As before, Emma has created a questionnaire for us to help share our experience of this summer challenge. You can find the link HERE. The August linky oost will stay open for another full week so you can add any late reviews. Find that HERE. Now for the questionnaire – here are my answers:
Month: August 2025
Review catch-up including no. 20 of my #20BooksofSummer2025 & #WITMonth2025: Roig, Vassell & Armitage
Some shorter reviews to help reduce the height of the pile of books I’ve read but haven’t written up yet. First my latest read for WITMonth which is also my 20th of my 20 Books of Summer. Challenge done! The Time of Cherries by Montserrat Roig, translated by Julia Sanches The Time of Cherries was Read More
Critical Reading Class
Something I’ve wanted to do for ages is an evening class in critical reading. The Oxford Uni Lifelong Learning course ‘Contemporary Critish Fiction’ sounds wonderful based on novels by McEwan, Mantel, Ishiguro and Zadie Smith, but at 10 hrs a week study over 10 weeks it’s more time than I can commit to while working Read More
Top Ten Tuesday on a Wednesday – Chunksters!
I’ve never done one of the ‘Top Ten Tuesday’ prompts hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl but having seen some blogger friends joining in this week, couldn’t resist – but I’m a day late. Last year, I had a bit of a rant about the time that chunksters take to read, which means that quantity of Read More
The Ascent of Rum Doodle by W.E.Bowman – #20BooksofSummer2025 no. 19
This novella was sheer joy to read! A rediscovered masterpiece, Rum Doodle is a comic novel satirising men, their work and obsessions on an expedition to the Himalaya, first published in 1956, written by an unassuming structural engineer from Guildford, so Bill Bryson tells us in his intro to this edition. It wasn’t a huge Read More
3 for #WITMonth2025 and #20BooksofSummer2025 nos 16-18
It’s now a tradition to read books by Women in Translation each August (see my earlier post about it here). I’ve read 4 this month already – 1 will be reviewed for Shiny New Books, the other three are reviewed below – 2 hits and 1 meh, in three different languages from three different indie Read More
Making It So by Patrick Stewart – #20BooksofSummer2025 no 15
Stewart’s memoir is my favourite kind of actors’ autobiography, combining lots of Shakespeare, building from one-liner parts to the title character, then film and TV success, with more theatre all the way through. Add to that an interesting working class Yorkshire childhood, and the fact that he’s a humble and lovely bloke, it was perfect. Read More
#20BooksofSummer2025 – Nos 11 & 14 – Newman and Barry
My internet is back, but it’s patchy, so I bought a wireless home hub to fill in the outages! I’ve now read 17/20 books of my 20 Books and have some reviewing catch-up to do. Here’s two more for you… Sandwich by Catherine Newman There was a time when my parents rented the same cottage Read More
20BooksofSummer2025 – July Questionnaire
As she did for our June reading, Emma has created another fun questionnaire. Do join in! Get the link here. Now here are my answers this month:
Lay Your Armour Down by Michael Farris Smith – blogtour (belatedly)
Argh – I would have posted this days ago, but I’ve had no internet – the idea of trying to do WP on my phone terrifies me. Sadly, there’s a major fault in the cabinet my wifi goes to – and the engineer couldn’t give me a time for when it would be fixed properly Read More
Women in Translation Month – #WITMonth2025
For many years now, August has been Women in Translation Month – #WITMonth, hosted by Meytal. I’m not sure whether she’s continuing to run it formally this year, but I along with many others I’m sure will continue to support the initiative informally. At the beginning of the month, I usually go back over my Read More
Six Degrees of Separation: The Safekeep
First Saturday of the month and time for the super monthly tag Six Degrees of Separation, which is hosted by Kate at Booksaremyfavouriteandbest, Six Degrees of Separation #6degrees picks a starting book for participants to go wherever it takes them in six more steps. Links to my reviews are in the titles of the books chosen. The starter Read More
#20BooksofSummer2025 – August (into Sept for late reviews)
June started the 2025 20 Books campaign off brilliantly and July continued the trend. Emma and I have been delighted with your wonderful response, and we hope you’ve enjoyed visiting some of the posts too. It was lovely to see so many linking in with #parisinjuly2025 too. August brings another chance to join in two tags at Read More
