Wednesday, May 22, 2024

The 20 Books of Summer and the Big Book Summer Challenge


Happily, it's the tenth anniversary of the wonderful celebration of reading, 20 Books of Summer, hosted by Cathy at 746 Books.

There are very few rules...make a list of ten, fifteen, or twenty books...post the list...try to read them all starting on June 1st and finishing up on September 1st...drop a book from the list, if you wish, and replace it...change your goal from twenty to ten mid-summer, if you wish...

Here are the books I am hoping to read this summer.

How the Mountains Grew: A New Geological History of North America by John Dvorak (Nonfiction; Naturalist Book Club)


Writing on Empty by Natalie Goldberg (Nonfiction; Writing)


An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Worlds Around Us by Ed Yong (Nature; Nonfiction)


The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl (Fiction; Paris in July)


Magpie Murders: A Novel by Anthony Horowitz (Mystery; Face-to-Face Book Club)


The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan (Nonfiction; Memoir; Birding)


The Great Book of Journaling: How Journaling Can Support a Life of Wellness, Creativity, Meaning, and Purpose edited by Eric Maisel (Nonfiction; Writing)


The French Ingredient: Making a Life in Paris One Ingredient at a Time by Jane Bertch (Memoir; Paris in July)


The Wedding People: A Novel by Alison Espach (Novel)


The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson (Nonfiction)


Summer by Edith Wharton (Novel; Classic)

Sanditon by Jane Austen (Novel; Classic)


Germinal by Émile Zola (Novel; Classic; Paris in July)

Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse (Novel; Classic)


Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges (Short Stories; Classic)


There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib (Nonfiction; Essays; Sports)


The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (Science Fiction)


Tik-Tok of Oz by L. Frank Baum (Fantasy; Ozathon)

The Scarecrow of Oz by L. Frank Baum (Fantasy; Ozathon)


French Windows by Antoine Laurain (Novel; Paris in July)

Clara Reads Proust by Stéphane Cartier (Novel; Paris in July)



Big Book Summer Challenge (2024 link will go up in May) hosted by Book By Book

The Big Book Summer Challenge is an annual challenge that Sue at Book by Book hosts each summer. It begins on Memorial Day weekend (at the end of May) and runs until Labor Day (the first Monday of September). The idea is simply to read bigger books (400 or more pages)--just one or two or as many as a person wants to read. And readers have the whole summer to do it! I have several Big Books picked out. Hope you'll join Sue and me for the laid-back fun this summer!

An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Worlds Around Us by Ed Yong - 481 pages

The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson - 565 pages

Germinal by Émile Zola - 596 pages

Magpie Murders: A Novel by Anthony Horowitz - 501 pages

How the Mountains Grew: A New Geological History of North America by John Dvorak - 464 pages






No comments:

Post a Comment

I hope you will leave a comment so I know you have visited. If you stop by my blog, I will always stop by yours.

Note: Disqus commenting is only available on the web version of the blog. Please switch to the web version if you are using a mobile device.