10 Books of Summer

Published on by Margaret

Cathy at Cathy 746 Books has an annual challenge, 20 Books of Summer, to read twenty books over the summer months starting on 1 June 2017 and running until 3 September 2017. The aim is to read from your TBR books already on your shelves.

There are also the options to read 15 or 10 books and as I’m very good at listing the books I want to read and very bad at sticking to the list I’m going for the 10 book option.

I’m including e-books as well as paper books. I like Cathy’s idea of counting the pages and working out how many pages I need to read each day. My total comes to 3585 pages which means I have to read 37 pages a day to complete my challenge. I should be able to do that … shouldn’t I?

Here are my 10 books in A-Z order by author:

  1. The King in the North by Max Adams – the life and times of Oswald of Northumbria in the 7th century
  2. Beneath a Burning Sky by Jenny Ashcroft – a story of love, secrets and betrayal
  3. Miraculous Mysteries edited by Martin Edward – Locked-Room Murders And Impossible Crimes
  4. How to Stop Time by Matt Haig – a story of love and loss and living in the moment
  5. Did You See Melanie? by Sophie Hannah – a suspense novel
  6. Mister Pip by Ernest Jones – a story within a story and a fable
  7. The One that Got Away by Annabel Kantaria – story of loss and betrayal
  8. Present Tense by W H S McIntyre – crime fiction with an edge of dark humour
  9. Long Road from Jarrow by Stuart Maconie – Stuart Maconie walks North to South retracing the emblematic footsteps of the Jarrow marchers to discover what Britain is really like today
  10. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy – at once a love story and a provocation-a novel as inventive as it is emotionally engaging.

Cathy has allocated 2 ‘spares’ and because I know that I could easily not fancy reading one or more of these books when the time comes I’m reserving the option of substituting 2 ‘spares’ as well. They are:

The Shadow PuppetThe Shadow Puppet by Georges Simenon – an Inspector Maigret mystery.

Maigret uncovers a tragic story of desperate lives, unhappy families, addiction and terrible, fatal greed.

and

The Last Kingdom by Bernard CornwellThe Last Kingdom (The Saxon Stories, #1), the first in his Saxon series, set in 9th century Northumbria, about Uhtred an English boy, adopted by a Dane and taught Viking ways.

9 thoughts on “10 Books of Summer”

  1. Good luck with your summer reading! I want to read MIRACULOUS MYSTERIES. I’m not much of a short story fan, but I am a big fan of ‘locked room’ mysteries.

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    1. Thanks, Kay. Short stories can be very disappointing, but I’m a fan of ‘˜locked room’ mysteries too, so I’m hoping to enjoy these.

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  2. That looks like an interesting selection of books. I’m reading Miraculous Mysteries now and also have Beneath a Burning Sky to read, so I’ll look forward to hearing what you think of those.

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  3. I’m reading and enjoying Miraculous Mysteries at the moment, and thoroughly enjoyed The Last Kingdom. I haven’t read any of your others but would like to read the Arundhati Roy and have Mister Pip on the TBR somewhere. I look forward to hearing your views of them all. Have a great summer of reading!

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    1. I’m tempted to start The Last Kingdom now, but as I’m in the middle of reading two quite detailed books it’ll have to wait. I’m keen to read Arundhati Roy’s book as I thoroughly enjoyed her first novel, The God of Small Things – I can’t believe that was 20 years ago and I read it soon after it won the Booker Prize!

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  4. You’ve get some good choices coming up, Margaret. I like your alternate choices very much, too. I like the variety in your choices, as well.

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  6. You have some interesting books in your list. I would also like to read the Martin Edward book and The King in the North and The Last Kingdom appeal to me too.

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