CJ Sansom, the popular crime author who created the character Matthew Shardlake, has died aged 71.

The historical novelist, whose full name was Christopher John Sansom, died on Saturday, according to his publisher Pan Macmillan.

His Tudor murder-mystery novels have recently been adapted to the screen by Disney+, with the first season to be released on Wednesday.

­Sansom’s first novel, Dissolution, featuring the lawyer-turned-­detective Shardlake, dub­bed the “Tudor Morse”, was published 21 years ago.

He wrote six further novels featuring Shardlake and two standalone historical novels, Winter in Madrid, and Dominion.

Sansom recently won the Crime Writers’ Association Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for his outstanding contribution to the genre.

There are more than three million copies of his books in print, according to his publisher.

We wanted to invite other Lemmy readers to join us in a reading challenge, we have tried to structure this so it’s very flexible with regards to genre, and we don’t require you to join or post on !books@lemmy.world. We had just put in the work to make it and thought we could share the fun. (Admins/Mods please feel free to delete if inappropriate or unwelcome) cross-posted from: https://literature.cafe/post/9497120

Want to read more, but need motivation or direction? Want to gamify or expand your reading? Try book bingo! Our hope with this challenge is to provide a fun way for you to keep up with your reading goals throughout the next 12 months.

How does it work?

The goal is to read something that fits the theme for each bingo square in any single row, column, or corner diagonal of your choice (one work per theme/square). If you would like to, you’re welcome to complete the entire card (or multiple cards). But to clarify, normal bingo rules apply, you only need 5 in a row for a bingo.

Since this is about helping you along in your reading journey, there’s no requirement to read any particular kind of work. Prefer a different format, like graphic novels or audio books? Go for it. Want to read in a different language? Cool. Only have time or energy for single short stories. That’s fine, too. You can read fiction of any genre, nonfiction of any topic, books of poetry, or whatever else interests you, as long as it works for the square. We wanted this to be as open and flexible as possible, to be welcoming to as many people as possible.

We hope you’ll participate in the community throughout the year by sharing how you’re doing with bingo, helping others with suggestions, and posting your feelings about what you’re reading in dedicated threads or the weekly "What are you reading?" thread.

In mid-April, 2025, we'll put up a turn-in post to collect what everyone's been reading; we'll be using that thread to put together a summary, once the bingo period ends. Additionally, if there's a way to provide community flair or some other recognition to participants, that's how we'll determine eligibility. So, if you want to be counted and/or recognized, please make sure to contribute to that post, even if you've made other bingo posts or comments during the year!

Rules

• You must read a different work for every square you complete, even across multiple cards. There is no conflict, however, with overlapping other reading challenges that aren't associated with c/Books.
• Repeating authors on the same card isn’t forbidden (especially for the “There Is Another…” and “Same Author, New Work” squares), but we encourage you to read as new to you or different authors for every square on a card.
• Likewise, we encourage you to primarily read things you haven’t read before.
• If you’re having trouble filling a certain square, we’ve provided a few alternates you can substitute in (see below). Please limit your substitutions to one per card.
• The 2024 Bingo period lasts May 1st, 2024 – April 30th, 2025. Anything you finish during that time period is eligible, as long as you were no more than halfway through on May 1st.

Upping the Difficulty

Want an additional challenge? Try one of these, or come up with a variation of your own (and share them!).

• Hard Mode: Each square description includes an optional extra restriction to the theme, which you can do or ignore on a square-by-square basis. It's up to you!
• Genre Mode: Read only one genre.
• Review Mode: Write a review (ratings alone don’t count) for the books you read for bingo, either here on c/Books, a personal blog, Bookwyrm, The Storygraph, Hardcover.app, or elsewhere.

The Card

!2024 Bingo Card

Link to a bigger copy

The Squares

Row 1

• 1A - Older Than You Are: Published before your birthdate. HARD MODE: Published before 1924.
• 1B - Water, Water Everywhere: The title refers to some form or body of water. HARD MODE: Not liquid water.
• 1C - What’s Yours Is Mine: Theft, piracy, fraud, or espionage is a major topic or plot point. HARD MODE: No MacGuffins.
• 1D - Family Drama: Family is important, but sometimes it's also the cause of problems. Family dynamics are fundamental to the narrative. HARD MODE: Involves three or more generations of family members.
• 1E - It Takes Two: Written by two or more authors. HARD MODE: Written by three or more authors.

Row 2

• 2A - New Release: New for 2024/2025 (no reprints or new editions). First translations into your language of choice are allowed. HARD MODE: This is the first work you've read by this author.
• 2B - Plays With Words: Written in a stylistically unconventional way. HARD MODE: Fits the definition of Experimental Literature.
• 2C - Independent Author: Self-published by the author. Works later published though a conventional publishing house don't count unless you are reading it before the switch, and it's republished before April 30th, 2025. HARD MODE: Not published via Amazon Kindle Direct.
• 2D - Bookception: Features a book-related aspect. HARD MODE: Something other than a book, like an author or library.
• 2E - Disability Representation: A main character has or gains a disability to which they must adapt. This disability must be grounded in reality: if a 4,000 year old Prince of the Shokan lost an arm, that would count; if he became a werewolf, it would not. HARD MODE: The piece is at least partially from their perspective.

Row 3

• 3A - Eazy, Breazy, Read-zie: A light, popcorn-worthy read that’s not real deep (see also “beach read” and “airport novel”). HARD MODE: You actually read it while on a vacation/staycation.
• 3B - Stranger in a Strange Land: The primary PoV is dropped into a completely unfamiliar situation or location. HARD MODE: Not portal fiction or isekai.
• 3C - One Less: A book that’s been on your TBR list for a long time. HARD MODE: Overlaps with at least one other bingo square theme.
• 3D - There Is Another…: Not the first in a series. HARD MODE: Series has 5 or more entries.
• 3E - LGBTQIA+ Lead: A main character identifies as LGBTQIA+. HARD MODE: Includes a significant romance between characters that identify as LGBTQIA+.

