The Restoration of Otto Laird by Nigel Packer book cover
My good reviewing form stalled a little this month, I know. Not sure what happened there – March rather ran away with itself. Time to write another of these monthly plans, however, and I shall hope to have a little more time for reading and reviewing what with the Easter break. If nothing else, I shall be running on copious amounts of chocolate and that’s always good for productivity!

My main read for this month is going to be The Restoration of Otto Laird, which I mentioned in last month’s reading plan. It is the story of an ageing architect travelling back to Britain from his Swiss villa to try and save a building he designed some forty-odd years previously. I’ve read a little of this already and it has been pretty good so far: it’s a good idea and a neat way of having a character retrace old steps and memories.

Other than this, I’m looking back myself. Firstly stopping off with Jean Brodie when she was in her prime, and then further back still. It is a funny thing, but I am sure I have read Muriel Sparks’s short novel before – reading it now is a mix of de ja vu and half-remembered scenes – and yet I really don't think I have actually read the book before. Do you get book de ja vu – have I reached that point where I can no longer remember things I’ve read? When I used to work in a public library, readers would frequently return books and claim they didn’t bother to read them as they realised, after a few pages, that they had already read the book. Pulp fiction, I thought, disappointingly formulaic to the point of being entirely unmemorable. How wrong I was, probably.

My book club are reading Far From the Madding Crowd over Easter and, Hardy being one of my favourite authors, I’m looking forward to this one. I’m also planning to read Mansfield Park as I attempt to get through those Jane Austen’s novels still on my TBR pile and catch up to the majority of the rest of the reading world!

That’s enough to keep me busy this April – what will you be reading this month?

Notable Posts from March
Review: The Library Book by The Reading Agency
Review: All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews