March 2021 BingoDOG Reads

I'm starting off the month by filling the "Character You'd Be Friends With" square with Curious Toys. I think I would have loved to be friends with Pin, the fourteen-year-old girl disguised as a boy who is the main character of this novel.

I read Incomparable World by SI Martin, which is a picaresque novel about African American men in the Georgian London of 1786-7. 5*

BingoDOG: Suggested by a person from another generation (friend a dozen years older than me)

I read Penguin Modern Poets 15: Alan Bold, Edward Brathwaite, Edwin Morgan, which is a 1969 collection of work by those three poets.

BingoDOG: Book by two or more authors

I'm currently reading The Chinese Orange Mystery by Ellery Queen for the "two or more authors" square. Ellery Queen is the pseudonym of writing team Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee.

I just finished To Calais, In Ordinary Time for "time word in the title." What a fascinating, yet trippy book.

I have just finished Verschlossen und verriegelt which is set in Stockholm which I would love to visit. Especially now that we can't just pop across the Baltic in a ferry...

I read an anthology, Tiny Nightmares, for the "2 or more authors" square.

I finished The Courbet Connection by Estelle Ryan for the "by or about a marginalized group". The main character has autism.

My impulse read is Adeliges Leben im Baltikum, a small book about manor houses in what today is Estonia and Latvia, plus some historical facts. I bought this because I'm interested in the region, and I read it immediately on arrival because of the gorgeous cover illustration.

I read Piranesi and am using that for the one word title square.

I read The Labyrinth Gate, by Alis Rasmussen (Kate Elliott), which was her first fantasy novel, published in 1988. 3.5*

BingoDOG: Book with a love story (the newlywed protagonists amongst others).

I'm counting Amazing Spider-Man: Edge of Spider-Verse for the "two or more authors" square because there are six separate comic books in it, each with a different author. (The book itself was OK, but I will get more out of it by counting it for this square.)

I'm counting Equal Rites for book with a senior citizen protagonist, since it's as much Granny Weatherwax's story as Esk's.

I used Watery Grave for classical element in the title, which is a bit of a cheat since it should be water rather than watery. I'll replace it if I end up reading something that fits better...

I read Clean Slate: new and selected poems by Daisy Zamora, which is a collection of her poetry from 1968-93 in both the original Spanish and an English translation. 4*

BingoDOG: Book with a character you think you'd like to have as a friend (several of the characters and the author)

I read Uprooted in March and am counting it for the square; Describes You. I am currently staying in Florida (home is Minnesota) and I am currently "not working", which hasn't been a state for a very long time. Probably the 70s.

I'm using Revenger for the one-word title.

I read The Book of Pebbles by Christopher Stocks (Author) and Angie Lewin (Illustrator), which is a non-fiction book on the natural history and art of pebbles. Stocks' text washes around Lewin's art like waves on the shore. 5*

Quote

"Sometimes at night I lie in bed and listen to pebbles being made. The sound is uncanny, yet oddly comforting, like the slow deep breath of a slumbering giant - or more prosaically, as they used to say one the Isle of Portland, like everyone in Weymouth swishing their curtains open and closed at the same time;"

BingoDOG: A book about nature or the environment (pebbles!)

I used Hamnet as my "one word title" square.

I read The Underwater Museum : the submerged sculptures of Jason deCaires Taylor with photos by Jason deCaires Taylor and two essays, by an art critic (5pgs) and a marine biologist (8pgs), which is a like a museum exhibition catalogue featuring the author's earlier works in Grenada and Mexico. The art photography is stunning, and the ecological intention of helping natural marine reef-building using carefully constructed sculptures of local people is fascinating. There are photos from the creation and installation of the sculptures, and later photos of organisms inhabiting their new undersea proto-reef homes. 5*

BingoDOG: Element in title (water)

Son of a Trickster, by Eden Robinson, contains some magic, so I have used it for the "book with or about magic" square.

I read Love by Toni Morrison for the "one word title block

I read Fireheart Tiger by Aliette de Bodard for "classical element in the title," which turned out to be especially apt, since one of the main characters is a fire elemental.

I read The Lost Diadem which turned out to work for the "20 or fewer LT members" square. Including myself, there are only 4 members with this book.

I read Angel (revised 2011 edition) by Merle Collins, which is a novel about three generations of Grenadian women, during the thirty years from 1951 to 1983, that the author originally wrote and published in 1987 and then rewrote and republished with Peepal Tree Press in 2011. 4.5*

BingoDOG: a one word title

I just read The Unsuspected by Charlotte Armstrong, which I'm counting for the "title describes you" square. No one suspects my inner devilry! :)

I just read Pyramids for type of building in the title, which leaves me only two books away from my first blackout.

