Finished one of my Christmas presents, thank you @FrancescaJ ! A New Weird hallucination / nightmare / adventure of researchers sent by a clandestine government agency into 'Area X', a wilderness where something has gone terribly, but ambiguously, wrong. Elevated by the way that #JeffVanderMeer treats the psychology of the narrator with as much care and art as he does his description of the wonders and horrors she uncovers. #Bookstodon @bookstodon
bookstodon
🚨BLOGGAGE HAS OCCURRED🚨
I review the latest volume of @cstross”s I have read.
CAUTION: the final half or so sees me going off on a tangent where I expand on Mr Stross’ thesis regarding blind regard of D&D as being ‘evil.’. There’s little editing in that section, so it’s quite ’stream of consciousness’ and its argument will be weakly made — if even that strong at times.
As always, commentary is welcomed; both pro and anti.
https://unnecessary.bearblog.dev/conventionalboy/
#LaundryFiles #BooksTodon #reviews
One of my favourite stories about the literary life in Russia twenty years ago. And about the weight the literati had in people's consciousness (no, not anymore, not in the land of Z).
I remember this story from time to time.
The original Russian post (with more stories about “the tour”): https://un-tal-lukas.livejournal.com/1373089.html
![Near Moskovsky Train Station [in Nizhny Novgorod] we fell into the clutches of a police patrol. [poet Evgeny] Lesin, staggering with a bottle in his hand, for some reason rubbed them the wrong way.
“Let’s see your papers,” the chief thug said with an ugly grin.
“You’re an asshole, a piece of shit, and a bitch,” Lesin replied, as usual [, quoting a well-known Russian explicit poem about the toughness of poet's life].
“Well, well,” the chief thug smiled even more coldly as he examined our passports. “Moscow and Petersburg, is it? And what’s the purpose of your visit?”
“On tour!” I blurted out.
“Oh, is that so!” the man brightened up completely. “And who exactly are you, then?”
“He’s a poet, and I’m — his manager,” my subconscious answered for me.
The faces of our tormentors fell and grew bored. The passports were handed back, the tickets too, and they stopped beating Lesin over the head with a truncheon.
“Sorry for the trouble,” the chief thug snapped a salute. “Do come again!”
___
Olga Lukas. Gorky and Kids. Post from 20.02.06](/proxy/post_attachment/959774/0a0d64091a06c1576aed0e7ed7ebd086.png "Near Moskovsky Train Station [in Nizhny Novgorod] we fell into the clutches of a police patrol. [poet Evgeny] Lesin, staggering with a bottle in his hand, for some reason rubbed them the wrong way.
“Let’s see your papers,” the chief thug said with an ugly grin.
“You’re an asshole, a piece of shit, and a bitch,” Lesin replied, as usual [, quoting a well-known Russian explicit poem about the toughness of poet's life].
“Well, well,” the chief thug smiled even more coldly as he examined our passports. “Moscow and Petersburg, is it? And what’s the purpose of your visit?”
“On tour!” I blurted out.
“Oh, is that so!” the man brightened up completely. “And who exactly are you, then?”
“He’s a poet, and I’m — his manager,” my subconscious answered for me.
The faces of our tormentors fell and grew bored. The passports were handed back, the tickets too, and they stopped beating Lesin over the head with a truncheon.
“Sorry for the trouble,” the chief thug snapped a salute. “Do come again!”
___
Olga Lukas. Gorky and Kids. Post from 20.02.06")
What I have that is eligible for Awards, 2026 edition https://www.katherinevillyard.com/2026/01/02/what-i-have-that-is-eligible-for-awards-2026-edition/ #fantasy #bookstodon @bookstodon
The King Must Die by Kemi Ashing-Giwa
Fen is the worst sort of hostage: one who has outlived her usefulness to the state.
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
I’ve enjoyed reading others’ lists of favorite books read in 2025. Here’s my offering. I started out planning to limit the list to ten books, but I just couldn’t do it. So there are 15 — well, really there are 16, but two of them are volumes one and two of a six-volume novel. I’ve listed the books by month — you can find my notes about them on my blog at https://johnrakestraw.com/reading/.
@bookstodon #bookstodon #reading
I've finished: Vigilance by Robert Jackson Bennett
This is not what I'm used to from Robert Jackson Bennett,
A hard hitting, near future, techno-thriller, parody of American gun culture.
It is not the funny sort of satire, it is the tragic, tense drama kind.
Published in 2019 it hit's a bit too close to home in 2025.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/08c7b0e6-cf4b-4405-8219-5d51dd7b8095
@bookstodon @audiobooks #ScienceFiction #dystopia #satire #NearFuture #amReading #bookstodon #AudioBooks #robertjacksonbennett
The Inquisitive Biologist looks back at 2025 and picks his five favourite books. Palaeontology, aerobiology, speleology, degrowth, and geomicrobiology top this year's list.
#Books #BookOfTheYear #BookReview #Bookstodon #Scicomm #Paleontology #Palaeontology #Aerobiology #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #HistSci #Speleology #Caves #Lechuguilla #Economics #Degrowth #Microbiology #Geology #Geomicrobiology #EdgarAllanPoe #EAPoe #Biography #Literature #Goth #Gothic #Horror #ScienceConvention #ScienceFair @markwitton @princetonupress @princetonnature @Carl_Zimmer @timparrique @TetZoo @bookstodon
I mentioned yesterday my discovery of Henrik Karlsson (thanks again, Sacha). I've been reading through a few of his essays. There's richness there. But here's a different sort of treasure: "In Denmark you can open all public libraries with your social security card, so although it was closed, I walked in. The stacks lit up." What? What kind of world is this? Books for reading openly exposed like that? Who wants to live in a world like that? (Well, count me in!)
