Bookshop.org is having an "Anti Amazon Prime" ebook sale! #Bookstodon
https://bookshop.org/lists/ebook-deals:-less-than-$4?new-list-page=true&curated=true&mi_u=01F3XQ5K9ABMZYAN5G0T5XD7WK&mi_ecmp=01K6XGCA2VQ8DSP7B8FGCV5572&_kx=VYtQXSiJW0uehqk4kzwLG-mVqfTloo4kTN4JEeW2CTSj1dJSNffZAPdLx_k8GTPi.RBxUNF

#BannedBooksWeek In der EU sind #Bibliotheken relativ gut geschützt, aber Länder wie Ungarn versuchen, die Unabhängigkeit bei der Buchauswahl zu unterlaufen. Weniger bekannt: Zerstörungsattacken und rechtsradikale Störungen von Lesungen nehmen auch in De zu: https://www.swr.de/swrkultur/wissen/buecher-auf-dem-index-wie-book-bans-und-verbote-die-literatur-bedrohen-das-wissen-2025-10-06-102.html
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#bookstodon #Bücher #Lesen #Bildung #edu #bannedBooks #Literatur #Roman #Sachbuch

A pair of books to read together:

- Dreaming of Home, by Cristina Jiménez: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250388377/dreamingofhome/

- Unassimilable, by Bianca Mabute-Louie: https://biancaml.com/book-unassimilable/

Two very different takes on the same issue, #immigration.

Jiménez is a formerly undocumented leader in the youth movement who helped win some major reforms. She speaks of her past shame in being undocumented and Indigenous. Her family’s struggles, and her path into the national immigration reform movement.

Mabute-Louie’s book provides an insight into the middle class Chinese suburb of Monterey Park in Los Angeles, but also the struggles of the assimilation demanded of model minorities.

#Books #Bookstodon

#bookstodon

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A cartoon raccoon holding a knife with the text "i requirebooks" above it, set against a textured green background.

Welcome to another #FridayBookRecs! Inspired by a friend who deliberately chose to listen to music by women & other marginalized genders, years ago I looked at what I was reading and noticed that almost everything was written by white people in the US. Many of these were great books, but I wasn't learning about the world beyond my own position and I wanted to change that. Here is a list of books across fiction genres written by Native American, First Nations, Métis, & Inuit authors. #bookstodon

I also found my favourite bookmark!

#Peanuts #CharlieBrown #Bookmark #DavidBowie #Reading #Books #Bookstodon

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A white leather bookmark showing Charlie Brown, with his head hung low, saying "I still miss David Bowie" while Patty consoles him

!!! #MarthaWells is in #SomervilleMA - 10/6 (Monday night) talking about the sequel to #WitchKing, #QueenDemon - just bought tickets, super excited! #SomervilleArmory #BostonWeekend #Murderbot #Boston #bookstodon #fantasy #Booktour cc @marthawells https://artsatthearmory.org/events/bill-blumenreich-presents-martha-wells/

This article by James Marriott does a great job of articulating something I've noticed recently.

We seem to be backsliding from a culture of mass literacy and reason.

Increasingly taking its place is a culture of urban myths, stereotypes, and superstition.

"Numerous studies show that reading is in free-fall. Even the most pessimistic twentieth-century critics of the screen-age would have struggled to predict the scale of the present crisis.

"In America, reading for pleasure has fallen by forty per cent in the last twenty years. In the UK, more than a third of adults say they have given up reading. The National Literacy Trust reports “shocking and dispiriting” falls in children’s reading, which is now at its lowest level on record. The publishing industry is in crisis: as the author Alexander Larman writes, “books that once would have sold in the tens, even hundreds, of thousands are now lucky to sell in the mid-four figures.”
...
"As Walter Ong writes in his book Orality and Literacy, certain kinds of complex and logical thinking simply cannot be achieved without reading and writing. It is virtually impossible to develop a detailed and logical argument in spontaneous speech — you would get lost, lose your thread, contradict yourself, and confuse your audience trying to re-phrase ineptly expressed points."
...
"Walter Ong emphasised that writing cools and rationalises thought. If you want to make your case in person or in a TikTok video you have innumerable means for bypassing logical argument. You can shout and weep and charm your audience into submission. You can play emotive music or show harrowing images. Such appeals are not rational but human beings are not perfectly rational animals and are inclined to be persuaded by them.

