With August almost at an end, that means this year’s 20 Books of Summer challenge (hosted by Annabel of AnnaBookBel) is also nearly over, so let’s take a look at how I did. I’m pleased to say that for the second year in a row I completed the challenge with a few days to spare!

I had listed 10 books in advance for the challenge and managed to read all of them:

1. The Persian Boy by Mary Renault
2. The Rose and the Yew Tree by Mary Westmacott
3. By the Pricking of My Thumbs by Agatha Christie
4. The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden
5. The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett
6. The Lost Château by Dinah Jefferies
7. This Immortal Heart by Jennifer Saint
8. The Crownless Queen by Elizabeth Chadwick
9. No Fair Maidens by Kim Willis
10. This Dark Night by Deborah Lutz

I left the other 10 slots on my list blank so I could choose the books as I went along. My only self-imposed rule was that they needed to have already been on my TBR prior to the start of the challenge otherwise they wouldn’t count. Here’s what I decided to read:

11. A Far-flung Life by ML Stedman
12. Gigi and The Cat by Colette
13. She Walks at Night by Seishi Yokomizo
14. The Kill by Émile Zola
15. The Scandalous Ladies Football Club by Frances Quinn
16. The Boleyn Secret by Alison Weir
17. The Forever Summer by Lulu Taylor
18. Troubled Waters by Ichiyō Higuchi
19. The Story of Tudor Art by Christina J Faraday
20. The Matchbox Girl by Alice Jolly

I enjoyed all of these books, some more than others, and am particularly happy that I was able to include three non-fiction books, which is a part of my reading that I often neglect.

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The end of summer always means the start of one of my favourite reading events of the year: the RIP challenge, which is now in its 21st year. It now takes place mostly on Instagram, where it’s hosted by @perilreaders, but a lot of bloggers still join in and it’s something I always look forward to as the idea is simply to spend September and October reading mysteries, Gothic novels, ghost stories or anything else suitably dark and atmospheric! I’m not planning to make a list that I need to stick to, but here are some possible options:

Books for the Read Christie challenge:
The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie (September)
Postern of Fate by Agatha Christie (October)

On my NetGalley shelf for September/October:
Murder on the Haunted Express by Emma Mason
The Scholars by MacKenzie Common
The Well by Elizabeth Jolley
The Riptide by Gareth Rubin
The Witch Elm by Sally-Anne Martyn

Some others I would like to get to:
The Clock House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji
House of Splinters by Laura Purcell
A Ghost Hunter’s Guide to Catching a Killer by FH Petford
Strange Buildings by Uketsu

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Another event taking place in September is Short Story September, hosted by Bookish Beck. I’ll probably only have time to read one book for this, but here are a few short story collections I have that would also work for RIP:

By Horror Haunted by Celia Fremlin
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by MR James
Grim Tales by E Nesbit
The Haunting Season by various authors

Always good if you can make a book count for more than one challenge!

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How has your summer been? If you took part in 20 Books of Summer, have you completed it yet or are you still working on it? And do you have any plans for your September reading?