Summer 2020 Reading Challenge Book List

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May long weekend has come and gone which means summer is here! Our summer vacation plans have been cancelled thanks to Covid-19 but I’m actually looking forward to a quiet couple of months at home on our beautiful farm.

One of my favourite hobbies besides binge-watching Netflix, drinking wine, and writing this blog is reading but I don’t read as much as I used to or would like throughout the year. So for the past few summers I have been challenging myself to read a book every single day. It doesn’t have to be an entire book every day but I do strive to find the time to at least read a few chapters…which usually turns into me reading the WHOLE book that day anyway (and likely polishing off a bottle of Rosé).  

There’s only one thing that can make a good book and a great bottle of Rosé better and that’s friends! I’d love to invite you to join me this summer for Mrs. Lazy Spoon’s Summer 2020 Reading Challenge. You can follow along and read all of the books I’m planning to read or you can choose your own. It doesn’t matter! I’m just excited about building a reading community where we can share book recommendations (and possibly wine recommendations) and talk about what we loved (or hated) about the books we’re reading. You can join Mrs. Lazy Spoon’s Book Club on Facebook here. I absolutely love when friends recommend a book and I thought this space would be a great way to share as well as keep me accountable to my reading goal.

I’ve already placed my book order on Amazon for this year’s Summer Reading Challenge and the books are on their way. Seriously, is there anything better than brand new books? Gah! A lot of these books were recommendations from the readers who are already in my book club. It’s a great group of readers who also make awesome wine recommendations. Please come join the Facebook group if you haven’t already. I’d love to connect with you.

Here’s what I plan to read and I’d love for you to read along with me! 

Mrs. Lazy Spoon’s Summer 2020 Reading List

I’m Still Here by Austin Channing Brown

Following the horrific murder of George Floyd and the rallies and marches that have ensued to put an end to racism and violence against black people in America (and Canada), I have committed to learning and working toward unpacking my White Privilege. I discovered Austin Channing Brown on Instagram this week and I immediately wanted to soak up everything she is putting out in the world. I downloaded her book, I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made For Whiteness and I can’t wait to get started.

I’m Still Here is an illuminating look at how white, middle-class Evangelicalism has participated in an era of rising racial hostility, inviting the listener to confront apathy, recognize God’s ongoing work in the world, and discover how blackness – if we let it – can save us all. ~Amazon

Wine Girl by Victoria James

I’m almost finished reading this one and I’m really enjoying it. As a wine and book lover, this memior is the perfect pairing.

Wine Girl is a lovely memoir of a young woman breaking free from an abusive and traumatic childhood on her own terms; an ethnography of the glittering, high-octane, but notoriously corrosive restaurant industry; and above all, a love letter to the restorative and life-changing effects of good wine and good hospitality. ~Amazon

Love Lives Here by Amanda Jetté Knox

This memoir caught my eye while I was in a book store last year but I haven’t had a chance to read it yet.

While still a teenager, she met the love of her life. They were wed at 20, and the first of three children followed shortly. Jetté Knox finally had the stability she craved–or so it seemed. Their middle child struggled with depression and avoided school. The author was unprepared when the child she knew as her son came out as transgender at the age of eleven. Shocked, but knowing how important it was to support her daughter, Jetté Knox became an ardent advocate for trans rights. ~Amazon

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

This novel was recommended by one of my active Facebook Book Club members. She is an avid reader and always recommends the best books so I’m sure this one will be good.

In Mary Beth Keane’s extraordinary novel, a lifelong friendship and love blossoms between Kate Gleeson and Peter Stanhope, born six months apart. One shocking night their loyalties are divided, and their bond will be tested again and again over the next thirty years. Heartbreaking and redemptive, Ask Again, Yes is a gorgeous and generous portrait of the daily intimacies of marriage and the power of forgiveness. ~Amazon

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

I have had this book in my cart since Covid-19 hit hoping I’d have some time to read sooner than the start of the Summer Reading Challenge (I did not) but it has been out of stock on Amazon. Well, it’s back and my copy is on the way. I first saw Oprah talking about American Dirt as part of the Oprah Book Club and I’ve heard it has caused some controversy so I’m really looking forward to reading it. My girlfriend, who was also the person who recommended one of my all-time favourite books, Where the Crawdads Sing also recommended this book. I can’t wait for it to arrive!

