. . . or continues as the case may be for some of us who couldn't quite wait until the official days of summer arrive. I've been trying to check in with Feedly daily and so have noted down all sorts of interesting reading plans and readalongs that others are taking part in or organizing. While I have not been a very good "joiner" of late (everything sounds so interesting and appealing, but there is never enough time) there is lots to choose from should the desire arise!
First a few temptations:
I like the list of books that the Estella Society came up with for their Season 3 TBR Project. I like to play this little mental game--if I was going to join in, which book (or books) would I choose to read? My own TBR pile contains both Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries and Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus (I even had to have it in hardcover!). Unfortunately the Catton is just a little too long to contemplate reading at the moment, though I might pick up the Morgenstern at some point this summer.
Dolce Bellezza's ninth annual Japanese Literature Challenge might actually work out with my own mystery-summer-reading project already underway. I read my first Haruki Murakami novel earlier this year and found I like him very much indeed. Maybe I could incorporate something by Natsuo Kirino? Maybe there might even be a Murakami novel that would fit into my mystery reading?
And then there is Paris in July #6 organized by Thyme for Tea. I'm sure I could easily fit in a French author who writes crime novels or mysteries--Fred Vargas is already on my TBR pile. Maybe Georges Simenon or (most definitely) Jean-Claude Izzo.
I think I will try and read along with Simon at Stuck in a Book for the Shirley Jackson Reading Week in July. How about Hangsaman based on an actual disappearance. It might only be peripherally related to my reading, but I am very lenient when it comes to 'reading rules'.
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My own mystery reading continues apace and considering that the official start of summer is still a week off, I think I've made quite a lot of progress so far. My in progress books are on my sidebar (yes, there are a lot of them--I have been doing a rotation of sorts so focus on just a couple each week. I know-I tend to be overenthusiastic about starting books, but since it is my summer reading project I have been very self-indulgent. I have finished a number of books however:
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent, Rattle His Bones by Carola Dunn, A Possibility of Violence by D.A. Mishani, and Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death by James Runcie.
And there have been a few teasers, too:
Mignon Eberhart's Death in the Fog, Vera Caspary's Laura, and Lindsey Davis's The Ides of April.
I'm still thinking about my Around the World in Seven Murders. Two down and five to go. Technically I could cross off Europe, but it would be a mystery set in England and I should really get more creative than that (since I read mostly books by British authors or set in England that is). I have a few books in mind to pick up next but with so many categories to choose from, I am only thinking about it at the moment . . . until I finish my next mystery (likely Mignon Eberhart).
I have a feeling I am (once again) not going to get to the next story (which is a novella) by Francis Wyndham this weekend, but I was thinking a good crime story might make a nice addition to my reading. I have my hefty OxCrimes collection as well as a stack of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazines.
Needless to say there will be mystery reading going on at my house this weekend. I hope you have something good, maybe even suspenseful or edge-of-your-seat good, to read this weekend, too.