20 Books of (Summer) Winter

~ This Reading Life

20 Books of Summer Winter with Cathy @746 Books is an annual blogging event that I simply cannot resist, despite the fact that the only way I complete it each year is by swapping out some of the books from my original list! But that’s half the fun.

There are always a handful of books I plan to read between June and September thanks to various readalongs and book events (the first 12 books). The rest are wishful thinking and subject to change.

My 2022 20 books of winter looks like this:

  1. Grand Days | Frank Moorhouse (readalong) Finished 10th June 2022
  2. Dark Palace | Frank Moorhouse (readalong) Finished 13th July 2022
  3. Cold Light | Frank Moorhouse (readalong) Finished 15th August 2022
  4. The Inseperables | Simone de Beauvoir (Paris in July) Finished 20th July 2022
  5. The Paris Bookseller | Kerri Maher (Book Club & Paris in July) Finished 23rd July 2022
  6. Maigret and the Minister | Georges Simenon (Paris in July) Finished 17th July 2022
  7. Maigret Goes to School | Georges Simenon (Paris in July) Finished 15th July 2022
  8. Otherland: A Journey With My Daughter | Maria Tumarkin (Reading Ukraine) Finished 21st August 2022
  9. Marlo | Jay Carmichael Finished 17th August 2022
  10. Alone in West Africa | Mary Gaunt (Australian Women Writers challenge)
  11. The Last White Man | Mohsin Hamid Finished 28th August 2022
  12. The Jane Austen Remedy | Ruth Wilson (Austen in August) DNF/skimmed 20th August 2022
  13. The Candy House | Jennifer Egan
  14. The Coast | Eleanor Limprecht Finished 14th June 2022
  15. Assembly | Natasha Brown Finished 15th June 2022
  16. how to make a basket | Jazz Money Finished 16th August 2022
  17. Chernobyl Prayer | Svetlana Alexievich (Reading Ukraine) Finished 26 August 2022
  18. My Heart is a Little Wild Thing | Nigel Featherstone Finished 24th June 2022
  19. The Book of Form and Emptiness | Ruth Ozeki Finished 23rd June 2022
  20. The Sign of the Four | Arthur Conan Doyle (CC spin book) Finished 26th June 2022

What will you be reading?

NB: Southern Hemisphere bloggers are more than welcome to borrow my winter version of Cathy’s badge with a brief acknowledgement – thank you 🙂

This post was written on the traditional land of the Wangal clan, one of the 29 clans of the Eora Nation within the Sydney basin. This Reading Life acknowledges that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are our first storytellers, and the traditional custodians of the lands, seas, and skies on which we live and work.

Published by This Reading Life

39 thoughts on “20 Books of (Summer) Winter”

  1. I don’t do challenges, well hardly ever. I’ve recently read the de Beauvoir and the Rooney and can recommend them both (and Maigret, it goes without saying). It’s an ambitious list with those Moorehouse clunksters at the beginning – I own them but will I ever read them?

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    1. I’m doing a readalong over June, July & August with the Moorhouse book. I’ve read the first two before and devoured them so quickly, I hope the same will be true this time around. I’m very keen to finally finish the trilogy.

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    1. I was going to be a smart-alec and say ‘neither have I!’ but, of course, I have read the first two books on the list before! I plan to reread them so I can finally finish the trilogy.

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  3. Nice range in your list Brona. I’ve read Conversations with Friends and Assembly from your list and am really keen to read The Candy House. Good luck and happy reading!

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    1. Thanks Cathy, I always love this chance to go through my TBR. I’ve read the other 2 Rooney’s so thought I should go back to the beginning. And I loved The Goon Squad – a lot – back when it first came out, so I have high hopes for The Candy House.

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  4. Pingback: Announcing 20 Books of Summer ’22: Add your links here!

  5. Summer has always been a time I could do a lot of reading during time off from a busy school year. Now that I’m retired summer tends to be a more hectic time, but I still like the challenge of trying to read a nice number of books.

