I am only a week late, but here I am finally telling you that I have signed up for Cathy’s #20BooksOfSummer challenge yet again.
I’ve been doing this challenge every year since 2017 but have never quite achieved that magical number of reading 20 books from my TBR over a three month period. Perhaps 2021 will be my year!
Half the fun of participating in this project is choosing which books to read. Yesterday I perused my shelves and selected these ones (see picture below), but I know if I did this exercise today I may well choose other books instead — it’s all so dependent on my mood!
You will note there are only 15 in the pile; the remaining five are on my Kindle.
- ‘Girl, Woman, Other’ by Bernardine Evaristo (British)
- ‘Burmese Days’ by George Orwell (British)
- ‘The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne’ by Brian Moore (Irish)
- ‘Maestro’ by Peter Goldsworthy (Australian)
- ‘The Watch Tower’ by Elizabeth Harrower (Australian)
- ‘A Theatre for Dreamers’ by Polly Samson (British)
- ‘Mermaid Singing / Peel Me a Lotus’ by Charmain Clift (Australian)
- ‘The Broken Book’ by Susan Johnson (Australian)
- ‘Born Into This’ by Adam Thomson (Australian)
- ‘Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray / River of Dreams’ by Anita Heiss (Australian)
- ‘Love Objects’ by Emily Maguire (Australian)
- ‘Shuggie Bain’ by Douglas Stuart (Scottish)
- ‘Wolfe Island’ by Lucy Treloar (Australian)
- ‘The Vanishing Half’ by Brit Bennett (American)
- ‘Hamnet’ by Maggie O’Farrell (British)
And on the Kindle:
- ‘Newcomer’ by Keigo Higashino (Japanese)
- ‘The Bass Rock’ by Evie Wyld (Australian)
- ‘The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper’ by Hallie Rubenhold (British)
- ‘Back When We Were Grown Ups’ by Anne Tyler (American)
- ‘Golden Hill’ by Francis Spufford (British)
If you don’t already know, this “challenge” is run by Cathy, who blogs at 746 Books. The idea is to read 20 books from your TBR between 1 June and 1 September. Note that Cathy’s pretty flexible with her “rules”, so I reserve the right to swap books out and read others from my physical and electronic TBR as and when the mood strikes me.
You can find out more about 20 Books of Summer at Cathy’s blog and see who else is participating on this share your links page.
Have you read any of the books I’ve chosen? Any suggestions on which one to start with first? Are you participating in this challenge?
Reading Matters 
Hi Kim – the ones I’ve read on your pile are very good. Evaristo, Wyld, Tyler, Bennett, O’Farrell, Moore, Clift and Susan Johnson – you certainly have some great reading ahead of you. Oh – and Shuggie Bain…. wonderful. Looking forward to your reviews!
LikeLike
Oh, that’s good to hear 👍🏻
LikeLike
I’ve read some of those so I’m looking forward to seeing what you think of them.
I really should read Girl, Woman, Other, but I can’t even think about it ATM, so many books to get out of the way before #IndigLitWeek!
LikeLike
Well, you’ll notice I’ve got two indigenous books in this pile specifically for your #IndigLitWeek 😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
I did notice that. I love the title of Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray!
LikeLike
I’ve only read Judith Hearne, but it’s so good and a quick read. Maybe save it for when you’re struggling?
LikeLike
That’s a good too, thanks. I did try to choose a mix of books so that they weren’t all fat or too taxing for my brain. Lol.
LikeLike
Girl, Woman, Other and The Vanishing Half are marvellous, and hooray for the Anne Tyler – are you putting that in for August and joining in my readalong?
LikeLike
Well, I’m reading the Anne Tyler now but I have a couple more in my TBR that I could read for August!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ll link to your review when you do it anyway – I wasn’t clear, sorry, I’m doing a readalong all year and that’s one of the August books but I’m very free and easy about who takes part when as usual with my things! It would be lovely to have you take part however you do! Here’s the schedule https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/about/anne-tyler-re-read-project-2021/
LikeLike
Oh, that’s a lovely project… she’s on my favourite author’s page https://readingmattersblog.com/my-favourite-authors/ but because I read most of her novels pre-blog there’s only a handful of reviews on here.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You know, I have “Back When We Were Grownups” on my shelf but I never read it… hm… I really should, shouldn’t I?
LikeLiked by 2 people
You know where I am when you do …
LikeLiked by 2 people
You know what? Right now my print book is Curtain by Agathe Christie (the last Poirot novel), but when I finish that, I think I’ll finally get to this Tyler.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, and enjoy Hamnet – it was my #1 favorite book of 2020!
LikeLike
Thank you. I have made a tentative start and enjoying it. I have a bit of a hit or miss thing with this author so hoping this one proves to be a hit!
LikeLike
I haven’t read any of the books on your list, this is going to be so much fun!
I’m in too, I hope I’ll have time to read the 20 books I picked.
LikeLike
It’s winter here (albeit a mild one compared to what I am normally used to in the UK) so that should mean I spend more time inside reading. Fingers crossed.
LikeLike
Loved Spufford’s Golden Hill. The Polly Samson is on my pile too.
LikeLike
I read ‘The Five” last year and found it fascinating. Popular culture has done such a disservice to these women, lumping them all together as Ripper victims and branding them as prostitutes. Rubenhold’s research (which is vast) gives them substance
LikeLike