20 Books of Summer

This page gathers together the books I’ve set aside for the #20BooksOfSummer 2021 challenge (originally posted by Cathy over at the 746 Books blog) – I will list the books I’ve nominated here and link to their reviews as I read them. Below the 2023 books you can find my 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 and 2015 lists with links to their reviews and round-up posts.

20 Books of Summer 2023

Post with the pile

Eniola Aluko – “They Don’t Teach This”

Robert Twigger – “Walking the Great North Line”

Sally Xerri Brooks – “Four Movements”

Jess Phillips – “The Life of an MP”

Kit de Waal – “My Name is Leon”

Brian Bilston – “Days Like These”

Lenny Henry – “Who Am I, Again?”

Yaa Gyasi – “Homegoing”

James Baldwin – “Go Tell it on the Mountain”

Charles Mongomerie – “Happy City”

Helena Lee – “East Side Voices”

Kacen Callendar – “Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution”

Kerri Andrews – “Wanderers”

Imogen Binnie – “Nevada”

Dean Karnazes – “A Runner’s High”

Ian Francis – “This Way to the Revolution”

Ross Barnett – “The Missing Lynx”

Adam Nathanial Furman and Joshua Mardell – “Queer Spaces”

Kavita Bhanot – “The Book of Birmingham”

Richard Mabey – “The Unofficial Countryside”

20 Books of Summer 2022

Ruth Pavey – A Wood of One’s Own – Book 1 read and reviewed here.

Helen Ashton – The Half-Crown House – Book 2 read and reviewed here.

Stella Gibbons – The Bachelor – Book 3 read and reviewed here.

Jeffrey Boakye – Black, Listed – Book 4 read and reviewed here.

Elton John – Me – Book 5 read and reviewed here.

James Ward – Adventures in Stationery – Book 6 read and reviewed here.

Martin Yelling and Anji Andrews – Running in the Midpack – Book 7 read and reviewed here.

Mikki Kendall – Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women White Feminism Forgot – Book 8 read and reviewed here.

Anna McNuff – The Pants of Perspective – Book 9 read and reviewed here.

Alex Hutchinson – Endure: Mind, Body and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance – Book 10 read and reviewed here.

Angie Thomas – On the Come Up – Book 11 read and reviewed here.

Candice Braithwaite – I Am Not Your Baby Mother – Book 12 read and reviewed here.

Anna Aslanyan – Dancing on Ropes – Book 13 read and reviewed here.

Nicholas Royle – White Spines: Confessions of a Book Collector – Book 14 read and reviewed here.

Carola Oman – Nothing to Report – Book 15 read and reviewed here.

Carola Oman – Somewhere in England – Book 16 read and reviewed here.

Rob Deering – Running Tracks: The Places and Playlists that Made me a Runner – Book 17 read and reviewed here.

Sue Anstiss – Game On: The Unstoppable Rise of Women’s Sport – Book 18 read and reviewed here.

Lucy Delap – Feminisms – Book 19 read and reviewed here.

Edward Hancox – Every Last Puffin – Book 20 read and reviewed here and I’ve done it!

20 Books of Summer 2021

Jonathan Van Ness – Over the Top – Book 1, read and reviewed here

William Kamkwaba and Bryan Mealer – The Boy who Harnessed the Wind – Book 2, read and reviewed here

Kit de Waal (ed.) – Common People – Book 3, read and reviewed here

Akala – Natives – Book 4, read and reviewed here

Juno Dawson – Gender Games – Book 5, read and reviewed here

Nadiya Hussain – Finding My Voice – Book 6, read and reviewed here

Johny Pitts – Afropean – Book 7, read and reviewed here

Stormzy – Rise Up – Book 8, read and reviewed here

David Olusoga – Black and British – Book 9, read and reviewed here

Damian Le Bas – The Stopping Places – Book 10, read and reviewed here

Sophie Williams – Anti-racist Ally – Book 11, read and reviewed here

Emma Dabiri – What White People Can Do Next – Book 12, read and reviewed here

Afua Hirsch – Brit(ish) – Swapped for Armistead Maupin – Logical Family – Book 13, read and reviewed here

Jeffrey Boake – Black, Listed – Swapped for D.E. Stevenson – Winter and Rough Weather (see below)

Maya Angelou – Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas – Book 14, read and reviewed here

Dorothy Whipple – Random Commentary – Book 15, read and reviewed here

D.E. Stevenson – Music in the Hills – Book 16, read and reviewed here

D.E. Stevenson – Winter and Rough Weather – Book 17, read and reviewed here

Angela Thirkell – The Headmistress – Book 18, read and reviewed here

Angela Thirkell – Miss Bunting – Book 19, read and reviewed here

Angela Thirkell – Peace Breaks Out – Book 20, read and reviewed here and DONE!

