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Bookwomble
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A new literary- and art-themed jigsaw from Laurence King to get to grips with 😊🧩
I'll try to read short works by and about the 49 listed people and points of interest as I go along, though that project (if I actually stick with it) will likely take longer than the jigsaw itself!

AllDebooks What a lovely puzzle and project 😍 3d
wanderinglynn I love the Laurence King puzzles 🧩 😍 3d
quietlycuriouskate Truly, what's not to love? 😍 3d
See All 8 Comments
Bookwomble @AllDebooks @wanderinglynn @quietlycuriouskate This series of puzzles is fantastic. Literary themes, beautiful illustrations, informative info sheet, and the pieces fit together so satisfyingly. I'm in jigsaw heaven 😇 3d
wanderinglynn I have done the Frankenstein & Sherlock puzzles. I want the Austin one too! 3d
Bookwomble @wanderinglynn I've done those three, as well 😁 I've also done the Dracula and King Arthur puzzles. We have the Brontës and Bridgerton, too, but those are Mrs. B's, so I've not done those! I've got the Dickens and Shakespeare ones on my radar! 3d
LeahBergen This looks fun! I‘ve done The Brontës and Jane Austen, too. 3d
Lesliereadsalot Love it!! 3d
33 likes8 comments
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Bookwomble
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I love the Māori word for autism: Takiwātanga, which means "in their own time and space". So respectful and inclusive ?
Keri Opai, who coined the word in 2017, explains how he came to it in this short article:
https://www.altogetherautism.org.nz/a-time-and-space-for-takiwatanga/

[Yes, it appears that I will be spamming my own feed with this book! ?]

kspenmoll Thank you so much for the article!!!! 3d
quietlycuriouskate Love this! I think I am my best self when in my own time and space, and then I am able to drop the shields (and masks!) around others, too. 3d
Bookwomble @kspenmoll You're welcome 😊 3d
See All 7 Comments
kelli7990 I have Autism. I didn‘t know there was a Māori word for it. 3d
Bookwomble @kelli7990 ❤️♾️❤️The author cites several non-English words for autism, most of which are some variation on the concept of inwardness and loneliness (unfortunately), but the Māori word and the Taiwanese are both more positive. The Taiwanese word is "Xingxing -de háizi", which literally translates as "children of the stars", which seems to me similar to the English idiom "head in the clouds", both of each I like ? 3d
TieDyeDude The Lost Girls is the UK title, US title is Off the Spectrum. Looks really interesting, I'll be interested in your takeaway at the end (and throughout 😄) 2d
33 likes1 stack add7 comments
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Bookwomble
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I'm not out of the introduction and already hugely impressed by Rippon's approach. As a neuroscientist with decades of autism research behind her, she starts with an apology for having missed (along with everybody else in the field) the prevalence of autistic women. While it can be slow to change, scientific understanding *does* change, even though cultural understanding often lags behind and acts as a brake on social change. ⬇️

Bookwomble What has already made the price of the book worth paying for me is the story of an undiagnosed autistic mother realising her autism when anxiously taking her son to his first day at nursery and seeing him fit straight in with the other children in a way she had never experienced herself, struggling to understand how he managed it so effortlessly. I had an intense emotional recognition of her paradigm-shifting insight. Oof! 3d
31 likes1 stack add1 comment
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Bookwomble
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3 #FirstLineFridays

Preface: I should start with a confession.

Introduction: If you google 'famous historical figures who might have been autistic' the list of results will be headed by figures such as Albert Einstein, Thomas Jefferson, Nikola Tesla, & Hans Christian Andersen.

Chap.1: When trying to answer what appears to be a straightforward question - what is autism? - we immediately encounter the amorphous nature of the definition of autism.

Leftcoastzen You see what‘s going on here in the US with RFK & autism? 😡😡😡😡😡 4d
Bookwomble @Leftcoastzen No - I just assume that I'm going to disagree with everything members of the Trump adminstration have to say and don't bother to listen. It saves time ? That said, I did hear that mini-Trump's sudden interest in "The Autism Threat" was a poorly masticated regurgitation of RFK junk. I'll check it out, but you're responsible for my high blood pressure! ? 4d
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Bookwomble @Leftcoastzen Sorry, "mini-Trump" is UK demagogue Nigel Farage - I'd also posted about his bandwagon jumping ? 4d
Bookwomble @Leftcoastzen Ah, I see that I and other neurodivergent people are to be targeted for eradication. Really good to know! His claim that autistic people don't contribute to the economy is not only false but suggests that a person's value is to be measured only by the profits to be extracted from them by capitalism. Forgive my language, but he can go fuck himself! (Sorry, I'm sweary today for some reason!) 4d
Leftcoastzen He is insane and stupid! So sick of this 💩 It‘s so maddening/Scary. Knowing to that some people here are fully aware of the insanity of all this & trying to fight, some blissfully ignorant, some cheering the regime on ! But this is how these things always go ! 4d
Bookwomble @Leftcoastzen Change can be slow, especially when it challenges the privileges of the powerful. Change is also inevitable. Conservatives tend to hark back to a Lost Golden Age' (e.g., MAGA in the US; The Empire in the UK) that never really existed as it is now imagined and which, by definition, is already passed. Of course, certain values and traditions are worth preserving, but as dynamic and unfolding processes, not as frozen museum pieces. 3d
kspenmoll Thank you @Leftcoastzen & @Bookwomble for this discussion. My Autistic son is both angry & terrified of RFK‘s beliefs & sees the parallels to Nazi Germany too clearly.( he wrote a research paper on the attitudes & rise of extermination of people w disabilities under Hitler). We have been attending local protests with like minded people etc. to share our voices. 3d
Bookwomble @kspenmoll I hope it helps your son to know that he is part of a global community. I hope it helps you to know that your son is valued and accepted by that community ❤️🫂❤️ Anger is the appropriate and valid emotion in the face of injustice. It gives us the energy to seek change. 😊 3d
29 likes9 comments
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Bookwomble
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Next up: Gina Ripon is a neuroscience researcher who has previously written about the myths of binary sex-based differences between male and female brains, for which she was awarded the accolade of "Feminazi" by gender essentialists, so that's a recommendation.

