February RandomKIT: Playing With Time

In the US, February always brings to mind Ground Hog Day, a weather superstition that puts the mighty groundhog into a forecaster’s role. Of course, Bill Murray made the movie iconic. With both those facts in mind, I thought we could play with time a bit this month.

Will you choose time travel/time loop books?
7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore
Kindred by Octavia Butler
See more here https://www.librarything.com/list/9/Best-Time-Travel-Novels
If you're looking for Nonfiction, try Einstein or Hawkings for some serious discussion of time and space.

Perhaps you’ll want to Re-read a favorite this month—that’s a type of loop

Or read more backlist from a new favorite author – going back in time.

To further broaden your choices, consider folklore featuring weather superstitions or other tales

The Essential Book of Weather Lore

More options here
https://www.librarything.com/tag/Weather%20Lore
https://www.librarything.com/tag/folklore

Or books that feature woodland/garden creatures.

Sipsworth comes to mind. I'll be interested to see what else you find on your shelves.

Whatever you choose I hope you have fun playing with time!

Don't Forget to Update the Wiki.

I think I may try One Last Stop I never did read Red, White and Royal Blue which a lot of people loved. Always looking to expand my reading.

Not sure what I'm going to read, but I'm in, as long as I don't have to listen to "I've Got You, Babe" over and over and over again....

>3 kac522: Earworm!!! :-)

Oh lovely! I'm not a fan of time travel books normally, so I think I'll go 'back in time' to an old favorite author who I've been meaning to revisit forever, and read a backlist book I never got around to--Knight of Ghosts and Shadows by Mercedes Lackey.

Great set-up, >1 beebeereads:!

Love this theme and all the possibilities for interpretation! Off to consider what might fit the bill...

I have already read them, but a great set of time loop books are Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs and its sequels.

Pretty sure I'll be able to find a time travel book of some type. I like this!

I do have The Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon, which features time travellers.

I'm still struggling with the idea that it's January, let alone nearly February!
I have Kindred by Octavia Butler which I am not going to get to in January, so I'll just kick that can down the road a bit.
Now sightly worried, as I tend to loathe time travel books.

I've got a couple tagged time travel on my TBR: Some Desperate Glory and The Ministry of Time. I can see if I can get one of them from the library. The other option is always to reread a favorite. Maybe go back in time to childhood and reread The Phantom Tollbooth. With a dog named Tock, that one would fit in more ways than one, I think.

>11 sturlington: Both of those options are pretty good in my opinion. Hope your library comes through.

I am currently working my way through Linda og Valentin, agents of time and space.
Unless the library somehow end up not delivering on the last couple of albums, I’ll probably be done by the time (heh heh) February comes around.
So probably a reread for me instead.

>12 amberwitch: Good to hear!

Great topic. Not sure yet what I will select, but I can recommend 11/23/63 by Stephen King. A very "un-Kingish" book!

If I have time I'd like to read 11/23/63 but if I don't I'll read the the time between by Karen White. Characters are two generations of sisters.

I don't have anything with time travel so I'll probably go back in time with a cold case mystery.

I have a time-travelling Beauty and the Beast retelling, Beauty that I will be reading for this challenge.

I read The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes.
In spare, eloquent prose, Barnes packs a lot into this fictional portrayal of the life of Russian composer Shostakovich. To be at the forefront of any art under Stalin was dangerous, maintaining integrity almost impossible. Was Khrushchev, "the corn cob" any different? Thought-provoking, poignant, compassionate, this is a brilliant work, worthy of the accolades.

“Art belongs to all time and no time.”

ETA: As mentioned in >16 VivienneR: I also plan to read a cold case mystery.

>18 VivienneR: This sounds fascinating. I have added it to my someday list! Thank you.

>18 VivienneR: I know very, very little about him. I may check on the book.

>19 beebeereads: I like the "someday list".

>18 VivienneR: I loved that book. It helps to know the basics about Shostakovich's life, but it is a brilliant book on its own.

I read Little People, Big Dreams: Vincent van Gogh and traveled back to Vincent's world. He is one of my favorite artists.

I read A Love Song for Ricki Wilde, which isn't a time travel book like I expected it to be, but it definitely plays with time.

I think I will read Balkan Ghosts by Robert Kaplan. It is a journey through history.

