Since deciding to create a Summer Reading Program, Venture Forth, I have been enjoying the community of book bloggers and remembering the pleasures of the days when blogs were THE THING. I noticed several of my friends were participating in the 20 Books of Summer event hosted by Cathy at 746 Books and I decided to merge the two experiences for the love of community.
The event kicks off today, June 1st, and ends on September 1st. There are options for reading 10, 15, or 20 books, and Cathy’s statement “It’s pretty common knowledge that I am the slackest challenge host and will bend the rules to help anyone reach their goal” means that she is a kindred spirit to the way I ran my challenges back in the day.
I decided to opt for twenty books, which is overly ambitious for the amount I generally read in three months, but when you see my stack after the jump, it may seem a little more doable.
(You can click the above image to open a larger version)
Details on my Stack of Twenty:
1. Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout
A recommendation by TracyK at Bitter Tea and Mystery. I’ve enjoyed detective pairings in other series–Sherlock Holmes, The Toff series–and this sounded like something I needed to try.
2. The Door Into Summer by Robert A. Heinlein
It has been a long time since I’ve read Heinlein and I wanted to pick one from my shelves that I had not previously read. The title sealed it.
3. Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery [Reread]
I adore the Anne books and have not read them in some time. This is the third in the series and one of my favorites.
4. Escape from New York by Mike McQuay [Reread]
This book occupied my Uncle Dean’s bookshelf when I was a kid. That tiny shelf was my introduction to science fiction and I remember reading this book long before I was able to see the movie for the first time (on a VCR). I’ve always liked the novelization and have been in the mood to revisit it for the first time in decades.
5. A World Out of Time by Larry Niven [Reread}
One of my favorite science fiction books. The first novel I purchased for myself from a used bookstore. The desire to revisit this story has been building for some time.
6. Dog Songs by Mary Oliver [Finished 6/10/20]
This is a collection of Mary Oliver poetry about man’s best friend. I’ve read a few of the poems already and it is lovely and sentimental in all the best ways.
7. Sixteenth Watch by Myke Cole
Fence from Susan Hated Literature reviewed this novel recently. I’ve been wanting to try out Cole’s work for some time and was intrigued by her review and the subject matter of the novel.
8. The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie
This is the first Tommy and Tuppence novel. I received his for Christmas from my friend Jeff Smith. In the interest of full disclosure, I am already a quarter of the way through this book from reading it before this challenge started. It has been very enjoyable thus far.
9. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
One of the Holmes stories that I have not read. Saw it on a bookstore shelf the other day and decided it had to come home with me.
10. Beverly, Right Here by Kate DiCamillo
I’ve loved every DiCamillo book I’ve read, perhaps none more so than Raymie Nightingale. Kate has written two sequels featuring each of Raymie’s friends, Louisiana’s Way Home and now this one.
11. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman [Reread]
I have been revisiting many of Gaiman’s stories over the past few months and Neverwhere is my favorite of his novels, and one of my favorite novels in general, and I cannot wait to revisit all these characters.
12. Network Effect by Martha Wells
The first full novel in the Murderbot series. It is meant to function as a stand alone, but the four previous novellas are so good that you have to read them.
13. From Russia With Love by Ian Fleming [Reread]
I have been wanting to continue on with the 007 series, and even though the next novel for me to read would be Goldfinger, I have been wanting to reread this one, so I’m starting here. Plus it gives me a chance to read the Folio Society copy I bought. Such a beautiful volume with amazing illustration.
14. The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian by Robert E. Howard [Reread]
My recent read off The Return of Tarzan gave me such a Conan vibe that I want to go revisit this collection.
15. On a Red Station Drifting by Aliette de Bodard [Reread]
I’ve enjoyed all of the short stories and novellas I have read in the Xuya universe that Bodard has created and in anticipation of her collection On Wars, Memories, and Starlight , I want to reread this novella.
16. The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
The Night Circus is amazing. I’ve read it and listened to the audio on a couple of occasions. Despite my anticipation for her long-awaited second novel, I have left this linger on my shelf unread. It is time to remedy that oversight.
17. The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix. E. Harrow
I saw this one all over Instagram as the year began and it sounded so good that I quickly bought a copy. And now, to read it.
18. Rocket Men by Robert Kurson
I’ve read about a third of this excellent nonfiction book about the Apollo 8 mission and in light of the recent excitement from NASA and SpaceX, I want to finish the book.
19. Xenozoic by Mark Schultz [Reread]
I love Schultz’s storytelling, in illustration and in prose, and it has been far too long since I’ve revisited this world. Cars and adventure and dinosaurs…doesn’t that just scream Summer?
