Threadnsong's GiNORmous TBR pile

I have lots of books on my shelves that I've bought who knows when. Many of them follow the familiar genres of science fiction, fantasy, biography/autobiography, and historical fiction.

So, to whittle down my list, I'll read one book (at least) per month in my TBR pile, following the categories:

January: Sci-Fi The Fountains of Paradise
February: Historical Fiction
March: Biography/Autobiography Destiny of a Republic
April: Historical Fiction Memoirs of a Geisha *and* Birdsong
May: Mystery (murder or otherwise) Jonathan Kellerman, Karin Slaughter, Tami Hoag
June: General fiction Wicked
July: TBRR (To be Re-Read)Tam-Lin, Thomas the Rhymer, Winter Rose
August: Sci-Fi
September: Biography/Autobiography
October: Sci-Fi The Sentinel by Arthur C. Clarke
November: Biography Her Own Woman
December: Historical Fiction Ahab's Wife

Rinse and repeat!

January 2017 GiNORmous pile
Category: Science Fiction
The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke

Good luck! I'm also a historical fiction fan, and biography fan, so I'll be watching those from you!

Excellent! Thanks, and have a happy new year!

>4 threadnsong: And Happy New Year to you!

Happy reading!

Welcome and good luck with your challenge (and whittling down the TBR pile)! :)

Welcome to Library Thing and this challenge. I hope you have a terrific year!

Welcome and Happy New Year!

Welcome to the Category Challenge. I read a lot of both sci-fi and historical fiction and look forward to following along.

Good luck with your 2017 reading!

Good luck with your challenge and happy reading!

Thank you so much! I've been stuck doing home-based projects with deadlines, so I haven't even cracked Fountains yet. But hope springs eternal!

January 2017 GiNORmous pile
Category: Science Fiction
The Fountains of Paradise

And hope sprung eternal after all (even though it's late January). I read the first section of Fountains of Paradise and am falling in love with Clarke's vision of humanity, no matter that they are despot kings living in Sri Lanka 2,000 years ago or scientists living at the end of the 21st century. Clarke is able to take his analytical brain to the heights of both science and human motivation: why does a king of men decide to create a palace at the top of a barely scalable mountain during the time of Hadrian? And what *exactly* is a space elevator and how can it be made to work without defying the laws of physics? The first section is called "The Temple" and I am eager to start on the second section. Soon. After other obligations (there's always something!)

January 2017 GiNORmous pile
Category: Science Fiction
The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke

I'm continuing with this wonderful book, being not too overwhelmed by the scientific explanations (I'm a linguist - all the science sounds plausible to me!). By the middle of the book, there is a description of what makes the holy mountain holy that just gave me goosebumps: a phenomenon that only occurs at sunrise, when the mountain's shadow obscures everything before it on the Earth's surface: other mountains, clouds, the Earth's rim, etc. I took a look at the back of the book at Clarke's notes, and he does confirm that although the placement of the island where this mountain exists is fictional, the shadow phenomenon is very, very real.

It seems that Mr. Clarke loves Sri Lanka enough that he worked out the equations for where a space elevator could be, given Earth's rotation, storms, gravitational pulls, and brings Sri Lanka south to the equator by several hundred miles. And he also explains through the scientists in his story why the elevator has to be grounded on Earth where it is, and not on Mt. Kilimanjaro or any mountaintops in South America.

With some time in my schedule this weekend and this week, I should be able to finish this book and get started on my belated February challenge. Or maybe I'll get an early start on March; Destiny of a Republic is beginning to show up in my brain as the next book I should choose!

January 2017 GiNORmous pile
Category: Science Fiction

Completed: The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke

This was as great a novel as my earlier comments above attest. What happens when one of humanities most sacred places needs to end its sacredness in order for science to move forward? Clarke denigrates neither: he does not hold science as superior to religion, it is merely a fluke of this particular scientific project, a giant space elevator, that demands its placement on Earth at this high, sacred mountain. And once the space elevator is able to move forward, all is not metal roses, either: this project has glitches and problems and downturns, though none as severe as the Palace of King Kalidasa.

