2023 Summer Reading - Here We Go!
In my mid-year check-in post, I gave a sneak peek into my summer plans related to reading.
I’ve always been an avid reader; books were always an escape and growing up in small-town western Kansas, the library was another home. In elementary school, it was the American Girls Series (which, started with only three for me). Grade school I would put as historical fiction, Agatha Christie, and (I don’t know how I did it) R.L. Stine. My high school reading shifted to fantasy and science fiction thanks to my best friend Betony (go check out her art) and science teacher, Mr. Dold. Today, I read mainly the fantasy and what I think is now called “magical realism”. But, if the blurb sounds good, I’ll pick up a fiction or mystery. I’m trying to read more non-fiction, which comes and goes in waves. However, at the time I’m writing this, I’ve read two non-fiction books in 2023 and that’s more than double for my usual year.
As I began to make my color palettes inspired by book covers, I was slowly getting sucked back into the world of reading. I was finding so man great titles I’ve purchased through the years (I can’t go into a bookstore and NOT buy a book) and found myself wanting to dig in. Also, as I would write the blogs, many I hadn’t read and therefore, couldn’t give a recommendation other than the blurb and the cover are great read it. And I didn’t like that. Maybe that’s the auditor coming out in me.
Last week, I was watching my favorite Booktuber, Jen Campbell, and she mentioned setting a “loose” TBR (to-be-read) list of some of the books from her shelves. She’d read what she could during a period of time and see if she could find a new favorite author. I thought - that’s a great idea! So, I used her idea as a baseline to pick some books and set a Summer TBR challenge with books I own and haven’t read.
Side Note - Jen is an author from England. I love her recommendations because of the range of books she reads and reviews. She review poetry collections, fiction, mystery, foreign authors, what I’ll call “weird” (for lack of a better way to describe it), LGBTQ+, fairy tale, and disability representation. She covers the gamut and I have many a book on my StoryGraph TBR that are books and collections she’s reviewed. I highly recommend you check out her channel.
So, I picked an initial set of books and with John’s help, got the list down to ten. Here they are!
My Summer 2023 TBR List consists of (links will take you to their StoryGraph overview):
Ice - Anna Kavan
The Blood-Dimmed Tide - Rennie Airth
The Female Brain - Louann Brizendine, MD
The Vacationers - Emma Straub
What Moves the Dead - T. Kingfisher
The Little Shop of Found Things - Paula Brackston
The Essex Serpent - Sarah Perry
The London Seance Society - Sarah Penner
The Paris Winter - Imogen Robertson
The Night Tiger - Yangsze Choo
I started off with “The Female Brain” and it’s complete - be on the look out for a review, color palette, and maybe a little something extra soon! I’m on the “The Essex Serpent” and honestly can not wait to get this into a color palette for you all. The color combinations on the cover will make a gorgeous quilt. I’ve been re-inspired to bring the color palettes back to you all. I just need to read a few books ahead to make sure I can consistently bring them to you. And, this is where my routine change comes into place and I’m reading every night before bed.
I set my challenge to read as many of these as I can from May 29th, Memorial Day, through September 4th, Labor Day. Would you like to read along? If you would, I created a public challenge on StoryGraph and you can find that here. Also, on this challenge, I put some prompts so that if what I’m reading doesn’t look like your cup of tea, you can replace it with a book you’d prefer to read. I’d love to see what you’re reading and how many books you can read over the summer. I also encourage you to use your local library to check out any books that you want to try, but not necessarily purchase. Our local libraries are great resources and we (even me) need to use them more!
I hope to bring you more of these challenges in the future so we can all stay motivated together.
Do you have any other summer reading goals? Let me know what those are in the comments!
