fskornia

kimlockhartga , 7 months ago to bookstodon

@bookstodon As we approach the end of 2023, I would love to know about the very best books you read this year. (They don't have to have been published in 2023 for your "best of" list.)

fskornia , 7 months ago

@kimlockhartga @bookstodon
House of Odysseus by Claire North
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
This is How Your Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
Translation State by Ann Leckie
A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes
Circe by Madeline Miller
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz
The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older
Babel by RF Kuang

CultureDesk , 7 months ago to bookstodon

A debut author has lost her book deal after she admitted to "review bombing" competitors on Goodreads, largely targeting women of color. In a letter posted to X, Cait Corrain blamed her behavior on mental-health struggles and addiction. Here's more from the Mary Sue.

https://flip.it/AQ9gCG

#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon #Writing

fskornia , 7 months ago

@tutwilly @CultureDesk @bookstodon A big part of this was that she was submitting one-star reviews before the books were published and in some cases before advanced reader copies were sent out to reviewers. So there would be no other reviews tempering the low ratings.
These ratings can feed into the selection systems that bookstores and libraries use and then could affect preorders.

Helen50 , 7 months ago to bookstodon

when do you abandon a book?
I'm not very good at it, but I might be about to do it again.
#books @bookstodon

fskornia , 7 months ago

@Helen50 @bookstodon I used to be bad about abandoning books, but there is always too much to read to spend on something I'm not enjoying. I'll usually give it 50-100 pages. If I'm not motivated to continue, I'll move on to something else.

leapingwoman , 8 months ago to bookstodon

@peachfront @psychopoesie @dvmheather @bookstodon To Say Nothing of the Dog was my mom's all-time favorite book. It never failed to cheer her up.

fskornia , 8 months ago

@westerling @leapingwoman @peachfront @psychopoesie @dvmheather @bookstodon Bellwether is definitely great. Crosstalk is good, not as strong as her other books, but a fun romantic comedy sci-fi.

slanderoid , 10 months ago to random

It's September 15th! That means it's the official start of the Spooky Season 🦇 I'm celebrating day one by:

1. Starting to read "The Only Good Indians" by Stephen Graham Jones. It's got tons of ghost deer, so I'm pumped!

2. Watching "The Twilight Zone" reboot. The first story was creepy and interesting!

3. Playing "Signalis". It had me hooked after I picked up a copy of "The King in Yellow" in-game

#Halloween #horror #SpookySeason

18+ fskornia , 9 months ago

@slanderoid @bookstodon 🍄 🍄 🍄

kimlockhartga , 9 months ago to bookstodon

@bookstodon Now that it's October, let's do a Five Fave Modern Horror book list. #FiveFaveHorror
My contemporary spooky reads top five:

1. The Only Good Indians, Stephen Graham Jones

2. The Library at Mount Char, Scott Hawkins

3. Slade House, David Mitchell

4. The Glassy, Burning Floor of Hell, Bryan Evenson

5. Sorrowland, Rivers Solomon

#horror #books #October #BooksWorthReading

fskornia , 9 months ago

@kimlockhartga @bookstodon My favorite 5 from my years of doing Spooky Reads (in no particular order):

Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey

The Cipher Kathe Koja

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias

#horror #books #october

fskornia , 9 months ago

@kimlockhartga @bookstodon There has been so much good stuff in horror lately. Your list and the responses is going to be full of so many different titles and everyone is going to be correct.

owlislost , 9 months ago to bookstodon

Hellooo #bookstodon and happy Friday! What #books are you #ReadingThisWeekend? I'm mostly in textbook-land these days but I am listening to Daisy Jones & the Six, which is great as an audiobook. I'm weighing either starting Stradal's The Lager Queen of Minnesota or The Horse by Geraldine Brooks. https://geraldinebrooks.com/horse/ @bookstodon

fskornia , 9 months ago

@owlislost @bookstodon I loved the Daisy Jones audiobook. I listened to it after watching the show and I adored both versions (I still annoy my GF by raving about it to her and we watched it together)
I'm currently read 'From Below' by Darcy Coates and listening to 'The Hollow Places' by T. Kingfisher

jillrhudy , 10 months ago to bookstodon

I'm in a reading slump! I had a long weekend and couldn't get any book to "catch." I need ideas! Something that grabs the reader from paragraph one but isn't a thriller. @bookstodon

fskornia , 10 months ago

@jillrhudy @bookstodon Not sure how you are on historical fiction, but I absolutely adored 'Great Circle' by Maggie Shipstead when I read it last year.

fskornia , 10 months ago

@dbsalk @jillrhudy @bookstodon The Daisy Jones audio was fantastic. Although it was hard to tell at times which guy was speaking. Except for Benjamin Bratt who has a great audiobook voice

rabbit_fighter , 10 months ago to bookstodon

@bookstodon I'm looking for book recommendations for an 11yo who reads at a much more advanced level. He likes sci-fi. He has read the Hitchhiker's Guide series and loved them. I think he would enjoy some more 'hard' sci-fi as well. He needs something challenging but without subject matter that is too mature. Thanks for any help! #sciencefiction #bookstodon

fskornia , 10 months ago

@rabbit_fighter @bookstodon He might like Vernor Vinge's 'A Fire Upon the Deep'
The first Expanse novel, 'Leviathan Wakes' by James SA Corey might also be a good choice
'Children of Time' by Adrian Tchaikovsky
If you want to dip into fantasy- look at Le Guin's Earthsea series, Robin McKinley's Damar series and for a next step, Robin Hobb's 'Assassin's Apprentice'

SamYourEyes , 10 months ago to random

Someone told their AI writer not to sound like an AI 😂😂
https://thegardenfixes.com/how-to-build-a-greenhouse-for-high-winds/

fskornia , 10 months ago

@SamYourEyes Except that we probably weeded the books about building greenhouses 10 years ago, because no one checked them because they just found the information online.
And because libraries weren't buying them, the publishers didn't see a market for them, so they stopped paying writers to write books about building greenhouses.
We're in a grim state of things now.

fskornia , 10 months ago

@CodexArcanum @carey @SamYourEyes One of the collections I'm responsible for contains a large number of Chilton auto repair guides going back decades. I refuse to weed them, despite low use, because the digital equivalent is very expensive and it's the sort of information that will increasingly be locked behind paywalls

skyekilaen , 11 months ago to bookstodon

Anybody have recs for single-author science fiction and/or fantasy/paranormal short story collections? I'm especially interested in marginalized authors.

My faves so far:

• 'Nathan Burgoine's Of Echoes Born (paranormal)
• Zen Cho's Spirits Abroad (fantasy/paranormal)
• Iona Datt Sharma's Not For Use In Navigation (mix of science fiction and fantasy)

Self-recs are cool, too!

#ScienceFiction #fantasy #Bookstodon @bookstodon @lgbtqbookstodon

fskornia , 11 months ago

@skyekilaen @bookstodon @lgbtqbookstodon I highly recommend 'How Long til Black Future Month' by NK Jemisin.
Also 'The Hidden Girl and Other Stories' by Ken Liu, who I think it is one of the best short fiction writers in SFF