It’s my fifth year participating in Cathy’s 20 Books of Summer challenge, which starts tomorrow. Each year I choose a theme. Thus far I’ve done books by women; animals; food and drink; and colours. This year will be all about flora; mostly trees, I reckon. As always, I’ll interpret the theme loosely and include titles, authors and covers that seem apt for whatever reason.
I have lots to choose from. Here’s the stacks from my shelves, divided into fiction and non-:
And a relevant recent haul from the library:
There will be other options on my Kindle too, such as Orwell’s Roses by Rebecca Solnit.
I’m eyeing these up as my first four:
(Nina Mingya Powles also kicked off my 2020 foodie reading!)
Are you joining in the summer reading challenge? What’s the first book on the docket?
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
I love how you’ve themed your choices Rebecca! THanks again for joining in.
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I’m definitely going to try! I’ll be doing my own themed summer reading which I’m hoping to count for 20 BoS. This looks like an excellent theme for you!
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Love it. I reckon you could just do a tree theme if you wanted 🙂 Will be interested to hear your thoughts on Yanagihara’s debut.
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I’m leaning towards a lot of the tree books, but I reckon I’ll be tempted by some flower ones too. The People in the Trees would be a reread for me — I read it (and reviewed it for the defunct web magazine We Love This Book) when it was first released. I hope I’ll appreciate it more the second time around. I meant to comment on your summer rereading plans before we went on holiday but lost track of time — that plus Night Waking by Sarah Moss (during our trip to the Outer Hebrides later this month) are my planned rereads for the summer. I also fancy rereading Girl with a Pearl Earring soon.
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I’ve actually re-read both Night Waking and Girl with a Pearl Earring, and both held up well 🙂
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Glad to hear it!
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Ooh I love your theme!! Some lovely looking books amongst this little lot! Good Luck!! Let’s hope we’re all successful haha!
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I’m always impressed by your themes (and capacity to stick to them!).
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Great theme. I do hope you tackle Orwell’s Roses, Solnit is a favourite of mine, so I’d like to read your review. I haven’t read the book, but its on my Wish List.
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I’m fascinated to see how she got a whole book out of what seems like such a niche topic! I plan to read a novel about Orwell in parallel.
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Completing LOTR is my first goal for the challenge, the rest (I’ve scheduled my list to be posted tomorrow) will be in the order of whatever takes my fancy… I like your thematic approach, though!
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I enjoyed the Warner and the Keyes, by the way, each for very different reasons – I’m only surprised that you haven’t already read them. Or perhaps these are rereads?
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Nope, I’ve never read either author!
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What a great summer reading theme!
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I love your theme and i hope you read some lovely books. I really like to theme my reading too but only manage one month or so of the year.
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You and your themes… Love ’em! I have 1.5 books to get out of the way for imminent blog tours first, so I’m yet to decide on my first book of summer – but it’ll be suitably short to get me going.
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Hi Rebecca,
we found best “The Plant Hunter” by Mogford of all books we read about plants this year (it’s about finding a Chinese tree).
All the best
The Fab Four of Cley
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
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I think my library has a copy of that! I’ll seek it out on Saturday.
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Hi Rebecca
I supposed it was published in February or March this year. But I am not sure, I got a pre-copy from the publisher.
I like that it is like an adventure story in the old style.
Greetings from the sunny sea where now everything is geared up for the Queens jubelee.
All the best
The Fab Four of Cley
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
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Alas, I had a different book in mind — but I can picture where it is in the biography section, and I know it is about plant hunters, so I will find it and consider it.
Tomorrow is our neighbourhood street party!
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Your stack looks about the same size as mine! I don’t know why I’ve never participated in this challenge. Possibly because I am about six months behind in my reviews of what I have read. But I suppose I could cheat and show pictures of the books I’ve already read and plan to review this summer. Maybe that wouldn’t be the point of the challenge, though.
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If you’re like me, you’ll find you actually read many more than 20 in a summer! But part of the fun is curating a list.
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Yes, that’s true. Is it the number of books you read or the number you review? That’s what I’m struggling with, since I am so behind on my reviews.
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Cathy is very lax about the rules for this challenge 🙂 Ideally you’d review them all, but that can be in just a few sentences if your time doesn’t allow anything longer. And some people choose to do 10 or 15 Books of Summer instead.
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Four Fields is just excellent. Really liked the Ash Tree too. Good luck!
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I’m excited to read both of those. Every Little Toller book I’ve read has impressed me, and this is my only unread book by Tim Dee.
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What a fun theme. My first book for the challenge is Bittersweet by Susan Cain. So far, so good. Human Croquet was very good! Lolly Willowes is on my TBR list and shelf at home.
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I read the first chapter and a bit of Bittersweet before our move. I ned to get back into it soon.
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What a fabulous idea. I’m astonished by how many books you’ve identified that would fit the theme. I’ve sort of gone for a theme too though mine is very loose – I’ve chosen books that would enable me to do a round the world trip
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That’s appropriate for summer travels! With more library loans to come, I have lots to choose from — a good thing because it’s not uncommon for me to lose interest in reading certain books and want alternatives.
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It’s an odd thing about making reading lists – my interest wanes once the book is on the list and other non listed books immediately seem more appealing
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I know what you mean! I have to have plenty of options so I can find one to suit my mood; even then I’ll probably pick up some impulsively at the library and read them instead of others I’d planned to.
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Nice theme! I’ve read A Parrot in the Pepper Tree, A Few Green Leaves, Lolly Willowes and Flowers for Algernon out of those. Have fun! My first one is A Wood of One’s Own!
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You’re going along with my theme to start with, then 😉 I read most of A Parrot in the Pepper Tree while in Spain. I’d not heard of that Pym before I saw it in a charity shop the other month.
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[…] are my first three selections for my flora-themed summer reading. I hope to get through more of my own books, as opposed to library books and review copies, as the […]
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