March 2017 GiNORmous pile
Category: Biography/Autobiography

Begun: Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard

A very well-written history that includes insights into the key personae due to Garfield's nightly journal entries and the court transcripts of Charles Guiteau. A presidential convention is described in great detail, the elevation in 1876 of the telephone by the obscure scientist, Alexander Graham Bell (though he was well-known in the education of the deaf) due to an unlikely set of circumstances, and the burgeoning madness of Guiteau are all well-laid out. I am enjoying it a great deal, and certainly learning much more about the American political system in the late 1870's than I ever did in American history class.

March 2017 GiNORmous pile
Category: Biography/Autobiography

Still Reading Destiny of a Republic and thinking I might just finish it soon. It is extremely well-written: Millard details both Guiteau and Garfield at appropriate parts of the story, so I didn't find myself jolted from the early life of Garfield into the life at Oneida of Guiteau. While Guiteau was a thief and scoundrel, Garfield was a brilliant man who learned on the canals that his life would be better spent if he used his mind. And the irony of this death is such that he was just getting ready to govern, and probably govern well, having gotten rid of his top political opponent by calling his bluff and "accepting" his resignation from the Senate.

Alrighty then! >7 rabbitprincess: I have begun to whittle down my TBR pile!

Last night, I finished Destiny of a Republic. It was a terrific and heart-rending read and the writing style was very, very engaging.

On the historical fiction note, >10 DeltaQueen50: and >3 LibraryCin:, I am about to start on Memoirs of a Geisha. If it is in fact one of the books from my mom's hoard stash, then I've had it for over a decade. I found a nail file as a place marker and I know I use bookmarks or bits of paper as my bookmarks instead of nail files, so I'm guessing it was one of hers.

So now we're at one science fiction (since January/February was Arthur C. Clarke), one biography (March), and now I'm back on track with historical fiction. Definitely a reinforcement for not volunteering for too many things on weekends any more!

April 2017 GiNORmous pile
Category: Historical Fiction

Began Memoirs of a Geisha earlier this week. Wow! What a brilliant novel. I am so lost in the story and can't wait to sink more into it this weekend.

Also added the category "general fiction" to my TBR pile: I noticed I have Wicked on my bookshelf and I know it's been years since I bought it. So that will come in a couple of books' time.

April 2017 GiNORmous pile
Category: Historical Fiction
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

After finishing a beloved author's book of fantasy-inspired short stories earlier this week, that I read in tandem with Geisha, I'm still overwhelmed by this style. I'm gripped by this culture, horrified by the abuse and bullying Chiyo receives, and I feel how grateful she is when she becomes a little sister to Mameho. Will steal a little time to read it this weekend.

April 2017 GiNORmous pile
Category: Historical Fiction
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
5 stars

Completed Memoirs of a Geisha. What an extraordinary book! A subject I have never studied, a part of the world I've never visited, and yet this author brings both to life as though I were watching over her. Chiyo is such a young, innocent child that life just swats as though she were nothing. Her trials and turmoil in the okiya, where she learns hardship and hard work, were very real, especially the bullying she receives from the adult women who are supposed to care for her. They raise her; caring for her happens later.

But she never loses her sense of possibilities, her hope, and as she grows to become a geisha the descriptions of her life are equally lyrical and flowing. I loved the descriptions of a kimono's embroidery and the intense dressing process for a geisha. And Chiyo does make a detailed distinction between a geisha and a prostitute.

Brilliant writing, highly readable, and one in which I immersed myself.

April 2017 GiNORmous pile
Category: Historical Fiction
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

Currently reading Birdsong, also in the historical fiction realm. And since a century has passed, a fitting tribute to the untold and unfound thousands who left and never came home.

April 2017 GiNORmous pile
Category: Historical Fiction
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
5 stars

Completed Birdsong as a second historical fiction read for the month of April. Just wow. Just absolutely lyrical and emotional and gripping, and just wow.

May 2017 GiNORmous pile
Category: Mystery
Compulsion by Jonathan Kellerman

Currently reading Compulsion for my May pile. I think my TBR pile is going to go way, way down this month, as I read through half this book last night and have no plans for tonight. Except reading this mystery!