In this book, she presents her research into the under- and misdiagnosis of autism in women. I took a peek at the pages on gender nonconformity, which are supportive of trans identities ⬇️

Bookwomble ... and which cast the recent Supreme Court ruling on the biologically-based definitions of gender as unscientific, which we've actually known for decades but, apparently, we've got to keep fighting the same battles 😮‍💨 However, we shall overcome ✊🙂 4d
IriDas I just watched an interview with her about this book. I didn‘t know about her other work. I will have to add it to my list. Also, I do hope we will win this battle. Here in the US, our reps seem to slowly be getting the message from the people. Hopefully they will do something before it is too late. 4d
Bookwomble @IriDas I do hope for a sea change in global politics away from the current authoritarian, oppression-of-the-marginalised trend. I'll see if I can find that interview. Thanks for the heads up 😊 4d
Bookwomble @IriDas Thank you! 💖 I thought of asking, but didn't want to impose ☺️ I'll watch it after I've finished the book in case there are spoilers about the ending 😅 4d
31 likes5 comments
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Bookwomble
Stories of Autistic Joy | Laura Kate Dale
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Imagine my delighted neurodivergent surprise to find that I'm officially being oppressed by Nigel Farage! The far-right, mini-Trumpian wank-cannon has now decided that as well as having "too many" immigrants, trans people and breast-feeding mothers, we also have too many autistic people and children with special educational needs and disabilities. As a white, cishet man, I've waited a long time for this kind of recognition! ?

Bookwomble National Autistic Society response to his uninformed bullshittery:

Mel Merritt, Head of Policy and Campaigns at the National Autistic Society, said: “Nigel Farage‘s comments are wildly inaccurate and show that he‘s completely out of touch with what autistic children and adults have to go through to get a diagnosis or any support at all."
https://www.autism.org.uk/what-we-do/news/our-response-to-nigel-farages-comments
4d
Jari-chan What a time to be alive 🙃 4d
AmyG 😡 4d
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Leftcoastzen 😡😡😡😡 4d
nanuska_153 Your neurodivergent brain is also very funny. Hated the news, loved the way you told them ❤️😅 4d
The_Book_Ninja You‘ve soiled your thread with this rancid man‘s face🤮😂 3d
Bookwomble @The_Book_Ninja "The horror! The horror!" ?? 3d
TieDyeDude It's just so f'ing lazy. These comments are idiotic, and can easily be disproven in seconds. I am struck dumb by the mental gymnastics people engage in to support these losers. 2d
25 likes10 comments
review
Bookwomble
Nothing Grows by Moonlight | Torborg Nedreaas
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Pickpick

The book's title is suggestive of the half life the narrator lives, bound by an obsessional love to an older man utterly unworthy of her devotion, & trapped by the hypocritical mores of patriarchal religious values.
80 years since publication, Nedreaas's exploration of "pro-life" misogynistic shaming of pregnancy & abortion that also punishes unmarried mothers and stigmatises and willfully neglects their children is, sadly, still relevant. ⬇️

Bookwomble There are also themes of depression and mental illness, class struggle, capitalism, infidelity, and suicide, and some graphic descriptions of self-induced abortion, all couched in a brittly beautiful prose.

The narrative structure of compulsive reminiscence lends a dark foreboding to both the past and present circumstances of the narrator's life: Nedreaas is honest and doesn't play any cheap tricks on the reader. A plangently melancholy 4.5⭐
(edited) 4d
30 likes1 comment
quote
Bookwomble
Nothing Grows by Moonlight | Torborg Nedreaas
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“If you can smile today, maybe you can laugh tomorrow.”

This thought of the main character sounds hopeful - it is hopeful - I fear it is likely to be unfulfilled.

While reading I'm listening to Norwegian composer/pianist Ketil Bjørnstad's album "The Nest", which hits the right note of melancholy and light ??
#BooksAndMusic

? https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_noyS9yFqEsSrN8V5wQxVHcnlOIUZ9FDE8&si=i...

Jari-chan A beautiful quote 💖 4d
24 likes1 comment
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Bookwomble
Nothing Grows by Moonlight | Torborg Nedreaas
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#TuesdayTunes @TieDyeDude

The episode in Nedreaas's "Nothing Grows by Moonlight" where the unnamed narrator recalls the day she left home to escape a stultifying life for the self-deluding fantasy of a happy life with a lover who insists on the secrecy of their assignations, while not entirely matching the lyrics of "She's Leaving Home", is close enough that the one reminded me of the other. And any excuse to listen to this song is a good one ?

lil1inblue Oooh! I'm intrigued. And yes, any excuse for The Beatles is a welcome one. 7d
29 likes2 stack adds2 comments
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Bookwomble
Nothing Grows by Moonlight | Torborg Nedreaas
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“The world has been built crookedly with some kind of arrangement that makes lots of people into hunted animals and a few people so swimmingly well off they can't understand why everybody else isn't happy for them and willing to be beaten to death for their purpose.”

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Bookwomble
I, Robot | Isaac Asimov
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I've never been one for physical activity, especially if it's to a practical end, so to relieve me from the tedium of mowing the lawn, we got a robomower!
In best Asimovian tradition, he's been anthropomorphised, and named Ian, after letters in his serial number. 🤖
I can take no credit for setting it up, which my practically-minded son kindly did when he visited yesterday.
Book and a glass of wine in the late evening sun? Don't mind if I do 😊

Leftcoastzen 👏😁wow ! 1w
dabbe 🤩🙌🏻🤩 1w
Lesliereadsalot How cool! 1w
GingerAntics Hello, Ian! 1w
CarolynM 😂 1w
37 likes5 comments
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Bookwomble
Nothing Grows by Moonlight | Torborg Nedreaas
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The rain has stopped for what looks like long enough for me to walk to the shops without getting wet.
Each spring is signalled & beautified by this clematis in our front garden that (miracle!) I've managed to not kill
This 1947 Swedish novel, however, has none of the joys of spring. A woman looks back on an affair she had with her former school teacher, and given her adverse coping mechanisms at the point of narration, it's not going to end well!

