The Book Chase January 2021 Reading Plan

Well, here we go...ready or not 2021 is here. I'm looking forward to a fresh start despite the overwhelming possibility that at least the first six months of 2021will simply be Episode 2 in the Pandemic Unleashed mini-series we are living in right now. So in the spirit of making the most of a fresh start, this is what my January reading plan is shaping up to be:

This 20th book in the series featuring Chicago female detective V.I. Warshawski was published early in 2019. I read most of the early books as they were published in the eighties and nineties, but I put them aside in the mid-nineties and have read only one of them since - and that was in 2009. I suspect that I will not remember much about V.I. and that reading this one will be much like starting the series all over again. I remember really liking her, though, and I'm curious to see how it goes. 

The Black Echo (1992) is the very first Harry Bosch novel. It's a book I've been trying to get my hands on for several weeks now because, despite being very familiar with the character and the chronology of the series, I've never read the first one. I actually started it yesterday morning and was surprised to learn that Harry was already 40 years old in this first book and that he was already living in what has become his iconic house - and he was already in trouble with the brass. The "black echo" in the title references the enemy underground tunnels that Bosch helped clear during the war in Vietnam.

This is one I read about in the New York Times Book Review, but I'm not sure what to think of it now that I have a library copy. It's about a woman who comes "home" for the first time in twelve years and finds that her best friend's children - who were 3 and 5 years old when she left - do not seem to have aged a single day in her absence. They are still the "perfect little children" she last saw. This one is going to have to work hard to make me suspend my feeling of disbelief - and that is never an easy thing for an author to do to me. We'll see. 

The truth about this one is that until about a week ago I had heard neither of the novel or its author. Then I spotted a four-episode miniseries by the same title on the PBS app I subscribe to. I was intrigued enough by the first episode to see if my library had a copy - and three days later I had it home with me. The series credits say that the episodes are "based on" the book by Louise Doughty, but it does not appear that the author had anything to do with writing the screenplay. I've watched the whole thing now, and I especially love the way it ended. I was on the edge of my seat for the last few minutes, and I can't wait to see how much of this came from the book and how much was changed. 

Starting with Joshilyn Jackson's Gods in Alabama, I've had good luck with this author's novels. Mother May I is an advance reader's edition I have of her new novel that will be published in April 2021. The premise is that when a baby boy goes missing his mother jumps in with both feet asking questions and exposing secrets that place both her and her son in deadly danger. "How far will a mother go to protect her child?" Honestly, I don't think I would be reading this one if it were not written by an author whose work I've enjoyed so much in the past. 

Laurie Frankel's One Two Three is also a review copy, this one to be published on June 8, 2021. I'm planning to read it soon, but I'll probably hold the review until closer to the book's publication. I was drawn to this one by the way its cover so perfectly reflects the books plot. One Two Three is about a set of triplet sisters, all very different from each other, who live in a little town whose water supply was declared "unfit for use" around the time of their birth. Now, the girls are digging for the answers their mother has never been able to uncover.

This is the third book in a thriller series featuring Ridley Fox and Nita Parris. I am unfamiliar with the characters or the author, but I want to learn more about each. This one was written in June 2014, but I'm reading a review copy. The hook goes like this: "Crack the code and you'll save millions of lives. But knowing it exists will get you killed." Not to worry though...CIA agents Fox and Parris are on the case.

I started reading Dark Passage a few days ago from this Library of America collection of Charles Goodis noir novels of the 1940s and 1950s. I've had to put it aside for a while, so I'll be reading the final two-thirds of the novel in January. I only put it aside because other deadlines ate up my reading time, so I'm looking forward to getting back to the story. Can't wait to see how it all turns out, and now I wish I could find someone broadcasting the movie version.

I suspect that, as usual, some choices will change because I'm expecting several books to be ready for curbside pick-up at my local library in the next 2-3 weeks. Among the possibilities are: Battle of Brothers (Robert Lacey), The Midnight Library (Matt Haig), I'll Be Seeing You (Elizabeth Berg), and The Queen's Gambit (Tevis Walter). Too, I'm still in the process of lining up new books for review during the first quarter.  But I think this is a good start to the year.