Cathy at Cathy 746 has a yearly challenge to read twenty books over the summer months starting on 1 June 2018 and running until 3 September 2018, and once again I’ve decided to join her. My aim this year is to read and review all twenty books in the allotted time span!!
As I’m competitive I’m signing up for the full twenty. My personal challenge is to read these twenty books from my bookshelf, physical books that I already own. Funnily enough I have plenty to choose from a total of 109 although my choices for The Classics Club were discounted for this challenge.
Because I know that facts in one book tend to lead me to seek out other books in my tangential reading style, I’ve decided to start with a spread of genres and authors for the first ten books – a book set at sea and one in a drought, the life of a servant jostles with the details of a life of one of Elizabeth II’s ancestors and of course a bit of solid crime fiction has snuck its way in too.
Book lovers will completely understand the hours I have spent honing my choices which have been further complicated to include some faithful friends that are to accompany me on holiday.
Rest assured the second set of ten will be posted when these are all finished, which should be in mid-July, if I’m on schedule!
The links below will take you to the Goodreads description
American Heiress by Jeffrey Toobin
Mrs Woolf and the Servants by Alison Light
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge
I will be joining Cathy by tweeting my way through the challenge using the hashtag #20booksofsummer to demonstrate when one of my reads is part of this challenge! Should be easy eh?
As in the previous two years there will be a master page linking the titles to my reviews as they are posted, and of course eventually listing the entire twenty books.
Top of my holiday reads is Reginald Hill, I always read one of his books on holiday as does Beryl Bainbridge, so they were always going to join me. If it’s too hot I will open a copy of Raven Black to transport me to Shetland but I’m not sure my conscience will allow me to read about the life of servants while sipping cocktails!
I recently posted a tag My Name in TBR Books and was encouraged to read Life After Life so that one will also be joining me.
So what do you think of my choices? Where would you start?
I’ve enjoyed looking at everyone else’s choices so far and after all having read the full list of 20, I will need replacements.
Cleopatra Loves Books 
This looks like a great challenge. I may have to participate x
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I love it and use it as a way of getting to some of those books that I may overlook – would like to see your choices!
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I have such a huge tbr list so I’m going to use it, to clear a lot of them. Hopefully anyway x
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Was just thinking about this the other day. I have a heap of neglected books from my personal tbr I plan to read over summer and this could be a good incentive to complete challenge!
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Absolutely and the summer months is a perfect time to catch up!
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I loved Life After Life. A treat in store!
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I think this is the one I’m most looking forward to and it’s definitely going in the suitcase!
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I love the idea of this challenge but unfortunately failed to complete two years running and still haven’t read all the books from last years 20 books of summer.
Good luck Cleo. Will look forward to reading the reviews
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I failed the first two years too
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That’s encouraging Cleo! Life gets in the way often for me.
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I’ve seen some great reviews of The Dry, so I’m sure you’ve chosen wisely there. Master Georgie looks very interesting too – I loved An Awfully Big Adventure by Bainbridge when I read it a couple of years ago. Enjoy your summer reading, Cleo.
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Thank you Jacqui
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That’s a really clever way of going about it, rather than deciding upon all 20 titles at once (which I’ve done in the past and then promptly ignored).
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Haha yes doing it on two halves works best for me!
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I love this idea! I think I’ll participate too! Now to the hard part of choosing 20 books from my large tbr pile!!
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Excellent news it is a great challenge! I spent ages choosing my first ten – good luck!
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I got all excited and scheduled a post in! I’ve picked 20 but I may swap some! Thanks for letting me know about this, love it!
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Excellent I’ll look out for your post!
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I loved Life After Life Cleo and am dying to read The Dry. Your tactic of 10 choices at a time is a great one! Thanks for taking part again x
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So looking forward to reading Life After Life while lying by the pool – so pleased you are running it again as it shapes my summer 😊
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I’m going to be joining in too this year. I very much doubt I’ll get to read all 20 on top of all my blog tour commitments (🙄) but I’ll have a jolly good time trying!
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Excellent news! Yes I have to admit I prepare these days and cut back on review commitments, otherwise I can’t do it, but I still tend to overload myself 😊 I admire your spirit!