20. Spectrum 26 by John Fleskes, editor
I’ve loved the Spectrum volumes long before ever meeting creators Arnie and Cathy Fenner and that love has grown since working with them on the Spectrum Fantastic Art Live shows. John Fleskes has done a wonderful job with the series since taking over. Jeff Smith and I have an annual tradition of going through the volume together and discussing the artwork. We’ve done one Zoom meeting this year to go through part of the book, but we have a lot more to go.
There you have it, my ambitious 20 Books of Summer pile. I have already started my reading of Escape from New York to begin the challenge.
Summer 2020, here we come.
Thanks so much for taking part Carl- great list!
Thanks for hosting, Cathy. For some reason your comment went to SPAM and I thankfully caught it.
Wow, that’s a heck of a stack / list / reading challenge. I’ve read a few of them and would like to read some of the others, but I’m on a march to get through some of my TBR, so these will have to wait. I’m really enjoying your posts, Carl, and hope you keep it up. For some of us (the ones w/o Facebook-Twitter-Instagram-Snapchat-etc.) blogs are STILL the thing.
I hear you. I do Instagram more because I like the creativity of taking book pictures and because some of the people I like to keep up with pretty much only do IG. Facebook is something I use daily for work as creating the social media on our FB and Twitter pages are part of my job, and I keep up with my personal FB page some, but not a lot. Quit Twitter a long, long time ago.
For the pile, 14 of the 20 listed were books I owned before 1/1/2020, so I’m getting some of the TBR pile tackled if I were to get to all of these. But that still means that nearly a third are newly purchased books, so I’m still in a losing position when it comes to books coming in vs. books getting read.
Have only read Christie and Doyle from this. Keep on telling myself to start the Anna series. Fer-de-Lance is on my TBR too, one of the reasons being what you have mentioned, Tracy’s whole-hearted recommendation of it. 😀
Thanks for visiting my blog.
My pleasure, it was fun to come visit and I like your site design.
Once I finish The Secret Adversary it will only be the 2nd Agatha Christie I’ve actually ‘read’ in the traditional sense, the other being And Then There Were None. I’ve listened to audio versions of so many of these and the narrators are consistently excellent that I have a hard time picking up the books to read for myself. Which is fine. I consider both “reading”. This will also be my second Doyle novel read, period. Unless I read some early on in my childhood that I just don’t remember reading.
That is a lovely stack of books. I am glad you are reading the Nero Wolfe, I hope you find things to like about it. Thanks for the mention.
I had just about decided to skip a 20 books of Summer list after joining in on the Venture Forth summer reading, but maybe I will go ahead and do it. No reason not to combine the two.
I have a copy of Nevermore by Gaiman to read … borrowed from my son. I want to read the Murderbot series by Martha Wells.
I’ve always been about combining reading events, when I participated and also when I hosted.
I was counting the other day and I think I have 6 different versions of Neverwhere: The original hardback, the original hardback of the Author’s Preferred Edition, a collectible edition from a small press whose name I cannot currently remember, a paperback version when Robert McGinnis did covers for some of Gaiman’s novels, and the audio version, plus this one with Chris Ridell’s illustrations.
I think you would enjoy Murderbot. Some really good humor and good action, and not so full of sci-fi speak that you have to wonder just what is actually going on.
That’s some reading list, its got everything in it 🙂
Hope you enjoy Sixteenth Watch as much as I did, and I’ve just finished Network Effect and loved it.
I’ve given up on creating lists of what I want to read.. actually that’s not true. I still make lists they are just waaay more wibbly in that I know I won’t stick to them and pick up books at random. Still, the making of the lists is fun and I enjoy reading other people lists too, there so much good stuff out there and this is a great way to find even more to read.
I generally don’t either, though this one felt very different in that they were mostly books that have been on my mind a lot lately and it was good fun just to go gather them up from their various living spaces to get them all together for a group photo. I have no hopes that I’ll actually stick to reading these for the summer, because I am such a whim reader, but we will see. Glad to hear Network Effect lived up to your expectations.
That is quite the reading stack. I do think it is a good idea to combine the two challenges.
I am so torn over reading the Morgenstern. I loved, loved, loved The Night Circus but I haven’t heard anyone say that they have loved this one! I think there are different reactions depending on whether you have read The Night Circus or not.
I’ve seen some really nice praise for The Starless Sea, so I’m less worried about it in that sense. It does tend to be a risky proposition as an author when you have such a huge success and you wait so long to put out your next book. The anticipation just keeps building and building and building. I think people felt that way about Diane Setterfield and Elizabeth Kostova and I imagine Susanna Clarke’s new book due out in September will suffer some disappointed fans because of how amazing her reception was for Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. It is hard to judge the merits of a book by itself when there is such a prominent previous book to compare it to. We probably should not compare, but that is much easier said than done.
