Big Book Summer Challenge--Wrap-Up

Labor Day is over and the kids have started back to school this week . . . all signs point to the end of summer. Except the weather! In my neck of the woods, we've been having some of our hottest days of the season this week.

Nevertheless, it is time to do a little wrap-up of my summer reading. I participated in my first ever reading challenge as a book blogger this summer, with the 2014 Big Book Summer Challenge hosted by Sue at Book by Book. The idea of this nicely low-key challenge was to read a few books over 400 pages.

I didn't have any truly ginormous chunksters on my plate for this summer (although just before the challenge began, I had finished Donna Tartt's 778 page door-stopper of a novel, The Goldfinch!). These were the books with more than 400 pages that I promised to read for the challenge:

The Rise and Fall of Great Powers by Tom Rachman just squeaked in for the challenge at 400 pages. You can read my review here. Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah is a bit heftier, at 477 pages. My review is here.

I'm going to tack something on to the challenge, because the biggest book I read this summer was actually not one that I had planned in advance to read. At 640 pages, this was my chunkiest summer read:

My review of We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas is here.

Thanks to Sue for hosting this challenge! I think reading challenges are a great way for book bloggers and other book lovers to plan our reading schedule and, sometimes, to expand our horizons a bit and try something new! I'll be trying out a new challenge this fall . . . more on that soon!

Did you read any Big Books this summer?