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review
Bookwomble
Dwell | Simon Armitage
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Pickpick

Simon's poems are nice rather than profound or moving; coupled with Beth Munro's colourful prints, they are evocative, though.
Commissioned to be installed at the Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall, they're inspired by the homes and shelters animals create, hence the title, Dwell. Simon and Beth offer a natural space for the mind to dwell and feel connected 💚

review
Bookwomble
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Bailedbailed

As someone who has Harding's "A Year Unfolding: A Printmaker's View", I was initially excited to see this newly published book of her wonderful prints, and so brought it home to the disappointment of finding much (though not all) of the contents are lifted from the book I already own.

Had I not already got her earlier book, I would love this. As it is I feel ripped off and taken for a mug ?

Bookwomble I'll see if the book shop will take it back and let me swap it for something I don't already own substantial portions of. 12h
TheBookHippie Oh I hate that!!! 12h
Bookwomble @TheBookHippie It's disappointing as, for me, it tarnishes the connection I've felt to her art, and makes me less likely to buy anything else by her, which I realise is probably a disproportionate reaction, but it's where I am at the moment. Part of my self development is softening my tendency for small negatives to swamp larger positives, so I'll probably chill out as I reflect on my response 😌😊 7h
23 likes3 comments
review
Bookwomble
The Living Stones: Cornwall | Ithell Colquhoun
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Pickpick

Colquhoun covers a lot of territory, geographically and thematically, in her survey of the Western Cornish peninsula, as indicated by the tags I used on my Library Thing record:
• travel
• biography-memoir
• history
• nature
• birds
• mythology and folklore
• ghosts
• food
• arthurian
• occult-esoteric
• witches and witchcraft
• non-fiction

Her writing folds together personal memoir of her post-war removal to Lamorna Cove to focus on her ⬇️⅓

Bookwomble ... painting - surrealist, but not part of the British Surrealist school as she refused to be limited by the manifesto imposed by the male artists who wrote it - with local gossip, folklore, history and nature writing.
As an occultist, she uncritically accepts Cornwall as an outpost of lost Atlantis and Lyonesse, whilst also applying a sceptical eye to certain superstitions and contemporary media hype. I loved this contrast. ⬇️
21h
Bookwomble Colquhoun laments the retreat of a traditional culture before the encroachment of '50s industrialisation, though from a 21st century perspective, her own times are lit by a nostalgic halo.
Ithell expresses liberal views on several subjects that would undoubtedly attract socially conservative backlash if she was posting on today's digital media, and I think I have fallen a little in love with her.
21h
AllDebooks Great review. What an amazing woman. Stacked! 20h
See All 6 Comments
bibliothecarivs Sounds wonderful. Thanks for sharing. 19h
Bookwomble @AllDebooks I'll be mindful of checking out some of her other books. Her paintings online look marvellous 🙂 15h
Bookwomble @bibliothecarivs As an Anglophile, I think your love this book 😊 15h
30 likes6 comments
blurb
Bookwomble
System Failure | Joe Zieja
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Anybody else having a problem with StoryGraph?

Enchanted_Bibliophile Yes, same on my side 2d
Bookwormjillk Just a blank screen for me. 2d
julesG No problem here in 🇩🇪 - maybe the issue has been resolved? 2d
See All 6 Comments
Bookwormjillk It‘s working for me again 2d
Bookwomble @Enchanted_Bibliophile @Bookwormjillk @julesG Thanks for your feedback. Nice to know it wasn't just me 🙂 I'm back up again, too. 2d
GingerAntics I actually got that for Litsy on Sunday (edited) 2d
24 likes6 comments
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Bookwomble
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"I like knowing stuff. I like learning. I like being more than I was yesterday. If I am giving future me a gift, it is reading a book for an hour instead of sleeping."

