Book Chase: The August 2020 Reading Plan

My July reading took me to several books that were not on my radar at the beginning of the month, but for the most part, I didn’t stray all that far from the list. I managed to read six of the ten listed books and was over 100 pages into a seventh one before I abandoned it out of sheer bewilderment. So, the only ones that did not get opened in July turned out to be The Dead Don’t Sleep (Steven Max Russo), If You Tell (Greg Olson), and A Death in the Family (James Agee). I intend to read those three at some later date. The library forced my hand again in July, and a couple of ARCs arrived only a few days before their publication dates and had to be tended to quickly, or I may have actually completed one of my monthly reading plan lists for the first time ever because, all told, I completed eleven books in July.

 

I haven’t given much thought to August yet other than to check the ARCs on hand, so I’m going to put this list together a bit more on the fly than I normally do. (I'm also writing this using "New Blogger" to see if the bugs I talked about two posts back have been squashed or not.)

1. Let's begin with what may be my favorite science fiction series of all time, Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld books. I discovered the series via this 1983 paperback copy of the first book in the series. The premise is that everyone who has ever lived is being reborn along the banks of what seems to be a never-ending river. And if they don't like it there, they can commit suicide or otherwise die, wake up the next morning somewhere else along the river, and see if that works better for them. I've read this first book at least three times before, but after picking it up yesterday, I find myself wanting to read it again.

2. This is an ARC I wanted to read mainly because I like the way that Larry Watson tells a story. It's about a woman so beautiful, even in her old age, that her entire life has been defined by her  physical attributes. No matter how hard she works at anything, or how impressive she is, men have never given her the credit she deserves. Even now that she is a grandmother, she is being pestered by a considerably younger man who wants her attention. The novel takes place over several decades, so it should be interesting to see how Watson handles a female character through a lifetime of changes.

3. This is the new Inspector Gamache book coming out on September1. I'm going to "read" this one via the audiobook version, so I'll have to take notes along the way. This one promises to be a little different from previous Gamache books in that it takes place in Paris rather than in, or around, the little Canadian village of Three Pines. The setting makes sense because at the end of the previous book Gamache's son-in-law and fellow cop moved there with Gamache's daughter and grandchildren.

4. I read the first few pages of Little Eyes this morning, and now I can't wait to see where this one is headed. It's set a world many of us already fear as we wonder what all those smart devices in our homes are really up to. It seems that a new electronic "pet" has caught the imagination of the world and is now in millions and millions of homes all around the world. The pets interact via cameras and microphones with the household...but exactly who is on the other end of those things? That's the big question, and the answer is a scary one. 

5. As I've mentioned many times, I love road trip books, be they trips by foot, bus, train, or car, so I'm really looking forward to this one. Josephine, I think, may be what the British author and his wife call the 1989 Dodge Caravan they use for their trip across the U.S. In case any of you are interested in reading this one, it is a late 2016 book that has recently been added to titles available for borrowing through Amazon Prime. I completely missed it in 2016, but I see that it has been reviewed 1,020 times on Amazon and has a composite rating of 4.5 stars.

6. This is one I didn't get to in July, but maybe it will happen in August. This is a true crime story about three sisters who were abused by their sadistic mother for years before they made their break for a different life. From what I've heard about the book, the three women are "survivors" in every sense of the word, and that they all seem to be doing so well today makes their story a truly amazing one. The abuse took place in the family farmhouse located in Raymond, Washington. 

7. This is the only Fredrik Backman novel that I haven't read, but because I so much enjoy Joan Walker's audiobook work, I decided to go with this version. This one is kind of a prequel to the Britt-Marie Was Here audiobook that I recently listened to, and it includes a precocious seven-year-old girl (and a huge dog) that I defy anyone not to fall in love with - especially as brought to life by Joan Walker. (I'm about mid-way through it going into the month.)

8. This 2011 novel is said to be highly researched and fact-driven, so there is the risk that it will read as very dry fiction. But based on the previous work of the two authors, I'm willing to bet that will not be the case. The Battle of the Crater was, at least to me, one of the most fascinating battles of the entire Civil War. It took place along the siege lines at Petersburg in June 1864. At the time, Petersburg was the last line of defense that Richmond, the Confederate capital, had left. (From my shelves)

9. I used to be a big fan of Le Carré's spy novels, but he turned very anti-American in his old age and I quit paying much attention to him. That said, I found this 2013 novel in a box of books last week that sounds intriguing enough to get me to give it a try. It is about a rogue operation to snatch a terrorist that may have been covered up to hide just how terribly it all went wrong. Now it will be up to just one man as to whether the truth ever gets out. (From my shelves)

10. This is part of the ten-book Quinn Colson series that first brought Ace Atkins to my attention. Atkins is one heck of a storyteller, and the small-town-Mississippi setting gives the Quinn Colson novels a whole lot to work with. I've read four or five books from the series, but it's been a while now, so I'm looking forward to this 2019 novel. Atkins has never let me down, and the fact that he was chosen to keep Robert B. Parker's Spenser novels alive after Parker's death says a lot about his writing skills. He has added seven novels to that iconic character's story now - and I'm starting to think that he does it better than Parker was doing it near the end of his own run with the series. 

So there you have the plan going into August. Now I'll see what really happens.