Row 4

• 4A - Now a Major Motion Picture: The work has been adapted into a show or single episode, movie, play, audio drama, or other format. HARD MODE: The adaptation is regarded as better than the original work.
• 4B - It’s About Time: The passage or manipulation of time is a major theme or plot driver. HARD MODE: Backward in time, not forward.
• 4C - Award Winner: Has won a significant literature award. HARD MODE: More than one award.
• 4D - Mashup: A combination of two or more genres or non-fiction topics. HARD MODE: Unusual combo, like fantasy thriller.
• 4E - Local to You: The author lives in or writes about a location local to you (city, state, province, territory, etc.). HARD MODE: The author has spent a significant amount of time there, but wasn't born there.

Row 5

• 5A - Debut Work: An author’s first work. HARD MODE: The author is widely regarded as having a profound impact on the genre/topic.
• 5B - It's a Holiday: Takes place during a specific holiday, which is significant to the plot. HARD MODE: Not Christmas, a fictional variation of Christmas, or other winter festival.
• 5C - Institutional: Set at a non-commercial institution or facility, like a school, science lab, or prison. HARD MODE: Not a school.
• 5D - Minority Author: Minority or LGBTQIA+ author. A minority can be any member of a generally underrepresented population where you live. HARD MODE: Minority and LGBTQIA+.
• 5E - Among the Stars: Features space, astronomy, or stardom. HARD MODE: The title references the theme, too.

Alternates

These are available as swaps if one of the categories is difficult for your chosen genre, or if it fits better with your reading preferences. There is no obligation to do these otherwise.

• Same Author, New Work: An author you’ve read before, but a series (or standalone) you haven’t. HARD MODE: Give an author you didn’t like a second chance.
• She Blinded Me With Science: The author has a background and degree in a hard science. HARD MODE: More than one post graduate degree.
• Pseudonymous Work: Published under a pen name. HARD MODE: The author generally never writes under their own name.
• Translated: Not originally in your native tongue. HARD MODE: Has been translated into at least ten other languages. This Wikipedia page is a good place to start for widely translated works.
• A Change in Perspective: Written in third-person perspective. HARD MODE: Second-person perspective.

Resources

If you make or find any bingo-related resources, ping or DM me so I can add them here. Thanks!

• 2024 Bingo Recommendations List
• The Storygraph Reading Challenge - You don’t need to use The Storygraph or any other reading tracker to do this challenge, this is just an additional support tool for those interested.

Appreciation

• This challenge is inspired by, but totally separate from, the one run by r/Fantasy on Reddit. We deeply appreciate the past organizers and the work they did that we are now benefitting from.
• Thank you for so much to misericordiae for the design and production of the card.
• 2024 bingo card font credits: Bungee Shade, by David Jonathan Ross; Roboto Condensed, by Christian Robertson.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/16399125

> I used to love the Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child books > > Like Relic, and the Pendergast series etc. I feel like they got pretty schlocky, but it's been quite a while, and I don't really remember. Are any of their other stuff worth a read?

I’m too lazy to remove the personal information from a pic of my card, so here is the cover of the first book I checked out.

cross-posted from: https://mstdn.social/users/compoundchem/statuses/112053145362352366

> Image description: Infographic on the aroma of books. The smell of old books is produced by the gradual breakdown of cellulose and lignin in paper. Type of paper and age of the book affect the compounds produced, which include furfural, vanillin and benzaldehyde. The aroma of new books is equally variable, the compounds causing it coming from adhesives, inks, and chemicals used for paper treatment. Many of these chemicals are odorless themselves, but can react and contribute to the release of aroma chemicals. > > --- > (Originally published earlier today on mstdn.social) - Click the Fedi-Link to visit.

About the book: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/c08dd045-da79-4980-b2df-793ca92bd8dd

My review

Time to go back to good old crime novels, including a twist (lesbians. the twist is lesbians.).

I’ve already talked about how funnily enough, I consider most crime novels uplifting, as long as the grueling horrors aren’t too detailed. Their structure is very clear-cut and they’re not taking any risks, usually, following a very neat timeline of « oh no, someone died! », « oh no, things are getting worse! » (which may or may not include other people dying, or terrible family secrets being revealed, this novel being in the latter category), and « ah, justice has been brought! » (sometimes by murdering the murderer, because crime novels support the death penalty, i guess).

You’d think that with such a cookie-cutter scenario, thrillers wouldn’t be able to surprise me.

And yet!!

In Speak of the Devil, seven women find the body. They could all be the murderer. One of them is in a weird off and on again relationship with the local cop, Woman Number 8, who will investigate the case. And the seven women agree that, whoever committed that murder, they’ll all be in trouble if they don’t all cover for each other.

Except that the cop is smart, and the others make mistakes, and thinks will slowly unravel, and by the end of the novel, we won’t be sure what is even going on anymore.

The death penalty is extremely wrong! But also, whew, I’d also behead that guy.

Loads of content warnings because this is a feminist crime novel, including a beheading in the prologue, and horrific (and impressingly diverse) forms of abuse throughout the entire story.