I have read The Secret Chapter for this, next in the Invisible Library series. This time our time- and world travelling librarians are in Vienna with a team of professional criminals, and the job is to steal a huge picture from the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Of course, there’s more to it...

>19 beebeereads: It's a slim book so your "someday" doesn't need to be a long day. An afternoon might be enough.

>20 mnleona: As >22 kac522: mentions, it is useful to know a little about Shostakovich before reading this.

>22 kac522: I agree that it helps to know something about the man ahead of time. I loved the book too. I first read it about 10 years ago and kept it because I knew I'd want to read it again.

>27 VivienneR: Thank you!

So I am going with woodland/garden creatures for February. I will be reading Shady Hollow by Juneau Black

I reread a favorite: These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder which also fit the ColorCAT (gold).

I've read Mind over Menopause by Pahla Bowers - this is definitely about playing with time and making sure that lifestyles change along with aging bodies so that they can stay fit, healthy and powerful! There are a few easy tricks which I recommend to anyone who has embarked in that journey!

I ended up reading This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal-El Mohtar and Max Gladstone. Fun book!

I just finished Mirror Sight by Kristen Britain, in which the main character travels through time.

I read the time between by Karen White. The story follows two sets of sisters, one a generation older than the other. The younger sisters, now living in Charleston S.C., grew up on Edisto Island where the older sisters have lived since leaving Hungary in 1944. We learn that both sets of sisters have held secrets from each other and how their lives were affected.

March RandomKIT is up.
https://www.librarything.com/topic/368504

I read The Family Remains by Lisa Jewell.
I was looking forward to reading this cold case, the book that follows Jewell’s The Family Upstairs, but it would have been better if I had read them closer together. I had forgotten many details of the first book and spent too much time trying to find the association. In the end it wasn’t much to my liking, just like the earlier book.

Starting Arcadia by Iain Pears, which might be relevant here

I think I can add Der wunderbare Massenselbstmord here. A group of depressed Finns meet for a self-help group and decide to kill themselves together. But then they put it off and off again, as they drive around Europe looking for a suitable location to drive their bus off a cliff, and find themselves enjoying themselves immensely...

I just finished The Tusks of Extinction, where the brain scan of a famed elephant conservationist is uploaded into a mammoth cloned from ancient dna to save the species. The conservationist had been dead for a century, and the mammoths extinct for quite a bit longer.

>39 amberwitch: Funny- I was think of a mammoth and cloning the other day for no reason. Added to my TBR list. Thanks.

COMPLETED Arcadia by Iain Pears

>40 mnleona: lovely to hear:)
I thought it was quite good. And a quick read.

I finally got a book from the library for this theme. It will be Big Time by Ben H. Winters.

A Twist in Time / Jule McElwain
3.5 stars

Book 2 of a series. FBI agent, Kendra, is still stuck in 1815. When Lady Dover is found stabbed multiple times, likely with a stiletto, Kendra is called on to help solve this murder. There are an abundance of people who did not like Lady Dover, as she had affairs with multiple men (a father-in-law and son-in-law), her stepson disliked her, and many more people had reason to dislike her.

This one focused less on the time travel and time differences than the first book, and it seemed like more of a police procedural-type mystery. It was good. I listened to the audio (as I believe I did with the first book) and I admit to losing focus occasionally, but it was still good. There was a bit more with Kendra’s relationship to Alec. I didn’t like this one as much as the first, but I do plan to continue the series.

I finished Knight of Ghosts and Shadows, and it was even more appropriate for the challenge than I realized since there was quite a bit of playing with time within the story, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped. More on the humorous and jokey romance side of SFF than I normally read, and not at all what I remember Lackey for, so I suspect her co-author had a heavy hand in this one. In any case, full review written.

Blink

If you're not someone who already reads non-fiction for fun, I highly recommend giving Gladwell a try sometime. I still think Outliers is my favourite of his. His are a light read, highly approachable, and don't require any high level knowledge of any particular field. Blink was no exception. This book mostly discusses 'thin-slicing', the way our unconscious mind breaks down information in the 'blink of an eye' and reaches conclusions so fast that our conscious mind doesn't know how we got there — often we can only describe a 'gut feeling' or a 'sudden insight'. There are ways these impressions can help us, such as when we can tell how someone really feels about us, or when an art critic can spot a fake, but there are also times these impressions hurt us, such as the U.S. electing a political figure because he 'looks like a president' or conductors not hiring women for orchestras until a screen prevents them from seeing who's playing.

