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Search results for tag #reading

[?]Waywords Studio » 🌐
@WaywordsStudio@mastodon.social

𝑳𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒓𝒚 𝑵𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒔 𝑬𝒑𝒊𝒔𝒐𝒅𝒆: 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝑮𝒆𝒕 𝑾𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒈: 𝑴𝒂𝒊𝒍𝒃𝒂𝒈𝒔, 𝑰𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒊𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏, & 𝑰𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 -

Is our intellectual exercise just an expensive lifestyle brand that keeps our hands clean? In this raw, self-interrogating mailbag episode, we turn the lens inward for a vulnerability audit of our own political battles and pedagogical failures.

waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/wa

    [?]Philosophics » 🌐
    @microglyphics@mastodon.social

    I need to find time to write a discursive diagnostic piece on the nonsense that is psychology, especially psychoanalysis.

    👉 philosophics.blog/2026/05/22/f

    Reading Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks – excellent, by the way – I suggest skipping Chapter 4. It's not bad in itself, but…. I'll keep reading.

      [?]My Life As A Mom » 🌐
      @mylifehobbiesasamom.com@mylifehobbiesasamom.com

      The Late Night Read (Whispers at Midnight)

      This entire website contains affiliate links and will be compensated by making sure that My Life As A Mom stay-up-to-date when you make a purchase after clicking on my links. Hey Friends, Whispers at Midnight is a strong example of early-2000s romantic suspense: fast-paced, atmospheric, sexy, and highly readable. If you enjoy stories where romance and danger are tightly intertwined, it delivers exactly what it promises. What works well The biggest strength is the chemistry between Carly […] [SENSITIVE CONTENT]

      This entire website contains affiliate links and will be compensated by making sure that My Life As A Mom stay-up-to-date when you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

      Hey Friends,

      Whispers at Midnight is a strong example of early-2000s romantic suspense: fast-paced, atmospheric, sexy, and highly readable. If you enjoy stories where romance and danger are tightly intertwined, it delivers exactly what it promises.

      What works well

      The biggest strength is the chemistry between Carly and Matt. Carly’s return to her hometown after a humiliating divorce gives the story emotional momentum right away. She’s not written as helpless or naïve; she’s angry, embarrassed, determined to reinvent herself, and sometimes impulsive in believable ways. Matt, meanwhile, fits the classic “reformed bad boy” archetype without becoming too polished. Their shared history gives the romance emotional weight from the beginning.

      The suspense plot is also effective. The discovery of a corpse on Carly’s property quickly shifts the story from small-town reunion to genuine danger. Karen Robards keeps the tension moving with break-ins, threats, and escalating fear, while maintaining the romantic thread throughout. The pacing rarely drags.

      The Southern small-town setting is another highlight. Benton feels lived-in: full of gossip, history, expectations, and people who remember exactly who you used to be. That atmosphere supports both the romance and the suspense.

      Potential drawbacks

      Readers who prefer subtle romance may find the book overly sensual or melodramatic at times. The emotional intensity is very much in line with mainstream romantic suspense of its era: attraction is immediate, emotions run hot, and some scenes lean heavily into heightened drama.

      The mystery itself is entertaining, though not especially complex compared to modern crime thrillers. The focus remains firmly on the romantic relationship and the feeling of danger rather than intricate detective work.

      Some readers may also find certain gender dynamics a little dated by contemporary standards, particularly in how possessiveness and protection are framed romantically.

      Overall

      If you like:

      • small-town romantic suspense,
      • second-chance attraction,
      • protective heroes,
      • emotionally charged romance,
      • and accessible mystery plots,

      Then Whispers at Midnight is likely to work very well for you.

      It’s not literary fiction or a twist-heavy thriller, but it’s an engaging, entertaining page-turner with strong chemistry and steady suspense — exactly the kind of book many readers pick up for escapist reading.

      If you’ve read Whispers at Midnight, what did you think?

      Happy Reading 💕

      The Late Night Read (Whispers at Midnight)

      Alt...The Late Night Read (Whispers at Midnight)

      [?]International Dating: Cozy Cultures » 🌐
      @internationaldatingcozycultures.com@internationaldatingcozycultures.com

      Ah Memories. Old Story but Fun One.