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Bookwomble
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This #BookMail arrived unexpectedly yesterday: I won it in a Library Thing #EarlyReviewers giveaway. Gonna see if I can squeeze it in as my final book for May ?
It says it deals with "the darker side of being #neurodivergent " but also that it is "hopelessly optimistic," so perhaps the darkness isn't entirely unrelieved.
#NonbinaryAuthor ????

review
Bookwomble
The Autistic Alice | Joanne Limburg
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Pickpick

Limburg's grief at her brother's death by suicide makes up the poignant first sequence of poems, The Oxygen Man, reflecting on life as a surviving sibling ❤️‍🩹
The Autistic Alice is the second sequence, on Limburg's life as an autistic woman in a society that others both of those threads of identity, using Carrol's Alice books as a reference.
The final sequence is a collection of Other Poems, which are funny, touching & observant. Loved this: 5♾️

review
Bookwomble
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Pickpick

Well, I'm giving this four (red) stars based on the concluding section in which Sève summarises his preceding thesis and where I got a glimmer of light, though I suspect Sève would give me one star for comprehension due to my sketchy knowledge of the concepts he takes for granted his reader will understand, which is forgivable as he originally delivered this as a presentation at a Marxism conference. I think bits may adhere in my mental miasma 😏

bibliothecarivs he would give you one star? haha 5d
bibliothecarivs that rings true 5d
26 likes2 comments
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Bookwomble
The Autistic Alice | Joanne Limburg
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You're Not My Dad, John Inman

"Got lots of Dads beside my Dad -
television's full of Dads.
Mr Corbett, he's my Dad,
Michael Bentine, also Dad.
Roy Castle is the Singing Dad
and Brian Cant the Voice of Dad,
Play School, Play Away teem with Dad.
John Inman, though, he's not my Dad -
not everyone I love is Dad."
#Poetry ❤️

bibliothecarivs I recently found the tagged book at a local media shop and brought it home. Haven't read it yet. 5d
24 likes1 comment
quote
Bookwomble
The Autistic Alice | Joanne Limburg
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"She will harrow this town, she will turn him up, whole or in pieces."
- Sister, from The Oxygen Man

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl
#Poetry

27 likes1 stack add
quote
Bookwomble
The Autistic Alice | Joanne Limburg
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'Excuse me,' says Alice.
'May I say something?'

'Of course,' says the Caterpillar -
'You may say something-'

'Yes,' says Humpty Dumpty,
'and we'll tell you why it's wrong.'

- The Alice Case

The #neurodivergent person's experience of assessment by neurotypical "experts". ♾️
#Poetry

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Bookwomble
The Autistic Alice | Joanne Limburg
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"The Yiddish proverb that made them laugh so much was: 'Your health comes first: you can always hang yourself later.'"

- Notes on an Unwritten Eulogy, The Oxygen Man

#Poetry

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Bookwomble
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#TuesdayTunes @TieDyeDude
Peter Sellers imitating Lawrence Olivier's characterisation of William Shakespeare's King Richard III, reciting The Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night" with a salacious twinkle in his eye.
Everything has been downhill since this ?

https://youtu.be/PLjA331K4YI?si=NEr9HFrgDLwB1fGd

bibliothecarivs It's been a few years since I've seen this genius skit. Thanks for sharing. Olivier's Richard III is still one of my favourite films of all time. While reading about Richard in the tagged book, I was thinking that I need to re-watch it. 7d
TieDyeDude I didn't know Sellers put out albums! Dr. Strangelove is a top 3 all-time favorite. This was a fun track. Thanks for sharing! 7d
Bookwomble @bibliothecarivs I can't listen to The Beatles original song without thinking of Peter Sellers, which I count as a good thing 😊 The Beatles loved The Goon Show in which Sellers co-starred. 5d
Bookwomble @TieDyeDude He was a wonderful actor and comedian. I actually haven't heard him sing, at least not that I can recall, so I've no idea what his albums would be like. 5d
26 likes4 comments
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Bookwomble
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This is one of those short books (59 pages) that takes me ages to read as I have to keep looking up concepts, theories and references to parse the meaning, and then reflect upon and integrate the information before I can move on to the next paragraph 😮‍💨
Once I've done that, I'll hold onto the information until I have to sleep, and tomorrow it will be🎈💢😳 gone! 😄

GingerAntics Those kinds of books are such a struggle. It‘s like wrestling with it day after day. 1w
35 likes1 comment
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Bookwomble
Edward Gorey's Dracula: Addresses | Edward Gorey, Gina Bostian
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26th May is #DraculaDay ! Commemorating the first publication of Stoker's novel.
Imagine my delight at (rather belatedly) finding out that before he was Sherlock Holmes, Jeremy Brett was The Count! 🦇🧛🏻‍♂️🦇 And even better, in the 1978/79 USA touring production with Edward Gorey designed sets! 🖤❤️🖤
I would definitely have gone to see this had I not been at school and 4000 miles away!

