Book Chase: The May 2020 Reading Plan

I seem to have strayed a bit from my April reading plan. Even though I did read ten books in April, only six of them were actual planned-reads. I've been more easily distracted during the whole covid-19 thing, and my reading reflects that.

Normally I would just slide all of the unread books to the top of my reading list for the new month, but that's not going to happen this time. I'm simply not in the mood for overly depressing novels or nonfiction. That means that LBJ's 1968: Power, Politics, and the Presidency in America's Year of Upheaval is going to disappear for now despite having been on the list for the last 60 days. I just can't handle that one right now, I don't think. The first three books on the May list are, however, holdovers from the April list:

1. The Dead Don't Sleep by Steven Max Russo is an e-ARC that I've been looking forward to for a few weeks, and I plan to start it early in the month. This one appealed to me because it features an "aging Vietnam veteran" whose war experiences seem to be coming back to haunt him after he meets a strange man who claims to remember him from the war. Once the vet figures out who the stranger is, he knows that it is time for a final reckoning with the man who  should have never been allowed to come home from Viet Nam in the first place. 

2. Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter is said to be "an exceptional depiction of the suffering caused by the influenza" pandemic of 1918. It seems to be on everyone's list of the best books coming out of the epidemic that killed millions of people in 1918 and 1919. More specifically, it's about a newspaper woman and a soldier who both catch the flu. When Miranda comes out of her delirium, she learns that the soldier is dead and that he most likely caught the flu while trying to nurse her back to health. I hesitate to leave this one on the May list, but I want to at least give it a good shot.

3. The Night Fire by Michael Connelly is the latest Renée Ballard and Harry Bosch novel. I've been purposely holding this one back because I know that as soon as I read it I will have to wait several months for the next one in the Bosh-universe series. It's kind of like having money in the bank; it's comforting to know that it's there waiting for you when you need it most. Considering how much I love the Harry Bosch books, I'm surprised that I didn't get to this one in April. 

4. A Spark of Heavenly Fire by Pat Bertram was written in 2016 but its plot very much reminds me of what we are all living through today. Set in Colorado as the "Red Death" sweeps through the state, this one is all about a purposely released organism that is killing hundreds of thousands of people, "a government cover-up, and public hysteria." Sound familiar? In this instance, a brave reporter (I wish there were more of those in the real world) tries to find out what is really happening.

5. I, John Kennedy Toole by Kent Carroll and Jodee Blanco is billed as "A Novel Based on a True Story." Many of you are familiar with Toole's story, his tragic death, the novel he didn't live to see published (Confederacy of Dunces), his mother's heroic efforts to get the book published, and how the novel ended up winning a Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Co-author Kent Carroll is the publisher who helped rescue the book from oblivion. I'm particularly looking forward to this one.

6. The Benefits of Breathing by Chistopher Meeks is the author's third collection of short stories. I usually read close to ten short story collections every year, and I've enjoyed Meeks's other two collections, so I'm expecting good things from this one. Meeks is also the author of several novels I've read, and he's someone I recommend to those of you unfamiliar with his books. Don't you love this cover?

7. The Last Agent by Robert Dugoni is a Charles Jenkins book that sounds as if it picks up right where The Eighth Sister leaves off. Charles Jenkins is a six-foot-five-inch black man so he's not the ideal secret agent to be nosing around in Russia, but that's a large part of the fun. Not being able to blend into a crowd is most certainly not a good thing for a spy. I've only read a couple of Dugoni novels, but I've been impressed by both of them, and I really happy that he has a substantial backlist for me to explore after I finish this new one (to be published in August).

8. Wyoming by JP Gritton is one of a bunch of library books I had on hand when my library locked its doors. The due date has been extended to June 1 on all of them, so I kind of forgot about that stack. This one is set in the eighties, and it's about an out-of-work guy hoping to make a quick buck by delivering high-grade marijuana to Houston from Kansas City. The delivery goes well enough; it's getting back to KC with the money that seems to be a problem. It's always something, isn't it?

9. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler is the book that first turned me on to the gigantic writing talent that Anne Tyler is. I don't even remember what attracted me to this book back in 1982, but I fell in love with the writing and the plot almost immediately. To this day, I have that still-pristine first edition copy on my shelves. I may end up buying an e-book copy for reading purposes, because I'd hate to damage the physical copy I have by reading it a second time after all these years. 

10. Blood by Allison Moorer recalls an event that remains at the heart of the lives of Allison Moorer and her sister Shelby Lynne. Both women have become well known singer/songwriters but they still have to fight not to let themselves be defined by the moment their father shot their mother to death before turning the gun on himself. Shelby was 18 at the time and Allison was 14. I read a ton of memoirs every year, but I suspect that this will be one of the most memorable ones I read in 2020.

So there you have May's plan. With the exception that I'm not as open right now to "depressing" books as I normally am, my concentration is better than it has been for a couple of months. Maybe I'm making a better choice of books, maybe I'm finally getting used to being so confined every day. Whichever it is, I'm glad that it's working.