💁🏻‍♀️ NEW: 🟣🖍️ Book League Storytime Adventures shares a read-along #video of Crockett Johnson's 1955 #classic picture book Harold and the Purple Crayon. A young boy uses his #purple crayon and #imagination to draw his own nighttime path, turning blank pages into an #adventure.

👉 Learn more: https://seethis.tv/post/harold-and-the-purple-crayon-read-aloud-video

#art #books #drawing #ideas #illustration #kids #reading #storytelling #moon #parenting #education #creativity #literature #tksst

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In a minimalist line illustration, a toddler holding a purple crayon stands beside sketches drawn in purple: a tall, stylized deer with antlers, a small spiky porcupine, and several pies arranged across the ground.

It saddens me that Americans won't lift a finger to support child literacy unless someone famous croaks.
And then wonder why we live in Trumplandia.
SMH.

#books
#Literature
#Reading

#Books #Reading #Fiction #HistoricalFiction

I gave The Giver of Stars (2019) by Jojo Moyes a 4-Star Rating because character development was very good and the writing was enjoyable to read. Overall, it was just a good book to read. It is in the historical fiction genre category, and I'll be reading more of those.

https://www.jojomoyes.com/books/the-giver-of-stars/

August Reads

Books Read: 4

- Making Comic Zines; Eddy Atoms, YA? creativity/graphic novel/humor
- Frostbite; Ian Boothby, YA graphic novel/horror
- A Parade of Horribles; Matt Dinniman, fantasy/humor/SF
- Scythe; Neal Shusterman, YA SF

Top Reads: A Parade of Horribles and Scythe (4.5/5 stars)

Wow, I actually managed four whole reviews this month. August was... not great outside reading, but I've come to expect that.

https://brightdreamersbookreviews.blogspot.com/2026/08/

#books #bookstodon #reading

Like, follow, and share if you love libraries, literacy, and books!

#library #libraries #read #reading #book #books #librarylove #author #publiclibrary #literature #lit

Show that Americans love their libraries!
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Like, follow, and share if you love libraries, literacy, and books!

#library #libraries #read #reading #book #books #librarylove #author #publiclibrary #literature #lit

Show that Americans love their libraries!
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📚️

1291: The Crusaders' Last Stand

"This is the dramatic story of how two centuries of crusading ended with the fall of a single city—a catastrophe that remade the medieval world."

🔗 https://yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300306316/1291/

#History #Histodons #Medieval #Crusades #Reading #UniversityPress #Nonfiction #Book #Books #Bookstodon

📚 Never Let Me Go by: Kazuo Ishiguro

As a child, Kathy–now thirty-one years old–lived at Hailsham, a private school in the scenic English countryside where the children were sheltered from the outside world, brought up to believe that they were special and that their well-being was crucial not only for themselves but for t...

https://bookblabla.com/book/never-let-me-go

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #sciencefiction #generalfiction #literaryfiction

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As a child, Kathy–now thirty-one years old–lived at Hailsham, a private school in the scenic English countryside where the children were sheltered from the outside world, brought up to believe that they were special and that their well-being was crucial not only for themselves but for the society they would eventually enter. Kathy had long ago put this idyllic past behind her, but when two of her Hailsham friends come back into her life, she stops resisting the pull of memory. And so, as her friendship with Ruth is rekindled, and as the feelings that long ago fueled her adolescent crush on Tommy begin to deepen into love, Kathy recalls their years at Hailsham. She describes happy scenes of boys and girls growing up together, unperturbed–even comforted–by their isolation. But she describes other scenes as well: of discord and misunderstanding that hint at a dark secret behind Hailsham’s nurturing facade. With the dawning clarity of hindsight, the three friends are compelled to face the truth about their childhood–and about their lives now. From the acclaimed author of The Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans, a moving new novel that subtly reimagines our world and time in a haunting story of friendship and love. A tale of deceptive simplicity, Never Let Me Go slowly reveals an extraordinary emotional depth and resonance–and takes its place among Kazuo Ishiguro’s finest work.

illustration by Camille Renard From Aventures d'un Grillon (Adventures of a Cricket, 1876) by Ernest Candèze.

https://imgur.com/gallery/illustration-by-camille-renard-from-aventures-dun-grillon-adventures-of-cricket-1876-by-ernest-cand-ze-gO8DpRn

#illustration #illustrator #drawing #draw #pen #graphicart #book #ebook #scifi #sciencefiction #novel #readers #writers #reading #read #blog #blogging #press #author #vintage #retro #art #culture #history #mythology #fantasy #literature #camillerenard #ernestcandeze

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illustration by Camille Renard From Aventures d'un Grillon (Adventures of a Cricket, 1876) by Ernest Candèze.

The books I read in August. (No, not even Airbnb stopped me!)

