I want to love Murakami novels but the views on sex that bleed into his longer novels are very uncomfortable sometimes (looking at you 1Q84). Anyway also https://archive.is/8sNHt
You might be interested in the documentary "It's Quieter in the Twilight" about the engineers who keep the Voyagers alive.
This was my favorite quote from the article.
But neither of those books was actually checked out from the Hayden Library on his trip. One of the books was checked out from another library, and another was stolen off the shelves. Norris refused to return the books at first, and Alexa Eccles, the executive director of the Community Library Network, told me in a phone call that, when Norris eventually returned them, the barcodes had been cut out of the book covers, and the library has not been able to return them to circulation or get new copies.
Body camera footage from Idaho reveals a sheriff hunting for a YA book he could use for a political stunt.
This is awesome thank you for writing your thoughts out! I loved Time Shelter, I heard the translation to English was poor compared to Georgi Gospodinov's native language.
I didn't realize Murtagh was released, thanks!
Upgraded to v0.19.1 - Bugfixes
Just upgraded to a point release that should fix up some issues with federation to services outside of lemmy. Carry on everyone and enjoy.
Previous release notes here: https://join-lemmy.org/news/2023-12-15_-Lemmy_Release_v0.19.0-_Instance_blocking,_Scaled_sort,_and_Federation_Queue
Please post a review of it once you finish! I'm obsessed with Time Shelter and would love to see other opinions on it.
Ah yes. I should have put that in the release notes. It was removed from the API unfortunately. There's an issue here asking for it to be reimplemented. https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues/4215
If your third party app experience is feeling a little funky, you just need to sign out and in. Looks like session termination wasn't handled correctly in some apps.
Welcome to 0.19.0 - Release Notes
Welcome to the highly anticipated update! Tons of changes in this release, but you might have noticed you were signed out. All sessions were terminated to allow for a more secure user auth flow. New post ranking algorithms and instance blocks for users are the headlining features, but there were almost 400 commits since 0.18.5 so please read the release notes if you are curious about the other big changes. Enjoy the update!
See you on the other side everyone.
Beeper Mini registered your phone number with Apple and connected directly to the iMessage servers. That version was killed after three days of usage. The mac mini farm still works but that's just through an apple ID email address.
iOS 17 uses a small gpt-2 based model for predictive text.
Diaspora by Greg Egan
I have been trying to put into words how I feel about this novel by Greg Egan. This novel leans very far into the "hard sci-fi" side of the spectrum and it isn't for everyone. Egan is a mathematician and a software engineer and those areas of expertise are relied on heavily to craft the world we inhabit in Diaspora. I have read this twice now, both times enjoying the technical masterpiece of Egan's world. The beginning is tough to read, it is slow and extremely verbose. There's no hand holding in the conceptual world you have been thrown into. If you are having trouble, the Wikipedia page is helpful to lean on and the glossary in the back of the book is a must to reference in the earlier chapters. As you get the hang of the world though, the story just flows forward. I enjoyed the pacing and characters journeys as well as the general theme of the novel. Highly recommended if you enjoy a technical and dense sci-fi novel.
Update from Scholastic
Dear Authors and lllustrators,
I want to update you regarding the Book Fairs Share Every Story/Celebrate Every Voice case.
First, I want to apologize on behalf of Scholastic. Even if the decision was made with good intention, we understand now that it was a mistake to segregate diverse books in an elective case. We sincerely apologize to every author, illustrator, licensor, educator, librarian, parent, and reader who was hurt by our action. We recognize and acknowledge the pain caused, and that we have broken the trust of some of our publishing community, customers, friends, trusted partners, and staff, and we also recognize that we will now need to regain that trust.
This case will be discontinued starting with our next season in January. For the remaining fairs in the fall, Book Fairs is working on a pivot plan as we speak. We will find an alternate way to get a greater range of books into the hands of children. We remain committed to the books in this collection and support their sale throughout our distribution channels.
Our commitment to BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ authors and stories remains foundational for our company. Scholastic believes in the basic freedoms of all individuals. We oppose discrimination of any kind on the basis of age, race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, or national origin. We are committed to providing access and choice, and to helping young readers develop critical skills needed to exercise democracy and build a society free of prejudice and hate. Equally important, we pledge to stand with you as we redouble our efforts to combat the laws restricting children's access to books. This will not be our last communication on the matter, but we wanted to get this initial Word out. We look forward to working to create a better and more just future together.
Sincerely,
Ellie Berger
President
Scholastic Trade Publishing
A Message from Scholastic on U.S. Book Fairs
Scholastic found that it either had to give in to the hardliners who wanted to ban books for children or to not allow that, and they seem to have decided to give in.
Speculative Fiction and Dogs – A Deep Look by Dave Hook
I recently read a really bang-up SF story, “The Go-Between”, a novelette by Lisa Goldstein, Asimov’s March 2001. I read it in “Year’s Best SF 7”, Kathryn Cramer …
Time Shelter - a Novel by Georgi Gospodinov
https://openlibrary.org/works/OL26513113W/Time_Shelter_-_a_Novel?edition=key%3A/books/OL35858097M
Literature Focused Microbloggers
Help! I'm looking for interesting microbloggers who focus on the literature space (especially speculative fiction) to follow. Preferably on mastodon since I can consume the rss feed of their content.
The Passing of the Dragon - Ken Liu
A woman who fears she’s failing as a painter and as an artist seeks inspiration from one of her favorite poets and finds something even more wondrous, but also more impossible to capture on canvas……
New short story from Ken Liu published by Tor.com.
Library bomb threats prompt closings citywide, special police attention (Chicago)
All Chicago libraries closed after unfounded bomb threats Thursday, part of what has been called a national “disturbing trend” of intimidation over books offered on library shelves.
Percy Jackson Timeline
I just finished the mainline series the other day and the thing I keep thinking about is how much happened in such a short timeline overall. Especially in the final book, things really move along at such a quick pace. My executive dysfunction can't handle it.
The Chalice of the Gods
Are we excited for the new book? I've been trying to decide how much of the series to re-read before jumping into it. Wrapping up the original five books. I'll probably skip the Kabe Chronicles because meh.
The City We Became
The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin, unknown edition,
I have been on a kick recently looking at novels where ideas become "entities" and this novel is an interesting look at what constitutes a "city".
Unusual and often breathtaking, the genre is relatively unknown in the West.
PrintSF - community focused around speculative fiction
A cozy community to talk all things related to speculative fiction in printed work, including comics, books, poems, etc.
PrintSF on literature.cafe
Hoping to start a community on a book/writing focused instance similar to r/printsf here on lemmy. You can find us at [email protected]
The Glass Planet by Christopher Zyck
Currently working my way through The Glass Planet by Christopher Zyck. It's been a very enjoyable and interesting read. Reminds me a little bit of Foundation in the way it tells the story through millennia. I have such a soft spot for grand scale stories like this, they are difficult to get right.