Loved the British Library's 'Fantasy: Realms of Imagination' exhibition. Looks at different aspects of modern fantasy by contextualising them historically. See the handwritten notebook for Coraline by @neilhimself sitting next to C S Lewis's original ideas for The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. There is the manuscript of Beowulf, Gandalf's staff from the Lord of the Rings films, and much more. A great celebration of books and fantasy.
“Librarians in public schools in Charlotte County, Florida, were instructed by the school district superintendent to remove all books with LGBTQ characters or themes from school and classroom libraries.”
This is a must read from the always informative Judd Legum.
Seeing our world right now, where so many people are hurting, words can provide comfort sometimes, as well as do some good:
'What you need to be warm'
"This book of poetry is about our right to feel safe, whoever we are and wherever we are from. It is about holding out a hand to welcome those who find themselves far from home.
Sales of every copy of the book – including all author proceeds – help support the work of UNHCR."
Middle kiddo did a thing with a pumpkin. It's pretty dang cool, and I thought @neilhimself might like it, too. Happy Fall/Halloween/apocalypse, everyone!
This is an interesting and often funny discussion on myths, fantasy, childhood and how stories come to exist. @neilhimself is always fun to listen to and learn from
“What You Need to Be Warm” by @neilhimself is out this week. Very proud of my dear wife Yuliya (sadly not on fedi) for contributing one of the spreads alongside 12 other wonderful illustrators. Part of every sale goes towards the UNHCR!
It's intermission rn and uggghhh it's so good. I need to re-read the book so badly. I think I'll always love the book more but the adaptation to stage works surprisingly well.
It was incredible. I almost cried as much at the end as I did when reading, though not as hard. The technical aspects were amazing, the effects spellbinding. The puppetry!! The acting was very good but everything else just blew me away. The way the stagehands and scene changes were incorporated and sometimes interacted with the characters were so creative and clever, they added a meta level to the topic of storytelling. And being one of my favourite stories by @neilhimself helped too, of course.
"It is worth getting inside Trump’s head a bit and imagining his mood following an election victory. He will have spent the previous year, and more, fighting to stay out of jail, plagued by myriad persecutors and helpless to do what he likes to do best: exact revenge. Think of the fury that will have built up inside him, a fury that, from his point of view, he has worked hard to contain. ..."
Why do people believe that Trump’s revenge would not be like proscriptions of Marius or Sulla, but with the power of the surveillance state and tactical precision of drones?
My whole life I’ve been into geography and yet — after 50+ trips around the Sun — it was like two weeks ago that I learned that Appalachia is pronounced Appa-LATCH-ia … not Appa-LAY-chia 🤦🏾♂️
Also, Y’ALL (Young Appalachian Leaders and Learners) apparently got issues with JD Vance’s best-selling #book “Hillbilly Elegy”
@seanalan I read Hillbilly Elegy several years ago. I am interested in your thoughts on the response. On my TBR list! Thanks for posting about it! @bookstodon#books
Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy. You are a young Russian woman living in the late 19th century, where a successful romance seems quite impossible for the obliviously wealthy; you try to break the mold but the mold wins. 4 of 5 library cats 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈.
@jofagobe@bookstodon The Kitty storyline ended very unsatisfyingly for me; it seemed built for contrast to Anna’s, but didn’t really deliver on that, at least for me.