fiction

1y

Well, this is rather lovely

Thanks to Vishwam Gurudas for alerting me to this - it's not often I share a page with Hilary Mantel and Gore Vidal...

https://fivebooks.com/best-books/historical-fiction-recommended-by-historians/

#writersofMastodon
#Fiction
#HistoricalFiction
#History
I

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1y

I've had this image buzzing in my head for weeks. I'm obviously not a graphic designer, but made a rough draft myself with #LibreOffice Draw.

It's for a #fiction I #amWriting, about a professional troll who lost his job to AI, shortly after helping the Ideology come to power through the use of psychological manipulation. Chaos ensues as the world tumbles toward a near-future #cyberpunk #dystopia.

(P.S. looking for a #graphicdesign pro and a couple beta readers for this project)

Red background with black fish-head silhouettes at the bottom. To the right, a white fish-head with human legs is pulled up by a black hook. The title appears at the top in bold lettering - "ANGLERS"

Edited 1y ago

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180d

Chapter 25 of Princess of Kurg is available to read on #RoyalRoad: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/108234/jigsaw-city

Bevna favors speed over strength in her human form and Nicole soon finds herself outmatched, unable to keep up. The dragon uses magic to move supernaturally fast, but only for short bursts, because she's so badly injured...

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #actionadventure #fiction #fairies #webseries

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1y

📖 **When The Solution Is Worse Than The Initial Problem**

I was advised by a friend to intersperse fiction books in between my reading of non-fiction material. He said that it would help with concentration and removing boredom. Taking his advice to heart, I have started doing exactly as advised. This has led me into a quandary. The latest fiction book that I chose is over one thousand pages of historical fiction. The choice of book came from an online recommendation. I am currently on page two hundred and eighty-eight and it has been a struggle getting this far. Ostensibly a 'palate cleaner' my current choice is boring and can in no way be described as a page turner. The easiest solution would be to stop reading and move on; however, I find that really difficult. I know it is a personal flaw and something that I need to address and change. In the meantime, I will continue to struggle and hope the thousand-page mark comes quickly.

#DNF #Reading #Fiction #Nonfiction #Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon

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280d

📚 The Strength of the Few by: James Islington

The Hierarchy still call me Vis Telimus. Still hail me as Catenicus. They still, as one, believe they know who I am.

But with all that has happened—with what I fear is coming—I am not sure it matters anymore.

I am no longer one. I won the Iudicium, and lost ever...

https://bookblabla.com/book/the-strength-of-the-few

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #fantasy #generalfiction #epicfiction #actionadventure

The Hierarchy still call me Vis Telimus. Still hail me as Catenicus. They still, as one, believe they know who I am.

But with all that has happened—with what I fear is coming—I am not sure it matters anymore.

I am no longer one. I won the Iudicium, and lost everything—and now, impossibly, the ancient device beyond the Labyrinth has replicated me across three separate worlds. A different version of myself in each of Obiteum, Luceum, and Res. Three different bodies, three different lives. I have to hide; fight; play politics. I have to train, trust, lie. I have to kill, heal, prove myself again, and again, and again.

I am loved, and hated, and entirely alone.

Above all, though, I need to find answers before it’s too late. To understand the nature of what has happened to me, and why.

I need to find a way to stop the coming Cataclysm, because if all I have learned is true, I may be the only one who can.

This highly anticipated sequel to The Will of the Many—one of 2023’s most lauded and bestselling fantasy novels—follows Vis as he grapples with a dangerous secret that could unravel history across alternate dimensions.

Book two of the Hierarchy quartet.

OMNE TRIUM PERFECTUM

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180d

Ebook: https://books2read.com/EmergentConsequences

The painter of the universe, known as Life, just wanted to fulfill her reason for being, by creating a universe full of beautiful wonders and living things, but her twin brother, Death, exists solely to destroy her work, leading to an intractable argument about whose work should prevail.

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #fiction #shortstory #life #death #creation #destruction #humor #satire #darkhumor

(Left) The Cover of Emergent Consequences, by Owen Tyme, illustrated by Ryan Johnson.

