Now that the first month of this year’s 20 Books of Summer challenge is over, one of our hosts – Emma of Words and Peace – has compiled a list of five questions to help us recap our June reading. I had fun answering these, although I’m afraid some of my answers aren’t quite as creative as the questions!
I read nine books for the challenge in June and have only reviewed five of them so far. The other four reviews will be coming soon, I promise!
1. If your #20BooksofSummer25 TBR were a beach, what’s the most surprising thing you’ve unearthed so far – a hidden gem, a total shipwreck, or something unexpectedly delightful?
This question gets at whether you’ve discovered a new favorite, encountered a book you didn’t enjoy, or found something pleasantly surprising.
Of the books I’ve read for 20 Books of Summer so far, two were by authors who were new to me – The Rush by Beth Lewis and The Stepdaughter by Caroline Blackwood – and both were surprisingly good! I’m sure I’ll be reading more by both of those authors. Agatha Christie’s 1964 Miss Marple novel, A Caribbean Mystery, is another book I enjoyed more than I was anticipating – it hadn’t appealed to me much as it’s not a setting I associate with Miss Marple.
There were no total shipwrecks on my beach as the other books I read in June were by authors already familiar to me, so I knew what to expect!
2. Imagine your reading progress as a summer road trip. Which book has been the scenic route, which has been the highway, and is there a rest stop book you’re looking forward to?
This question explores reading pace and anticipation. A scenic route book might be slower-paced and atmospheric, while a highway book is a fast-paced read. The rest stop book is one you’re looking forward to for a break or change of pace.
The scenic route would be A Schooling in Murder by Andrew Taylor, a slow-paced historical mystery novel set in and around a girls’ school in the 1940s. Caroline Blackwood’s The Stepdaughter would be the highway book – it’s a novella that I finished in one day.
The rest stop book I’m looking forward to is this month’s Read Christie 2025 selection, Come, Tell Me How You Live? It will be the first non-fiction book I’ve read for 20 Books of Summer, so should be a nice change from all the fiction I’ve been reading.
3. If one of the books you’ve read this month was turned into an ice cream flavor, what ingredients would it have, and what would it be called?
This question encourages your creative thinking and helps you express the essence of a book in a fun, summery way.
My Gold Rush Crunch ice cream, inspired by The Rush, includes a scoop of vanilla to represent the snowy mountains of the White Pass Trail and chunks of honeycomb to represent gold nuggets. As the book is set in Canada, it can be served with optional maple syrup!
4. If you could swap places with a character from one of the books you’ve read this month, purely for the summer, who would it be and what items would you absolutely take with you?
This question taps into escapism and personal connection. It also allows you to highlight a character or book you particularly enjoyed.
It’s actually easier for me to say which ones I wouldn’t want to swap places with! I certainly wouldn’t want to be Helen Capel from Ethel Lina White’s The Spiral Staircase and have to spend the whole summer locked in a creepy house with a murderer on the loose, nor would I want to live in any of the equally unsettling buildings described in Uketsu’s Strange Houses. Turning into a cat like Peter in Paul Gallico’s Jennie doesn’t appeal either, although it might be fun for a little while – and much as I enjoyed The Rush, the Klondike in the 19th century sounds like a harsh and dangerous place for a woman. I wouldn’t like to be a ghost like Annabel in A Schooling in Murder either, or part of the miserable household in The Stepdaughter. If I chose Love & Other Poisons by Lesley McDowell I would have to be either a murderer or a murder victim and These Wicked Devices by Matthew Plampin would give me the options of a nun, a slave or a scheming noblewoman.
Having ruled everybody else out, I’m left with Miss Marple, so it looks like I’m off to the Caribbean for the summer – with my knitting, of course. Maybe I’ll be able to solve a mystery or two while I’m there!
5. “Plot twist!”: If your summer reading challenge were a book, what unexpected event just happened to shake things up? Or did life get in the way of your reading plans?
This question acknowledges the unpredictable nature of life and reading, and allows you to share any challenges or unexpected joys you’ve encountered.
June was a surprisingly uneventful month for me, with nothing in particular that got in the way of my reading. Of course, that could change over the next two months of the challenge – only in a good way, I hope!
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Are you taking part in 20 Books of Summer? How did your June reading go?
She Reads Novels 
Good work! I’ve read ten of mine and currently reading number eleven.
Thanks! Good luck with the rest of the challenge – you’re doing really well!
Love this! They’re fun questions and I enjoyed reading your answers. 😀
I had fun answering them!
Great work on your Summer challenge and lovely that you’ve found two authors that you want to read more of.
Thank you!
This is such fun and so clever! Both the questions and your answers!
Thanks, Sandra. I enjoyed answering them.
wow, I loved your answers! Good to know there was no total shipwrecks.And what a lovely icecream.The Caribbean with Miss Marple? Any day!
I’m hoping I can avoid shipwrecks for the rest of the challenge too! I’m glad you like the ice cream 🙂
Nice work so far. I have to say, though, that if I thought about joining this challenge, those questions would have driven me away. That’s just my taste, though.
Thanks! The questions are optional – a lot of the people doing the challenge haven’t answered them.
I can see why. They’re pretty silly. The idea behind them is okay, but the way they’re worded . . .
Hahaha, I loved your struggle to find someone to swap with – a real comment on the types of books we all read! Miss Marple is a great choice. I wouldn’t mind changing places with her too, especially with that kind nephew who’s always organising nice holidays for her. Could you please market your Gold Rush Crunch? And put me down for the first batch… 🍦
I didn’t realise how few cheerful, uplifting books I must read until I started struggling to answer that question! And yes, I’m hoping to make my fortune with Gold Rush Crunch. I’ll make sure you get a free sample 😉
Yep, in general I read the kind of fiction where I wouldn’t want to swap with any of the characters either! Miss Marple sounds like a fun choice.
That was such a difficult question to answer. Thank goodness for Miss Marple!
These are such fun and creative questions and I loved reading your answers to all of them. I’m glad to hear that your summer has been free of ‘shipwrecks’ so far. I love your list of characters you wouldn’t want to swap places with and reasons why – it’s left me curious about a few of the books. Especially The Spiral Staircase which I’d probably have overlooked if based on the cover alone.
I hope the rest of your summer goes wonderfully.
Thank you! I’m hoping to avoid any shipwrecks in my reading for the rest of the summer! The Spiral Staircase is a new edition of a Gothic suspense novel from the 1930s – I’ll be reviewing it next week.
Oh wow I didn’t know it was from back then. I’ll keep an eye out for your review of it.
Hah, a Caribbean cruise with Miss Marple – so long as I wasn’t the murder victim or the prime suspect (or was I?!) I’d be happy to go on that as I’m sure it’d be a more civilised and civilised affair than those monstrous modern floating palaces of fun!
Goldrush Crunch Ice Cream sounds De-Lic-Ious!
I think so! I’m glad you agree 🙂
I need to read more Agatha Christie. A cruise with Miss Marple sounds fun.