#books #reading

RE: https://mastodon.social/@nesciofer/116993230333372078

Libro terminado. Historia maravillosa que he disfrutado de principio a fin. Me ha encantado que la trama no fuera como la de la película. Así he podido leerlo sin saber lo que iba a pasar. Libro recomendadísimo. #books #libros #reading #lectura #ELCastilloAmbulante

📚️

The Gift of the Land and the Fate of the Canaanites in Jewish Thought

"The chapters examine the theological, ethical, and political issues connected with the gift and with the fate of the Canaanites, focusing on classical Jewish texts and major Jewish commentators, legal thinkers, and philosophers from ancient times to the present."

🔗 https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199959808.001.0001

#Reading #History #History #Bible #Theology #Politics #Ethics #UniversityPress #OUP #Nonfiction #Book #Books #Bookstodon

Strout's characters are interesting, along with their secrets, deceptions and indeed the things never said. The high school history teacher loved by all, is a wonderful main character for his compassion and humanity but also his understanding of what Trump's return to office means for the US and the world. An engaging read!

#literaryFiction #reading #books #bookstodon

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Full moon reflected on a body of water

Anyway, I've read some of the books he's banned, and as someone who spent 33 years working with child sexual abuse victims and survivors, I can state without hesitation or equivocation that not one of them grooms kids or promotes trafficking. Most, if not neutral on the subject, are preventive, healing, or both.

#Trumpocalypse
#Reading
#teaching
#censorship
#bookbans
#books

Link in next comment.

2 days left to support independent creators!
LOTS of great SF/F in this sale.

Take a look! Bet you'll find something you like!

#reading #books @reading @bookstodon

https://indiebook.sale/

𝗪𝗮𝘆𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗟𝗲𝗱𝗴𝗲𝗿: "𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝗻𝗱 𝗕𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗻𝘀" 𝗯𝘆 𝗖𝘆𝗻𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗮 𝗖𝗿𝘂𝘇 -

3-Word Review:

- Inter-linked
- Thematically-rhythmed
- Melancholic

Frictional Posture:

- What disordering "serpent" licks at the edges of the speakers' experiences?

#bookreview #bookrecommendations #readinglist #literature #books #book #reading #bookstagram #frictionalreading #3words #cynthiacruz #poetry #howtheendbegins #postmodernism #consumerculture #media

Like, follow, and share if you love libraries, literacy, and books!

#library #libraries #read #reading #book #books #librarylove #author #publiclibrary #literature #lit

Show that Americans love their libraries!
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Like, follow, and share if you love libraries, literacy, and books!

#library #libraries #read #reading #book #books #librarylove #author #publiclibrary #literature #lit

Show that Americans love their libraries!
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#technofascism #swiw #sexworkiswork #book #revoltingprostitutes #nonfiction #thenerdreicht #reading #books

Trying to read at least one book per month. These are what I plan to read for September & October.

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Photo of the paperback: Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers’ Rights, by Juno Mac and Molly Smith

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Screenshot of the amazon entry for the book: The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy, by Gil Duran

📚️ 🇺🇸 🇨🇳

Trading Freedom: How Trade with China Defined Early America

"Trading Freedom illuminates how debates over political economy and trade policy, the building of the transcontinental railroad, and the looming sectional struggle over slavery were all influenced by Sino-American relations."

🔗 https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/T/bo123378154.html

#Reading #History #Histodons #C19th #19thCentury #USA #US #UnitedStates #America #China #Economics #Nonfiction #UniversityPress #Books #Bookstodon

Very much enjoyed reading The Selected Stories of Sylvia Townsend Warner. Clever, funny, moving, unsettling, sometimes gut-punching stories. A celebration of subverted norms, weird occurrences, misfits and people at the margins of society. I must read more of her work.

#Sylviatownsendwarner #shortstories #reading #books #literature

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A paperback copy of the Selected Stories of Sylvia Townsend Warner sitting on my lap. The cover shows a painting by the artist Vanessa Bell of a bowl of applies in front of a balcony window looking out onto a street.

Five books jumped fifteen or sixteen places on CrossBinge's popularity charts this week. A 1955 science fiction novel. A Stephen King. The Hunger Games. Meanwhile the hardest climber on the whole movies chart moved five places, and three of the biggest games shifted one each.

These are lookup charts, not sales. But my read is that books are the only…

https://crossbinge.com/magazine/2026-w34/charts-books-moved-hardest?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=2026-w34

#books #reading

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Five Books Jumped Fifteen Places This Week

Some reading and thinking on a rainy late-summer Sunday morning.

Sunday Morning Reading
With writing from @dtm @NatashaMH
Neil Steinberg, Heather Cox Richardson and more.

H/t https://mastodon.social/@ianRobinson

#SundayMorningReading #writing #culture #reading #politics #AI #Tech #comedy
https://warnercrocker.com/2026/08/30/sunday-morning-reading-170/

What’s on your reading table? #booksaboutmusic #coffeetablebooks #music #musicthemedbooks #musicalbooks #reading #stanstewart #wondersofjazz #webstories https://muz4now.com/web-stories/whats-on-your-reading-table

#BooksIn2026 #Bookstodon

25. A Time To Kill - John Grisham

After not being able to finish s book for quite a while, I've now finished my second book this month. Not being able to fall asleep, due to the hand surgery, meant I spent more time with my Kobo. I had seen the movie several times over the years, but I had never read the book. So, now I have 😉.