I found the overall book very interesting and enjoyable, although I would warn that the last chapter (before the conclusion) features a very detailed account of a police killing of an unarmed Black man. I thought this chapter came down a little too much on the side of police officers who executed an unarmed citizen, but I did find important the points brought up about how unconscious racial bias proliferates (and how it can be countered!) as well as methods that (some) U.S. police departments are using to reduce police brutality overall.

Most of one chapter (and some of the afterword) was about war and 'war games', and I have to admit that I found these parts pretty hard to get through. War, generally speaking, bores me to tears. There were descriptions of battles and strategies that were just a slough for me. It wasn't bad enough that I skipped those parts, or stopped reading, but I was glad when they were over.

The other part that bugged me: In one chapter, Gladwell discusses some research on an autistic man, and how his brain doesn't process emotions on faces the same way a non-autistic brain does. This is fair enough. He mentions how, under extreme stress, there are parts of a situation that any brain ignores; it's in survival mode. One of the things the brain ignores, is processing emotions on people's faces. Makes sense. So, for the rest of the book, he calls this high-stress mode on the brain 'temporary autism', including in reference to the police officers who killed an unarmed citizen. This is what I had a problem with, and it happened so many times over the rest of the book. It left a bad taste in my mouth.

Other than those things, I really enjoyed this book, I'm glad I read it, and I learned a lot. I still need to read his first book, The Tipping Point, and I think he has a new one out as well.

I read Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister where the main character keeps going back in time trying to figure out why her son commits a murder.

38. Beauty by Sherri S Tepper ★★

Drawing on the wellspring of much-loved, well-remembered fairy tales, Tepper delivers a thought-provoking and finely crafted novel that thoroughly involves the reader in the life of one of the most captivating heroines in modern fantasy- Beauty. On her sixteenth birthday, Beauty is seemingly able to sidestep her aunt's curse. Instead, she is transported to the future. Here begins her adventures as she travels magically back and forth in time to visit places both imaginary and real. Finally, she comes to understand what has been her special gift to humanity all along. For in Beauty, there is beauty. And in beauty, magic. Without our enchanted places, humanity is no more than an upstart ape. And this, we realize, is why Beauty must be saved, both in the fantastical world of Tepper's novel and in the actual world in which we live. (description from the back of the book)

While I had this book categorized with my Beauty and the Beast books, the book covers almost all fairy tells except that one. The Beauty in the title refers to Sleeping Beauty. The story is slow-moving and becomes very confusing when Beauty jumps from the 14th century to the 23rd century without rhyme or reason, then in an attempt to return home winds up in the 20th century. The time-traveling portion of the book did not serve the purpose I believe the author was trying to convey. The story remains confusing and nonsensical when jumping from Faery to the real world (losing years in between) to try to tell Beauty's story and those of her descendants. Not recommended.

I read three books this month that at least modestly play with time. Guiltless and Tonight You're Dead, both by Viveca Sten, have dual timelines. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is divided into chapters named after the minutes in the day covered by that chapter.

>46 GraceCollection: I have also enjoyed Gladwell's works, although it has been awhile since I read anything by him.

>49 NinieB: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is one of my favorite novels, although I have not seen the film.

As facilitator of this challenge I have fallen short of my goals this month.

I read The End of Drum-time which I will count for the word in the title, but it had little to do with playing with time. I am halfway through Life After Life which I am thoroughly enjoying. It's been on my TBR for years so I am happy I found a way to push it to the top. It was a perfect fit fo this challenge which I did not know when I created the topic. I will post on my thread when I complete it. https://www.librarything.com/topic/367017#8712413

Thank you all for participating with so many different interpretations of the topic. It's been really fun to see how you played with time. I've added several titles to my TBR and I see others have appreciated the recommendations as well.

On to March!

>50 LadyoftheLodge: I haven't seen the film either--wonder if it's any good?

>53 NinieB: I always wonder how close to the film is to the book version.

I just finished reading Big Time by Ben H. Winters that fits this theme, but unfortunately, I can't really recommend it.