      Morgan: I believe I was in elementary school sitting at my desk and I thought I needed to read long books to act like an adult (Truly sound logic) so the first long book that I read from start to finish of my own volition (though admittedly I did want to stop a few times) was R.L. Stines "The Barking Ghost" and while it is not one of my favorite stories it DID start my insatiable desire to read books. After that I devoured books and was completing Accelerated Reader tests at an exemplary […] [SENSITIVE CONTENT]

      Morgan: I believe I was in elementary school sitting at my desk and I thought I needed to read long books to act like an adult (Truly sound logic) so the first long book that I read from start to finish of my own volition (though admittedly I did want to stop a few times) was R.L. Stines “The Barking Ghost” and while it is not one of my favorite stories it DID start my insatiable desire to read books. After that I devoured books and was completing Accelerated Reader tests at an exemplary rate. Good times. Even to this day I am tracking down all those books I read so long ago and adding them to our personal collection. Two of note are “Stone Soup” by Ann McGovern with illustrations by Winslow Pinney Pels and Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie. Though not just any copy on the latter. I am looking for a specific version from my childhood I so foolishly let get away. I remember it because it had the most beautiful illustrations in it. Truly a work of art. When I find it, this time I will take better care of it. I am eager to show my beloved when I find it. But those are only the tip of all the books I am currently tracking down. It is fun hunting for them and giving them a proper home with the respect they deserve. My beloved has been the only person I ever wanted to share my love of books with. I love showing her the ever-increasing number of books and proclaiming, “Our collection is growing!” I wouldn’t trade that pleasure for anything in the world. I will give her a library that rivals the one in Beauty and the Beast.

      [?]Jon 🇨🇦🇵🇹 » 🌐
      @SamuraiSakura@mastodon.bsd.cafe

      Thought I would start a new book to read. It was recommended to me by a friend who is mid through the series. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_

        [?]Underground Bookshelf » 🌐
        @undergroundbookshelf@mastodon.social

        This week on Underground Bookshelf:

        Resource: Fiction Books About ICE, Deportation, and Undocumented Immigration
        Free Story: "The Nightmare" (Chapter 8)

        Kids' Corner
        Read-along: Women Who Broke the Rules: Sonia Sotomayor (Chapter 2)
        Books for Children that Center Homelessness
        YA Books About ICE, Deportation and Immigration in the United States

        underground-bookshelf.com/

          Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈 boosted

          [?]Nick East (Indie Writer) » 🌐
          @NickEast_IndieWriter@mastodon.art

          Reading is an act of rebellion whether it's legal or not 😁

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




          Drawn image of a woman carrying a stack of books with '1984' falling of the top. Caption: READ! While it is still legal.

          Alt...Drawn image of a woman carrying a stack of books with '1984' falling of the top. Caption: READ! While it is still legal.

            [?]Bradley Bravard » 🌐
            @bradleybravard@mastodon.social

            "We live in times of terrible confusion. We do not know that which is necessary to know, and we know that which we should ignore."

            -Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

            Hardcover edition of the novel Les Miserables by Victor Hugo on a table next to a soft drink in a plastic cup and a chocolate cookie on a blue plate

            Alt...Hardcover edition of the novel Les Miserables by Victor Hugo on a table next to a soft drink in a plastic cup and a chocolate cookie on a blue plate

              [?]TelinArtho » 🌐
              @telinartho.wordpress.com@telinartho.wordpress.com

              Options, Diminishing

              This week, after several weeks of disturbing and difficult weeks, I saw a brand-new call to boycott another option for getting books out to readers. Calling for a boycott on Amazon is nothing new, but this latest call was to boycott Barnes & Noble. I read the article in question and I'm left wondering if all of the places that are out there are boycotted, what exactly is left? There's also the mess-that-is the Granta-Commonwealth Short Story Prize-AI controversy. Offering no comment about […] [SENSITIVE CONTENT]

              This week, after several weeks of disturbing and difficult weeks, I saw a brand-new call to boycott another option for getting books out to readers. Calling for a boycott on Amazon is nothing new, but this latest call was to boycott Barnes & Noble. I read the article in question and I’m left wondering if all of the places that are out there are boycotted, what exactly is left?

              There’s also the mess-that-is the Granta-Commonwealth Short Story Prize-AI controversy. Offering no comment about the story in question (I have read it), it is abhorrent to me that Granta sent the questioned story into an LLM to check whether it was likely written by an LLM. What gives Granta the right to do that? Shouldn’t the Commonwealth Short Story Prize organizers be stepping up and saying “Hey – you can’t do that!”?

              It makes me wonder if other publishers, contests are using them behind the scenes – these perverse devices developed off the backs of artists and authors to determine whether people are using these perverse devices to write their own stories. It makes me want to pull back, stop submitting my stories, stop sending things out, until the LLMs get some modicum of control – hopefully in the form of real regulation, real penalty to those who stole so much.

              But if I pull back from submitting my stories. If I pull back my books from Amazon, from Barnes and Noble, from Draft2Digital for a stupid new policy, from anything I have second doubts against, where does that leave me?

              Being an author has always been difficult for me, but it seems to get worse each day. It makes me sad.

              Rebel, by Refusal

              So I’m not pulling my stories back. You can still get my books from Amazon, from Barnes & Noble, and I’m still using Draft2Digital, despite my misgivings about each and every one of them. I haven’t found a fool-proof solution to any of them, but I know if I am gone from all three of those, my options diminish too much. Support me in what ways you choose – I will always be happy to have customers through my Ko-fi, or in person at Craft Fairs, or in person on the street if that’s where you find me (and while it might be a little creepy you found me, I’ll probably get over it). But if those options aren’t there, please do get my book where you can.