On my website: https://alexsirac.com/speak-of-the-devil/

The first 10 of 50…

1. Check this place out, it’s dope

2. Technology solves problems 🤩 (future good)

3. Technology creates problems 😕 (future bad)

4. A world much like our own where some subtle differences highlight humanity/reality/society/perception

5. What if your cock was a bomb?

6. Rockets are not phallic, please stop saying that

7. Here is why religion is bad

8. Homestuck

9. Four thousand pages on the adventures of Prentiss Plum, a space pirate, scientist, and award-winning Virgo

10. Winking parody that doubles down on sexbots

…

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/6599809

> Reading stories regularly strengthens social-cognitive skills—such as empathy—in both children and adults. And this, in turn, ensures that we can empathize with characters more effectively and more quickly when we are reading. This is the subject of linguist Lynn Eekhof's Ph.D., which she will receive at Radboud University on 15 January. "I think we need to capitalize more on the wonder of what stories do, rather than merely seeing reading as a practical skill."

cross-posted from: https://literature.cafe/post/5745653

> cross-posted from: c/ebookdeals @ Literature.cafe > > Discover Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld, the beloved comic fantasy universe that’s brimming with wit, wisdom, and wonder. Start where it all began in the seminal novel The Color of Magic, which follows the misadventures of the inept wizard Rincewind as he serves as tour guide to Twoflower, Discworld's first-ever sightseer. The hapless duo’s journeys continue in The Light Fantastic and Sourcery, where the scale of world-threatening hazards (and accompanying absurdities) increase exponentially. You’ll get over 35 Discworld novels in all, touching all corners of this whimsical realm and all manner of its denizens, and you’ll help Room to Read with your purchase! > > The titles in this bundle are available through Kobo.com. To access the content, create or log in to your Kobo.com account. > > This bundle is only available to those in the US.

Basically the title. I always feel like winter is a nice season for cosy reading, curious to see your suggestions

I do not see how to tag for spoiler here so

SPOLIER ALERT

"Bag of Bones" delves deeply into the theme of grief as its protagonist, Mike Noonan, grapples with the sudden loss of his wife. The book explores Mike's emotional turmoil, guilt, and attempts to find solace. The supernatural elements, such as ghostly visions and eerie occurrences, serve as metaphors for the haunting impact of loss in the grieving process.

The book beautifully portrays the ways in which grief can unravel a person's life, affecting relationships and one's sense of self. Through Mike's journey, you can witness the complexities of mourning, as he navigates the painful process of letting go while also uncovering the secrets of his wife's past. Bag of Bones offers a poignant exploration of how grief can be all-encompassing, shaping characters and driving them to confront both personal demons and external mysteries.

This book made me cry ... repeatedly. And I hadn't cried in years. It's not one of King's major works. Neither is it particularly a fan favourite nor is it a critical success, but it's possibly my favorite King book.

Mort is a funny, heartwarming introduction to Death, one of the major Discworld characters. It starts off with Death deciding to take on an apprentice, Mort. Turns out, Death loves curry, has an adopted daughter, Ysabell, and gets REALLY UPSET and VERY ANGRY indeed when people harm or kill cats and kittens. And he rides a horse who is most adorably named Binky.

After starting on his new job and getting acquainted with Death’s household consisting of Ysabell and his servant Albert, Mort starts to realise that one of the reasons for Death taking on an apprentice was so that Ysabell would have a companion to talk with. After showing him the ropes so to speak, Death starts to send Mort on solo missions. One of the souls he has to usher into the beyond is that of young Princess Keli who is about to be assassinated by an assassin sent by her uncle. Unfortunately, Mort falls for the princess and in order to save her kills the assassin instead, thus interfering with fate, precisely something he had been told not to do. Mort is too scared to confess to Death about what he has done, so he just stays silent. Unluckily for him, reality of the history that was to be starts to resist the reality of what Mort has done, leading to the possibility that Princess Keli, whom Mort had saved, might end up dying. So now Mort tries his best to somehow save the princess’ life.

Some of my favourite things about this book are the style of humour and getting to know Death. Death is a cat loving anthropomorphic personification making sometimes refreshing, sometimes very insightful takes about mortals and existence in general:

"TAKE THESE THINGS, NOW, said Death, fingering a passing canapé. I MEAN, MUSHROOMS YES, CHICKEN YES, CREAM YES, I’VE NOTHING AGAINST ANY OF THEM, BUT WHY IN THE NAME OF SANITY MINCE THEM ALL UP AND PUT THEM IN LITTLE PASTRY CASES? ‘Pardon?’ said Mort. THAT’S MORTALS FOR YOU, Death continued. THEY’VE ONLY GOT A FEW YEARS IN THIS WORLD AND THEY SPEND THEM ALL IN MAKING THINGS COMPLICATED FOR THEMSELVES. FASCINATING. HAVE A GHERKIN.”

“He gave it an experimental shake. AND DUE TO LIVE ANOTHER THIRTY, THIRTY-FIVE YEARS, he said, with a sigh. ‘And he goes around killing people?’ said Mort. He shook his head. ‘There’s no justice.’ Death sighed. NO, he said, handing his drink to a page who was surprised to find he was suddenly holding an empty glass, THERE’S JUST ME.”