May 2017 GiNORmous pile
Category: Mystery
Compulsion by Jonathan Kellerman
4 stars

From the book: A tipsy young woman seeking aid on a desolate highway disappears into the inky black night. A retired schoolteacher is stabbed to death in broad daylight. Two women are butchered after closing time in a small-town beauty parlor. The curious fact that all their killers drove luxury vehicles, coupled with a baffling lack of any apparent motive, is enough to warrant the attention of LAPD detective Milo Sturgis and his frequent collaborator on the crime beat, psychologist Alex Delaware.

My review: Definitely a gripping and fast read that I finished in 3 days. I find that the characters in Kellerman's work and their various pathologies and quirks are the most interesting, as they are drawn from Alex Delaware's background and training in psychology. This book is no different: the inner dialogue of the "tipsy young woman" at the beginning coupled with the meeting with her mother and stepfather brings family dysfunction to the penthouse level; a whiny young man with a slipped disc who proves a disappointment to his mother; and then the pathology of the killer or killers as Delaware and Sturgis go on their way around LA are fascinating.

What seemed a tad unrealistic was the hours that these two central characters spend together as well as the sleeplessness that somehow does not harm their ability to act. Doesn't Delaware have a practice and patients he needs to see? Or is he entirely on the payroll of the LAPD by this point, without complaint? Sometimes I like a little realism in my murder mystery life!

May 2017 GiNORmous pile
Category: Mystery
Criminal by Karin Slaughter
4 stars

From the book: Will Trent is a brilliant agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Newly in love, he is beginning to put a difficult past behind him. Then a local college student goes missing, and Will is inexplicably kept off the case by his supervisor and mentor, deputy director Amanda Wagner.

My review: While a bit hard to feel entirely gripped at the beginning, this book takes one down several criminal paths: prostitution, race and gender relations in the mid-1970s in Atlanta's police force, and what is allowed to happen to unwanted children in this world. The book starts in the 1970's on the streets of Atlanta with one agonized story of Lisa, a prostitute who has fallen below the depths where she wanted to be, then goes to Will's recent assignment to catch men in the stalls of Atlanta's Hartsfield Airport, then to the early days of Amanda's life as a police officer. She is the daughter of one of the Zones' commanders who was fired from the force by the new African-American police chief, Reginald Eaves, and her life has never been her own. This storyline explains why Amanda has moved to the GBI by the time of the Will Trent books and it is a justifiable and understandable reason.

Again, "enjoy" is not a good verb to use in this context, especially with the torture done to the young prostitutes. But "gripping" and "horrifying" and "enlightening" are, and Karin Slaughter is a mistress of her genre. Write on!

>24 threadnsong: I loooooovvveee Slaughter's Will Trent series.

>25 VictoriaPL: Yup! Me too. Have you read this one yet?

May 2017 GiNORmous pile
Category: Mystery
Ashes to Ashes by Tami Hoag
3 stars

I just was so disappointed in this book. I had it from my late mother's stash and our tastes in books were not the same. Maybe she read this book, and maybe she put it to the side. Nevertheless, I wanted to continue in this genre and since this book has been on my shelf for more than a decade, it was time.

And really, it was meh. It almost seems as if Hoag was writing for two main plot points: the romance and its sexual culmination between Kate Conlan and John Quinn, and the ending. The romance was typical, the sex was candid; and the ending, the "who did this terrible thing to these women?" was a throwaway at the ending of the book. Why on earth did she not develop this section more? Why were there not more details of the killer and the tortured Angie and their back stories? There was a psychological angle that was hinted at but targeted towards the psychological mess of Kate and John.

The overt sexual discussions that took place at police headquarters was a bit hard to take; it may have been a product of the time or SOP for the police, or simply titillation until the romance and sex sequences happen. Or it may be part of Hoag's writing style, in which case I will leave it to those who appreciate this kind of thing.

>26 threadnsong: I've read them all. So now I have to wait for new releases. It's agonizing.....

May 2017 GiNORmous pile
Category: Mystery
All the President's Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
5 stars

Technically, this is a re-read for me, but it just felt as though these times beg to plunge back into those times. And it is a mystery at its heart (stay with me here, LT friends!). Not the oft-quoted line "What did the President know . . . ?" but "Why did these guys break into the Watergate Hotel?" Then "Why is Haldeman's name in a notebook?" Then "Where did this money come from?" and "Why were there 4 people that high up in the Nixon Administration able to access that money?" and "Why did the FBI not ask more wide-reaching questions?"