              I will also continue to submit my stories to the vast majority of publishers out there who have openly renounced the LLM fad, and keep a watchful eye on the ones that are silent about it. This is the rebellion I can do.

              Want me to Read to You?

              I have a few of my stories on YouTube – selections from Breakfast & Other Journeys We Take, from Anthropods, and some others too. Recently, I read the draft of “The Notebook” – one of the stories I wrote this year. I’ve also done some readings of public domain work by Fritz Leiber, and more. So check them out.

              Links and Books

              • Out of the Dark – debut novel, portal horror – one sibling taken, the other spends their life searching.
              • Anthropods – 19 weird literary fiction with narrators and main characters that are not human
              • Breakfast & Other Journeys We Take – 9 contemporary realism short stories about real or realistic places.
              • Wraith and Specter – science fiction short story about a space-faring earth facing its first extra-solar phenomenon
              • Escape and Transform – low fantasy short story about a family trying to escape war, and have to make a choice between living and surviving.

              Other links? Oh I have those too!

              Options, Diminishing

              Alt...Options, Diminishing

              [?]Readit Club » 🌐
              @readit@mastodon.social

              May 22 is International Sherlock Holmes Day — the birthday of Arthur Conan Doyle, the man who created the world’s most famous detective.

              Holmes was inspired by Dr. Joseph Bell, a real physician who could read a patient’s profession, habits, and character from tiny details: a walk, an accent, worn sleeves, mud on shoes.

              Doyle later tried to kill Holmes at Reichenbach Falls… but readers refused to let him go.

              @bookstodon

              Arthur Conan Doyle

              Alt...Arthur Conan Doyle

                [?]Hussein Al-alak » 🌐
                @husseinalalak@mastodon.social

                Having been named Time magazine’s “Man of the Year”, in 1964, at just 35 years of age, Martin Luther King, Jr. became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

                Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, his Nobel Peace Prize lecture and “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” are among the most revered orations and writings in the English language.

                youtu.be/5r98tT0j1a0?si=IffRlL

                  [?]Get Lost in a Book Reviews » 🌐
                  @virginia-gruver.com@virginia-gruver.com

                  Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

                  I remember when this book first came out. All the BookTubers were talking about how wonderful it was. I didn’t get it. It was about an octopus. So, I put off reading it until recently when I noticed Sally Field was going to be in an adaptation on Netflix. I love Sally Fields. That was all it took for me to read it.

                  If you are late for the party like me, Remarkably Bright Creatures is a story about an Octopus named Marcellus. It’s also about Tova, an older woman who cleans the aquarium where Marcellus lives. It is also about Cameron, a young man who struggles to keep a job.

                  The story starts by introducing us to Marcellus and then Tova. She likes Marcellus and talks to him. Marcellus likes her because she talks to him. Marcellus is an escape artist. Tova discovers that he has been escaping from his container at night. He rummages through the garbage eating leftovers from the visitors.

                  One evening while cleaning she discovers that Marcellus has escaped. She feels sorry for him being in captivity, so she doesn’t tell anyone. One night while she is cleaning, she stands on a stool and falls hurting her ankle. She is supposed to take some time to heal but who will keep an eye on Marcellus?

                  The local grocer, Ethan, also an older man who has a crush on Tova, meets Cameron when he comes to town and needs a friend. Cameron has no job or money, and his van breaks down. Ethan puts a good word in for Cameron with the director of the aquarium. Cameron is hired to cut up fish for the sea life. He also takes over cleaning for Tova until she can come back to work.

                  Cameron is looking for his father. Tova is grieving the death of her son. Ethan loves Tova but is afraid to say so. Marcellus wants to go home.

                  Their stories merge as we learn that Marcellus doesn’t have much time left.

                  It is a beautiful story about found family and truths that are hidden. It is also about how precious all life is.

                  It will warm your heart, make you laugh, and make you cry a little. I loved this story. It has quickly become my favorite book so far this year. If you are looking for something that is uplifting and touches you in a good way, you need to read this book.

                  Don’t be dumb like me and assume that it’s just some dumb story about an octopus. It is so much more.

                  First published May 3, 2022

                  I include links to purchase. As an associate, I earn from qualified purchases.

                  Remarkably Bright Creatures is Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel.

                  What I am currently reading:

                  The Dead Room by Catriona McPherson – A NetGalley Book

                  Agony Hill by Sarah Stewart Taylor – A Book Club book for May

                  Upcoming Reviews:

                  Dark is when the Devil Comes by Daisy Pearce – A NetGalley Book

                  Two Bodies are Better than One by Erica Ruth Neubauer – I met this author recently at an author event at a local indie bookstore.

                  If you like bargains – check out my Pango Bookshop where I sell books I loved but can’t possibly keep forever. Click this link to check it out. https://pangobooks.com/bookstore/virginia468417

                  Rate this:

                    [?]Stephen Cox Author » 🌐
                    @stephenwhq@mastodon.social

                    The sequel to The Crooked Medium's Guide to Murder is being edited. What questions would you want answered about the two books or if you read the first, what questions about the second?