American Dirt will leave readers utterly changed. It is a literary achievement filled with poignancy, drama, and humanity on every page. It is one of the most important books for our time.

Already being hailed as “a Grapes of Wrath for our times” and “a new American classic,” Jeanine Cummins’s American Dirt is a rare exploration into the inner hearts of people willing to sacrifice everything for a glimmer of hope. ~Amazon

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

This book is said to be similar to Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and The Rosie Project books, all of which I loved so I’m looking forward to finally reading this one.

At first sight, Ove is almost certainly the grumpiest man you will ever meet. He thinks himself surrounded by idiots – neighbours who can’t reverse a trailer properly, joggers, shop assistants who talk in code, and the perpetrators of the vicious coup d’etat that ousted him as Chairman of the Residents’ Association. He will persist in making his daily inspection rounds of the local streets.

In the end, you will see, there is something about Ove that is quite irresistible… ~Amazon

City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert

I’ve read Elizabeth Gilbert’s #1 New York Times bestseller Eat, Pray, Love, and recently listened to Big Magic on Audible but I haven’t read any of her fiction work. I’m looking forward to this one.

Beloved author Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction with a unique love story set in the New York City theater world during the 1940s. Told from the perspective of an older woman as she looks back on her youth with both pleasure and regret (but mostly pleasure), City of Girls explores themes of female sexuality and promiscuity, as well as the idiosyncrasies of true love. ~Amazon

The Dressmaker’s Gift by Fiona Valpy

If you know me at all you know I can’t resist a realistic fiction novel set during the second world war. I came across this one during my research for this year’s list and thought I’d give it a try.

In wartime, three seamstresses face impossible choices when their secret activities put them in grave danger. Brought together by loyalty, threatened by betrayal, can they survive history’s darkest era without being torn apart? ~Amazon

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

I haven’t heard anything about this book but it also caught my eye while researching for this list. It gets great reviews.

Based on one of America’s most notorious real-life scandals—in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country—Lisa Wingate’s riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, even though the paths we take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets where we belong. ~Amazon

From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle

I’m definitely into memoirs this year but this might be the most important book on this list for me as I continue on my Truth and Reconciliation journey.

In this heartwarming and heart-wrenching memoir, Jesse Thistle writes honestly and fearlessly about his painful past, the abuse he endured, and how he uncovered the truth about his parents. Through sheer perseverance and education—and newfound love—he found his way back into the circle of his Indigenous culture and family.

An eloquent exploration of the impact of prejudice and racism, From the Ashes is, in the end, about how love and support can help us find happiness despite the odds. ~Amazon

Untamed by Glennon Doyle

Yep, another memoir but I chose this one as one of my personal development books to read this year. I actually downloaded it from Audible to listen to while I’m on the treadmill or driving (not that I go many places these days). Did you know Amazon is offering a free trial on Audible? I believe you can download 2 books for free during the trial. Anyway, this book grabbed hold of me seconds into the Prologue and I can’t wait to get back on the treadmill to keep listening. It’s so good!

Soulful and uproarious, forceful and tender, Untamed is both an intimate memoir and a galvanizing wake-up call. It is the story of how one woman learned that a responsible mother is not one who slowly dies for her children, but one who shows them how to fully live. It is the story of navigating divorce, forming a new blended family, and discovering that the brokenness or wholeness of a family depends not on its structure but on each member’s ability to bring her full self to the table. And it is the story of how each of us can begin to trust ourselves enough to set boundaries, make peace with our bodies, honor our anger and heartbreak, and unleash our truest, wildest instincts so that we become women who can finally look at ourselves and say: There she is. 

Untamed shows us how to be brave. As Glennon insists: The braver we are, the luckier we get. ~Amazon

There you have it, this year’s list. I can’t wait to connect with you and hear what you think about these books or hear what you’re reading.

Happy Reading

You can see my 2019 Summer Reading Challenge List here.