20 Books of Summer 2020

George Eggleston – Tahiti – Book 1 read and reviewed here

Alex Horne – Birdwatchingwatching – Book 2 read and reviewed here

Nancy Marie Brown – The Far Traveller: Voygages of a Viking Woman – Book 3 read and reviewed here

Philip Marsden – Rising Ground – Book 4 read and reviewed here

N.D. Isaacs and Rose Zimbardo – Tolkien and the Critics – Book 5 read and reviewed here

Laura Thompson – The Last Landlady – Book 6 read and reviewed here

Simon Winchester – Outposts – ABANDONED read why here

Ammon Shea – The Phone Book – Book 7 read and reviewed here

Jeanette Winterson/Emmeline Pankhurst – Courage Calls to Courage Everywhere – Book 8 read and reviewed here

Anne George – Murder Runs in the Family – Book 9 read and reviewed here

John Sutherland – Literary Landscapes – Book 10 read and reviewed here

Kim Gordon – Girl in a Band – Book 11 read and reviewed here

Tim Parks – Where I’m reading From – Book 12 read and reviewed here

Jon Bloomfield – Our City – Book 13 (swap for Outposts) read and reviewed here

Dorothy Whipple – Young Anne – Book 14 read and reviewed here

Elizabeth Eliot – Henry – Book 15 read and reviewed here

Edith Ayrton Zangwill – The Call – Book 16 read and reviewed here

Ada Cambridge – The Three Miss Kings swapped for Marianne Grabrucker – There’s A Good Girl (so I can read the Cambridge for AusLitMonth in November) – Book 17 read and reviewed here

Catherine Carswell – The Camomile swapped for Angela Thirkell – Cheerfulness Breaks In – Book 18 read and reviewed here

Margaret Kennedy – The Ladies of Lyndon – Book 19 read and reviewed here

Joan Aiken – The Serial Garden: The Complete Armitage Family Stories – Book 20 read and reviewed here and DONE!

20 Books of Summer 2019

You can find the pile and a note about all the books here. OK and life got in the way and I’m calling this one 10 Books of Summer!

Gretel Erlich – “This Cold Heaven” – Book 1 read and reviewed here

Paul Newman – “Lost Gods of Albion: Chalk Hill Figures of Britain” – Book 2 read and reviewed here

Cathy Kelly – “The House on Willow Street” – Book 3 read and reviewed here

Lynne Murphy – “The Prodigal Tongue” – Book 4 read and reviewed here

Neil Gaiman – “Norse Mythology” – Book 5 read and reviewed here

Steve Haywood – “Narrowboat Dreams” – Book 6 read and reviewed here

Harriet Harman – “A Woman’s Work” – Book 7 read and reviewed here

All Virago (and Persephone) / All August books:

Margery Sharp – “The Eye of Love” – Book 8 read and reviewed here

Henry Handel Richardson – “The Getting of Wisdom” – Book 9 read and reviewed here

Henry Handel Richardson – “Maurice Guest” swapped for Mary Webb – “Seven for a Secret” – Book 10 read and reviewed here

20 Books of Summer 2018

William Sitwell – “Eggs and Anarchy” – Book 1 read and reviewed here

Amit Katwala – “The Athletic Brain” – Book 2 read and reviewed here

Vikas Swarup – “The Accidental Apprentice” – On the original list but taken off the pile as I just didn’t fancy it.

George Eliot – “Scenes of Clerical Life” – Book 3 read and reviewed here

David Weir – “Weirwolf” – Book 4 read and reviewed here

Clare Balding – “Walking Home” – Book 5 read and reviewed here

Robert McFarlane – “The Old Ways” – Book 6 read and reviewed here

Gillian Tindall – “The Tunnel Through Time” – Book 7 read and reviewed here

Christopher McDougall – “Born to Run” – Book 8 read and reviewed here

Peter Ginna (ed.) – “What Editors Do” – Book 9 read and reviewed here

Prajwal Parajuly – “Land Where I Flee” – Book 10 read and reviewed here

Becky Wade – “Run the World” – Book 11 read and reviewed here

Also taking part in All Virago / All August from here:

Ellen Glasgow – “Barren Ground” – Book 12 read and reviewed here

Angela Thirkell – “Summer Half” – Book 13 read and reviewed here

Ann Bridge – “Peking Picnic” – Book 14 read and reviewed here

Diana Tutton – “Guard Your Daughters” – Book 15 read and reviewed here

Angela Thirkell – “The Brandons” – Book 16 read and reviewed here

Tirzah Garwood – “Long Live Great Bardfield” – swapped for Stella Gibbons’ “Starlight” as I accidentally started reading that and she is at least a Virago author – Book 17 read and reviewed here

Enid Bagnold – “The Loved and Envied” – Book 18 read and reviewed here

Joanna Cannan – “Princes in the Land” – Book 19 read and reviewed here

Gurjinder Basran –  “Everything Was Good-Bye” (added to replace “The Accidental Apprentice”; ran out of time in July, moved to after August’s planned reads) – Book 20 read and reviewed here and DONE!