As I mentioned and others in their reviews on this book's page, the events end in late January, 1974, before Nixon's ultimate resignation. The next events, told in a non-mystery format, are detailed in The Final Days by the same authors and in great detail.

June 2017 GiNORmous pile
Category: General Fiction
Wicked by Gregory Maguire

Pulled myself out of the political intrigue and went to this list to stick with the plan. Wicked is a very well-written book thus far and I hope I can read it with a great deal of enjoyment.

I liked Wicked enough to want to read more Maguire books!

By Maguire, I really liked Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. It may be my favourite of the ones I've read by him.

Good to know. Thanks!

>31 lkernagh: >32 LibraryCin: I saw that he has quite a corpus of works, all starting with Wicked. Thank you both for the mention!

June 2017 GiNORmous pile
Category: General Fiction
Wicked by Gregory Maguire

I did some good reading on this book this weekend and the more I read it, the more I am intrigued by it. I loved The Wizard of Oz in part because it was Dorothy's story; I did not like Ozma of Oz as much because it was someone else's story. Tick-Tock I think was one of the characters while Dorothy linked her story to Ozma's.

But by the same token, this book is . . . other people's story, including Oz's. It intermingles Melena's story then transfers to Galinda, then to Elphaba, and we even hear some of the love-lorn story of Boq towards Galinda (who later becomes Glinda). But the backstory is the intrigue: how are these laws regarding Animals becoming more acceptable? And the people who live in the Fens and their fate, along with the drought in Munchinkinland (or is it all Oz?) and the building of the famous Road. Their lives are detailed a bit but the action in the second section centers on the cities.

Drought and famine and want. And Ozma is . . . where? and what, if anything does this underlying current have to do with the Wizard?

June 2017 GiNORmous pile
Category: General Fiction
Wicked by Gregory Maguire

Wow. What an interesting take on the Land of Oz. I'm not going to say I liked it entirely: the political intrigues got kind of bogged down in details that Maguire was trying to bring to life, but a full life of the Wicked Witch of the West? Even going so far as to give her a name? And parentage? And a lover? Wow. Extraordinary.

Her tragedy is there and never fully explained, though hinted at in a way that, say Batman/Bruce Wayne witnessing his parents' death, is more fully realized. But it is devestating to her nonetheless, and then there is a child (possibly hers?) and her need to go to her lover's home and wife, and this becomes her castle, all does credit to Maguire's weaving of this storyline to the larger mythos.

I am glad I read this book, though I don't see myself reading the others in this series. I know that there are Oz geeks out there in the way that I am a Tolkien geek and a Star Trek geek. Their world I have looked at and enjoyed, and now I can have a conversation with them. And that is a good thing.

July GiNORmous pile
Category: Tam Lin/Thomas the Rhymer corpus
Thomas the Rhymer by Ellen Kushner

This idea for a re-read came about on a drive, when DH revealed that a niece loved the Tam Lin story. It's been a while since I read any of these books, and Wikipedia does mention Winter Rose as Patricia McKillip's re-telling of that story. And when we began to discuss the storylines of Thomas the Rhymer and Tam (Thomas) Lin, they seemed to be similar in origin and the distance in clans and distance and an oral tradition could so to have made Tam Lin a derivative of Thomas the Rhymer. But that is a subject for a dissertation and would involve much academic argument.

So Thomas the Rhymer. It becomes an amazing story as told by this masterful storyteller. There is more than just Tam Lin being taken by The Queen of the Fairies: there are Gavin and Meg, an older farm couple who keep sheep and chickens and bake oat cakes for a weary wanderer who comes in rain sodden one night. Oh, and he plays the harp, and he is trying to get into the King's court, or at least an Earl's, as that is the "career path" of itinerant harpers.

While he lives with Gavin and Meg, he meets young Elspeth who has turned into a lively young woman, and their teasing and insults form into young love over the course of years while the initial part of the book takes place. And this look at real people with Kushner's pen makes Thomas the Rhymer less a figment of mythology and more a person who might have lived, when times were less technology-driven and more magical.

