Summer reading challenge

What is it?

It’s a terrific reading challenge from Cathy over at 746Books which asks you to read 20 books from 1st June to 1st September and post your reviews as you read. I’ll post my reviews on here and link the title below to it.

“Another challenge!” you say “No, I can’t take the stress😱.”

Don’t worry you’ll find it the most relaxed of challenges. There’s even a 15 or 10 books alternative. You can find out everything you need to know over on Cathy’s blog.

My list

I’m a bit behind getting my list together and to be honest I’ve had difficulty whittling it down! So it’s a longer list than necessary but I’ll just keep them and see how I feel and pick books as the mood takes me.

Still I’ve included some books that will be read as I’ve accepted invites and a few NetGalley books which I’d like to get to but many are just from my TBR pile which is great. Well here goes!

1-10

• The Girl Who Died by Ragnar Jónasson
• Fragile by Sarah Hilary
• My Life and other Disasters by Josa Keyes**
• Book club read: Secret Service by Tom Bradby
• What Goes Around: DI Alex Peachey: Book 1 by Ann Bloxwich**
• The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny*

*In order to read this I need to catch up with three or four others in this series, so they’ll be read. This won’t be difficult as I love this series and can’t believe I’ve let it get away from me like this. They are:-

Glass Houses | Kingdom of the Blind | A Better Man |All The Devils Are Here (All read)

** Not on my original list but, hey, this challenge is so flexible which is one reason why I like it.

11 – 20

• Hotel Cartenaga by Simone Buchholz
• Book club: The Nothing Man by Catherine Howard Ryan
• Still Life by Val McDermid
• What They Knew by Marion Todd
• The Silent Suspect by Nell Pattison
• Frankissstein by Jeannette Winterson
• Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
• Block 46 by Johanna Gutmanson
• A Killing of Angels by Kate Rhodes
• Should We Fall Behind by Sharon Duggal

Update: 25 August 2021

There is just a week left in the challenge and I will definitely not get to 20 books this year. I’m still reading so if I get another one or two books read I’ll update here but safe to say it’s 15 books of summer in 2021 for me.

21 – 33

Note: none of those listed below were read for this challenge but several have since been read and reviews have been done. If you’re interested just copy and paste a book title into search then press go.

• When the Past Kills by M J Lee
• Gallows Drop by Mari Hannah
• The Cold, Cold Sea by Linda Huber
• Single Thread by Tracy Chevelier
• Hitlers Women by Rosella Postosino
• The Animals of Lockwood Manor by Jane Healey
• After He’s Gone by Jane Isaac
• Big Sky by Kate Atkinson
• The Defence by Steve Cavanagh
• Dark Pines by Will Dean
• The Phonebox at the End of the World by Laura Imai Messina
• The Quaker by Liam McIlvanney
• Jack by Marilyn Robinson

Although I have put them into three sections there is no particular order to reading these books. There’s lots of crime in my list, no surprise there! Still there’s one or two from other genres to mix it up a little. Indeed if I find I’m in the mood for something entirely different there’s plenty on my TBR pile to swap something entirely different into my reading. This is a really easygoing challenge, just as well!

It looks like I’m committing to 20 books this summer but I’ll see how it goes Cathy’s challenge is such an easy going one – you can change your list, read the full 20, read 15 or simply read 10 – and that’s why I like it. It’s a challenge with no pressure you can start by thinking you’ll read 20 books but then you realise it’s only going to be 10 – and that’s just fine.

Are you joining in this year? What are you reading? Feel free to pop comments in below and happy reading to everyone!