20 Books of Summer 2017

(Read summaries of the original books here)

Dorothy Whipple – Every Good Deed and other Stories – Book 1 read and reviewed

Mitch Prinstein – Popular – Book 2 read and reviewed on the blog and for Shiny New Books

Jane Gardam – Old Filth – Book 3 Did Not Start, replaced by Helen Mitsios – Out of the Blue – read and reviewed

Barbara Taylor – Eve and the New Jerusalem – Book 4 read and reviewed

Natasha Solomons – The Gallery of Vanished Husbands – Book 5 read and reviewed

Eric Newby – Something Wholesale – Book 6 read and reviewed

Nick Baker – ReWild – Book 7 read and reviewed on the blog and for Shiny New Books

Francis Brett Young – The Black Diamond – Book 8 read and reviewed

Stuart Maconie – Long Road from Jarrow – Book 9 read and reviewed on the blog and for Shiny New Books

John-Paul Flintoff – Sew Your Own – Book 10 read and reviewed

Miriam Toews – A Boy of Good Breeding – Book 11 read and reviewed

Farahad Zama – Mrs Ali’s Road to Happiness – Book 12 read and reviewed

Adam Nicolson – When God Spoke English – Book 13 read and reviewed

Susie Dent – How to Talk Like a Local – Book 14 read and reviewed

Mollie Panter-Downes One Fine Day – Book 15 read and reviewed

Scott Jurek – Eat and Run – Book 16 read and reviewed

Zora Neale Hurston – Their Eyes Were Watching God – Book 17 read and reviewed

Amber Reeves – A Lady and Her Husband – Book 18 read and reviewed

R.C. Sheriff – Greengates – Book 19 read and reviewed

Gladys Huntingdon – Madame Solario – Book 20 read and reviewed

20 Books of Summer 2016

(Read my round-up post here)

Charlie Hill – Books – read and reviewed as Book 1 in the project

Michael Rosen – Alphabetical – read and reviewed as Book 2 in the project

Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee – Swim, Bike, Run – read and reviewed as Book 3 in the project

Joanna Biggs – All Day Long – read and reviewed as Book 4 in the project

Arnaldur Indriðason – The Draining Lake  – read and reviewed as Book 5 in the project

Cathy Kelly – The Honey Queen – read and reviewed as Book 6 in the project

Ranulph Fiennes – Cold – read and reviewed as Book 7 in the project

Julia Strachey – Cheerful Weather for the Wedding – read and reviewed as Book 8 in the project

Nilanjan Choudhury – The Case of the Secretive Sister – read and reviewed as Book 9 in the project

George Eliot – The Mill on the Floss – read and reviewed as Book 10 in the project

Salman Rushdie – Two Years, Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights – swapped for Robertson Davies – A Mixture of Frailties – read and reviewed as Book 11 in the project

Ann Bridge – A Lighthearted Quest – read and reviewed as Book 12 in the project

Andrew Flintoff – Being Freddie – read and reviewed as Book 13 in the project

David Kynaston – Modernity Britain – read and reviewed as Book 14 in the project

Auður Ava Olafsdottir – Butterflies in November – read and reviewed as Book 15 in the project

Edith Wharton – The Reef – read and reviewed as Book 16 in the project

Jane Smiley – The Greenlanders – swapped for Angela Thirkell – August Folly – read and reviewed as Book 17 in the project

Edith Wharton – Hudson River Bracketed – read and reviewed as Book 18

A.S. Byatt – Ragnarok – read and reviewed as Book 19

Sogur ur Biblikunni – swapped for Af Hjervu Gjosa Fjoll?  then swapped for Blómin á þakinu – got on with nicely as Book 20 – the plan all along

2015 books – 17/20 2 DNF 1 DNS

(read my round-up post note: I started in the middle of June)

“Patricia Brent, Spinster” by Herbert Jenkins – read and reviewed as Book 1 in the project

“Oxford Guide to Plain English” by Martin Cutts – read and reviewed as Book 2 in the project

“No Word from Winifred” by Amanda Cross – read and reviewed as Book 3 in the project

“Clayhanger” by Arnold Bennett – read and reviewed as Book 4 in the project

“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee – swapped for “Summer Wedding Belles” by Debbie Macomber which was reviewed as Book 5 in the project

“Years of Hope” by Tony Benn  – read and reviewed as Book 6 in the project

“The World’s Wife” by Carol Ann Duffy – read and reviewed as Book 7 in the project

“Our Hearts were Young and Gay” by Cornelia Otis Skinner – read and reviewed as Book 8 in the project

“Unbridled Spirits” by Stevie Davies – read and reviewed as Book 9 in the project

“Tales from Earthsea” by Ursula Le Guin – read and reviewed as Book 10 in the project

“Jenny Wren” by E.H. Young – read and reviewed as Book 11 in the project

“The Curate’s Wife” by E.H. Young – read and reviewed as Book 12 in the project

“Brook Evans” by Susan Glaspell – read and reviewed as Book 13 in the project

“Minnie’s Room” by Molly Panter-Downes – read and reviewed as Book 14 in the project

“Greenbanks” by Dorothy Whipple – read and reviewed as Book 15 in the project

“Doctor Thorne” by Anthony Trollope – read and reviewed as Book 16 in the project

“Through Siberia by Accident” by Dervla Murphy – read and reviewed as book 17 in the project

“British or American English?”  – Did Not Finish

“The Act of Reading” by Iser – Did Not Finish (read enough for my research project and no more)

“Sogur ur Biblikunni” – not read