Death also happens to be very keen on trying to understand more about humans and various human activities, such as how people have fun. This leads to some unintentionally hilarious circumstances: “WHAT IS THIS FUN? ‘This is!’ TO KICK VIGOROUSLY IS FUN? ‘Well, part of the fun. Kick!’ TO HEAR LOUD MUSIC IN HOT ROOMS IS FUN? ‘Possibly.’ HOW IS THIS FUN MANIFEST? ‘Well, it – look, either you’re having fun or you’re not, you don’t have to ask me, you just know, all right? How did you get in here, anyway?’ he added. ‘Are you a friend of the Patrician?’ LET US SAY, HE PUTS BUSINESS MY WAY. I FELT I OUGHT TO LEARN SOMETHING OF HUMAN PLEASURES. ‘Sounds like you’ve got a long way to go.’ I KNOW. PLEASE EXCUSE MY LAMENTABLE IGNORANCE. I WISH ONLY TO LEARN. ALL THESE PEOPLE, PLEASE – THEY ARE HAVING FUN? ‘Yes!’ THEN THIS IS FUN. ‘I’m glad we got that sorted out. Mind the chair,’ snapped Lord Rodley, who was now feeling very unfunny and unpleasantly sober. A voice behind him said quietly: THIS IS FUN. TO DRINK EXCESSIVELY IS FUN. WE ARE HAVING FUN. HE IS HAVING FUN. THIS IS SOME FUN. WHAT FUN.” As the story progresses, it starts getting clearer that the loneliness of his job was getting to him, providing some clue to Death’s actual intentions for hiring Mort: "‘Drowning your sorrows, are you? I HAVE NO SORROWS. ‘No, of course not. Forget I mentioned it.’ He gave the glass a few more wipes. ‘Just thought it helps to have someone to talk to,’ he said. The stranger was silent for a moment, thinking. Then he said: YOU WANT TO TALK TO ME? ‘Yes. Sure. I’m a good listener.’ NO ONE EVER WANTED TO TALK TO ME BEFORE. ‘That’s a shame.’ THEY NEVER INVITE ME TO PARTIES, YOU KNOW. ‘Tch.’ THEY ALL HATE ME. EVERYONE HATES ME. I DON’T HAVE A SINGLE FRIEND.” After all, his job was such that “Death must be the loneliest creature in the universe. In the great party of Creation, he was always in the kitchen.”

This is followed by an interesting and humorous phase of Death actually trying to find an alternate job for himself. He ultimately ends up getting the job of a cook at "Harga’s House of Ribs down by the docks” where he thoroughly enjoyed himself as he “spun and whirled, chopping, slicing and frying. His skillet flashed through the fetid steam. He’d opened the door to the cold night air, and a dozen neighbourhood cats had strolled in, attracted by the bowls of milk and meat – some of Harga’s best, if he’d known – that had been strategically placed around the floor. Occasionally Death would pause in his work and scratch one of them behind the ears. ‘Happiness,’ he said, and puzzled at the sound of his own voice.” This leads to a truly hilarious scene when as a result of being summoned during the Rite of AshkEnte, Death appears “wearing an apron and holding a small kitten.”

Death’s efforts with trying to find work that he would actually enjoy doing and Mort’s princess problem inevitably collide leading to a satisfying conclusion. This is the second time I am reading this book and I think I enjoyed and loved it even more than I did the first time around. I would love to share some more jokes here, but then I would probably end up copy-pasting the whole book! This book definitely does the job of making me laugh and feeling a little better than usual.

It's not much to go on, but I'm hoping someone either remembers or has better Google-fu than I do.

Some time in the late 80s or early 90s I read a YA book about a teen-ish girl in the Aluetian Islands. My most vivid memory is of her description of crabs, calling some "Jimmies," and going into extraordinary detail about the fishing process. I have the shadow of a memory that she was the first girl/woman to embark on fishing.

That's all I have to go on. Ring any bells?

I love Charco Press and really liked this novel, so I wrote a review for it.

Fathers and Sons by Turgenev (Richard Freeborn translation) is an interesting character study of Bazarov, a self-proclaimed nihilist in the backdrop of the ideological differences between the “fathers” and “sons”. The “fathers” and “sons” in the title refer to the two different generations of the liberals and the nihilists, respectively. The ideological differences between the two generations, as depicted through the clash between Bazarov and Pavel, constitutes one of the major themes of the novel. It also looks at the inevitability of the generational gap between the sons (Bazarov and Arkady) and their respective fathers, and the futility of trying to reject emotions.

The book is short and has a very simple plot. It opens with Nikolai Petrovich awaiting his son Arkady's return from university, whom he receives accompanied by his friend, Bazarov who aspires to be a country doctor. It soon becomes clear that both youngsters subscribe to the philosophy of nihilism, in which Arkady considers himself to be Bazarov’s “pupil”. According to them “nihilist” is: “‘He is a nihilist,’ repeated Arkady. ‘A nihilist,’ said Nikolai Petrovich. ‘That’s from the Latin nihil, nothing, so far as I can judge. Therefore, the word denotes a man who … who doesn’t recognize anything?’ ‘Say, rather, who doesn’t respect anything,’ added Pavel Petrovich and once more busied himself with the butter. ‘Who approaches everything from a critical point of view,’ remarked Arkady.....nihilist is a man who doesn’t acknowledge any authorities, who doesn’t accept a single principle on faith, no matter how much that principle may be surrounded by respect.’" Frequent clashes ensue, especially between Bazarov and Arkady’s uncle, Pavel Petrovich, who finds Bazarov’s rejection of principles absolutely loathsome. Their exchanges regarding their philosophical differences were quite interesting to read. I especially found one of their exchanges, in which Bazarov was forced into a corner, quite thought-provoking:

""I see,’ interrupted Pavel Petrovich, ‘I see. Meaning you’re convinced of all this and have decided for yourselves not to do anything serious about anything.’ ‘And we’ve decided not to do anything about anything,’ Bazarov repeated sombrely. He had suddenly grown annoyed with himself for having talked so much in front of this lordly gentleman. ‘And just swear at everything?’ ‘And swear at everything.’ ‘And that’s called nihilism?’ ‘And that’s called nihilism,’ "

