10 Books of Summer, 2021

I’m having a go at Cathy’s (746 Books) 20 Books of Summer challenge for the fifth year running! However, this time I’m making it a 10 Books of Summer challenge instead. I feel like I’ve had a lot of booklists to get through recently, and I wanted to leave some space for more free reading – so this is a way of clearing my current TBR, which is composed of the two Women’s Prize shortlisted titles I haven’t yet read, my NetGalley ARCs for June, and some proofs that Rebecca of Bookish Beck kindly sent on to me.

So, here’s a quick summary of my ten books:

• Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller – shortlisted for the Women’s Prize – hope to get from library.
• How The One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones – shortlisted for the Women’s Prize – hope to get from library.
• The Wild Laughter by Caoilinn Hughes – on my 2021 TBR – Rebecca’s proof copy.
• The Sleeping Beauties by Suzanne O’Sullivan – as regular readers of this blog will know, I love non-fiction on medical themes, and after reading O’Sullivan’s article in the Guardian, I knew I wanted to read this exploration of psychosomatic illness. Rebecca’s proof copy.
• Milk Fed by Melissa Broder – Broder’s debut, The Pisces, was a surprise hit for me, because the blurb made it sound like it would be about all sorts of things I normally hate in fiction. The same is true for Milk Fed, so let’s see if she can do it again! Rebecca’s proof copy.

• True Story by Kate Reed Perry. I have to admit I hadn’t heard of this before Rebecca offered me her proof, but I’m intrigued by the idea of a genre-hopping narrative that integrates a range of documents. (The cover is very weird – it’s a bit clever for its own good. I’d have preferred it just to have the ’80s horror novel’ cover, which I think is brilliant).
• Animal by Lisa Taddeo. This has had SO much hype that it needs no introduction. I loved Three Women and I’m keen to see where Taddeo will go with her fiction debut. NetGalley ARC.
• Easy Meat by Rachel Trezise. I’ve had a run of weird luck with novels about the meat industry/slaughterhouses (both Ruth Ozeki’s My Year of Meats and Ruth Gilligan’s The Butchers were in my top ten books of 2020) so I had to see if I’d like this one as well. NetGalley ARC.
• The Startup Wife by Tahmima Anam. I liked the sound of this one when I requested it, but now I’ve read more reviews, I fear it might be yet another sub-Black Mirror story about how Tech Is Bad. NetGalley ARC.
• Holding Her Breath by Eimear Ryan. I don’t normally pick out coming of age stories, but I liked the fact that the university-age protagonist has a past as a competitive swimmer, and the cover is gorgeous. NetGalley ARC.

Are you taking part in the Books of Summer challenge this year? Have you read, or do you want to read, any of my picks?