                    I may reply here or later at more length in my free newsletter and blog

                    stephens-newsletter-69af79.beehiiv.com

                    Gustav Dore's black and white engraving - very famous - of St Pauls looming over the cramped higgledy-piggledy slums of London. A man walks over a frail bridge between two sides of the road. It's clearly used in scenes in the 40s black and white film of Oliver Twist. Really atmospheric

                    Alt...Gustav Dore's black and white engraving - very famous - of St Pauls looming over the cramped higgledy-piggledy slums of London. A man walks over a frail bridge between two sides of the road. It's clearly used in scenes in the 40s black and white film of Oliver Twist. Really atmospheric

                      If the oceans die, we die.... boosted

                      [?]Brandon Anthony Bedard » 🌐
                      @bedardbrandon928@mastodon.social

                      We’re being conditioned to surrender to automated authority. It’s time to break the cycle and demand structural accountability.

                      Read my latest on reclaiming human agency:

                      open.substack.com/pub/brandonb

                      Images & text assisted by AI.

                        [?]GeorgeLThomas » 🌐
                        @GeorgeLThomas@mastodon.world

                        Book Review: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

                        georgelthomas.com/2026/05/22/b

                          2 ★ 5 ↺
                          Literbook boosted

                          [?]firekeeper [he/him] » 🌐
                          @firekeeper@b0nfire.xyz

                          We're reading y'all.

                          I like Logen, Luther, West, Glotka certainly, and I love Frost, bro is just employed, does his job, lol. Dogman's my dude, all the characters rule.

                          Witty, funny, dramatic, tense, even, dare I say... hot?

                          I'm halfway through, started Act 2 but I digest media slowly. I might skip back to Foundation 3 before finishing TFL trilogy.


                          Joe Abercrombie - "Before They Are Hanged"

                          Alt...Joe Abercrombie - "Before They Are Hanged"

                            [?]Åsa Magnusson » 🌐
                            @nordpirat@mastodon.social

                            Meet-up with some bookcrossing friends today. One of them was visiting from another town and we met for the first time. Today we also had a non-bookcrosser spontaneously joining in with us. Nice encounters and great talk. Sometimes when the world feels ugly meeting other people and connecting this way restore my hope.

                            Three levels of a book shelf, steel frame and wooden shelves, with some books on each shelf.

                            Alt...Three levels of a book shelf, steel frame and wooden shelves, with some books on each shelf.

                            [?]Stephen Cox Author » 🌐
                            @stephenwhq@mastodon.social

                            21 May
                            Making your MC likeable/relatable in 1st chapter

                            Standard operating procedure. Sometimes their lighter or darker side is more to the fore. They have to be interesting and not actively repulsive.

                              [?]mindful-echoes » 🌐
                              @mindful-echoes.com@mindful-echoes.com

                              Bookworm Dispatch: Recent Reads

                              Copyright © [Surabhi Parashar] [2026]. All Rights Reserved. 1 Between coffee cups and bookmarks, I stumbled upon a few notable books. Three books with three different moods: here’s my review. Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi This book is strangely comforting. It transports you to a whimsical world of time travel. The premise revolves around the idea of a magical café in Tokyo, where people can travel back in time, but only until their coffee gets cold. What I liked […] [SENSITIVE CONTENT]

                              Copyright © [Surabhi Parashar] [2026]. All Rights Reserved.

                              1

                              Between coffee cups and bookmarks, I stumbled upon a few notable books.

                              Three books with three different moods: here’s my review.

                              Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

                              • This book is strangely comforting. It transports you to a whimsical world of time travel. The premise revolves around the idea of a magical café in Tokyo, where people can travel back in time, but only until their coffee gets cold.
                              • What I liked most about this book is the non-dramatic quietness. It is adapted from a play, and you can actually imagine the scenes happening on a stage. I finished the book in 3 days, as it consists of only four intertwined stories.
                              • I definitely recommend this book to people who like short stories or are just starting a new habit of reading. The writing is simple yet effective. It is a tiny book that can be a good travel companion, too. I would give it 5/5 stars.

                              Six Days in Bombay by Alka Joshi

                              • Set in 1930’s India, this book follows the life of an Anglo-Indian nurse, Sona, who is assisting a celebrity painter in the hospital. The plot twists suddenly when Mira, the painter, dies under mysterious circumstances, and Sona becomes the prime suspect.
                              • The writing is nostalgic, and the visual detailing of the early 1900s is on point. Alka Joshi’s portrayal of a half-British and half-Indian girl is commendable. The dichotomy of the characters draws you instantly. None of the characters appear how they really are. And as the story unfolds, we learn more about their layered personalities.
                              • I recommend this book to people who like period dramas. Alka Joshi takes you on a world tour of 1930s India and England. What I didn’t like in the book was the long voyage by the story’s protagonist. While I enjoyed reading about all the cities, the story’s grip on the mystery felt like slipping. The ending felt prolonged and then suddenly rushed in the final chapter. I would give it 3/5 stars.