Like Marg, I am torn about The Starless Sea. The Night Circus was such an amazing book (I listened to the audio and can still picture so many scenes), but I’ve read mixed reviews about this new one. I don’t think I’ll try it on audio, since it sounds fairly complex, but I will get to it eventually. Now to put together my summer stack.
I’m still blogging (going on 15 years), but not visiting nearly as many blogs as I’d like. I happened upon your comment on Iliana’s blog and recognized your name from the R.I.P. challenges. Hope you are well.
I am well, thank you. I miss the old blogging days and hosting RIP and Once Upon a Time, but understand that things change, life gets busy, etc.
Isn’t the audio for The Night Circus amazing? Jim Dale is an incredible narrator. I could listen to him read anything.
I’m glad you are still blogging. Am I remembering wrong, or…you weren’t always in Oregon, correct?
Yes, Jim Dale is a fabulous narrator. If I didn’t have so many other audiobooks to listen to, I’d love to revisit The Night Circus. One of these days…
You have a good memory, Carl! My blog name changed from Prairie Horizons to Coastal Horizons a few years ago. We lived in Nebraska (Lincoln) for over 20 years and moved out to the Oregon coast in 2017. My husband retired from the publishing biz (I guess you could say I retired, too, from Barnes & Noble) and we decided to move here to be with my now 87-year-old mother. It’s been great to be able to be here and help her out, especially during this pandemic.
That is what I thought. I kept thinking I thought it was Les in Neb or NE or something similar. That stuck with me, being a Nebraska native myself (Norfolk). I haven’t lived there for over 30 years now, but that is where I was raised. I bet your husband’s mother is thrilled to have you guys there, and I would imagine living in Oregon in retirement is very nice indeed.
One of the many reasons I love the Pushing Daisies tv series so much is Jim Dale’s excellent narration.
Yep, it was Les in NE. 🙂 And I remember that you are a NE native. We must’ve talked about that at some point. And you’re in the K.C. area? Yes, my mom is thrilled to have us living with her, as are we. We get to make sure she is eating well and has companionship, but we also enjoy living within a hundred yards of the ocean!
I’ve never seen Pushing Daisies, but will look into it now that I know about JD’s narration. Thanks, Carl!
It is a quirky, fun show, that got cancelled too early, but at least it had something of an ending. Not perfect, but not just dropped on a big cliffhanger.
Yes, we are in Blue Springs, a part of Greater Kansas City, Missouri.
It would be wonderful living that close to the ocean.
HI Carl,
I reviewed Myke Cole’s Sixteenth Watch for UK SF magazine Interzone (Issue 286, Mar-Apr 2020.) It’ll be interesting to see what you make of it.
I can’t remember if I ever read Heinlein’s The Door into Summer.
I did read Niven’s A World Out of Time many years ago but I’m afraid I have too many books on my tbr pile to do re-reads.
The Hound of the Baskervilles and From Russia with Love I read about two years ago as part of my project of reading through a list of the 100 Best Scottish books. Both were not really my cup of tea.
Thanks for popping in to share. I will check out your review once I read the book, assuming I can find it online of course. I’m glad there are still magazines like Interzone out there, promoting science fiction. I’ll forever have too many books to read, but I’ve always been the kind of person to reread books I enjoy. From Russia with Love is my favorite of the Bond books of those I’ve read thus far, reading them in print order. I think the novelty of having a book about a main character where that character isn’t involve until halfway through probably added to my interest in it. Not something I’ve seen done often. I have some vague idea I might have read Hound of the Baskervilles as a kid, or at least started reading it, but I remember absolutely nothing about it. Heck, I only vaguely remember the Sherlock episode that covered the story, LOL.
Carl, that is a seriously impressive stack of books! I am also taking part but at the lower level of 10 books. Happy summer reading! 😎
I will be surprised if I get 20 books read over the months of the challenge, let alone these specific twenty, but thus far I’m doing a good job of resisting the siren call of books that are not on this stack. I’m doing my habit of reading several books at once, but only from this stack, and it seems to be keeping the book wandering beast at bay. 🙂
Carl,
I think Interzone is print only, not online. I do post my Interzone reviews on my blog (but to be fair to the magazine’s circulation I leave it till about a year or so after publication there.)
Look out for it next year!
I’ll have to see if our local BN still carries Interzone. If they do they probably still have that issue on the shelves. I know they used to, and they haven’t gotten any new magazines in since reopening last week as I’ve noticed other older issues are still on their shelves.
Fun list, Carl! Anne of the Island is one of my favorites from the series as well. The Secret Adversary is great fun, and Hound of the Baskervilles is my favorite of all the Holmes stories/novels. Enjoy!
Thanks, I hope to. Anne of the Island is my favorite too, probably closely followed by Rainbow Valley. I’ve reread that one many times.