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Bookwomble
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We went to Woodlands Animal Sanctuary's annual open day today, and imagine my joy when I saw this jigsaw 😍🧩🤩 Naturally, I rehomed it 😁💛🧡🧑🏼‍🎤🧡💛

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Bookwomble
Nothing Grows by Moonlight | Torborg Nedreaas
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"I am looking for someone."

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

review
Bookwomble
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Pickpick

As an urban fantasy: 5⭐
As an exploration of how trans lives are traumatically impacted by systemic transphobia it's both 5⭐ and incredibly timely.
As a massive "fuck you" to a certain billionaire oppressor of marginalized people, it's off the scale!
I loved the characters I was supposed to love, and felt a mix of outrage and pity for the antagonist. Juno caught a good balance of humour, action and peril, and I gulped it down! Sequel ordered!

lil1inblue Great review! 🔥 2w
33 likes1 stack add1 comment
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Bookwomble
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In response to the UK Supreme Court's ruling today against the rights of trans people to exist, I've written the following to my MP (see in comments). I'd ask British Littens of good conscience to write to their own MP in support of our trans fellow citizens.
#TransRights ✊🏳️‍⚧️✊ 🩵🩷🤍🩷🩵 #TransRightsAreHumanRights

You can find details of your MP and email them directly from this website:
https://www.writetothem.com/
⬇️

Bookwomble "I am very concerned about the ruling of the Supreme Court given on 16th April 2025 on the status of transgender (trans) people under the Equality Act, as it reinforces transphobic bigotry, further endangering the freedoms and wellbeing of British trans people.

While I am not myself trans, I fully support the rights of trans citizens to exist, to participate fully in the social life of our country, with the same rights of access to public and ⬇️
2w
Bookwomble ... social spaces and organisations as cis citizens.

I am horrified by the creeping erosion of British civil liberties by socially conservative and right-wing activists, who persistently harass and target marginalised people to further their political agendas.

I would call upon you to express your full support for the rights of trans, non-binary and gender nonconforming people in any forthcoming debates about and appeals against the Supreme ⬇️
2w
Bookwomble ... Court's ruling. 2w
See All 20 Comments
Librarybelle A great response! 2w
Deblovestoread 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️ 2w
quietlycuriouskate Thank you for sharing. 2w
GingerAntics 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 I was very upset seeing that in my BBC news headlines. I‘m so glad there are good people in the UK fighting this nonsense. 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️ 2w
Jari-chan 👏👏🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️ 2w
Bookwomble @GingerAntics It's not much, an email, but I guess it's not nothing 🙂 2w
lil1inblue 🩵🩷🤍🩷🩵 2w
Trashcanman It breaks my heart my friend. I‘m wishing for the best possible outcome. Well written. ❤️🏳️‍⚧️❤️🏳️‍⚧️ 2w
GingerAntics @Bookwomble nothing ever feels like enough, but it‘s a thing you can do. It‘s also one more way to stand with trans people. So it‘s definitely not nothing. 2w
Leftcoastzen Terrible, glad you wrote to them! So important!👏🏳️‍⚧️ 2w
Lesliereadsalot So shocking! We‘ve had plenty of shocks in the USA lately ourselves! 2w
AmyG Trans rights are human rights. How people live their lives, the right to live their life…affects them and no one else. Why do some people have the right to live as they choose, how they feel is best for them…and not others? A good, decent human being is just that. I am so sorry. This is horrible and heartbreaking. 2w
CarolynM Well done, you👏👏👏 2w
Bookwomble @Trashcanman Thanks, George 🩷 Standing up for each other is how we prevail over hate 🙂 2w
bibliothecarivs 📣 Trans rights are human rights! 1w
Bookwomble @bibliothecarivs 🩵🤍🩷 Yes, they are! 😊💖 1w
38 likes20 comments
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Bookwomble
A Clockwork Orange | Anthony Burgess
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My posts have been sadly deficient of David Bowie for too long! 😄

Driving to work on Tuesday, I was amused when David came on my playlist singing the line:
💬 Where the fuck did Monday go?
#TuesdayTunes @TieDyeDude #BooksAndBowie #BooksAndMusic
🎙️ David Bowie 🧑🏼‍🎤
🎵 Girl Loves Me
💿 Blackstar
📽️https://youtu.be/BFD4BMlka9Q?si=1lAX2Ne3LwH-4Tio

Bookwomble David's final album has several references to his back catalogue, and Girl Love Me expands on his use of Burgess's nadsat slang on Ziggy Stardust, with some polari thrown in for good measure. A dark, unsettling and catchy track 🖤 (edited) 2w
BarbaraBB Finally you‘re back to Bowie 😀 2w
Bookwomble @BarbaraBB We never left each other 😌💖 2w
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BarbaraBB Glad to hear that ❤️ 2w
TieDyeDude That lyric video did not help me understand the song at all, but I like the moody vibe 2w
Bookwomble @TieDyeDude No! 😆 Nadsat is Burgess's invented slang for Alex and his droogs in A Clockwork Orange, and polari is a working class cant developed to baffle the police, later adopted by the UK gay community before the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the late '60s. (Sorry for the TED Talk!) The Genius lyrics site has translations 😊 https://genius.com/David-bowie-girl-loves-me-lyrics 2w
TieDyeDude @Bookwomble Wow, that is so cool. I'll definitely be digging into that soon 2w
29 likes7 comments
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Bookwomble
Encyclopedia of Tariffs and Trade in U.S. History: The texts of the tariffs | Cynthia Clark Northrup, Elaine C. Prange Turney
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My sweet potato, coconut and chickpea curry turned out a lot muddier than I'd envisaged thanks to Trump's trade war with the world.
My decision to boycott US goods as an anti-Trump protest is a largely performative affair, as I don't generally buy anything imported from there, tariffs or not. However, today I got to flex my economic muscles when I realised that the sweet potatoes at my local shop were from USA! Next to them were Brazilian ⬇️

