20 Books of Summer 2025: Can I Make it Five in a Row?

After Cathy of 746 Books retired from hosting this challenge after an impressive 10 years, I figured this was going away. But Emma of Words and Peace and Annabel from AnnaBookBel stepped up to carry the torch. You can read their kick-off post here. So, I’m back for my fifth year of participation in this challenge–and hopefully completing it. “But HC,” some of you might be saying, “a lot of these books look suspiciously like books from other challenges you mentioned.” Yes, yes they are. I’ve not done a great job at some of my challenges this year (okay, most of them0. So, why not multitask? I’ll force myself to read some anticipated new releases (another thing I’ve failed at this year), read every book I’ve borrowed from a friend, and chip away at two other challenges (possibly more). That’s a win-win-win in my book.

Still, I’m worried about completing it. Feel free to harass me about this from time to time.

I’ve frequently used the unofficial US Dates for Summer—Memorial Day to Labor Day, but Memorial Day has already passed. So, I’ll go along with the June 1-August 31 (actually, none of these books are what I’d read on a Lord’s Day, so June 2-August 30). And It’s going to be Friday at the earliest before I can start one from this list. So…sure, I’m stacking the deck against me (although a couple of years ago, I didn’t read any in June and finished okay).

There’s still time to join in the fun—if you’re into this kind of thing. (there are 10 and 15 book versions, too)

This summer, my 20 are going to be:

(subject to change, as is allowed, but I’m going to resist the impulse to tweak as much as I can).

What do you think of this list? Any warnings—or anything you think I should be really excited about?