Thomas has his own section when he takes a moment of repose under the Eildon Tree, when he and Meg have become closer than friends, and Thomas has had his enjoyments of the Court and several ladies have become entranced by him. The Queen of the Elves finds him, offers him a choice, and he chooses to be her lover for the next seven years. And she lays an aegis on him that colors his time in Elfland. It is a very sensuous, sensual, and definitely not a YA level novel with its descriptions of the bedroom. But it is not only the bedroom: it is the Court of Elfland, it is an invisible servant, it is a dove who cries blood tears, and it is ever-changing.

And then we get to Meg's story, who has languished for seven years without her love, married out of necessity, and retained her spirit. And yes, she does find herself re-united with her love, and the necessity of time passing, in all its poignancy, becomes the final phase of this book. And brings love and life to what is a simple Scottish Ballad re-told in Tor's Fairytale series.

July GiNORmous pile
Category: Tam Lin/Thomas the Rhymer corpus
Tam Lin by Pamela Dean

I've read this book now three times. The first time, shortly after its publication, I began to face all the regrets I had in college and not being a better student.

The second time I was entranced by its magic and its story; my review on Shelfari (here on LT) was that I loved this book.

Yet this third time . . . I really felt it fell short. The book was long, which is fine, and yet it was unbalanced. Janet's first year in college is nearly half the 400+ pages, which means that her sophomore, junior, and senior years are not as well explored. And aren't those the years that understanding comes to us in college? I was almost bored with the minute detail with which Dean describes her classes, her teachers, the campus, the conversations, and then there is very little mention of the same in her later years at college. Her relationship with Nick seems unrealistic, even for college: wouldn't she at some point have seen his biting comments and disengagement as a reason to end their relationship?

Which means that her entire relationship with Thomas, the ultimate focus of the ballad, is rushed through. Perhaps the idea for Dean was to mimic the ballad, to make it be mostly about the build-up to the rescue from the Fae. If so, she succeeded. And since there is no description of Janet's life with Thomas, maybe this reason is why the book gave so little description of their romance and hastened it along.

Great review of Thomas the Rhymer - I'll take a BB for that one.

Thank you very much, >40 LisaMorr: Lisa Morr!

October 2017 GiNORmous pile
Category: Science Fiction
The Sentinel by Arthur C. Clarke

It's been a busy few months! There's nothing like having a full-time set of contracting jobs to bring the much-needed funds into my life, but also cut back on my reading time. And posting on LT time! Thank you for bearing with me.

Obviously, August was not to be about reading and keeping up with this site. I did manage to read a huge chunk of Hyperion but it was only on my TBR list for 3 years, and I really want to keep with a long, long list of books I've needed to read for, um, more years. The Sentinel is on the same shelf as Fountains of Paradise and Zelazny's Lord of Light, so this book being a classic and the above GiNORmous pile it just made sense.

So far, so good. A little on the "humans superior to all other beings in the universe" with "Rescue Party" but the structure of the aliens' culture, from a vast number of different planets, was great Clarke innovation. I especially liked the amorphous Paladorian, a being that is part of a larger whole and addresses itself as "we" because of this way of its being. And the many tentacled being whose tentacles can split into different bits; sort of like a benign Hydra.

The nice thing about short stories is that it's easier to carve out smaller bits of time to accomplish reading them.

October 2017 GiNORmous pile
Category: Science Fiction
The Sentinel by Arthur C. Clarke

A book that I am glad that I re-read, though I am not sure I definitely want to keep it. It is full of science and speculation about humanity's journeys to other worlds, even if those worlds are still right in our own solar system. The predecessors to 2001: A Space Odyssey and Childhood's End form part of of this collection, as do several standalone stories. They speak to the questions humanity has for itself and ask the "what if?" or "why couldn't we do it this way?" that is so important for scientific exploration and space travel.

Still, my circle of friends and acquaintances has changed. I have several scientists among them, but unlike being in college, our lives intersect on social occasions, not every week. Our discussions involve what we are doing with our lives, not the science project a professor assigned. And while not a science geek myself I see the need for science and STEM; I also see the need for story and history and religious exploration and cultural expansion. A friend does science experiments for children at local events; I would be happy to tell the same children stories about who some of the scientists were who discovered things. Including the women.

