Books

In the context of a renewed interest in the history of the Witch-hunts and the rise of Christian civilization, this book offers a significant contribution. In recent years, anti-capitalists and pagans alike have explored a radical analysis of these histories and have worked to understand the conditions by which patriarchy and capitalism have developed together as two heads of the same monstrosity. This line of inquiry is perhaps best illustrated by the relatively widespread reading and discussion of Silvia Federici’s Caliban and the Witch and also the renewed excitement about Fredy Perlman’s Against His-story, Against Leviathan!

This book tells a congruent story, but from a unique position. While engaging with the same history as Federici, Arthur Evans departs from her in some marked ways. He subtitled his book “a radical view of western civilization, and some of the people it has tried to destroy,” and in doing so he attempts to hear and to share the perspective of those people annihilated in the Witch-hunts. This effort is something tragically absent in the patronizingly materialist writings in Caliban. While Federici critiques the capitalist Mind/Body and Material/Spiritual splits which cleaved the world into an alienated hell, her methodology is rooted in the Mind and Material poles of these violent dichotomies. This intrinsically domesticated perspective may indict the Witch-hunts, yet it remains a tacit acceptance of the ideology which has fueled centuries of genocide. In his lament for the world vanquished by Civilization and his celebration of the voices of the defeated, Evans’ critique has more in common with Fredy Perlman’s. Both describe Leviathan’s material rise as being inseparable from the sensual and spiritual poverty it has enforced upon the biosphere.

Witchcraft’s own argumentation offers a vindication of queer sensuality, magic, and anarchist violence which speaks for itself and can be followed toward any number of endeavors in the pursuit of freedom and wildness. We are passionate about this book because of the way that these perspectives and proposals invigorate our own struggles against this world.

I have a pretty old book that has a hard cardboard sleeve that's really frayed at the corners, so that the bottom part of it is coming off a bit. What kind of glue would you use? I want to keep it from fraying again or damaging/having weird effects on the material over time.

These are the best books I read in 2025, not necessarily the ones that came out this year. There's a surprise appearance by a Greek goddess, a book looking a Japanese terrorist attack, CJ Cherryh's sci-fi/fantasy mash-up, and a few more.

Fiction

“What We Can Know” by Ian McEwan

“Greenwood” by Michael Christie

“Barkskins” by Annie Proulx

Nonfiction

“The Joyful Environmentalist: How to Practise Without Preaching” by Isabel Losada

“Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future” by Dan Wang

“Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures” by Merlin Sheldrake

“Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation” by Dan Fagin

Next episode of our book podcast is out! In this one we talk about the beautiful, strange horror of Jeff VanderMeer's 'Annihilation'. As always, no ads, no sponsors or any of that crap. Find it here or wherever you get your podcasts from.

I've been getting back into reading and while nothing will beat a physical book, having a device with multiple EPUBS seems like a good way to save space and money. After a bit of searching, I'm down to two options: Kobo (specifically the Libra Colour) and Boox (specifically the Go Color 7). I've discarded tablets because they're just a larger phone and thus blue light-induced eye strain. I've also discarded the Kindle because of Amazon's business practices. I known that Kindles can jailbroken (which I wouldn't mind doing) and I could buy one second-hand on eBay but I prefer to give my money towards a better competitor.

Which one do you think is better? Have you used their previous e-readers? How do they compare?

Thanks in advance!

Started The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson, 3rd book in the 2nd era of Mistborn.

It's fun to read the antics of Wayne. Probably the most fun character in the book.

What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?

For details on the c/Books bingo challenge that just restarted for the year, you can checkout the initial Book Bingo, and its Recommendation Post. Links are also present in our community sidebar.

I've read several Tchaikovsky books before, and some have been incredible (Children of Time, Guns of the Dawn) while others have just been 'fine'. So I find him a bit hit or miss.

Does anyone have any thoughts on the Shadows of the Apt or Echoes of the Fall series? Is this bundle worth it?

I'll be starting this book today. It's been a few months since I've read fiction.

It's originally in Japanese but translated to English by Albert Novick.

"Otohiko Kaga's Marshland is an epic novel on a Tolstoian scale, running from pre-World War II period to the turbulence of 1960s Japan."

It seem really interesting and I'm looking forward to it. I also really like the cover design.

