I’m enjoying a rare Sunday at home with no need to go out, even for errands!
It’s the start of a week of cooler temps and rain here, and Sunday dinner is in the slow cooker. Every fall, it feels as though I’ve just finished putting away the last of the winter clothes and bedding, when it’s time to get all the winter stuff back out again. (This is probably because I actually HAVE just finished putting stuff away every year by the time the next season rolls around, but never mind.)
We had a summer with some major family emergencies and some big projects, but as of now, everyone is doing well! The blog had to take a backseat most weekends, plus I still have all my distraction and lack of focus issues, so it’s not surprising that my update on the Big Book Summer Challenge is late. The challenge ended a couple of weeks ago, on Labor Day.
For anyone who isn’t familiar with it, the annual Big Book Summer challenge is to read 400+ books. It’s an annual challenge hosted by Suzan Jackson of Book by Book. When I looked back over the past ten years of August reading for a recent Top Ten Tuesday post, Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Years of Summer Reading, it turned out I had been taking part in Big Book Summer for at least that long!
And I still forgot to order merch from the store! I’m going to order the “I Like Big Books” coffee mug now, to be ready for the 2027 BBS Challenge!
Books Completed for 2026 BBS Challenge
Books Not Finished in Time for 2026 BBS Challenge
Audiobooks Listened to for Big Book Summer Challenge
Audiobooks Not Finished in Time for Big Book Summer Challenge
Sunday Salon is to encourage conversations about books and book-ish things. The weekly link-up and Facebook group are hosted by Deb Nance of Readerbuzz. Sunday Salon has a long history in the book blogging community, but it took me a long time to join in.
Currently Reading
Kin by Tayari Jones
“Kin is the kind of all-encompassing reading experience I’m always hoping to find: smart and funny and deftly profound. This is Tayari Jones’s very best work.” —Ann Patchett, author of Whistler
Coincidentally, the blurb I found to share from the publisher’s website was from Ann Patchett, who wrote Whistler, which I just finished reading, and, like everyone else, I think, absolutely loved.
But I had Kin on my Most Anticipated Books Coming out in the Fall list, anyway, and already had purchased my own copies of both it and Whistler, so I didn’t have to wait for holds to come from the library. (I held off on reading Whistler till after Labor Day because it’s under 300 pages long.)
Recently Read
Whistler by Ann Patchett
“Ann Patchett’s new novel is a rare phenomenon in contemporary fiction: a novel both majestic and intimate, original and masterful in its structure, crystalline in its prose, revelatory in its insights, utterly devastating yet ultimately uplifting in its emotional impact…” —The Boston Globe
BTW, don’t let the book cover put you off if, like me, you don’t gravitate towards books about animals. Whistler is a horse, but is not a book about a horse!
Currently Listening To
See above – two long audiobooks not finished in time for Big Book Summer!
Recently Listened To
Accidentally chose Book 2 in this new Michael Connelly series for my husband and I to listen to on a recent road trip to Maryland. Now we need to backtrack and listen to Nightshade on our next long drive!
This post is linked up to It’s Monday, What Are You Reading, hosted by The Book Date. It’s Monday! What Are You Reading is a place to meet up and share what you have been and are currently reading each week. Visit the link-up for more books to add to your groaning TBR pile.