"A book can’t yell at you (thank God!) and it can’t cry. Without the array of logic-defeating appeals available to podcasters and YouTubers, authors are much more reliant on reason alone, condemned to painfully piece their arguments together sentence by sentence (I feel that agony now). Books are far from perfect but they are much more closely bound to the imperatives of logical argument than any other means of human communication ever devised."
...
"Ignorance was a foundation stone of feudal Europe. The vast inequalities of the aristocratic order were partly able to be sustained because the population had no way to find out about the scale of the corruption, abuses and inefficiencies of their governments.

"And the old feudal hierarchy was justified not so much by logical argument as by what Walter Ong might have recognised as very pre-literate appeals to mystical and emotional thinking.

"This was what historians of the seventeenth century know as the “representational” culture of power, the highly visual system of monarchical propaganda which forced the fearsome and awe-inspiring image of the king onto his subjects. The regime displayed its power in parades, paintings, fire-work displays, statues and grandiose buildings."
...
"In Britain only 6,000 books were published in the first decade of the eighteenth century; in the last decade of the same century the number of new titles was in excess of 56,000. More than half a million new publications appeared in German over the course of the 1700s. The historian Simon Schama has gone so far as to write that “literacy rates in eighteenth century France were much higher than in the late twentieth century United States”.

"Where readers had once read “intensively”, spending their lives reading and re-reading two or three books, the reading revolution popularised a new kind of “extensive” reading. People read everything they could get their hands on: newspapers, journals, history, philosophy, science, theology and literature. Books, pamphlets and periodicals poured off the presses.
...
"The system worked in an age before mass literacy. But as knowledge spread through society and the analytic, critical modes of thinking fostered by print took hold, the whole mental and cultural atmosphere which sustained the old order was burned away. People began to know too much. And to think too much.

"The feudal order seems to be fundamentally incompatible with literacy. The historian Orlando Figes has noted that the English, French and Russian revolutions all occurred in societies in which literacy was approaching fifty per cent."
...
"The big tech companies like to see themselves as invested in spreading knowledge and curiosity. In fact in order to survive they must promote stupidity. The tech oligarchs have just as much of a stake in the ignorance of the population as the most reactionary feudal autocrat. Dumb rage and partisan thinking keep us glued to our phones."

https://jmarriott.substack.com/p/the-dawn-of-the-post-literate-society-aa1 #writing #books #reason #capitalism #socialism #literacy #bookstodon #novels #politics

"Keep on reading the big and badly written book, they said. It'll be fun finishing it, they said. It is totally worth the time, they said..."

#bookstodon #bookhistory #histodons #reading

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A human skeleton reading a big book. The image is a detail of a larger print showing the Last Judgement interpreted by Johannes Wierix in 16c Europe.

Super lovely human @phineasdelgado.com needs your votes for his book Where Nightmares Walk in the Indie Author Awards!
He's in 3 categories all on the first page: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf9DcEi_FDg53R9kBIkA9atav3BCEQ57GOMV4QUw49YoiL8Gw/viewform

#IndieAuthor #Bookstodon
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf9DcEi_FDg53R9kBIkA9atav3BCEQ57GOMV4QUw49YoiL8Gw/viewform

Just saw this challenge game, and WTH. More fun than current politics:

"Name 20 female authors you admire, 1 per day."

Day 1: C.J. Cherryh

My long time favorite SF author!

I haven't read everything she's written, but I love her hard SF and social SF stories with the deep introspection and interrogation of cultural and species difference in psychology and therefore sociology.

I probably have read most of her Union-Alliance books, starting with "Downbelow Station", which won a Hugo.

