I’ve been reading fewer advance copies for review, but instead I’ve been whipping through books for reading challenges…although still not writing any real reviews or working on any other writing.
Big Book Summer Reading Challenge Wrap-Up
For the Big Book Summer 2023 Challenge, I read seven from my original list of ten, plus two bonus books — all over 400 pages long. Five out of nine I listened to on audio.
From My BBS 2023 Challenge List
- Harrow the Ninth (audio) by Tamsyn Muir (512 pages)
- World Without End by Ken Follett (1264 pages)
- People We Meet on Vacation (audio) by Emily Henry (400 pages)
- Demon Copperhead (audio) by Barbara Kingsolver (560 pages)
- A Gathering of Shadows (audio) by V. E. Schwab (512 pages)
- Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante (400 pages)
- NW by Zadie Smith (416 pages)
BBS 2023 Challenge Bonus Books
- Mad Honey (audio) by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finley Boylan (464 pages)
- Summer on the Bluffs by Sunny Hostin (400 pages)
Currently Reading
The Past by Tessa Hadley
I really like The Past and don’t want to finish it. I’m going to need the author’s new short story collection, I guess!
Recently Read
Happy Place by Emily Henry
At 400 pages, Happy Place by Emily Henry would have counted towards Big Book Summer, but I didn’t start it until after Labor Day. I didn’t like this as much as the others I’ve read by this author, probably because there was nothing bookish about it. Instead of being writers or book editors, the protagonists were a resident brain surgeon and a furniture maker.
Recently Listened To
Yellowface by R. F. Kuang
White lies. Dark humor. Deadly consequences… Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says she is, she didn’t write the book she claims she wrote, and she is most certainly not Asian American—in this chilling and hilariously cutting novel from R.F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel. — from the Publisher
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, read by Helen Lang, has all the writers, editors, and publishing industry insiders that Happy Place was lacking, but there’s nothing remotely relaxing about this first-person story and its viciously funny takedown of cultural appropriation, token representation, and social media scandal-mongering. Great narration of the audiobook by Helen Lang!
Yellowface made me so tense, I had to take an audio break before launching into R.I.P. (Readers Imbibing Peril) listening for September/October!
This post is also linked up to It’s Monday, What Are You Reading, hosted by The Book Date.
Nice looking assortment of big books. Since I read mostly on my Kindle, I seldom actually know how long a book is until I go to write my review. I have had some surprises. Come see my week here. Happy reading!
Happy Place, Yellowface, and Mad Honey were all good novels for me. I am glad you had such a great reading for the Big Book Challenge.
That’s some serious looking summer reading. I’ve read Mad Honey and will read the Emily Henry book – most likely during my summer!!