The American novelist Madeline Miller describes how she overcame her fears of a classical backlash to write a gay love story about Achilles and Patroclus.
books
finished reading Blackout 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑
by Connie Willis.
The Oxford time travellers are back, back to the London Blitz in WW2. But they are having trouble returning home, and getting caught up in all sorts of trouble in the meantime. Slow moving and overly detailed, but the near slapstick humour saves it. Only the first half of the story, so unfulfilling.
"Man is free at the instant he wants to be."
French writer, deist and philosopher Voltaire was born #OTD in 1694. He established himself as one of the leading writers of the enlightenment.
Books by Voltaire at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/913
#OTD in 1748.
The first instalment of Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, also known as Fanny Hill, is published anonymously by John Cleland to raise money to free himself from the London debtors' prison. It is considered by some to be the first modern erotic novel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Hill
Memoirs of Fanny Hill at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/25305
What was your favorite book from PG's catalog in 2025?
Edited 293d ago
Top 10 Most Read Pieces from 2025
via @publicdomainrev
It’s that time in December when we inevitably end up asking the question: what, exactly, captured people’s attention over the past year? The list below is one answer.
https://publicdomainreview.org/blog/2025/12/top-10-most-read-pieces-from-2025/
Virginia Faulkner: Writer, Editor and... Ghostwriter?
Brad Bigelow on the Collaborative Process That Produced Polly Adler’s A House is Not a Home
https://lithub.com/virginia-faulkner-writer-editor-and-ghostwriter/
More about Virginia Faulkner:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Faulkner
https://neglectedbooks.com/?p=10900
Tintin, The Wayback Machine, and The Public Domain
by Sterling Dudley
What do a Belgian boy reporter, a forgotten 2008 webpage, and the Wayback Machine have in common? They all played a role in uncovering Tintin the Belgian detective’s earliest adventures as part of Public Domain Day 2025.
https://blog.archive.org/2025/12/26/wayback-machine-and-public-domain-research/
You Can Buy Julius Evola’s Revolt Against the Modern World from a Vending Machine at the Iași Train Station
Abby Morton Diaz was born #OTD in 1821.
Born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, she became involved in the reform movements of the 19th century, particularly those related to women's suffrage, education, and labor.
Abby Morton Diaz at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/2166
In November 1887.
Arthur Conan Doyle's first detective novel, A Study in Scarlet, is published in Beeton's Christmas Annual by Ward Lock & Co. in London, introducing the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes & his friend & chronicler Dr. Watson.
#OTD In 1397, Chaucer tells the Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of Richard II.
https://lithub.com/lit-hub-daily-april-17-2026/
"Canterbury Tales" at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Canterbury+Tales
50% off omnibus @ #Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1733647
Levi always dreamed of being like his father, a great wizard, but had no understanding what it would be like. Follow Levi's journey from bumbling teen to great hero, while the young wizard learns to master magical powers that are barely under control.
@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #sciencefantasy #scifi #actionadventure #fiction #books #EOYSale25 #ebook #sale #books2read #indiebooks
In November 1874.
After completing a four-year prison sentence for thefts and frauds at Waldheim, Saxony, Karl May has his first story, "Die Rose von Ernstthal" ("The Story of Rose Ernstthal"), published.
8 Famous Women Writers Who Wrote Under Male Pseudonyms.
Historically, women faced barriers to publication and prejudicial attitudes, leading some to adopt male pseudonyms.
https://www.thecollector.com/famous-women-writers-under-male-pseudonyms/
📚 The Family Experiment by: John Marrs
The world’s population is soaring, creating overcrowded cities and an economic crisis. A growing number of people can no longer afford to start families, let alone raise them.
But for those desperate to experience parenthood, there is an alternative. For a monthly ...
https://bookblabla.com/book/the-family-experiment
#books #reading #libraries #fiction #thrillers #suspensefiction #psychologicalfiction #crimefiction
Okay, how about we do one more review before the year is out? Coming soon to https://inquisitivebiologist.com
#Books #BookReview #Bookstodon #Dinosaurs #Fossils #Evolution #Paleontology #Palaeontology #Scicomm @bookstodon
Herman Melville’s Great American Novel, ‘Moby-Dick,’ Only Got Mixed Reviews When It First Hit Bookstores
By Eli Wizevich
#OTD in 1910.
Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy dies of pneumonia aged 82 at Astapovo railway station, after a day's train journey south, fleeing from his home.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy
Books by Leo Tolstoy at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/136
![Leo Tolstoy in his office. CREATED/PUBLISHED: [1908 May]; CREATOR: Prokudin-Gorskii, Sergei Mikhailovich, 1863-1944, photographer. REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.](/proxy/post_attachment/518491/e7b27576ac.jpeg "Leo Tolstoy in his office. CREATED/PUBLISHED: [1908 May]; CREATOR: Prokudin-Gorskii, Sergei Mikhailovich, 1863-1944, photographer. REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.")
Paperback now available: https://books2read.com/StoneProphet
Nicole seeks to collect the missing fragments of the magical city of Kurg from her home world, but the remaining pieces were deactivated and are hard to find. Luckily, she just found the first piece of the Seventh Sage, an ancient stone man that knows the future, which she hopes knows where to find them.
@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #sciencefantasy #scifi #actionadventure #fiction #books
“Open Me Carefully.” Emily Dickinson’s Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson
"A Look Inside the Poet’s Personal Life and the Making of Her Mythical Reclusiveness"
Books by Dickinson at PG:
French and American writer, journalist and pianist Ève Curie was born #OTD in 1904.
She is best known for writing a biography of her mother, Madame Curie (1937). Ève was the only member of her family who did not choose a career as a scientist and did not win a Nobel Prize, although her husband, Henry Richardson Labouisse Jr., did collect the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965 on behalf of UNICEF.
Book Review: The Gryphon King by Sara Omer
A monster-filled secondary-world fantasy that takes its cues and worldbuilding inspirations from points east of the Bosporus Strait
@Princejvstin has our review
http://www.nerds-feather.com/2026/01/book-review-gryphon-king-by-sara-omer.html