I looked up several sites with info on the book 📚 and I'll share that info here with you. I tried to keep out all the spoilers, even though the book and movie have been around for a while now.

Links 🔗
Official author site: https://jgrisham.com/a-time-to-kill/
Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Time_to_Kill_
Good Reads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32542.A_Time_to_Kill

Book synopsis:
Set in the fictional town of Clanton, Mississippi, A Time to Kill plunges into the deep racial tensions and moral complexities of the American South. The story begins when ten-year-old Tonya Hailey is brutally attacked and left for dead by two local white men. Devastated and convinced the judicial system will never deliver true justice for a Black child in their divided community, Tonya's father, Carl Lee Hailey, takes matters into his own hands, confronting and killing the perpetrators inside the county courthouse.

Carl Lee turns to Jake Brigance, a young, idealistic defense attorney with a small local practice. Jake agrees to represent Carl Lee, fully aware that defending a Black man charged with the premeditated murder of two white men in an all-white jury system is an almost impossible uphill battle.

As the trial approaches, Clanton becomes ground zero for a national media firestorm. The case draws in outside agitators, civil rights activists, and a terrifying resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan, who resort to intimidation, bomb threats, and street violence. Jake, assisted by ambitious law student Ellen Roark and his disbarred mentor Lucien Wilbanks, must navigate intense local politics, death threats against his own family, and aggressive maneuvers by ambitious prosecutor Rufus Buckley.

The novel unfolds as a high-stakes courtroom thriller that explores the boundary between law and justice, asking whether a fair trial is truly possible when community prejudice, vengeance, and deep-seated loyalties collide.

Main characters:
Jake Brigance
A young, sharp, and fiercely determined defense attorney in Clanton. Jake is a dedicated family man trying to build a modest legal practice, but he is also driven by deep moral convictions and a touch of ambition. Accepting Carl Lee's case puts everything on the line for him—his career, financial stability, and the safety of his family—yet he refuses to back down in the courtroom.

Carl Lee Hailey
A hardworking, devoted father and factory worker whose life is shattered by the horrific attack on his young daughter. Skeptical of a legal system historically stacked against Black citizens, Carl Lee acts out of raw grief, fury, and a desperate desire for retribution. Throughout his incarceration, he remains stoic, proud, and pragmatic about the severe consequences of his actions.

Ellen Roark
A sharp-minded, wealthy law student from the University of Mississippi with a passionate commitment to civil rights. Drawn to the explosive nature of the case, she volunteers to assist Jake's defense team. Ellen brings tireless research skills, sharp legal instincts, and fearless energy to the defense, despite facing severe danger from local hate groups.

Lucien Wilbanks
Jake's eccentric, brilliant mentor and former premier defense attorney who was disbarred years earlier for courtroom misconduct. Despite his struggles with alcoholism and a cynical outlook on life, Lucien is a powerhouse legal strategist who runs a wealth of institutional knowledge and radical courtroom tactics from the sidelines.

Rufus Buckley
The slick, fiercely ambitious District Attorney prosecuting Carl Lee. Buckley is a master showman in front of a jury who sees this high-profile capital murder trial as a direct launchpad for his political aspirations, particularly a future run for governor. He is relentless, calculating, and determined to secure a death penalty verdict.

Sheriff Ozzie Walls
The first Black sheriff elected in Ford County, caught in an extraordinarily difficult and delicate position. Ozzie is professional, level-headed, and dedicated to upholding the law, striving to keep peace in a town on the verge of open racial warfare while personally empathizing with the pain of the Hailey family.

Harry Rex Vonner
A loud, cantankerous, and loyal divorce attorney in Clanton who serves as one of Jake's closest friends and confidants. While Harry Rex prefers dealing with messy domestic disputes over high-stakes criminal trials, his street-smart advice, unwavering loyalty, and understanding of local jurors make him an essential ally to the defense.

Book reception by critics and fans:
When A Time to Kill was first published in 1989, it entered the literary world quietly before eventually becoming a monumental commercial and critical success.

Initial Release & Early Reception
* Publishing Hurdles: The manuscript was rejected by dozens of publishers and literary agents before small publisher Wynwood Press bought it, issuing a modest initial print run of around 5,000 copies.
* Early Critical Notice: Initial reviews were largely positive. Critics who covered the release praised its authentic depiction of Southern legal culture, sharp dialogue, and vivid sense of place, though limited distribution meant few people read it at first.

Post-The Firm Explosion & Reader Reaction
* Massive Resurgence: After Grisham’s second novel, The Firm (1991), became an international sensation, Dell and Doubleday reissued A Time to Kill in mass-market paperback and new hardcover editions. It rocketed onto The New York Times bestseller list and went on to sell millions of copies worldwide.
* Fan Response: Readers embraced the book as an intense, unputdownable courtroom drama. Fans frequently cite it as one of Grisham’s rawest, most emotionally charged novels, appreciating its moral ambiguity and grounded characters over high-gloss corporate intrigue.

