Twenty Books of Summer 2025
Every year I tell myself I'm not doing this again, as I inevitably set myself up to fail - but I do so enjoy choosing the books and making the plans. I read almost nothing in August, owing to reviewing commitments in the Edinburgh festivals, so most of my 20 books have to be read by the end of July. Also, in the past I've always included several weighty tomes, on the basis that this is one way to get them read; predictably, this has got me through things like Angela Bourke's biography of Maeve Brennan and Ian Stephen's wonderful A Book of Death and Fish , but has left me struggling (ineffectively) to get anywhere near finishing my list. So for 2025 I've decided to cut myself quite a lot of slack, and only choose predominantly easy reads, a couple of books I need to review for publishers, and some that will also work for two of my favourite challenges, Reading the Meow (run by Malika: https://potpourri2015.wordpress.com/2025/04/29/announcing-readingthemeow2025/) a...