Bazarov rejects any form of emotions, art and philosophy as “romanticism” and hence just nonsense. Strangely, someone supposedly accepting only cold hard facts had this to say about science: "I’ve already told you that I don’t believe in anything. And what’s this thing called science, science in general? There are sciences as there are trades and vocations. But science in general doesn’t exist at all.’" About love and romance: “.... And what’s all this about the mysterious relationships between a man and a woman? We physiologists know all about these relationships. Just you study the anatomy of the eye—where’s all this enigmatic look, as you call it, come from? It’s all romanticism, nonsense, rubbish, artiness…” In this quarter, he is brought to his knees by Anna Sargeevna Odintsova, whom they first meet at a ball. Odintsova is a beautiful, self-possessed, intelligent woman, previously acquainted with Arkady’s parents, that Bazarov ends up falling in love with. According to Bazarov, "If you like a woman’, he was fond of saying, ‘then try and get what you can. If you can’t, well, no matter, give her up—there are plenty of fish in the sea.’ but then, “....he found he hadn’t the strength to ‘give her up’. His blood was set on fire as soon as he thought about her." He felt disgusted to recognise such romantic feelings in himself. In my opinion, Bazarov is just a very young man gifted with intelligence but afflicted with extreme intellectual arrogance. The characters of both Bazarov and Odintsova are quite well-drawn. Arkady initially comes across as Bazarov’s sidekick, looking up to and almost blindly following his teacher's philosophy. However, as the story progresses, he starts to think for himself. He also starts to see Bazarov’s self-conceit more clearly and moreover why he likes to keep Arkady around: "‘Look, mate, I see you’re still bloody silly. We need Sitnikovs. I—know what I mean?—I need such cretins. It’s not for the Gods, in fact, to bake the pots!’ Aha! thought Arkady—and it was only at this moment that the entire limitless depth of Bazarov’s conceit was revealed to him—So you and I are the Gods, are we? That’s to say, you’re the God and maybe I’m the cretin?"

One of the things I really liked about this book was how beautifully the father-son relationship from the father’s POV was depicted, in the case of Nikolai Petrovich and Arkady. This was Nikolai contemplating the generational gap he was observing between him and his son: "For the first time he was clearly aware of the rift between him and his son. He had a foreboding that with each passing day it would become greater and greater. It turned out that he’d spent days on end one winter in St Petersburg reading away at the latest works of fiction all for nothing; all for nothing had he listened to the conversations of the young men; all for nothing had he been overjoyed when he’d succeeded in inserting his own word into their bubbling talk…..He walked to and fro a great deal, almost to the point of exhaustion, but the sense of peril within him, a kind of searching, indefinite, melancholy disquiet, would not lessen. Oh, how Bazarov would have laughed at him if he’d known what was going on inside him at that moment! Arkady himself would have condemned him. Tears, pointless tears were forming in his eyes, in the eyes of a man of forty-four, an agronomist and landowner—and that was a hundred times worse than playing the cello!"

On the whole, this was a quick and pleasant read featuring interesting characters. My only gripe was not getting to read the internal monologues of characters in typical POV style because of which they felt more distant.

I hope this is allowed here, if not, feel free to remove my post, mods

My name is Richard Silva, I'm a young Brazilian writer(17) who just published their first book. Since I was a kid I wrote things, but for the first time, I made something I am going to share with the world. Currently, I'm finishing Brazilian integral high school, which in other words, wastes 9 hours of my day with mostly nothing. It's very stressful, and leaves me with not much appropriate time for actually writing quality content, so you might imagine how many reviews this book had to get before I felt like I was satisfied.

I would like to encourage you to read my book, and share your thoughts on it, of course, it's me first one, so constructive criticism is very welcomed. My desire is to be able to make a living out of my art, and when reading this book, you are helping me make this dream possible :)

And please, if you did enjoy it(even if it's a little bit), leave me a review on google play saying how much you like it, and why you like it. As for you, fellow Brazilians, a version in Portuguese is coming soon!

Overview: 3.5/5 stars

This book talks about difficult themes in the history of Africa and then US, centered around discrimination and exploitation. The book follows a variety if people along the last three centuries that dealt with various elements of discrimination, with slavery being a central theme.

While the topic in interesting, the writing style felt mostly flat to me. The characters were human, but it felt most of them were objects of their own lives instead of subjects. It seems they suffered not only from the outside world but also a lack of inner development. That was true not only of the characters that had limited to no agency, but also of the ones that had freedom and took revolutionary actions: they all felt limited and fairly unengaging.

From the more academic perspective, it gives glimpses of philosophical debates in the history of African Americans. This was the but I personally enjoyed the most.

All in all, an okay book about an interesting and well-researched topic.

The Hugo-winning author duo—Corey is the pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck—will kick off the series with The Mercy of Gods next summer.

Just a rant, I guess, full of spoilers:

Spoilers ahead

I liked the first book in the series so I was kinda excited for this prequel.

Sadly, it was just a boring slog of a read, literally the whole book is the main character whining about his wife dying while traveling to a recently discovered hole made by aliens. There are also two over-the-top characters who constantly argue with each other about religion. And one character who's kinda just there. All of them are also scientists who make so many stupid decisions that leave all of them either crippled or dead.

In the end the main character reaches the hole, looks over the edge, sees nothing and decides to go back. That's it, that's the grand conclusion.

It's not that I don't get what the book was trying to say and that it was pretty much just a metaphor for overcoming loss of your loved ones, it's that it sucked.

You can replace literally any part of the story with anything else and the story doesn't change - drop all sci-fi elements, replace the hole with any other object/place that's far away in a hard-to-reach terrain, replace really whatever you want with something else and it's still the same story.

Overall, this could have been interesting if it was about 50 pages long and if it didn't claim it was in any way related to the first book.

Small Gods: A masterful comic satire on Religious Institutions and Fundamentalism Small Gods is a fantasy comic satire on religious institutions, religious fundamentalism, philosophy, and the weaponisation of religious fanaticism for political power set in the Discworld. It explores how religious beliefs and faith shift and change over time, from being centred on the deity to being centred on the religious institution itself. Rereading this was an absolute joy!

