BingoDOG Reads

This is a general thread to record your completed squares and to ask for ideas about the ones you're struggling with.

Get your bingo cards here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/365342#8680083

Don't forget to fill in the wiki: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2025_BingoDOG

1. Newly in public domain
2. Features adoption/foster care/nontraditional family
3. A long title (5+ words)
4. Author has your or relative’s 1st or last name
5. Nonhuman narrator
6. The sun on cover/in title
7. Hollywood!
8. A place you've never been
9. Features winged creature(s)
10. A profession in title
11. Travel
12. Child as a main character
13. Read a CAT
14. Totally random
15. Originally published in a language not your own
16. Medical topic
17. A holiday in title
18. Writing about writers
19. Either "Library" or "Thing" in title
20. Features fire
21. Recommended by a friend or LT member
22. Oldest book in your TBR
23. Set in your favorite season
24. Features a birth
25. A piece of furniture on the cover

For the first six months of the year, I just read and see what fits. Then the last half of the year, I plan books for the remaining categories.

Pinning this so that folks can use it as a resource!

This is timely. I was just looking at my card and wondering what #14 - Totally random is for. I missed the planning thread, so can someone help?

>4 sturlington: The proposal as it was originally worded was “Totally random (a book either selected from LT's randomization algorithm or your own list randomized however you do it).” I’m planning on using Home > Folly > LibraryThing Roulette > Go to a random… Book of Yours and keep trying, if necessary, till I get one I haven’t read yet.

>5 Charon07: Thank you!

>5 Charon07: Oh, this is a good idea. I like this!
ETA: Now I've done it, so I know what I'll read for that square. I just need to fit it in somewhere.

I started a bit earlier because my reading year runs from Dec 24 to Dec 23, and I have already covered two squares. I read Once Upon A Christmas by Diane Farr for the "holiday in title" and The Winter Companion by Mimi Matthews, which features a birth. The birth of a pony, but it is described in detail!

Back with another question. #22 - Oldest book on your TBR: Does that mean the book that has been on your TBR the longest or the book with the oldest publication date on your TBR? Thanks!

>9 sturlington: Either! Here’s Tanya-dogearedcopy’s response to this very question. (She intended it to be the one on your TBR the longest but liked the idea of the oldest in terms of publication date too.) I’m going to use oldest published, since my oldest TBR date is for a ton of books and is the date I imported my library. I’d have to go back to Goodreads to try to figure out the oldest on my TBR, and I don’t want to do that.

>10 Charon07: Thanks, again! That makes it easy.

Long title: The New Voices of Science Fiction, Hannu Rajaniemi & Jacob Weisman, eds.

For the Non-Human Narrator square:
I Am Wind: An Autobiography by Rachel Poliquin, illustrated by Rachel Wada
As a mock autobiography, Poliquin has provided just the right level of scientific information for young readers, in depth yet keeping it interesting and without ever talking down to them. It has cultural, geographical, and even historical connections that are fascinating and guaranteed to appeal. Powerful words describe the immense power of wind, how it is generated and changed.

Wada’s illustrations are superb, conveying the precise meaning of the text, while capturing the whirling image of wind in gorgeous colour.

My first book of the year, a 5-star read:

I just read Murder after Christmas by Rupert Latimer for the "holiday in the title" square. Recommended for fans of vintage mysteries!

I have continued with the Jane Austen's Dragons series and read The Dragon of Kellynch for the 'features a winged creature' square.

It’s the free spot, I know, but I finished my first book of the year, for the ScaredyKIT, so I thought I post about it here. I read White Is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi for the “Read a CAT” square.

foster family

Beyond That, The Sea / Laura Spence-Ash
3 stars

Bea is 11-years old(?) in England during WWII when her parents decide it would be safer to send her away to the United States to live with a family there. Bea stays with Mr and Mrs G, and their two sons Gerald and William. The book continues beyond the war when Bea heads back home, and in the years beyond.

I listened to the audio and it was ok. There were a few times I lost interest, though I think not many. There were a few characters I never quite figured out, though – who are they? I guess I either missed when they were introduced or I heard it, but then forgot. The book is told from multiple points of view.

At the end of last year, I randomized my spreadsheet of TBRs and marked the first 25 from the top as titles to be read in 2025. To get my reading year off to a fast start, I’ve been picking off the low-hanging fruit, i.e., short books. The first one for the BINGOdog card is for the square, “Totally Random”: Love Story (written & narrated by Erich Segal)

#TotallyRandom

05 JAN - Original post
06 JAN - Edited to remove review (You can read reviews to my BINGOdog card in my thread)
17 JAN - Added hashtag

A holiday in the title: Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret, Benjamin Stevenson.