#books

@read-and-be-merry List of Books to Read Before You Die

1. Any book you want
2. Don’t read books you don’t want to read
3. That's it
4. Congratulations you did it

@iammewhooaryou | really like this list. All my favorite books are on it.

@ read-and-be-merry Thanks | worked really hard on it

I'm currently making my way through The Third Reich Trilogy as an audiobook and it is hands down the best researched, most in-depth piece of history I've ever read / listened to.

Evans must have spent half his life in primary sources and uses that research to great effect. The book includes many diary and newspaper extracts from the time for example (including liberal use of Goebbels diary) and goes into detail in all sorts of areas that paint a very clear picture of everyday life in Germany at the time.

It's long (around 90 hours audio or over 2000 pages) but I have learned so much from it.

Finished Cold Days by Jim Butcher! (The 14th book in Dresden Files series.)

It was a wild ride! We are back to world shattering problems and trying to stop them. Just finished the book so haven't finalised which one to start next, but thinking about reading the next Mistborn book, 3rd one in Wax and Wayne era. Let's see.

Bingo Squares: None.

What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?

For details on the c/Books bingo challenge that just restarted for the year, you can checkout the initial Book Bingo, and its Recommendation Post. Links are also present in our community sidebar.

I first came upon Richard Wright via The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson (incredible book btw), the title of which actually comes from a poem in the original draft of Black Boy:

I was leaving the South
to fling myself into the unknown...
I was taking a part of the South
to transplant in alien soil,
to see if it could grow differently,
if it could drink of new and cool rains,
bend in strange winds,
respond to the warmth of other suns
and, perhaps, to bloom.

I first read Wright's novel Native Son, a story about a young black man (Bigger Thomas) born to Jim Crow Mississippi and living in Chicago's redlined Black Belt in the 1930s

The book was especially captivating to me through Wright's ability to express the chaotic, bewildered psychological turmoil in Bigger's mind throughout the book.

Reading Black Boy, Wright's autobiography, it is clear where this ability came from. As powerful as Native Son is, I found Black Boy to be even more so. The details of his life are harrowing. The abject poverty and hunger, the racial subjugation and humiliation, the suppression of his individuality and intellect by his own family and community. But again what made this book so captivating to me was clarity with which he could see and portray his own inner life and psychology through all of this. His prose is engrossing and poetic. I was absorbed in it from page one. I've never quite read anything else like it, and can't recommend it enough.

If anyone has read Black Boy or anything else by Wright (or Isabel Wilkerson as well for that matter; Caste and The Warmth of Other Suns are absolute favorites of mine), I'd love to hear your thoughts.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/40687915

"Who's to know? [Technology firms] are spending trillions and trillions on AI and maybe it's going to produce the next War and Peace.

"And if people want to read that book, AI-generated or not, we will be selling it - as long as it doesn't pretend to [be] something that it isn't.

"We as booksellers would certainly naturally and instinctively disdain it," Daunt said.

Readers value a connection with the author "that does require a real person", he added. Any AI-generated book would always be clearly labelled as such.

As I said a couple of weeks ago, we recently did a podcast episode about Heather Parry's excellent gothic horror Carrion Crow - she heard the episode and offered to come on the show to talk about the book which we of course were thrilled to accept - that episode is now live here or wherever you get podcasts.

Note: Our PeerTube instance is still struggling - a move is imminent but for now we're not adding new episodes to it.

Cosy up with a wild read this winter, as The Wildlife Trust's Meg Dobson guides you through some of our best loved titles from Bloomsbury Wildlife.

This winter, unwind and reconnect with the natural world – all from the comfort of your home. As frost glitters on every surface and the low winter sun casts shadows across the ground, it feels only fitting to reach for a good book. One that will deepen our understanding of the landscapes, species and stories that shape and inspire us.

Discover a wide selection of new and notable titles from Bloomsbury Books – works that illuminate the untamed, celebrate the overlooked and offer fresh perspectives on our relationship with nature. These books promise exploration from the comfort of your favourite reading spot, so get cosy and lose yourself in nature without leaving the glow of your Christmas tree.

I was listening to Too Many Tabs and Mrs P mentioned a website called storygraph.com as an alternative to Goodreads. I was wondering if anybody had heard about it or had an experience with it. Any pitfalls or skeletons in the closet?