@fskornia@glammr.us
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

fskornia

@[email protected]

Public Digital Librarian. Don't join dangerous cults. Practice safe sects.
Other interests include SF/F/H, gaming, quilting, and astronomy
He/Him/His
https://glammr.us/@fskornia (Twitter)

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kimlockhartga, to bookstodon
@kimlockhartga@beige.party avatar

@bookstodon This book release week in the U.S. is too abbreviated for a list.

So, I will turn things around and ask you all to tell us about a great book released in 2023 that you loved. ❤📚❤

(Or if you didn't read any 2023 releases, any one book you keep recommending to everyone!)

fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@kimlockhartga @bookstodon
Favorite 2023 Releases:
HOUSE OF ODYSSEUS by Claire North
THE MIMICKING OF KNOWN SUCCESSES by Malka Older
SILVER NITRATE by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
TRANSLATION STATE by Ann Leckie

It was a very good year for reading.
#books #bookstodon #BooksWorthReading

kimlockhartga, to bookstodon
@kimlockhartga@beige.party avatar

@bookstodon As we approach the end of 2023, I would love to know about the very best books you read this year. (They don't have to have been published in 2023 for your "best of" list.)

fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@kimlockhartga @bookstodon
House of Odysseus by Claire North
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
This is How Your Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
Translation State by Ann Leckie
A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes
Circe by Madeline Miller
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz
The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older
Babel by RF Kuang

fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@kimlockhartga @bookstodon Tell Me an Ending by Jo Harkin
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
The World We Make by NK Jemisin

CultureDesk, to bookstodon
@CultureDesk@flipboard.social avatar

A debut author has lost her book deal after she admitted to "review bombing" competitors on Goodreads, largely targeting women of color. In a letter posted to X, Cait Corrain blamed her behavior on mental-health struggles and addiction. Here's more from the Mary Sue.

https://flip.it/AQ9gCG

@bookstodon

fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@tutwilly @CultureDesk @bookstodon A big part of this was that she was submitting one-star reviews before the books were published and in some cases before advanced reader copies were sent out to reviewers. So there would be no other reviews tempering the low ratings.
These ratings can feed into the selection systems that bookstores and libraries use and then could affect preorders.

fskornia, to bookstadon
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

This week we have our discussion for the last work-obligated reading I need to do for the rest of the year.
So it's time to binge on the 2023 releases I may have missed.
Was there any fantasy & science fiction books this year that blew you away? Or were just a generally good read?
I know I could look myself, but often the wisdom of the crowd unveils hidden gems.
@bookstadon

Helen50, to bookstodon
@Helen50@mastodonapp.uk avatar

when do you abandon a book?
I'm not very good at it, but I might be about to do it again.
@bookstodon

fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@Helen50 @bookstodon I used to be bad about abandoning books, but there is always too much to read to spend on something I'm not enjoying. I'll usually give it 50-100 pages. If I'm not motivated to continue, I'll move on to something else.

kimlockhartga, to bookstodon
@kimlockhartga@beige.party avatar

@bookstodon Now that it's October, let's do a Five Fave Modern Horror book list.
My contemporary spooky reads top five:

  1. The Only Good Indians, Stephen Graham Jones

  2. The Library at Mount Char, Scott Hawkins

  3. Slade House, David Mitchell

  4. The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell, Bryan Evenson

  5. Sorrowland, Rivers Solomon

fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@kimlockhartga @bookstodon My favorite 5 from my years of doing Spooky Reads (in no particular order):

Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey

The Cipher Kathe Koja

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias

fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@kimlockhartga @bookstodon There has been so much good stuff in horror lately. Your list and the responses is going to be full of so many different titles and everyone is going to be correct.

