#books

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The Testaments. By Margaret Atwood.

You are a teen girl, living in Canada after the Christo-fascist takeover of the US, when you learn that your true identity is that of a famously “abducted” US baby; and so you are thrust into a role you never asked for, and have to understand anew what ‘family’ means.

3 of 5 library cats 🐈 🐈 🐈.
Note: sequel to The Handmaids Tale

@bookstodon

Book cover featuring a green and white illustration of a woman in a cowl

Ebook and paperback: https://books2read.com/JigsawCity

Nicole’s brain is slowly being taken over by an ancient, magical artifact, a small fragment of a magic city. She seeks a cure, before the city can destroy her sanity and then eventually, take her life by replacing her mind. Racing against time, she gathers pieces of the city, hoping to find an answer among them.

@bookstodon

(Left) The cover of Jigsaw City, by Owen Tyme. The background is a futuristic city of sky scrapers covered in greenery, with water ways in place of some streets. The background has been divided by dark lines that cut it up, into a jigsaw puzzle. The foreground is a hexagonal coin with an indentation in the center that follows the same shape, with raised lines forming a hexagram in the center, which has a smaller one turned at a ninety-degree angle inside the hexagon at the center of it. The smaller hexagram has another inside it, a pattern that repeats until the lines become so fine and indistinct, they blend together. (Right) There's a pool of lava at the base of a rocky slope, with some sharp rocks sticking upward out of it and the following text over the top: “I’m immune to heat and fire. I can easily carry and protect one of you…” “Ye’d need to deliver an army to make a difference, not one person!” “I *am* an army.” (Bottom) https://books2read.com/JigsawCity

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is an early exploration of ‘romance fraud’

Although romance fraud is a 21st-century term, through the character of Havisham, Dickens clearly demonstrated its often-devastating effects.

by Emma Linford

https://theconversation.com/great-expectations-by-charles-dickens-is-an-early-exploration-of-romance-fraud-241820?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20April%2027%202026%20-%203749638391&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20April%2027%202026%20-%203749638391+CID_7fa3584856c204abae960b4c1211e00d&utm_source=campaign_monitor_uk&utm_term=Great%20Expectations%20by%20Charles%20Dickens%20is%20an%20early%20exploration%20of%20romance%20fraud

Great Expectations at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1400

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens Caption: Estella defends herself A woman in dark dress stands by a fireplace facing an elderly woman in white veil seated in a chair, with a young man nearby. Interior setting with shelved plates visible. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1400/1400-h/images/0295.jpg
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens Caption: Estella defends herself A woman in dark dress stands by a fireplace facing an elderly woman in white veil seated in a chair, with a young man nearby. Interior setting with shelved plates visible. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1400/1400-h/images/0295.jpg

My thoughts on PYTHON'S KISS: Stories, by Louise Erdrich. 4 out of 5 stars.

I first learned of Erdrich by reading the Pulitzter Prize winning THE NIGHT WATCHMAN, a novel about the fight against Native American dispossession. Erdrich is an Indigenous author who crafts purposeful storytelling. I was hooked. But then, I could not connect with her next novel. So, I figured I'd try again with PYTHON'S KISS, and Wow! These are some very inventive stories. I was mesmerized by nearly all of them. Only two seemed to lack the punch of the others. I can certainly live with that.

Erdrich knows how to create a setting that draws you in, with quirky characters whom you can care about, so their eventual anguish really resonates. The themes are dark, but they also feel real, even when the circumstances may feel utterly unfamiliar. A worthwhile read.

…

replied to Project Gutenberg's status

"He is the true prototype of the British colonist. ... The whole Anglo-Saxon spirit in Crusoe: the manly independence, the unconscious cruelty, the persistence, the slow yet efficient intelligence, the sexual apathy, the calculating taciturnity."

— Irish novelist James Joyce via @wikipedia

Independent Bookstore Day is April 25! It’s also my birthday! Oh, how the stars have aligned for you to celebrate both events at once by buying or sharing my books through bookshop.org

The Unidentified by Rae Mariz

“A book about the raw raging pressure of being a teenager in a gamified surveillance state, friendship and anarchy” @clhellisen
“subversive… and surprising” @pluralistic

https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-unidentified-rae-mariz/9bebb838ae7c0dfe

@bookstodon

Book cover of The Unidentified by Rae Mariz. Stark white background with a 3D rendered illustration of an “unimpressed face” emoji—two white spheres make the eyes and a straight rectangle mouth between—splattered with splotches of bright pink paint. Cory Doctorow, bestselling author of Little Brother calls it “Subversive, cleverly written, challenging and surprising.”

We're at 51% funded with 9 days left for our Oz anthology, Omniboz: Tales from the Land of Oz! Help give our crowdfunding campaign a boost so we can get this published in May. Than you! https://www.indiegogo.com/en/projects/jendiagammon/omniboz-tales-from-the-land-of-oz
@starsandsabers