downside of masto's particular set of affordances is I can't figure out who posted this, and who boosted it into my timeline. But thank you both!!
"Lester del Rey... intuited that what millions wanted from a publishing industry urgently optimizing to keep up with capitalism was to escape the modern age into a world where capitalism and industry had never happened. There is magic in that. At least I thought so, as a kid. But there’s also, in del Rey’s vision, a formulaic—let’s face it, industrial, rationalized—conception of culture and a pernicious nostalgia that courts sexism and white supremacy. Today, fantasy is, along with romance, our wildest, most flourishing genre. It might not be this way were it not for Lester del Rey, even if his legacy now is as the wizard so many writers and readers choose to battle against."
@morgandawn@Rhube@msatris@KristinaWKelly@bookstodon@bennett I had Dragonsong added to the Provincial Approved reading list many years ago.I loveded how it dealt with child abuse, individual choice and following your dream.
As a teacher I loved how it really used foreshadowing for almost every event in the book.
Sent one of my student's visual interpretation of Menolly to McCaffrey and she wrote back with a lovely letter and a photo of herself and the real life Menolly.
@bookstodon Are there any #poetry fans here? Who are your favorite 21st century poets?
Right now, I'm digging these fine folks, but I'm looking to expand:
Morgan Parker
Warsan Shire
Melissa Broder
torrin a. greathouse
Ama Asantewa Diaka
Kate Baer
Maya C. Popa
Valzhyna Mort
Amanda Gorman
Nikolai Alexsander Sidriov
Airea Dee Matthews
Jorie Graham
Clint Smith
Ross Gay
Rita Dove
As if children's books aren't already losing visibility due to censorship now this...
This year Goodreads has removed all children's books categories from their Goodreads Choice Awards, meaning no more #MG or #PB categories. Worse, Graphic Novel & Poetry, have also been eliminated.
Here you can vote to ask them to bring those categories back:
@Lionesslady@franciscawrites@Meadhbh@raymccarthy@bookstodon they have a discord you can join where they take suggestions and feedback which I love - there have been several things they fixed/improved day of for me, and the new discussion section will be a game changer I think (also this is not an ad I just like it as a platform haha)
Hey book people, I would like to read up on the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict and am looking for book recommendations. Either English or German would be fine, and preferably written fairly recently (aka not 30 years ago).
@stickfrau@bookstodon
I've spent 20-30 years reading abt it! Before the internet, i scoured used bookstores & found recs wherever i could. I've read a ton of the academic, int'l law, but with my focus on fiction lately, i see it just as valuable.
📚🇵🇸oops more:
Except for Palestine- Marc Lamont Hill
They Called Me A Lioness- Ahed Tamimi
Justice For Some- Noura Erekat
Palestine A Socialist Introduction, ed Sumaya Awad
The Israel Lobby &U.S. Foreign Policy- Mearsheimer
One Country by Ali Abunimah
I wonder if any of you lovely #bookstodon people can help me remember the title and author of a sci-fi book I read when I was a teenager.
It was a novel about a bloke who I think had a life threatening accident and ends up waking up years in the future. He had someone helping him acclimatise to it all, and one of the things they showed him was these wings you could strap to your back and fly with. I remember wishing I could do that. They also had tiny chips that could hold a terabyte of data, which blew my mind in the late 90s/early 00s when I read it.
There was some evil plan he had to thwart because of course there was.
Other things I can remember is that there was a part were he was floating through Jupiter, which had sheep-like lifeforms swimming through it. Also he was on Europa for some reason, probably because it was where the evil plan was to take place.
I can't remember much else, but I'd love to read it again to see if it's held up. it probably hasn't. @bookstodon
@KaraLG84@bookstodon I love how everyone jumps in to help when you want to find a book. I didn't even know that there was a sequel to 2001 Space Odyssey.
@bookstodon Read this today: THEY DON'T MAKE PLUS SIZE SPACE SUITS, by Ali Thompson. In the excellent introduction, she explains that she couldn't see herself reflected in Sci Fi stories, so she wrote some short sci fi stories which specifically address fatphobia in society.
I thought the writing was great, and although we are seeing gains in sci fi diversity in general, we cannot rest until everyone can see themselves in stories.
@vidar@IntentionallyBLANK@kimlockhartga@bookstodon
I love that fediverse discussions so readily morph from fat phobia to magical alien zippers to the existential crisis of duplicated minds, but seldom morph the other direction!