Critical Retrospective
* Strengths: Contemporary and retrospective reviewers widely commend the novel's relentless courtroom tension, procedural accuracy (drawn from Grisham’s own background as a Mississippi defense attorney), and fearless confrontation of post-Jim Crow racial prejudice and vigilantism.
* Critiques: Some reviewers noted that, as a debut, the novel shows occasional pacing bloat and melodramatic turns compared to his later, more tightly edited thrillers. Additionally, its handling of vigilante justice and stark racial themes provoked lively debate among cultural commentators.

Overall, A Time to Kill grew from an overlooked debut into a foundational classic of modern legal thrillers, cementing Jake Brigance as one of Grisham’s most enduring characters and paving the way for a major 1996 film adaptation and direct literary sequels.

#Books #Reading #JohnGrisham #ATimeToKill

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Book cover of "A Time to Kill" by John Grisham. The background shows a gritty, dark scene washed in warm, deep red and brown tones, featuring wide concrete stairs. At the top edge, the silhouette of a person's lower legs and feet in dark trousers and shoes is visible walking away at the top of the stairs, lit by a subtle glow. Across the upper portion, the text "NO. 1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER" is printed in bold white capital letters. Below it, the author's name, "JOHN GRISHAM," is featured prominently in large, tall, yellow block letters. Taking up the lower two-thirds of the cover, the book title "A TIME TO KILL" is rendered in massive, textured silver block capital letters with gold borders, splattered with speckles of red. The words are stacked vertically, with a smaller "A" nestled beside the large "TIME." On the lower left, a review quote in white reads: “Taut, fast and relentless.” —San Francisco Chronicle. On the lower right, there is a round red sticker badge with white text stating "INCLUDES BONUS MATERIAL," along with the label "A Novel" in small white font just below the badge near the corner.

I believe this to be true for #reading and #writing. #books in any form are all uniquely portable magic to me (if Stephen King says it, it must be true.☺️) #bookstodon

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Image shows magic stars and sparkles rising from the center of a book's fanned pages. Text reads: Books are uniquely portable magic" quote is attributed to Stephen King. Graphic by lynettemburrows.com

Books: Favourite reads, Aug’26

My usual quick hello and thanks to new subscribers: I promise I won’t overload your inbox, you’ll only hear from me once a month or less with these book capsule-reviews or the occasional announcement about one of my own books. Onwards:

I’m in a bit of a reading slump (sure to be lifted when I shortly treat myself to Daggerbound and the Salt King, and the upcoming Bodies of Magic, not to mention a new book by AJ Demas with its sequel soon to follow

1

!) but I still found plenty of engrossing reads over the last little while to share. Equal mix fiction (mostly fantasy, one technically-spec-fic) and non-fiction this month.

Fiction

Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner

Richard St Vier is the best of the best in a short-lived career option, a hired swordsman who duels for the elite for money — while quite grimly finishing every argument his damaged but oh-so-appealing boyfriend merrily starts for free. Of course, upper-class machinations come slumming to join the fun. OH GOOD LORD DID I LOVE THIS! I came across it mentioned in the Queer Bookshelf by Layla McCay, was immediately intrigued, and was not disappointed: excellent world-building, non-boring politics, complex characters with all the twisty morality and motivations you could desire. I went straight on to read the sequel, The Privilege of the Sword, which I also greatly enjoyed, though I would have liked a clever resolution like in Swordspoint rather than what the character in question actually did (not that it was not satisfying in its own way). In fact, I loved this so much I immediately wanted to write my own “honour

2

-and-swordfights” sort of book, promptly shoving my “terrifying death wizard but also misunderstood puppy” idea down the queue

3

.

Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames

I get a real kick out of the Old Heroes fantasy sub-genre, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have got past the grimdark, blokey cover. My favourites are the Crimson Empire trilogy by Alex Marshall, and the Land Fit for Heroes trilogy by Richard Morgan (though dark, very very dark, it has a hell of a moment at the end of the first book). This one takes the (warrior/music) band metaphor and runs with it: old bandmates reunite for one last tour to mount an impossible rescue. All the characters are well-drawn (I especially loved Clay, our MC) and their old-friends interplay is a treat, the reunion road trip is immense fun, and the resolution satisfying. I also read the sequel, Bloody Rose, which I still liked but not quite at the same visceral level, since it’s coming-of-age, and I came of age thirty years ago; I have slightly more in common with the old heroes 🙂 I do wish this author had written more.

