BingoDOG: March Reads

Starting off March, I finished reading Matilda to my son and counted it as a coming-of-age story.

Currently in the middle of The Dog Who Knew Too Much from one of my favourite series by Spencer Quinn to fill the "title uses wordplay" square.

I've finished Major Pettigrew's Last Stand for the "senior citizen as protagonist" block.

I finished In the Bleak Midwinter, the first book in an Adirondacks-set mystery series featuring a small-town police chief and a Episcopal female priest, for the "debut book" square. This gives me a bingo across the fourth row:

16. Food is important: Sweep in Peace by Ilona Andrews
17. Published before you were born: The Z Murders by J. Jefferson Farjeon
18. Features a theater: Quick Curtain by Alan Melville
19. Debut book: In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming
20. In translation: Dshamilja by Chinghiz Aitmatov

The Man in the High Castle prominently features a banned book, with a trip to the writer's house later in the novel, so I'll take credit for 'about a writer'.

>87 Congratulation on your Bingo!

>6 clue: Thanks!

>4 inge87: Congrats! The Z Murders looks good - how did you like it?

Although Marcel Theroux's Far North isn't strictly about an airplane flight, and the flight that does occur is short, it is pivotal, so I'm counting it in that square.

>8 leslie.98: The Z Murders isn't the best Farjeon book that I've read (both Mystery in White and Thirteen Guests were better), but Farjeon's good is better than many people's best, and it's a fun, worthwhile read if you're looking for a good retro-thriller complete with a cross-country car chase.

I have just completed Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household and it fits the "Adventure" square perfectly.

Translation

Let Me In / John Ajvide Lindqvist
3 stars

Oskar is about 12 years old and is getting bullied at school. He is happy to meet and become friends with the strange girl next door, Eli. Meanwhile, people are being murdered in town. Really, Eli is very strange...

This was ok. I liked the Oskar/Eli storyline, but I lost focus for the myriad of other characters and mostly wasn't following when the focus was on others. I was listening to the audio, and it tends to be even harder to keep focus with an audio.

I finished The Relaxation Response by Herbert Benson which is under 200 pages so I am counting it for that Bingo square! My review is here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/204813#5499722.

I am reading two books that will work for a title with a musical reference Canticle for Leibowitz and The Radetzky March

Oops, almost forgot to mention that I read Rogue Male for the survival story. Very good!

A very short one for the "about a writer" square is Schriftsteller! by Jessica Durlacher. Apparently it's only available in Dutch and German which might explain why there's no touchstone. Looking her up I noticed she is married to a writer, so this short novella is probably very autobiographical. Fun, though.

I just finished Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters and am using it for my coming of age square.

Last month I read Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, and counted it in the by or about woman square in WomanBingoPUP. However, I decided to use it for the title contains body of water square in BingoDOG, and substituted another title in WomanBingoPUP since I'm using different books for the two bingo cards.

I just read Act Like It by Lucy Parker, which is a pretty delightful contemporary romance. The hero and heroine are actors who are forced to "act" like they're in a relationship to improve the hero's public image. Thus, I'm using the book for the "title uses wordplay" square.

ETA: One could also easily use it for the "featuring a theater" square!

Yesterday I finished The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Other Jazz Age Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald for "title contains a musical reference". The title story was dated but good. The rest were not so good.

I just finished Girl In Dior by Annie Goetzinger. It's a graphic novel (well, I think it's really considered biography) about the fashion designer Christian Dior. The story is weak but the artwork is fabulous.

>21 clue: You've pretty much summed up I how felt about Girl in Dior when I read it in January. It was like the author had no idea what to do with the plot once the heroine became one of Dior's models.

I've finished Resurrection Science: Conservation, De-Extinction and the Precarious Future of Wild Things by M. R. O'Connor for square 7: Read a Book about the Environment. The book discusses how humans have changed the environment and how this affects conservation efforts, especially attempts at achieving the de-extinction of species.

I finished Der Verrückte des Zaren for the translation square. It's a historical novel translated from Estonian.

I finished reading Gray Mountain by John Grisham which fits into the "about the environment" square since it is about strip mining in the Appalachia including its effect on the environment: destroying mountains, causing black lung disease, polluting water, etc.

The "in translation" square was filled with A Country Doctor's Notebook by Mikhail Bulgakov translated from Russian by Michael Glenny. Highly recommended.

Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf, a beautiful little book, fills the "Senior Citizen as Protagonist" square.

I put Margaret Atwood's Negotiating with the Dead into the "about a writer" square. This book is not just about a writer but about every writer, or perhaps The Writer. Really enjoyed it.

Also, that gives me a bingo!
1. Less than 200 pages: Black Sun
2. Senior citizen is the protagonist: The Scarlet Plague
3. Survival story: The End Is Now
4. About an airplane flight: Far North
5. About a writer: Negotiating with the Dead

Congrats on the bingo!

