This is my ninth year of participating in the 20 Books of Summer reading challenge. The event is hosted by Cathy at 746 Books.
The event is very flexible. You can go for 15 Books of Summer or 10 Books of Summer if 20 is more than you want to commit to. Check here for more about the challenge or to sign up.
This year, 20 Books of Summer starts June 1st and ends September 1st. One of the things I like about this challenge is that it goes for three months only. Some years I have read all 20 books from my list, sometimes not.
Here are my 20 books...
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (1908)
The Madonna of the Sleeping Cars by Maurice Dekobra (1925)
The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler (1943)
A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie (1964)
War Game by Anthony Price (1976; 205 pages)
In the Midst of Death by Lawrence Block (1976; 185 pages)
Birdcage by Victor Canning (1978; 233 pages)
Skeleton-In-Waiting by Peter Dickinson (1989; 154 pages)
The White Lioness by Henning Mankell (1993; 440 pages)
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi (2003; 153 pages)
Dark Fire by C. J. Sansom (2004; 500 pages)
The Dead Fathers Club by Matt Haig (2006; 336 pages)
A Symphony of Echoes by Jodi Taylor (2013; 327 pages)
A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny (2016; 389 pages)
A Cast of Falcons by Steve Burrows (2016; 384 pages)
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers (2016; 364 pages)
Tales from the Café by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (2017; 192 pages)
Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler (2020; 178 pages)
Family Business by S. J. Rozan (2021; 288 pages)
The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore (2023; 352 pages)
28 comments:
Some good stuff, a number I have read and a larger number I'd like to.
Thanks, Todd, I do like this list of books. I think it will work well for me this summer.
Very ambitious. At the rate I am reading, it would have to be six books of summer.
I'm on the fence about this but I do plan to read the most recent Louise Penny which I have been saving for the right moment.
Did you ever read A Wrinkle in Time? The book is great, the recent movie was nor worth $12!
Dark Fire is an excellent read! Have fun, Tracy!
Looking at this list, I'm reminded that I've read the Matt Haig book! And here I thought The Midnight Library was my introduction to him!
I love the Sansom series, so I hope you get to Dark Fire. All the Shardlake books are excellent!
What a great list Tracy, particularly keen to read that Chandler. Best of luck and happy reading1
I like your choices, Tracy. They're so varied, and I think that makes reading that much more interesting. I'm glad you included The White Lioness. That's a Mankell that I haven't (yet) read, but want to. I'll be interested in what you think of that. And the Chandler is, I think, a well done story. I hope you'll enjoy it.
Looks like a great list, Tracy. The highlights for me are Dark Fire - I do hope you enjoy it and go on to enjoy the rest of the series - and The Wind in the Willows, one of my childhood favourites and a book I still re-read every few years with pleasure. Have a great challenge!
Patti, Sometimes I have felt overwhelmed by the list of 20 books, but I don't think I will have a problem with this list because a good number of the books are fairly short. And they can always run over to later months.
Constance, I plan to / hope to read several of the Louise Penny books starting in June through the next year. I hope that works out.
I have not read A Wrinkle in Time. It is on my Classics List, but the copy I have has really tiny print and I am hoping to find a copy with larger print before I read it. That is too bad about the movie, but it does not surprise me.
Hi Tracy, Good luck on the challenge. I am already taking the Historical Fiction Challenge or I would sign up. A nice group of books you have there and many of the authors I haven't read yet so I will explore some of the plots to see if they are for me.
Cath, I look forward to reading Dark Fire and then continuing on with the rest of the series.
Kelly, My husband was the one who bought the Matt Haig books and now I am the one reading them. I think they are more my type of book than his.
I will definitely read Dark Fire; the events of that time period are very interesting.
Cathy, Once I have read The Lady in the Lake I will only have two of Chandler's novels left to read.
Thanks, Margot. The White Lioness has been on my TBR a long time, it will be good to get to it.
FictionFan, I am finally going to read The Wind in the Willows, actually for a 2nd time (or maybe a third if I read it to my son when he was young). But last time I just felt like I had not given it my full attention, and I have been planning to reread it for years.
Dark Fire gets a lots of praise as does the rest of the series. So I am looking forward to that a lot too.
Kathy, I know what you mean. Sometimes it is good to focus on just one area and historical fiction is a good one to work on. I might do the Historical Fiction Challenge next year.
Great and varied selection, as always with you. I'll look forward to the reviews and may be tempted to try some of those myself.
Thanks, Moira. I think this will be a good set of books and authors to read for summer. But I keep finding more books I wish could be included, and I will be lucky to read all twenty in three months.
Fun list of books! I really enjoyed The Lonely Hearts Book Club, A Caribbean Mystery and The Wind in the Willows. Here's wishing you a very fun summer of reading. :D
Lark, I think it will be fun reading all of these books. I am pretty sure I discovered The Lonely Hearts Book Club at your blog, and ordered it soon after that. I am looking forward to reading that Jane Marple books and getting closer to finishing that series. I am going to start reading The Wind in the Willows in early June (or sooner).
Nice mix here Tracy! From Lawrence Block to Anne Tyler. Some long, others short. Glad you shared your summer list. I'm curious if the Anne Tyler one will be any good .... I have not read her for a long while. Probably not since I read Noah's Compass in 2017, which I don't remember now. Good thing I reviewed it. Hmm. Enjoy your reads!
Thanks, Susan. I am glad I remembered to put one of Lawrence Block's books on this list. I have so many books by him I want to read. I vaguely remember reading a book by Anne Tyler so many years ago I can't even place when. It probably would have been in the 1980s. So I decided to try her again.
I am still excited about reading all of these even after posting the list, so that is a good thing.
Hi Tracy,
I love how diverse and eclectic your summer list is--I recall meeting Lawrence Block, way back at a booksellers' conference. Had to be the 1980s. Long hair, a well-beaten up cap on his head. He was very nice, but seemed so uncomfortable in that setting. Quite reserved, but nice. As if he were saying, "I'd rather be anywhere but here, but preferably at home writing. But thank you for buying one of my books."
I'll look forward to reading what you report on each read. Such good ones there!!
Judith, good to hear from you. And I hope to see a list of 20 Books from you soon.
How exciting to meet Lawrence Block at a bookseller's conference. He has been writing for so long and he is still writing. I have a much easier time reading books than reviewing them these days.
There are so many on your list that I haven't even heard of so it's going to be very interesting for me to read about them. I've only read the Louise Penny book.
Katrina, One of these days I will actually catch up on reading all the Louise Penny books. I do own all of the books in the series now.
I was aiming for a mix of older books that I have been wanting to read and some more contemporary books that I bought at the end of 2023 and before.
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