Without looking it up, are you familiar with the literary form "drabble?" I was today years old when I learned this term.
bookstodon
I’m just barely past the ½-way point of this by @cstross and it is already fantastic.
There is a scene involving a vicar, a bureaucrat, and an intern who happens to be a v̶a̶m̶p̶i̶r̶e̶ sorry, a person with PHANG. It is hilarious due to — in equal parts — social norms, office politics, and marginalized communities.
Some may find the story disjointed and slow to start, but it merely needs the time and space to create the foundation of the action.
Excellent.
★★★★★
The Amberlough Dossier, by Lara Elena Donnelly
A clear-eyed, relevant exploration of the tragic humanity of flawed people, flawed countries, and how impotence does not excuse wrongdoing
@ergative has our series review:
http://www.nerds-feather.com/2026/07/review-amberlough-dossier-by-lara-elena.html
Shit. This is on the calendar, and yes, it is the national book banning bill. https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/7661/text #Censorship #Books #Book #Bookstodon
Edited 57d ago
I would've thought that was the printing press but what do I know 😂
But know all industries are dirty and corrupt, so buy Indie when you can...
@bookstodon
@books
@philosophy
@humor @humor@lemmy.world @aiop
#Publishing #Indie #Thinking #Meme #Philosophy #Humor #Humour #Funny #BookMemes #Reading #Readers #Litterature
#Books #Bookstodon
What do you call the unquenchable urge to read more books than humanly possible? #Reading #Bookstodon
Tried my hand at IRL book clubs and they didn’t work out for me. Are there any here I can join?
4.5/5 at #TheStorygraph for "An African History of Africa" - well worth the effort
#history #nonfiction #Bookstodon @bookstodon
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/814cec23-3379-4b84-bafe-71af67b2bc9f
Off to the Tamar Valley Author's Market today to sell my books. It's a local farmer's market, but they have little themes for the mid-month market. Apparently, there will be at least two writers present. Head a long to Beaconsfield in the extremely unlikely event you read this and live in Northern #Tasmania.
„Gut gemeint, aber immer daneben, der als Frage getarnte Kommentar von Besuchern: ‚Hast du die alle gelesen?‘ Die, das sind Bücher in zwei, drei oder mehr Regalen. Ja, die stehen nicht einfach so rum, sondern sind gelesen, manchmal mehrfach, lösen beim Betrachten wohlige Erinnerungen aus, zaubern Bibliothekscharme ins Wohnen – und sind für immer mehr Menschen völlig aus der Zeit gefallen. In der skeptischen Kontrollfrage schwingt latente Aggression mit […]. Bildungsbücherwände sind sentimentale Zurschaustellungsstaubfänger, ihr Anblick wirkt unaufgeräumt und torpediert den reduzierten Wohn-Chic. ‚Was für ein Opa-Style‘, entfährt es dem benachbarten Paar, das erinnere an großelterlichen Mahagoniburgen. Ja, beim Anblick einer Bücherwand schüttelt es manchen, der ausladende Flachbildschirm-Altäre anstandslos bewundert.“
Pah, das ist mir sowas von egal. Unsere „Bildungsbürgerbücherwand“ ist der zentrale Einrichtungsgegenstand unseres Wohnzimmers, in dem seit mehr als zehn Jahren auch kein (Flach-)Bildschirm mehr steht. So viel Distinktion gönnen wir uns!
Today an ad for the #bookstodon
If you wanna help an indie bookworm open a 24/7 bookshop in London, I recommend you to check out Story Box Alibi
https://linktr.ee/StoryBoxBookShop
This is a small business selling old books, its creator's project is to open a nice book store with tea and coffee as a space for people to rest during day and night, in London
Their kofi
https://ko-fi.com/storybox/shop
Their vinted
https://www.vinted.co.uk/member/70684310-storyboxbookshop
You can follow them on Bluesky
https://bsky.app/profile/storyboxalibi.bsky.social
Quasit's Daily Book Recommendations: "Wasp" (1957) by Eric Frank Russell
Age Range: 15 to adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Here's my hundredth daily book recommendation! And it's one of my favorites. "Wasp" is a classic: a story of a saboteur in an interstellar war. It's the closest thing you'll ever find to a practical manual on terrorism and sabotage in a science fiction novel.