Bookwomble ... purple sweet potatoes: 3x the price 😳, but given that fascist Bolsonaro was ousted by the Brazilian electorate in favour of left wing Lula, I was able to safely buy Marxist ingredients!
Socialist Vegetables of the World Unite! 🚩🍠🚩 Taking down Trump one sweet potato at a time ✊😂
2w
Karisa Still, it looks really yummy 😊 2w
jhod Love this! 2w
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CBee And now you MUST start a group called “Socialist Vegetables of the World.” I‘d join! I‘m sure you know most American Littens are anti-Dump (I call him this plus the insane Cheeto), so your act of protest is much appreciated ✊🏻 2w
Bookwomble @Karisa Thank you 🙏 It was very tasty, if I say so myself ☺️ 2w
Bookwomble @CBee It's no surprise to me that a community devoted to reading is anti the book-banning bargain-basement Marmalade Mussolini 😊 2w
Chrissyreadit @CBee I totally want to join Socialist Vegetables of the World and 100% am glad our Canadian friends are boycotting the products here. 2w
Bookwomble @Chrissyreadit You are certainly welcome to attend the inauguration for Socialist Vegetables of the World, however you and any interested Canadians will have to make it across to Britain, as I'm holding the ceremony in my back garden 😄🇬🇧 2w
Chrissyreadit @Bookwomble HA! so glad you are also boycotting - I completely mistook your country- I‘m getting used to cheering on the Canadians and need to expand my cheering to across the pond 🎉😘 2w
Bookwomble @Chrissyreadit Sadly, many of our politicians and much of the press are still sucking up to Trump, but I think the contempt he and JDV show every other country, vocally including Britain, is starting to make all but the most die-hard conservatives begin to see that MAGA ideology recognises no friends. It's good to know that there is an American resistance 😊 2w
kspenmoll @Bookwomble 😂😂😂 2w
CBee @Bookwomble okay, you win. That‘s the best name ever 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 2w
CBee @Chrissyreadit me too! Now to figure out what socialist vegetable I would be 🤔 😂 2w
CarolynM Good for you, I feel similarly about checking the origins of my purchases at the moment (I‘ve been buying some extra Canadian maple syrup & Danish cheese for a while). Keep the Red (Vegetable) Flag flying! 2w
Bookwomble @CBee I can't take credit; I came across the Marmalade Mussolini label in the Socialist Standard magazine 😄 2w
Bookwomble @CarolynM @cbee @Chrissyreadit If we're picking socialist vegetable mascots, then I'd be a cabbage for sure! A Red Cabbage, naturally 😄 2w
Chrissyreadit 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 2w
41 likes18 comments
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Bookwomble
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I've been meditating on what the right soundtrack for Her Majesty's Royal Coven would be, and then it just seemed obvious on several levels!

🎙️ Siouxsie and The Banshees
💿 Juju
🎶 Spellbound
📽️ https://youtu.be/TjvvK-Rj0WI?si=th8ueXO_kbWLacwW

#BooksAndMusic

BarbaraBB Oooh I loved Siouxsie and Spellbound 2w
StaceGhost My favorite ❤️ juju was the best album imho & I don‘t say that lightly! 2w
TrishB Queen 👑 no bigger compliment when I was in goth teenage phase for someone to say I looked like Siouxsie! 2w
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Bookwomble @BarbaraBB @StaceGhost A brilliant track off a brilliant album! 2w
Bookwomble @TrishB @quietlycuriouskate High praises, indeed! 🖤❤️🖤 2w
35 likes6 comments
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Bookwomble
The Doubtful Guest | Edward Gorey
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Phew! That was another tough one ?

This 1000-piece jigsaw is titled "Baby Toss", but has the Doubtful Guest tossed it over the balcony rail, or is the housekeeper tossing it upstairs? And is this sort of behaviour why Edward Gorey's childcare business failed? ?

Suet624 Oh, I bet that was hard. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 3w
Bookwomble @Suet624 The woodwork was trickiest - all too similar! 😳😄 3w
Lesliereadsalot Great work on the puzzle! I‘ve done every Edward Gorey puzzle around. 🧩🧩🧩 3w
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dabbe W🤩W! 3w
Bookwomble @Lesliereadsalot I request one each Christmas. I love EG's work, and the trickiness is part of the enjoyment, isn't it? 😊 2w
Lesliereadsalot Try doing puzzles without looking at the picture. Adds a whole new dimension! 2w
Bookwomble @Lesliereadsalot That's how my son does them. He says looking at the picture is cheating! I just want to finish the puzzle within the decade I started it! 😄 2w
Lesliereadsalot Haha. My son gave me that idea too! 🧑‍🧒 2w
36 likes10 comments
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Bookwomble
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I'm liking the subtle references to other literary works in HMRC.

One character's offhand (and disrespectful!) reference to Frank Herbert's Dune brings suggestions of the Bene Gesserit, another sisterhood known as witches, and of Paul Atreides' role as the Kwizatz Haderach, a male super-being whose coming is foretold by the sisterhood in a way that is possibly (I'm not far into the story) echoed by Dawson's Sullied Child prophecy.