And her "Chanur" series is absolutely brilliant, mindbending space opera.

The first book of hers I ever read, though, was a weird place to start: "Voyager in Night", which is a hard to describe alien encounter story.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._J._Cherryh

#BookChallenge #Bookstodon

"Name 20 female authors you admire, 1 per day."

Okay, I guess it's time for...

Day 2: Ursula K. Le Guin

I can't say that I have read a LOT of Le Guin's work -- for a long time, her only work I had read was "The Left Hand of Darkness", but it was a very memorable book.

Included in this book is the concept of an "ansible" -- a device she coined for her "Hainish Cycle" books, and which has since caught on with other writers.

Later, my wife introduced me to the "Earthsea" books -- then a trilogy: "A Wizard of Earthsea", "The Tombs of Atuan", and "The Farthest Shore".

But again, very engaging work that stuck with me.

Since then I have listened to an audiodrama based on "The Word for World is Forest" (very much abridged, I think), "Tehanu" (4th Earthsea book), and quite recently, the highly acclaimed novel "The Dispossessed".

I need to read more of her work!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_K._Le_Guin

#BookChallenge #Bookstodon

"Name 20 female authors you admire, 1 per day."

A little earlier today, because I'm going to be busy later. Also, these are not in any real order, I'm not even sure who I'm going to list until I do!

Day 3: N.K. Jemisin

A 21st century writer. I've only read her "Broken Earth" trilogy: "The Fifth Season", "The Obelisk Gate", and "The Stone Sky".

This a beautifully realized fantasy, with elements of science fiction. A very elaborately conceived world, which is evidently some far future Earth that is geologically very unstable. And in which there are people, through some means psychic or scientific, able to control it (if they can control themselves).

It's also about rampant superstitions and prejudices about those people and the abuse and secrecy that results.

The prose was remarkable. It flows really well, and so this is a series I can strongly recommend reading aloud, if you have loved ones to read to.

She's done some other highly-acclaimed work since, but I want to stick to what I've personally read for this list.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._K._Jemisin

#BookChallenge #Bookstodon

"Name 20 female authors you admire, 1 per day"

Day 4: Melissa Scott

I really need to read more of her work!

So far, I've only read "Dreamships" (1992) and "Mighty Good Road" (1990).

They were really fascinating, though, because they kind of merged the vibes of cyberpunk and space opera, which is a combination I really enjoy.

"Dreamships" posits a really fascinating and (today) culturally relevant problem: an AI that certainly appears to be what we would now call an AGI -- but IS it? How can you really tell? Would you ever really be able to tell? (Unless of course, it fails).

She's also noted for her queer representation in her works, which is evident in both of these books.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa_Scott

#BookChallenge #Bookstodon

"Name 20 female authors you admire, 1 per day"

Day 5: Octavia Butler

Her imagination was original and dark, but with shreds of hope in it. I've mainly read her series, originally published as "Xenogenesis" (a name I'm still kind of attached to), but now generally known as "Lilith's Brood".

I know much has been said about the metaphorical implications connecting to the African diaspora, but also consider this book on the literal level: The Oankali are a fascinating alien species concept with a biology that clearly long ago absorbed technology to become a bizarre amalgam lifeform without a permanent form, but shared characteristics.

"Wild Seed" is more of a horror fantasy, with its story of two immortal beings locked in a permanent conflict.

She said she was inspired to write science fiction after seeing the movie "Devil Girl from Mars" (which was our #Monsterdon movie not long ago) and feeling like she could surely do better than that!

See? Bad movies have value!

She has not stuck to any single story universe or premise, but has written in a number of different sub-genres of speculative fiction.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octavia_E._Butler

#BookChallenge #Bookstodon

"Name 20 female authors you admire, 1 per day"

There's actually nothing about this challenge requiring me to stick to science-fiction authors, but I still have more of those to get through!

Day 6: Joan Vinge

Vinge's Tiamat books, "Snow Queen", "World's End", "Summer Queen", and "Tangled Up in Blue" tell complex stories that mingle planetary romance, space opera, sociological science fiction, and maybe a little bit of biopunk in fantastical settings with technology treated as magic, and well developed characters and cultures.

