I just realized, I’m late to Cathy’s 20 Books of Summer. It’s my first time participating and I had no idea it didn’t start at the beginning of summer but at the beginning of June.
I was always tempted to participate but for some reason never could come up with a list of books. The other day, I was looking at a pile of unread books on one of the shelves of my newest bookcase and noticed that there were almost 20 very tempting books. I added a few more to have at least one German and one French title, plus one memoir.
Normally, I don’t like to plan my reading but recently decision fatigue has kept me from actually reading and so, having a smaller pile to choose from, sounded like a great idea. It’s a bit like the capsule wardrobes that many people with too many clothes resort to.
Most of the books are rather slim with the exception of Erpenbeck’s Kairos and Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country. I’ve already read one book, Willa Cather’s A Lost Lady and am about halfway through Kate Zambreno’s The Light Room.
There are three books of short stories:
Olivier Adam’s – Passer l’hiver
Hilary Mantel’s – Learning to Talk
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s The Thing Around Your Neck
The rest are all novels:
Jenny Erpenbecck – Kairos
Edith Wharton – The Custom of the Country
Willa Cather – A Lost Lady
Elizabeth Taylor – The Wedding Group
P. G Wodehouse – Summer Lightning
Pamela Frankau – The Willow Cabin
Janet Frame – Living in the Maniototo
Penelope Lively – Moon Tiger
Sandra Cisneros – The House on Mango Street
Kaye Gibbons – Charms for the Easy Life
Elaine Dundy – The Dud Avocado
Patricia Lockwood – Nobody is Talking About This
Natasha Brown – Assembly
Jen Craig – Since the Accident
Danielle Dutton – Margaret the First
Kate Zambreno – Drifts
One memoir
Kate Zambreno – The Light Room
I’m very pleased with my choices. There are so many books on this pile that I had wanted to read for ages like The Custom of the Country and Moon Tiger and A Lost Lady that I think, I might actually manage to stick to them.
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