#20BooksOfSummer Challenge From Sunday June 1st to Sunday August 31st

20 Books of Summer is back! With new hosts

Last Year Cathy of 746 Books announced that she would not host 20 Books of Summer this year after ten successful years of helping readers like me to conquer their huge TBR piles.

As I didn't take part in this challenge last year I missed this post, but when searching for it recently, I found two bloggers have generously donated their time to run this event, AnnaBookBel and Emma of Words and Peace.

I've had a quick look at my physical bookcase and immediately see 14 unread books. There are now 778 unread e-books and 5 audiobooks. I really do need to stop adding books and tackle reading those I have already!

To get started, I have chosen to read 20 books.

Ambitious? Definitely! However, for my goals this year I am trying to read 10 short stories so that should help me to achieve a good half of this figure. And remember, the challenge is fluid, so I can always opt to read fewer or shorter books and still finish the challenge feeling like a winner!

If you want to join me, sign up here.

The rules are simple:

• The #20BooksofSummer2025 challenge runs from Sunday June 1st to Sunday August 31st
• The first rule of 20 Books is that there are no real rules, other than signing up for 10, 15 or 20 books and trying to read from your TBR.
• Pick your list in advance, or nominate a bookcase to read from, or pick at whim from your TBR.
• If you do pick a list, you can change it at any time – swap books in/out.
• Don’t get panicked at not reaching your target.
• Just enjoy a summer of great reading and make a bit of space on your shelves!

So now to pick my reads:

Book No.	Title	Author
1	The Girl from Normandy	Rachel Sweasey
2	Brighter Days for the Cornish Girls	Betty Walker
3	One Click Away	Joanne Ryan
4	Girl in the Castle: Henriette's Highland Hideaway	Lizzie Lamb
5	Secret Psychic Stories Volume 1	Margaret Solis
6	Welcome to New York	Luana Ferraz
7	How to Begin Again	Cindy Ray Hale
8	Girl At Christmas	Rhoda Baxter
9	Witching Again!	Stephanie Dagg
10	The Unmumsy Mums	Sarah, The Unmumsy Mum
11	Three Men and a Maybe	Katey Lovell
12	Raining Men and Corpses: A Raina Sun Mystery	Anne R Tan
13	The Proposal	Lily Zante
14	Perfect Christmas	Elizabeth Grey
15	Close Your Eyes and Count to Three	Mark Hysom
16	Pat's Pantry	Rhoda Baxter
17	Time To Move On	Ian Wilfred
18	Cold Grave	Jenny O'Brien
19	A Brahminy Sunrise	Maggie Christensen
20	Mrs Claus Saves Christmas	Mona Marple

I've set up a Goodreads Bookshelf and will begin with The Girl from Normandy as that's for a blog tour in June and then work through some of the shorter stories to bolster my sense of achievement. Nobody said I have to read War and Peace for the challenge and I'm just hoping to reduce my unread bookshelf a tad. The trouble is that I add more books than I actually have time to read!