Cathy at 746 Books is hosting the 20 Books of Summer reading challenge again this year. As Cathy states, it’s the most relaxed reading challenge you’ll participate in (swap books out, change your target, do whatever).
As I’ve done in previous years, I’m using this challenge to read from my to-be-read stack (with a particular focus this year on old ARCs). The challenge is straightforward – read twenty books between June 3rd and September 3rd.
Of course, it’s winter in Melbourne. So while Cathy et al. is enjoying the Irish sunshine, I’ll be rugging up. The last few years, I’ve compared the Irish summer with the Melbourne winter on the day I finished each book. I’ll do it again this year *spoiler alert: a lot of those days, Melbourne was warmer than Belfast…*
Here is my Summer (Winter) reading list (with a couple of spots free for my book group picks and whatever grabs me at the Melbourne Writers Festival):
01. The Aftermath by Rhidian Brook
02. A Constant Hum by Alice Bishop
03. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
04. How Did You Get This Number? by Sloane Crosley
05. Hannah’s Dress by Pascale Hugues
06. The Fragments by Toni Jordan
07. The Nix by Nathan Hill
08. Hunger by Roxane Gay
09. The Vegetarian by Han Kang
10. The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce
11. Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg
12. Dietland by Sarai Walker
13. Expectation by Anna Hope
14. The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante
15. Normal People by Sally Rooney
16. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
17. Denial by Deborah Lipstadt
18. Putney by Sofka Zinovieff
19. The Prettiest Horse in the Glue Factory by Corey White
20. The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer
21. Mischling by Affinity Konar
Audiobooks listened to during the challenge (which I’ll only count if time gets tight):
01. Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan
02. What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
03. The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson
04. A Perfect Explanation by Eleanor Anstruther
05. City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
06. The House on Dalhousie by Melina Marchetta
You’ve got some enjoyable reading ahead of you!
Yes, a couple that I have been really looking forward to (will they live up to the hype?)
I’ve read none of these! I’ll look forward to finding out which of these I should add to the TBR 🙂 Happy reading Kate!
Thanks!
Good luck! I loved both Did You Ever Have a Family and The Refugees. Very disappointed in The Sympathizer which I read after Nguyen’s short stories. Have you read it?
Haven’t read any Nguyen but have heard many good things about The Refugees.
I’ve read and loved both The Underground Railroad and Normal People so I shall look forward to your reviews.
Those two, along with American Marriage, are the ones that I have high expectations for – fingers crossed they live up to the hype!
I have Normal People, Little Fires Everywhere and The Fieldson my tbr. The Fragments is excellent.
I’ve had The Fields for years – time I read it! Hoping Normal People is on par with Conversations with Friends.
I think I bought The Fields about five years ago, on a trip to Brisbane. There’s quite a few books I’ve had unread for that long, maybe I should be digging them out, one by one.
I’ve only read Normal People from your list. I’ll be intrigued to hear what you make of it.
I enjoyed Conversations with Friends, so I’m hoping it’s at least equal to that.
I enjoyed Conversations waaay better, but I think most readers prefer Normal People.
Good luck Kate, I hope you enjoy them
I LOVED The Music Shop. If you’d like you can read my review here (no pressure). Thank you for hosting 6 Degrees. https://hopewellslibraryoflife.wordpress.com/2018/03/01/review-the-music-shop-by-rachel-joyce/
I really loved Little Fires Everywhere! Looks like a great list!
ALWAYS a good idea to leave some black slots – even though I haven’t this year! I really need to take more advantage of my slack rules! Thanks for joining in, particularly as it’s not even summer, but I look forwrad to catching up on Monday to check on your temperature, which I have no doubt, will be warmer than mine 🙂
You have some great reading ahead this winter! Did You Ever Have a Family, Normal People, and The Refugees are all marvelous.
Great list as always Kate! But if Melbourne is like Sydney at the moment, we may actually have some proper winter temps to ‘boast’ about this year. Although I’ve just returned from FNQ, so I may not have acclimatised yet!!
PS Normal People surprised me by how much I loved it.
Great choice of books – I loved Little fires everywhere, it was one of my favourite books I read from last year.
Happy Reading!
I’m joining in too – https://onemoreword.uk/2019/06/02/20-books-of-summer-2019-20booksofsummer-amreading-books-summer/
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