Life and Death lay asleep in a the grass, the way they lay slightly resembling the yin-yang symbol. The tools of their trades are scattered around them.

Life is a woman with black hair, in a white robe. Behind her are the paint brush and palette she paints the universe with. She's rather short and has rosy cheeks.

Death is a skeleton in a black robe, which appears to be continually disintegrating at the hem line. Behind him lay his scythe and scroll of names.

Between Life and Death is the hourglass that serves as the source of time for the entire universe, an item that's most commonly carried by Death, but which is part of the work of both of them.

The artwork is cartoonish, with some bushes and a tree that has one red piece of fruit dangling from it. The scene is looked upon by the sun, which frowns at everything.

(Right) The background is an image of some green bacteria with the following quote over the top:

"I think I'll call it Ted."

"Ted? You want to name micro-organism Ted? Are you serious?"

"Yes, Ted."

"Alright, I just thought Bob would fit better."

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

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249d

The Master of Contradictions by Morten Høi Jensen review – how Thomas Mann wrote The Magic Mountain

Wed 31 Dec 2025 10.00 CET

In a 1924 letter to André Gide, Thomas Mann said he would soon be sending along a copy of his new novel, The Magic Mountain. “But I assure you that I do not in the least expect you to read it,” he wrote. “It is a highly problematical and ‘German’ work, and of such monstrous dimensions that I know perfectly well it won’t do for the rest of Europe.”

Morten Høi Jensen’s approachable and informative study of The Magic Mountain positions Mann as a writer who was contradictory to his core: an artist who dressed and behaved like a businessman; a homosexual in a conventional marriage with six children; an upstanding burgher obsessed with death and corruption. Very much the kind of man who would send someone a book and tell them not to read it.

Despite the doubts Mann expressed to Gide, The Magic Mountain – a very strange, very long novel – was embraced throughout Europe, and three years later in America, too. Its publisher there ignored the strangeness and proclaimed its “use value … for the practical life of modern man”. While that makes it sound like Jordan Peterson-style cod philosophy, in fact it stands alongside In Search of Lost Time, Ulysses, The Man Without Qualities and To the Lighthouse as one of the summits (apologies) of literary modernism.

The novel describes its youthful protagonist, Hans Castorp, visiting a tuberculosis sanatorium in Davos where his cousin is a patient. Intending to stay a few days, he doesn’t escape for seven years. The novel’s plot mirrored its composition: it was first conceived as a novella, a lighthearted counterpart to the gloomy Death in Venice. But Mann began writing in 1913 and didn’t finish for more than a decade. Between those two points, the first world war radically changed the book’s size, scope and temper because it radically changed the political and moral outlook of its author.

Mann began the war a staunch conservative. Yet by the early 1920s he was making speeches in defence of the maligned Weimar Republic. (In time, and in exile, Mann became the most prominent German opponent of the Third Reich.)

This tumult fed into The Magic Mountain, notably in the characters of Lodovico Settembrini (humanist) and Leo Naphta (rightwing radical), who vie for Castorp’s soul. Their arguments are dazzling – far more so than the political toing and froing Mann engaged in while writing the novel. It isn’t Jensen’s intention, but his dogged account of Mann’s shifting political views supports the theory that a novel can know more than its creator.

Jensen falters occasionally when attempting to correct the record. He says the “oft-repeated claim” that Mann “was an indifferent or cruel parent seems inaccurate”. Yet all he offers in support is a single quote from the autobiography of Thomas’s son Klaus, who was deeply troubled for much of his relatively short life. There is voluminous evidence to the contrary.

Jensen also takes issue with the “callousness” of Ronald Hayman’s assertion, in his 1995 biography, that Mann “liked and admired” his wife but wasn’t in love with her. Hayman supports his claim by quoting from a letter Thomas wrote to his brother on the matter. It’s permissible to takeissue with Hayman’s conclusion, but Jensen’s protest – “How could he possibly know?” – seems disingenuous coming from a writer engaged in the same process of interpretative analysis. Especially in the case of a judgment about Mann (“gay most of the time”, in Colm Tóibín’s description) that is so uncontroversial.

