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Vincent Waciuk<p>'The Jewels of Aptor' is Samuel Delany's first published novel and displays the raw talent that makes him a great writer.</p><p><a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/sf" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sf</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/scifi" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>scifi</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/books" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>books</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/bookreview" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>bookreview</span></a></p><p><a href="https://abastrabooks.com/the-jewels-of-aptor-echoes-future-greatness/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">abastrabooks.com/the-jewels-of</span><span class="invisible">-aptor-echoes-future-greatness/</span></a></p>
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GrrlScientist ⧖ Ⓥ :verified:<p>Moral Ambition: Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference By Rutger Bregman — <a href="https://mstdn.science/tags/Review" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Review</span></a></p><p><a href="https://mstdn.science/tags/BookReview" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BookReview</span></a> by <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mstdn.science/@GrrlScientist" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>GrrlScientist</span></a></span>, <a href="https://mstdn.science/tags/book" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>book</span></a> published by Little, Brown & Company</p><p><a href="https://mstdn.science/tags/ethics" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ethics</span></a> <a href="https://mstdn.science/tags/MoralLiving" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>MoralLiving</span></a> <a href="https://mstdn.science/tags/MeaningfulLife" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>MeaningfulLife</span></a> <a href="https://mstdn.science/tags/SocietalProblems" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>SocietalProblems</span></a> <a href="https://mstdn.science/tags/philosophy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>philosophy</span></a> <a href="https://mstdn.science/tags/nonfiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>nonfiction</span></a> <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/grrlscientist/2025/05/26/moral-ambition-by-rutger-bregman---review/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">forbes.com/sites/grrlscientist</span><span class="invisible">/2025/05/26/moral-ambition-by-rutger-bregman---review/</span></a></p>
Terence Eden’s Blog<p><strong>Book Review: How to Land a Plane by Mark Vanhoenacker</strong></p><p><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-how-to-land-a-plane-by-mark-vanhoenacker/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-</span><span class="invisible">review-how-to-land-a-plane-by-mark-vanhoenacker/</span></a></p><p></p><p>I was lounging by the pool while on holiday, desperately hoping that I would never need to use the knowledge contained within this book.</p><p>"How to Land a Plane" is <em>not</em> a metaphor. This isn't a book which teaches you life-lessons via the exciting world of aeronautics. It is a charming and practical guide to landing plane. What the various instruments say, how the controls work, and the basics of navigation.</p><p>The author strikes an irreverent but relaxing tone, the sort which might sooth a nervous flyer, as he gently bombards the reader with facts. There are some excellent illustrations and lots of rabbit-holes for the curious adventurer to wander through. The writing is pure poetry about motion.</p><p>It is one of those books which makes you feel clever without effort. For an over-confident man like me, it is utter catnip. I'm now convinced I could mansplain landing a 747 and take a reasonable crack at it if the pilot were incapacitated.</p><p>Our flight home was - sadly - uneventful.</p><p>I am indebted to my former colleagues at CDDO for getting me this fine leaving present - and regretful that it took me so long to read!</p><p></p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/tag/book-review/" target="_blank">#BookReview</a></p>
Terence Eden<p>🆕 blog! “Book Review: How to Land a Plane by Mark Vanhoenacker”<br>★★★★☆</p><p>I was lounging by the pool while on holiday, desperately hoping that I would never need to use the knowledge contained within this book.</p><p>"How to Land a Plane" is not a metaphor. This isn't a book which teaches you life-lessons via the exciting world of aeronautics. It is a charming and practical…</p><p>👀 Read more: <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-how-to-land-a-plane-by-mark-vanhoenacker/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-</span><span class="invisible">review-how-to-land-a-plane-by-mark-vanhoenacker/</span></a><br>⸻<br><a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/BookReview" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BookReview</span></a></p>