Perilous Times by Thomas D Lee

I think this probably counts as Old Heroes too, since our knights have been kicking about for a thousand years or so. It is eminently readable: once I started, I did not want to put it down. It begins with Kay, King Arthur’s brother (not technically a knight of the Round Table), digging his way out of his grave with a pragmatic all-right-what-peril-do-I-have-to-take-a-sword-to-this-time attitude, having grown used to answering the call through multiple wars and other crises. Unfortunately a young eco-warrior soon shows him it’s not something you can just whack with a sword: set in the near future, the peril is world-ending climate change, in a depressingly realistic fashion

4

. Meanwhile Lancelot is back, too, and just as jaded; I can’t be the only reformed teen-reader-of-Arthurian-legends to be unsurprised he’s portrayed as a dick. He’s also gay and still offended by accusations of seducing Guinevere (though the book uses traditional Welsh spelling quite often). They end up on opposing sides of an eco-war, and things just spiral from there. Funny and sad in turns, it has fantastic momentum and a charming mix of world-weariness and stubborn hope. I’d started recommending it to friends before I was even halfway through and will be reading the sequel (prequel?) soon.

Time Travel for Beginners by Jaclyn Moriarty

One of my more mainstream-lit reads, this is the one I’d call technically spec-fic, since it does, in fact, have time travel in it as promised

5

. But it’s more general fiction with family, friends and romance, with an element of hand-waved-science time travel to draw it together — but it’s funny (particularly the reviews of the time travel agency by satisfied, bemused, or angry customers), Australian, heartfelt, chockful of well-realised characters, and very easy to read.

Non-Fiction

A Curious History of Sex by Dr Kate Lister

A madcap dash through some of the illuminating trends and episodes in the long history and deep breadth of human sexuality by the inestimable host of the Between the Sheets podcast, with a lean towards her areas of research. Sometimes dark, sometimes hilarious, always told with sympathy, wisdom, and wit, and a deep understanding of human nature.

Lifeboat at the End of the World by Dominic Gregory

Part-memoir, part-history centred around the volunteer lifeboat crew of Dungeness, opening in the dramatic days of rescuing boat after boat of sinking asylum-seekers crossing from France and the resulting media scrum and racist rhetoric. Well-written, beautiful sense of place, steadfast morality in the face of provocation, and a paean to that most human of things: a lifesaving tradition maintained across centuries purely by volunteers, inspiring but also heart-breaking at times.

Proto by Laura Spinney

The story of the Proto-Indo-European language, and what the linguistic evidence, the archaeological evidence, the genetic evidence, and the blend of all three strands now tells us about its origins and messy spread across Europe and Asia, and how that reshapes what we know of world history. I personally found it enthralling, but it’s probably a slightly niche interest 🙂

If This Be Magic by Daniel Hahn [audiobook]

Subtitle is “the unlikely art of Shakespeare in translation”, a very apt tagline for a fascinating topic: there are so many major and micro-decisions to be made at every step just with standard translations, and translating the archaic language, wordplay, structure, rhythm, settings, culture and context of Shakespeare adds endless complexity: it can never be a literal word-for-word translation when you’re eg trying to recreate a pun or replicate an extended metaphor that simply does not work in the target language. Even punctuation has to be thought about. Hahn imparted so much respect for the skill, ingenuity and dedication of these translators. Sometimes they even have the advantage, because they can speak to their modern audience more effectively than the English productions where any adaptation for modern times is challenged: “I wish we could translate Shakespeare, too”. I could quote half the book, but I’ll limit myself to this last pithy maxim: “A writer will do things because they can, and so a translator must contrive to do those same things even if they can’t”.

And

Book release done! Writing Fest done! New WIP commences September 1, and I’m chomping at the bit (the upside of enforcing a solid three-week break was that my brain promptly started obsessively plotting scenes to avoid the stress of my first author-talk event in almost 20 years of publishing).

Fellow Aussies, I’ve added signed print copies to my Payhip store. (Sorry, International readers, I would be frankly embarrassed to have to charge you the postage it takes to send anything overseas from Australia.)

1. Is it too much to ask that an online-bookstore algorithm will alert me to new releases by an author whose every books I’ve devoured, instead of flooding me with books by an author I glanced at once, leaving me to discover precious new Demas by sheer fluke? ↩︎
2. My themes usually arise organically during the first draft, but the moment you’re dealing with duels, you’re dealing with honour, it’s unavoidable ↩︎
3. Itself having displaced the poor neglected “spider heist” book I’ve been wanting to write since I read Silk & Venom by James O’Hanlon in 2023. ↩︎
4. Especially with the new UK PM spectacularly failing to take the heatwave hint of the oncoming FO stage of our new FAFO era with his keep-drilling-cut-EV-and-solar-targets policies. ↩︎
5. This is a very vague reference to another recent mainstream book which did not fulfill its promise. ↩︎

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A graphic showing the covers of the eight books I talk about in the post.

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Vintage typewriter with paper rolled in ready to type. The paper has writing news typed on to it.

From Oodi to a Mentor

I found a mentor at a meetup

📖 Read more: https://sajalchoudhary.net/nordletter/nl120-from-oodi-to-a-mentor/

#books #reading #learning

Today I’m posting my #prediction for the #hugoaward just know I base it all on #vibes & I’m usually incorrect. #sciencefiction #fantasy #reading #bookrec #books https://hollysreadingescapades.blogspot.com/2026/08/its-hugo-award-eve.html?m=1

Hey, readers who enjoy fantasy series!

