Eggplant.place

Robert Browning's narrative poem The Ring and the Book begins four-part publication by Smith, Elder & Co. in London. It is a major commercial and critical success.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50954

#books #literature #poetry

This is the cover of The Ring and the Book, circa 1868.

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2 ⁄ 7 More details First page of Robert Browning's manuscript of The Ring and the Book (1868)

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62d

O come, let all 4,850 of us adore him

In 1925 the Associated Glee Clubs of America put on a concert like no other. 15 choral groups, with over 850 singers in all, came together in New York's Metropolitan Opera House to sing a program broadcast on radio across America.

By John Mark Ockerbloom

https://everybodyslibraries.com/2025/12/25/o-come-let-all-4850-of-us-adore-him/

About Adeste Fideles:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Come,_All_Ye_Faithful

#books #literature #music

The earliest surviving manuscript of Adeste fideles, without attribution, attributed to John Francis Wade, dated to the 1740s.

It depicts a page from an aged music manuscript, displaying hand-copied musical notation on a staff system. The paper has a cream or beige tone characteristic of 18th-century documents, with some visible aging and wear.

The manuscript uses square notation on a four-line staff system, typical of plainchant and early sacred music notation. Black square and diamond-shaped notes are positioned on the lines and spaces, with various time values indicated by the note shapes. The music is written in what appears to be sections or verses, with multiple staves running down the page.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Come,_All_Ye_Faithful#/media/File:Adeste,_fideles_(earliest_version).jpg

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62d

Archimedes Manuscript Yields Secrets under X-ray Gaze

For five days in May, the ancient collided with the ultra-modern at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), bringing brilliant, long-hidden ideas to light with brilliant X-ray light.

By Heather Rock Woods (from the archives)

https://www6.slac.stanford.edu/news/2005-06-16-archimedes-manuscript-yields-secrets-under-x-ray-gaze

Archimedes at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=archimedes

#books #science #xray_imaging

One page of Archimedes Palimpsest, On Floating Bodies.

It despicts an opened ancient manuscript with two facing pages. The parchment is heavily aged, displaying a mottled yellowish-brown, golden-tan coloration with significant staining, discoloration, and deterioration throughout. The edges are darkened and worn, indicating centuries of age and handling.

This is a palimpsest, meaning the parchment was recycled—the original text was partially scraped off and written over with new content. You can see layers of text at different angles and in different states of visibility, which is characteristic of such manuscripts. The underlying Archimedes text runs in one direction, while later overwritten religious texts (Byzantine prayer book) run perpendicular to it.

The pages contain dense columns of Greek text written in dark brown or black ink. On the left page, there are visible geometric diagrams—line drawings showing mathematical figures and proofs typical of Archimedes' work on geometry and physics. These diagrams include straight lines, angles, and geometric constructions that would have accompanied his mathematical reasoning about floating bodies and buoyancy.

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

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62d

A Review of A Happy Christmas Ceilidh: https://lydiaschoch.com/a-happy-christmas-ceilidh-by-zoe-tasia/

#Books #BookReview #Christmas

@bookstodon

Book cover for A Happy Christmas Ceilidh by Zoe Tasia. Image on cover is a drawing of a snowperson that’s doing a handstand outside in the snow beside some fir trees. Its stick arms are leaning down to touch the snow and its scarf is falling down onto the snow.

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62d

50% off @ #Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1604529

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

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #sciencefantasy #scifi #actionadventure #fiction #books #EOYSale25 #ebook #sale #books2read #indiebooks

(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 white moon, on a background of the stars of space, with the following quote over the top of it:

“Idiot! You’ve likely killed us both, leaving us stuck out in the open like this.”

“We’ve got incoming. I know you’re angry and I suppose you’ve got every right to be, but we need to defend ourselves.”

“ ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend’, for now, and then we decide what to do about the conflict between us.”