I have not read her "Heaven Chronicles" book about people living in an asteroid-based culture, struggling with its limitations, but it's an interesting premise, relevant to anyone interested in extraterrestrial society and economy, where the technological floor for survival is so much higher. So I think that's going on my TBR list.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_D._Vinge

#BookChallenge #Bookstodon

Challenge: "Name 20 female authors you admire, 1 per day"

Day 7: Mary Shelley

You can tell the difference between an stodgy English professor and a STEM/Tech/Sci-Fi person by name-dropping "Shelley".

If it's the latter, they absolutely know you mean Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, author of the seminal work of science-fiction (or some put it, "proto-science fiction") book "Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus".

I mean what's not to admire about being 100 years ahead of your literary genre?

Gernsback gave it its name, but Frankenstein has all the important elements of a science-fiction story: it was grounded and premised on the science of its day (galvanic stimulation of organs after death was known to activate them -- why not extrapolate to applying this to a whole organism, even a sentient human being), and it explores the ethical and social implications of such a worldview-changing premise.

Today, "Frankenstein" is required reading in some university engineering programs for its exploration of the ethical implications of new technology and how it can go terribly wrong.

I usually find 19th century lit a bit of a slog, but I've read it through at least three times. It's a page-turner! And it's better and deeper than any film adaptation I have seen. You should read it!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Shelley

ISFDB:
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?1836

#BookChallenge #Bookstodon

Challenge: "Name 20 female authors you admire, 1 per day"

(Still on SF writers... I probably will have some others later)

Day 8: Ann Leckie

Another 21st century SF writer on my list: Leckie's "Imperial Radch" / "Ancillary Justice" series broke some interesting new ground with science fiction that had us identify with a cybernetic/cyborg group organism, ultimately battling another.

The whole series has a lot of "alien identity" challenges for the reader.

Her works also casually introduce sociological and gender issues as part of the atmosphere and setting. A lot was made of the "default she" language in the Ancillary books, for example.

I've read five of her books in this universe, and will read more if she writes them:

"Ancillary Justice"
"Ancillary Sword"
"Ancillary Mercy"
"Provenance"
"Translation State"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Leckie

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?103929

#BookChallenge #Bookstodon

Challenge: "Name 20 female authors you admire, 1 per day"

Day 9: Takahashi Rumiko

I debated considerably with myself over whether I could include her in this list, but although manga creators are generally referred to as "artists" rather than "writers", Takahashi also writes hers (and creates the story in any case).

And it's my list, so... 🤷‍♂️

Her manga have been highly influential and have spawned several different long-running anime series. Which, to be honest, is mostly where I know her from.

Her art style is simple, which is another reason to include her as a writer, because it's the stories we love.

"Urusei Yatsura"
"Ranma 1/2"
"Inu Yasha"
"Maison Ikkoku"

and a lot more.

Whacky satire, weird science, spooky magic, and characters that are subtle, flawed, and lovable (and sometimes hateable at the same time!). All at once.

As the song says "When you put weird and weird together it gets fun!" Or "terrible" perhaps. There's a bit of a pun there.

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=149

https://www.lambiek.net/artists/t/takahashi_rumiko.htm

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?255884

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumiko_Takahashi

#BookChallenge #Bookstodon

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Photo of Takahashi Rumiko, since the links aren't previewing right. She is a middle-aged Japanese woman with short(ish) hair and wire-frame glasses.

Challenge: "Name 20 female authors you admire, 1 per day"

Day 10: Anne McCaffrey

McCaffrey merged the tropes of fantasy with elements of science-fiction to create the "planetary romance" of the Pern books.

It's these I mainly know.

I particularly enjoyed the "Harper Hall" trilogy, which is about traveling minstrels who provide a unifying influence on Pern culture.

On Pern, people live in communities around castle/shelters, because of the periodic threat of "thread" a toxic lifeform that hopes to Pern from a nearby planet in a highly elliptical orbit that makes periodic encounters.