fskornia, to bookstadon
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

I spent my morning finishing 'From Below' by Darcy Coates and I thought it was a great read that was settled nicely in my sweet spot for horror.
It had atmosphere and dread, some from the environment and some from the characters' interactions and did this two fold over 2 different time periods.
It also ended surprisingly upbeat for a horror novel.
I highly recommend if you like haunted house tales and I'm looking forward to reading more from the author.
@bookstadon

owlislost, to bookstodon
@owlislost@nerdculture.de avatar

Hellooo and happy Friday! What are you ? I'm mostly in textbook-land these days but I am listening to Daisy Jones & the Six, which is great as an audiobook. I'm weighing either starting Stradal's The Lager Queen of Minnesota or The Horse by Geraldine Brooks. https://geraldinebrooks.com/horse/ @bookstodon

fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@owlislost @bookstodon I loved the Daisy Jones audiobook. I listened to it after watching the show and I adored both versions (I still annoy my GF by raving about it to her and we watched it together)
I'm currently read 'From Below' by Darcy Coates and listening to 'The Hollow Places' by T. Kingfisher

jillrhudy, to bookstodon
@jillrhudy@mastodon.social avatar

I'm in a reading slump! I had a long weekend and couldn't get any book to "catch." I need ideas! Something that grabs the reader from paragraph one but isn't a thriller. @bookstodon

fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@jillrhudy @bookstodon Not sure how you are on historical fiction, but I absolutely adored 'Great Circle' by Maggie Shipstead when I read it last year.

fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@dbsalk @jillrhudy @bookstodon The Daisy Jones audio was fantastic. Although it was hard to tell at times which guy was speaking. Except for Benjamin Bratt who has a great audiobook voice

rabbit_fighter, to bookstodon
@rabbit_fighter@mastodon.world avatar

@bookstodon I'm looking for book recommendations for an 11yo who reads at a much more advanced level. He likes sci-fi. He has read the Hitchhiker's Guide series and loved them. I think he would enjoy some more 'hard' sci-fi as well. He needs something challenging but without subject matter that is too mature. Thanks for any help!

fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@rabbit_fighter @bookstodon He might like Vernor Vinge's 'A Fire Upon the Deep'
The first Expanse novel, 'Leviathan Wakes' by James SA Corey might also be a good choice
'Children of Time' by Adrian Tchaikovsky
If you want to dip into fantasy- look at Le Guin's Earthsea series, Robin McKinley's Damar series and for a next step, Robin Hobb's 'Assassin's Apprentice'

slanderoid, to random
@slanderoid@goblin.camp avatar

It's September 15th! That means it's the official start of the Spooky Season 🦇 I'm celebrating day one by:

  1. Starting to read "The Only Good Indians" by Stephen Graham Jones. It's got tons of ghost deer, so I'm pumped!

  2. Watching "The Twilight Zone" reboot. The first story was creepy and interesting!

  3. Playing "Signalis". It had me hooked after I picked up a copy of "The King in Yellow" in-game

fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@slanderoid @bookstodon 🍄 🍄 🍄

jillrhudy, to librarians
@jillrhudy@mastodon.social avatar

This librarian tried to help a senior guest recover his Outlook email after his dog threw his phone in the bathtub, and Microsoft asked for three subject lines from his emails in his Outlook email account. He pointed out, correctly, that if he knew that information he would be in his email already. This was after we gave them a ream of his personal info, replied to a security question and sent them a code from his Gmail. @librarians

fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@jillrhudy @librarians I have access to my email and a good memory and I doubt that I could accurately remember 3 subject lines in any of my email inboxes.

