and minarets. At the top center is a vignette illustration of Scheherazade, seated in an opulent room beneath a hanging lamp, telling her stories to Sultan Shahryar, who reclines on cushions.

On either side of the border are smaller inset illustrations: one shows a dramatic scene with figures in a shadowed landscape, while the other depicts a romantic or courtly encounter, reflecting the variety of tales within the collection.

The lettering of the title — The Thousand & One Nights, Vol. I — is stylized, with flourishes that echo the decorative frame. At the bottom, beneath the publisher’s name, appears a small medallion with Arabic script inside, reinforcing the book’s exoticized presentation for a Victorian audience.

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/34206/pg34206-images.html

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1y

English aristocrat and society hostess Lady Ottoline Morrell died #OTD in 1938.

Her salons were frequented by key figures of the Bloomsbury Group, including Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, & Lytton Strachey, as well as writers like Aldous Huxley, T.S. Eliot, & D.H. Lawrence. Artists such as Duncan Grant & Vanessa Bell were also regular visitors. During World War I, they invited conscientious objectors such as Duncan Grant, Clive Bell & Lytton Strachey to take refuge at Garsington.

#books

A group at Garsington Manor, country home of Lady Ottoline Morrell, near Oxford. Left to right: Lady Ottoline Morrell, Mrs. Aldous Huxley, Lytton Strachey, Duncan Grant, and Vanessa Bell.

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10d

A visit to Cormac McCarthy’s “enormous and chaotically disorganized personal library” - Biblioklept Takahe has limited support for this type: See Original Page