I am reading all kids' and YA books for my Bingo card. Here are my finishes thus far:

Little Lost Angel--winged creature
The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish--translation
Tiny Tilda's Pumpkin Pie--CAT
The Crippled Lamb--a birth
You're Only Old Once--medical topic
A Child's Christmas in Wales--place I have not visited
A Visit from St. Nicholas--travel
A Special Place for Santa--author my name/relative name (Jeanne Pieper)

I'm marking off the "read a CAT" square early with Sarah Addison Allen's Garden Spells. It works for the January ColorCAT (green cover), AlphaKIT (S = Sarah, Spells), RandomKIT (food/drink = main character is a caterer), and SF&FKIT (cozy fantasy).

Piece of furniture on the cover: Travis Baldree's Legends & Lattes, which has a table filled with tasty pastries.

Over the last few days I filled the following squares:

Recommended by a friend or LT member: Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
A long title (5+ words): Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
Child as a main character: From Far Away by Robert Munsch, Assouan Askar & Rebecca Green (ill.)

I finished The Book Censor’s Library by Bothayna Al-Essa for the square “Either ‘Library’ or ‘Thing’ in title.”

About a writer

Sweet Fury / Sash Bischoff
3 stars

Lila is an actress who has come to psychologist Jonah to help unpack some childhood trauma as she embarks on a new movie with her director fiancee, Kurt. The new movie is based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, but with a feminist twist. It seems, though, that Lila has more going on than the childhood issues; is Kurt mistreating her, as well? Plus, there are things Jonah hasn’t told Lila about knowing her when they were at Princeton together.

This started very slowly for me. I wasn’t interested in all the movie scenes, nor am I much interested in F. Scott Fitzgerald. I have read “The Great Gatsby”, but nothing else by him and the author tells us early on there are a lot of Fitzgerald references (and Easter eggs). I wasn’t a fan of the writing style. The first bit of the book was a mix of the movie scenes and letters written by Lila to Jonah (as a way to put down her thoughts). Now, it did pick up in the last half or 1/3 of the book or so, and there were some tense moments, but it wasn’t enough to bring my rating up by much (though it did a little). The end was also ambiguous to me; I wasn’t quite sure what happened there, so I didn’t like that, either. Overall, I’m rating it ok, but only for the twists and extra suspense close to the end of the book.

A place you've never been

Galileo's Daughter / Dava Sobel
2 stars

(One of) Galileo’s daughters wrote letters to her father, so this includes those letters. She was a nun (as were her other sisters, I think, though one not by choice, I think). Primarily, though, I think this followed Galileo himself more than his daughter.

This is nonfiction, and I listened to the audio (which may explain why I’m not too sure what all happened). It just didn’t hold my interest. I caught bits and pieces of things… Galileo was still religious despite the conflict his science brought to religion; somewhere along the way he was on trial and I think he went to jail? I haven’t read anything else about him, so I’m not sure, and either this book or the audio or both just didn’t interest me enough to pay attention. One word I heard far too many times was the odd pronunciation of Soeur (sounded like “sewer” or “sewar”), so I feel like I heard him say “Sewer” Maria (whatever the rest of her nun name was). That definitely bothered me! (And as I read the summary now, of course, it’s Italian, not French so the word is Suor… so I’m not sure how that should be pronounced.) Anyway, I might be willing to try a different book about Galileo, but this isn’t the one for me.

*Travel*

Lost Children Archive

This book features a non-traditional family (woman and her daughter, her husband and his son) on their move/road trip from New York City to Apacheria, Arizona. They both do sound documentation, and while she is chasing a story on refugee children and their uncertain futures, he is chasing a story about the surrender, removal, and deaths of the last Apaches to have lived outside the United States government and their erased pasts. A unique feature of this book is that the main four characters' names are never used. Side characters get names, but the main four are 'me,' 'my husband,' 'the boy,' 'the girl,' or later (I consider this minor spoilers; I'm someone who really prefers to go into books 'blind' but this certainly doesn't spoil the end of the book) the boy becomes the narrator and refers to 'Ma' or 'Mama,' 'Pa' or 'Papa,' 'me,' and 'you' or a nickname for the girl.

There were a few moments that got under my skin. At one point, the family all give each other 'warrior names' based on the father's research on the Apache. With a little more research, surely he could have figured out how giving one another 'Indian names' was a racist move. There was also a pervasive idea, unfortunately very common, that the historical dead indigenous people were 'the last of something,' or 'the last of their kind,' as if those indigenous to any area (it doesn't just happen in the States but is a pervasive idea about people indigenous to nearly every place) have all died out or moved away or disappeared into thin air. There are multiple bands of Apache that are not only still alive, but have their own websites which can be found with a simple google search.

