This is the first time in a long time when I had to take a shower after reading a book.
This evening I finished second book by Saša Uhlová about low paid jobs. The first volume was about those job in Czechia, the second was about similar jobs in Germany, France and Ireland.
It was not an easy read and I hate what it tells/what's my interpretation about European societies. The most painful was reading about helping elderly people.
@redscroll@bookstodon after picking up some awful stuff, I can either let it sit with me, knowing I can do nothing about it or I can go take a shower and let those feelings flow away
@eaterofsnacks@bookstodon My pleasure. Currently, I'm reading the Time Odyssey by Arthur C Clarke and Stephen Baxter.
I'm near the end of the first book (Time's eye), I love it too.
Last year on Mastodon we featured this story from the BBC about Gladstone's Library, the U.K.'s only residential library. Fediverse folk were so enthusiastic that when we discovered the library is offering scholarships to be taken in 2025, we had to share the information (see the second link in this post for all the details).
@CultureDesk@bookstodon It is worth warning folks who are thinking of visiting that it is full of the raceism (both casual and overt) of the time. Think carefully who you take there and go with that in mind.
@D_J_Nathanson@bookstodon My hometown in Massachusetts has a sister city in Japan, and we were gifted a Katana from Manjiro's family for rescuing him when he was 14 on a whaling hunt in the Pacific.
I became obsessed as a child and read up on a lot. I never did read that book on Yasuke, though.
"Only when I was young did I believe that it was important to remember what happened in every novel I read. Now I know the truth: what matters is what you experience while reading, the states of feeling that the story evokes, the questions that rise to your mind, rather than the fictional events described." -- from 'The Vulnerables' by Sigrid Nunez
Very true and also quite a relief! I'm often embarrassed how much I forget of what I read. Now I can use this wonderful quote (if I can remember it...)
Book 23 of 2024: Paris Daillencourt is About to Crumble
2.75 stars
I expected this to be a cute romance in a charming setting, but this was...not that. The protagonist's anxiety was extreme to the point that I found the book stressful to read. It felt like the central romance was fundamentally incompatible; they spent most of the book upsetting and talking past each other. The bake-off theme was also pretty underutilized, in my opinion. I like to imagine that behind the scenes, those cozy baking shows are friendly and collegial, but the producers in the book were portrayed as mean and predatory.
I was really expecting some low-intensity fluff, so I'm pretty disappointed. It was fairly well-written, it just didn't feel like a romance novel to me.
Book 24 of 2024: Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
4.5 stars
I picked this one up because I enjoyed Station Eleven, which means I went in knowing basically nothing about the plot or premise. Honestly I think this is the best way to experience a book like this.
The mystery unfolded like a puzzle, no less enjoyable when it became a little predictable by the end. I loved many of the characters and settings, particularly the lunar colonies and the parts clearly inspired by Mandel's experience writing a book about a pandemic shortly before an actual pandemic.
I admire her lyrical prose and very effective use of spec fic to explore some thought-provoking themes. It actually felt quite similar to Cloud Atlas in scope and structure. And similarly to David Mitchell's books, there's apparently quite a bit of crossover between this book and Glass Hotel. I'll have to read that soon!
There's going to be a joint Sea of Tranquility/Glass Hotel adaptation with the same creative team who adapted Station Eleven. That's one of my favorite TV shows of all time, so I am incredibly excited.
You've heard all about the 'brilliant men' of ancient myth, but what about the scheming and scandalous women who were so often lost in their shadow? Bad Girls of Ancient Greece contains profiles of wayward wives, mad mothers, scandalous sisters and damsels, that quite frankly, caused others A LOT of stress in the ancient world.
I need to reorganize my fiction bookshelves. What system has worked best for you? I'm leaning towards going by author, though that leaves the question of how to treat anthologies. Maybe anthologies could be first, or shelved by the editor's name. Alphabetical by title (preceded by numbers) might work just as well as by author.
I had been doing them by height size, except for the graphic novels, which tend not to match any standard size.
These particular bookshelves are all fiction (except for graphic nonfiction) so organizing by subject seems unwieldy.
It’s a sad affair when the no-doubt-AI-generated summary of a book has a higher rating than the actual book.
The book itself, A Very Agreeable Murder, is a very fluffy mash-up of Jane Austen and Agatha Christie, pure escapist fun…I can’t see what the point of reading a summary of it would be. You either want the experience of fluffy escapist fun, or you just don’t read it all, surely 🤷♀️
@wendypalmer@bookstodon is there a way to report these to Goodreads? I've seen so much bs on there. They make reporting comments really easy, but I don't know if there's a way to report a book?
Highlights were a most unusual read in Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton, getting to review Going Zero by Andrew McCarten and starting in on a couple of excellent #AusCrime books - one part of a series, the other a debut.
@BuffaloCrisps@bookstodon My copy of "By The Pricking of My Thumbs" has the save cover. It looked pretty old then when I got it second hand about 25 years ago. Tommy and Tuppence is a guilt pleasure of mine. 😀
Read PALADIN'S FAITH by T. Kingfisher if you love global politics, spies, big brothers, feeling hollow, taking baths, remote locations, mudslides, cults, doggos, feeling safe, running for your life, strike solidarity, gadgets, gods, a good pair of boots & salt.