CBee Are you liking it so far? 3w
Bookwomble @CBee Yes, very much 😊 3w
CBee @Bookwomble yay! I‘m still trying to get my hands on the 2nd one, it isn‘t at my library and I‘m trying not to buy more books 😂🤷‍♀️ 3w
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Bookwomble @CBee Unless things go seriously awry before the end of this book, I'll be getting the sequel 😁 And there's a prequel already out, and a further sequel due next month! Juno is a screenwriter on the current Doctor Who series, so perhaps her entry into television will result in an HMRC TV show! 3w
CBee @Bookwomble a TV show would be amazing! I might need to cave and grab the next two books 😂🤷‍♀️ 3w
Bookwomble @CBee The more I read, the more I'd like it to be a TV show, but also the more unlikely it feels to get made in the current political climate, and then, of course, the more it's actually needed 🫤 Also, I disclaim any responsibility for enabling your book-buying habit! 😄 2w
CBee @Bookwomble I grabbed the 2nd one, oops 😅😂 2w
Bookwomble @CBee Ha, ha! Swag! 📖💸😄 I'm going to order it today - with 25% of the first book left, I don't think Juno is going to let me down 😊 2w
CBee @Bookwomble the best type of swag 👏🏻👏🏻 📚 📚 2w
31 likes9 comments
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Bookwomble
Bees of Britain (WildID) | Christopher O\'Toole, Buglife, Chris Shields
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I am, as Mrs Bookwomble put it, identifying the fuck out of these bees! 🐝🔍🤓
This is a Garden Bumblebee. Other visitors to the flowering shrub in our back garden have been the Honeybee, of course, a Common Carder Bee and a Red-tailed Bumblebee. The tagged guide has 28 of the most common of the ~250 British bee species, and it's enriching my lazy day in the sun 🌞
Also had a few Common Blue butterflies for variety 🦋

LeahBergen Your wife‘s comment! 😆😆 3w
Bookwomble @LeahBergen Yes! She then said I should allow them to identify however they wished and not impose oppressive human categories on them. She has a point! ✊ 3w
sarahbarnes I love all of this. 😆 🐝💪🏼 3w
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LeahBergen 😆😆 3w
CarolynM Please pass on my thanks to Mrs Bookwomble for the laugh 🤣 3w
Bookwomble @CarolynM Have done 😊 2w
37 likes7 comments
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Bookwomble
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Sitting in the sun, Pot Noodle, Cheddars and pop for dinner, listening to Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan albums, just started Juno Dawson's HMRC 🧙‍♀️ #TransRightsReadathon 🏳️‍⚧️
Perfect day off 💖😌💖

Ruthiella A well balanced meal! 😂 Enjoy! 3w
Bookwomble @Ruthiella I had an apple afterwards, so it totally balanced out! 🍜⚖️🍏😁 3w
39 likes2 comments
review
Bookwomble
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Pickpick

Lisa Schneidau is an ecologist, conservationist and storyteller, knowledge and passion that she combines in these faithful retellings of British and Irish folktales.
Each story has a short introduction in which Lisa gives some ecological, historical and/or folkloric details, and she chooses a reasonable geographic spread of stories from across the Isles. I liked her inclusion of a couple of Romany stories, Appy and the Eel being one of the ⬇️

Bookwomble ... humorous highlights of the book.
She plays a bit loose with the definition of “river“, including as she does some tales of lakes and marshes, but that's the pendant in me being picky! 4.5💧
(edited) 3w
rwmg Not picky enough to know the difference between a pedant and a pendant 😁 😂 3w
Bookwomble @rwmg Autotype gets me every time I try to be clever! 🤦‍♀️😂 3w
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Bookwomble
Kiss Kiss | Roald Dahl
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I donated 4 books to the Rufford Old Hall charity bookshop, so it only seemed fair to buy 4 replacements: a nice set of recent edition Penguins of Roald Dahl short stories.
Then, we went to Martin Mere, where, in addition to the usual suspects, I spotted an oystercatcher and a black-tailed godwit, of which there are only 50 breeding pairs in the UK.
I'm not an avid birdwatcher, but I do like to be out in nature, and MM is a peaceful place 😌⬇️

Bookwomble I came away with a new edition of the guidebook, and an identification pamphlet of British bees, having spotted some tiny mining bees at Rufford Old Hall, which I'll retrospectively and very, VERY tentatively identify as Tawney Mining Bees 🐝 3w
Ruthiella Excellent haul! 👍 3w
LeahBergen I love Dahl‘s stories! 3w
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Bookwomble
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"One morning, not so very long ago, I visited a stretch of the upper River Torridge in North Devon." - Introduction ?

"Have you ever wondered where all that river water comes from, flowing through seasons and years and ages, and how many people have stopped and wondered at the same thing? - Chapter 1: Sacred Beginnings ?

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

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Bookwomble
Selected English essays; | William Peacock
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Alexander Pope (1688-1744) Vs. A.I.

In his "On Epic Poetry", Pope satirises the proliferation of bad epic poetry, written not by poets with "genius", but by hacks according to a "recipe" in which they take themes and episodes from the great works of literature, "stack them up" and pour out verbiage void of any true human meaning, moral or value. ???

My reading of this essay was enhanced by it sounding in my mind as narrated by Simon Callow ?

