#20BooksofSummer

Oh hey, remember me? I have been toying with getting back into the blogging game – I’ve been reading so much more recently (yay!) and have Thoughts that feel too big for an instagram caption (that’s where I’ve been sharing my reading in case you’re wondering).

Then I saw that it was time for Cathy @ 746 Books’ #20BooksofSummer challenge and that seemed like a really good way to get back into the swing of things.

The goal is to make a list of twenty books that you will read between June 1 and September 1 and ideally, to post about them.

I’m not doing twenty books though – that feels too big for me even though, what else am I going to do this summer amirite? – so we’re going with twelve. Here’s my list!

Servants: A Downstairs History Britain from the Nineteenth-Century to Modern Times by Lucy Lethbridge. Sounds pretty self explanatory right?/

Singled Out: How Two Million Women Survived Without Men After the First World War by Virginia Nicholson. I have had this one on my shelves for YEARS. I just finished her book about housewives in the 1950s and it was so wonderful that I’m very much looking forward to her take on women of a different generation.

No One is Coming to Save Us by Stephanie Powell Watts. This one is billed as a “Black Great Gatsy” which is likely doing a disservice to the book but I’m game to read about an African-American family chasing their dreams through generations.

How Toddlers Thrive: What Parents Can Do Today for Children Ages 2-5 to Plant the Seeds of Lifelong Success by Tovah P. Klein. I promise I’m not one of those striver parents eager for their child to be on the lists of all the best schools. But I am always interested in different parenting philosophies and learning how not to mess up my kid. Plus this is the last library book I have out that I have yet to read.

Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter. It’s summer! You need to have a dark, twisty, heinous thriller on hand.

Miss You by Kate Eberlen. This sounds a bit like One Day in that two 18 year olds cross paths and then we check back in on them every year for sixteen years. Again, it’s summer!

Visionary Women: How Rachel Carson, Jane Jacobs, Jane Goodall, and Alice Waters Changed Our World by Andrea Barnet. This is an ARC that I’ve had on my shelf for too long and it’s very much in my wheelhouse.

The Secrets You Keep by Kate White. Fun fact: I used to work with the guy who took the photo that was used on this cover. When he told me that, I bought the book and then…didn’t read it. More thriller/mystery fodder.

Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson. This book was picked to be on Canada Reads 2020 and then it was obviously cancelled like so many other wonderful things. I’m hoping it eventually makes it back onto the schedule and then I will be ready, having read this one.

The Fifth Avenue Artists’ Society by Joy Calloway. Four years ago my wonderful friend came to visit me from Amsterdam. When we were in a bookstore we decided we’d each buy this same book and we’d read it together when we were apart again. She has read it, I still have not. I keep picking it up when I’m in the mood for historical fiction and I always put it back down. Hoping that this is the impetus I need to get it read.

No-Drama Discipline: The Whole Brain Way to Calm the Chaos and Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind by Daniel J Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson. What can I say? I have a two year old and she is a very determined little lady. I would love less screaming in my life.

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch. This might be the most random selection on my list, since I’m not really one to go in for any kind of fantasy. But if any time is the right time to branch out of our comfort zone, then this is probably it. Murder, London, magic? Sure.

So there you have it. Those are my twelve books to read by the end of summer! Five non-fiction, seven fiction, some thrillers, some light fiction, some history – here’s to great summer reading!