Looking for a Book to Read?

Here’s my reading list for the first half of 2020.  I’m a month late posting it, yes, but there’s still time for you to find a title or two for reading at the beach (or, my preference, some shady nook indoors or under a big old tree).  . . Let me know if you read any of these.

January
1. Elif Shafak, 10 Minutes, 38 Seconds in This Strange World
2. Bernardine Evaristo. Girl, Woman, Other 

I posted about those two titles here
3. Oyinkan Braithwaite. My Sister the Serial Killer

4. Melissa Harrison, Clay
5. Kate Hamer, The Doll Funeral

Post about 3, 4, and 5 here

6. Tessa Hadley, Late in the Day
7. Val McDermid, How the Dead Speak 

My post about 6 and 7

8. Flynn Berry, A Double Life

February
9. Pico Iyer, The Lady and the Monk
10. Pico Iyer, Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewells

Posted here about 8, 9, and 10

11. Lee Child, Blue Moon
12. Kathleen Jamie, Surfacing
13. Ann Patchett, The Dutch House
14. Katherine Gilbert Murdock, The Book of Boy
15. Marlena de Blasi, That Summer in Sicily
16. Felicity Cloake, One More Croissant for the Road

My notes about titles 11-16 here
March
17. Mick Herron, Spook Street
18. Jesmyn Ward, Sing, Unburied, Sing
19. Ann Patchett, The Patron Saint of Liars
20. Jean-Christophe Rufin, Le Collier Rouge
21. Mark Lamprell, One Summer Day in Rome
22. Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones
23. Ali Smith, Spring

All my March reading was gathered into this post

April
24. Cara Hunter, Close to Home
25. Mick Herron, London Rules
26. Jesmyn Ward, Men We Reaped
27. Siri Hustvedt, What I Loved
28. Ibram X Kendi, How to Be an AntiRacist
29. Elif Shafak, The Bastard of Istanbul

More about my April reading in this post

May post here for books 30-34
30. Donna Leon, The Waters of Eternal Youth
31. Shin, Kyung-Sook, Please Look After Mom, (trans. Chi-Young Kim)
32. Shari Lapena. The Couple Next Door
33. Cherie Dimaline, The Marrow Thieves
34. Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Fleishman Is in Trouble

June post for 35-39
35. Hilary Mantel, The Mirror and the Light
36. Emma Healey, Whistle in the Dark
37. Donna Leon, Earthly Remains
38. Cherie Dimaline, Empire of Wild
39. Hélène Cixous, 1938, nuits

3 Comments

  1. Maria
    31 July 2020 / 8:39 pm

    Your reading is extensive and impressive. And interestingly, there are no crossovers with mine. But I do love Ann Patchett and The Dutch House is on my list. Recently, I’ve enjoyed Tara Westover’s Educated, Anne Tennant’s Lady in Waiting and swimmer Libby Trickett’s Beneath the Surface. I guess I’m having a memoir moment! Perhaps it’s a way to be closer to others in these socially distanced times.

  2. Anonymous
    31 July 2020 / 9:12 pm

    Great list-I've read 12 of them, so far, so still a lot of choices.. I'll have to try Mick Herron's book (after all the books I've prepared for the summer, this or next year 🙂 )
    Maria: I loved Educated and Lady in Waiting as well
    Dottoressa

  3. materfamilias
    3 August 2020 / 12:26 am

    Maria: I've been meaning to read Educated for ages. And I'm interested to see another swimming memoir — would be interesting to compare a few by female swimmers published in the last few years: Jessica J Lee's Turning; Leanne Shapton's Swimming Studies. . . and then an anthology that I have requested from our library, At the Pond: Swimming at the Hampstead Ladies' Pond. . . Have you read any of these?
    Dottoressa: I'm not surprised you have crossovers with both Maria and me. You are astonishingly well-read for someone reading in a second language (of your four or five!)

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