My 15 Books of Summer

This year, for 20 Books of Summer, hosted by Cathy at 746 Books, I decided to make a list of 25 books but only commit to reading AND reviewing 15.  This ended up working well – I had enough freedom with 25 books that I didn’t feel too bound by my list, and I pushed myself to write more reviews than I typically do. 

I read 19 books from my list, and I read and reviewed 15:

1. The Patchwork Girl of Oz by L. Frank Baum
2. Tik-Tok of Oz by L. Frank Baum
3. The Scarecrow of Oz by L. Frank Baum
4. All I Know by Holly LaBerbera
5. Repacking for Greece by Sally Jane Smith
6. The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks
7. In this Ravishing World by Nina Schuyler
8. Gravity Lost by L.M. Sagas
9. There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak
10. Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan
11. The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
12. The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis
13. Half-Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls
14. Master Slave Husband Wife by Ilyan Woo
15. Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin

Here’s what I read but didn’t review:

1. Passing by Nella Larsen
2. Iris Kelly Doesn’t Date by Ashley Herring-Blake
3. Sisters of Belfast by Melanie Maure
4. Congratulations, the Best is Over by R. Eric Thomas

And here’s what I didn’t get to:

1. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
2. Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro
3. The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi
4. The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande
5. Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami
6. Navola by Paolo Bacigalupi

My favorite reads this summer were: Master Slave Husband Wife, There are Rivers in the Sky, and The Frozen River. I also loved Ordinary Human Failings and Congratulations, the Best Is Over! Maybe the most fun read was The Road to Roswell. I read 6 ARCs, 3 books for Ozathon 2024, and 7 print books from my bookshelf. I only had one book from this list that I started and didn’t finish.

I also read 7 books that were not on my original list. 

I had to push myself to complete 15 reviews. I’m proud of myself for completing my goal, though it did take a lot of my time. I hope you found something in one of the reviews you might not have read otherwise.

As much as I love that the 20 Books of Summer challenge pushes me to read books I might not have gotten to otherwise, I’m also looking forward to being off a list for the rest of the year. I have fewer ARCs for the next few months and I’ll be able to read whatever strikes me at the moment, though I do hope to get to the rest of the books on my summer list. It’s actually hard for me to choose what I want to read, when there are so many choices. Sometimes having a list makes things easier.

If you participated in 10/15/20 Books of Summer, how did you do? Did you read something you wouldn’t have otherwise? What were some of your favorite reads this summer?