Terence Eden’s Blog<p><strong>Book Review: Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed</strong></p><p><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-throne-of-the-crescent-moon-by-saladin-ahmed/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-</span><span class="invisible">review-throne-of-the-crescent-moon-by-saladin-ahmed/</span></a></p><p></p><p>After reading <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/06/book-review-engraved-on-the-eye-saladin-ahmed/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Saladin Ahmed's collection of short stories</a>, I was keen to read more. This book is fantastic! Fantasy books usually seem to be swords and dragons, set in a generic European country. Crescent Moon is scimitars and sorcery, and set in a mythical Middle-Eastern country.</p><p>The writing is sublime. It feels like an ancient epic, translated a hundred years ago with archaic language left intact. It'll make good use of your eReader's dictionary to discover words like "ensorcelled".</p><p>Amongst all the blood and magic, are literary gems like:</p><blockquote><p>Zamia’s little laugh cut through him like a sword poisoned with pure happiness.</p></blockquote><p>But, perhaps the best thing about this, is that it reads like the <em>end</em> of a trilogy. The characters are all established, there's little exposition about the fantasy-word, the environment is richly textured. Above all, the characters are <em>tired</em>!</p><p>It is a fast-paced, exciting, and entertaining book. Perfect for fantasy-lovers who fancy something a bit different from endless Game-of-Thrones rip-offs.</p><p></p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/tag/book-review/" target="_blank">#BookReview</a></p>
Terence Eden<p>🆕 blog! “Book Review: Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed”<br>★★★★★</p><p>After reading Saladin Ahmed's collection of short stories, I was keen to read more. This book is fantastic! Fantasy books usually seem to be swords and dragons, set in a generic European country. Crescent Moon is scimitars and sorcery, and set in a mythical Middle-Eastern country.</p><p>The…</p><p>👀 Read more: <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-throne-of-the-crescent-moon-by-saladin-ahmed/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-</span><span class="invisible">review-throne-of-the-crescent-moon-by-saladin-ahmed/</span></a><br>⸻<br><a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/BookReview" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BookReview</span></a></p>
Terence Eden’s Blog<p><strong>Book Review: Death Glitch - How Techno-Solutionism Fails Us in This Life and Beyond by Tamara Kneese</strong></p><p><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-death-glitch-how-techno-solutionism-fails-us-in-this-life-and-beyond-by-tamara-kneese/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-</span><span class="invisible">review-death-glitch-how-techno-solutionism-fails-us-in-this-life-and-beyond-by-tamara-kneese/</span></a></p><p></p><p>What happens after we die? All dogs go to heaven, but all data eventually gets corrupted.</p><p>Most online services are designed for the "happy path". Users never change name, gender remains fixed, spouses never divorce, and customers live forever. The real world is a tad more complicated. As the book puts it:</p><blockquote><p>When death occurs for users and platforms, it becomes a kind of glitch that reveals needs that designers did not originally consider.</p></blockquote><p>This is an exploration of what happens to our digital remains after we have shuffled off this mortal coil.</p><p>Did you know that graves are regularly re-used? The plot your dear old granny is buried in, will one day make room for someone else's beloved. The same is true on the Internet.</p><blockquote><p>When Paul created a memorial website for Julie, julieslife.com, he found that two other women named Julie had used that domain before; he was building on top of their digital traces.</p></blockquote><p>It is worth noting that this is an academic book. It is rather heavy on the (Marxist) theory and a little unforgiving to the casual reader.</p><blockquote><p>In Chun’s estimation, digital information is itself “undead,” having ghostly qualities that she likens to Karl Marx’s commodity fetishism: “if a commodity is, as Marx famously argued, a ‘sensible supersensible thing,’ information would seem to be its complement: a supersensible sensible thing.”</p></blockquote><p>Death is hard work for all involved. Do you want your loved ones to be burdened with the admin of keeping your domain active? Do they really want the hassle of sorting through your MP3s? Does anyone care about your custom Netflix algorithm?</p><p>One of the hardest things I had to do recently was "unfriend" someone who had died. The platform didn't have a "memorial" option, and I kept being suggested to reconnect with someone who was uncontactable without a Ouija Board. The book points out how Facebook and other platforms evolved to support the death of their users - even though the platforms were sometimes reluctant in the face of hostility from the living.