It's time for Cathy's 20 Books of Summer challenge, where I pile up a bunch of books and then proceed to read something completely different...
Traditionally the candidate books get taken out into the backyard for their photo op:
Will these be the mysteries I read? We'll see! That's:
Ngaio Marsh/Swing, Brother, Swing
Ngaio Marsh/Dead Water
Patricia Moyes/Angel Death
Patricia Moyes/Night Ferry To Death
You've got to have some fluffy reading in summer, right?
The Other Reader
Alessandro Manzoni/The Betrothed
The Other Reader just finished this and is raving about it.
Classics Club
Honoré Balzac/Cousin Bette
R. L. Stevenson/The Black Arrow
George Bernard Shaw/Major Barbara
Henryk Sienkewicz/Quo Vadis
Four books off my Classics Club list. Will these be the ones? Right now I think so...
Europe
Halldór Laxness/Independent People
Ivo Andrić/Omar Pasha Latas
Sholom Aleichem/In The Storm
Cleo was recently reading Aleichem, which reminded me I owned one Aleichem I've never read.
That shades off into:
Women In Translation
I'm assuming August will be Women in Translation month again, so:
Dorthe Nors/Mirror, Shoulder, Signal
Ludmila Ulitskaya/Jacob's Ladder
Amélie Nothomb/Tokyo Fiancée
Chicago
Ethan Michaeli/The Defender: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America
Other Candidates
Wait, that's only sixteen books! Well, I probably won't stick to even this list, but will there be Austen in August? I could be there. I've got a couple of other Chicago titles in mind. I recently read a review of the new translations (2!) of Machado de Assis' Bras Cubas and I have the old translation. (But couldn't find it for the picture.) My library doesn't have a circulating copy of this month's book for the Brian Moore read-along, but it does have the book for the next three months. Maybe those.
In any case, planning is such sweet sorrow. I'm sure I'll read something. It's blogging about twenty books in three months will be the real challenge. Will these be the books? Which look good to you? Which of these should I be sure not to miss?
Thanks to Cathy for hosting again this year!
har har on the first sentence: really sounds familiar! i really liked "The Betrothed"; you probably will also?
ReplyDelete"Planning is such sweet sorrow": dynamite!
I'd better read The Betrothed! I am looking forward to it & it's the one on this list I'm pretty sure I will read...or I'll be in the doghouse...
DeleteI believe by writing that first sentence you've jinxed me and perhaps yourself. Lol! But it's so good to know that someone else does stuff like that and I'm not the only one! I wish I'd thought to add The Betrothed to my list. I also wanted to add The Leopard and Orlando Furioso but I reined myself in. Have fun with your list and reading and no guilt if you change it up!
ReplyDeleteI was jinxed before I wrote it, I'm sure...
DeleteYou do already have a few chunksters on your list! But Orlando Furioso & The Leopard are both pretty great--and The Leopard isn't a hard read.
The best thing about this challenge is putting together the list - from the stack to the photo op and all the lovely chat from others - and then completely ignoring the list to read other things :-)
ReplyDeleteI hope to read at least a couple of from this list... ;-)
DeleteHa, yes! Choosing & ignoring is my style too. I think I'll join in with this one though. :)
ReplyDeleteYou should! I'd love to see your list.
DeleteBrona (also in Australia) has her revised logo:
https://bronasbooks.com/
I think everyone is pretty casual about whether summer is solstice to equinox or just June, July, and August.
I have to work out when summer is up in the Northern Hemi.
ReplyDeleteGreat list Reese - thanks for taking part! I do love doing the photo shoot too. This is the first year that I have remembered to include something for Women in Translation Month!
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting! Forgetting about WITMonth was one of the things that blew my first list all to heck.
DeleteI'm quite proud that I remembered WIT for my list -- at the last second, for the first time in the 3-4 years I've done this, ha. A very nice list, and I'm particularly envying the Aleichem.
ReplyDeleteI'll report back! The introduction suggests it's based on a pogrom in Chisinau, Moldova, so it may be darker than usual for him...
DeleteFor me too the writing of reviews is the real challenge, I fell off the blogging bandwagon last year and this challenge is a good push to write more consistently.
ReplyDeleteHere's hoping it works!
DeleteAlessandro Manzoni/The Betrothed....I think I have this one but I may have thrown it away! I should have a look on the bookshelf. Quo Vadis...I have tried to read this but just could not stand the writing style (junior high school level). Intrigued...what is the Chicago Challenge? I tried to find in on your line Challenge HQ...?? Halldór Laxness here is a book I can add to my "reading the Nobels" challenge, thanks!
ReplyDeleteThe Chicago Challenge isn't a challenge, just that I tend to read books from Chicago (my home town). Though I sometimes think about making it an actual challenge. Maybe I should!
DeleteI have a few classics I'm hoping to read this summer, too, but as for the rest of my summer reading list, I haven't settled on anything yet. Good luck with this challenge...and happy reading! :)
ReplyDeleteI doubt I've really settled on anything yet either... ;-)
DeleteLooks great! Gonna try to post my 20 by the end of the week. And just like you I'll probably end up reading something completely different!
ReplyDeleteOh, definitely looking forward to your post!
DeleteI am also having trouble finding the Brian Moore book for this month, and it sounds so good! Mirror Shoulder Signal is great. I'm really looking forward to Independent People.
ReplyDeleteOh, I've heard good things about Mirror Shoulder Signal
DeleteIf I could go into a used bookstore I suspect I could find the Brian Moore, but they're all still shut down & now will be until the end of the month.
And Independent People needs to happen!
You have compiled a great list. I wonder if there will be an Austen in August this year. I'm also curious about Paris in July.
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
Thanks!
DeleteI'd forgotten about Paris in July, but I've got a space for it, too, if it reappears.
Heheh yes, that's it in a nutshell...no question that I'll read twenty books this summer and some of them I could predict right this moment...but for the most part, this would be an exercise in avoidance if I were to sit down and make a proper list. Am glad that your contenders got their promised time in the garden though, like their predecessors!
ReplyDeleteIt's fun--even if perhaps pointless...--to pile up a bunch of books!
Delete