@callunavulgaris@mastodon.scotGo to the library to pick up my reservation, the latest Ken Follett, and pretty much inevitably come home with a couple more books. Despite The Line of Beauty being "A classic of our time", I've never heard of it, so that will be a gap in my reading knowledge filled. #books #bookstodon
@cellfourteen@social.petertoushkov.eu"The Renowned and Truthful Chronicle of All the World's Events is one of the various rags published each day in Turai."
#Thraxas #bookstodon
@ginevra@hachyderm.ioIn Agent Running in the Field, Le Carré gave himself a variety of characters through which he could vent his anger at Brexit, Trump, oligarchs, the state of the world & its intelligence services: Ed, Florence, Prue.
The main character, as ever, remains more circumspect but has clear sympathy for the other characters' views #Bookstodon #LeCarré #AmReading
@tiotasram@kolektiva.socialJust finished "A Psalm for the Wild-Built" by Becky Chambers. Overall it's good but I also have some Thoughts.
First, it was very pleasant to finally read some non-trite utopian solarpunk after having read stuff like Octavia Butler recently. Both hope and despair can be poisonous on their own IMO, so getting some balance in is nice. It's definitely a very valuable thing to be able to lay out an actually desirable and in many ways imaginable future given our grim present. Chambers is no LeGuin though. I'll probably be reading more of her work and maybe she fleshes out these ideas elsewhere, but at least in this book there is no focus on either how the transition to a better society could happen nor on how the better society holds up in the face of adverse events and inclinations. Compare LeGuin's "The Dispossessed" or N. K. Jemisin's short story "The Ones Who Stay and Fight" and it feels like there's something important missing from Chambers' portrait of a future society. Of course, maybe the point is to make a cozy book, in which case fine, there's certainly a place for such things, and I can look for deeper inspiration elsewhere.
The second big thought I had was that Chambers' worldview seems not well-informed by certain indigenous perspectives, and this creates some contradictions. For example, (minor spoilers) when Dex enters the wilderness there's a whole bit about understanding humankind's place in nature and how human settlements are what we're used to but they're only a brief interruption of the vast untouched wilderness. Along the same lines, much of the world is intentionally left untouched by humans as a way to keep it pristine and natural. Later however, a character makes the point that humans *are* animals. The indigenous perspective that I appreciate would agree with that, and would further question the value in distinguishing between human influence on ecosystems and influences that others have. More sharply, one might observe that there's a bigger difference between how different kinds of humans relate to and influence their environments than between how less-disruptive humans and various animals do the same: the strip-mine-operator vs. migrant tribesperson impact difference is probably much greater than the migrant tribesperson vs. beaver gap, for example. Rather than talking about limiting human disruption, then, as if all human-environment interactions are disruptive and must be minimized, we could/should be talking about how to create human societies that have beneficial relationships with their environments and acknowledging that we actually have many positive examples of that, both historical and contemporary. Chambers' utopia is a "humans dominate nature but restrain themselves so that their disruptions are minimal and thus nature can thrive" vision, but what I'd even more like to see would be a "humans study old ways and make new ones so that they can interact positively with ecosystems again" vision, including some of "here are the places that sometimes breaks down but also the patterns and institutions that ensure repair of those breakdowns and thus long-term sustainability."
Final big thought: Chambers' utopia is too homogenous for my tastes. Of course it's hard enough and valuable work dreaming up and sharing any utopia and Chambers' transcends triteness in a number of ways, so this criticism is a bit rude. But the single shared religion, lack of mention of conflicts around shared decisions, especially historical society-defining ones, and nagging questions like "what about the people indigenous to the now-uninhabited lands?" and "what about the indigenous peoples who weren't part of the factory-building societies?" leave me wishing for more nuance in this direction.
All in all: a good book, and I'm criticizing out of a place of appreciation, not scorn. I've got there sequel out from the library as well and will probably detour to a few other books but get to it pretty soon.
Sadly I don't remember who, but I got this one because of a recommendation on here, so thanks if you're someone who recommended it!
#AmReading #ReadingNow #Bookstodon
@qurlyjoe@mstdn.social“#Consciousness is a labyrinth from which there is no exit.” —Michael Pollan, A World Awakens, A journey into consciousness.