</p><blockquote><p>Instead of trusting religious entities with their immortal souls, users should put their faith in the tech industry. Rather than employing established institutions or kinship networks to manage digital belongings, ordinary users are expected to outsource that labor to a host of relatively new web-based companies that might very well dissolve within a decade.</p></blockquote><p>These are secular problems which remain unsolved. They cannot be solved by the current cultural hegemon:</p><blockquote><p>Digital remains are dependent on the global reach and future existence of successful platforms, but they are also mostly located in the United States, particularly in the San Francisco Bay area and along the West Coast.</p></blockquote><p>The author also <em>directly</em> attacks me:</p><blockquote><p>Smart homes are designed according to the specifications of those who build them and do not take into account the desires of those who inherit them. They are fundamentally incompatible with the collective care work needed to keep them running.</p></blockquote><p>Harsh but fair!</p><p>I could quote endlessly from this book. It points out how digital devices become haunted objects, as our last wishes cascade through endless algorithms, how we don't control digital products in the same way as we do the physical, and how it is our duty to die responsibly.</p><p>It is a little heavy on the Marxist discourse but, to be fair, the right-wing are incapable of writing anything academic - so the free market has prevailed and delivers us Socialist dreams.</p><p>The only question I have left to ask is: who gets my ringtones when I die?</p><p></p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/tag/book-review/" target="_blank">#BookReview</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/tag/death/" target="_blank">#death</a></p>
Terence Eden<p>🆕 blog! “Book Review: Death Glitch - How Techno-Solutionism Fails Us in This Life and Beyond by Tamara Kneese”<br>★★★★⯪</p><p>What happens after we die? All dogs go to heaven, but all data eventually gets corrupted.</p><p>Most online services are designed for the "happy path". Users never change name, gender remains fixed, spouses…</p><p>👀 Read more: <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-death-glitch-how-techno-solutionism-fails-us-in-this-life-and-beyond-by-tamara-kneese/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-</span><span class="invisible">review-death-glitch-how-techno-solutionism-fails-us-in-this-life-and-beyond-by-tamara-kneese/</span></a><br>⸻<br><a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/BookReview" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BookReview</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/death" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>death</span></a></p>
GrrlScientist ⧖ Ⓥ :verified:<p>Hidden Valley Road By Robert Kolker — Review</p><p>"A biography of a post-WWII American family with 12 children — 10 of them were boys, 6 of whom developed schizophrenia."</p><p>by <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mstdn.science/@GrrlScientist" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>GrrlScientist</span></a></span> via <a href="https://mstdn.science/tags/Medium" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Medium</span></a></p><p><a href="https://mstdn.science/tags/books" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>books</span></a> <a href="https://mstdn.science/tags/BookReview" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BookReview</span></a> <a href="https://mstdn.science/tags/Schizophrenia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Schizophrenia</span></a> <a href="https://mstdn.science/tags/MentalHealth" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>MentalHealth</span></a> <a href="https://mstdn.science/tags/SciComm" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>SciComm</span></a> <a href="https://medium.com/grrlscientist/hidden-valley-road-by-robert-kolker-review-a73a1a1a7094" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">medium.com/grrlscientist/hidde</span><span class="invisible">n-valley-road-by-robert-kolker-review-a73a1a1a7094</span></a></p>
Bibliolater 📚 📜 🖋<p>📖 **Hokey Cowboy**</p><p>_“Neoliberalism morphed into paleolibertarianism: free markets plus primitive racial, sexual and political hierarchies. Hayek had celebrated dynamic entrepreneurs and free-thinking intellectuals. Hayek’s bastards were into cavemen.”