#20BooksOfSummer
- 20 Books of Summer is hosted by Cathy at 746books.com!
- The challenge is to read 20 books off your TBR list.
- June 01 – September 03
- 20 books from chosen from
- Modern Library’s Top 100 Novels in English Language
- Sign up for 20 Books of Summer you can do that HERE.
- Hashtag: #20BooksOfSummer
- Update: 01 June:
- Substituting a few classic plays
- …current prize winners
- …for some very long and complicated novels!
- I need some #Wiggle Room.
- Update: 12 June:
- I will review some but not all the books books.
My list:
- THE DEATH OF THE HEART by E. Bowen – – READING
- THE GINGER MAN – J.P.Donleavy – READ…. abandon after 100 pgs. (bah)
- SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence – READING
- THE WAY OF ALL FLESH by Samuel Butler – READING
- AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Theodore Dreiser – READING
- THE AFRICAN QUEEN – C.S. FORESTER – READING
- SCOOP by Evelyn Waugh – READING
- LOVING by Henry Green – READING
- I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves – READING
- RAGTIME by E.L. Doctorow – READ (review) 3.0
- BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh – READ (review) 5.0
- MEDEA (Euripedes) – READ (review) 4.0
- GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN by J. Baldwin – READ (review) 5.0
- AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner – READ – (review) 5.0
- THE SYMPATHIZER by Viet Thanh Nguyen – READ (review) 4.0
- PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov – READ (review) 5.0
- ANGLE OF REPOSE by Wallace Stegner – READ (review) 2.0
- DEAR LIFE by A. Munro (Nobel Prize 2013) – READ (review) 3.0
- TENNESSEE WILLIAMS Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh:–– READ (review) 5.0
- AMERICAN ULYSSES Life of Ulysses S. Grant – R.C. White – READ (review) 5.0
21 Comments
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It’s an imposing selection and you’ve set yourself a task and a half. I’ve not read many of these but of those I have, I found that… Parades End is hard work but probably worth it ( just!), Sons and Lovers is brilliant, Darkness At Noon is tough going ( though if you like Kafka you might get on with it better!), Scoop is really good, Heart Is Lonely Hunter is moody but absorbing and Miss Jean Brodie is all spiky and wonderful! Good luck!
Thanks so much for your descriptions of the books you’ve read. I am starting at the top of the list and struggling to ‘grasp’ Pale Fire. I looked quickly at the book last night and my head fell into my hands….’How am I going to read this?”
What are your 20 books of summer?
Am not that organised ….. if only. But among those I’m thinks by will read are Colm Toibins House Of Names, Adam Sisman’s biography of John Le Carre and Peter Buwalda’s Bonita Avenue ( know he is Dutch writer – read it or any of his other stuff?)
No, I’ve not read Peter Buwalda…must look into his books. Bio John Le Carre looks good. I have bio of Nabokov ‘the Russian years’ waiting for me but that will have to wait until the Fall!
Have had the Le Carre bio on my shelf for a while but am going to see him giving talk in London in September so need to do before I go!
Hope to see a blogpost about your vist with Le Carre!
Wow – way to challenge yourself!! I love Willa Cather so I hope you will find Death Comes for the Archbishop is not such a trial after all. I have also read Sons and Lovers, Angle of Repose, The Great Gatsby, A Passage to India, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and 1984 and although they are not necessarily my personal favorites I think you will find them also well worth reading. I’ve never read Nabokov or Faulkner, for me those would be the hardest on your list. But who knows? I should try them!
My goodness….you’ve read quite a few on my ‘don’t want to read-list’ !
I just finished Pale Fire…very difficult. I read there are at least 80 analyses writtten by critics and scholars just trying to explain all that Nabokov squeezes into this ‘complex, strange’ book.
At least I know what it is about! Next stop: Faulkner…another complex man!
Thanks for stopping by!
This is my second try at a comment, don’t know what I did wrong the first time.
You are really challenging yourself, picking books you do not want to read. I would fail for sure if my list was like that.
I may fail…but at least I tried! Just finished Pale Fire by Nabokov. There was so much in that book to ‘get’ (understand)…I had difficulty ‘getting-it’ ! This book went way over my head! Next stop: Faulkner!
I LOVED Passage to India, but it’s 20 yrs since I went through my EM Forster phase!
My one & only Cather was love, love, love too & I have high hopes for her others.
But the rest?
Yikes!
You have some epic reading days ahead of you 👩🏽🏫
When I’m finished with the writers festival tonight, I’ll put my mind to my 20 books…of winter ❄️
Making a list and just starting from the top….feels very liberating! No decisions, no French book temptations…#JustDoIt ! I’ve had a ‘Back Russian’ cocktail with Nabokov and now enjoying a “Mint Julep’ with Faulkner. What does E.M. Forster drink?
Forster’s Beer….of course! 🙂
Perhaps a chai tea instead??
You’re right…tea it is!
Oh you have some of my favourites in there – An American Tragedy, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Faulkner, Miss Jean Brodie. Can’t wait to hear what you think of them.
So many great books …it is difficult to decide what to read next! I think the next book will be ‘An American Tragedy’. Dreiser is mentioned in ch 4 in Ragtime by E.L Doctorow (just finished…review soon.) I really want to complete the Modern Library top 100 novels list.
It will probably take me into next year as well!
Thanks again for hosting and being so gracious retweeting many messages of fellow readers The handy master post with ‘linky’ is great to follow other people’s lists!