BingoDOG May reads

My first book of May was a Bingo, for the animal in title, cover or significant role, so I started a new thread. Die Känguru-Offenbarung is the third in a series of humorous books where an anarchist cangaroo (don't ask) comes to live with a Berlin stand-up comedian. The routine is getting a bit predictable, but it still has its moments.

ETA: This also gives me my first Bingo!

>1 MissWatson: Thanks for starting the new thread, and congratulations! I have only eight more squares to fill, but somehow I still haven't gotten any Bingos yet!

I did not get a bingo until my 16th square. Now I have only 5 squares left . . .

Does anyone ever complete two bingo cards??

>3 NinieB: Possibly. I've been starting over every month, since I sometimes read a lot of picture books all at once, and it fills up much faster that way. I managed to get a blackout in April, but I had to read several books in the last week which I selected just because they would fit the last few squares. Which is excellent, as reading things I normally wouldn't is one of my goals this year, and I really enjoyed a couple of them, so it would have been too bad if I had not read them.

>2 christina_reads: it's amazing how hard it is to actually get a Bingo if you aren't trying! :D

I'm filling the "about or featuring siblings" square with The Sisters Brothers, by Patrick deWitt. This was a re-read for me and a great one!

My current read, Jane Eyre fits the "mentioned in another book" square - it cropped up repeatedly as I was reading Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye last month.

>3 NinieB: I completed two bingo cards using entirely different titles the past three years. In 2016 it was actually one BingoDOG card and One BingoPUP card (featuring only female authors, which I organized when a WomanCAT was narrowly voted down). We called it BingoPUP because it was not "official" although it had all 25 squares. In 2017 my second card featured only female authors; in 2018 neither card was devoted to only female (or male) authors.

>4 amaranthe: >7 sallylou61: Thank you both for your thoughts! Sounds like you are both busy readers! I think I will start another Bingo card when I fill my remaining squares.

Food related

The Wonder / Emma Donoghue
3 stars

In the mid-1800s, Lib is a nurse from England who has come to Ireland to keep watch, for two weeks, over a young girl who has not eaten in four months. Lib and another nurse, a nun, will swap shifts to always watch to see if the girl can really subsist on nothing. Is it a miracle? Lib is doubtful and expects she’ll be able to prove the hoax in short order.

I wondered part-way through if there had been people who really thought they could live without eating, and in fact, there were. Donoghue’s book was not based on one specific person, but on multiple people. Some did have people watch them at all times, as well. Donoghue’s author’s note tells us that each real-life instance had different outcomes.

I might have rated it higher, but the story was pretty slow-going. For the last third of the book or so, I thought it picked up quite a bit, but decided that I’d keep my rating at “ok”, which is where it fell for me for most of the book. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised at the crazy religious people.

Finished Flashing Swords! #5: Demons and Daggers, a short story collection that I'm going to use for the 'alliterative title' square, and my first bingo (finally!).

Cold Comfort Farm, which I finished this evening, has a weather word in its title, and is very amusing as well!

For mentioned in another book, I read In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes. I first got interested in this book and Hughes as an author when I read Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives, an excellent anthology of noir fiction by women writers.

This is an underrated noir classic that for me surpassed such better known novels as The Killer Inside Me or The Postman Always Rings Twice. Hughes writes from the point of a view of a serial killer who won't quite admit to himself what he is, depicting his breakdown as the police close in. Two things I appreciated: she never shows a murder on the page but instead lets the reader read between the lines, and the two female characters in the novel--although the killer views them as opposite "types"--are both real women who are instrumental in bringing him to justice. I recommend the edition with the excellent afterword by Megan Abbott.

I've filled 16 squares but no bingo yet.

For the Eastern European author or setting, I've read A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, a novel which dragged on for over 450 pages. I read it for my book club, and it also fit a BingoDOG square.

I finished Blood Rites for LT rating > 4.0 (it's currently 4.18).

Short stories or essays

Norse Mythology / Neil Gaiman
3 stars

Primary gods in Norse mythology include Odin, Thor, and Loki. Many/most of these stories focused on them, but there are a few others thrown in to the mix, including the beautiful Freya, in many of the stories, as well.

