20 Books of Summer – 2026

The 20 Books of Summer is a reading challenge meant to identify books you've been putting off (in a good way) or to make a dent in your TBR pile. Participants make a pledge to read and review a list of 10, 15, or 20 books during the summer months (typically June 1st through August 31st). 

It was created by Cathy of 746 Books, and is now hosted by Annabel of AnnaBookBel. Here are my 20 books, plus an extra:

Iris in Winter by Elizabeth Cadell (1949)

A Place Beyond Courage by Elizabeth Chadwick (2007) - also for The Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.  My review.

The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier (2013) - also for The Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

Grimbold’s Other World by Nicholas Stuart Gray (1963) - also for Reading the Meow

Bird’s Eye View by Elinor Florence (2014) - also for The Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

The Clairvoyant Countess by Dorothy Gilman (1975) - also for The Cloak and Dagger Challenge

The Glass Sentence by S.E. Grove (2014) - also for The Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

The Foundling by Stacey Halls (2020) - also for The Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

Someday I’ll Find You by C.C. Humphreys (2023) - also for The Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

Gale Force by Owen Laukkanen (2018) - also for The Cloak and Dagger Challenge

It’s a Great World by Emilie Loring (1935)

The Double Image by Helen MacInnes (1965) – also for The Cloak and Dagger Challenge and Paris in July

Sabriel by Garth Nix (1995) - also for Reading the Meow

The Whirling Shapes by Joan North (1967)

The Haunted Lady by Mary Roberts Rinehart (1942) - also for The Cloak and Dagger Challenge

A Far-flung Life by M.L. Stedman (2026) - also for The Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

A Murder in Marylebone by Emily Sullivan (2026) - also for The Cloak and Dagger Challenge

As It Was (1926) & World Without End (1931) by Helen Thomas

Stateless by Elizabeth Wein (2023) - also for The Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

A Deceptive Devotion by Iona Whishah (2019) - also for The Cloak and Dagger Challenge and the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

Have you read any of these?

Off the Blog: I spent most of the weekend at the DCU Center in Worcester as a delegate at the Massachusetts Democratic Convention. The only race in dispute was Ed Markey being challenged for his U.S. senate seat by Congressman Seth Moulton. Here is Senator Markey addressing the 4,000+ delegates. "Don't agonize, organize!" seems a suitable theme.