Pere #Goriot by Honore de Balzac is impossible to put down: emotional, cruel, funny, and painfully human. #Balzac is a master storyteller, a sharp psychologist, and a writer with a wonderful sense of humor.

This is a novel about a father’s love so strong it becomes destructive — proving that even the best intentions can ruin both your life and the lives of those you love most.

#reading #books #literature @bookstodon #bookstodon #amreading #fiction #novel #review #bookreview

Keep good company,
Read good books,
Love good things,
and cultivate soul and body
as faithfully and wisely as I can.

Louisa May Alcott

#quotes #books #writers #author #LouisaMayAlcott #LittleWomen #soul #literature #quote #book #booktok #bookstagram #readingcommunity #reading #booksky #bookstodon #Alcott @bookstodon

#Reading can support mental health too.

A systematic review of randomized clinical trials found that #bibliotherapy (structured reading used in treatment) can reduce depressive symptoms and may have lasting benefits.

#Books are not a replacement for care when someone needs help, but they can be a real part of healing.

#mentalhealth #literature #readingcommunity #book #booksky #BookTok #booklovers #bookstagram #bookstodon @bookstodon

Daniel Kraus Wins 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction with Angel Down as a “breathless novel of World War I, a stylistic tour-de-force that blends such genres as allegory, magical realism and science fiction into a cohesive whole, told in a single sentence.”

#books #Pulitzer #PulitzerPrize #literature #book #bookstodon @bookstodon #Kraus #author #DanielKraus #AngelDown #reading #readingcommunity #booksky #bookstagram #writers #booktok

“Our heart is a treasury; if you pour out all its wealth at once, you are bankrupt.”

Honore de #Balzac

#FatherGoriot #books #reading #bookstodon @bookstodon #booksky #bookstagram #book #literature #writers #author #quotes #quote #readingcommunity

Niccolo Machiavelli (May 3, 1469 – June 21, 1527) wrote The Prince after prison, torture, and exile, with the cold clarity of someone who had seen power from the inside.

This is not just a book about rulers but about fear, ambition, loyalty, betrayal, and the dangerous people who believe they are born to command others.

#books #literature #reading #book #writers #author #Machiavelli #ThePrince #bookstodon @bookstodon #politics #ambitions #booksky #bookstagram #BookTok #today

John Hollander’s poem Kitty and Bug is self-explanatory in its simplicity. The cat’s unpunctuated, almost stream-of-consciousness thoughts fit into a physical ‘cat’ shape, while the bug – in sharp contrast – is but a 3-letter word near the edge of the page.

Happy #Caturday !

#poetry #poem #cat #cats #kitty #catsOfMastodon #books #reading #literature #bookstodon @bookstodon

Joseph Heller (May 1, 1923– December 12,1999)

Before writing Catch-22, Joseph Heller served as a bombardier in World War II and flew 60 combat missions over France and Italy.

That experience became the seed of one of the most famous anti-war novels of the 20th century - a book where war is shown not as noble glory, but as a terrifying system of fear, paperwork, commands, and absurd rules.

#books #writers #reading #catch22 #JosephHeller #Heller #book #bookstodon @bookstodon

Patrick Süskind’s Perfume is about a gifted boy and a cruel world. It offers a glimpse of French history, the perfume industry, and, most of all, the strange, intoxicating universe of scents: streets, flowers, human bodies, and even feelings.

This is a novel you can almost smell.

#books #reading #bookstodon @bookstodon #booksky #bookstagram #book #literature #Süskind #Perfume #bookreview #amreading #readingcommunity #PatrickSüskind

Classic sci-fi imagined machines taking care of the boring and dangerous work, so humans could spend more time creating, reading, and connecting.

And somehow, we ended up with the opposite.

#reading #scifi #sciencefiction #books #bookstodon #robots #AI #booksky #bookstagram #BookTok #literature #future @bookstodon