2018 Big Book Summer Wrap-Up

It's still 93 degrees and humid here today, but the calendar says that it's September and Labor Day was Monday, so it's time to officially wrap up another great Big Book Summer!

I host this challenge every summer and always enjoy participating in it myself. You can read all the details at the Big Book Summer Challenge page, but the bottom line is to read books 400 pages or longer during the summer - just one or a few or as many as you want! What I really love about this challenge is that it gives me the extra incentive I need to finally tackle some of the longer books I've put off reading - I always end up reading some really amazing books, and I make a (small) dent in my overflowing TBR bookcase, too! You can go back to my starting post for My 2018 Big Book Summer in May to see what books I hoped to get to this season.

So, drumroll, please! Here are the Big Books I read this summer:

Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld (599 pages) 
Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon (740 pages)
The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey (457 pages)
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell (405 pages)
City of Savages by Lee Kelly (406 pages)

And I also listened to Plus One by Elizabeth Fama on audio (400 pages in print)

So, I met my goal of finishing 6 Big Books this summer, though I added the audio and didn't have time for The City of Mirrors (#3 in The Passage trilogy) by Justin Cronin (though I still plan to read it and finish the trilogy). Wow, that's a pretty good Big Book Summer for me!

You can read my reviews of the Big Books I read at the links above. I enjoyed every one of these, and a few (Afterworlds, Dragonfly in Amber, and The Sparrow) just blew me away. As I say every summer, why did I wait so long to read these amazing books??

So, that was my summer, but lots of other people enjoyed a wonderful Big Book Summer, too. A total of 26 people joined the challenge this year, with 15 linking up on the challenge page and another 11 through the Goodreads group for those who don't have blogs. I enjoyed reading all your reviews of Big Books, and we had some great discussions in the Goodreads group! You can check out links to reviews and wrap-up posts on the challenge page.

And now, it's time for the 2018 Big Book Summer Giveaway! I'm doing something different this year. Instead of giving away one of my own Big Books, I'm giving away a $15 gift card to either Book Depository or Amazon. I used a random number generator, and the winner of this year's giveaway is:

Jane GS of the Reading, Writing, Working, Playing blog

Congratulations, Jane!

Jane is a repeat participant from past summers and enjoyed the challenge again this year.

Here's to another rewarding, fun Big Book Summer - Congratulations to everyone who participated! 

I hope that YOU will join the fun next year!