#bookstodon #whatImReadingNow
An exploration of the curren…
@sergiofdezsaez@masto.esRecientemente en epublibre han publicado la saga de Stephen King "La torre oscura" en un solo volumen, con ilustraciones y todo.
Si desaparezco un tiempo por aquí, ya sabéis una de las posibles causas. #mastolibros #mastobooks
@ruth_mottram@fediscience.orgGoing into a 4 day weekend, thank goodness
It's cool and rainy, I'm ready....
#bookstodon
https://hachyderm.io/@selfcare/116568709816837588
@… - Now is a good time to let those shoulders drop.
@emd@cosocial.caThe wonderful Kate Quinn’s latest, The Astral Library (https://www.katequinnauthor.com/books/the-astral-library/) is a different kind of book for her. It’s more treatise than fiction, but worth a read,
@v_i_o_l_a@openbiblio.social"peril at end house" – ein schöner whodunit von agatha christie. im urlaub gefunden, gestern vormittag während einer langen wartezeit die hälfte geschafft, und jetzt endlich festgestellt, dass ich die falsche person im verdacht hatte. :) #2026reads #bookstodon
@ginevra@hachyderm.ioEnjoying the framing of Le Carré's Agent Running in the Field, where it's clear from the beginning that the main character has already confessed his sins to 'the Office'.
I did pause reading once I saw how it might all end in calamity, but I'm glad I picked it back up #Bookstodon #LeCarré #AmReading
@lpryszcz@genomic.socialAddicted to anxiety by Owen O'Kane
"many people are addicted to the process of #anxiety ... because it promises safety, less risk and protection."
#wellbeing #bookstodon
…
@tiotasram@kolektiva.socialJust finished "My Perfectly Imperfect Body" by Debbie Tung, a graphic memoir about dealing with disordered eating as a teenage girl. Similar themes to Hungry Ghost, except without as much of a family factor, and it's more direct. We get to hear the author's perspective as an adult at the end, including some good body-positive messages and thought patterns, even as she acknowledges the struggle necessary to climb out of body despair.
#AmReading #ReadingNow #Bookstodon
@qurlyjoe@mstdn.socialIf you are a logophile or perhaps a lexophile, or if you watch British TV, you know the name, Susie Dent. She’s got a new book, a mystery, called Guilty by Definition. TBH I’m not a fan of mysteries, but I am a fan of her, so I picked this up when I saw it. 1 chapter in and I’m hooked. Editors at an Oxford dictionary get a letter that references the year the senior editor’s sister disappeared. #bookstodon
@mela@zusammenkunft.netWonach ich suchte: einem Ersatz für die App, mit der ich E-Books von meinem Calibre-Web-Server auf meine mobilen Geräte synchronisierte.
Was ich jetzt möglicherweise habe (weitere Tests ausstehend): ein komplettes E-Book-Audiobook-Ökosystem, mit Synchronisierung des Lesestatus über alle Geräte.
Fast wie zu Amazon-Zeiten, aber OpenSource.
Oder in anderen Worten: Well, that escalated quickly.
@mgorny@social.treehouse.systemsI've finished reading Simon Winder's "#Germania" a while ago, but I've been slacking with the review. This is a book about the history of #Germany, in the wide meaning of word. However, it's not your boring detailed history book. The author takes us on a deeply personal journey across German landscape, across tiny towns and great forests, Schlosses, churches and monuments, and uses that as a context to bring the country's surprisingly interesting history to light. And honestly, it works — it is deeply enjoyable, to the point of making me wonder if one day I should actually move to Germany, get a Bahncard 100 and start exploring myself.
