I finished the 20 Books of Summer Challenge! Did I stray from my original list? Of course I did! ;-) But I also did read many from that list, so all is not completely lost. Sadly, Middlemarch didn’t make it again this year! But East of Eden did and that was a definite highlight of my summer reading!
| List of the 20 Books Read | Rating |
| East of Eden, John Steinbeck | 5 stars |
| The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt, Andrea Bobotis | 5 stars |
| On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean Vuong | 4 stars |
| We Were Killers Once, Becky Masterman | 4 stars |
| Dual Citizen, Alix Ohlin | 2.5 stars |
| Bethlehem, Karen Kelly | 4 stars |
| Provisionally Yours, Antanas Sileika | 2.5 stars |
| Summerlings, Lisa Howorth | 3 stars |
| The Custodian of Paradise, Wayne Johnston | 3 stars |
| Prodigal Summer, Barbara Kingsolver | 4 stars |
| The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher | 5 stars |
| The Expectations, Alexander Tilney | 2 stars |
| I Am, I Am, I Am, Maggie O’Farrell | 5 stars |
| The Empress of Idaho, Todd Babiak | 4 stars |
| Leaving the Witness, Amber Scorah | 3 stars |
| The Gifted School, Bruce Holsinger | 4 stars |
| Father Sweet, J.J. Martin | 5 stars |
| If You Want to Make God Laugh, Bianca Marais | 4 stars |
| Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, Olga Tokarczuk | 3.5 stars |
| Crow, Amy Spurway (substituted this from Inland) | 3 stars |
I made a last minute substitution to finish off my 20 Books. I was reading Inland by Tea Obreht but the time I was able to devote to reading was seriously curtailed in these final weeks of summer. That, combined with what I’ve called the “Obama Effect” made it so that I had to return Inland to the library. I wasn’t going to be able to renew it because the line up waiting for it grew considerably following Obama’s release of his summer reading list. I don’t mind it just for that reason at all! Hurray for the Obama Effect!
I had a few duds but overall not too bad really, and I enjoyed some excellent reading this summer! A large majority were excellent (4-stars) and there was a healthy number of 5-star reads:
Those five 5-star reads (pictured above) made for a great boon to my summer reading! Each of them offered very different kinds of stories and East of Eden and The Shell Seekers were amazing door-stopper sagas! Both perfect for the summer. I’m thrilled to have also found Pilcher’s Winter Solstice at the same time as finding The Shell Seekers in my Goodwill bookstore. That should make for some satisfying winter reading by the fire – if The Shell Seekers and its perfection for summer reading is any indication.
I made it to almost half of my original list! (8 from the originally listed 20) Not too shabby??
How did you succeed in your 20 Books of Summer reading? Can you believe we’re building our Fall reading lists, and looking out towards books coming in Winter 2020?
I do have to say though – I cannot WAIT for Fall and Fall reading. Cozy reading socks and snuggly blankets!
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