_</p><p> 🔗 <a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n09/david-runciman/hokey-cowboy" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n09/da</span><span class="invisible">vid-runciman/hokey-cowboy</span></a>. </p><p><a href="https://qoto.org/tags/Neoliberalism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Neoliberalism</span></a> <a href="https://qoto.org/tags/Hayek" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Hayek</span></a> <a href="https://qoto.org/tags/LRB" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>LRB</span></a> <a href="https://qoto.org/tags/Review" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Review</span></a> <a href="https://qoto.org/tags/BookReview" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BookReview</span></a> <a href="https://qoto.org/tags/Nonfiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Nonfiction</span></a> <a href="https://qoto.org/tags/Book" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Book</span></a> <a href="https://qoto.org/tags/Bookstodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Bookstodon</span></a> <a href="https://qoto.org/tags/Politics" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Politics</span></a> <a href="https://qoto.org/tags/PoliticalScience" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>PoliticalScience</span></a> <span class="h-card"><a href="https://a.gup.pe/u/bookstodon" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>bookstodon</span></a></span> <span class="h-card"><a href="https://a.gup.pe/u/politicalscience" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>politicalscience</span></a></span></p>
Terence Eden’s Blog<p><strong>Book Review: Protective Practices - A History of the London Rubber Company and the Condom Business by Jessica Borge</strong></p><p><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-protective-practices-a-history-of-the-london-rubber-company-and-the-condom-business-by-jessica-borge/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-</span><span class="invisible">review-protective-practices-a-history-of-the-london-rubber-company-and-the-condom-business-by-jessica-borge/</span></a></p><p></p><p>Did you know that there was a virtual monopoly on condom production in the UK? I certainly didn't! This book is a detailed dive into how and why one company came to dominate the "French Letter" business and the ways in which British culture shaped them.</p><p>This is a sober and detailed look through the lifespan of a fascinating British company. It is, in part, corporate biography, marketing textbook, business thriller, and social history. Dr Borge has an eye for the interesting story buried deep within the manilla folders of corporate drudgery.</p><p>It starts with a little pre-history of the condom, how it came to be, and how it was marketed. Of interest me was just how attitudes about sex waxed and waned throughout the years:</p><blockquote><p>Both in London and in provincial towns, retailers presented contraceptive supplies blatantly and without embarrassment, so much so that the commercialization of contraceptives was well established by the interwar period. Women and men of any class might purchase them on high streets</p></blockquote><p>There are amazing titbits of historical shenanigans - with the eugenicist Marie Stopes coming in for some well-deserved criticism.</p><blockquote><p>Stopes, who broke away from the NBCA/FPA, believed in the “highly stimulating” (by which we can infer sexually arousing) power of semen absorption through vaginal walls, and vetoed the condom on that basis.</p></blockquote><p>Considering the secrecy surrounding the London Rubber Company, there are a good number of archival photos which enliven the text. In fact, more than secret, at time the company seems to have become a cult - under thrall to its purported founder while whitewashing dissenting heretics.</p><p>It is weird to see just how much and little has changed when it comes to attitudes around health and birth control.</p><blockquote><p>Comparable to the later Point of Display law for cigarettes, which came into force under the 2009 Health Act and saw tobacco products covered by opaque shutters in shops, 1930s campaigners felt that attractive packaging enticed consumers into patterns of behaviour in which they would not otherwise engage.</p></blockquote><p>Imagine telling someone from the 1940s that tobacco adverts would be banned in the future but contraceptives and sex aids would be on full display!</p><p>At times, it does stray slightly into textbook territory. Each chapter has an introductory summary and an ending recap. I suspect part of the target audience may be marketing students who are assigned to read one specific chapter, or business studies students tearing through it in a hurry.</p><p>What amazed me was just how underhand and duplicitous the London Rubber Company appeared to be. They abused their monopoly, tried to force clinics to carry their advertising, and even engaged in astroturfing:</p><blockquote><p>To this end, the ‘Genetic Studies Unit’ was invented by London Rubber’s PR agent, Marc Quinn Associates, in 1964.</p></blockquote><p>We go through politics, changes in attitudes, and the geo-politics of rubber supplies. To say it is varied is an understatement!</p><p>For a company obsessed with making money, it is downright strange how their internalised bigotry almost broke the company.</p><blockquote><p>the transition to a new customer base was culturally problematic for the company. Its dependence on addressing its consumer base through normative stereotypes was well established, and it was reluctant to publicly acknowledge the use of its product outside of the normative heterosexual family.</p></blockquote><p>The ending is a little abrupt, covering several decades in a single chapter - it could easily have been twice the length.</p><p>Ultimately, if you're interested in the intersection of commerce and the politics of sex, this is the book for you.</p><p></p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/tag/book-review/" target="_blank">#BookReview</a></p>
