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Context matters, as has been said by others.
If it's an author suggesting a book they have written in a thread specifically asking for recommendations, and if the author makes it clear they're the author (not "a big fan of this brand new book that was just released"), and if the book fits the request, and if it's done in a venue where it's not prohibited, I think it's perfectly okay.
If the author pretends they're "just a reader", or pushes it aggressively, or does so in a place where self-promotion is not welcome or allowed, it's crossing that line for me and not okay. (For example on Amazon forums before Amazon really started to crack down on self-promo, it was often the case that I'd visit a genre forum and see a new post in 20-25 threads, sometimes across several forums, and they were all identical "buy my book!!" by one and the same author, regardless of whether the thread starter had asked for fluffy recs for 5-year-old girls or for gritty murder stories.)
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