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Bookwomble
Selected English essays; | William Peacock
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I'm about ¼ through this essay collection, having just finished the selections by Joseph Addison (1672-1719), which I've really enjoyed.
He was co-founder of The Spectator magazine, the title of which was borrowed by a still-extant conservative periodical, which is ironic given that Addison's satirical essay, "The Tory Fox-Hunter" lampoons the Little Englander mentality that still prevails amongst current Spectator & Daily Mail reading folk. ⬇️

Bookwomble His character Sir Roger de Coverley, a Pickwickian country squire, gives Addison a gentler, more affectionate outlet for his wry social commentary, and I was charmed by these vignettes of the minor gentry. What came through strongly for me is how little our national character has changed despite certain seismic cultural shifts.
Next up is an Alexander Pope essay, "On Epic Poetry".
4w
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Bookwomble
Socialist Standard | The Socialist Party of Great Britain
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Pickpick

#SocialistStandard April 2025 had a cover story about Little Trump (a name that fits Nige on several levels 🍑💨), which looks at his pernicious political presence, offering a hopeful analysis that his dream (threat?) of becoming the next UK PM is unlikely to happen🤞
Other articles include a stirring call for solidarity with trans people, a slightly snotty reply to a critical letter, a continuation of the series on socialist fundamentals, & a ⬇️

Bookwomble ... terrifying look at scam farms run with enslaved people and the practice of "pig butchering" their victims.
I am learning that when the Standard asks the question "What to do about...?", the answer is always "end capitalism" (oops, spoiler alert! ?).
Available for free online at: https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2020s/2025/no-1448-april-...
4w
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Bookwomble
Socialist Standard | The Socialist Party of Great Britain
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#TransRightsReadathon
“Digital Book Burnings in Trump's America:
Attacks on marginalised groups are likely an early indication of rising authoritarianism. A century ago, the Nazi party of Germany targeted transgender people & the scientists who were pioneers of sexual research, raiding Magnus Hirschfeld‘s Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, one of the world‘s first centres dedicated to the study and care of queer and trans people. The Nazi Party ⬇️

Bookwomble raided the clinic, terrorised the workers, and burned thousands of books, papers and research materials in a public spectacle of hate that foreshadowed the grim horrors to come. Now, today, a modern version of this erasure is also underway. This time, the flames are in the form of a trash folder, as it is a digital erasure, and this horror is unfolding in the United States under the directorship of Donald Trump.“ (edited) 4w
Bookwomble Going on to describe Trump as “the Marmalade Mussolini“ gave me a laugh in a relatively grim #SocialistStandard article about Republican transphobia, and a call for socialist allyship for trans and other lgbtqia+ people ✊🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🚩 (edited) 4w
Jari-chan Marmalade Mussolini 🤣🏳️‍⚧️💖💪 4w
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Bookwomble @Jari-chan I know, right! 😄 4w
Bookwomble Interest piqued the "Marmalade Mussolini" tag, I found a serious comparison between Trump and El Duce in this 2017 article by professor of history, Mark Bickard: https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/the-scary-parallels-between-trump-and... 4w
TheBookHippie Cheeto Satan to me 🤣 and yes I‘ve screamed about this history since 2014. 😵‍💫 4w
Bookwomble From Prof. Bickard's article:
“The attacks on central institutions of American democracy as “enemies of the people” has a horrible and horribly dangerous historical background. Trump may (or may not) be too ignorant to know of that background, but his inner circle most certainly knows of it, and intends it in full.“
4w
TieDyeDude Larry Wilmore likes to refer to him as the “Tangerine Idi Amin“ 4w
dabbe #marmalademussolini #cheetosatan #ldf (lame duck felon) #tangerineidiamin
He's so “great“ with the ad hominem attacks, it's time to redirect some back to him. #resist 👊🏻♥️👊🏻
4w
GingerAntics This is truly terrifying. What is more terrifying is the people okay with this, that just don‘t see the parallels. 4w
GingerAntics @CarolynM as a historian, I feel like I‘m shouting into the void sometimes, just trying to get people to wake up! I‘m just so tired. 4w
GingerAntics @Bookwomble that‘s the thing. It‘s 100% intentional. People saying stupid things like it‘s just coincidental or it just looks that way are just so entirely out of touch. 4w
Bookwomble @TheBookHippie I feel the name Cheeto Satan is too harsh - on Cheetos! 😄 4w
Bookwomble @GingerAntics It's hard to understand people's lack of recognition of what he is. It is tiring living through such times. I hope you get times where you can switch off and tune out for a while to test and recover ❤️‍🩹🫂 4w
TheBookHippie @Bookwomble 😂😂😂😂 4w
TheBookHippie @TieDyeDude 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 4w
TheBookHippie @GingerAntics or they do see the parallels and embrace it. 4w
Bookwomble @TieDyeDude I love these alliterative nicknames for him 😄 4w
GingerAntics @TheBookHippie that is so true… and beyond terrifying. 4w
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Bookwomble
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Pickpick

Weird Walk #3 features an interview with author Andrew Michael Hurley and the use of walking through the British landscape in his novels, a dolmen "review" and the Uffington White Horse, and a really interesting piece on the history and folklore of beer and ale. ⬇️

Bookwomble The article on psychedelic folk music introduced me to the excellent album The Garden of Jane Delawney by Trees:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lzoO7sxFzS9q4tde9DafSJ9zmNZ9-S0ts&si=l...
#TuesdayTunes @tiedyedude
1mo
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Bookwomble
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Pickpick

On the recommendations of @Cathythoughts & @LeahBergen , I bumped this one up my reading list, & I'm pleased to report that I really liked these dark short stories.
I'd expected ghostly horror stories based on the cover indications, though there was only one definitely featuring an apparition, and another in which it was a little ambiguous. The other stories were horrible rather than horror, in the way of Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected ⬇️

Bookwomble - psychological rather than supernatural horror, one of which gave me definite goosebumps, and several that lay uneasily.
The stories mostly feature female protagonists in contemporary (i.e., 1960s/'70s) settings and social situations, subverting social mores and expectations, definitely feminist, though without making the MCs paragons of virtue. Desperation and despair abound, alongside Medean obsession and vengefulness. 4💀
1mo
LeahBergen Yay! Great review! 4w
Cathythoughts Excellent review! I love her. 4w
Bookwomble Thank you @LeahBergen , and thank you @Cathythoughts 😊 4w
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Bookwomble
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Pickpick

Was this 1954 collection of short stories by ideologically faithful cadres of the Chinese Communist Party full-on Maoist propaganda? Yes. Was it an interesting insight into the historical processes and concerns of the early Chinese Revolution? Also yes.
It doesn't seem any more jingoistic to me than many western movies of the post WWII period, and probably less so than, say, the Top Gun films.
The stories focus on the shift from traditional 👇