Terence Eden<p>🆕 blog! “Book Review: Protective Practices - A History of the London Rubber Company and the Condom Business by Jessica Borge”<br>★★★★☆</p><p>Did you know that there was a virtual monopoly on condom production in the UK? I certainly didn't! This book is a detailed dive into how and why one company came to dominate the…</p><p>👀 Read more: <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-protective-practices-a-history-of-the-london-rubber-company-and-the-condom-business-by-jessica-borge/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-</span><span class="invisible">review-protective-practices-a-history-of-the-london-rubber-company-and-the-condom-business-by-jessica-borge/</span></a><br>⸻<br><a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/BookReview" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BookReview</span></a></p>
SPQR<p>The result of more than 200 interviews, the book is a damning account of an elderly, egotistical president shielded from reality by a slavish coterie of loyalists and family members united by a shared, seemingly ironclad sense of denial and a determination to smear anyone who dared to question the president’s fitness for office as a threat to the republic covertly working on behalf of Trump.<br><a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/BookReview" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BookReview</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/Biden" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Biden</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/USPolitics" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>USPolitics</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/corruption" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>corruption</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/fraud" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>fraud</span></a> <br><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/05/14/original-sin-joe-biden-jake-tapper-alex-thompson-review/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">washingtonpost.com/books/2025/</span><span class="invisible">05/14/original-sin-joe-biden-jake-tapper-alex-thompson-review/</span></a></p>
GrrlScientist ⧖ Ⓥ :verified:<p>Free Bird: Flaco The Owl’s Dreams Take Flight By Christine Mott And Ofra Layla Isler — <a href="https://mstdn.science/tags/Review" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Review</span></a></p><p>published by Lantern Publishing & Media, <a href="https://mstdn.science/tags/BookReview" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BookReview</span></a> by <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mstdn.science/@GrrlScientist" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>GrrlScientist</span></a></span></p><p><a href="https://mstdn.science/tags/books" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>books</span></a> <a href="https://mstdn.science/tags/ChildrensBooks" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ChildrensBooks</span></a> <a href="https://mstdn.science/tags/Flaco" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Flaco</span></a> <a href="https://mstdn.science/tags/owl" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>owl</span></a> <a href="https://mstdn.science/tags/NewYorkCity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>NewYorkCity</span></a> <a href="https://mstdn.science/tags/NonFiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>NonFiction</span></a> <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/grrlscientist/2025/05/12/free-bird-flaco-the-owls-dreams-take-flight-by-christine-mott--ofra-layla-isler---review/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">forbes.com/sites/grrlscientist</span><span class="invisible">/2025/05/12/free-bird-flaco-the-owls-dreams-take-flight-by-christine-mott--ofra-layla-isler---review/</span></a></p>
Sara Lobkovich, J.D., NBC-HWC<p>Booklife Reviews called it a "practical, illuminating guide" with "first-rate advice presented with rare clarity" — and gave it straight A's for production quality (owing to my collaborators, Caerus Kourt (design & layout) via Reedsy, and Laura Matthews (Editor) at <a href="https://Thinkstory.biz" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">Thinkstory.biz</span><span class="invisible"></span></a>).</p><p>The BookLife Editor's Pick is awarded to "superlative" books that demonstrate "truly outstanding quality" — and as a first-time self-published author...</p><p><a href="https://thinkydoers.social/tags/BookRecommendations" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BookRecommendations</span></a> <a href="https://thinkydoers.social/tags/NewBookDay" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>NewBookDay</span></a> <a href="https://thinkydoers.social/tags/BookReview" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BookReview</span></a></p>