>25 christina_reads: I love that! Everyone needs a spark of inner devilry.

I read Here We Are by Graham Swift for the "about magic" square.

Swift is a master of taking the lives of ordinary people into another dimension. In this case a boy evacuated during WWII who learned magic tricks from his new family. He teams up with Evie, a pretty dancer, to perform at Brighton's end of the pier show in 1959, where they are introduced by Jack, a song and dance man. Only Swift could make this into a captivating, sensitive, always intriguing story of love and magic.

Arts and recreation

A Piece of the World / Christina Baker Kline
2.5 stars

I listened to the audio and missed much of the first half of the book, so the summary will be sparse. Christina was born with some kind of deformity in her legs, and as she gets older it’s harder and harder to walk. Oh, she grows up on a farm in Maine. That’s all I’ve got!

The book flips back and forth in time from when she is a child in the early 1900s to the mid-1900s as an adult, but the earlier storyline catches up with the later one. I finally did get some interest towards the end of the book, but by then, I didn’t know who some of the characters were – Sam? At one point, I thought he was a brother, but I’m not sure. Learned toward the end that Al is a brother. I also got mixed up with an early love interest, as I thought he was a later-on artist who used Christina as a model, but apparently they were two different people/characters.

Oh, and surprise (to me)! As I peruse some of the other reviews, I had no idea this was based on a real painting by a real artist, so presumably the artist in the story goes by the real artist’s name? Since I thought the love interest and the artist were the same person (other reviews reminded me his name – the love interest – was Walton), obviously I have no idea who this artist is, though it finally did occur to me that they were two different people when I realized, later on that the artist’s name started with an A (but after finishing the book, I can’t remember – apparently it’s Andrew). You can see I’m not much into art! Throughout most of the book, I was considering rating it 2 stars, but as I did finally get interested at the end, I upped it to 2.5.

I just finished Tales of the Tikongs for the Southern Hemisphere square.

I read The Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice for the square "about a marginalized group".

Communications can be patchy in the north, so when phones, satellite, power and tv goes out no one worries at first. It's just an inconvenience. But the breakdown continues and becomes life-threatening for some. I appreciated that Rice did not go into details about the cause of the breakdown but stayed with how it affected a small indigenous community in northern Ontario. This was a very different story of an apocalypse while providing a view of life on the reservation. Recommended.

I have finished Astérix et les normands and I am using the magic potion of Panoramix for the "contains magic" square.

I read Travels with my Aunt by Graham Greene, which is a novel about a dull retired English bank manager who becomes entangled with the life and travels of his rather more exciting aunt, via Brighton, Paris, the Orient Express, Istanbul, and Paraguay. 4*

Aunt Augusta ": her face looked as hard as a face stamped on a coin."

BingoDOG: senior citizen protagonist (retired protagonist and his aunt in her mid-seventies)

I just completed my first blackout. Maybe I'll try for one per quarter...

>34 susanna.fraser: Congrats!!

>32 MissWatson: I read that recently too! Asterix and Tintin are rapidly joining Wodehouse as my go-to books when I need something cheerful.

>36 leslie.98: Yes, I saw this on your thread and my only memory of it was that everything is eaten à la crème, so I had to refresh my memory.

I read my first five-star book of the year, The Dutch House by Ann Patchett, so of course it is one I would heartily recommend.

>39 sturlington: Oh, add my recommendation to that one too. I listened to the audiobook read by Tom Hanks.

I just finished Thick as Thieves by Megan Whalen Turner, so now I can confidently say that it's a book I would highly recommend! The series is one of my absolute favorites, but it should definitely be read in order, starting with The Thief.

Fewer than 20 LT members have this on their shelf (18... might be 19, now, with me)

The Figgs / Ali Bryan
3.5 stars

June has just retired, but with her and Randy’s three adult children still living at home (though they’ve been trying to get rid of them for a while!), there’s not much time to relax. When she is trying to get her kids to help her clean the basement, her youngest son, Derek, gets a phone call. He needs to go to the hospital because Marissa is having her baby. Who is Marissa, June wonders, but they pile in the car to be there with Derek. Soon, Derek is home with a baby he’d only found out a week or so earlier that he was the father of. Daughter Vanessa seems to have a much older girlfriend – who new Vanessa was a lesbian!? Not June, nor Randy. Both June and Randy also have their own family issues going on at the same time…

This was a whirlwind! I liked it, but I’m sure happy to live alone. All that activity was crazy and would drive me insane! I like my quiet life. There was humour mixed in here and there, as well. This is a local author to me, so it’s always fun to read about places I know in my city.

>25 christina_reads: Love it! :-)

>34 susanna.fraser: Congratulations!

Started in on my second bingo card with What Abigail Did That Summer for "about or contains magic."

