Tag Archives: reading rush 2020

Reading Rush 2020

The End

So this year’s reading rush is over and read a total of 4 books in the space of a week, which is definitely more than I expected (even if it wasn’t quite a full 7). Below is a summary of what I read and what I thought of it, keep an eye out over the next couple of weeks for more thorough reviews of the books.

Exciting Times

  • Author: Naoise Dolan
  • Publisher: 2020, Weidenfeld and Nicolson
  • Summary: Ava is a poorly paid Irish TEFL teacher in Hong Kong when she meets Julian. Julian is a wealthy English banker who likes to spend money on her and lets her stay in his guest room. Then Julian goes back to London and Ava meets Edith who actually listens to her and openly cares. But what will happen when Julian announces he’ll be returning to Hong Kong?
  • Rating: 3/5

Before the Coffee gets Cold

  • Author: Toshikazu Kawaguchi
  • Publisher: December 2015, Pan Macmillan
  • Summary: There’s a small cafe in Tokyo that offers its customers the chance to travel back in time, but they must finish finish the coffee before it gets cold.
  • Rating: 4/5

Difficult Women

  • Author: Roxane Gay
  • Publisher: 2017, Corsair
  • Summary: A collection of short stories exploring the nianced and varied experiences of women.
  • Rating: 5/5

The Vanishing Half

  • Author: Brit Bennet
  • Publisher: 2020, Dialogue Books
  • Summary: Once inseparable twin sisters grow up and choose to live in two very different worlds; one black, one white.
  • Rating 4/5

The Reading Rush 2020

The Start

The 2020 Reading Rush starts next week (20th-26th July) and so I decided to write a post of my plans for it. I have chosen a different book for all seven challenges, but I highly doubt I will read seven books so take this with a pinch of salt and don’t be surprised if I’ve combined some of the challenges in next week’s post.

Challenge 1: Read a book where the cover matches your birthstone.

  • Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
  • My birthstone is garnet for January, which can be several different colours, including red or orange so I picked Exciting Times for this one as it’s one I’ve wanted to read for a while.

Challenge 2: Read a book that starts with the word ‘The’.

  • The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennet
  • It turns out I have surprisingly few books starting with ‘the’ on my bookcase, fortunately this was a recent purchase that I’ve been looking forward to.

Challenge 3: Read a book that inspired a movie you’ve already seen.

  • Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
  • This might have been the hardest challenge to find a book for. If I know a film is based on a book I usually try to read the book first but after a quick google search I settled for Crazy Rich Asians, a fun film that will hopefully be a fairly easy read.

Challenge 4: Read the first book you touch.

  • Difficult Women by Roxanne Gay
  • After picking several unread books off my shelf I closed my eyes and my hand landed on this collection of short stories.

Challenge 5: Read a book completely outside your house.

  • Almost Love by Louise O’Neill
  • Louise O’Neill is one of my favourite authors so I knew that if I could include this then I would and I had a gap for this challenge.

Challenge 6: Read a genre you don’t normally read.

  • The War of Worlds by HG Wells
  • I’m not generally a fan of SciFi but my girlfriend has left her copy of this book with me and it’s a really lovely copy so I thought I’d give it a go.

Challenge 7: Read a book that takes place on a different continent.

  • Before the Coffee gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
  • A book I recently bought on a whim that happens to fit this challenge perfectly.

So that’s my impossibly ambitious selection of books, keep an eye out for my post-Reading Rush update to find out how many I get through and what I thought of the ones I actually manage to read. And if you’re interested in taking part in the Reading Rush then simply visit their website to find out more about it.