I didn't quote the book here, but if I were to choose one quote that really resonated with me, it would be:
"""
Solitary tourism is something that everybody should indulge in. Of course it is a fraudulent solitude because its enjoyment comes from its limited duration and having a cheerful, only very temporarily abandoned main base area. […] And then, suddenly, I am in Vienna, standing in the shadow of a monstrous, derelict flak tower, and completely alone. The virtue of solitary tourism is its infinite ability to absorb boredom. I often find myself almost crippled with anxiety that the companion or companions on a journey might be finding everything wholly without interest, would rather be eating somewhere else, are secretly angry that we have wound up walking down this street rather than that, are contemptuous of my own interests. Solitary tourism cauterizes all this: if a museum is boring beyond all measure there is no pressure to feign interest, you just leave. I am perfectly happy, in a zoned-out way, to crisscross a town, walking for hours, just for the off-chance something curious might be round the next corner – indeed in the confidence that there will always be something curious (there always is). But for each street, each bar, each folklore museum to be converted into an inter-human negotiation creates an entirely different dynamic.
[…]
Quite possibly the pleasure of this way of life would be much reduced in some other countries, particularly more insistently gregarious places such as Italy. German culture puts a high value on temporary solitude of a stagey kind. Perhaps this is its great gift. In some moods I think there is no need to do anything other than read German writers from the first half of the nineteenth century – a sort of inexhaustible storehouse of attitudes flattering to those who just like sometimes to be left alone. Everyone must have at least a part of them that wants to live in a stairless, doorless tower as a sort of intellectual Rapunzel, setting aside, at least in part, the complicated sexual frisson laid out by such an idea. Germany really is thick with ivy-covered turrets and the promise of solitude (Kepler staring at the planets above Prague, Faust conjuring demons) – the great majority presumably built in the nineteenth century in response to the whole literature devoted to the subject. There is one turret in Lübeck, built onto a city guard tower of just outrageous fakeness, which would do me for life.
"""
(Simon Winder, Germania)
And if you follow me, you have evidence that the part about crisscrossing towns is so true: the best things I've posted here I found by complete accident, especially the murals.
#books #bookstodon
@tiotasram@kolektiva.socialJust finished "Fustuk" by Robert Mgrdich Apelian. Without exaggeration, it is a true masterpiece, an absolutely stunning graphic novel about food, family, and magical contracts that reminds me of both Witch Hat Atelier and Young Bride's Stories. The truly impressive part is that Apelian is every bit as good an illustrator and storyteller as both Kamome Shirahama and Kaoru Mori.
In the author's note, Apelian says "So I asked to make the story I always craved growing up: a tale of Middle Eastern joy and magic that speaks to diasporic culture and how those of us within it relate to our two worlds." He succeeded at that goal abundantly, as far as I can tell, and has produced a truly impressive work.
Images are rough pictures of a few example pages showing very cool panel construction, lots of detail, and both dynamic action and expressive faces. I'm not going to spoil anything, but the second image here is one of the most powerful pages I've read in a while and the way it uses gutters demonstrates a beautiful mastery of the comics medium.
#AmReading #ReadingNow #Bookstodon
@ruth_mottram@fediscience.orgJeg er næsten færdig med en kort historie om Italien og det giver stort indtryk om lige præcis hvor imponerende EU er efter tusinde år af mere eller mindre konstant krig i Europa.
Jeg får også lyst til at starte en ny europæisk bogklub til at lære om vores fælles europæisk naboer samt læse nogle gode bŸger jeg ellers ville aldrig har kommer til. Nogen der har lyst til at komme og læse med i hovedstaden?
Eng:
I’ve almost finished a short history of Italy, and it really brings home just how impressive the EU is after a thousand years of more or less constant war in Europe.
I’m now also keen to join/start a European book club to learn about our fellow European neighbours and read some good books I’d otherwise never get round to. Anyone fancy joining me in or around Copenhagen?
#bookstodon #bogstodon #dkæs
@kineticdiplomacy@infosec.exchangeCan someone explain to me, as one might speak to a golden retriever, what the term "Hard Science Fiction" actually means? #bookstodon
@thomasrenkert@hcommons.socialThis is a book recommendation for a good book. I think more people should read it. #bookstodon
@tiotasram@kolektiva.socialJust finished "The First Rule of Punk" by Celia C. Pérez. A great book about adolescent identity, complicated (but benign) parental relationships, punk rock, and zines. A really nice cozy book, with some low-stakes drama and a lot of heart.
#AmReading #ReadingNow #Bookstodon
@kingconsult@berlin.socialIm #2MR-Statement erklärt Cartoonist @… wie er sich die sozialen Medien der Zukunft vorstellt.