Despite this, I still found the story very engaging. At times I was hanging onto every word. It raised interesting questions about the idea of documenting or archiving anything, about what gets put into the finished product and what is cut, who gets to tell the stories and how, and what happens when no one knows the answers. It also felt (to me at least, who has never been to these locations) like an exploration of small-town Americana through a family that is navigating a rocky point in their interpersonal relationships.

>26 LibraryCin: FWIW, I believe the Italian “suor” is pronounced more like “swore”. Something like that would drive me crazy as well!

Last year, I listened to a fantasy epic where the narrator mispronounced “scythe” something like 17-gabillion times. Every time they said “skith” or “skithe” (the latter like “sky” with a “th” sound at the end), my eye would start to twitch!

Stoner is set in Columbia, Missouri, where I have never been. This fills my second square.

I had a bit of a false start with The Mysterious Howling (The Incorrigibles of Ashton Place #1; by Maryrose Wood). I had the audio version on my laptop but two hours into the story, realized I just couldn’t stand listening to another minute of the narrator— so I started over in print. It was probably just the mood I was in but I just had no patience for the Kindergarten Teacher’s Voice coupled with the high pitch. Anyway, it’s about three feral children who are taken in by Lord Ashton. The orphans are remanded into the care of a 15-yo governess from whose POV the story is told. This is definitely one for the “Features adoption/foster care/nontraditional family” square!

ETA: It’s a children’s book aimed at 8-10-yos, the first in a series and, ends in a cliffhanger.

#NonTradtionalFamily #Orphans

13 JAN - Original Post; ETA
17 JAN - Added Hashtag

>28 Tanya-dogearedcopy: LOL! re: the eye twitching. Sounds about right.

And thank you for what it should sound like (I guess to Canada/US ears?). The narrator had a British accent, so that may be part of the pronunciation difference?

A place you've never been: Italy, in Dead Men Don't Ski by Patricia Moyes.

Places you've never been: the Sundarbans and Venice, in Gun Island by Amitav Ghosh

Sun on cover/in title: Sundown in San Ojuela by M. M. Olivas

I listened to the audiobook Down a Dark River by Karen Odden for the square “Author has your or relative’s 1st or last name.”

I'm on my Bingo board with The Man in the Brown Suit, for place I've never been (South Africa and the former Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe and Zambia); and, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd for set in my favorite season (autumn). Both books are by Agatha Christie.

Read a CAT

Benazir Bhutto: Favored Daughter / Brooke Allen
3.5 stars

Benazir Bhutto was the first female prime minister of Pakistan in 1988 (she was also the youngest at 34-years old). Her father had been prime minister earlier on before the country was taken over by the head of the military. Her father was a socialist and believed in democracy. He made sure his children were well-educated in the US and England. Benazir was attractive and charismatic. When she was elected, she promised health care, education, and more housing.

But underneath it all, Benazir herself wasn’t really democratic nor socialist, despite her adoration of her father and being groomed by him to become a politician. With her feudal family background, she felt she had a God-given right to rule as she wished. She and another party leader switched leading Pakistan throughout the 1990s, but Benazir and her husband were actually quite corrupt and stole/skimmed a lot of money from Pakistan. She was later arrested and forced into exile. But she came back to devastating results (for herself): she was assassinated in 2007.

I’ve left out quite a bit and there is a lot of detail in this short book (it’s under 200 pages). The history of Pakistan is not something I know much about, so I feel like I learned a lot, but there was also so much information that it was also hard to take it all in. It is a good book; I do feel if I’d already known more about Pakistan, I might have been able to absorb even more.

*Features a birth*, actually, many births, of lambs and calves!

The Wisdom of Sheep

I suppose the subtitle should have clued me in that this wasn't a scientific enquiry on the psychology of sheep. It was a collection of observations, quotes, and sometimes political rants from a family farmer, and probably less than half the book was about sheep. I was rather disappointed by the lack of cohesion in the book overall; many of the anecdotes seemed to end abruptly, mention details that seemed irrelevant, or veer into non-sequitur, and I couldn't figure out the logic in the order of the entries, which skipped around in chronology, tone, and subject. The politics, when they were brought up, were sometimes contradictory, and often so heavy-handed I could barely get through them, even when I agreed with the author, and the pseudoscience that occasionally graced the pages, such as sending unpasteurised milk to a recipient who had serious autoimmune conditions because 'she needs stress-free foods,' shocked and disquieted me.