Hi @bookstodon
. Don't forget that the Smashwords End Of Year sale is nearly over. If you're not sure where to start, why not check your favorite Mastodon / Fediverse writers and the #EoYSale25 tag?
In the mood for android heat? @rubyjones has the stories for you!
Dark epic fantasy more your interest? @etaski 's
Sister Seekers has got you covered.
@JessMahler has a mix of fiction and non-fiction including a non-fiction series on Polyamory On Purpose.
@saxbrightwell "has been writing self-indulgent smut about men who are ride-or-die for each other since 2014." Check out their Secrets of Sleipnir free through tomorrow.
There's much more on the tags!
This post doubles as my #WordWeavers response today. 
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. By Ken Kesey.
You’re a half-Native guy in a mental hospital (it’s the 1950s) for 20 years, when a complete asshole conman white dude shows up thinking he can control everything; since he has little regard for his own life or that of others he succeeds in the way a wrecking ball succeeds in its task.
2 of 5 library cats 🐈 🐈
CW: hate speech, racism, misogyny, cultural appropriation
Last year, 23 of my 100 books were nonfiction. This year, I'm only aiming for 78, with 16 nonfiction. So far, I've chosen 14 of them. The one at top left of the screenshot I don't yet have. It's of a type I almost NEVER buy - a book printed ON PAPER, so I'll be buying it with my next pay. I just LOVE the title, it amuses me to see my grandfather's birthplace thus described.
#Reading #nonfiction #bookstodon
@bookstodon
What were your favourite reads for the year? I finished 69 books in 2025, and these are 4 of my faves: Ursula Le Guin's trippy, wonderful homage to her friend Philip K. Dick; the grimy, nasty vampire story that set the template for the zombie movie genre; the hilariously fun heists of the early 20th century gentleman burglar Arsène Lupin; and Adrian Tchaikovsky's millennia-spanning story of humans - and spiders! - in space. #Bookstodon @bookstodon #BooksOfTheYear
My favorite books published in 2025:
Gliff - Ali Smith
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This - Omar El Akkad
Audition - Pip Adam
Dusk - Robbie Arnott
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng - Kylie Lee Baker
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter - Stephen Graham Jones
Sour Cherry - Natalia Theodoridou
The Hymn to Dionysus - Natasha Pulley
Eternal Summer - Franziska Gansler (tr. Imogen Taylor)
The Silver Book - Olivia Laing
We Pretty Pieces of Flesh - Colwill Brown
Woodworking - Emily St. James
Edited 318d ago
2025 in #books, a thread, inspired by (but not limited to) https://shereads.com/traci-thomas-best-books-of-2025/ :
Two books I loved, part 1:
Gliff - Ali Smith
A fable about survival in a totalitarian surveillance state. A reflection on childhood, siblinghood, and the cost and worth of kindness. A dance with language and memory. I was torn between the impulse to read it all in one sitting and the urge to savor every single sentence.
Have people made their reading lists for the #TransRightsReadathon ? I'm such a mood reader I'm just collecting ideas, but I'm thinking about Womens Hotel by Daniel Lavery and maybe something by Sarah Gailey.
Five stars:
The Bush Tea Murder by Ashley-Ruth Bernier with Chanté McCormick (Narrator) (2026) is the start of the Caribbean Island mystery series. Naomi Sinclair is a culinary journalist back home on Saint Thomas Island, part of the U.S. Virgin Islands, to make a pilot episode for a new true crime cable show with a culinary twist.
https://pussreboots.com/blog/2026/comments_05/bush_tea_murder.html
#bookstodon #mystery #audiobook
@bookstodon
finished reading Before the Coffee Gets Cold 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑
by Toshikazu Kawaguchi.
In a particular seat in an otherwise unremarkable cafe, it is possible to travel through time. Despite stringent limitations, the customers and workers nonetheless find solace from the travails of life. Its a pleasing enough community of everyday people, but nothing special.
Five stars:
The Lost Library by Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass (2023) is about how a Little Free Library is the spark a town needs to finally rebuild it's library. This being a Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass novel, the path from inciting event to goal is a ponderous one filled with unusual characters and a ton of magical realism.
https://pussreboots.com/blog/2026/comments_01/lost_library.html
Since it's the season, here my #Storygraph collage.#Bookstodon Romance prominent as in my #cDrama and #jDrama too 😍
Five stars:
Death by Java by Alex Erickson and Melissa Moran (Narrator) is the 14th book in the Bookstore Cafe mystery series. Krissy and Paul are visiting her father and stepmother over the summer. Krissy gets caught up in helping a former high school bully get her coffeeshop up to snuff.
https://pussreboots.com/blog/2026/comments_01/death_by_java.html
If you're like me and have multiple editions of a book (say in different languages) and want to shelve them separately on Goodreads, here is how:
But even then I think TV and movies based on books are often better than a lot of other TV or movie writing, so perhaps it's not all bad? 🤔😁
@reading @bookstodon @books @joinin
#ReadingMemes #Meme #Memes #ReadAllTheBooks #Humor #Humour #Funny
#Reading #Readers #ReadersOfMastodon #ReadingCommunity
#Book #Books #Novel #Novels #Fiction
#Bookwyrm #Bookworm #Bookstodon #BookLove