Auf der #2MR zeigen wir, was demokratiestärkende #SocialMedia-Netzwerke für #Kultur und #Kreative zu bieten haben und warum der #Creator-Frust bei #Instagram #X #Facebook #TikTok & Co. zunimmt.
Wer ist dabei?
👉 #Cartoon #Art #Comic #Kultur #Bookstodon #Books #CreatorCommunity #Creators #Autor #Zeichnungen #kreativ #Kunst
@tiotasram@kolektiva.socialJust finished "The Bodyguard Unit" written by Clément Xavier, illustrated by Lisa Lugrin, with colors by Albertine Ralenti and translated from French to English by Edward Gauvin. An excellent and fascinating history of Edith Garrud, a Jiu-Jutsu instructor who helped train suffragettes in Britain to fight the police, and who fought alongside them at speeches and political rallies. It also of course has a lot of details of the suffragette movement, many of which I theoretically knew but never actually thought about, and others which I was totally unaware of, especially the degree of violence and the connections to other radical movements of the time.
An excellent graphic novel, both educational and funny.
#AmReading #ReadingNow #Bookstodon
@Yogi77@hessen.socialAusgelesen, das Ende fand ich etwas holprig … #büchernase #lesen #bookstodon #büchergildegutenberg
@tiotasram@kolektiva.socialJust finished "Future Home of the Living God" by Louise Erdrich. It's a beautiful and entrancing novel in many ways, but I couldn't bring myself to like the ending. I think in one of my most recent book posts I complained about a deus ex machina, so it's ironic that in this case as the pages dwindled I was fully prepared to accept and even welcome one, especially with all of the deus-related stuff going on already. I am left profoundly unsure as to whether Erdrich imagines a positive future beyond our current oppressions, or just futility, when for most of the book it seemed like the former, which is something I seek out in earnest these days. It is of course impressive that a book about innocents being hunted through the streets of Minneapolis & Saint Paul, while a volunteer citizens network organizes to keep them safe, could be published in 2017. There are strong echoes of Octavia Butler here, and in both cases I think it's a marginalized position which allows authors to see with clarity that most mainstream authors miss or don't even attempt.
I think I will seek out more of Erdrich's writing, but only after a bit of a break.
#AmReading #ReadingNow #Bookstodon
@tiotasram@kolektiva.socialJust finished "Starfish" by Akemi Dawn Bowman. It was gripping (I basically barely put it down and finished in in a single day) but also feels flawed in some ways.
Things I liked: a protagonist that I really strongly rooted for, and a resolution that landed with a bit of complexity.
Things I'm feeling a way about: complete lack of depth in interrogating heritage, despite that being a huge theme, some tinges of deus ex machina in how the central conflicts are resolved, and a real lack of good messaging around consent.
#AmReading #ReadingNow #Bookstodon
@tiotasram@kolektiva.socialJust finished "Quiet Crossings" by Vivi Partridge. A wonderfully cozy short graphic novel about hanging on and letting go, full of cute mushroom sprites.
#AmReading #ReadingNow #Bookstodon
@tiotasram@kolektiva.socialJust finished "Skating Wilder" written by Brandon Dumais and illustrated by AJ Dungo. It's a really amazing graphic novel history of skateboarding, from the 1960s through to the present. It's got multiple threads from the commercial angle, to the magazines and music, to the individual tricks.
I've never skated myself (never taught myself to balance properly) but I loved Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 as a kid and I still like watching skate videos. I learned a lot of details from this book that I never knew growing up and the way it talks about skating surviving multiple waves of commercialization is inspiring.
#AmReading #ReadingNow #Bookstodon
@kingconsult@berlin.socialRE: #Universität #Köln @…) kommt zur #2MR!
Klasse, wir freuen uns!
Anmeldung für den Termin am 4. Mai in #Hamburg zur #2MR-Konferenz, dem demokratiestärkenden #SocialMedia-Festival:
👉 #Medien #Journalismus #Medienwissenschaft #BigTech #DarkTech #Demokratie #Bücher #Bookstodon #Lesung #DiDay #DutGemacht #WissKomm #Wirtschaft #Marketing