The more well-known "Dragonriders" trilogy discusses the actual fighting and cleanup of the thread. Because bio-engineered dragons, are DEFINITELY the best strategy for that!

The astrophysics on that is frankly a bit iffy, but it makes for a good story.

Another fun detail: throughout the book, character make references to persistent stars that stay in the same part of the sky. Later it is revealed that these are the original colony ships, still parked in geosynchronous orbit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_McCaffrey

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?176

#BookChallenge #Bookstodon

Challenge: "Name 20 female authors you admire, 1 per day"

Day 11: Janet Kagan

She was mainly active as a writer in the 1990s. She wasn't especially prolific, known mainly for two movels:

"Uhura's Song" (ST novel)
"Hellspark"

And short stories, including a book: "Mirabile"

Of these, I've only actually read "Hellspark" but it was an interesting novel with a focus on language, culture, and first contact.

It's also fun: in the text, it says the correct pronunciation of "Hellspark" is to alternate between "Hell's park" and "Hell spark" in the conlang the main character speaks. Because that's practice for their kids in a culture that highly values language. Improbable? Yeah, but it's a challenge!

Sadly, when I looked her up, I found she'd died in 2008.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Kagan

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?1485

#BookChallenge #Bookstodon

Challenge: "Name 20 female authors you admire, 1 per day"

Day 12: Connie Willis

I believe I have read her entire "Oxford Time Travel" series, from the "Firewatch" novella to "Blackout/All Clear" (which is kind of two novels? Or one in two volumes?)

What she's really done here is to make historical fiction into science fiction, which makes it feel much more present and the stakes higher (at least for SF fans).

But she also makes the whole issue of paradoxes in time travel seem to make a lot more sense: it's essentially like a resonance phenomenon -- not unlike the way there are only certain orbitals allowed for electrons around an atom because of the wave nature of the electrons.

Looking at it that way is a pretty good theory of time travel, IMHO. I mean, I think they're all a bit goofy, but I like this one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connie_Willis

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?99

#BookChallenge #Bookstodon

Challenge: "Name 20 female authors you admire, 1 per day"

Day 13: Eleanor Cameron

When I was around 13, I checked out a book from the children's section of the local public library, called "Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet". I felt I was "too old" for this book, but I still enjoyed it. It is definitely a fantasy for children, requiring some magical thinking and much suspension of disbelief. But it was "cozy".

Since then, I discovered it was the 2nd book in the "Mushroom Planet" series, starting with "The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet".

There's a subtle thread of decolonialism in these books, which is interesting considering their time (1956) and origin, as the two boys who go on these trips consider the potential harm to the natives of the planet if more Earth people find out about it -- and "Stowaway" addresses that threat directly (solved by a curiously selective amnesia).

I read the two books to my children when they were young, and found it even more fun to read then.

Great stuff to read to your kids or your inner child.

There are at least 4 more books in the series that I haven't got to. Perhaps I'll find them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_Cameron

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?1508

#BookChallenge #Bookstodon

Challenge: "Name 20 female authors you admire, 1 per day"

Day 14: Susanna Clarke

To call "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell" a "novel" is not quite to do it justice: This book is a tome. It was a gargantuan project.

But more than that, it is an amazing accomplishment of storytelling, comprising an alternate history of the Napoleonic era in England/Europe -- but with magic and faerie all being real things.

So the wars are conducted with sorcery as much as arms (And yet somehow, they come out more or less the same 🤔).

Keeping all that consistent must have been quite a project!

Since then, she has written a 2nd novel, "Piranesi", but I haven't read that one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susanna_Clarke

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?13823

#BookChallenge #Bookstodon

Challenge: "Name 20 female authors you admire, 1 per day"

Day 15: Vonda McIntyre

Her most familiar work is probably "Dreamsnake", which is a fascinating "Post-Post-Apocalyptic" story, in a world that still has the devastation and fallout from a nuclear conflict, but also is well into rebuilding.