Congrats >27 sturlington:!

I read The Radetzky March for my square, published before I was born. I do have one Bingo too but I got that last month.

Well done >30 Kristelh: for getting your first BINGO done too!

I read Navajo Autumn for the self-published square. Not very engaging.

Completed my first Bingo Line with Girl At War as my 'Debut Book'.

Congrats Judy!

This evening I read a beautiful self published and hand crafted book by poet and artist Joy Merritt Krystosek titled: Wiping Memories from Room to Room: Poems about Alzheimer's, Dementia, Grief. These are poems which Ms. Krystosek wrote as she was dealing long distance with her mother's Alzheimer's and then death. Obviously this goes in the self published square.

I just finished The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver which fits the "about a writer" square because several of the characters are writers but the main character is a children's book illustrator who eventually does write and illustrate her own children's book. My review is on my thread here https://www.librarything.com/topic/204813#5513147.

I used Pauline for the one-word title square. A romance by Alexandre Dumas père with some Gothic elements and a very Byronesque villain. I wonder why the touchstone always goes first to Brave New World by Huxley?

Earlier this month I read The Black Rose by Thomas Costain for a 'published before you were born' square. It was first published in 1945 and is a historical novel. The time is during the reign of Edward I of England and begins in England but much of the action occurs on the Silk Road.

Reread The Bad Beginning to my son. Its climactic scene takes place in a theater.

>38 hailelib: I really liked Costain's 4-volume history of the Plantagenet kings. The Black Rose sounds great!

I just finished Bee Ridgway's The River of No Return, which I'm using for the "body of water in the title" square. It's one of those books that I wanted to love, but it just didn't work for me. (Review is on my thread.)

I've finished A Burial At Sea by Charles Finch for the "body of water in the title" square.

I read The Walking Dead: Days Gone Bye, Vol. 1 by Robert Kirkman and I am using it for the "title uses wordplay" square. My review of the comic is here http://www.librarything.com/topic/204813#5518526.

I just finished reading Carson McCullers' debut novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, which is both the Big Read book this year for our public library and the monthly book for both book clubs I belong to. It took me a long time to get interested in it, but I found it very engrossing near the end.

>44 sallylou61: That is a marvellous book!

I finished The Library at Mount Char, which is Scott Hawkins' debut novel.

Less than 200 pages

The Christmas Cat / Melody Carlson
3.5 stars

When Garrison's grandmother (who raised him after his parents died), dies, he is tasked with finding homes for Gran's 6 cats – but Gran left specific instructions on exactly what kinds of homes her cats should go to. While looking for homes for the cats, Garrison meets a new woman in the neighbourhood, Cara.

It was a short cute novella. I liked the story and loved all the different cats' personalities, but could have done without the occasional religious reference thrown in.

I read Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton for the graphic novel square. This was my third GN try as I have difficulty with the format - my eyes look for text and ignores the graphics. I enjoyed Beaton's historic and literary content. Thanks to those who aimed the BB my way.

I read a historical romance, The Rogue Not Taken, for Title Uses Wordplay square.

I completed faint promise of rain by Anjali Mitter Duva which I am using for the Coming of Age square. It takes place in India in the 16th century. The youngest child of Hindu temple dancers tells the story and it runs from her birth through her coming of age.

I used John D. MacDonald for the "Author Born in 1916" square. I read the chilling The End of the Night.

>51 DeltaQueen50: Ooh, I hadn't realized John D. MacDonald was a "born in 1916" author! I have a bunch of his books unread on my shelves...

I'll have to keep him in mind too.

>52 leslie.98: Someone, and I thank that person, included him in a list of authors born in 1916 when the Bingo Squares were first being discussed. Now that I have read one of his books, I am looking forward to trying some more.

>54 DeltaQueen50: If you don't want to get involved with another series (his Travis McGee books), his stand alone Cape Fear is said to be excellent -- I haven't read it but the 1962 movie with Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum scared me to death!

>55 leslie.98: I love that movie! Yes, Cape Fear is at the top of my John D. MacDonald books that I want to read.

I have filled in the "Body of Water in Title" square with Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch.

I just read the excellent Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys, which I'm using for the "survival story" square. The protagonists are Eastern European refugees who are fleeing west to escape a Soviet advance in 1945. They contend with scarce food, extreme cold, enemy soldiers, and a shipwreck, so I figure it counts! Of course, it could also work for the "body of water in the title" square. :)

Me too, Salt To The Sea, but I used it for the Body of Water in the title square. Not a World War II story many are familiar with.

Last one for this month: The Ballad of Black Tom fits the "title has a musical reference" square.

I just finished a novella; Death in Venice for the less than 100 pages but I think I am going to move it to the square for book about a writer as the main character is suffering from writer's block and goes to Venice to get unstuck....and I have a couple other books that will work for less than 100 pages.