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

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62d

How Colette Was Inspired By Her Many Cats

Susannah Fullerton on the French Writer’s Feline Muses

https://lithub.com/how-colette-was-inspired-by-her-many-cats/

Books by Colette at PG:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/2065

#books #literature #animals

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62d

📚 Learn A Lot While You Sit On The Pot by: Jack. Haynes

On average, humans will spend 92 days sitting on the toilet over their lifetime. To put this in perspective, that's about one-third of a year in the bathroom relieving yourself. That's where LEARN A LOT WHILE YOU SIT ON THE POT comes in. Since the average time spent on t...

https://bookblabla.com/book/learn-a-lot-while-you-sit-on-the-pot

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #humor #form #triviareference #trivia

On average, humans will spend 92 days sitting on the toilet over their lifetime. To put this in perspective, that's about one-third of a year in the bathroom relieving yourself. That's where LEARN A LOT WHILE YOU SIT ON THE POT comes in. Since the average time spent on the toilet is ten minutes, we've provided you with bite-sized educational (and some not-so-educational) facts that you can read quickly and retain well after you've flushed.

Are you ready to learn about:
- The microbiome in your bathroom.
- Strange historical bathroom habits.
- Unusual facts about famous artists.
- Tech-related trivia.
- Strange psychological experiments.
- And so much more!

While you won't learn enough to get a degree or anything, you'll feel better about spending nearly four months in the bathroom over your lifetime.

The Perfect Gift for All Ages!

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1y

The Season of Edgar Allan Poe

Here, we revisit the first publication of his poetic masterpiece, "The Raven" and the tragic circumstances that led to him writing it.

https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2024/10/the-season-of-edgar-allan-poe-autumn-halloween-and-the-falling-darkness/?loclr=ealocb

#books

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1y

"If one cannot state a matter clearly enough so that even an intelligent twelve-year-old can understand it, one should remain within the cloistered walls of the university and laboratory until one gets a better grasp of one's subject matter."

Margaret Mead died #OTD in 1978.

#books #literature

Margaret Mead in 1948. She appears in a thoughtful pose, wearing a tailored dress or blouse with a modest yet professional demeanor.

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62d

📚 The Mercy of Gods by: James S. A. Corey

How humanity came to the planet called Anjiin is lost in the fog of history, but that history is about to end.
The Carryx - part empire, part hive - have waged wars of conquest for centuries, destroying or enslaving species across the galaxy. Now, they are facing a great and deathless enemy. The ke...

https://bookblabla.com/book/the-mercy-of-gods

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #sciencefiction #spaceexploration

How humanity came to the planet called Anjiin is lost in the fog of history, but that history is about to end.
The Carryx - part empire, part hive - have waged wars of conquest for centuries, destroying or enslaving species across the galaxy. Now, they are facing a great and deathless enemy. The key to their survival may rest with the humans of Anjiin.

Caught up in academic intrigue and affairs of the heart, Dafyd Alkhor is pleased just to be an assistant to a brilliant scientist and his celebrated research team. Then the Carryx ships descend, decimating the human population and taking the best and brightest of Anjiin society away to serve on the Carryx homeworld, and Dafyd is swept along with them.

They are dropped in the middle of a struggle they barely understand, set in a competition against the other captive species with extinction as the price of failure. Only Dafyd and a handful of his companions see past the Darwinian contest to the deeper game that they must play to survive: learning to understand - and manipulate - the Carryx themselves.

With a noble but suicidal human rebellion on one hand and strange and murderous enemies on the other, the team pays a terrible price to become the trusted servants of their new rulers.

Dafyd Alkhor is a simple man swept up in events that are beyond his control and more vast than his imagination. He will become the champion of humanity and its betrayer, the most hated man in history and the guardian of his people.

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60d

New #BookReview on my #blog: "Alchemy and Mysticism: the Hermetic Museum."
https://itinerantlibrarian.blogspot.com/2025/12/book-review-alchemy-and-mysticism.html

#books #reading #ItinerantLibrarian #reviews #art #hermeticism #mysticism #occult #esoterica #bookstodon
💙📚

@bookstodon

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62d

Two Years After Cormac McCarthy’s Death, Rare Access to His Personal Library Reveals the Man Behind the Myth Takahe has limited support for this type: See Original Page

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48d

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

Zechariah Jacobs has angered a vast empire that spans a third of the galaxy, which is far too much for his planet to stand against, but in a clash of wizards and magic versus technology, it’s hard to say which will win.

