20 Books Of Summer 2023 Reading Challenge Wrap-Up #20booksofsummer23

Posted on by whatcathyreadnext

20-books-of-summerThis annual challenge run by my namesake Cathy at 746 Books has finished for another year. And, for another year, I failed to read all twenty of the books I put on my list, a result of a combination of over-enthusiasm and a stubborn (masochistic?) refusal to take advantage of the accommodating rules allowing you to swap books in and out of your list or reduce your goal.

In the end, I managed to read eight books from my original list of twenty. Disappointed? A little, but on the other hand pleased that I finally got around to reading some books that had been in my TBR pile for up to five years. And, during the period of the challenge – from Thursday 1st June to Friday 1st September 2023 – I actually read twenty-four other books. If I’d wanted an easy life, I’d have put some of those on my list….

I’m going to try to read the remaining books on my challenge list between now and the end of the year. I do not want them to have to appear on next year’s list!

20 Books of Summer 2023 Wrap-UpBooks on my original list I read (links from each title will take you to my review)

  1. Treason by James Jackson
  2. The Painter of Souls by Philip Kazan
  3. China Blue by Madalyn Morgan
  4. Chasing Ghosts by Madalyn Morgan
  5. Wrecker by Noel O’Reilly – review to follow
  6. Invitation to a Bonfire by Adrienne Celt
  7. A Stranger in my Grave by Margaret Millar
  8. The Night Raids by Jim Kelly

Books on my original list still waiting to be read (links from each title will take you to Goodreads)

  1. Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz (waiting since October 2017)
  2. Transcription by Kate Atkinson (waiting since January 2018)
  3. The Draughtsman by Robert Lautner (waiting since March 2018)
  4. The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle by Kirsty Wark (waiting since March 2018)
  5. Appetite by Philip Kazan (waiting since April 2018)
  6. Anna of Kleve by Alison Weir (waiting since June 2018)
  7. Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce (waiting since March 2019)
  8. Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts (waiting since March 2019)
  9. In Two Minds by Alis Hawkins (waiting since March 2019)
  10. The Cross and the Curse by Matthew Harffy (waiting since May 2019)
  11. The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant by Kayte Nunn (waiting since February 2020)
  12. To Calais, In Ordinary Time by James Meek (waiting since February 2020)

Books I read not on my list (links from each title will take you to my review)

  1. Ancestry by Simon Mawer
  2. Hokey Pokey by Kate Mascarenhas
  3. The Last Lifeboat by Hazel Gaynor
  4. The Geometer Lobachevsky by Adrian Duncan
  5. The Wall by Adrian Goldsworthy
  6. The Voluble Topsy by A. P. Herbert
  7. Voices of the Dead by Ambrose Parry
  8. The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson
  9. Banyan Moon by Thao Thai
  10. The Blood of Others by Graham Hurley
  11. Before the Swallows Come Back by Fiona Curnow
  12. In Defence of the Act by Effie Black
  13. The Soldier’s Child by Tetyana Denford
  14. Para Bellum by Simon Turney
  15. The Unheard by Anne Worthington
  16. Before We Were Innocent by Ella Berman
  17. Unnatural Ends by Christopher Huang
  18. The Black Crescent by Jane Johnson
  19. The Hollow Throne by Tim Leach
  20. The Well of Saint Nobody by Neil Jordan
  21. A Fenland Garden by Francis Pryor
  22. The Seventh Son by Seabastian Faulks – review to follow
  23. The Postcard by Carly Schabowski
  24. The Ghost Ship by Kate Mosse – review to follow

If you took part in the challenge, how did you get on?

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