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Great Choices Cleo! I have Life After Life on my TBR too, I think your post will inspire me to get to it! Master Georgie I thought was so good, although it’s a long time since I read it. I’ve not read the Cleeves but the TV adaptation was excellent and Fiction Fan’s recent review gave it a great write up so I’m sure you’ve a wonderful treat in store 🙂
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Thank you I do try and have a variety of choices and I love the TV series and the book has been on the TBR forever! I think my most highly anticipated read is the Kate Atkinson.
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The Dry is on my list, too!
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It’s had such rave reviews and I don’t want to get too far behind!
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I read the book that was released after this one and loved it!
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Good to know Meggy (although I’m shocked you read them out of order haha)
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Haha, I am shocked too!!! Sometimes I rebel!
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Interesting challenge – I might look at this myself 😊
Life After Life is a great book. As is The Dry but don’t, whatever you do, read that on your hols – you’ll feel like you’re in a furnace!
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Haha – thanks for the warning!
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Good luck, I shall look forward to your updates
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Thank you 🙂
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Oh The Dry is very good and her second book is too
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I’ve heard so many good things and I picked it so I don’t fall too far behind!
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I think it’s great you’re joining this challenge, Cleo! I give you a lot of credit for it. And you’ve chosen some fine titles, too. I’m especially interested in what you’ll think of the Hill, the Bainbridge, and the Cleeves. But all of them sound good, and I hope you’ll have a great reading experience.
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Thank you Margot. I’m hoping I’ve got a good mix and those three are coming on holiday with me – it’s now a tradition that I read a Reginald Hill and a Beryl Bainbridge on holiday.
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Seven Days in May is wonderful. Life After Life is brilliant. Raven Black is excellent too. I shall look forward to your reviews. Good luck with the challenge.
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Thanks for the heads up – looks like I’ve chosen well!
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Wonderful choices Cleo (though I’d expect nothing less). Two that I’m really looking forward to that have been on my TBR for quite some time: “Life after life” and “The dry”.
One that I have already read and really enjoyed was “Raven black”.
Finally, anything written by Denise Mina is usually worth your time.
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Ah thank you – it’s amazing how many great sounding books I already own!
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Good luck to you on your summer challenge! I’ve read The Dry – very, very good. And I also have a couple of the others on my list to try at some point – Raven Black will hopefully show up sooner rather than later. I do want to start the Shetland books.
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I actually have a few of Ann Cleeves’ books on my shelves but I’m determined to start this series from the beginning!
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Great choice, Cleo! I haven’t read any of them yet but I have a couple of them on my TBR.
I’m going to try the challenge again this year as well (I skipped last year because I failed miserably in 2016), I just have to figure out which books in the piles and piles around here I am going to choose! Good luck! xx
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Good luck Cleo
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I loved The American Heiress and The Dry. While I love Kate Atkinson’s books, Life After Life was not a favorite. I am in the minority, however; most seem to love it. Enjoy your first ten books!
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What a fun idea! I may join in myself 😊
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Oh do it’s a great challenge 😊
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Good luck! This looks like a great list!
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Thank you 😊
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Great challenge and some really interesting choices – be interested to hear what you think of Life After Life when you finish it!
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It is the one I’m anticipating the most!
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This is a cool challenge. Good luck with your list.
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Great first ten! The Reginald Hill, of course, and I loved The Dry and Raven Black. But mostly I’m glad you’ll be reading American Heiress, since I want you to tell me whether I need to get it… 😀
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Lots of luck Cleo! Looking forward to seeing what you make of Life After Life, I loved it! 😁
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Thank you Beth – that’s the one I’m most eager to read!
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Love the idea of a summer holiday and cocktails!
Good luck with your list and hope summer turns up for you 😀
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I loved Life After Life so I hope you do too!
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Ooh, Mrs Woolf and the Servants caught my attention. That sounds like a really interesting read. Will be on the look out for your review of that one. 😀
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I read this author’s book about her ancestors ‘Common People’ which was really well researched so I’m really quite excited about this one too.
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Good luck with the challenge!
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I loved reading your list! Good luck and I hope you can stop by:
http://collettaskitchensink.blogspot.com/2018/06/20-books-of-summer-2018.html
Colletta
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