The protagonist is basically a shaman/medic who travels, using bioengineered snakes to treat the ill.

She also wrote the novelizations for the Star Trek films "The Wrath of Khan", "The Search for Spock", and "The Voyage Home", as well as some original Star Trek universe fiction, including "The Entropy Effect".

https://vondanmcintyre.net/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vonda_N._McIntyre

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?423

#BookChallenge #Bookstodon

Challenge: "Name 20 female authors you admire, 1 per day"

Day 16: James Tiptree, Jr
aka Alice Bradley Sheldon
aka Raccoona Sheldon

I've only actually read a few of Tiptree's shorter works:

"The Man Who Walked Home"
"The Women Men Don't See"
"Houston, Houston, Do You Read?"

Sheldon wrote under the male pen-name for many years, and quite a few people were uncertain of her gender, which I consider an achievement -- if it's hard to tell, then you must be pretty objective.

And she had a complex career path, which I will not attempt to summarize. Just read the Wikipedia article!

All her stories I've read have been affecting. Need to read more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Tiptree_Jr.

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?57

#BookChallenge #Bookstodon

Challenge: "Name 20 female authors you admire, 1 per day"

Day 17: Anne Rice

I know her from her "Vampire Chronicles" novels:

"Interview with the Vampire"
"The Vampire Lestat"
"Queen of the Damned"

I don't read a lot of supernatural horror, but these are a really good read, and absolutely creepy enough. There's a lot of pathos, and an interesting take on the vampire lore.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Rice

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?103

#BookChallenge #Bookstodon

Challenge: "Name 20 female authors you admire, 1 per day"

Day 18: Sondra Marshak & Myrna Culbreath

This is kind of a two-fer, because these two are hard to separate. All the stuff I've read of theirs were co-written as a team (in fact, it's hard to find anything they wrote separately).

But it doesn't seem fair to leave them out, just because of this teamwork.

They are pretty much exclusively Star Trek tie-in writers.

I particularly remember the "Star Trek: New Voyages" and "Star Trek: New Voyages 2" anthologies that they edited, with a couple of their own stories included. I read these both cover-to-cover as a teen.

And their novel, "The Price of the Phoenix" which was a philosophically interesting tale of human (and personality) cloning.

For quite awhile, I had Sondra Marshak conflated with Vonda McIntyre, as both wrote ST tie-in fiction. So my impressions got a bit muddled, but I think I have sorted that out in my head, now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sondra_Marshak

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrna_Culbreath

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?2527

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?2528

#BookChallenge #Bookstodon

Challenge: "Name 20 female authors you admire, 1 per day"

Day 19: Tanith Lee

I actually think of Tanith Lee as one of my wife's favorites, because I've read relatively little of her work myself. In fact, I didn't really read "Don't Bite the Sun" and "Drinking Sapphire Wine", but rather I listened to audiobook tapes my wife recorded on cassette for me to listen to while on my hour-plus commute to my phone tech support job many years ago. That was so sweet!

She's really better known for her high-fantasy/horror works, though.

And she was incredibly prolific!

But mostly, I remember these little books about rebels from a utopia. Life was too perfect!

And I remember the two Blake's 7 episodes she wrote, particularly "Sand".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanith_Lee

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?105

#BookChallenge #Bookstodon

Challenge: "Name 20 female authors you admire, 1 per day"

Wow. Last day! I wasn't sure I'd make it, but here we are:

Day 20: Jo Clayton

Her most famous series is "Diadem of the Stars". I've read the first one, though I thought it was just a bit silly. Lot of heroic fantasy wish-fulfillment tropes. I think it was her first novel and it felt like a first novel. But that has its own charm.

I suspect the series probably gets more serious after that. The "Diadem" premise is pretty cool: a crown that connects the wearer to previous wearer's experience and memory. I don't know if she originated that or not -- it's certainly been copied a lot.

