JaymesRS

The local high school is considering redoing their selections for their 9th grade Sci Fi unit and I’m privileged enough to be able to provide suggestions. Currently they have a choice of Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E Pearson, Scythe by Neil Shusterman, and Unwound also by Shusterman.

It doesn’t have to be explicitly YA, but definitely YA accessible, and preferably something that will keep a 9th grader interested and isn’t just a fluffy book but challenges thinking/perceptions like good Sci Fi can. My goal is something near 300-ish pages but if it’s a faster read more is ok.

TiA

There’s been some debate over the last year or so regarding Bluesky and how decentralized it really is. There has also been a growing fear that “enshittification is inevitable.” Or, worse, that an “evil billionaire” might take it over and ruin it the way other platforms have been ruined.

But I think it’s important to understand that Bluesky has, effectively, created a technological poison pill: by building on an open protocol, ATprotocol, the system itself can be rebuilt outside of Bluesky, but in a way where everyone can continue to communicate, and that creates incredible incentives that undermine any evil billionaires, and would actually punish Bluesky (or anyone else!) should they try to enshittify.

It’s that time that @misericordiae@literature.cafe, @dresden@discuss.online, and I are starting to plan out Bingo for when it relaunches later this year. And we thought that we would reach out to see if we met some of our goals and ask if you had any feedback or suggestions.

While this was initially inspired by the Book Bingo on r/Fantasy, since we are smaller we wanted it to be less genre specific, while still encompassing recreational reading. For those who participated or considered participating, how did we do? Is there a way to improve?

We already have quite a few ideas for squares, but if you have one that you’d be willing to share, please feel free.

We started with the posts that are linked in the weekly book thread and a Storygraph challenge, are there any other resources or opportunities that we missed to make it more accessible?

Any other thoughts are welcome too. Thank you.

ALT: a BlueSky post by Ryan Marino, MD (@ryanmarino.bsky.social); it says “Did you know? Black Friday is named in honor of Rebecca Black, who invented Friday in 2011.”

The Green Party leader has hired a GOP consulting firm and worked with Trump-affiliated lawyers.

“Despite claims that it was a casual affair or flirtation, Page Six has learned that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and New York Magazine scribe Olivia Nuzzi had ‘incredible’ FaceTime sex.” … “They had ‘incredible’ sex over FaceTime, according to another source, with Nuzzi noting to pals that the 70-year-old had impressive sexual stamina.”