Whatever the truth may be, it doesn’t make The Magic Mountain any less captivating an exploration of the human condition, or less of a literary achievement. Jensen doesn’t penetrate deeply into the mysteries of the book, but he doesn’t aim to do so. Rather, he gives a brisk, confident overview of an extremely dense work of art – no small achievement – and contextualises the era in which it was forged. In his foreword to the novel Mann wrote that “only thoroughness can be truly entertaining”, but summary has its pleasures too.

the-master-of-contradictions-by-morten-hi-jensen-review-how-thomas-mann-wrote-the-magic-mountain

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128d

Chapter 47 of Princess of Kurg is available to read on #RoyalRoad: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/108234/jigsaw-city

Queen Lulu Stargazer Candleflash sees Jigsaw City approaching her world and isn't happy, because vistors from the stars are trouble...

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #actionadventure #fiction #fairies #webseries

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333d

📚 Lucky Day by: Chuck Tingle

“An existential masterwork that, like life, is equal parts atrocity and delights."—Olivie Blake, New York Times bestselling author of Masters of Death

Lucky Day is the instant USA Today and Indie bestseller from Chuck Tingle, where one woman must go up against horrifying odds to save the world.

Four years ago, an u...

https://bookblabla.com/book/lucky-day

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #lgbtq #bisexualfiction #horror

“An existential masterwork that, like life, is equal parts atrocity and delights."—Olivie Blake, New York Times bestselling author of Masters of Death

Lucky Day is the instant USA Today and Indie bestseller from Chuck Tingle, where one woman must go up against horrifying odds to save the world.

Four years ago, an unthinkable disaster occurred. In what was later known as the Low-Probability Event, eight million people were killed in a single day, each of them dying in improbable, bizarre ways: strangled by balloon ropes, torn apart by exploding manhole covers, attacked by a chimpanzee wielding a typewriter. A day of freak accidents that proved anything is possible, no matter the odds. Luck is real now, and it's not always good.

Vera, a former statistics and probability professor, lost everything that day, and she still struggles to make sense of the unbelievable catastrophe. To her, the LPE proved that the God of Order is dead and nothing matters anymore.

When Special Agent Layne shows up on Vera’s doorstep, she learns he's investigating a suspiciously—and statistically impossibly—lucky casino. He needs her help to prove the casino’s success is connected to the deaths of millions, and it's Vera's last chance to make sense of a world that doesn’t.

Because what's happening in Vegas isn't staying there, and she's the only thing that stands between the world and another deadly improbability.

Also by Chuck Tingle:
Bury Your Gays
Camp Damascus
Stra

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333d

📚 People We Meet on Vacation by: Emily Henry

Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share ho...

https://bookblabla.com/book/people-we-meet-on-vacation

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #romance #womenfiction #contemporary

Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.

Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven't spoken since.

Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.

Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2021 by Newsweek, Oprah Magazine, The Skimm, Marie Claire, Parade, The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, PopSugar, BookPage, BookBub, Betches, SheReads, Good Housekeeping, BuzzFeed, Business Insider, Real Simple, Frolic, and more!

From the #1 New York Times bestselling a

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17d

Ebook (New Release): https://books2read.com/RowleysRide

The space pirate, Captain Edwina “Roaring” Rowley wakes in the vacuum of space, in orbit of the old harvest moon, Cakana, despite the fact her body is literally frozen stiff. She’s utterly confused by the fact Nuva, the goddess of death, didn’t come for her soul.

