I do love a plan. I particularly love a plan that might mean I get my monthly reading numbers back on track. I've been a bit slow off the mark so far this year, and it really is time to get organised. It's not like there's anything on summer TV worth watching, and goodness knows I've unpacked more than enough boxes for a while. Besides I'm running out of places to put stuff - so it will just have to stay in a box until we build the "dream house" (which probably means forever the way we get organised :) )
But - yesterday I piled up the planned books on the bedside table - which pile now just about totally obliterates any light from the bedside table lamp - but I didn't say it was an effective plan. Anyway - I started on Gentle Satan by Alan Saffron which is his book about his father Abe Saffron. Before that I did finish Vanishing Point by Pat Flower - which I will write up in a little more detail this week, as well as incorporate into a larger article I'm working at the moment. Having read that book first when it was released this time I struck by what a good example of delusional obsession it was.
But the rest of the planned line up includes:
Punter's Turf by local author Peter Klein - released in March so I'll hold my full review until then.
Same story with Move to Strike by Sydney Bauer which also is due out in March, as is Bait by Nick Brownlee - which is particularly interesting with another South African setting.
After that The Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas is one I'm particularly looking forward to and then a new to me author - The Paris Enigma by Pablo De Santis which has one of the best covers I've seen in ages.
I've also got to finish a few re-reads - Crisscross and Shadow Show by Pat Flower, Force and Fraud by Ellen Davitt and Madame Midas by Fergus Hume are all in that stack.
And in the "special maybe birthday all day sit under a shady tree treat" pile is The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson - I've been carefully avoiding all of the chat about this book as I want to draw my own conclusions, although I do confess to a bit of a peep at a couple of comments from reviewers who I really respect and it would seem that it holds up well against the first book.
All all in all - it looks like a plan. It's a big plan - but a girl's gotta dream.