But what I most remember is her 80s "Skeen's Leap" trilogy, which was a beautifully layered narrative with lots of story telling and caper-planning. Basically a planetary romance, though the end goal is to get back off the planet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo_Clayton

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?215

#BookChallenge #Bookstodon

Challenge: "Name 20 female authors you admire, 1 per day"

Well, now that I'm done with the challenge proper, I want to mention a few more that I didn't include for various reasons:

HONORABLE MENTIONS

I wound up using all SF/Fantasy authors because that's my thing, but there are some non-SF authors I'd like to tag:

Jane Austen -- great satirist

Agatha Christie - Poirot!

Laura Ingalls Wilder - "Little House in the Big Woods" and the rest of the series -- done a lot of disservice by that sappy 70s TV show.

Then there are some SF writers who interested me, but I haven't really formed an independent opinion yet.

[...]

#BookChallenge #Bookstodon

Then there are some who did write SF, but I have read only one work (so far):

Nnedi Okorafor - "Binti"

Kate Wilhelm - "Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang"

Naomi MItchison - "Memoirs of a Spacewoman" (but also her other work isn't SF)

Lois McMaster-Bujold - "Shards of Honor" (kind of a prolog to a huge series)

I just didn't feel like I can do an honest personal review of them -- my opinion is largely 2nd hand at this point.

#BookChallenge #Bookstodon

"I still remember the day my father took me to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books for the first time. It was the early summer of 1945, and we walked through the streets of a Barcelona trapped beneath ashen skies as dawn poured over Ramble de Santa Monica in a wreath of liquid copper."

--Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon

#currentlyReading #bookstodon

"They want to find out what else I am going to reveal about the Labour Party and Morgan McSweeney. And you know what? They're right to be scared."

I might actually have to read this book.

Paul Holden talks about his new book on Morgan McSweeney.

#UKPolitics #Bookstodon

Only Mary Roach can write about body odor in space flight and make it super fascinating (in ‘Packing for Mars’)

#Books #Bookstodon

My pre-order of Swipe Right for a Bit of Murder arrived this morning. Time to read about some murderous grannies 😀
https://whitehartfiction.co.uk/products/swipe-ebook/

#bookstodon @bookstodon @clacksee

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Graphic of an ereader showing the cover of "Swipe right for a bit of murder" by Elliott Hay. The cover has a purple smartphone and a knife. Around the ereader are the phrases "Vengeance... but cosy(ish)", "killer grannies", "adorable dog!", "romance fraud", "found family"

I've just this minute finished reading Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. Feeling kinda bereft now, now that I can't share time with those characters.

Hearty recommendation from me.

https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/station-eleven-2

#Bookstodon

If you like historical fiction or stories set in the Ottoman Empire, I just finished The Architect’s Apprentice by Elif Shafak and really enjoyed it. An Indian man travels to Istanbul with a baby white elephant to the Sultan’s menagerie. You follow him through a complex life, the elephant a constant companion. #bookstodon https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/cbb66296-8f3d-416c-a463-7b82e5e3f2fa

Now reading: Alix Morris’s ‘A Year With Seals’.

She writes beautifully and clearly about seals, mainly in New England, and why humans seem to love them so much; and why this has caused problems.

In the last couple of months I developed a deep and abiding love for seals (all pinnepeds but mainly seals), and am now attempting to read everything about them (I already watch at least ten seal videos a day. Follow Michael Boyd on all the socials for seals of my approval)

#Books #Bookstodon #Marine #Science

Can someone recommend a fantasy or sci-fi series that I can get into? I don’t always read those genres (I have a condition where I can’t visualize images) but recently I liked The Expanse, various Sanderson books, Shadow and Bone etc. I prefer well built worlds with good writing

#Books #Bookstodon

Access to education and information shouldn't be bound to income 🤔

@libraries @library @books @bookstodon

#Library #LibraryMemes #Memes #Libraries #Librarians
#Bookstodon #Bookworm #Bookwyrm #BookLove #BoostingIsSharing

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Post by Icona I love public libraries because they are built on the principle that books are so important and so necessary to human flourishing that access to them cannot depend on your income.