20 Books of Summer 2026

Published on by Margaret

The 20 Books of Summer challenge is back again this year hosted by Annabelle at AnnaBookBel.

  • The challenge runs from Monday June 1st to Monday August 31st
  • The first rule of 20 Books is that there are no real rules, other than signing up for 10, 15 or 20 books and trying to read from your TBR. (If you think you’ll only manage 5, that’s fine too.)
  • Pick your list in advance, or nominate a bookcase to read from, or pick just at whim from your TBR.
  • If you do pick a list, you can change it at any time – swap books in/out.
  • Don’t get panicked at not reaching your target, it’s not really a challenge as such.
  • Just enjoy a summer of great reading and make a bit of space on your shelves!
  • Don’t forget to add your posts to the monthly linkys. The final one will stay open till for a week into September to catch the last reviews.

I’ve taken part most years but usually never manage to read all the books I’ve listed, so this year I’m not listing any in advance, apart from the four books on my NetGalley shelf, all due to be published between now and the end of July.

  • The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett, because I enjoyed her book The Help.
  • Love Lane by Patrick Gale, because I enjoyed his book A Perfectly Good Man.
  • The Recruit by L D Sharpe, because I like spy thrillers.
  • This Immortal Heart by Jennifer Saint, because I enjoy Greek Mythology.

Apart from that they’ll all be books I pick as the fancy takes me from my TBRs in my ‘real’ bookcases and on my Kindle. The photo below shows some of my shelves.

16 thoughts on “20 Books of Summer 2026”

  2. I like your choices, Margaret. I always like it when I’ve enjoyed someone’s work enough to want to read another by the same author. Best of all, in my opinion, is that you’re leaving so much room to go where your book fancy takes you. Sometimes that’s the best way to choose a book that later turns out to be an absolute gem.

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  3. All of those books apart from The Recruit are on my NetGalley shelf as well. I haven’t decided how I’m going to approach 20 Books of Summer this year, but I do like the idea of not having a list and choosing as you go along.

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    1. Thanks for your recommendations, Cathy. It is time I read both of those books as they’ve been sitting on my shelves for years. As you say both of those are very dark which is why they’ve stayed there. Maybe this summer I’ll read them.

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  7. I’ve never read Reginald Hill but now I am curious!

    I have read several books by Frances Fyfield but don’t recognize the one on your shelf.

    The Calamity Club sounds interesting. I read an article yesterday about how difficult it was for her to write a second novel.

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