#20booksofsummer

No 627 The Bottle Factory Outing by Beryl Bainbridge

Inspired by Beryl Bainbridge Reading Week, I added The Bottle Factory Outing to my list of summer reads. I’ve never read Bainbridge before and had no idea what to expect, but was very pleasantly surprised. The Bottle Factory Outing opens in the 1970s with flat mates Brenda and Freda watching the funeral of an…

No 628 The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson

What a fantastic collection of stories to kick off my 20 Books of Summer Challenge! Often considered one of the most terrifying stories of the twentieth century, Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery created a sensation when it was first published in 1948. The New Yorker received a record number of complaints about the story ranging from…

20 Books of Summer is back! Who’s in?

Oh I’m a glutton for punishment…. The temperature is rising (slightly), the kids will be getting out of school soon and I’ve done my Great Wardrobe Changeover (I’m not the only one who does that, am I?) so it must be nearly summer time, which means another attempt at completing my 20 Books of Summer…

Playing Catch Up….

My 20 Books of Summer challenge may look like a complete disaster at the moment, but things are not quite as bad as they seem. My reading is going well, it’s just the reviewing that I don’t seem to have the time for! We are just back from a rainy week in the West of…

No 675 The Vanishing Act by Mette Jakobsen

Set on a remote island, not found on any map, sometime after ‘the war’, The Vanishing Act explores the lives of the island’s few residents through the eyes of Minou, a twelve year old girl, who is waiting patiently for her mother to return a year after her mysterious disappearance. On the anniversary of her…

20 Books of Summer!

1 summer. 96 days. 20 books. 4.8 days per book. Can I do it? From now until 4 September I will be attempting to read my 20 Books of Summer. Why not join in with your own 20, read along with some of the books or just cheer me on as I try and get…