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

$The cover of Rowley's Ride, by Owen Tyme. The central image is a ghostly electric guitar composed mostly of blue and white light, with a metal plate covering a fair bit of the main body. The guitar has a bright and shiny aura, almost like electricity, though the non-metallic portions are transparent. The background is a fractal arrangement of stained-glass panels., in various shades of red.$

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279d

📚 The Illustrated Man by: Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury brings wonders alive. For this peerless American storyteller, the most bewitching force in the universe is human nature. In these eighteen startling tales unfolding across a canvas of tattooed skin, living cities take their vengeance, technology awakens the most primal na...

https://bookblabla.com/book/the-illustrated-man

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #classicsfiction #sciencefiction #generalfiction

Ray Bradbury brings wonders alive. For this peerless American storyteller, the most bewitching force in the universe is human nature. In these eighteen startling tales unfolding across a canvas of tattooed skin, living cities take their vengeance, technology awakens the most primal natural instincts, and dreams are carried aloft in junkyard rockets.

Provocative and powerful, The Illustrated Man is a kaleidoscopic blending of magic, imagination, and truth—as exhilarating as interplanetary travel, as maddening as a walk in a million-year rain, and as comforting as simple, familiar rituals on the last night of the world.

The Illustrated Man, a seminal work in Ray Bradbury’s career, whose extraordinary power and imagination remain undimmed by time’s passage, is available from Simon & Schuster.

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180d

📚 The Kraken Wakes by: John Wyndham

When strange celestial objects crash into the sea, most dismiss them as meteors. But as oceanic attacks escalate and global tensions rise, one journalist and his wife begin to piece together a terrifying truth. As entire coastlines collapse under attack and governments scramble to maintain order...

https://bookblabla.com/book/the-kraken-wakes

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #sciencefiction #apocalypticpostapocalyptic

When strange celestial objects crash into the sea, most dismiss them as meteors. But as oceanic attacks escalate and global tensions rise, one journalist and his wife begin to piece together a terrifying truth. As entire coastlines collapse under attack and governments scramble to maintain order, the couple's investigation reveals a chilling enemy that defies comprehension. In a world unprepared for such a threat, survival may depend not on firepower, but on understanding an alien intelligence that has no interest in negotiation.

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1y

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

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1y

"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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86d

It's #PrideMonth, which means that all my books are free this month!
They're free every other month, too, but now they're super extra doubly free ;)
Enjoy some queer fiction by a queer author today!

If you're in the mood for a Solarpunk western, try Echoes Through the Mountains.

"Cut off from civilization by landslides, Moffat County isn't exactly a beacon of thriving futurity. There's no Internet, no functioning power grid, and almost no people, following a mass exodus of anyone and everyone with the means to leave. Even the drones don't bother to land in this forgotten little corner of Colorado anymore.

The isolation suits Raine Bartlett just fine; all she wants is to be left alone. Alone with her thoughts, with her books, with her chickens and goats and a mule named Pauly... not to mention her hoard of goods stolen from the massive e-commerce and technology company DataLess, Inc. As the best shot on the Western Slope, if there's anyone left to keep track of such things, Raine has put her skills to good use, knocking down transcontinental shipping drones with her muzzle-loading flintlock and a handful of buckshot so she can steal their contents and run. It's not a hard life, nor is it an honest one, but it gets her through the days, and that's all she needs.

Until one day, while out hunting, Raine is interrupted by something strange: a child named Sparrow. Tiny and androgynous and of indeterminate age, with a dark past they're reluctant to share and the impressively irritating ability to mimic any sound they hear, Sparrow has been walking for 30 miles, more or less, just to get here. They are on a mission: find Radio Echo, the mysterious voice from the sky who broadcasts music 24/7 at 1320 kHz, and help save what's left of the nearby town from an impending DataLess invasion.

And maybe watch a couple movies when they're done. They've never seen one before, but rumor has it that Echo, a solar-powered techno guru hidden away on top of a mountain, owns every movie ever made."