This is the story of how Brutha becomes the eighth prophet of the god Om. Omnia is a monotheistic theocracy based on the Seven Books of the Prophets of Om, or the Septateuch. Omnia was a place where: "No matter what your skills, there was a place for you in the Citadel. And if your skill lay in asking the wrong kinds of questions or losing the righteous kind of wars, the place might just be the furnaces of purity, or the Quisition’s pits of justice. A place for everyone. And everyone in their place." Vorbis, the exquisitor in charge of the Quisition, enjoyed near complete authority and power over everyone out of fear of the Quisition’s pits. As the story opens, we have Brutha, a novice at the Citadel, working in the gardens when he comes across a tortoise who speaks to him. The tortoise in question is actually the god Om, who inexplicably finds himself in the form of a tortoise and unable to do much more than speak to Brutha in his mind. On Discworld, a particular god’s powers depend on the number of believers the god possesses. As the story progresses, we understand why even though the great god Om was held supreme in Omnia, the actual god Om was at present virtually powerless having Brutha as his only believer. Om starts to understand the reason when he ruminates: "… it can’t be just him who believes in me. Really in me. Not in a pair of golden horns. Not in a great big building. Not in the dread of hot iron and knives. Not in paying your temple dues because everyone else does. Just in the fact that the Great God Om really exists." After all, "Belief shifts. People start out believing in the god and end up believing in the structure….. “Around the Godde there forms a Shelle of prayers and Ceremonies and Buildings and Priestes and Authority, until at Last the Godde Dies. Ande this maye notte be noticed.”’" Religion starts out centred on the god and then ends up centred on the Institution with people going through the motions because it’s what everyone does, or out of fear of the Institution. This had the unfortunate effect of turning the great god Om into a "small god". Similar to the other gods on Discworld, Om doesn't really care or think much of humans beyond realising the need to have believers. As the story progresses, due to his association with Brutha, Om starts to get a better understanding of humankind and also to care for them. Brutha starts out as a novice who simply took everything taught by the religious institution on faith to someone who realises what's wrong with the system and tries to change it.

Similar to a lot of other Discworld books, an underlying sense of anger and frustration permeates this book, with this book probably being Pratchett’s angriest. This is particularly evident when he speaks of the actions of the Quisition, generally involving torture and murder on a regular basis: "And it all meant this: that there are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal, kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do. Vorbis loved knowing that. A man who knew that, knew everything he needed to know about people." (A very astute judge of humankind, I must say). And, in relation to the the actual Quisitors: "But there were things to suggest to a thinking man that the Creator of mankind had a very oblique sense of fun indeed, and to breed in his heart a rage to storm the gates of heaven. The mugs, for example. They had legends on them like A Present From the Holy Grotto of Ossory, or To The World’s Greatest Daddy".

Even though the subject matter is serious, there are numerous hilarious jokes, puns and comic twists strewn throughout the book to make a reader laugh out loud. Some of my favourite jokes were: "Nhumrod looked around the garden. It seemed to be full of melons and pumpkins and cucumbers. He shuddered. ‘Lots of cold water, that’s the thing,’ he said. ‘Lots and lots.’" Another one which speaks of the somewhat random rules of religions: "‘I nearly committed a terrible sin,’ said Brutha. ‘I nearly ate fruit on a fruitless day.’ ‘That’s a terrible thing, a terrible thing,’ said Om. ‘Now cut the melon.’ ‘But it is forbidden!’ said Brutha. ‘No it’s not,’ said Om. ‘Cut the melon.’ ‘But it was the eating of fruit that caused passion to invade the world,’ said Brutha. ‘All it caused was flatulence,’ said Om. ‘Cut the melon!’"

I don’t consider this book to be either against religion nor particularly for religion. The case of faith vs doubt is not a theme in this book and is not much of a thing on Discworld considering that the Gods on Discworld are very “present”. Even then, atheists like Simony do exist. In fact a running joke in the book is that people try to put some distance between themselves and atheists because atheists tend to be struck down by lightning (by Io the god of thunder). However, this book definitely speaks out against the use of unspeakable violence and subjugation in the name of god by people like Vorbis, without being in the least bit heavy handed about it. Now there is another thing about this book and Discworld books in general that I have loved, besides the social/religious commentary and humour, is that these books make me feel a little hopeful for humanity in general. In the midst of terrible events we have instances of people sometimes putting aside differences to do the right thing: "He looked around in time to see a wave lift a ship out of the water and smash it against the dunes. A distant scream coloured the wind. The soldiers stared. ‘There were people under there,’ said Argavisti. Simony dropped the flask. ‘Come on,’ he said. And no one, as they hauled on timbers in the teeth of the gale, as Urn applied everything he knew about levers, as they used their helmets as shovels to dig under the wreckage, asked who it was they were digging for, or what kind of uniform they’d been wearing." And, "The black-on-black eyes stared imploringly at Brutha, who reached out automatically, without thinking … and then hesitated. HE WAS A MURDERER, said Death. AND A CREATOR OF MURDERERS. A TORTURER. WITHOUT PASSION. CRUEL. CALLOUS. COMPASSIONLESS. ‘Yes. I know. He’s Vorbis,’ said Brutha. Vorbis changed people. Sometimes he changed them into dead people. But he always changed them. That was his triumph. He sighed. ‘But I’m me,’ he said. Vorbis stood up, uncertainly, and followed Brutha across the desert. Death watched them walk away." This is another reason I have loved this book. I will end this with a couple of thought provoking metaphors I loved from the book:

"‘About life being like a sparrow flying through a room? Nothing but darkness outside? And it flies through the room and there’s just a moment of warmth and light?’ ‘There are windows open?’ said Brutha. ‘Can’t you imagine what it’s like to be that sparrow, and know about the darkness? To know that afterwards there’ll be nothing to remember, ever, except that one moment of the light?’" And another one which speaks of the wonders of the world:

‘Life in this world,’ he said, ‘is, as it were, a sojourn in a cave. What can we know of reality? For all we see of the true nature of existence is, shall we say, no more than bewildering and amusing shadows cast upon the inner wall of the cave by the unseen blinding light of absolute truth, from which we may or may not deduce some glimmer of veracity, and we as troglodyte seekers of wisdom can only lift our voices to the unseen and say, humbly, “Go on, do Deformed Rabbit … it’s my favourite.”’ (This one is also a little funny!)