KaraLG84, to bookstodon
@KaraLG84@dragonscave.space avatar

I wonder if any of you lovely 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

fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@KaraLG84 @bookstodon Perhaps 'A World Out of Time' by Larry Niven?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_World_Out_of_Time

SamYourEyes, to random
@SamYourEyes@mas.to avatar

Someone told their AI writer not to sound like an AI 😂😂
https://thegardenfixes.com/how-to-build-a-greenhouse-for-high-winds/

fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@SamYourEyes Except that we probably weeded the books about building greenhouses 10 years ago, because no one checked them because they just found the information online.
And because libraries weren't buying them, the publishers didn't see a market for them, so they stopped paying writers to write books about building greenhouses.
We're in a grim state of things now.

fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@CodexArcanum @carey @SamYourEyes One of the collections I'm responsible for contains a large number of Chilton auto repair guides going back decades. I refuse to weed them, despite low use, because the digital equivalent is very expensive and it's the sort of information that will increasingly be locked behind paywalls

skaeth, to bookstodon
@skaeth@writing.exchange avatar

@bookstodon I need #BookRecommendations please! I’m looking for low #fantasy recommendations. Romance can be there but I want plenty of adventure & banter to go along with it. Nothing epic- magic should take a back seat and it’d be amazing if the main character did not have magic at all. Best if MC is not royal/deity/etc.

The closest thing I’ve read to this is Intisar Khanani’s The Dauntless Path series (which is amazing and I highly recommend). Anything else like it?

#Bookstodon #FantasyBooks

fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@skaeth @bookstodon Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series is great rich low fantasy.
Ellen Kushner's "Swordspoint' is also great.
Guy Gabriel Kay writes some of the best very low-magic historic fantasies (they're mostly history in an analogue world, but there are hints of magic here and there)

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fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@bananasmug
'All the Birds in the Sky' and 'The City in the Middle of the Night' by Charlie Jane Anders
'The Terraformers' and 'Autonomous' by Annalee Newitz
'Even Though I Knew the End', 'The Midnight Bargain', and the 'Kingston Cycle' series by CL Polk
'The Echo Wife' by Sarah Gailey
'The Monsters We Defy' by Leslye Penelope
'The Stardust Thief' by Chelsea Abdullah
'The Chosen and the Beautiful' and 'Siren Queen' by Nghi Vo
@bookstodon

Private
fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@jillrhudy @librarians I've lost count of how many times that has been an absolute obstacle to helping a patron that just wants to read an ebook.

Private
fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@KaraLG84 @bookstodon On the fantasy side, I could recommend 'Legends & Latte's by Travis Baldree and 'The Goblin Emperor' by Katherine Addison.
For SF, 'Light from Uncommon Stars' by Ryoka Aoki hits the cozy vibes well.

fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@KaraLG84 @bookstodon Ooh! And 'The Mimicking of Known Successes' by Malka Older is also great SF.

fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@hollie @KaraLG84 @bookstodon They're not as cozy as Chambers' books. As Kara pointed out in the first post, she really has created a niche for herself, but other books are approaching the same vibe and I hope we see more of it.
It's nice reading SF or fantasy where the fate of a world or galaxy is always at stake. Sometimes it's just people having meaningful conversations with each other in a cool unusual future society.

skyekilaen, to bookstodon
@skyekilaen@wandering.shop avatar

Anybody have recs for single-author science fiction and/or fantasy/paranormal short story collections? I'm especially interested in marginalized authors.

My faves so far:

  • 'Nathan Burgoine's Of Echoes Born (paranormal)
  • Zen Cho's Spirits Abroad (fantasy/paranormal)
  • Iona Datt Sharma's Not For Use In Navigation (mix of science fiction and fantasy)

Self-recs are cool, too!

#ScienceFiction #fantasy #Bookstodon @bookstodon @lgbtqbookstodon

fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@skyekilaen @bookstodon @lgbtqbookstodon I highly recommend 'How Long til Black Future Month' by NK Jemisin.
Also 'The Hidden Girl and Other Stories' by Ken Liu, who I think it is one of the best short fiction writers in SFF

kimlockhartga, to bookstodon
@kimlockhartga@universeodon.com avatar

@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.

fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@noodlemaz @beecycling @IntentionallyBLANK @kimlockhartga @bookstodon Apparently Jess Bush was given the option for a jumpsuit or a tunic costume, and she chose the jumpsuit. It does look very odd next to the other rather sensible uniforms the rest of the crew wears.