James Mowry is an ordinary citizen of Earth when he's brought in to a mysterious government office. There's an interstellar war going on against an alien (but someone humanoid) species, but that's not a major factor in his life. By the time he leaves it, he's no longer an ordinary citizen; he's something else entirely.
[Mowry glanced at them. They were typescript copies of press reports. Settling back in his chair he perused them slowly and with care. The first told of a prankster in Roumania.
This fellow had done nothing more than stand in the road gazing fascinatedly at the sky, occasionally uttering ejaculations and loud phrases such as, "Blue flames!' Curious people had joined him and gaped likewise. The group became a crowd, the crowd became a mob, and the bigger the mob the faster it grew. Soon the audience blocked the street, overflowed into side-streets. Police tried to break it up, making matters worse. Some fool summoned the fire squads. Hysterics on the fringes swore they could see or had seen something weird above the clouds. Reporters and cameramen rushed to the scene. Rumours raced around. The government sent up the air force for a closer look. Panic spread over an area of two hundred square miles from which the original cause had judiciously disappeared.]
["Finally, let's consider this auto smash. We know the cause; the survivor was able to tell us before he died. He said the driver lost control at high speed while swiping at a wasp which had flown in through a window and started buzzing around his face."
"It nearly happened to me once."
Ignoring that, Wolf went on, "The weight of a wasp is under half an ounce. Compared with a human being its size is minute, its strength negligible. Its sole armament is a tiny syringe holding a drop of irritant, formic acid, and in this case it didn't even use it. Nevertheless it killed four big men and converted a large, powerful car into a heap of scrap."
"I see the point," agreed Mowry, "but where do I come in?"
"Right here," said Wolf. "We want you to become a wasp."]
Having grown up on a planet of the alien enemy before the start of the war, Mowry can speak and read their language like a native; a little surgical intervention makes him look just like one of them. It's not long before he's dropped off secretly on an enemy planet. His task: to get the enemy to waste as much of their resources as possible.
You'll remember this one once you're through. I don't know if Eric Frank Russell was ever a spy, but if not he had GREAT information. How one man can tie up a whole planet by–well, you'll read about it.
The aliens of "Wasp" are based on the Japanese of World War II to a large degree. The culture is rigid and hierarchical. That, of course, makes the mischief Mowry pulls all the more fun. And dangerous.
"Wasp" has been in and out of print for a long time. Terry Pratchett praised it. It doesn't seem to be in print right now, but used copies aren't hard to find online or in shops. Ebook versions are available from the usual sources. And you can download a copy legally–not borrow, download and own–from the Internet Archive.
https://archive.org/details/RusselEricFrankWasp
You can find a complete spreadsheet of all the books I've recommended here to date (along with links to each post) here:
Happy reading! 🤓📖
#Books #BookStodon #ScienceFiction #Humor #FreeEbooks #BookRecs #BookRecommendations #DailyBookRecs #QuasitBookRecs
Dear William Gibson,
Please finish the Jackpot trilogy ASAP 🙏🏽
Sincerely,
Me
#bookstodon
(I know he's @greatdismal on twitter but I don't think he's here on Mastodon.)
In 19th-century Dublin, a disillusioned doctor and a fallen woman cross paths, sparking a forbidden love that defies society's judgments.
Amazon - https://mybook.to/ascarletwoman
Other Retailers - https://lornapeel.com/fitzgeralds/a-scarlet-woman
#BooksByLornaPeel #Books #Ireland #HistoricalRomance #BookSeries #HistoricalFiction #KindleUnlimited #Bookstodon #Romance @bookstodon
Out today: "When you wake up in the morning and someone says: 'If you send me $10, my dear, and tell me about your day,' it’s like Stockholm Syndrome. It’s worth the $10 to keep pretending that there is this person who loves you and wants to hear about your day." https://www.texasobserver.org/austin-novel-romance-scammers/
#books #bookstodon #tech #culture @bookstodon
Even after that display I still trust the library 😂
#Loops #Funny #FYP #Library #LibraryMemes #Meme #Libraries #Librarians #Humor #Humour #Funny #Bookstodon #Books #Bookstagram #NotOC
Five stars:
Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes by Sandra Jackson-Opoku with Karen Chilton (Narrator) (2025) is the first of the Savvy Summers mysteries. Savvy is the middle aged owner of Essie's Soul Food Café. After a wedding anniversary celebration which she caters, her oldest regular dies at the cafe while eating her popular sweet potato pie.