How do you feel about "Last Time in This Series..." prologues?

(check as many as apply)

#bookstodon #reading #books #fantasy

[...] A kavian grunted and tilted backwards, tipping over the balcony's edge and falling to the stone promenade with a sickening crunch, an arrow sticking out of the centre of his skull.

Andric blinked, and his phone buzzed again.

'I said now.'

-- Darkling, Arista Holmes, ©2026

***

Changeling and Darkling are available now! (Link in Bio)

#Fantasy #Books #Writing #Novel #Reading #writing #author #indieauthor #selfpublished #vampire #fey #contemporaryfantasy

The Grand Couvert is a humorous tale placed against a very accurate backdrop of the French Revolution. Full of wry humor & odd twists, I found this book to creep up on me - worth a look. A hidden gem for history lovers & a good one for those who appreciate the unusual! #bookreview #frenchrevolution #cats #bookstadon #reading https://hollysreadingescapades.blogspot.com/2026/08/book-review-grand-couvert-by-eoghan.html?m=1

Book of da Month: The Last Quarter of the Moon by Chi Zijian 🦌

This is a 2005 novel by Chinese writer Chi Zijian. The Last Quarter of the Moon (额尔古纳河右岸) follows the life of a 90-year-old woman telling the story of a nomadic Evenki clan in Heilongjiang, northeast China. The work was translated into English for the first time in 2013 by Bruce Humes.

It’s a slow read with a narrative that mulls over every finer detail. If you can deal with its pacing then this will be a fascinating time of it, one that reveals an ancient way of life clashing with an unexpectedly modern setting.

90 Years of Observation in The Last Quarter of the Moon

“A long-time confidante of the rain and snow, I am ninety years old. The rain and snow have weathered me, and I too have weathered them.”

One of the key things with this book is the unsure sense of time. Reading the opening 50 pages, you’d think it’s set 300 years ago or some such. It’s only when you get into the second Part Two: Mid-Day that Chi Zijian drops a few contemporary notes.

It’s the 1930s and the Japanese invade China, then the Chinese go to war with Russia, and all the while the unnamed narrator provides details of her life well lived. And she has a lyrical, mystical way with words.

“I’m not a woman who excels at storytelling, but at this moment as I listen to the swishing of the rain and watch the dancing flames, I long for someone with whom to speak … Then let the rain and the fire listen to my tale. For I know these, like human beings, have ears too.”

The book is written from the perspective of circa 2000, the lady now having reached age 90. But everything she writes of, with the often primitive lifestyle of the Evenki people, harks back to ages gone. It’s an interesting offset, yet it does cover familiar cultural territory.

The decline of an indigenous way of life is something we’ve seen quite a lot of (think of the 1988 novel Dances With Wolves and its subsequent film adaptation).

Where The Last Quarter of the Moon differs is with its pacing. There are intricate details about the Evenki way of life, often focussing on how they lived off the land, but with particular emphasis on their sacred bond to the natural world (particularly with the local reindeer).

The heavy toll of globalisation is made clear. The secluded world of the Evenki people ends in the 1930s when Japan invades China and they’re dragged into it all, through which they attempt to maintain their close bonds as a nomadic clan. At one with nature, living off the land.

“We were unable to leave this river. We always treated it as our centre, living alongside its main tributaries. If the Argun is the palm of a hand, then its tributaries are five open fingers. They extend in different directions, illuminating our lives like flashes of lightning.”

The Last Quarter of the Moon is an insight into a disappearing way of life. Yet it is very meticulous in its focus on the Evenki people, to the point where we should think many readers will tire of the repetition. There are only so many times you want to re-read what they do with the reindeer and how much they rely on them.

The work is spread across only 300 pages, so if you’re willing to commit to that the pay off may feel profound. But it is a literary plodding way to get there, even if we must note Bruce Humes’ translation as a cosmic wonder. To make the story feel convincing for western readers took some real skill and passion.

A Bit About Chi Zijian

There’s a documentary above about Zijian that explores her family lineage. She was born in Mohe County, Heilongjiang, back in February 1964. She’s had novels published as early as 1991.

The Last Quarter of the Moon won Chi Zijian the Mao Dun Literary Prize in 2008. The award is based on the noted Chinese writer Mao Don (obviously) and is sponsored by the Chinese Writers Association.

More recently, she’s been actively involved in politics. She was a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and in 2020 became a vice-chairwoman of the Heilongjiang province. Her most recent novel launched in the same year as Smoke Fire Sweeps Through (烟火漫卷).

She’s had 12 novels published in total, but is likely a relative unknown to many readers in the west. She certainly was to us until we spotted this book on a Waterstones shelf a few months ago. We gave it a whirl and we’re glad we did, whilst the story can falter a little at times she certainly has a poetic, lyrical way with words.