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    1. Yes, summer is for being out and about, enjoying days of sunshine and warmth. Reading 20 books is much better suited for the winter months, which is probably why I usually succeed with this most years!!
      Enjoy your warm sunny days xo

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  6. How smart of you to put the CC spin as one of your books! I did 20 books of summer (successfully) for the first time last year and am excited to do it again. A week at the beach in August should help me get through my list.

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    1. This is the first year I have remembered to factor in the CC Spin, so feeling pretty pleased with myself 🙂

      Lucky you to have a whole month at the beach! I hope your summer is better than ours though. We had a La Nina summer where it did nothing but rain. It is still raining more than not during our autumn too. Everything smells musty and dank and everything is sodden.

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    1. The hard part will be the new releases that turn up at work over our winter. I always try to read some of them as they turn up so that I’m ahead of the game! But at leats this gives me a chance to think about 20 of the books lingering on my TBR and I will get to most of them by Sept.

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  9. Having such a good mix of books in your list should help keep you going. Maigret I would enjoy but Conversations with Friends is not for me – Normal People was more than enough sorry

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    1. Rooney is not for everyone, but I enjoyed the other 2 books, so thought I should go back to the beginning to see where it all started.
      I do focus on putting in several slimmer books or novellas each year, though, to help make the list more acheivable!

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  11. Posting comment problem is solved: I just go back and use my “old” laptop to read your blog.
    Thanks for the reminder….with all that is going on ….I forgot to even think about 20 books of summer!
    Have not read one of the books on your summer list! I do have all the books by Moorhouse (ordered them in 2021). Devoured them? ….so good? I will start the first pages of “Grand Days”c and see if Moorhouse can dazzle me!

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    1. Brilliant solution Nancy!
      I hope you end up enjoying the Moorhouse books as much as I did when I first read them. A couple of them won awards, so I’m not the only one who loved them 🙂

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    2. Read the introduction, list of characters and did some research about the League of Nations.
      So the book is on my bedside table…and I’m ready to go! Every night a few pages to get me through this award winning chunkster!

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    3. Start the morning on my “old” laptop just so I can connect with you!
      I have ventured into some early pages in Grand Days and have met “Edith”.
      She is quite a character! Making notes as I read…and hope to discover why you like this book so much! Waiting for your master post…and how should I post during a read-a-long… Blogpost after a few chapters + my unrestrained comments be they pro or con?

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  13. I’ve got my sign-up post ready but… do you already know when the next CCSpin will take place? Will it be during the summer? Because if so, I should probably add that to my list as well!

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  14. Hi Brona – I haven’t read any of these books, they look intriguing. My daughter loved the Maria Lewycka novel. I try with Maigret but struggle with Simenon’s style.

    This time I have also tried to include some shorter books in an attempt to finish in time.

    Good luck!

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    1. I love Maigret in the winter, even if the story is set in summer, they always feel wintry to me somehow. With so many books in the series, some are better than others. I think I was lucky that my first one was a good one (Maigret’s Mistake).

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  15. Nice list! There are a lot there that are new to me and I look forward to your ukrainian titles. I am kicking myself now for not grabbing that copy of Short History of Tractors I saw — I convinced myself that I already had more than enough books like that, but I didn’t have THAT one! And now I still don’t!

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  16. Nice list! As usual, I’m making my pile up out of straight TBR books; I usually do a load of Viragoes in the August bit but I have a TBR project going on and want to get my top shelf read so might dial back on that. And as usual, I will wait till 31 May to make my pile, having seen how I’ve got on this month. Happy reading!

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    1. All the books on my list are from my TBR pile too, but I know from previous years that some shiny new releases will turn up at work that will tempt me to prioritise them instead! Thankfully Cathy is very relaxed about swapping books out 🙂

      I have a readalong starting on the 1st June (The Moorhouse books at the top of my list) so am feeling the need to be organised to make it all happen in time. Which reminds me I must finish the masterpost….

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  17. Great list Brona 🙂 I keep meaning to read Maigret as well but still haven’t gotten down to it. And I never thought of including my Ukraine/Russia reads on my list.

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      1. That’s a great idea. I’ve just been adding notes to my usual planner. For my list I stuck to physical copies which I’ve purchased since I keep picking up review copies (mostly ebook) and neglecting these

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