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

(Left) The cover of Wrath of the Sky, by Owen Tyme.

On a black background, a planet much like earth burns, set aflame. The flames are on the top and sides, but haven't yet reached the bottom.

(Right) An ogre stands on a rocky cliffside path, clearly quite upset, with both his head and arms raised as he cries out! The background is blue sky with white clouds. The following quote is laid over the top of the scene:

Winzon grinned evilly. With great slowness and ceremony, he undid the draw-string of his sack and up-ended it, dropping an ogre skull at the brute’s feet!

The massive ogre’s entire demeanor changed in an instant! He backed away, carefully stepping out of reach of Winzon’s ax, even though it was still strapped to his back!

The brute whispered, “Ogre-slayer!”

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

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60d

#OTD in 1612 (and 27 January 1613). Galileo Galilei became the first person to observe the planet Neptune, although he mistakenly catalogued it as a fixed star.

Because Neptune was only beginning its yearly retrograde cycle in Dec. 1612, the motion of the planet was far too slight to be detected with Galileo's small telescope.

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

Neptune at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/34991

#books #astronomy

Portrait of Galileo Galilei.

A half-length portrait, in old age, of the Italian mathematician, philosopher and astronomer, who was appointed court mathematician to the Medici dukes of Tuscany at Florence in 1610. He is dressed in black, wears a white beard and is seated in a chair holding a telescope in his right hand. His left hand rests on the arm of the chair and he wears a ring with a clear stone on his fourth finger. He faces forward towards the viewer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Galileo_Galilei_(1564-1642)_RMG_BHC2700.tiff&page=1

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61d

In the public domain soon, in libraries now

The Penn Libraries, where I work, has first editions of many of the works featured in my #PublicDomainDayCountdown . From today through Public Domain Day, the Libraries social media will feature photos of some distinctive books from 1930.

By John Mark Ockerbloom

https://everybodyslibraries.com/2025/12/26/in-the-public-domain-soon-in-libraries-now/

#books #literature #publicDomainDayCountdown

Artistic Rendering of the Library of Alexandria, based on some archaeological evidence.

The scene shows a grand interior space with impressive classical Egyptian-influenced architecture. A massive column dominates the center of the composition, featuring what appears to be a Hathor capital (a column top with the face of the goddess Hathor), characteristic of ancient Egyptian temple architecture.

Several figures dressed in classical robes and togas are shown engaged in scholarly activities:

In the foreground left, two or three figures are seated around a table, appearing to read or discuss texts together;

In the center-right, a standing figure in robes appears to be studying or reading while standing near shelving;

Another figure is seated on steps or a platform in the middle distance;

A figure in the lower right foreground is bent over, possibly organizing or retrieving materials from lower storage

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_libraries#/media/File:Ancientlibraryalex.jpg

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1y

#OTD in 1850.

Charles Dickens's novel David Copperfield concludes serial publication and on November 14 appears complete in book form from Bradbury and Evans in London.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/766

#books #literature

Cover of serial, "David Copperfield" by Charles Dickens

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61d

This week's #NewBooks at the library (the last one for 2025!): Three second-hand copies of Atlas of the Galilean Satellites from Cambridge University Press; the absolutely massive Fire and Mud: Eruptions and Lahars of Mount Pinatubo, Philippines from the University of Washington Press; and #CharlesDarwin, Geologist from Cornell University Press which I might well review sometime soon in the new year in light of an upcoming Darwin biography...

#Books #Scicomm #Bookstodon #Astronomy #Cosmology #Volcanoes #Volcanology #Geology #EarthSciences #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 and part of the beech-coloured laminate floor.

On the left, standing up, Atlas of the Galilean Satellites, showing a composite photo of four of Jupiter's large moons shown in crescent view, arranged left to right from small to large: Callisto, Ganymede, Europa, and Io, showing a tiny sulfur dioxide-rich volcanic plume in deep purple erupting from its surface.