Neil Gaiman does have a nice voice and is a good narrator (I listened to the audio), but somehow he doesn’t always hold my attention. Seems to depend what else I’m doing at the time, though. At home/housework, I’m fine; walking somewhere – too many distractions and I lose focus. I’ve listened to a few he’s narrated, but I think it’s all been short stories, which I think is also harder on audio because when you lose focus (or when I do, anyway!), it’s harder to catch up again. I do wonder if I would have a better time listening to him read one of his novels. I’m also not always a short story fan, though the first ones in this book (when I was focusing) were good. The rest, I missed too much to really say. Overall, I’m rating this ok.

I've filled two squares so far this month:

Book mentioned in another book - Corporal Cameron of the North West Mounted Police, by Ralph Connor - mentioned in The Massey Murder, by Charlotte Gray
Author uses middle name or middle initial - Three Men in a Boat, by Jerome K. Jerome - listened to the audiobook narrated by Hugh Laurie :)

Washington Irving's Tales of the Alhambra is mentioned in Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South where it is the favourite book of Fanny Thornton. It is really a wonderful book, full of tales about the famous Moorish palace, (and it also gave me a much better opinion of Fanny Thornton).

For the graphic novel square, I read The Kite Runner Graphic Novel by Khaled Hosseini, illustrated by Fabio Celoni and Mirka Andolfo. This is only the second graphic novel I have ever read, and the first fiction title. I felt that it basically covered The Kite Runner, but hardly did the novel justice since the graphic version is 132 p. (and of course primarily illustrations) and the novel is over 300 pages.

>19 sallylou61: - I'm sure the graphic novel square is going to be the hardest square for me to fill this year. Not a genre that I ever read.

>20 dudes22: The other time I read a graphic novel was for the 2016 BingoDOG for the Comic book, graphic novel, manga, BD square. That time I read one of the nonfiction March books by Congressman John Lewis since "graphic novels" include nonfiction. I thought that book covered the U.S. Civil Rights movement well.

Three more squares (but still only one bingo!):

Children's or YA - My Body My Choice
Man title has 6+ words - Things That Fall from the Sky
Mentioned in another book - Lord of the Flies

>22 LisaMorr: Lord of the Flies was mentioned in three novels I read this year -- and the novels were different kinds of novels.

>23 sallylou61: Funny, huh? That a particular book is often mentioned in other books.

What's embarrassing is that it was mentioned in one of the books I read this year, and I wrote it down as a possible for this square, but now I can't remember in what book it was mentioned!

I read Cruel Beautiful World by Caroline Leavitt for the book bullet square.

I picked up this book blind on someone else's reaction and it just swept me away. I love it when that happens. Set in 1969, the story opens with Lucy, a high school sophomore, running away with her English teacher. Her older sister and adoptive mother are left to grapple with her disappearance, while Lucy herself discovers her new life was not the fantasy she'd envisioned. All of the characters became so real to me as the story unfolded, especially the girls' guardian, Iris, who is also coping with getting older and losing her independence. This is a bittersweet story that rings absolutely true.

ETA: This finally gives me a bingo, actually a double bingo -- both down and across!

I used Swing Time by Zadie Smith to flll the Read a Cat square. I read it for May's Random Cat, I could have danced all night.

I filled the Short Story square with Crime, by Ferdinand von Schirach, and this gave me my first bingo.

For the alliterative title square: Linked Lives by Lucy Rose Fischer.

Finally filled in the Eastern Europe square with The Mournful Demeanour of Lieutenant Boruvka (Czechoslovakia).

I used Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens for the "LT rating of 4* or more" block.

>28 NinieB: I'm pretty sure the Eastern European one will be my last one. I only have 3 left now and I think I'll get to the other two in June.

>30 LibraryCin: I'm at 3 as well. I'm going to make sure I finish them in June so I can do a second card for the second half of the year!

I'm reading Love in Amsterdam, in which the deceased was an artist. Then I'll need a book mentioned in a book I've read and a graphic novel.

>31 NinieB: Good for you! I've never done a 2nd card. Good luck!

>32 LibraryCin: Thanks! :)

I didn't expect to finish my "artistic character" square tonight, but here I am. I read Death in Amsterdam, aka Love in Amsterdam, for this square.

I had two Bingo reads in May:

Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.M. Forster for the "Uses middle initial" square
and
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen for the "Features siblings" square.

I finished the Sisters Mederos for the sibling square.

Six Moon Dance has a couple of dancers as main characters, to fill the artistic character square.

I filled in three squares during May:

* A Book Bullet - Beartown by Fredrik Backman
* Eastern European Setting or Author - Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski
* Debut Novel - The Last One by Alexandra Oliva

This leaves me with three squares to complete.

I've created a June thread: https://www.librarything.com/topic/307656.