Sara Lobkovich, J.D., NBC-HWC<p>As an independent self-published author, even working with industry pros for design and editing, it's really hard to have any idea of the objective quality of your book (especially for someone like me who has massive impostery-thought stuff to manage).</p><p>That's why this feels like big deal:</p><p>My new book, "You Are A Strategist," has earned a Booklife Reviews ⚡️Editor's Pick designation AND is now available at independent bookstores nationwide! 📚</p><p><a href="https://thinkydoers.social/tags/NewBook" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>NewBook</span></a> <a href="https://thinkydoers.social/tags/BookLaunch" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BookLaunch</span></a> <a href="https://thinkydoers.social/tags/SelfPublished" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>SelfPublished</span></a> <a href="https://thinkydoers.social/tags/BookReview" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BookReview</span></a></p>
Alexandra<p>I've written something of a lengthy <a href="https://writing.exchange/tags/bookreview" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>bookreview</span></a> of SA Chakraborty's brilliant THE KINGDOM OF COPPER - the fantasy follow-up to The City of Brass.</p><p>This one's for you <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://social.lol/@jedda" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>jedda</span></a></span> </p><p><a href="https://alexwolfe.ca/book-review-the-kingdom-of-copper-by-sa-chakraborty/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">alexwolfe.ca/book-review-the-k</span><span class="invisible">ingdom-of-copper-by-sa-chakraborty/</span></a></p><p><a href="https://writing.exchange/tags/fantasy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>fantasy</span></a> <a href="https://writing.exchange/tags/books" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>books</span></a> <a href="https://writing.exchange/tags/amreading" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>amreading</span></a></p>
Terence Eden’s Blog<p><strong>Book Review: The Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer (Standard Ebooks version)</strong></p><p><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-the-canterbury-tales-geoffrey-chaucer-standard-ebooks-version/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-</span><span class="invisible">review-the-canterbury-tales-geoffrey-chaucer-standard-ebooks-version/</span></a></p><p></p><p>I am flying through the sky with a magic glass on my lap. As I hurtle at terrifying speeds to lands undreamed of, Chaucer's words arrange themselves on the slate. With the merest flick of my fingers another tale appears. In a few hours I will have covered more distance than he ever did in his lifetime. The parchment evidence of his life is now compiled for all to read.</p><p>I can't remember when I last read a book aloud. With Chaucer, I found myself mouthing along to the lines - it was the only way to make sense of the rhythms and rhymes. The <a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/geoffrey-chaucer/the-canterbury-tales" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Standard Ebooks version</a> is a copy of the mid-1800s translation so while the language is <em>somewhat</em> more accessible, there are still lots of explanatory footnotes and a fair bit of dictionary look-ups.</p><p>What's fascinating is how the tropes and stereotypes echo down through the ages. The COVID profiteers are no different to the plague doctors:</p><blockquote><p>He kept that he won in the pestilence.<br>For gold in physic is a cordial;<br>Therefore he loved gold in special.</p></blockquote><p>It is also delightful to use rhymes to see how language has changed:</p><blockquote><p><em>Translation</em><br>And weakë be the oxen in my plough;<br>The remnant of my tale is long enow.</p><p><em>Original</em><br>And wayke been the oxen in my plough.<br>The remenant of the tale is long ynough.</p></blockquote><p>I was impressed by just how <em>silly</em> Chaucer is - it really feels like he's making up the story casually as he goes along:</p><blockquote><p>Her yellow hair was braided in a tress,<br>Behind her back, a yardë long I guess.</p></blockquote><p>Which also brings forth some genuine laughs:</p><blockquote><p>Who couldë rhyme in English properly<br>His martyrdom? forsooth, it is not I;</p></blockquote><p>The Knight's Tale goes on a bit, and is <em>desperately</em> melodramatic. But the pace is good and the story compelling.</p><p>The Miller's Tale is <strong>rude</strong></p><blockquote><p>And at the window she put out her hole,<br>And Absolon him fell ne bet ne werse,<br>But with his mouth he kiss’d her naked erse<br>Full savourly. When he was ware of this,<br>Aback he start, and thought it was amiss,<br>For well he wist a woman hath no beard.<br>He felt a thing all rough, and long y-hair’d,<br>And saidë; “Fy, alas! what have I do?”<br>“Te he!” quoth she, and clapt the window to;</p></blockquote><p>It gets even more scatalogical:</p><blockquote><p>“Speak, sweetë bird, I know not where thou art.”