Echoes Through the Mountains is available for free from my website: https://ater.neocities.org/books/mybooks
or at: https://books2read.com/b/bOgDKW

#bookstodon @bookstodon #QueerFiction #solarpunk #fiction

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195d

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

On a world long thought to have no moon, its sudden appearance inspires wonder and terror. Hasty research links the full moon and catastrophe, revealing the existence of the so-called ‘Harbingers of Doom’, creatures from the moon 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

(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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332d

📚 Minor Black Figures by: Brandon Taylor

A newcomer to New York, Wyeth is a Black painter who grew up in the South and is trying to find his place in the contemporary Manhattan art scene. It's challenging. Gallery shows displaying bad art. Pretentious artists jockeying for attention. The gossip and the backstabbing. While his...

https://bookblabla.com/book/minor-black-figures

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #lgbtq #gayfiction #literaryfiction #citylife

A newcomer to New York, Wyeth is a Black painter who grew up in the South and is trying to find his place in the contemporary Manhattan art scene. It's challenging. Gallery shows displaying bad art. Pretentious artists jockeying for attention. The gossip and the backstabbing. While his part-time work for an art restorer is engaging, Wyeth suffers from artist's block with his painting and he is finding it increasingly difficult to spark his creativity.

When he meets Keating, a white former seminarian who left the priesthood, Wyeth begins to reconsider how to observe the world, in the process facing questions about the conflicts between Black and white art, the white gaze on the Black body, and the compromises we make - in art and in life.

As he did so adeptly in Booker finalist Real Life and the bestselling The Late Americans, Brandon Taylor brings to life in Minor Black Figures a fascinating set of characters, this time in the competitive art world, and the lives they lead with each and on their own. Minor Black Figures is an involving and tender portrait of friendship, creativity, and the connections between them.

From the Booker Prize finalist and bestselling author: a perceptive novel about a gay Black painter navigating the worlds of art, desire, and creativity

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279d

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

On a world long thought to have no moon, its sudden appearance inspires wonder and terror. Hasty research links the full moon and catastrophe, revealing the existence of the so-called ‘Harbingers of Doom’, creatures from the moon 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

(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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331d

📚 Home Is Where the Bodies Are by: Jeneva Rose

After their mother passes, three estranged siblings reunite to sort out her estate. Beth, the oldest, never left home. She stayed with her mom, caring for her until the very end. Nicole, the middle child, has been kept at arm’s length due to her ongoing bat...

https://bookblabla.com/book/home-is-where-the-bodies-are

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #thrillers #suspensefiction #familylife #siblingsfiction

After their mother passes, three estranged siblings reunite to sort out her estate. Beth, the oldest, never left home. She stayed with her mom, caring for her until the very end. Nicole, the middle child, has been kept at arm’s length due to her ongoing battle with a serious drug addiction. Michael, the youngest, lives out of state and hasn’t been back to their small Wisconsin town since their father ran out on them seven years before.

While going through their parents’ belongings, the siblings stumble upon a collection of home videos and decide to revisit those happier memories. However, the nostalgia is cut short when one of the VHS tapes reveals a night back in 1999 that none of them have any recollection of. On screen, their father appears covered in blood. What follows is a dead body and a pact between their parents to get rid of it, before the video abruptly ends.

Beth, Nicole, and Michael must now decide whether to leave the past in the past or uncover the dark secret their mother took to her grave.

A New York Times and USA Today bestseller
From #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Marriage and You Shouldn’t Have Come Here comes a chilling family thriller about the (sometimes literal) skeletons in the closet.

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181d

Ebook and paperback: 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

(Left) The cover of Stone Prophet, by Owen Tyme.

At the center is a hexagonal coin with a golden appearance,. That bears a watercolor painting of a woman's face, which drips paint as if it were fresh.

Following the edges of the coin, the background is divided by a spiral of black lines into six images representing vital pieces of the titular stone prophet.

Upper right is an attractive woman with blue eyes and blond hair that's almost white. She stands in place of Memory.

Right is an eye with a blue iris surrounded by blue skin and golden decorations, representing Vision.

Lower right is a hooded woman in darkness, partially illuminated by a purple triangle that magically restrains her. She is Skill.

Lower left is a heart made of and resting in blue sand, with yellow light inside. That shines through cracks, hinting at fragility. This is Emotion.

