Saturday 2 July 2016

The 20 Books of Summer Challenge..





#20booksofsummer


Cathy at Cathy 746 has a yearly challenge to read twenty books over the summer months starting on 1 June 2016 and running until 5 September 2016, and this year, I’ve decided to join her.

I'm always up for a bookish sort of challenge and as I need to clear some space on my book shelves I thought that this was a good challenge to get involved in. I'm not sure that I'll achieve the 20 books challenge but it's worth a try and in order to keep me motivated I'll be joining in with the rest on Twitter using the hashtag #20booksofsummer.






AstrayAstray by Emma Donoghue



I'm not usually an active reader of short stories but, occasionally, when I feel in the need for something lighter and less intrusive, I do enjoy dipping into well written short stories which bring something a little different to the table. Astray has been on my book shelf since it was first published and initially, I started to read the stories one by one, but then, as always, with so many other books to read, I read a couple of stories and then put the book back on the shelf, and promptly forgot about it.

Reacquainting myself with the book for my 20 Reads of Summer challenge has been like entering into a wonderful literary world. Fourteen cleverly adapted true stories, each with a little bit of a fictional edge, and which collectively take you on a journey through time, from Victorian London to Cape Cod. All give a fascinating insight into human frailty and intrepid enterprise.

I enjoyed some stories more than others, but what I found most fascinating was how all the stories, although not inter-related in any way, all blend seamlessly together to form a cohesive whole.



Books read in my 20 Reads of Summer Challenge

Origins of Love by Kishwar Desai
The Emperor of Paris by  C S Richardson
On Rue Tatin by Susan Loomis
The Glovemaker by Stacia Brown
Astray by Emma Donoghue





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2 comments:

  1. Sounds great! I always prefer a short story collection when the stories kind of tie together in some way.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well worth a read, if only to dip in and out of at whim !

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