In the middle, lying down, Fire and Mud, a very thick hardback book, showing a colour photo of an agricultural field with in the foreground the tiny figures of an ox pulling a plough, followed by a human holding the reins. The background shows various white-roofed buildings against a background of hills. The top 80% of the photo shows the sky in which an enormous eruption cloud blossoms skywards. The dust jacket explains this is an early pre-climactic eruption at 0851h, June 12, 1991. In the middle, towards the bottom, is an inset colour photo showing a house surrounded by felled trees, all covered in a thick layer of volcanic ash.

On the right, standing up, Charles Darwin, Geologist, showing a period black-and-white photo of a seated, middle-aged, balding Charles Darwin circa 1855, wearing a waistcoat. The bottom third of the photo shows a fold-out colour plate with three colourful cross-sections through the Cordilleras of the South American Andes mountains. The writing is too small to read.

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48d

📚 Heated Rivalry by: Rachel Reid

Nothing interferes with pro hockey star Shane Hollander’s game. Now that he’s captain of the Montreal Voyageurs, he won’t let anything jeopardize that—definitely not the sexy rival he loves to hate.

Boston Bears captain Ilya Rozanov is everything Shane’s not. The self-proclaimed king of the...

https://bookblabla.com/book/heated-rivalry

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #romance #lgbtq #gayfiction #sportsfiction

Nothing interferes with pro hockey star Shane Hollander’s game. Now that he’s captain of the Montreal Voyageurs, he won’t let anything jeopardize that—definitely not the sexy rival he loves to hate.

Boston Bears captain Ilya Rozanov is everything Shane’s not. The self-proclaimed king of the ice, he’s as cocky as he is talented. No one can beat him—except Shane. Publicly, they’re enemies. Privately, they can’t stop touching each other.

The smart thing to do? Walk away, once a few secret hookups turn into a struggle to keep their relationship out of the press. The truth could ruin them both. But for Shane and Ilya, secrecy is soon no longer an option…

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NOW A #1 STREAMING SHOW

The epic enemies-to-lovers hockey romance from Rachel Reid, streaming on Crave in Canada and on HBO Max in the U.S.

"The book that got me into hockey romance." —NPR's Weekend Edition

Game Changers

* Book 1: Game Changer
* Book 2: Heated Rivalry
* Book 3: Tough Guy
* Book 4: Common Goal
* Book 5: Role Model
* Book 6: The Long Game

Need more Reid! Check out these other standalones from your favorite MM hockey romance writer:

* Time to Shine
* The Shots You Take

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48d

📚 Artificial Truth by: J. M. Lee

In the virtual city of Alegria, fantasies are made real, innumerable lifetimes are lived, and even death itself is a survivable experience. An escape from reality that changed the landscape of artificial intelligence, it is home to more than one hundred million people. Though it's been six years sin...

https://bookblabla.com/book/artificial-truth

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #thrillers #suspensefiction #technological

In the virtual city of Alegria, fantasies are made real, innumerable lifetimes are lived, and even death itself is a survivable experience. An escape from reality that changed the landscape of artificial intelligence, it is home to more than one hundred million people. Though it's been six years since Alegria's creator revolutionary tech genius KC Kim died of cancer, his legacy is alive in the pinnacle of KC's genius: an AI named Allen who surges with KC's memories.

As hard as KC's widow, Minju, and her new husband, Junmo, try to move on, Minju can't shake the unnerving feeling that somehow, from somewhere, KC is watching. She sees a stranger who bears an uncanny resemblance to him. A pair of KC's custom-made shoes arrive at her doorstep. And someone has booked a Tokyo hotel room where she and KC shared happier times.

Certain of nothing except KC's mad innovation, Minju can only imagine what he is accomplishing without even existing.

If KC is reaching out from an infinity of memories, what are his plans for Minju and Junmo, and how can they hope to escape KC's all-seeing grasp? And whose plans are they, really? The possibilities are frightening.

From J.M. Lee, a bestselling phenomenon in Korea, comes a haunting and mind-bending novel about the revolutionary possibilities of AI and the infinite mysteries of what it means to be human.

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61d

House of Mirth. By Edith Wharton.