Left is a gray sphere covered in black zeros and ones. More zeros and ones lay over the top, in blurred white. This is Reason.

Upper Left is a brass statue of justice, wearing a robe and blindfold. She holds a sword and scales. Behind her are the stars of space. This is Heart.

(Right) The same attractive woman from the upper right section of the cover, looking right at the viewer. The following quote frames her face, above and below:

“Does the Leader make the hard choices, or do the hard choices make the Leader?”

“Will she do what must be done, for the good of all?”

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

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356d

First you have to force feed them some propaganda like "the strong should prey on the weak."
And then you can have instant replay of #LordOfTheFlies 🤔😒

@reading @bookstodon @books @humor @humor@lemmy.world @aiop

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

Four panel comic of a classroom with ENGLISH LIT written on a blackboard.

1st: "Morning, class! Today we're going to start our Lord of the Flies unit!"
2nd: Teacher walks out.
3d: *Lock* sound from the door.
4th: Incorrect expectation of mayhem.

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1y

It's a double book launch!

Mandy Hager and I are launching our new books at 6pm on Wednesday 1 October at Unity Books, Wellington - my new poetry collection "Dracula in the Colonies" and her new novel "Revenge and Rabbit Holes"!

Check out the details here: https://www.timjonesbooks.co.nz/2025/09/04/youre-invited-to-a-double-book-launch-on-wednesday-1-october-dracula-in-the-colonies-by-tim-jones-and-revenge-and-rabbit-holes-by-mandy-hager/

I hope you can come along! Many thanks to The Cuba Press for publishing both books, and to Unity Books Wellington for hosting the launch.

Can't make the launch? You can pre-order Dracula in the Colonies here: https://thecubapress.nz/shop/dracula-in-the-colonies/

#books #bookstodon #nzbooks #Aotearoa #fiction #poetry

Invitation to the launch of "Dracula in the Colonies" by Tim Jones and "Revenge and Rabbit Holes" by Mandy Hager, showing the covers of both books. The launch is at Unity Books, 57 Willis St, Wellington, from 6-7.30pm on Wednesday 1 October 2025.

Edited 1y ago

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86d

Chapter 3 of Rowley's Ride is available to read on #RoyalRoad: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/102509/the-book-of-newts

At the age of 22, Rowley works in a mythril refinery, beginning the shift by sharing her plans for a mythril-enhanced guitar with her co-workers.

Unfortunately, Matron Talbot arrives to inspect the operation and sees Rowley's design drawing and the old woman is completely furious...

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📚 The Favorites by: Layne Fargo

She might not have a famous name, funding, or her family’s support, but Katarina Shaw has always known that she was destined to become an Olympic skater. When she meets Heath Rocha, a lonely kid stuck in the foster care system, their instant connection makes them a formidable duo on the ice. Clinging to skating—a...

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She might not have a famous name, funding, or her family’s support, but Katarina Shaw has always known that she was destined to become an Olympic skater. When she meets Heath Rocha, a lonely kid stuck in the foster care system, their instant connection makes them a formidable duo on the ice. Clinging to skating—and each other—to escape their turbulent lives, Kat and Heath go from childhood sweethearts to champion ice dancers, captivating the world with their scorching chemistry, rebellious style, and roller-coaster relationship.

Until a shocking incident at the Olympic Games brings their partnership to a sudden end.

As the ten-year anniversary of their final skate approaches, an unauthorized documentary reignites the public obsession with Shaw and Rocha, claiming to uncover the “real story” through interviews with their closest friends and fiercest rivals. Kat wants nothing to do with the documentary, but she can’t stand the thought of someone else defining her legacy. So, after a decade of silence, she’s telling her story: from the childhood tragedies that created her all-consuming bond with Heath to the clash of desires that tore them apart. Sensational rumors have haunted their every step for years, but the truth may be even more shocking than the headlines.

To the world, they were a scandal. To each other, an obsession.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An epic love story set in the sparkling, savage sphere of elite figure skating, starring a woman determi

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