Magic. And this gives me my second Bingo

The Hero's Guide to Being an Outlaw /Christopher Healy
3.5 stars

This is the third (and final – sniff!) installment of the “Hero’s Guide” series, which follows the “League of Princes”. The League of Princes consists of four Princes Charming (which is not the real name of any of them!): Duncan, Liam, Frederic, and Gustav. Although the princesses (Snow, Rapunzel, (Cinder)Ella) have been involved in all adventures in the series, in addition, this time around, they (as well as an additional character Val Jeanval, and Lila, Liam’s younger sister) give themselves a name (which Snow shortens to ffff… though I can’t remember what exactly it stands for! But I liked Snow’s shortened version!).

Anyway, in this one, all our heros are “WANTED” for the murder of Briar Rose (aka Sleeping Beauty), though they don’t even realize it initially! There are bounty hunters on their tail, looking for the “untold riches” that are promised to those who bring them back alive.

As usual, this was fun! I listened to the first two on audio, which I think added to the “ambiance”, though I do recall that I did occasionally lose interest, but Bronson Pinchot was the narrator and with all the accents and voices he can do, what fun! With the ebook this time around (the library did not have the audio for this one), I do think I was able to keep more focus, though I did miss those voices and accents! I am sad that the series is finished.

>45 LibraryCin: Congratulations on your second bingo!

> I read The Corsair by Abdulaziz Al-Mahmoud, which is a historical adventure novel about piracy and politics set in 1818-19 in the Persian Gulf and Arabian Peninsula along what was known as the "Pirate Coast". For me this was a mildly interesting read for the history and Qatari cultural influences but a slightly below average novel, although readers focused on the adventure aspect might enjoy it more than I did. 2.5*

BingoDOG: Read a CAT or KIT.... GeoKIT Asia (Persian Gulf and Arabian Peninsula).

Claiming Fire in the thatch for contains an element in the title.

I'm using Fear in the Sunlight for the "dark or light in the title" block.

Nature or environment

Woman in the Mists / Farley Mowat
4.5 stars

Dian Fossey was chosen by Louis Leakey (the same man who sent Jane Goodall to study chimpanzees) to study gorillas. Dian did not have a degree in a related field, though she loved animals. She started in the 1960s until she was murdered in her cabin in 1986. She fell hard for some men (though she never married), but she also did not get along with a lot of people, including some of the students who came to work with her. There was a lot of friction as different people had different ideas about how Karisoke (where she ultimately ended up studying the gorillas in the Virunga Mountains in Rwanda) should run.

The gorillas (and other animals there) were often targeted by poachers and the area also had farmers who allowed their cows into what was supposed to be a protected park area. Dian took it upon herself, in order to save the gorillas, to do (and train others to help… plus she used her own money to pay people since the park rangers didn’t appear to do anything to help) what she called “active conservation”. That is, destroying the snares/traps, rescuing as many animals caught in those traps and by poachers as possible, and catching the poachers. She didn’t agree with bringing tourists to visit the habituated gorillas, though she later relented as long as they were small groups, but she still wasn’t overly happy about it.

Farley Mowat took much of this book from Dian’s own journals/writings, and changes the font in the book to indicate when/where he is using Dian’s words. He fills in the rest. I read “Gorillas in the Mist” years ago. It focuses more on the gorillas themselves, whereas this (though it includes some of the gorillas) focuses more on Dian and the politics and relations with the various people involved. I also read a book by two of Dian’s former students who she didn’t get along with, but I don’t recall all the animosity (but it was so long ago, I may not be remembering, or maybe they left out some of the political issues). In any case, it would be a dream for me to study wild animals in the wild! So, I really enjoyed this. Frustrating at the people who weren’t helping Dian more with her “active” conservation, though I’m not sure I would be brave enough to confront poachers with guns and machetes, either!

I read Lucky Jack Road by J.G. Toews for the "contains a love story" square.

I enjoyed reading a mystery set in the British Columbia town of Nelson, near where I live but unfortunately it was disappointing. If the sex and swearing had been omitted, this might have passed for one of the Enid Blyton mysteries I read when I was a pre-teen. Not well-written but it was nice to visit the Nelson area.

ETA: The love story was between two teenagers.

I read Revolution Song by Russell Shorto for "about history or alternate history." It's a sort of braided biography of six people, some famous, some obscure, whose lives were impacted by the American revolution. It's well-written popular history I'd recommend for anyone with an interest in the era.