It’s late 19th century NYC, and you’re a youngish beautiful woman with few $ assets, and you’ve managed to live off higher society while avoiding getting married, but this arrangement starts to come to a sudden end; you are confident you can save yourself, but you’d somehow missed how powerless you’d be if others had other uses for you.

4 of 5 library cats 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈
CW: antisemitism

@bookstodon #books #reading #women #nyc #bookstodon

Book cover featuring a young woman in a fancy hat

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61d

What books should I read while I unplug Takahe has limited support for this type: See Original Page

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60d

📚 Innocence Road by: Laura Griffin

Detective Leanne Everhart swore she’d never go back to her hometown near Marfa, Texas—but she returns when her brother needs her, only to find a town in need too, still torn apart by a decades-old crime.

Leanne Everhart knows women have something to fear in her artsy hometown, especially so if they...

https://bookblabla.com/book/innocence-road

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #mysterydetective #thrillers #suspense

Detective Leanne Everhart swore she’d never go back to her hometown near Marfa, Texas—but she returns when her brother needs her, only to find a town in need too, still torn apart by a decades-old crime.

Leanne Everhart knows women have something to fear in her artsy hometown, especially so if they’re not rich, white locals. Returning to town after her father’s death, she sees the ugliest sides of an area that draws people for its severe, untamed natural landscape.

While her department faces mounting backlash over a recent wrongful conviction in the long-ago murder case of a popular local teenager—which is now unsolved—Leanne is called to a fresh crime scene at the edge of the desert. A nameless woman was found murdered, with no clues as to her identity. As Leanne digs into the crime scene evidence, she grows convinced this latest murder case is linked with the local teenager’s murder. And to multiple cold cases, all unnamed female victims, that have all been shelved by her department without leads.

Now, with conflicted loyalties and without allies, Leanne must hunt down a serial killer, one who’s been preying on local women for two decades, growing bolder and more ruthless with every strike.

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48d

Reading and Audiobook list for 2025

PHYSICAL AND EBOOKS 2025

How To Sell A Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett
The In-Between Bookstore by Edward Underhill
Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty
A Pirate’s Life For Tea by Rebecca Thorne
Open Season by Jonathan Kellerman
Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne
The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett
Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett
Tea You At the Altar by Rebecca Thorne
Sourcery by Terry Pratchett
OverGrowth by Mira Grant
Blue is the Hills by Lily Piper
Never Flinch by Stephen King
The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein
Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney
The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham
The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
Horns by Joe Hill
Alchemy and a Cup of Tea by Rebecca Thorne
The End of the World as we Know It edited by Chris Golden and Brain Keene
Last Words by George Carlin with Tony Hendra
Speedbumps Flooring it Through Hollywood by Teri Garr
i,Robot by Isaac Asimov
Nightfall Gardens book one by Allen Houston
Witch and Tell by Angela M. Sanders
For Whom the Belle Tolls by Jaysea Lynn
The Shadow Garden Nightfall Gardens book two by Allen Houston
The Labyrinth Nightfall Gardens book three by Allen Houston
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

AUDIOBOOKS

Flight or Fright Edited by Stephen King and Bev Vincent
Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits by Jason Pargin
Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King
Finders Keepers by Stephen King
End of Watch by Stephen King
The Outsider by Stephen King
If it Bleeds by Stephen King
Holly by Stephen King
The Crossings by Jack Ketchum
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons
I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin
Endymion by Dan Simmons
John Dies At The End by Jason Pargin
This Book is Full of Spiders by Jason Pargin
The Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons
The Long Walk by Stephen King
Cheshire Crossing by Andy Weir (audiodrama but it counts)
The Martian by Andy Weir
If This Book Exists. You’re in the Wrong Universe by Jason Pargin
Masters of Doom by David Kushner
Hackers: Heros of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy
A Mind of Her Own by Paula McLain
Once Upon Atari by Howard Scott Warshaw
Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Dead Drink First by Dale Maharidge
Randomize: Forward collection by Andy Weir
The Man Who Knew the Way to the Moon by Todd Zwillich
The Wild Heart of Stevie Nicks by Rob Sheffield
Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Takahe has limited support for this type: See Original Page

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