However, the prose of the author was incredibly vivid and evocative, at times even poetic. Most, though certainly not all, of the entries were about cosy, down-to-earth, honest farm living. I did learn some things about sheep (and cows). The book is divided into very short 'chapters,' the longest of which, in my edition, were perhaps four pages long, which made for perfect bite-sized reading, and the book overall was just a little over 200 pages, made considerably shorter by quotes, poems, or short entries which took up only half a page and were formatted with ample blank space.

I read Due or Die by Jenn McKinlay, which is set in Connecticut, a place where I have never been.

This weekend I read Scales and Sensibility by Stephanie Burgis for the "features winged creatures" square. The book is set in an alternate version of Regency England where dragons exist, but they're only a couple feet long and are kept as fashionable pets. (So, sadly, they don't actually fly because their wings are clipped!)

For non-traditional family I read Hostage by Clare Mackintosh.
Mina and Adam adopted a child, now five years old. She’s not an easy child and has attachment issues but her parents have problems too. They are separated but living together. Mina is a flight attendant on the inaugural 20 hour flight from London to Sydney. During the flight she finds a photo of her daughter taken that morning and it becomes clear to Mina that she is being used in a hijacking plot. Adam, a police officer, at home with the child and babysitter, has a crisis of his own to deal with. It’s a fast-paced thriller that touches on many current issues.

Unfortunately I listened to the audiobook read by Vinette Robinson whose voice doesn’t change for different characters. As most of the book is either Mina or Adam speaking in first person it was very confusing. Because of the bad narration, my rating is reduced by one full star. If this book interests you, my advice is to try it in print.

I read The Legend of Good King Wencelas: A Story of the Light of Christmas (no touchstone) for "book with a long title."

Breaking Dawn for features a birth. I have finally finished this series, tick!

Claiming my first square with Hide my eyes for features fire.

I just read Jenny Colgan's 500 Miles from You for the "medical topic" square. Both main characters are home care nurses, and a big chunk of the book shows them interacting with and treating patients.

I read Caps for Sale for the Totally Random square. It was a random pick from my library using LibraryThing Roulette.

*Favourite season*, although I don't have a favourite, it is at least not my least favourite season (summer)

Mooncakes

This is a cute little graphic novel about a witch and a werewolf who were childhood friends and meet up again after some years apart, solve a mystery, foster a romance, etc. Despite the title and cover there was very little baking involved. This isn't a genre I'm familiar with so I don't have a huge vocabulary to describe it, but it was an adorable, cosy, autumnal magic adventure and I really loved it. I wish it had been longer, and there were some threads that I felt would have benefitted from being explored deeper, but overall I am very pleased with this read.

Just realised I forgot to post this here!! 3rd book and 3rd bingo square of the year.

The Poisoned Pilgrim (The Hangmans' Daughter #4; by Oliver Pötzsch; translated from the German by Lee Chadeayne; narrated by Grover Gardner) - Review in my thread :-)

#PublishedInALanguageNotYourOwn #Translation #German

Hollywood: Adam is an author and a screenwriter.

Rock Paper Scissors / Alice Feeney
4 stars

Amelia and Adam have been having trouble in their marriage. When Amelia wins a trip at work to head to Scotland to stay in an old isolated church, she jumps at the chance, hoping the two of them can start to repair their marriage. They drive through a snowstorm to get there and the church is locked. It’s cold, and dark, and they were lucky to not be killed on the drive, due to the road conditions. There are creepy things happening all around. Meanwhile, Robin lives in a small cottage nearby. Robin is a hermit and rarely goes into town. Amelia and Adam don’t know she’s there, but she is keeping a very close eye on the two of them.

We read the story from the viewpoints of all three characters. In addition, we back up in time to read letters written to Adam on their anniversary every year and we can see where things have been going wrong. There were definitely creepy bits and there were a few twists at the end; I don’t think I saw any of them coming.

Timmy and the Blue Angels by Inga Suprenant for “child as main character.”

Like >38 GraceCollection:, I’m counting my January NatureKIT sheep book, Sheepish: Two Women, Fifty Sheep, and Enough Wool to Save the Planet by Catherine Friend, for the “features a birth” square, since there were so many births of lambs. So many births, in fact, that Friend jokes about titling her book “Searching for Placenta by Moonlight.”

I finished Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle for the “Hollywood!” square. This was so much better than I expected—funny and scary and full of heart.

long title

Oh No He Didn’t: Brilliant Women and the Men Who Took Credit for Their Work / Wendy Murphy
3.5 stars

This is a collection of essays highlighting different women in history (mostly the 19th and 20th centuries, but at least one earlier than that) who were inventors, scientists, architects, artists, and more, but had their work “stolen” by men, and the men got the credit (and often, the men were awarded prestigious prizes for that work, including a number of Nobel prizes).