I guess that's why I was more drawn to Fountains of Paradise than to this book; Fountains explored history, religion, the moral qualms about the project that was the central part of the book. These short stories explore science and while I find the idea of yacht racing fascinating, it's not a burning need. But I'll support whoever wants to take it up and encourage them on their journey!

November 2017 GiNORmous pile
Category: Biography
Her Own Woman: the Life of Mary Wollstonecraft by Diane Jacobs

A woman whose influence is still being felt, even today when women are still fighting for their rights and The Handmaid's Tale became a story told through the medium of Hulu. It promises to be a fair, not fawning, look at the life of Mary and it has already taught me about her life, her grandfather, and what Mary wrote from a very young age.

Catching up on your thread and your very interesting reading! I can't believe it's almost the end of another year.

>45 mamzel: Merci Mamzel! I find myself at bookshops and if I'm not careful, there's no telling what will come home with me.

I'm finding this type of challenge helps me organize all of my various books and read through them, instead of starting them and finding something pretty-shiny over there.

Are you planning any challenge for 2018? How has your reading for 2017 gone?

Nothing special for 2018 - just a month by month log.
I had been averaging 100 books per year but it doesn't look like I'll get close to that this year. I didn't record my rereads during the summer. I did not have any drive to tackle something new and I reread about 7 books that I really loved the first time around. I didn't put these into my total.
As they say - there's always next year.

November 2017 GiNORmous pile
Category: Biography
Her Own Woman: The Life of Mary Wollstonecraft by Diane Jacobs
5*****

This was an engaging biography, by turns easy to read and at others providing a bit of a challenge from the source material. Jacobs keeps the grammar/spelling of any writing authentic, whether it be the letters between Mary and her beloved childhood friend Fanny Blood, or the letters sent between British ex-pats during the French Revolution, or the dashed off letters Mary sent to her lover, Gilbert Imlay. This book is divided into three parts: Mary's early life; the French Revolution, and her life afterwards.

Jacobs is honest in painting a picture of a volatile and brilliant young woman, who is possessive towards her women friends, a controlling older sister to her two younger sisters, Eliza and Everina, and obsessed in the way that a jilted lover is when the love affair is over but the heart cannot be long separated. The impact of Mary's seminal work Vindication, is stated both in its own time and in the changes that have been wrought in modern times: divorce, self-determination, and property rights, though in many ways we still have some hills to climb.

An engaging and worthwhile work for all who seek a good biography or further understanding of this groundbreaking feminist.

Yes, indeed there is next year!

I've got to finish about 6 or 7 books between now and the end of the year to reach my own modest goal of 45 books. Though when I say that number to some of my work colleagues, they are pretty impressed that I even hit that number!

I'm thinking I want to include a category of re-reads myself next year, if only to become familiar with books I remember liking, or re-read it and decide it needs to go to a new home.

My TBR challenge for this month is Ahab's Wife in the historical fiction category. I haven't started it yet, and I'm almost afraid to do so since it is such a large tome.

>49 threadnsong: Good idea to include a rereads category for yourself next year. I build one into my own challenge, and this may be the only year where I don't meet my stated goal. Too many new and exciting books to read, it seems ;)

Re Ahab's Wife, we probably all have those books where they're interesting but their sheer size is daunting. Hope the reading goes well whenever you get started :)

>48 threadnsong: You've hit me with a bullet for Jacobs' book. It is always good to read about Mary Wollstonecraft but this book sounds especially interesting.

>50 rabbitprincess: Yes, it's hard to stare at my pile of shiny new books without also looking at the books I've read in the past on my shelves, begging me to read them. I doubt books get jealous but you never know!

This book, Ahab's Wife, is amazing. The writing style is gripping and very descriptive, the chapters are short (which is great when I'm picking up and putting down to keep an eye on dinner), and I just fell into it last night and gobbled up a hundred pages at a sitting. Thanks for the good wishes; I think they're coming true.

>51 VivienneR: Really? That's great! Thank you for letting me know. Jacobs used a lot of new source material recently found, and she is able to present Wollstonecraft as a real person, full of abilities and faults but with the unique ability to make her difficulties of the world something to overcome.