Lesliereadsalot I would have gone to see this too! 1w
BookmarkTavern Oh I‘m sure this must have been amazing! 🤩 1w
36 likes2 comments
blurb
Bookwomble
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I check the charity book table at my local shop more in hope than expectation of finding anything I'd be interested in amongst the old cook books, mountains of Jeremy Clarkson drivel and biographies of disgraced celebrities, but today I was rewarded for my perseverance with these two schlocky '70s tomes! 🖤🧌💚💀❤️🧛🏻‍♀️💚🧟‍♀️🖤 😱😁

LeahBergen Cool! 1w
The_Book_Ninja Still got my Gifford 🙂 1w
Bookwomble @LeahBergen Cool, but not as cool as @The_Book_Ninja who has his copy from back in the day! 😎 1w
29 likes3 comments
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Bookwomble
The Ruins of earth | Thomas M. Disch
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"Now, in 1971, it isn't possible to look the other way. It is the daytime, suburban side of our existence that has become our nightmare...These are not catastrophes of the imagination - they are what's happening...I get the feeling I'm playing Russian roulette: each passing month that the Worst hasn't happened is an empty chamber of the revolver. But one of them, sure as hell, *is* loaded."

- Introduction, Thomas M. Disch

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Bookwomble
The Ruins of earth | Thomas M. Disch
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I fancied some scifi, and this 1973 collection of stories came to mind as I've just finished reading about the ruins of ancient Athens. Some of the Greats contribute to the anthology.
I started reading this in 1981 and paused it, but it's fair to say at this point that I'm starting it anew!
The cover blurb is sad from the current historical perspective, as we continue to head in the direction predicted in these tales of ecological apocalypse.

Bookwomble (It's only my sunny disposition that keeps me going! 🤖) 2w
29 likes1 stack add1 comment
review
Bookwomble
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Pickpick

On 28th May, 2022, Andrea Marcolongo spent a night at the Acropolis Museum, looking onto the Parthenon, ruined by Lord Elgin, whose biography she brought with her. Inspired by her impressions of that night, Shifting the Moon is a blend of histories: art history, colonial history, personal history, classical history.
While never condoning Elgin's theft, Marcolongo, presents him as a tragic figure, ruined by the act of ruination he committed.

Bookwomble Her reflections on personal bereavement were touching, as was her openness about her own insecurities and vulnerabilities. A lovely, thoughtful essay. 4.5🌕 2w
33 likes1 stack add1 comment
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Bookwomble
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"On the last week of May, in an outdoor gear shop in Paris, I bought a camping bed, a sleeping bag, and a flashlight."

#FirstLineFridays @shybookowl

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Bookwomble
The Living Stones: Cornwall | Ithell Colquhoun
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“The Cornish language did not die a natural death; it was executed like a criminal by the oppressing Saxon power.”

I hadn't intentionally paired my reading of these two books, but they're both paeans to ancient cultures, adopted by self-exiled women, which have been colonised and exploited by invaders who have appropriated the rich heritage of a native people, while simultaneously seeking to destroy them.

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Bookwomble
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#TuesdayTunes @TieDyeDude

There are so many songs about the moon I could have chosen to accompany this book, but it's a marvelous morning for a Moondance, so the romantic, mystic, Celtic soul of Van Morrison it is💚🩵💚
#BooksAndMusic #BooksAndCoffee

kspenmoll Perfect musical choice! This book intrigues me. 2w
Bookwomble @kspenmoll Van is a mood 😌 If you're interested in Classical Greece, Regency England, and a reflective personal style of writing, then I'd say it's worth giving it a try 📖 🙂 2w
TieDyeDude Such an iconic album! Thanks for sharing. 6d
34 likes3 comments
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Bookwomble
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Next up: Italian classicist Andrea Marcolongo got permission to spend a night at the Acropolis, and this shortish book (142 pages) is an account of her meditations on ancient Greece, Lord Elgin, personal reveries and "the ever-changing relationship between present and past". ?️?