<br>This Nicholas anon let fly a fart,<br>As great as it had been a thunder dent;<br>That with the stroke he was well nigh y-blent;</p></blockquote><p>Although - content warning - it does have a fair bit of rape and sexual assault in it.</p><p>I was fascinated with how much scientific knowledge there was in it. Along with the talk of "infinity" there's a marvellous passage about calculating the time from the sun:</p><blockquote><p>And saw well that the shadow of every tree<br>Was in its length of the same quantity<br>That was the body erect that caused it;<br>And therefore by the shadow he took his wit,<br>That Phoebus, which that shone so clear and bright,<br>Degrees was five-and-forty clomb on height;<br>And for that day, as in that latitude,<br>It was ten of the clock, he gan conclude;</p></blockquote><p>He also displays a surprisingly amount of knowledge of Islam and some of its central theses.</p><p>The Wife of Bath is amazing! A total feminist icon. With her five husbands that she's outlived after gaining their great big tracts of land. She rails against the patriarchy, the fetishisation of chastity, and the hypocrisy of men</p><blockquote><p>But well I wot, express without a lie,<br>God bade us for to wax and multiply;<br>That gentle text can I well understand.<br>Eke well I wot, he said, that mine husbánd<br>Should leave father and mother, and take to me;<br>But of no number mentión made he,<br>Of bigamy or of octogamy;<br>Why then should men speak of it villainy?</p></blockquote><p>Once you can get past the language barrier and get into the rhythm, the stories are bawdy and jolly.</p><p>Sadly, I had to give up reading the <a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/geoffrey-chaucer/the-canterbury-tales" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Standard Ebooks version</a> halfway through. Although it is perfectly formatted and beautifully typeset, it has numerous typographical errors. It appears most of those typos appear in the Gutenberg version which it is adapted from. I <a href="https://github.com/standardebooks/geoffrey-chaucer_the-canterbury-tales/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Aclosed+author%3Aedent" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">sent a few pull requests to fix the ones I found</a> but it became increasingly frustrating not knowing whether a spelling was archaic or merely transcribed incorrectly.</p><p>The other issue is that this is the Purves translation from the mid-1800s. Although it does a reasonable job with explanatory footnotes, it also is <em>weirdly</em> censored in places. For example, in The Wife of Bath, the titular character says:</p><blockquote><p>Is it for ye would have my [love] alone?</p></blockquote><p>What word has been elided? The original is:</p><blockquote><p>Is it for ye wolde have my queynte allone?</p></blockquote><p>Yes kids! Chaucer used <em>very</em> naughty words!</p><p>So I stopped reading that version and will restart with a more modern and less Bowdlerised version. Any recommendations?</p><p></p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/tag/book-review/" target="_blank">#BookReview</a></p>
Terence Eden<p>🆕 blog! “Book Review: The Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer (Standard Ebooks version)”</p><p>I am flying through the sky with a magic glass on my lap. As I hurtle at terrifying speeds to lands undreamed of, Chaucer's words arrange themselves on the slate. With the merest flick of my fingers another tale appears. In a few hours I will have covered more…</p><p>👀 Read more: <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-the-canterbury-tales-geoffrey-chaucer-standard-ebooks-version/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-</span><span class="invisible">review-the-canterbury-tales-geoffrey-chaucer-standard-ebooks-version/</span></a><br>⸻<br><a href="https://mastodon.social/tags/BookReview" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BookReview</span></a></p>
GrrlScientist ⧖ Ⓥ :verified:<p>The Decline And Fall Of The Human Empire By Henry Gee — Review</p><p>"An entertaining and thought-provoking overview of the rise and fall of the human population – as our species declines towards extinction"</p><p>book published by St Martins Press, reviewed by <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mstdn.science/@GrrlScientist" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>GrrlScientist</span></a></span> </p><p><a href="https://mstdn.science/tags/books" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>books</span></a> <a href="https://mstdn.science/tags/BookReview" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BookReview</span></a> <a href="https://mstdn.science/tags/Science" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Science</span></a> <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/grrlscientist/2025/05/11/the-decline-and-fall-of-the-human-empire-by-henry-gee---review/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">forbes.com/sites/grrlscientist</span><span class="invisible">/2025/05/11/the-decline-and-fall-of-the-human-empire-by-henry-gee---review/</span></a></p>
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