A question of Morality: A reflection on The Brothers Karamazov

I found that this book is philosophically dense, emotionally evocative and thought provoking. And it is a page turner in addition to being a whodunnit!. Now one of the things I love about this book and of other Dostoevsky books that I have read, is the brilliant characterisation. The brothers in the title refer to Dmitri Fyodorovich (Mitya, Mitka, Mitenka, Mitri Fyodorovich) the eldest, Ivan Fyodorovich (Vanya, Vanka, Vanechka), and Alexie Fyodorovich (Alyosha, Alyoshka, Alyoshechka, Alexeichik, Lyosha, Lyoshenka), the youngest. Alexie is frequently referred to as Alyosha and Alyoshka throughout the book. The major conflict in the book is the tension existing between Dmitri Fyodorovich and his father Fyodor Pavlovich as a result of a love triangle between them and Grushenka; and also due to money matters. There is also something of a love triangle involving Dmitri, Ivan and Dmitri’s fiance Katerina. Now Fyodor is somewhat of a colourful character, to say the least. He is a landowner with a particular reputation of being a “muddleheaded madcap” (but not stupid) and a sensualist. He was quite notorious as a husband and a father. His first wife got fed up and ran away with someone else, abandoning the three-year-old Mitya, while his second wife died soon after giving birth to Ivan and Alyosha. He was known to openly engage in orgies with other women in his home even when his wife was present. As a father, Fyodor promptly forgot about the existence of his sons, both after his first wife left him and when his second wife died. In fact, it was because of a faithful servant Grigory taking care of Mitya, that he didn't starve and had clothes on his body.. Ivan and Alyosha were also taken care of by Grigory, but they were later taken in by distant relatives of their mother’s benefactress. A few lines about the benefactress’ actions after their mom died: "They say that the moment she saw him, without any explanations, she at once delivered him two good, resounding slaps and jerked him three times by his forelock; then, without adding a word, she made straight for the cottage and the two boys. Seeing at a glance that they were unwashed and in dirty shirts, she gave one more slap to Grigory himself and announced to him that she was taking both children home with her, then carried them outside just as they were, wrapped them in a plaid, put them in the carriage, and took them to her own town." (just included these lines because I think it is hilarious). As a result, both Ivan and Alyosha received some amount of care and education, unlike Mitya who was transferred from one place to another with his education remaining incomplete. When the action starts, we come to know that Mitya is back in the village, demanding his father should give him his money left by his mother. Here it is to be noted that his first wife had money, while his second did not. Therefore, Mitya has grown up with expectations of getting his mother’s money. Now Ivan is also in town, visiting Fyodor, while Alyosha is a novice in the village monastery. There he has grown closer to the elder Zosima, who is his greatest friend and guide at this point. Zosima’s health is declining, and he may die soon. Now, Mitya has another complication in his life. He has fallen in love with a woman called Grushenka, who is known to be the merchant Samsonov’s kept woman while being engaged to another woman called Katerina. Mitya’s father Fyodor is also in love with Grushenka and is actively pursuing her for her hand in marriage. And Ivan is in love with Katerina. When Mitya is first introduced, he seems to be an irresponsible, passionate wastrel lacking impulse control. However, as I got to know him better, he came across as someone who is self aware enough to know his own faults and issues and wants to do better. Initially, he doesn't come across as someone I would be able to respect much, but he turns out to be a complex human being with his heart in the right place. In the first scene where Grushenka is introduced, she comes across as this typical “vampish” other woman who we later get to know as this wonderfully complex woman who has her own thoughts and agency. This is one of the things I love about this book: the characters feel like real living, breathing people I care about. Another character worth mentioning is the lackey Smerdyakov, who is rumoured to be the illegitimate son of Fyodor and lives as the cook in the house. He is sly, manipulative and always tries to make people believe he is a fool while trying to outsmart them in the meanwhile. As the action progresses, simmering tensions start to build up and slowly lead to a boiling point, culminating in a gruesome murder.

Some of the themes explored in the book are the conflict of faith (or a lack thereof) and the question of morality and free will. This is portrayed by the contrasting aspects of faith and unbelief in the persons of Alyosha and Ivan, Zosima and the Inquisitor. In the tavern conversation in the first half of the book, Ivan opens up to Alyosha and tries to explain to his “little brother” his beliefs. Very endearingly he tells him that "I want to get close to you, Alyosha, because I have no friends. I want to try." He explains that it’s impossible for him to believe a merciful, benevolent God can create this world with all its sufferings. Ivan refuses to accept that all sinners with their "villainy" and "animal cruelty" are ever redeemable. He says: "Tell me straight out, I call on you—answer me: imagine that you yourself are building the edifice of human destiny with the object of making people happy in the finale, of giving them peace and rest at last, but for that you must inevitably and unavoidably torture just one tiny creature, that same child who was beating her chest with her little fist, and raise your edifice on the foundation of her unrequited tears—would you agree to be the architect on such conditions? Tell me the truth.” He posits that the established religious order is corrupt and no longer serves God, but the devil, through the allegory of the Inquisitor (it is a long story that I am not repeating here). He further goes on to say that mankind in general cannot deal with free will and free conscience; they need someone to tell them what is right and what needs to be done, which is what established religions provide them with. So, as there is no God and no life after death, he says that, ‘If there is no immortality of the soul, then there is no virtue, and therefore everything is permitted.’ Now this tavern conversation has left quite an impression on me since I, too, do not believe in the existence of any God, singular or plural and a lot of what Ivan says also resonates with me. However, I have never thought that there is any connection between the existence of God, virtue and morality. I do understand Ivan’s point even though I do not agree with it. I wonder what do people who believe in God think of morality? Is morality contingent on the need for being virtuous? I believe morality should be unconditional and not dependent on the necessity of being virtuous. Anyways I loved that this book made me think so much.