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Bookwomble
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#SundayFunday @BookmarkTavern
As a two-volume set, the annotated Holmes short stories has the highest page count in my Library Thing account, coming in at 1,878 pages, with an extra lxvii pages of prefatory material, totalling 1,945 pages
The longest single volume book I've read, at 1,892 pages, is the Bible, so long ago that my edition is signed by Adam, Eve and the Serpent! 🌿🐍

Bookwomble Leave aside dictionaries and thesauruses, and the longest single volume I've read for pleasure is a 1928 edition of Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror, edited by Dorothy L. Sayers, at 1,231 pages 📖
(Probably too much info! 😏♾️)
3w
BookmarkTavern Wow! Sherlock Holmes is longer than I thought it was! Thanks for posting! 2w
Bookwomble @BookmarkTavern This is an annotated edition with a lot of sidebars, essays and illustrations, so it does bump up the page count 😊 The companion volume with the four novels has a further 921 pages. For comparison, the Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes with just the canonical works is 1122 pages 📚 2w
33 likes3 comments
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Bookwomble
The New Internationalist | New Internationalist Cooperative
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Having savagely mauled this clump of grass, Skye decided to make peace with and sit under it. I think it is a tense ceasefire, though! 😾 #CatsOfLitsy
I'm still reading #NewInternationalist #554 on Aboriginal rights, sitting in the sun, eating pizza, drinking highballs and listening to a playlist of artists covering Bob Dylan songs 📖🌞🍕🥃🎶😎 #HappyWeekend 😌

Ruthiella 😻😻😻 3w
Jari-chan 😸😸🌿🌿 3w
TheKidUpstairs Excellent photo! 3w
See All 8 Comments
Leftcoastzen Sounds like a perfect day ! 😻 3w
Aims42 LOL! What a Saturday, for you and Skye 😆😍 3w
Andrea313 Cats, books, drinks, Dylan? You're having a perfect day! Enjoy! 3w
quietlycuriouskate Beautiful Skye! And that sounds like a lovely day. Daughter and I are about to camp it up with Eurovision while husband looks on with a half-smile of near complete bafflement. 😆 3w
dabbe What a Skye! 🖤🐾🖤 3w
37 likes8 comments
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Bookwomble
The Living Stones: Cornwall | Ithell Colquhoun
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"It was the place of deluge."

#FirstLineFridays @shybookowl

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Bookwomble
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"Several of the autistic women I spoke to said they had to make sure that certain types of food didn't touch their plate - tackling a full English breakfast involved a sausage barrier to keep runny baked beans away from dry foods."

Seen! ? The old "sausage barrier" is a classic move to keep those beans away from things they shouldn't touch ? Despite which, I will load my fork with different food categories, but I guess I have the control there.

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Bookwomble
I Need More | Iggy Pop
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Time is still
A moment of pleasantry
In this zombie birdhouse

#TuesdayTunes @tiedyedude

?️ Iggy Pop
? Run Like A Villain
? Zombie Birdhouse ?
?️ https://youtu.be/jY7GtqO3dTk?si=xQV-tZDTAfHwbBRb

The official video is a neat animated effort. Look at the suggested videos for an awesome live version from The Tube, in which Iggy correctly declares, "I am the fucking greatest of all time!"
I love this edgy '80s album. It has an End Times vibe.

lil1inblue Iggy is just fantastic. 3w
28 likes1 comment
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Bookwomble
The Living Stones: Cornwall | Ithell Colquhoun
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I came across Ithell Colquhoun in an article Stewart Lee wrote about her in issue 4 of the Weird Walk zine. She was a surrealist painter, poet and occultist, who lived in and was inspired by the Cornish landscape.
The Living Stones: Cornwall is an artistic travelogue of the county in the '50s post-war period. I'm hoping to love it 🤞🏼📖❤️

monalyisha COOL. 3w
39 likes1 comment
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Bookwomble
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“He that is able to express no sense at all in several languages,
Will pass for learneder than he that's known
To speak the strongest reason in his own.“
- Samuel Butler

William Hazlitt quotes Butler in the epigraph to his essay, “On the Ignorance of the Learned“. I've added a completely random picture of a man talking Latin gibberish in a confident manner. No idea who he is. Looks like a 🔔🔚 though.