Bookwomble ... customs, such as forced marriage, and always end with the vindication of the new regime and the grateful acceptance by the older generation of CCP ideology. The ideal of free choice and gender equality is inspiring in principle, even if we now know that the practice was far from ideal.
There is also an ethnic inclusivity in several of the stories, which focus on Mongolian and Kazakh people and how their cultures are to be respected whilst 👇
1mo
Bookwomble ... transformed on Maoist principles, again sadly betrayed in the present as in the case of the Uighur people.
While a couple of the stories are nothing more than propaganda, mostly they do have human stories to tell and I'm glad to have read them. 3.5 ⭐
1mo
kspenmoll Happy Litsyversary!!!‘ 1mo
Bookwomble @kspenmoll Thank you 😊 Those seven years have flashed by! 😳 1mo
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Bookwomble
Much with Body | Polly Atkin
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Pickpick

A collection by Lakes poet, Polly Atkin (pic), which draws on the landscape of fells & water, on the diaries of Dorothy Wordsworth, on the author's chronic illnesses & (as background, not foreground), the COVID pandemic, during which the poems were written. I really enjoyed them, and she's won awards and was a writer in residence at Gladstone's Library, if other recommendation is needed 🙂
The cover is by painter and wild swimmer Nancy Farmer 👇

Bookwomble ... (not the children's fantasy author), which put me in mind of the cover for Undercurrent, a 1962 album by Bill Evans and Jim Lee, by photographer Toni Frissell. I loved Farmer's paintings of swimmers on her active website:
🏊🏻‍♀️ https://waterdrawn.com/
and her paintings of fairies, devils and untoward shenanigans on her archive site:
🧚🏻‍♀️ http://nancyfarmer.net/
A good read in and of itself, and I liked the side paths it took me down.
1mo
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Much with Body | Polly Atkin
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"Everyone everywhere is talking about the moon."
- Full Wolf Moon (Grasmere, January 2020)

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

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Sitting in the spring sunshine, listening to the Bill Evans Evans Trio play the relaxing 🌷Spring is Here🌷, drinking coffee, cat minding (which is easier now we've had a broken fence panel replaced) and reading Weird Walk No. 2, which includes articles on the Third Doctor's folk horror storyline, The Dæmons, progressive Morris dancing, Stonehenge-inspired rock & foraging.
#TuesdayTunes @TieDyeDude
https://youtu.be/zhvA0P_qQms?si=RfvjbevsTaPFhP4z

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"The evening sun was being swallowed up by the far horizon. A northwest wind was stealthily ruffling the grass till the plain looked like a racing sea, while the dark clouds gathering overhead resembled the calfskin roof of a tent. Everybody knew the autumn rain was at hand."
- On the Kholchin Grasslands, by Malchinku

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Bookwomble
The One who Did Not Ask: (Dastak Naa Do) | Alt??f F?t?imah, Rukhsana Ahmad
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Pickpick

I loved this family drama, focusing on the fortunes and missions of an affluent Indian Muslim family in the years before and after Partition, mainly through the lens of the unconventional girl/young woman, Gaythi, though we get insights into the POVs of other characters, too. Fatima has compassion and empathy for her characters, even when they act badly, and I cared for and worried about them.
👇

Bookwomble It's too much to summarise, but it was emotional, poignant, heartbreaking at times, with a narratively clear, but emotionally complicated, ending. Unreservedly 5⭐ 1mo
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Bookwomble
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I'm making good progress with The One Who Did Not Ask, enjoying it and it's possible I'll finish it today, despite needing a little break from it.

Rather than picking up one of the other books I'm currently reading, I've picked up a "new" one. It's a short story collection published in 1954 by the People's Republic of China's state publisher, the Foreign Languages Press, so all the stories will be "ideologically sound", but I'm hoping that ?

Bookwomble ... the inevitable propaganda will not distract from the stories themselves. Perhaps, actually, it will be an interesting part of the cultural setting. 1mo
sarahbarnes Wow, that sounds like it will be an interesting reading experience. 1mo
Bookwomble @sarahbarnes I've read three stories, and they are full-on propaganda for the Bright Communist Future of Mao's China. They're interesting so as historical artefacts, and they're definitely an insight into the time and place, but I'm hoping there will be some stories with greater literary merit. 1mo
Bookwomble @sarahbarnes That hope was quickly answered! The fourth story keeps it's propaganda message to the last page, and delivered an interesting, characterful story 😊 1mo
sarahbarnes Fascinating. I‘m glad at least one story has felt worth the read from a literary standpoint! 1mo
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Wildcat | J. P. Harker
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Now that Skye has had her vaccinations, we're letting her go outside for a little bit. This is the third day, and first time during the afternoon. She's skittish, I assume from the sensory load of novel sights, sounds and smells, but did meow to be allowed out today, so she's obviously enjoying it.
I'll be moving that bird feeder!

Ruthiella How exciting! I‘m sure she‘s having a great time exploring. 😻 1mo
Leftcoastzen She‘s beautiful! So much to sniff & watch. 1mo
Bookwomble @Ruthiella @Leftcoastzen She is loving a bit of fresh air, but does run back in after about 15 minutes. And she did try to escape over the neighbour's fence at one point, so I'll be supervising her a bit longer until she seems more confident 😊 1mo
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The_Book_Ninja I‘m jealous that you can hang a bird feeder that low. I have to get out a step ladder, find an appropriate branch that‘s not to bendy but not too rigid and grease the cable and top of the feeder. It‘s my ongoing battle with squirrels🐿️. 1mo
Bookwomble @The_Book_Ninja I've had to move the feeder as it would become a feline snack bar if I left it there! It's now at about six feet from the ground on another tree, which I can reach without a ladder, fortunately. "The War Against the Squirrels" sounds like the title of an alien invasion novel ? 1mo
The_Book_Ninja @Bookwomble 🤣I do love em, I always feed them but they‘re so bloody greedy they hoover up what I give them and then try to get the bird feeders. 1mo
Bookwomble @The_Book_Ninja We have an occasional squirrel visitor, and it is cute. Not sure where it's dray would be, as the area is just gardens with a few trees set in open farm fields. 1mo
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Bookwomble
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It's OK to be angry about capitalism? Phew! Thank fuck for that! 😅