                              Horse by Geraldine Brooks

                              • The book follows the story of a legendary racehorse, Lexington. The thoroughbred horse was at its prime in the 1800s. Geraldine Brooks stitches together different timelines of American history to narrate a compelling tale of a black slave and his exceptional horse.
                              • What stood out to me the most was the emotional bond between the horse and his trainer. The story captures black history meticulously. I felt like I was on a journey starting from Kentucky (1850) to Washington, D.C. (2019) with a stopover in New York (1954). The themes of racism and social injustice are woven naturally into the story without making it sound preachy.
                              • I recommend this book to readers who enjoy historical fiction with emotional depth and strong social themes. Geraldine Brooks paints every scene with remarkable detail while keeping the story quite engaging. The story is not just about horse racing; it covers the topics of art, science, and social realities of different timelines. It is definitely worth reading, and I give it 4/5 stars.

                              These books showcase the literary prowess and exceptional storytelling styles of these authors. Each book teleports you to a different world. I consider these books to be a window of escape from reality. I hope you pick one of these books this weekend and spend some leisurely time with these extraordinary characters 😊.

                              1. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to [Surabhi Parashar] and [mindful-echoes.com] with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

                                Copyright protection for computerized literary works applies automatically when a work is originally authored and fixed.

                                ↩︎

                              Three books titled Morning Rituals, Stories from the Woods, Wilderness & Light stacked on a wooden table with a black coffee cup and saucer beside them.

                              Alt...Three books titled Morning Rituals, Stories from the Woods, Wilderness & Light stacked on a wooden table with a black coffee cup and saucer beside them.

                              Bookworm Dispatch: Recent Reads

                              Alt...Bookworm Dispatch: Recent Reads

                              Bookworm Dispatch: Recent Reads

                              Alt...Bookworm Dispatch: Recent Reads

                              [?]WiseGreyOwl 🌍 🦉 » 🌐
                              @wisegreyowl@mastodonapp.uk

                              What am I reading and do you care?

                              - Not finished the Heythwaite series by Annie Rogers yet... the antics of a Yorkshire town.

                              - All at Sea by Johnathan Whitelaw, cosy crime, quite light as I wanted some easy reading to counter the heavy topics of late.

                              - Time for Ursula by Lorna Foyle, paranormal about Mother Shipton of Knaresborough in North Yorkshire.

                                [?]Bradley Bravard » 🌐
                                @bradleybravard@mastodon.social

                                "I'm sure I'd roll my eyes at the gentrification, but listen, honey, I'm old and I've seen a lot of sh--, and I'm telling you, let's enjoy it while it lasts. Because this isn't Mother May I. You're not always advancing. I know it feels that way right now, but it's fragile. You might look back in 50 years and say, 'That was the last good time.'"

                                -The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

                                Cover of the 2018 novel The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

                                Alt...Cover of the 2018 novel The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

                                  [?]Andrea [they/them (German: sie/ihr)] » 🌐
                                  @siochanta@pagan.plus


                                  Do you know any recent non-fiction pagan publication about the Greek god Apollo?
                                  I started a search online in my favourite book store, but most results were either fiction (for instance by Rick Riordan), or about the various Apollo space programs.

                                  The only book I found about the Greek god is "The Golden God: Apollo" by Doris Gates, but it's from the mid 1980ies and I am looking for a more recent publication.

                                    [?]TKSST • seethis.tv 🌈🪐✨ » 🌐
                                    @tksst@fediscience.org

                                    💁🏻‍♀️ ICYMI: 🤝📚 Aaron visits his family's local and finds James and the Giant Peach missing, along with dozens of others.

                                    He learns about book banning and the principle that people have the right to read widely and form their own opinions. The protects authors' rights to write what they want and readers' rights to read those .

                                    👉 Learn more seethis.tv/post/book-bans-cens

                                    Two puppet children look at a small talking book puppet with googly eyes in a classroom setting next to a tall stack of books.

                                    Alt...Two puppet children look at a small talking book puppet with googly eyes in a classroom setting next to a tall stack of books.

                                      If the oceans die, we die.... boosted

                                      [?]Readit Club » 🌐
                                      @readit@mastodon.social

                                      Happy International Tea Day!