IriDas 😂 4w
bibliothecarivs Michael, your use of emojis is masterful! 4w
CarolynM 🤣🤣🤣 3w
Bookwomble @bibliothecarivs I try my best 😌 3w
36 likes4 comments
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Bookwomble
Selected English essays; | William Peacock
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"I have indeed lived nominally fifty years, but deduct out of them the hours which I have lived to other people, and not to myself, and you will find me still a young fellow. For that is the only true Time, which a man can properly call his own - that which he has all to himself; the rest, though in some sense he may be said to live it, is other people's Time, not his.”

- The Superannuated Man, by Charles Lamb

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Bookwomble
News From Nowhere | Liverpool, United Kingdom (Bookstore)
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We went to Liverpool today to attend a protest in support of Trans Rights, so an after-protest visit to News From Nowhere was mandatory. I bought a book on the politics of mental health and a mug with a quote from living legend Kathy Burke:
"I love being Woke. It's much nicer than being an ignorant fucking twat." No argument from me!
I bought a couple of t-shirts from a shop up the road, too ??‍???‍♀️

Chrissyreadit i love everything about this post and your mug. 4w
TrishB Fabulous 👍🏻 was in there last week! 4w
Leftcoastzen Great post! 4w
See All 8 Comments
Jari-chan Thank you 🏳️‍⚧️ 4w
dabbe ✊🏻💙✊🏻 4w
IriDas Thank you for your support. 🏳️‍⚧️ 4w
kspenmoll Yay for you & thank you! #resist 4w
43 likes8 comments
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Bookwomble
Socialist Standard | The Socialist Party of Great Britain
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"Why tariffs are not an issue:
'Tariff Reform, Free Trade or No Trade? The Fiscal Fraud Exposed' was the front-page headline of the Socialist Standard in April 1910."
#FirstLineFridays @shybookowl

Articles include a critique (and rejection) of the UK Supreme Court's ruling on a legal definition of sex and gender ✊?️‍⚧️
DT and tariffs
A critique (and rejection) of the tactics of Just Stop Oil
DT Vs Greenland
The monetisation of universities

29 likes1 comment
review
Bookwomble
The Micronauts | Gordon Williams, Gordon M. Williams
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Pickpick

Nice wraparound cover (which I downloaded: I wouldn't flatten my own book like this 😱) illustrating one of the scenes from the novel.
Williams wrote this 1977 novelisation of a film that was never made, and I wonder just how bad the SFX would have been 🐜😳🦂
The story is a good B(ee)-Movie creature feature that's entertaining enough that I'm glad I got the sequels, which I'll read later in the summer, probably. 3½🐝

vivastory What, no Bowie profile pic? 😅👨‍🎤 1mo
Bookwomble @vivastory I'm on a rotation 😁 He'll be back, though 👩🏼‍🎤 1mo
31 likes2 comments
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Bookwomble
The Micronauts | Gordon Williams, Gordon M. Williams
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The basic premise of the book is clear: miniaturised people have to survive the micro-savagery of an ordinary garden. The specific milieu is a post-abundance world, ecologically poisoned by misuse of pesticides resulting in the deaths of billions by starvation. However, there is plenty of food for an insect-sized elite, providing the dystopian political power struggles of opposing factions can be resolved: or one side destroys the other!
👇

Bookwomble A rescue mission is needed, of course, involving an Indiana Jonesesque entomologist and a fascist soldier affectionately known as "The Butcher"!
I've not yet decided whether the eugenics philosophy of several of the characters is part of the narrative or Williams's own. I'm hoping the former??
1mo
32 likes1 comment
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Bookwomble
Rime of the Ancient Mariner | Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Coleridge
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I ended up reading two editions of Coleridge's poem, the one illustrated by Doré, with "Assorted Poems" including Kublai Khan, and the smaller edition illustrated by Mervyn Peake ❤️, with an interesting introduction by Marina Warner, drawing out some of Coleridge's anti-slave trade themes, and the culpability by association of a society that profits from suffering.
Coleridge's gothic atmosphere is paramount, though ?

