The summer has started weeks ago, but I was busy finalising things at work and watching football, and some of the books only just arrived – so here we are with the list in the middle of July. Looking at the pile, I admit it DOES look ambitious. Then again, I’ve been in a good reading groove most of this year and I’d rather be too ambitious than too timid. I’ll probably not finish every single book on this list, but my lists do not work like that anyway – they exist to inspire and help, not to self-flagellate.

1. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. I’ve put this one first to motivate me – I’ve been too scared to read this Booker shortlisted novel for several months now, but after loving The People in the Trees, I’m taking it on. Everybody has warned me that this story of friendship and abuse is heartbreaking, so I’m bracing myself. But I know Yanagihara is a genius, so there’s that.

2. The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelin Waugh. I’ve recommended Nancy’s books before and Brideshead Revisited was one of the formative books of my late teens (I just ignored the ‘message’ of the novel entirely). I’m sure that the intelligence and wit of the correspondents makes for great summer reading. This is also my first #bookstagram buddy read – I’m reading in parallel with @artfulreader and @liinabachmann and we discuss along the way – so I’m excited to see how this will work out.

3. Frederick The Great by Nancy Mitford. On Nancy, see above. Also, several book-friends have been recommending her biographies as smart and fun and well-researched. What posessed me to pick Frederick instead of the infinitely more attractive Madame de Pompadour or Voltaire is a mystery, however.

4. The Warrior’s Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold. I often praise Bujold as one of my favourite SF/fantasy writers and she is. It’s my dark secret, however, that I have only read the first two installments in her acclaimed Vorkosigan saga. I don’t really have an explanation for that, as I loved the first two books. In any case, I’m going to remedy the situation now. I’ve been promised space pirates and impossible missions. And trust Bujold to have a protagonist with physical disability.

5. Jonathan Strange & Mister Norrell by Susanna Clarke. Another long overdue read, this has been on my list since published in 2004. I even started it, but it was slow going and then I misplaced the book and… you know, the usual excuses. After some encouragement from people who know what’s good for me, I’ve started again. Neil Gaiman said it’s “unquestionably the finest English novel of the fantastic written in the last seventy years.” Neil Gaiman cannot be wrong.

6. The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes. Well, yes. I’ve been meaning to read this one quite a while, too. I love the history of science and the age of discovery and adventure in the 19th century is one of my favourite periods. Consequently, I really should have read this book about the generation of romantic scientists (it reads like a collection of mini-biographies with a common theme) long ago already. Then again, maybe I was meant to wait. I’m through a quarter of it and it’s especially enjoyable now that I’ve read The Signature of All Things, The Invention of Nature and The Cabaret of Plants.

7. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. I seem to be the only person in the world who has not read her Neapolitan novels, so maybe it’s time. It’s not pictured because my copy is in Brussels, so I will not get to it before August, after the holidays.

8. Neitsilikkus ja teisi jutte by Witold Gombrowicz. This short story collection by the great Pole is on the list for three reasons: 1) I seriously need to read things in Estonian 2) I seriously need to read authors who are not English or American 3) a person with much better taste in books than me gave it five stars on Goodreads.

9. The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddharta Mukherjee. I never read Mukherjee’s The Emperor of All Maladies, universally considered to be a book of uncommon insight and grace. I’m quite certain everybody is right, I was simply not drawn to the subject matter: it’s about cancer. Genes, on the other hand, I’ve always been interested in. I read The Selfish Gene during my second year at the university and was absolutely fascinated by it. The Gene looks to be an epic – and demanding – work on heredity and humanity.

10. Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes by Tamim Ansary. If genes are one of my long-standing interests, the history of the Silk Road region is another. Often, this means the history of Islam. After reading Frankopan’s The Silk Roads, which I enjoyed but felt failed to put the region truly in the centre of the story as it promised, I have been searching for a non-eurocentric take on the subject. This one seems promising. Incidentally, this rather specific book on a complex theme was recommended to me by a lovely person who I follow on Instagram for her skincare routine. I cannot fail to mention that none of the men I’ve heard declaring that an interest in cosmetics is a sign of inferior intellect, has never come up with a book recommendation of this quality.

11. Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited by Vladimir Nabokov. Because you have to have a Russian on any serious reading list, right? More seriously, this is another one that comes highly recommended and cannot be badly written as it’s Nabokov. Most importantly, though, I’m interested in his ‘beautiful mother’, as advertised on the cover. I’m a serious reader. Seriously.

12. A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab. I’m certain there is too little entertainment on this list – in reality, I’ll probably end up not reading all the worthy books and going through quite a few non-worthies instead. The reason they aren’t all represented here is not that I’m embarrassed, but that I have not researched them – reading SF and fantasy and YA is a pretty spontaneous affair for me and I do it whenever the mood strikes me. This one is officially on the list, however, as I liked the first book a lot and will hopefully enjoy the second. A book that includes a magic coat and four diffrent Londons surely has merit.

13. The Girls by Emma Cline. I tend to be pretty resistant to hype (unless it’s hype inside my trusted reading buddy circle), but this is an exception to the rule. The Girls seems to be everywhere right now and as it also seems to be a decent book, I want to know what all the fuss is about. Completely ignoring hype has also proved a stupid strategy for me in the past, meaning I’ve come late to quite a few books I really like.

14. Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel. This is a cheat, as I have finished it already. But I wanted to include it, as I am always desperate for recommendations for smart, fun, well-written SF. If you like secret organisations, giant robots, geopolitics, flying, science, mythology and snappy dialogue, I suggest you check this out. I suggest you check this out even if you don’t like any of the above, with the potential exception of snappy dialogue. If you hate snappy dialogue, this is going to be tough for you.

The scary thing is not that I have 14 books on this list, most of them thick. The scary thing is that I have already started making my autumn reading list of all the books that did not make it to this list.

PS If you’re interested in my progress, follow me on Instagram: @lifeinacoldclimate.

PPS If you’re looking for books I have actually finished and can recommend based on personal experience, see here.

Pictures by J, because I was cooking and the light was fading.