Thursday, May 21, 2020

#20(sortof)BooksOfSummer


Last year was my first year joining Cathy's #20BooksOfSummer event and it was a sort-of success.

Sort of, because while I did read twenty books over the summer, as the summer wore on what I read increasingly diverged from the books I piled up on the table in the backyard. So this year I figured I'd simply acknowledge my wayward ways and pick ten books. Then I could read however many books & not (necessarily) feel like I wasn't reading the ones I should. Plan, right?

So, from the top:

Patricia Moyes/Falling Star
Patricia Moyes/Murder Fantastical
-I'm going to need some fluffy summer reading in summer, right? I read my first Inspector Tibbett mystery a year or two ago, & picked these up at a charity sale last fall.
Jules Verne/Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea
-The Classics Club spin machine keeps cheating me out of reading this one. So I'm now I'm going to!
J. F. Powers/Wheat That Springeth Green
-First of three books The Other Reader read recently that come highly recommended. Powers' Morte D'Urban is amazing.
Anna Seghers/Transit
-Planning ahead for #WIT (Women in Translation) Month!
Gabriel Garcia Marquez/Love In The Time of Cholera
-The second #TheOtherReader book
Amelie Nothomb/Life Form
-#WITMonth
Mikhail Bulgakov/The Master and Margarita
-This one would fit a number of challenges for me.
John Dos Passos/Manhattan Transfer
-Laurie & Fanda are hosting #JazzAgeJune. I've been wanting to read this for a while after loving the USA trilogy.
Henrik Pontoppidan/Lucky Per
-#TheOtherReader
What looks good to you?

Thanks to Cathy for hosting!





26 comments:

  1. seeing Patricia Moyes at the top, i'd very highly recommend Catherine Aird... she is a very funny lady and great writer, imo, naturally...

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    1. I've never read Catherine Aird, but she's somebody I've been meaning to try--now even more so!

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  2. I read Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea during 20 Books of Summer two years ago. It...might have been on my list. ;)

    Good luck!

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    1. Pretty impossible to stick to a list, isn't it? ;-)

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  3. Well, as Cathy says, half the fun lies in changing your list halfway through! Looks like a great pile of books. Enjoy!

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    1. Oh, I forgot to say, I loooove Master and Margarita, what translation does Everyman use? That is one weird novel.

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    2. It's the Michael Glenny translation. Hopefully it's a good one!

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  4. I've never read any of these but about half are on my TBR. What sale, Trinity? They look like they've got an air of Trinity to them. LOL This isn't a challenge I've ever joined, which is weird, because I love the idea of it, but maybe because sometimes it's just too hot to touch the keys on the laptop that doing so for a challenge update seems crazy. Good luck with your halved list (good plan!).

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    1. I forget which sale for sure since last year I managed to get to all of the UofT sales...not sure I really needed to do that... ;-) The mysteries for me often come from University College, though, where the older mysteries are 6 for $5.00. Though the last couple of years I feel like they've been the same ones left over from the previous year...

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  5. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is one I've been meaning to read for years. Who knows. Maybe I'll tackle it this summer. Though there's a couple of Thomas Hardy books I really want to read, too. :)

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    1. I don't know how long I've had that copy of Verne for sure, but it's a verrrrry long time, I'm afraid.

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  6. Thanks so much for taking part again. Great list - Love in the Time of Cholera is a real favourite of mine. Good luck and happy reading!

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  7. Oh my goodness, I do the same thing! I'm terrible at sticking to lists in the short term but when I look back at my lists years later I usually have read the majority of what I've listed.

    Well, from your list I've only read The Master and Margarita and it was a wild ride.

    I'll be interested to see how many of these books get read during your summer. Have fun!

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    1. Since I couldn't stick to a list of twenty, I'm hoping (!) to be able to stick to a list of ten, which will give me some room to read other things...maybe even The Golden Bough!

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  8. Is it wise to circumvent the Classics Club spin? I think you are playing with fire there. LOL.

    I thought 20,000 leagues was overly long and detailed when I read it as an adult a few years ago. I think I read it as a child too, but it was probably an abridged version.

    I also have trouble sticking to lists, BUT when I give myself permission to cheat, I usually end up reading the entire list. Reverse psychology. So I have every confidence you will complete this pile (and then some)!

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    1. I'm going to have finished Plutarch before the 1st of June, right? Ha, ha....I'm likely to be about halfway through, so I could have counted it as a book of summer.

      I'm hoping the reverse psychology does work & I do read these ten books. But it's perfectly possible I read twenty books not on any list at all...

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  9. I'm really looking forward to taking part again

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  10. Enjoy and good luck sounds like you’ve a good plan there!

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  11. Book that must be on my bookshelf: Manhattan Transfer - John Dos Passos....important US writer I should read
    Book that will be fun to read: Henrik Pontoppidan/Lucky Per
    I am curious how the author describes a restricted life in the Danish countryside...and compare it with what I konw of Dutch countrylife! Denmark is our close neighbor! Copenhagen is just 516 kilometers (321 miles)form my hometown! Hope you have a great summer reading...and thanks for your comment on my blog.

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    1. I really liked the USA trilogy, so I can definitely recommend Dos Passos.

      I think a lot of Lucky Per takes place in Copenhagen--I'm not sure how much of it is in the countryside. But I'll find out & report back!

      I've been to Copenhagen twice & various places in the Netherlands more times (five times, I think?) They do strike me as similar. The geography I'm sure contributes. And the herring!

      And thank you for stopping by!

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  12. I shall serendipitously choose the books I read this summer. No stress.

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    1. Ah, but it's so much fun piling up a bunch of books!

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  13. Oh you've just reminded me that I forgot to include a Jazz Age June book to my list. It's not even officially winter & I'm having to make adjustments to my list :-)

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    1. That's exactly the sort of problem, isn't it? ;-)

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