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Bookwomble
Rime of the Ancient Mariner | Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Coleridge
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Inspired by The World of the Romantics jigsaw I did last week, I'm rereading The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, illustrated by Dore ❤️
Inspired by some leftover "cocktail beetroot", I wondered if there was an actual cocktail using beetroot, and the one recipe I found for a "Borschtini" was too complicated, so this is a simplified version, which has an "interesting" flavour profile! ?

Bookwomble If you're interested, a glug of vermouth blended with a cocktail beetroot, dill, a splash of (vegan) Worcestershire sauce, and enough frozen vodka that the rest doesn't matter! 💜🍸💜 1mo
TheBookHippie @Bookwomble oooooo!!!! 1mo
LeahBergen That cocktail is practically a healthy salad, I say! 😆 1mo
See All 8 Comments
Bookwomble @LeahBergen Yes! I mean, vodka salad, but: Yes! 🥗🍸🤤 1mo
quietlycuriouskate Well, that whole set-up is just fabulous! 1mo
BookmarkTavern I had that entire poem memorized when I was in middle school! 😂 1mo
Bookwomble @BookmarkTavern That's impressive! 👏👏I had Keats's Ode to Autumn, but that's considerably shorter! 1mo
35 likes8 comments
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Bookwomble
Goodnight Tokyo | Atsuhiro Yoshida
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"The clock struck 1:00 A.M."

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

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Bookwomble
Goodnight Tokyo | Atsuhiro Yoshida
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From the blurb, this sounds like it has vibes of one of my favourite TV shows, Midnight Diner. It's set in a taxi rather than a café, but the episodic stories of Tokyo's late-night/early-morning denizens resonates. Fingers crossed 🤞

sarahbarnes This one caught my eye recently too! 1mo
Cathythoughts I really enjoyed this one 👍🏻❤️ 1mo
Bookwomble @sarahbarnes @Cathythoughts I'm enjoying it so far 😊 1mo
sarahbarnes Good to know and that @Cathythoughts liked it too! 1mo
35 likes4 comments
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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 😍 1mo
wanderinglynn I love the Laurence King puzzles 🧩 😍 1mo
quietlycuriouskate Truly, what's not to love? 😍 1mo
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 😇 1mo
wanderinglynn I have done the Frankenstein & Sherlock puzzles. I want the Austin one too! 1mo
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! 1mo
LeahBergen This looks fun! I‘ve done The Brontës and Jane Austen, too. 1mo
Lesliereadsalot Love it!! 1mo
34 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!!!! 1mo
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. 1mo
Bookwomble @kspenmoll You're welcome 😊 1mo
See All 7 Comments
kelli7990 I have Autism. I didn‘t know there was a Māori word for it. 1mo
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 ? 1mo
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 😄) 1mo
35 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! 1mo
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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? 😡😡😡😡😡 1mo
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! ? 1mo
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Bookwomble @Leftcoastzen Sorry, "mini-Trump" is UK demagogue Nigel Farage - I'd also posted about his bandwagon jumping ? 1mo
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!) 1mo
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 ! 1mo
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. 1mo
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. 1mo
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. 😊 1mo
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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 ✊🙂 1mo
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. 1mo
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 😊 1mo
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 😅 1mo
33 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
1mo
Jari-chan What a time to be alive 🙃 1mo
AmyG 😡 1mo
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Leftcoastzen 😡😡😡😡 1mo
nanuska_153 Your neurodivergent brain is also very funny. Hated the news, loved the way you told them ❤️😅 1mo
The_Book_Ninja You‘ve soiled your thread with this rancid man‘s face🤮😂 1mo
Bookwomble @The_Book_Ninja "The horror! The horror!" ?? 1mo
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. 1mo
CarolynM 😆 Who‘d want to be “normal” by his standards anyway? 1mo
Bookwomble @TieDyeDude They don't care, though, because the proofs will be given in places ther their followers won't see them. Preaching to the choir! 1mo
Bookwomble @CarolynM Indeed! 😃 1mo
27 likes13 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) 1mo
32 likes1 comment
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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 💖 1mo
26 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. 1mo
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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 ! 1mo
dabbe 🤩🙌🏻🤩 1mo
Lesliereadsalot How cool! 1mo
GingerAntics Hello, Ian! 1mo
CarolynM 😂 1mo
38 likes5 comments