More Americans need to learn about the benefits of libraries, so help spread the word.
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RE: https://mstdn.ca/@deborahh/117179089885986753

Good article on the realities of book promotion. Nowhere mentioned is that the book must be great or extraordinary, only that it needs to be marketed in specific ways.

This cracks me up:

> It is, of course, not possible to sway prize juries

Just this week, a major conflict-of-interest in the latest Booker Prize judging was reported. There's a history of this sort of thing. Literary jury pools are composed of swayable, corruptible humans!

https://publishingpost.com/booker-jury-chaos-the-2026-longlist-fix-nobody-will-deny/

#Bookstodon #Books #Reading

As You Wake, Break the Shell by Becky Chambers (ARC Review)

Older readers may be aware that I swore off Becky Chambers five years ago after losing patience with The Galaxy and the Ground Within and the whole touchy-feely twee snowflakery of it all.

But then I saw this was available as an ARC on Netgalley, and I thought, why not? Maybe I’m less grumpy these days.

Fair warning, this is the first volume in a duology (awkward word), and there’s a very strong feeling of hanging off a cliff at the end. At the same time, this is a novel told in a couple of different timelines, so you also know that the events of the earlier timeline will lead, somehow, to the events of the second timeline. It’s a neat trick the author pulls off: removing all the tension in one respect, but somehow building it back in in another.

Where are we? The last time I read Becky Chambers, I was reminded of Ringworld, and the character of Speaker-to-Animals. This also reminded me of Larry Niven, but in a different way. One of the interesting ideas Niven had in his “Known Space” series was that humans trying to build space colonies might make mistakes based on incomplete data sent back by unmanned probes. For example, they’d send a colony to a planet where the only habitable zone happens to be on a plateau at the top of a high mountain—which is where their probe had landed.

It’s a similar picture here in a book that my brain wants to call Break the Egg. Humanity (in the form of some kind of corporation or polity) has sent human colonists to a variety of planets. In this particular case, Fortune, the two ships crash land on a volcanic planet where the only habitable zone happens to be on a lake in a crater. Even then, the atmosphere can be poisonous, deadly if there are eruptions, so the humans scratch a living in a world in which they have to pass through airlocks to enter buildings, have the toxins washed off them, and get frequent shelter in place warnings.

The colonists have been abandoned by the Mothership, with the message that, if they can build their own space-faring civilisation, they’re welcome to catch up with Mothership and say hi.

There are not enough resources for survival on Fortune, so the colonists have cleverly used genetic engineering to domesticate space-born creatures who can be piloted by cyborg humans in order to mine ice and other minerals from two moons. These creatures are called rorqual, and one of our protagonists is Cora, a rorqual pilot. She is able to communicate with her charge using hand-wavy telepathic implants. The experience is full-on and overwhelming, with disturbing side effects.

The other protagonist is Signy, a botanist with a hush-hush sideline. In the two timelines, we follow the two as they meet, fall in love, and negotiate the difficult conditions on Fortune—but also as they live together a decade or so later in domestic bliss in a completely different place, Cypsela—a moonlet orbiting a planet called Solace.

What we wonder is, how do they get there?

There are a number of tropes familiar to Becky Chambers readers. A petit-bourgeois character who has a little workshop or shop, who makes a small but valuable living helping people who have been let down by the system. (In a Becky Chambers utopia, people rub along through trade and barter and friendship—and rub against bureaucracy and rules.) An orphan. Aliens who experience the universe with a completely different set of senses. Who don’t, goes the metaphor, see the same colours as us, though they do perceive something. These are all familiar ideas from the Wayfarers books, handled here in a less annoying way than in that last entry. It’s still twee at times, but also moving and empathetic, and interested in big ideas like love and ethics.

On the strength of this, I’m looking forward to the second in the duology.

📚️

Calculus Made Easy by Silvanus P. Thompson

🔗 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33283

#Reading #Nonfiction #Maths #Mathematics #Math #Calculus #Science #PublicDomain #ProjectGutenberg #Book #Books #Bookstodon

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CALCULUS MADE EASY

A new review for "The Nod/Wells Timelines - Volume 1" from another satisfied reader!

Get the book: https://books2read.com/b/nwt

If you love speculative fiction and want to see what you've been missing, it's indeed one of the better places to start.

#specfic #scifi #horror #thriller #book #books #read #reads #reading #readingcommunity #booksofmastodon #readersofmastodon #whattoread #bestreads #bestspecfic #bestscifi #bestbooks #NWT #NodWellsTimelines #TheNodWellsTimelines #bookstodon #booktodon

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A review of Michael Shotter's "The Nod/Wells Timelines - Volume 1" from Goodreads

If you use #Kobo in Canada or the US, my books are all $4.99 or less right now as part of their #BackToSchool sale!

https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/series/the-arcanium

#reading #KidsBooks #Books #YAbooks #MiddleGrade #fantasy

What’s everyone #reading this weekend?
#books #BookSky

We’re here to support libraries. Take action at action.everylibrary.org.

