20 Books of Summer 2019 Recap

Today marks the (unofficial) end to summer in the United States, meaning it is has finally stopped raining every single day between 4 and 5pm and interfering with my plans to hike or bike after work.

Today is also the official end to 20 Books of Summer, a reading challenge hosted by Cathy of 746 Books where participants are encouraged to read 20 books from their to-be-read (TBR) stack between Monday, June 3 and today, September 2.

Back at the beginning of June, I shared twenty books I hoped to read for the challenge, and I’m quite pleased that I managed to read 15 of the 20 on my original list plus. In alphabetical order by title and with links to my reviews, here are the books I read:

• Assumed Obligation by Kara Louise
• Broken Harbor by Tana French
• Circe by Madeline Miller
• Don’t Look Back by Karin Fossum
• Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell
• The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
• Into the Whirlwind by Evgenia Ginzburg
• The Last Summer by Ricarda Hunch
• The Lower River by Paul Theroux
• The Moor’s Account by Laila Lalami
• Niccolò Rising by Dorothy Dunnett
• The Orange Grove by Larry Tremblay
• The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian
• Saplings by Noel Streatfeild
• You Would Have Missed Me by Birgit Vanderbeke

When I made my original list for the challenge, I didn’t anticipate how much traveling I’d be doing between June and September and didn’t include a single title off my Kindle, which is my go-to while traveling. Thankfully, Cathy is flexible with her “rules” for this challenge, allowing participants to swap in other books and count them towards their challenge total.

So, I reached my full goal of 20 books by reading four books off my Kindle and listening to one book on audio off my Audible account. In alphabetical order by title and with links to my reviews, here are the books I read that weren’t on my original list:

• An American Sickness by Elizabeth Rosenthal
• Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Prime Cut by Alan Carter
• This Place Holds No Fear by Monika Held
• The Wild Inside by Christine Carbo

As with last year, so many of the books I read for this challenge ended up being quite good and I’m a little perturbed I left them sitting on my shelves for so long. My least favorites on this list were You Would Have Missed Me and Niccolò Rising, but Into the Whirlwind, The Moor’s Account, The Last Summer and The Wild Inside received five star ratings from me on GoodReads. A very successful summer of reading, I have to say!

Thanks again to Cathy for hosting this fun challenge. I hope everyone who participated — and those who didn’t — had a great summer (or, winter for those in the Southern Hemisphere) of reading!