                                      It's always tea time.
                                      Lewis Carroll,
                                      Alice in Wonderland

                                      @bookstodon

                                      TeaDay today

                                      Alt...TeaDay today

                                        [?]ACT OUT TEES » 🌐
                                        @actouttees@mastodon.social

                                        Libraries Are My Happy Place
                                        Act Out Tees ~ www.ActOutTees.com

                                          [?]Blair » 🌐
                                          @EnglishTeacher@pixelfed.social

                                          For this week’s #ThursdayBooksandBeer I’m exploring more of Patrick White, the only Australian winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature (Coetzee became an Australian citizen three years after winning). A Fringe of Leaves was White’s first novel published after he won the Nobel and is inspired by the story of Eliza Fraser, who was shipwrecked at K'gari, off the coast of Queensland, in 1836 and lived with the Butchulla people there. White was inspired as much by Sidney Nolan’s paintings of her as by the actual historical details (which are contested anyway). The beer match is a ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ Giraween native ale from Working Title. “Since settling down to life at sea, lulled by air and motion and the mystical permutations of canvas, there was little to convince the passengers that the days had not been created by men for their own convenience.” #reading #literature #nobelprize #craftbeer

                                            [?]dcozy » 🌐
                                            @dcozy@zirk.us

                                            My review of Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf is up at Conspicuous Consumption.

                                            afterblockhead.blogspot.com/20

                                              [?]Hussein Al-alak » 🌐
                                              @husseinalalak@mastodon.social

                                              It was Nina Simone who once wrote: “It was always Marx, Lenin, and revolution - real girl's talk.” So, who were the women who developed Malcolm X as a leader?

                                              Among them is Japanese American activist Yuri Kochiyama, who died in 2014 but in 1965, Yuri was captured by Life magazine holding Malcolm in the Audubon Theatre.

                                              nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/

                                                [?]North of Somewhere 🇺🇦 » 🌐
                                                @esther@twiukraine.com

                                                From: Trick Mirror, Jia Tolentino

                                                Screenshot from ebook

                                                Alt...Screenshot from ebook

                                                  [?]Chris J. ♿ » 🌐
                                                  @ArtOfficialAge@mastodon.social

                                                  My mental health therapist of 5+ years passed away two weeks ago from cancer. I just found out yesterday.

                                                  My soul wants to read profound philosophy (preferably from a French thinker), but my brain and my nervous system can't handle much of anything right now.

                                                  My therapist read several chapters of "The Missing Link" by Sydney Banks to me years ago. It's short, simple prose, but it packs an emotional punch! I might read the book in her honor.

                                                    [?]ElizabethAmberLove [She/her] » 🌐
                                                    @amberlove@mastodon.social

                                                    Book Review & Breakdown Analysis of Matt Witten's "51%" cyber noir mystery. I ran out of ways to describe how the story punches capitalism and oppression in the face. amberunmasked.com/review-51/

                                                    a grungy background with a large neon sign partially lit "51%" with author's name Matt Witten in glowing letters at the bottom. text in circle with 5 stars: Satisfying and hopeful cyber noir mystery Book Review AmberUnmasked.com

                                                    Alt...a grungy background with a large neon sign partially lit "51%" with author's name Matt Witten in glowing letters at the bottom. text in circle with 5 stars: Satisfying and hopeful cyber noir mystery Book Review AmberUnmasked.com

                                                    Trigger Warnings: gun violence, human trafficking AmberUnmasked.com

                                                    Alt...Trigger Warnings: gun violence, human trafficking AmberUnmasked.com

                                                      [?]Amber Love » 🌐
                                                      @amberunmasked@pixelfed.social

                                                      Book Review & Breakdown Analysis of Matt Witten's "51%" cyber noir mystery. I ran out of ways to describe how the story punches capitalism and oppression in the face. https://www.amberunmasked.com/review-51/ #Books #reading #BookReview #BookSky #NetGalley

                                                      a grungy background with a large neon sign partially lit "51%" with author's name Matt Witten in glowing letters at the bottom. text in circle with 5 stars: Satisfying and hopeful cyber noir mystery Book Review AmberUnmasked.com

                                                      Alt...a grungy background with a large neon sign partially lit "51%" with author's name Matt Witten in glowing letters at the bottom. text in circle with 5 stars: Satisfying and hopeful cyber noir mystery Book Review AmberUnmasked.com

                                                      Trigger Warnings: gun violence, human trafficking AmberUnmasked.com

                                                      Alt...Trigger Warnings: gun violence, human trafficking AmberUnmasked.com

                                                        📅

                                                        [?]Curation Team » 🌐
                                                        @curation_team@calendar.atlantaactivism.org

                                                        Radical Summer Reading Sale @Community Books

                                                        May 22, 2026, 4:00:00 AM UTC - GMT - Community Books, 30083, Stone Mountain, United States [SENSITIVE CONTENT]

                                                        Summer is on the horizon, the perfect time to catch up on your radical reading list! This weekend we offer an additional 20% off our already cheap-as-heck book prices—bringing you the absolute best deals anywhere on our diverse selection of new and used books, from radical social movement history, to political theory, classic literature, speculative fiction, board games, and even some vintage vinyl LPs! This summer, let your beach reading challenge you to see the world through a new lens! 📚🏖

                                                        Banner

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                                                        Attachment: https://community-books.com/

                                                        Location: Community Books

                                                        [?]TKSST • seethis.tv 🌈🪐✨ » 🌐
                                                        @tksst@fediscience.org

                                                        🤝📚 Aaron visits his family's local and finds James and the Giant Peach missing, along with dozens of others.

