@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.
#JustFinished jPod
I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever worked in IT. Especially, executives and managers.
Also, to anyone who has parents that are incompetent mosters (Incompemonsters TM) and need YOU to fix THEIR problems 😂
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.
The big idea: can you inherit memories from your ancestors?
“Scientists working in the emerging field of epigenetics have discovered the mechanism that allows lived experience and acquired knowledge to be passed on within one generation, by altering the shape of a particular gene. This means that an individual’s life experience doesn’t die with them but endures in genetic form.”
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.
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.
42 Skelton's Guide to Domestic Poisons, David Stafford. This is both a good and odd book. Set in 1929 in the lead up to the so called "Flapper election". It starts with Arthur Skelton being lauded after getting his client found not guilty. This raises his reputation and his visibility in the public eye. He is offered a case defending Mary Dutton, who is accused of poisoning her husband Ted. He came home from WW1 a changed man and was abusive to Mary. #books@bookstodon tbc
@bookstodon#books
And here comes the odd element. Arthur is not necessarily interested in finding the truth, his aim is to defend his client against the charge. So the question of who did murder Ted is never fully resolved. The police corruption and embezzlement is never got to the bottom of. There are any number of loose threads left dangling because they are not useful to Arthur in the defence of his client.
@bookstodon#books
So while it is categorised as a mystery, it is a mystery without resolution. You are left with speculation about the murderer and their motives.
There are plenty of interesting characters in here. Arthur is an outsider, being from a working class background. As is his clerk. And his wife is unusual, being a school teacher with socialist leanings.
It's an enjoyable read but not one if you like your mysteries all neatly solved and tidied up at the end.
I'll read book 2 soon.