#library #libraries #read #reading #book #books #librarylove #author #publiclibrary #literature #lit

𝗪𝗮𝘆𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗟𝗲𝗱𝗴𝗲𝗿: "𝗧𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗧𝗮𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗶" 𝗯𝘆 𝗟𝗲𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗕𝗲𝗿𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗶𝗻 -

3-Word Review:

- Idyllic
- Claustrophobic
- Scathing

Frictional Posture:

- Almost a century later, how might its criticisms be revised?

#bookreview #bookrecommendations #readinglist #literature #books #book #reading #bookstagram #frictionalreading #3words #leonardbernstein #troubleintahiti #americanopera #opera #libretto

Going on a trip to Hay-On-Wye today. Wish my bank account luck! #Bookstadon #Reading #Books #Booksky

📚 I just finished reading Developmental Psychology in Action
by Clare Wood, Karen Littleton, Kieron Sheehy

Reread this old study book from the wife to see if there was anything interesting in it. But it's kind of dated, and these books focus a little bit too much on who researched what, and not so much the full story of how we diagnose certain things or why we decided to treat conditions in a certain way.

My rating: ⭐⭐ (2/5 stars)

https://hayobethlehem.nl/library/book/developmental-psychology-in-action

#BookReview #Books #Reading #ReferenceWorks #Academic #Nonfiction #Psychology

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Book cover of Developmental Psychology in Action

Last Limp

Old old old fiction taking place within the Ruggizuomo storyline featured in Dragon Mafia

In the mist of New York, Roland Nikdydobrý was running in the rain. He had neither an umbrella nor a hat. He frantically looked around, as if he was searching for someone. He studied the crowd. There were no signs of steady movement. The people were walking like robots. He ran across the rainy streets, avoiding cars that honked at him but dared not stop. He stumbled into a nearby café. When that little bell rung, everyone slowly lifted their heads to stare at him. Their eyes were a thirsty blood red color. One woman reading a magazine stared at him with emerald green eyes. A teenage boy took his stare away from his iPhone to stare with blue eyes.

Roland gulped. His chest was heaving. He ran out the door but was met with a crowd of people surrounding him…staring at him. He dashed across the street, little light shone in the rainy and cloudy skies. He ran up to a payphone, probably the last of its kind, and dialed a number like a frantic man.

“Rugizzuomo Army, please!”

He constantly checked his surroundings with quick glances. He waited for someone to pick up, and finally a click.

“Maya! It’s Roland! Tell Riley I love him as a brother and I’ll miss him. I need this message delivered to Emperor Aaron. I am going to follow Beatrice to Illinois by posing as an entourage member. Someone is already letting me know they know I’m suspicious. I know because all of New York is possessed! Even when I was on something called the Wendy Williams show and the spell took affect there. Do not send forces until I end up dead and on the news!”

He hung up and frantically looked like someone on the run from police. He searched for a taxi while watching the surroundings. A man across the street stared at him. Another person across the street smiled. Everyone started smiling at him as the rain came down harder and the winds picked up like a hurricane. A newspaper flew in his face. Roland struggled with it, and when he ripped it off a taxi was right in front of him. He forced the door open and scrambled inside with haste.

“Drive!” He commanded as he slammed the door.

The wet man looked in the rear-view window and saw the taxi driver, whom was smiling and had eyes flooded with green colors. Roland stumbled out of the moving car and ran across the street and into the flowing crowd of walkers. They stopped to watch as he entered another taxi. He made his way inside and examined the driver. He smiled, but his smile wasn’t sinister and evil. The car drove off and Roland sighed with relief. As they came to an intersection Roland heard the sound of a speeding car. He looked out the window and another car slammed into the taxi. The left door creaked open and Roland, bloodied from his left cheek to his hand, fell out shaking and trembling. He stood up and limped across the sleek city streets. The world was spinning. Those red eyes still followed him like red neon lights.

There were 3 stories in the Last Limp saga. One preceded this, and was about Roland going to Illinois to monitor Beatrice. In this version Roland, brother of Riley, was investigating a cult of some sort. They called themselves Kuruga. It is left open to your interpretation. I will certainly not play with it.

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#literature #reading #Roland #ShortStories #urbanFantasy

It is almost September, I need to finish my latest book so I can add it to my pile on the MS readathon. Been an excellent month of reading. We've raised almost a grand via our team, as well!

#books #reading #Bookstadon #MSReadathon #MS

📚️

Tracks on the Ocean: A History of Trailblazing, Maps and Maritime Travel

"Taking us from ancient Greek itineraries to twenty-first-century digital mapping, via the voyages of Drake and Cook, the decks of Napoleonic warships and the boiler rooms of ocean liners, Caputo reveals how marks on maps have changed the course of modernity."

🔗 https://profilebooks.com/work/tracks-on-the-ocean/

#History #Histodons #Maps #Maritime #Reading #Nonfiction #Books #Bookstodon