I feel like I don’t know when exactly I made a summer reading list this year—perhaps because I’ve been so busy this spring—but it went through all the usual stages: a few titles jotted down early in the year; a little dithering and head-scratching trying to think of more to bring it up to the usual number; seeming rather cobbled-together for a while but taking on a sort of shape when I put the finishing touches on it for this post. It started out a little more weighted towards nonfiction, but ended up being a roughly even split—and as far as subject matter goes, there seems to be two distinct trends here, if you see what I mean:
A Pastoral Song by James Rebanks
Cimarron by Edna Ferber
Rhododendron Pie by Margery Sharp
Country Editor’s Boy by Hal Borland
Song of Years by Bess Streeter Aldrich
The Husband Hunters by Anne de Courcy
Our Man in Havana by Grahame Greene
False Colours by Georgette Heyer
The Provincial Lady in War-Time by E.M. Delafield
The Wire-Cutters by Mollie Evelyn Moore Davis
Cowboys and Cattle Kings by C.L. Sonnichsen*
Sussex, Kent, and Surrey 1939 by Richard Wyndham
Jane Austen and the Navy by B.C. Southam**
*I started this one earlier in the year and got sidetracked, but I am eager to finish it.
**If I can find an affordable copy…of course I would be the one to add a random title to my list because I thought it looked interesting, and then find it’s out of print and even paperback copies are ridiculously expensive…
what’s on your summer reading list?
image: “A Walk by the River” by Alfred Augustus Glendening Jr.
Claire (The Captive Reader) says
This looks like a wonderful list! I recently gave my father Pastoral Song to read and have been delighted by how much he’s enjoying it. I certainly found it fascinating.
Elisabeth Grace Foley says
Funnily enough, just after I’d put it on my reading list my mom read about it in a blog post and mentioned it to me, and then one of my sisters said, “oh, I’ve heard of that too!” It’s always nice when reading tastes coincide!
Becky W. says
I don’t really make a list for summer (maybe sort of a mental one), but I knew after looking at your archives of your favorites that I wanted to read “Letters to Julia” (but started with “Friendship and Folly” first, of course). Thank you for introducing me to this author! I just finished “Letters to Julia”. What a gem of a book!! I loved it so much! It will go on my list of all-time favorites for sure! I’m enjoying a Josephine Tey right now. Hoping to get to a few favorite Christian fiction authors and either “Jayber Crow” or “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall” yet this summer.
Elisabeth Grace Foley says
Aha, I’m so delighted to have made another Merriweather Chronicles fan! Letters to Julia is truly special, isn’t it? (And Josephine Tey—also excellent taste!)