Character I'd like to have as a friend

Uprooted / Naomi Novik
4 stars

Every 10 years, the Dragon comes to the valley to select a 17-year old girl to go with him. She is not seen again for the next 10 years. The people allow this because the Dragon makes sure the evil in the Wood that surrounds them stays at bay. Growing up, Agnieszka (and everyone else) always knew it would be her smart, beautiful best friend, Kasia, who is chosen. Possible spoiler, though it happens in the first couple of chapters: But, it’s not Kasia who is chosen. It’s Agnieszka.

I really enjoyed this. This one has (Baba) Jaga mentioned – she’s not a character, as she is long-dead, but she is mentioned and her effects are felt. Many know that I am not always a fantasy fan (depends on the type of fantasy), but I do like fairy tales. This one had a lot going on – not all at once, but one thing after another. Lots of adventure in this one.

I read The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Dejeli Clark for the "shorter than 200 pages" square, although it would also fit the magic and alternate history squares.

I used The Burning Court by John Dickson Carr for the "type of building in the title" square. Although a court (as in a courtyard) isn't a building, Carr was using the word in the sense of a courthouse.

I read Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson for "One Word Title".

I don't think I will completing any more books for March, but this was a good month for my bingo squares. I completed the following

: Impulse Read - The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell
: New-to-You Author - Long Bright River by Liz Moore
: A Book You Recommend - Dodgers by Bill Beverly
: Type of Building - White Houses by Amy Bloom
: Contains Magic - The Mermaid's Madness by Jim C. Hines
: A Book About History - Blue Jacket by Allan Eckert
: Rec. by Someone From a Different Generation - Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

My Bingo card is filling up nicely, yet I still haven't completed one line bingo!

>56 DeltaQueen50: I know what you mean, mine is looking similar. I was wondering what the maximum slots you could fill without a line anywhere. >:-)

I just realized that The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley would work for the "about time, or time word in the title" square. The plot centers around time travel -- the main character slips between 1700s England and the present day.

>56 DeltaQueen50:, >57 Helenliz:. i'm having the same problem; I've filled 14 squares with no Bingo. However, I checked my records for other BingoDOGs the last three years and discovered it was the 13th square last year (finished reading March 28th) and the 16th square for my second card; the 11th square in 2019 (finished reading Feb. 16th), and 17th square for my second card; and 5 square in 2018 (Jan. 14th) when I deliberately tried to get an early Bingo, but 17th square for my second BingoDOg card. Prior to that I did not indicate on my reading spreadsheet when I got Bingos.

Although a number of people find this card easier than others, I find it much more difficult. For many of the squares I cannot really plan ahead for what I will be reading. Plus, personally I don't care for the "touchy/feeling" personal squares such as title describes you and character you'd be friends with.

>57 Helenliz: According to a random Reddit thread, the maximum number of squares you can fill without getting a Bingo is 20. One possible configuration would look like this, with X indicating filled squares and O indicating empty squares:

OXXXX
XOXXX
XXOXX
XXXOX
XXXXO

>60 christina_reads:. The illustration above shows another bingo -- diagonal from upper left to lower right.

I am not having this trouble, because I just got a second bingo, by filling the "By or About a Marginalized Group" square with Interior Chinatown, which fulfills both criteria.

I don't plan my bingo reads in advance--or I haven't until I've gotten down to the last square or two--so it comes down to chance when I fill a line. I am finding this year's card easier to fill than last year's, but then again, my reading as a whole really fell off last year.

>61 sallylou61: But those are squares that are NOT completed. So, no Bingo there.

>63 LibraryCin: I know that those are empty squares. However, now I see what you mean; those open squares prevent any bingos since the open square prevents a bingo going either up or down any row. Filling any one of those squares would result in at least one bingo.

For the Dark or Light square I read At Dark of the Moon by Alice Chetwynd Ley, which is a Regency romance.

I have only two squares to go now, Recommended by someone of a different generation, which I have started, and Somewhere you'd like to go, which shouldn't be too difficult.

>60 christina_reads: that was what I logically thought would be the maximum. I'm at 12 and no lines as yet.

>64 sallylou61: Yeah, sorry I couldn't find a better way to explain!

I've read The Rose Code by Kate Quinn for the "history or alternate history" block.

>67 LibraryCin:. I guess I just look too much for squares in a straight line. I think not have any possible bingos showing would have been clearer to me.

XX0XX
0XXXX
XXX0X
X0XXX
XXXX0

It's difficult to come up with patterns without a bingo in some vertical, horizontal, or diagonal line. Probably others got the concept much more quickly than I did!

>69 sallylou61: I had to think for a few minutes to wrap my head around it, too, initially.

I probably wouldn't have taken the time to figure out the pattern you've added! LOL! It is tricky!

Belatedly adding a book for the "marginalised group" square which I fnished on 31 March: Der Grenadier und der stille Tod which features a deaf-mute and a girl from a settlement of French Huguenots who keep to themselves amiong their German neighbours.