Author: whatcathyreadnext

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

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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?

#6Degrees of Separation From Wifedom to Ike and Kay

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It’s the first Saturday of the month which means it’s time for 6 Degrees of Separation!

Here’s how it works: a book is chosen as a starting point by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

Kate says: Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal or esoteric ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge. Join in by posting your own six degrees chain on your blog and adding the link in the comments section of each month’s post.   You can also check out links to posts on Twitter using the hashtag #6Degrees.

WifedomThis month’s starting book is Wifedom by Anna Funder.  As usual, it’s a book I haven’t read – although I’d like to – but I have an excuse because it was only published in the UK on 11th August. Subtitled ‘Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life’, according to the blurb, the author uses newly discovered letters from George Orwell’s wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy, to her best friend to tell the story of the Orwells’ marriage. For my chain, I’ve taken the rather obvious route of novels that feature the wives (or mistresses) of famous men.

The Chosen by Elizabeth Lowry, shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2023, gives an insight into the marriage of renowned author Thomas Hardy and his wife, Emma. With literary ambitions of her own, Emma’s role as her husband’s assistant is gradually supplanted by a far younger woman, Florence Dugdale.

Wife to Mr Milton by Robert Graves tells the story of the tragic and eventful life of Marie Powell, who, at the age of sixteen, was pushed into marrying the man who was England’s greatest epic poet— and knew it —John Milton.

The Secret Life of Mrs London by Rebecca Rosenberg is the fascinating story of Charmian London (née Kittredge) the woman who became close to two famous men – Jack London and escape artist, Harry Houdini – but whose own literary talent was overshadowed by her more famous husband.

Outside the Magic Circle by Heera Datta tells the story of Catherine, wife of Charles Dickens and mother of his ten children whom Dickens abandoned after twenty-two years of marriage for a young actress.

Mrs Hemingway by Naomi Wood is a fictional account of Ernest Hemingway’s four marriages told from the perspective of each wife, obviously imagining they would never suffer the fate of the previous one. ‘But there could never be two people at the close of his marriage…it always had to end on a three-card winner.’

Ike and Kay by James MacManus is the fictional account of the real life relationship between General Dwight ‘Ike’ Eisenhower and Kay Summersby, a young woman assigned to be his driver during a visit to London in 1942.

The theme running through my chain is, perhaps, don’t marry a famous man.