For the second year, I’m participating in the 20 Books of Summer – the most relaxed reading challenge there may be. Run by Cathy at 746 Books, you pick what you want to read over the months of June, July, and August and share them. Both the titles and numbers are entirely flexible which adds greatly to the appeal for me!
This Summer I’ve chosen 15 titles. While I hope to read more than 15 books over the next 3 months, I like the symmetry of being able to assign 5 books to each month. Plus, this hopefully leaves me a few gaps to add in library holds or new titles that grab my eye and perhaps I’ll make it 20 after all. (I didn’t last summer but we don’t need to focus on that.)
My 15 books all come from the stacks of unread books already in my house. I picked 15 that jumped out most at me while I sorted through the piles (while setting others aside for my Fall reading that seemed more autumnal). I also sorted them with an eye to variety – some non-fiction, a few translations, some short stories, some Canadian writers. Some easier reads and some that may be more challenging. I divided them up between the months so that each month hopefully has some of all of this.
Here’s the list:
June
Telling Secrets – Frederick Buechner (non-fiction)
The Garden Party – Katherine Mansfield (short stories)
Wilder Girls – Rory Power
The Sleeping Car Porter – Suzette Mayr (Canadian)
Scandal – Shusaku Endo (translation)
July
The Parables of Grace – Capon (non-fiction)
Of Love and Other Demons – Gabriel Garcia Marquez (short stories AND translation)
The Tiger’s Wife – Obreht
Curiosity – Thomas (Canadian)
Sun House – Duncan
August
The Cocktail Party – T.S. Eliot
The Catch – Fairbrother
The Flanders Road – Simon (translation)
The Glass-Blowers – Daphne du Maurier
Travels with my Aunt – Graham Greene (non-fiction)
Karissa Reads Books 
A very interesting selection! I have The Garden Party on my TBR list, too and I think it should be an engrossing read, and so perfect for summer, I think. Endo’s Scandal also sounds interesting. Good luck with your challenge!
I’ve started The Garden Party this week and am really enjoying it. Very easy to get into the stories!
I haven’t read a single one of these, so I look forward to hearing what you think of them! (I have just kicked off 20 books of summer by abandoning my first pick 50 pages in – so if it all goes like that, it will be a very quick but quite boring challenge. Here’s hoping it picks up!)
I hope that you find some books worth sticking with!
Nice list Karissa! Hope you have a great summer of reading, thanks for taking part x
The only one I’ve read is the Greene, which is a bit different to his other stuff – interested to see what you think of it. Have a great summer of reading!
I remember reading your review! I’ve liked most of what I’ve read by Greene so I’m looking forward to it.
I haven’t read The Glass-Blowers by Daphne du Maurier, but all of her books are on my list. I would be very surprised if you didn’t make 20 books. I just read your post about what you read in May, and I think there were seven books on that list. I’m not doing the 20 books of summer, because I can’t keep up with my school reading, and in the past, when I’ve tried it, I haven’t done well with how I feel emotionally about trying to read that much. I made 21 summer, but at what cost? Clearly, I thought way too hard about this, LOL.
I don’t think I’ll struggle to read 20 books but I do find it hard to stick to a precise list! I get distracted by new books and library holds and usually don’t prioritize the books I already own. So this is my attempt to get rid of some of the stacks in my house! For me, this is a very low pressure challenge but I can see how it might not work for everyone!
Hmmm……maybe I’ll just create a list for my Sunday Lowdown and see what happens!
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Ohhh nice mix! I’m desperate to read Suzette Mayr’s Sleeping Car Porter, it just won another specific Alberta book award here, it feels like everyone has read it now, other than me!
I am also thinking of “fall” books, as I was looking at a publisher catalogue yesterday that had some spooky titles. Ahhh summer 😉
I wasn’t going to read it and then found a copy at a library sale and couldn’t resist!
Once I get to actually looking through my books, I get really excited about reading so many of them!