20 Books of Summer 2025: Wrap-Up

A quick check-in for this Reading Challenge hosted by Emma of Words and Peace and Annabel from AnnaBookBel (you can read more about it here).

With four substitutions (ugh), I can count this as complete…The four substitutions cams from my Books on My Summer 2025 to-Read List (That Aren’t on My 20 Books Challenge)–which I did complete. But I made the title a lie with the substitutions. It’s complicated.

I had a blast with the books I did complete, and am rather annoyed with myself about those I didn’t. I was really looking forward to them (I hope to get at least a couple of them done this month.) Okay, let’s take a quick look at the lists.

My Books on My Summer 2025 to-Read List (That Aren’t on My 20 Books Challenge):

Percentage-wise, I read 87% of the books I called my shot on for the summer. I’ve never been happy with getting a B, but I can be satisfied with one. (and no, I don’t see a conflict between this and the Orangutan Librarian’s recent post about competitive reading. This is me comparing myself with my goals, or my past self, or—worst of all—my expectations.)

Emma has some questions for us as we call this a wrap. Here we go:

1. Did you manage to finish all 10/15/20 books? If not, what kept you from completing the challenge?
   No, I did not. I can narrow down the reasons to three things: I didn’t include NetGalley reads in my 20 (I think I didn’t do that last year, either); I didn’t include the books for my book clubs (that was a mistake); the big one is that with two exceptions, every book I read this summer took one-three more days than I anticipated. If I get those days back? I have this challenge done with days to spare.
2. Of all the books you read this summer, which one(s) was/were your favorite and why?
   Hoo-boy. Favorite? Ummm, er. I could make a case of almost all of them. Everybody Knows is a strong contender, as is King of Ashes–both gave me some strong visceral reactions. So many of the others just made me happy to read. Almost all of them contained unexpected levels of quality.
   Did you DNF any? Why?
   Thankfully, no. These were all entertaining.
3. Which book surprised you the most, either by being better or worse than you expected?
   I expected Leveled-Up Love to be a little stronger, a little funnier. I had really-high hopes for Scalzi’s book and had to settle for it being really good instead of stellar. Each surprised me in some ways (and even those two books did some things better than I expected)
4. Did you notice any patterns in the genres you chose or enjoyed this summer?
   I think if you compared this list to previous ones, there’d be fewer Crime Fiction on the ’25 list. Two non-fiction books is a little more than usual. I think that’s it. I might be able to come up with a pattern or two in the books themselves, if I thought about it some. But, nothing’s jumping out at me.
5. Which one had the best cover?
   When the Moon Hits Your Eye or Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits. But Light from Uncommon Stars probably provided the strongest reaction out of me when the book explained it the imagery.
6. Which one was the longest? Grossman’s The Bright Sword And the shortest? A Tail of Mystery by Paul Regnier
7. Did you read them mostly in print? ebook? audio?

No audiobooks, 4 ebooks, and the rest were physical. Huh. I figured that’d be closer to an even split.

8. Imagine you’re hosting a “20 Books of Summer” book club wrap party.
   Which book would you nominate as the guest of honor, and what kind of toast or speech would you give celebrating it?
   I can’t pick. I think I’d have to pay tribute to them all–what kind of speech? I just don’t know. I really should’ve spent more time thinking about this.
9. Looking back at all the characters you met over the summer, which one would you want as a summer buddy for a weekend getaway, and what activity would you do together?
   Jim O’Heir. Maybe that’s cheating because he’s a real person. But, kicking back with some good food (and probably some good drink), listening to him tell stories? Can’t imagine a better time. Also, most of the other characters I met would scare me in real life.