Sophie, to bookstodon
@Sophie@glammr.us avatar

Starting a new book! Wish me luck!!

#book #bookstodon #sequel #NKJeminsin #fantasy @bookstodon

fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@Sophie @bookstodon Ooh. How did you like The Fifth Season? This one is more straightforward, but it solidified Essun as one of my favorite characters in fantasy.
I hope you enjoy!

Private
fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@lunalein @bookstodon Most popular "literary" fiction books are boring and shallow.

fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@lunalein @bookstodon Recent ones I've read? "The Maid" by Nita Prose, "The Personal Librarian" by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray, and "The Lions of Fifth Avenue" by Fiona Davis

fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@franciscawrites @bookstodon Yep, that's why it's my unpopular opinion :-)
For me personally I had trouble engaging with them because they seemed so simple to me.
I'm glad they are popular and they have a lot of people reading, especially during a period that a lot of folks have said it was hard to read even a little.

fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@franciscawrites @DarkMatterZine @bookstodon Still need to read that one, but I have really been enjoying the rising trend of cozies in SF&F. It's sort of filling the niche that used to be filled by humorous SF&F like Robert Asprin or Terry Pratchett

Jackthelad93, to bookstodon
@Jackthelad93@mastodonapp.uk avatar

May have also bought this today. 🫢

Loved The Martian, and Artemis was okay, but this is supposed to be excellent.

#book #books #reading #readingcommunity #bookstodon #scifi @bookstodon

fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@Jackthelad93 @kkz @bookstodon I felt the same way. It feels more natural than Artemis (where I think Weir was trying to hard to live up to the snarkiness of The Martian by turning the dial up to 11), and it has an interesting narrative structure.
It was particularly fun as an audiobook because there were sound effects.

Sophie, to bookstodon
@Sophie@glammr.us avatar

New day! I love having a local with folks who know what I like 💜💜

@bookstodon

fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@Sophie I love this book, or rather I love the whole idea of this book and the other Wayfarer novels. It's nice to have a well-assembled book universe and be able to just hang out in it without dire consequences.
@bookstodon

Private
fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@Liesvanrompaey @bookstodon I love love this series. Newman sits securely on my must-read list.

Private
fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@ergative @bookstodon In a similar fashion the book 'Prague' by Arthur Phillips is a great book, but is actually set in Budapest, not Prague.

Private
fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@Behindthepages @bookstodon
It is a favorite SF subgenre of mine:
'The Mimicking of Known Successes' by Malka Older
'Far from the Light of Heaven' by Tade Thompson
A good part of 'Leviathan Wakes' by James SA Corey (Expanse Bk 1) is an investigation
Emma Newman's 'Atlas Alone' has some murder mystery aspects
Mur Lafferty has another murder mystery in space book too, 'Station Eternity', but I haven't read it yet
'A Memory Called Empire' by Arkady Martine

Private
fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@lunalein @bookstodon Claire North, Ann Leckie, N.K. Jemisin, Stephen Graham Jones, Clay McLeod Chapman, Alix Harrow, Anthony Ryan, Malka Older, CL Polk

fskornia, to bookstodon
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@bookstodon
I was busy yesterday, so I didn't get to share my . So they are this week.
I started 'The Time of Contempt' by Andrzej Sapkowski - the fourth Witcher book. This probably would have been a good read before S2 of the Netflix show, but it's still a good read to prepare for the upcoming S3. It's nice reuniting with Geralt, Yennifer, and Ciri again.

fskornia,
@fskornia@glammr.us avatar

@Sine @bookstodon The TV show is more graphic than the books. When I was reading this one (which part of the current Season 3 is based on), I noticed how often a lot of fights were described secondhand.
I recommend trying a bit of 'The Last Wish', which is the first collection of short stories and would give you a taste of the writing.

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