It’s time for 20 Books of Summer once more though looking at these cloud formations during my recent trip to the Isle of Mull you’d be hard pressed to believe summer is just around the corner.
This year marks the 10th anniversary for this highly popular reading event hosted by Cathy from 746 Books. It will be my seventh attempt. i’ve never yet managed anything like 20 books — one year i hit the heady heights of 18 but mostly I’ve hovered around 13.
This year I’ll aim to read 15 between June 1 and September 1 but I’ll list more than that number just to give myself plenty of wriggle room. Even then I’ll be reserving my right to change my mind and read an entirely different list!
I’ve learned two important lessons from previous years:
- be sure to include placeholders for upcoming book club choices and TBR book jar picks
- choose a mix of genres, styles and length so I’ll always have something to suit my mood or interest.
So my list includes a short story collection, a few novellas and some chunksters. I’ve also attempted to include titles that will help me make progress on various reading challenges like the Classics Club, Adventures in African Reading and Reading Emile Zola.
Links will take you to my reviews.
| Title | Author | Genre | |||
| 1 | All At Sea | Decca Aitkenhead | Memoir | Book club | Read |
| 2 | Decline and Fall | Evelyn Waugh | Novel | Classics club spin | |
| 3 | Thousand Cranes | Yasunari Kawabata | Novel | Classics Club spin | |
| 4 | What Masie Knew | Henry James | Novella | Classics Club | |
| 5 | Tender is the Night | F Scott Fitzgerald | Novel | Classics Club | Abandoned |
| 6 | To Sir With Love | E. R. Braithwaite | Novel | Classics Club | |
| 7 | This Mournable Body | Tsitsi Dangarembga | Novel | Africa project/TBR book jar (Zimbabwe) | |
| 8 | Sankofa | Chibundu Onuzo | Novel | Africa project (Nigeria) | |
| 9 | After Lives | Abdulrazak Gurnah | Novel | Africa project (Tanzania) | |
| 10 | African Women Writers | Compendium | Short Stories | TBR | |
| 11 | Open water | Caleb Azumah Nelson | Novella | TBR | Abandoned |
| 12 | Lessons in Chemistry | Bonnie Garmus | Novel | TBR | Abandoned |
| 13 | The Fall of Light | Niall Williams | Novel | TBR | Read |
| 14 | The Library Book | Susan Orlean | Non fiction | TBR | |
| 15 | Birnham Wood | Eleanor Catton | Novel | TBR | |
| 16 | Pearl | Sian Hughes | Novella | TBR | |
| 17 | Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day | Winifred Watson | Novel | Book club | Read |
| 18 | The Light Years | Elizabeth Jane Howard | Novel | TBR | Read |
| 19 | Our Souls at Night | Kent Haruf | Novella | TBR jar pick | Read |
| 20 | Rules of Civility | Amor Towles | Novel | TBR jar pick | |