My social media feeds are full of people choosing their “20 books of summer”. That has always felt far too ambitious to me. I go with six.
The rules: I start reading on the first day of meteorological summer (June 1st) and finish by August Bank Holiday Monday (August 26th this year), as those two dates bracket “my” summer. Each author’s surname starts with one of the letters of SUMMER, so there are two Ms.
Here are this year’s books:
S is for Storr: Marianne Dreams
I sometimes like to read children’s books that I didn’t read when I was a child. This is one of those books. It’s pretty substantial for a children’s book, at 320 pages, and seems to be the sort of creepy book that adults think will be good bedtime reading.
U is for Unsworth: Morality Play
I needed a U. This is a historical crime novel whose detectives are a group of travelling players and a disenchanted priest. It was shortlisted for the then Man Booker, and looks to be the sort of book I’d enjoy.
M is for MacDonald (accompanied by Blaché): Prophet
Present day Science Fiction. Hopefully without aliens, but if some do turn up, I’ll try to be graceful about it. This has been on my “to read” pile for ages, so it’s about time I read it.
M is for Mauvignier: The Birthday Party
Contemporary literary thriller, translated from French . A family is taken hostage just before their party guests arrive. Can’t wait to read this one.
E is for Evans: Over My Dead Body
Dr Miriam Price has been murdered. And she’s absolutely furious about it. This is billed as a comic mystery novel. It seems that the ghostly Miriam doesn’t know who killed her. I have a high comedy threshold, so I don’t expect this to be laugh-out-loud funny, but I am hoping for a bit of light amusement.
R is for Russ: The Female Man
Classic 1970s Science Fiction. I haven’t read this before, and expect that some of the ideas in it will be “of their time”. We’ll see.
musings 