Tag: Reading Challenges

20 Books of Summer Reading Challenge 2020: Final Update #20BooksOfSummer20

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20 Books of Summer 2019

This annual challenge is run by my namesake Cathy at 746 Books.  This year it takes place between 1st June and 1st September 2020.  I’ve participated for the past two years but never quite managed to organise/discipline my reading enough to complete my list. Last year I managed seven of my twenty.  I’m determined to do better this year.

As (the other) Cathy explains, the rules are simple.  Take the Books of Summer image, pick your own 10, 15 or 20 books you’d like to read and link back Cathy’s master post at 746 Books on 1st June 2020 so she knows you’re taking part.  The rules are accommodating as well.  Want to swap a book? Go for it.  Fancy changing your list half way through? No problem.  Deciding to drop your goal from 20 to 15? She’s fine with that.

In putting together my list, I decided to concentrate on four categories:

  • Blog tour commitments I have from June onwards
  • Books on my NetGalley To Read shelf publishing in the next couple of months
  • Books from my TBR pile
  • Books included in personal reading projects, i.e. Buchan of the Month and The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2020 shortlist

You can find my list below with links to my reviews.

  1. The Sea Gate by Jane Johnson
  2. Patrol by Fred Majdalany
  3. Warriors for the Working Day by Peter Elstob
  4. One Day in Summer by Shari Low
  5. The Coloursby Juliet Bates
  6. The English Wife by Adrienne Chinn
  7. A Quiet Death in Italy by Tom Benjamin
  8. The Storm by Amanda Jennings
  9. Paris Savages by Katherine Johnson
  10. The Night of the Floodby Zoe Somerville
  11. The Gap in the Curtain by John Buchan
  12. A Prince of the Captivity by John Buchan
  13. The Narrow Land by Christine Dwyer Hickey
  14. Fortress of Fury by Matthew Harffy
  15. The Girl from Vichy by Andie Newton
  16. The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce
  17. Munich by Robert Harris
  18. The Bitch by Pilar Quintana
  19. The Bird in the Bamboo Cage by Hazel Gaynor
  20. The Museum Makers by Rachel Morris

 

 

Buchan of the Month: Introducing…The Last Secrets by John Buchan #ReadJB2020

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Buchan of the Month Banner 2020.jpgMy Buchan of the Month for May is The Last Secrets. Subtitled ‘The Final Mysteries of Exploration’, it was published in the UK by Thomas Nelson & Sons in September 1923 and in the US by Houghton Mifflin in 1924. 

As mentioned last month, Buchan initially joined the publishers Thomas Nelson as chief literary adviser on the invitation of old Oxford friend, Tommy Nelson, and was subsequently appointed a director when it became a limited company in 1915. Until 1929 when he resigned from the board on the grounds of ill health, he also wrote or contributed to thirteen books for Nelson. These included several books aimed at young boys and usually published for the Christmas market. The Last Secrets is one of two collections of stories he wrote for Nelson. (The other is A Book of Escapes and Hurried Journeys which was last month’s Buchan of the Month.)

In The Last Secrets, John Buchan describes some of the main achievements in exploration of the first two decades of the 20th century as well as those goals still remaining at the time, such as the ascent of Mount Everest.

Dedication The Last Secrets John BuchanAs his first biographer, Janet Adam Smith, notes one of Buchan’s “cherished pipe-dreams” was an expedition to Everest. Cecil Rawling, a friend of Buchan’s brother, Willie, (who died in 1912) had been planning an expedition to Everest and Buchan eagerly joined in with preparations. The outbreak of the First World War and Rawling’s own death in 1917 put an end to the plans, as did Buchan’s poor health once the war ended. The Last Secrets is dedicated to Cecil Rawling.

Janet Adam Smith reports Buchan retained a lifelong fascination with Everest, providing help to a reconnaissance expedition in 1921. He also kept in touch with a number of Himalayan travellers. In 1933, she reports Buchan was asked to assist with a project to fly over Everest and that, probably in the same year, he responded to a request from English director, Anthony Asquith, for a film scenario by sketching out a thriller whose climax was a flight over the mountain!

Look out for my review of The Last Secrets later this month.

Sources:

Janet Adam Smith, John Buchan: A Biography (OUP, 1985 [1965])
Kenneth Hillier and Michael Ross, The First Editions of John Buchan: A Collector’s Illustrated Biography (Avonworld, 2008)

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