20 Books of Summer 2026

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 If there's anybody left reading my blog, we all know that I've been in a major reading slump since the beginning of 2024 and I'm not having a lot of success clawing my way out.  I'm happy to say that I have made some progress recently, even though my reading didn't get as far as posting.  Besides my usual diet of fluffy mystery and childhood favorites re-reads, I whipped through Project Hail Mary (a re-read) after seeing the movie, and I recently finished the very depressing Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics, by Elle Reeve.  I read the first part of the Once and Future King, enjoyed it so much, and have yet to pick it back up for the rest of the story.  (I've read it before, of course, and wanted to go back to it for its themes of 'Might Makes Right' vs. civilization, a very timely topic.)  And I'm currently reading Susan Wise Bauer's history of disease and its effects on society, The Great Shadow, and it's fantastic (though I do have one bone to pick about it). 

ANYWAY, I've decided to get back on my horse by joining up with 20 Books of Summer, yay!  My TBR has grown even has my reading has slowed down, and by now I've got a problem.  

Here we have 20 titles plus a couple alternates.  I've decided to go for quite a few easier (or at least shorter) reads so as to get through as much as possible!

  1.  Castle Dor, by Arthur Quiller-Couch and Daphne du Maurier
  2. Going to the Wars, by John Verney
  3. Walking the Bones of Britain, by Christopher Somerville
  4. The Curse of the Montrolfs, by Ronan O'Grady
  5.  Germany Jekyll and Hyde, by Sebastian Haffner
  6. The Elements of Typographic Style, by Robert Bringhurst
  7.  Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
  8. Knock Three Times! by Marion St. John Webb
  9. The Otterbury Incident, by C.Day Lewis 
  10. The Millicent Quibb School....by Kate McKinnon
  11. Kraken, by China Mieville
  12. When They Severed Earth From Sky, by Elizabeth Wayland Barber 
  13. On Power and the Powerless, by Vaclav Havel
  14. On Lying and Politics, by Hannah Arendt
  15. Bushman Lives! by Daniel Pinkwater
  16. Early Riser, by Jasper Fforde
  17. The Road to Roswell, by Connie Willis
  18. Wordhoard (Anglo-Saxon works), ed. by Jill Paton Walsh 
  19. Walking the Bowl, by Chris Lockhart
  20. Sunken Lands, by Gareth Rees
  21. Beau Geste, by P C Wren
  22. Parables of Kierkegaard

 So there we have it; a random selection of my TBR pile!  Which doesn't even count the library books and the Spin title and....well, we shall see.

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