https://pussreboots.com/blog/2026/comments_07/savvy_summers_and_the_sweet_potato_crimes.html
My book, Community: Journal of Power Politics and Democracy in Hell's Kitchen, is on sale through July 31 on #Smashwords #books #bookstodon #SWSale2026 #memoir #politics #democracy https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1069835
Here’s my review of One Fine Day, 1947, by Mollie Panter-Downes, just released on audio… a gentle look at a typical day for a middle class family, reflecting societal changes brought by the war #bookstodon #BookReview #reading #Storygraph #audiobook @bookstodon
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/e2d8043d-a4e5-468a-bb8a-5eb7a1d6fad4
This week's #NewBooks at the library:
- I found a much reduced copy of Contesting Earth's History in Transatlantic Literary Culture, 1860–1935: Believers and Visionaries on the Borderlines of #Geology and #Palaeontology, published by Oxford University Press
- I was so taken with Guillermo del Toro's visual take on #Frankenstein, I bought the book on the making of the movie by Sheila O'Malley, published by Titan Books.
- I found a second-hand copy of The Spirit of System: #Lamarck and #EvolutionaryBiology, published by Harvard University Press, which should come in handy for a future review on Lamarck.
#Books #Bookstodon #Paleontology #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #HistSci #Evolution #Scicomm @bookstodon
Yesterday, proofs came of my new novella, The Blossoming of the Big Tree, and it got me a bit excited. I have got print copies of my books before, but not one I designed from scratch. I was worried about how the cover would look like, and also because I used LibreWriter for typesetting, if the font was the right one, etc, but it all looks nice and cute. Proud of myself. 😊
Get the ebook or pre-order print here
https://www.ododopress.com/novellas/the-blossoming-of-the-big-tree/
Book Review: The Feywild Job by C. L. Polk
@DrEddieClark has our review to round out the week at Nerds of a Feather
#bookstodon #books @bookstodon
http://www.nerds-feather.com/2026/07/book-review-feywild-job-by-c-l-polk.html
Tego się pewnie po mnie nie spodziewaliście. Ale fakt, ostatnio postanowiłem trochę się poprawić fizycznie i, jak to ja, gdy się czymś zafascynuję, nie tylko zacząłem ćwiczyć, co czytać o całej teorii wokół tego. Tak trafiłem na darmowe e-booki od ekipy Warszawskich Koksów i powiem tak - nawet, gdyby nie były za darmo, to byłyby całkiem fajne dla początkujących. Krótkie, konkretne, luźne (ale bez wulgaryzmów - Owca i Saker trzymają rezon jako autorzy) i bardzo merytoryczne. Minus taki, że widać, iż jest to raczej materiał szykowany dla osób chcących wejść mocniej w ten świat i np. interesujących się kulturystyką, ale taki normik jak ja też coś tutaj znajdzie. W sumie polecam, bo naprawdę krótkie (razem ok. 180 stron).
1. https://lubimyczytac.pl/ksiazka/fundamenty-odzywiania/opinia/99589962
2. https://lubimyczytac.pl/ksiazka/fundamenty-treningu-silowego/opinia/99694860
@ksiazki #książki #bookstodon @bookstodon #FediKsiążki #Ksiażkodon #Bookstodon #Readlist2026PL #gym #siłownia #dietetyka #WK #Owca #Saker
Love getting lost in a historical fiction series?
Set in 19th-century Ireland, The Fitzgeralds of Dublin series follows one family through hardship, secrets, and choices that echo across generations.
📚️️ Books 1–9 available as box sets
📖 Read free in Kindle Unlimited
Amazon - https://mybook.to/FitzgeraldsBoxSets
#BooksByLornaPeel #Books #FamilySaga #HistoricalFiction #Bookstodon #Ireland #KindleUnlimited #Dublin @bookstodon
The Summer War. Naomi Novik.
You are a 12 year old sorceress and future princess enamored of your older gay brother, and when he says he’s leaving your abusive father to find love, you curse him to never find love and force him to live a life of killing others in battle; eventually you manipulate him to secure power for yourself.
0 of 5 library cats. (My first 0 rating ever!)
@bookstodon #bookstodon #books #reading #fantasy #magic #queerbaiting
