10 Books of Summer 2021 is over! I thought I’d made it easy on myself by choosing 10 instead of 20 books, but I still ended up rushing to the finish line. I read much less than usual during July because I got a new puppy, and although August partly made up for it, this didn’t help with my reading challenge. I was also distracted by books that weren’t on this list.
The ten books I chose this year also had fewer standouts than previous sets of twenty I’ve picked. I guess there were fewer chances to read something really amazing? Anyway, I didn’t read anything this time that will be in contention for my book of the year. The ten reads stacked up as follows [links to my reviews]:
The good books that I’d strongly recommend, even though they didn’t completely blow me away: The Startup Wife; The Women of Troy; Easy Meat; Milk Fed. (I feel especially warmly towards The Startup Wife, despite the issues I had with it, as it was the first ‘real’ book I managed to read after puppy madness commenced).
The books I enjoyed but about which I had reservations, ranging from more to less serious: How The One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House; The Sleeping Beauties; Holding Her Breath.
The outright disappointments: The Wild Laughter; Unsettled Ground; True Story.
Will I do 10/20 Books of Summer again next year? I still fancy doing it as a re-reading challenge, so hopefully next year I’ll focus on re-reading any 10 or 20 books from my shelves – depending on how I’m feeling!
Did you do the Books of Summer challenge this year? How did it go?
PS a gratuitous picture of the puppy (right) chewing on a cardboard tube with my mum’s sprocker puppy! she is a lot bigger now so I need to take more up-to-date photos!
Laura Tisdall 
Maddy is so cute! And she’s already grown so much since the last pictures you shared.
A summer rereading challenge, now that would be a good way to get myself to actually reread some books! I have a huge shelf full of books I want to reread, but I never seem to make a dent in it…
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The picture on this post is still about a month old – she’s even bigger now!
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I just saw my friend’s puppy again today and she’s huge compared to last time (she is a golden retriever so …). And well done on your 10, especially in the circs! I think I only got my 20 done because I swapped out two non-fiction books for a memoir and a novel!
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They grow so quickly!
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Another addition to my TBR, thank you so much.
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