The title is misleading. I am not going to list the 170-some books on my goodreads TBR pile. That would be a long and tedious post. Instead I am going to list the main books on this year’s to-read pile. I set my goodreads goal at 30 books (look, I’m in revisions and I have a one-year-old…I had to be reasonable). And, miraculously, I am on track.
So far I have read:
The Golem and the Jinni: My thoughts on it are mentioned in this post, although I will say that my five star rating quickly cooled to a four star, almost to a 3.5. Still a good book though.
Throne of the Crescent Moon: Some really good aspects (MIDDLE-EASTERN SETTING!!!! An atypical main character) but I ended up…*whispers* skimming quite a lot. The plot just didn’t interest me.
The Napoleon of Notting Hill: Odd. Interesting. Try it for yourself.
‘Ijaam: Iraqi novella about a man in prison in Saddam’s Iraq.
So that just leaves 26 more books. I am currently reading N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season, Lew Wallace’s Ben Hur, and Blaise Pascal’s Pensees.
That brings us to 23.
Fantasy TBRs:
1-3. Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn Trilogy. I have heard good things about it and, lo, it sits on my shelf untouched.
4. Ken Liu’s Grace of Kings.
5. Rachel Hartman’s Shadowscale. I don’t normally go for dragons, but I really liked book 1 of this duology
6-8. Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea Trilogy. For shame that I have not yet read it.
Sci-Fi:
9. Starship Troopers, Robert Heinlein. Considered a classic also, another which I have sitting on my shelf long in wait.
And…that is all the Sci-fi I have right now. I may need to remedy that.
Other Fiction:
10. Rose Under Fire: (WWII historical fiction set in Ravensbruck), by Elizabeth Wein
11. Old Men at Midnight, by Chaim Potok
12. The Father Brown Omnibus, by G.K. Chesterton
13. Welcome to the Monkey House, by Kurt Vonnegut
14. My Antonia, by Willa Cather
15. Miramar, Naguib Mahfouz
16. The Slave, by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Non-Fiction:
17. Subjects of the Sultan (Ottoman history) by Suraiyah Faroqhi
18. The Blood of Lambs, by Kamal Saleem (written by former PLO)
19. They Stand Together: the Letters of C.S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves
20. Fool’s Talk, by Os Guinness
21. Iraq’s Last Jews: Stories of Daily Life, Upheaval, and Escape from Modern Babylon
22. Saddam’s Secrets, by George Sada
23. The Ugly American, by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick
Will I actually get through all of these? I hope so. I’ve been longing to read some of these and am very excited to get to it!
J. L. Odom 