                                                        He learns about book banning and the principle that people have the right to read widely and form their own opinions. The protects authors' rights to write what they want and readers' rights to read those .

                                                        👉 Learn more seethis.tv/post/book-bans-cens

                                                        Two puppet children look at a small talking book puppet with googly eyes in a classroom setting next to a tall stack of books.

                                                        Alt...Two puppet children look at a small talking book puppet with googly eyes in a classroom setting next to a tall stack of books.

                                                          [?]Paul Semel » 🌐
                                                          @paulsemel@toot.community

                                                          Finished reading Mai Der Vang's "Primordial: Poems."
                                                          amzn.to/4rg7Fe9
                                                          📖🖊️
                                                          This was a rather good but intense read to, uh, read while waiting for brunch.

                                                          Finished reading Mai Der Vang's "Primordial: Poems." This was a rather good but intense read to, uh, read while waiting for brunch.

                                                          Alt...Finished reading Mai Der Vang's "Primordial: Poems." This was a rather good but intense read to, uh, read while waiting for brunch.

                                                            [?]knoppix » 🌐
                                                            @knoppix95@mastodon.social

                                                            Amazon ended network support for Kindle devices released in 2012 or earlier, blocking downloads, purchases, and reactivation after resets 📚
                                                            The shutdown highlights long-term risks of software-tethered hardware, while open-source tools like Calibre remain device-independent alternatives 🔓

                                                            🔗 cnet.com/tech/computing/amazon

                                                              Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈 boosted

                                                              [?]A. Rivera » 🌐
                                                              @bloodravenlib@mas.to

                                                              And speaking of . . .

                                                              > Book About AI’s Effects on the “Future of Truth” Found to Contain Slew of AI-Hallucinated Quotations futurism.com/artificial-intell

                                                                [?]Harry Dehrian » 🌐
                                                                @harrydehrian@mastodon.social

                                                                Book Promotion: First in a series on Unlimited

                                                                A collection of 107 for you. My book is DRM-free.

                                                                @bookstodon

                                                                books.bookfunnel.com/kureads-m

                                                                  [?]David Boles » 🌐
                                                                  @boles@bolesblogs.com

                                                                  Stored Sun: What a Book Actually Is

                                                                  Ask ten readers what a book is and you will get ten metaphors and no definitions. A mirror, they say, or a door, or a passageway with footfalls behind it. The metaphors flatter the reader and obscure the object. None of them tell you what is sitting on your shelf, dark and patient, while you sleep. Here is the answer. A book is stored sun.

                                                                  The metaphor is chemical before it is literary, and the chemistry has to be tracked first. Sunlight strikes a leaf. The leaf converts photons into glucose, glucose into cellulose, cellulose into the trunk of an oak. The oak is felled, pulped, pressed, and dried into paper. Onto the paper a writer presses ink, which is itself a colloidal suspension of carbon, and the carbon was once a forest, and the forest was once sunlight. The page in your hand is a sealed battery of solar energy, harvested over years and stacked into a form that can sit on a shelf for centuries without losing charge. An ebook does the same work on a different substrate, since the electricity behind a screen is also stored sun routed through coal, gas, photovoltaics, or rivers turning turbines. The storage changes form; the storage remains storage.

                                                                  That much is the easy part. The harder part follows. A book stored on a shelf is sun stored in cellulose, though the book itself has not yet happened. The volume on the shelf is fuel waiting for ignition. Reading is the act of combustion. The reader spends attention, and attention is itself a metabolic process powered by glucose, which the reader’s body extracted from food, which was once a plant, which was once sunlight. So reading is the meeting of two solar archives: the one sealed into the page and the one circulating in the reader’s bloodstream. Two captured suns burn against each other for the duration of the reading, and what comes off the reaction is meaning.

                                                                  Now you understand why a closed book on a shelf is silent. It is dark fuel. The performance has not begun. The score sits unplayed. Nelson Goodman argued in Languages of Art that a musical work exists only in performance, and the printed score is a set of instructions for triggering the work. He was right about music and he was right about books, though he did not press the case as far as it goes. A book is a score for a private performance held inside one consciousness at a time. No two performances match. The same reader cannot perform the same book twice in identical fashion. Hamlet at twenty and Hamlet at fifty are different Hamlets, played on different instruments by the same hand, and the score has not changed a syllable.

                                                                  If a book is stored sun, then writing is the act of catching the light before it disperses, and reading is the act of releasing it years or centuries later. This explains the gravity of the encounter. When a reader in 2026 opens the Iliad, the photons that fed the wheat that fed the scribe who first wrote it down were burned in the Bronze Age. The energy that produced the original text has long since dissipated into entropy, and yet the pattern survives, copied across substrates, waiting. The reader’s attention strikes the dormant pattern and the pattern wakes up. Homer is dead. Homer’s sun is still warm.