The ending of the book is bittersweet to say the least. The book is well-paced right till the end. However, there are parts (just a few) of the book where it feels as if it's slightly going on a side track. To reiterate, I loved this book and it is now one of my favourites. I will definitely reread it in the future.

https://archive.ph/ZHhEA

>Louise Gluck, a renowned poet who won a Nobel Prize for Literature in 2020, has died at age 80, according to media reports in the United States on Friday that cited her editor.

>Her poetry was known for its candor in exploring family and childhood with "an unmistakable voice" and "austere beauty," the Swedish Academy, which is responsible for selecting the winner of the literature prize, said when awarding her the Nobel.

>Her poems were often brief, less than a page.

>Drawing comparisons with other authors, the Academy said Gluck resembled 19th-century U.S. poet Emily Dickinson in her "severity and unwillingness to accept simple tenets of faith."

>The cause of her death was not disclosed by Jonathan Galassi, Gluck's editor at Farrar, Straus & Giroux, who confirmed her death for media outlets. Galassi could not be reached immediately by Reuters.

>A professor of English at Yale University, Gluck first rose to critical acclaim with her 1968 collection of poems entitled "Firstborn", and went on to become one of the most celebrated poets and essayists in contemporary America.

>Gluck won a Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for her poetry collection "The Wild Iris," with the title poem touching on suffering and redolent with imagery of the natural world.

>While she drew on her own experiences in her poetry, Gluck, who was twice divorced and suffered from anorexia in younger years, explored universal themes that resonated with readers in the United States and abroad.

>She served as Poet Laureate of the United States in 2003-04 and was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barrack Obama in 2016.

>In her lifetime, she published 12 collections of poetry and several volumes of essays.

>Born in New York, Gluck became the 16th woman to win a Nobel Prize for Literature, the literary world's most prestigious award.

Chapter 6 is available now on @medium

You can catch-up with the entire series on this list“ElderTree: Chronicles of Fire & Fate“ on Medium: https://medium.com/@damienlawless/list/396935107db5

\#fantasy #fiction @fiction @everydayfiction

Looking for book recommendations.

Something exciting and lighthearted, set in the Middle Ages or Renaissance, in the vein of The Princess Bride, Robin Hood, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court,, or the movie A Knight's Tale.

What are your favorites? Thanks!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/5983777

> O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you. > > She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes > > In shape no bigger than an agate stone > > On the forefinger of an alderman, > > Drawn with a team of little atomies > > Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep; > > Her wagon spokes made of long spinners' legs, > > The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers; > > Her traces, of the smallest spider's web; > > Her collars, of the moonshine's wat'ry beams; > > Her whip, of cricket's bone; the lash, of film; > > Her wagoner, a small grey-coated gnat, > > Not half so big as a round little worm > > Prick'd from the lazy finger of a maid; > > Her chariot is an empty hazelnut, > > Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub, > > Time out o' mind the fairies' coachmakers. > > And in this state she gallops night by night > > Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love; > > O'er courtiers' knees, that dream on cursies straight; > > O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees; > > O'er ladies' lips, who straight on kisses dream, > > Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues, > > Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are. > > Sometime she gallops o'er a courtier's nose, > > And then dreams he of smelling out a suit; > > And sometime comes she with a tithe-pig's tail > > Tickling a parson's nose as 'a lies asleep, > > Then dreams he of another benefice. > > Sometimes she driveth o'er a soldier's neck, > > And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats, > > Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades, > > Of healths five fadom deep; and then anon > > Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes, > > And being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two > > And sleeps again. This is that very Mab > > That plats the manes of horses in the night > > And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish, hairs, > > Which once untangled much misfortune bodes > > This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs, > > That presses them and learns them first to bear, > > Making them women of good carriage. > > This is she... > > --- > 16k page .PDF, so it may take a bit to load through the web interface. Here's some alternative file formats from Anna's.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/6237195

> cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/6237131 > > > Fedipunk means a story in a universe, in which the era of dezentralized social networks is already there, with all its potential consequences - or we see the transition to it. > > > > From what I read in earlier posts and my own thinking I propose the following ones (new suggestions are of course welcome): > > > > - Planet Magnon by Leif Randt (socialism, distributed social network, decentral communities) > > - Mars Trilogy Book 2 by Kim Stanley Robinson (collaborative government strategies) > > - Half-Built Garden by (socialism, distributed social network, decentral communities) > > - His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman (decentral factions, openings between different parallel universes which begin to merge, remote communication over magic substance)

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/2911743

> > A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin currently has the rating of 4.44 on Goodreads. The following books are standalones or first books in a series, as it would be unfair to compare it to the last book in a series, for example the fantastic ending to The Faithful and the Fallen series, Wrath, by John Gwynne, which has a Goodreads rating of 4.51. > > > Unsurprisingly, Brandon Sanderson features three times on this list! I can’t say I agree with any of these titles being “better”, but the all-knowing Goodreads reviewers might just have some interesting recommendations for A Song of Ice and Fire fans.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/6112950

> What do you think of this? Do you think it is a good idea and could take off?

cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/scifi/t/506685

> From an authorised sequel to George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four to a collection of newly discovered short stories from the late Terry Pratchett, there is a mountain of brilliant science fiction to get through this month

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/742407

> cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/742102 > > > What are you anticipating?