The 20 Books of Summer reading challenge drew to a close yesterday, on Melbourne’s first distinctly-Spring-like day (it was 22 degrees and glorious).
Lockdowns have made this challenge hard for me – pre-Covid I smashed the twenty books; in 2020 I failed dismally; and this year audiobooks will get me just across the line.
I’m behind on reviews but it’s worth noting that the challenge delivered some excellent books that will likely be in my favourites for 2021 – Nothing But Blue Sky by Kathleen MacMahon; Snowflake by Louise Nealon; Us by David Nicholls; and Rosie by Rose Tremain.
My list included four memoirs, by Rose Tremain, Stephanie Danler, Andrew McCarthy, and Dolly Alderton – and I loved them all.
There were some disappointments – The Biographer’s Lover by Ruby J. Murray and The Believer by Sarah Krasnostein didn’t quite live up to the hype for me. In contrast, there were some unexpected surprises – The Incendiaries by R. O. Kwon and The New Me by Halle Butler were both wonderful, spiky little novels.
And how did the weather compare in Belfast and Melbourne? I haven’t tallied the figures and worked out an average but I reckon this year, Belfast’s summer was warmer than Melbourne’s winter – Melbourne had a few particularly cold spells, which always happened to be when I was finishing a book.
Thank you again to Cathy for hosting this challenge.
Nothing But Blue Sky was the highlight of my 20 Books as well! Too bad you didn’t get on better with The Believer.
Congratulations! I wouldn’t achieve anything like this tally at the moment so I’m in awe!
Well done!
The beauty of this reading event is that it doesn’t matter whether you read all the books on the list or substituted the whole lot or included audiobooks to make up the tally. It’s just a bit of fun.
Well done, Kate. I have only read “Pachinko” from your list and that was fantastic. But I had a very busy book summer, as well.
Congratulations, I managed the reading but the reviewing has left me behind. I need to read more Rose Tremain, sounds like you had some good choices!