👩🍳 💋
When you need to understand and retain important #information that you have #read, do you use an #electronic#book or a traditional paper #book for the purpose?
@oligneisti@picard@jarulf@bookstodon Thank you for commenting on the toot. I can see that you didn't like it then and you don't like it now. Do you think that electronic readers have made such a difference? Personally I find that having a physical book with pages and ink that I touch helps me to retain information better than even an e-reader screen.
"They say human brains have the storage capacity to hold everything on the internet, the equivalent of 4.7 billion books."
So, you don't have to worry! Unless you achieve immortality, no matter how many fun facts you learn, or books you read, your brain will never run out of disk space.
As a reader, do you prefer when people give you random books as gifts, or do you prefer getting a gift card to a bookstore (so you can pick the book)? Just curious.
I've just seen the Netflix series All The Light We Cannot See, based on the novel by Anthony Doerr which is sitting on my bookcase. It has tempted me to read and/or reread some novels based in WWII.
Does anyone have any recommendations of novels based historically in or around WWII?
@chestas@bookstodon historical fiction: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, about a young girl who gets caught up in the French resistance, it’s beautiful, poignant, desolate and inspiring all at once.
Scifi: The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley. Inception meets catch-22 meets starship troopers. A real head fuck with a mind bending plot and an over generous dollop of gore.
Factual: Moonless Night by Jimmy James; the true tale of a serial ww2 prison camp escaper, whose story just gets more and more incredible.
@chestas@bookstodon There are so many WWII novels, it can be overwhelming. The most impactful for me have been:
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II, Sonia Purnell [Incredible true story (narrative nonfiction) of Virginia Hall, an extraordinary figure most of us have never heard of.]
The Complete Maus, Art Spiegelman (deeply affecting)
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz, Erik Larson
All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
The Librarian of Auschwitz, Salva Rubio (novel or graphic version)
After I finish a book that's a bit of a slog (or, most recently, DNF), I like to treat myself with something awesome that I can really dive into. Yesterday for a palate cleanser, I decided to resume my stalled re-read of the Dark Tower series with Wolves of the Calla (The Dark Tower 5) by Stephen King. Mr. King is ridiculously reliable when it comes to providing something good to read. #Books#Bookstodon#AmReading#FridayReads#StephenKing#TheDarkTower@bookstodon
@paulpap@dbsalk@hsgilchrist@bookstodon Bag of Bones... I thought the setting was nice, but it was too old-school haunted house for me, and a tad too much Rebecca
@movation@dbsalk@hsgilchrist@bookstodon I know what you mean. I did not enjoy all the “visions”. For me the main appeal were the (living) human characters and their relationships.
@Rhube@azforeman@bookstodon It wasn't obvious to other people in the thread, so I explained it based on the history of literary study and feminist critique, which I know because I have a doctorate too, mine from an English department. I also concluded by saying his argument was hostile and dickish. I'm not sure what part of that you found insufficiently critical.
@Rhube@azforeman@bookstodon I see what I did! This is my fault. I was in my head responding to other people in the thread but I actually replied to you, which gave the impression I thought you needed to be told what he means. That is obviously not the case. I am sincerely sorry. I replied to the wrong post. Bonehead move. I'm deleting the posts as soon as I get home (I'm on my phone).
I am determined to finish a book this weekend. I have a couple going from before we came back from the cabin at the beginning of last month.
What are you #reading this weekend?
The rule is #books are better than #movies based on them. I think they accomplish different things though: books have more detail, movies can show what you may have missed
While I think usually books are better, I have a theory that #childrensbooks DO adapt well. Simply, they have less material to adapt so they can add more depth to what is there. A great example is Wizard of Oz. I've read the book - it's good, not great. The movie is, especially for its time, amazing
@theotherotherone@RufusJCooter@kinsale42@movies@bookstodon and not every director can successfully pull this off. Peter Jackson succeeded with LOTR but failed with The Hobbit (although to be fair The Hobbit's failings are due to the studio being overly involved).
@FlorriePuddlefoot@theotherotherone@RufusJCooter@kinsale42@movies@bookstodon The Hobbit ‘failed’ because PJ & WETA we’re dragged in at the last possible moment with literally zero pre-production. They worked 20 hour days making it up as they went, with almost no room for error or reshoots. The fact it got made at all is a miracle. That it was actually decent as well is mind-blowing.
Allows you to create a list of #libraries where you have a card (borrowing privileges), and then displays ebook / audiobook availability when you visit certain book pages.
It's very cool and has saved me alot of money (borrowing vs buying).