                                                                  What gives books their particular weight is the one-way structure of the encounter. A writer always precedes a reader, and a reader can never reply. You can receive a message from a Sumerian scribe. That scribe cannot receive your reply, and neither can Cervantes, and neither can your grandmother who left you her annotated copy of Middlemarch. Books let the dead argue. Living writers answer the dead in their own books, and so the long conversation of literature continues, but the original speaker never receives the reply. Joyce answered Homer; Homer never read Joyce. This asymmetry is what turns reading into something heavier than information transfer. It is communion across the only barrier no living person has crossed.

                                                                  The implications should change how writers work. If you are a writer, you are sealing solar energy into a substrate that will wait for readers you will never meet. The act has a longer half-life than your career and a shorter one than the language you write in, and you have no control over when or whether the seal breaks. Most books go unread and the sun stays buried. A few books find readers and burn for centuries. You cannot know in advance which kind you are writing, and the question of whether your work was worth the cellulose is decided after you are dead, by people whose names you will never learn.

                                                                  The implications should also change how readers read. A casual reader treats a book as a consumable. A serious reader treats a book as an inheritance. Every volume on your shelf is a deposit of energy that someone, somewhere, took the trouble to seal in for you, often at great personal cost, often without any expectation of reaching you in particular. To leave such a book unread is to leave the sun buried. To read it badly, distractedly, with half attention, is to burn the fuel without producing heat. The fault is the reader’s, and the loss belongs to the reader, and to the civilization that would have benefited from the reading.

                                                                  A critic could press here. If a book is stored sun, then book burning is the literal release of that sun, and the metaphor has supplied the justification rather than the indictment. The objection collapses on inspection. Reading and burning both release stored solar energy from the substrate; they differ in what becomes of the pattern. Reading transfers the pattern into a living mind, where it can be re-stored, retransmitted, and read again by readers the burner will never meet. Burning converts the pattern into ambient heat that dissipates within hours and recovers nothing. The reader conserves; the burner wastes.

                                                                  Book burning comes in two forms, and the difference matters. When the pattern exists in many copies, burning is theater: the Nazis at Opernplatz on May 10, 1933 burned tens of thousands of books while knowing copies survived in libraries across Europe and the Americas, so the fire was a performance for the watching crowd rather than an act of destruction. When the pattern exists in few copies or only one, burning is murder: Diego de Landa burned a great number of Mayan codices at Maní in 1562, and across all such purges only four pre-Columbian Mayan books are known to have survived anywhere in the world, so most of a written civilization went into smoke that afternoon and never came back. Both kinds of burning confirm the metaphor instead of refuting it. Theater burning recognizes that books carry power dangerous enough to be performed against. Murder burning recognizes that books carry knowledge worth eliminating. Heinrich Heine, whose own work burned at Opernplatz, had written more than a century earlier that where they burn books they will in the end burn people. He was right because the burner already understands what the metaphor proposes. The burner treats books as if they were alive, and the burner is correct that books are alive. About what to do next, the burner is wrong.

                                                                  Return to the metaphors I started with and watch them collapse. A mirror lets the reader off the hook by suggesting the reader is the subject, when the reader is in fact the combustion chamber. Doors imply that the destination preexists the trip, when the destination is manufactured during the reading. The passageway with footfalls comes closest, because reading is haunted, though the metaphor still mistakes the book for architecture when the book is an event.

                                                                  A book is stored sun. It sits on the shelf and waits for a reader willing to spend attention against it. When the reader arrives, the seal breaks, and the light that has been waiting for years or centuries enters a living mind for the duration of the reading. The reader closes the book, the seal reforms, and the light goes back into storage to wait for the next reader. A library is a solar archive. Reading is the only known method of releasing what is stored there. The dead cannot be answered, but they can be read, and reading is the closest thing the species has invented to bringing the dead back into the room.

                                                                  Take care of your books. They are warmer than you think.

                                                                    [?]Michael Shotter » 🌐
                                                                    @michaelshotter@mastodon.social

                                                                    There are many great stores that sell my books. One of my favorites is Bookshop(dot)org, where you can find paperback editions of all of them, or eBooks of collections like "The Nod/Wells Timelines - A Primer" and "The Nod/Wells Timelines - Volume 1."

                                                                    bookshop.org/lists/the-nod-wel

                                                                      [?]Readit Club » 🌐
                                                                      @readit@mastodon.social

                                                                      Honoré de (May 20, 1799 – August 18, 1850) wanted to do with the pen what Napoleon had done with the sword.

                                                                      And in a way, he did. His influence reached , Zola, Flaubert, Proust, Dickens, Wilde, and Baldwin. Dostoevsky’s first published book was even a Russian translation of Balzac’s Eugénie Grandet.

                                                                      @bookstodon

                                                                      Balzac

                                                                      Alt...Balzac

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