I got this from the library as much to validate the decision of whichever librarian it was who decided to order this in as I did to actually read it. I wasn't sure that I would read it as, a) it's about five years old and things have moved on (in a hell-in-a-handcart way) and, b) Bernie's preaching to the converted with me. But, I read the first few pages and think I'll continue.

willaful I've been doing that too! I almost never read print but I borrow all the resistance books. 1mo
Bookwomble @willaful It's a low-energy strategy of resistance I can commit to! 😄 1mo
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Bookwomble
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Pickpick

Shusterman & Martínez present a series of stories set in WWII in which figures from Jewish folklore empower resistance to the nazi Holocaust. Shusterman notes in comments that there is a high degree of wish fulfillment in the stories, and I think he is successful in balancing the fantasy elements with the awful truth of history. It's a YA GN, so the horrors are not explicitly shown, while honouring the impact and consequences.
The final story 👇

Bookwomble ... is an alternate history in which Caitlin, the US granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, is given a glimpse of all the family she would have had if the nazis were defeated before implementing genocide. The threat of fascism, however, is still imminent in this alt-reality, as it is in real-reality.
I enjoyed learning a little more about Jewish culture, & think the book does a good job in achieving its objectives to educate & warn through story.
1mo
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Bookwomble
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"Doors had closed all over Europe to Jews and other groups that the nazis deemed "undesirable."

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

Next sentence: "But it is said that when God closes a door... He opens a window."

Ironic that one of the main countries of refuge for Jews and others persecuted by the nazis is now governed by a man whose policies and pronouncements indicate that he is broadly in sympathy with the nazis.

GingerAntics Right? It‘s sad that we have become the bad guy. 1mo
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Bookwomble
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Pickpick

A low pick for this library book, a graphic bio focusing specifically on the author's experience of breaking into animation work in LA.
This could have been too niche, but, while there is zero chance of this being my new life direction (🤣), the specificity about a career, city & lifestyle utterly different to my own was of interest.
Text heavy, with lots of career tips, but mercifully short enough that I only skipped a few pages at the end! 🤫

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Selected English essays; | William Peacock
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#WeirdWords Squir or Squirr: "To throw with a jerking motion; to skim".

A spendthrift heir being disinherited & bequeathed only a silver shilling, "put him into such a passion, that having taken me in his hand, and cursed me, he squirred me away from him as far as he could fling me."
From Addison's, "The Adventures of a Shilling", in which an Elizabeth I coin recounts its travels from Peru as part of Drake's plunder, to its minting & circulation.

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Tale of Peter Rabbit | Beatrix Potter
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😀🐇✊🏻🚩

Ruthiella 🤣🤣🤣 1mo
lil1inblue 😂 😂 😂 1mo
LeahBergen 😆😆 1mo
GingerAntics 🤣😂🤣 1mo
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The One who Did Not Ask: (Dastak Naa Do) | Alt??f F?t?imah, Rukhsana Ahmad
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“The only thing that proves to be right is Time, which slowly and steadily brings every mistake and every truth to light.”

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Bookwomble
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Pickpick

This is a lovely little book, covering Kilby's stay with the Tolkiens in the summer of 1965, invited by JRRT to give him "editorial and critical assistance", and an impetus to focus on his authorial task at a time when age and the distractions of a fame to which he was ambivalent combined with a natural dilatoriness and a tendency for his interests to be "Like butter that has been scraped over too much bread". His personal impressions of ?

Bookwomble ... Tolkien's character are fascinating.
He goes onto a sketch of the composition of the Silmarillion, something that Christopher Tolkien later greatly expanded upon, then a consideration of how Tolkien's Christianity is embedded in his work, not as deliberately as that of C.S. Lewis but as a natural effect of his deep belief, and rounds up with a consideration of the three major Inklings, JRRT, Lewis and Charles Williams.
Lovely! 😊
1mo
Leoslittlebooklife What a lovely cover! 1mo
Bookwomble @Leoslittlebooklife It's vibrantly coloured, isn't it, which is what struck my eye as I took it off the shop's bookshelf 😍 1mo
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Next up, a memoir of Kilby's summer assisting JRRT with his Silmarillion materials, after which he was asked to read the manuscript prior to publication. Kilby's book was published 1976, the year before The Silmarillion, so his impressions will be personal & unaffected by its general & critical reception.
Kilby was an Inkling scholar, with several academic books about Tolkien, Lewis and the others, so I'm also expecting it to be well-considered.

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Bookwomble
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Pickpick

My previous posts ridiculed this book, but Gardner Fox has the last laugh as I actually rather enjoyed it despite its manifold faults. I guess the Sword and Sorcery genre was such an early escape for me that it's now entwined with my DNA.
Still, having a character called "Alaine, the Lady of Shallone"! ??‍♂️?
Kothar is named by Gary Gygax as a recommended read for D&D players, and one of the stories, The Treasure in the Labyrinth, is the ?

Bookwomble ... ur-Dungeon Crawl adventure. I can only recommend this to those who are already fans of the genre, with the ability to put all their critical facilities on hold, & to treat this as the literary equivalent of dirty fries with a can of soda (or, in Lancastrian, chips & gravy with a can of Vimto). 3.5🗡️
I have another book in the series, which I'll probably read soon now I've read the first, but I won't be making efforts to track down any others.
1mo
BarbaraBB Glad it was worth it! 1mo
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