This was good. The stories/essays were short, so it’s hard to remember them all. There was biographical information included about the women, as well. And, sadly, a few women whose husbands took advantage and took credit for their wives ideas/inventions/art/etc. (some of those marriages also ended later). A couple of memorable ones for me was who invented Monopoly and the discovery of two-strand DNA. There were also chapteres on Einstein and his wife, Mileva, as well and F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda.

Using The Heart of the Matter for a place I've not been
The exact location isn't stated clearly, but it is in Africa and I've never been there, so it counts.

Quite like that I've managed to start with squares 1 and 25!

>54 Helenliz: You're on your way to a diagonal Bingo!

I listened to the audiobook of The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa for the “profession in title” square.

Just finished reading Into the West - the 2nd book in Mercedes Lackey's Founding of Valdemar trilogy. I hadn't intended to use it as a bingo book. Though it would have been excellent for "travel", I'd already picked something else for that. When I got to the major final battle against the "Blood Forest" though, I discovered that the book fits the "features fire" prompt perfectly, as burning is the only hope of defense once the malignant forest attacks.

Also picked The Church on Ruby Road for the "nontraditional family" prompt, since Ruby's adoptive mother has fostered 33 children over the years. My copy is due to be delivered from Barnes & Noble on Monday.

Features a birth (or a few)

The Wisdom of Sheep / Rosamund Young
2.25 stars

The author runs an organic farm. These are little anecdotes.

The book started well – a bit of her biography/background. But then it got into chapters of (sometimes odd, in my opinion) anecdotes. Some chapters were just a poem or a quote from literature; some were about other critters (not sheep) such as frogs, insects, butterflies, birds. Many chapters (maybe more than the ones about sheep?) were about cows. (Some of) the chapters on cows and sheep were the most interesting to me, but often she’d also throw in more literary references and other things that just were odd to me. There were some nice little illustrations and it was a very fast read.

I am using Notre-Dame – Geschichte einer Kathedrale for the "features fire" square, because it begins and ends with the fire that damaged the Paris cathedral in 2019. It’s a non-fiction history of the church and manages to pack a lot of information into 128 pages.

Crook o' Lune by E. C. R. Lorac features a fire.

Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman (by Sam Wasson; narrated by Grover Gardner) - I read Truman Capote's novella, Breakfast at Tiffany's first and then watched the 1961 film (directed by Blake Edwards) before reading this biography & social commentary of Audrey Hepburn and the impact her role as Holly Golightly had— and still has— on the public's imagination.

#Hollywood #BreakfastAtTiffanys #AudreyHepburn #Movies

I read Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe and put it into the nontraditional family square for now, but I may move it to the long title square if I read another book with a nontraditional family.

Features a birth: Second Class Citizen by Buchi Emecheta describes the traumatic birth of the narrator's third child.

I read The Solar System Buddies for the "sun" square. Delightful illustrations!

I read (re-read) The Good Thief’s Guide to Amsterdam by Chris Ewan for the travel square.

I love this series by Isle of Man author Chris Ewan. This was a re-read for me, ten years after the first reading. My review at that time has not changed.

The first of the Good Thief's Guide series introduces Charlie Howard as an author of mystery stories who appears to get his ideas from being a burglar. Charlie is quite appealing, one can almost forgive him for being a thief - presumably the source of the "good thief" epithet. In this case, he was approached by someone who asked him to steal three figurines of the wise monkey variety in connection with an old diamond heist. The plot became a little bogged down requiring a long denouement, but Charlie pulls it off and even throws in a surprise ending. This was an audiobook with excellent narration by Simon Vance.

I have finished Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and used it for the "profession in the title".

For writing about writers, I read The Anatomy of Story by John Truby.

I Inexplicably woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep— so finished listening to Three Hands in the Fountain (Marcus Didius Falco #9; by Lindsey Davis; narrated by Christian Rodska). Set in Ancient Rome and the campagna (countryside), Falco traces the water system of the city via its aqueducts— all in an effort to uncover a serial murderer.
I long to go wander around the glory and ruins of Rome but so far have only vicariously experienced them through film, museums and books— so this book is for the square, “A place you've never been”.

#APlaceYouveNeverBeen #AncientRome #CityOfRome #Italy

For the "totally random" square, I used a random number generator to choose a book from my "My Unread Books" collection here on LibraryThing. I got 182 out of (at the time) 275 books, which was John Bude's The Lake District Murder. I didn't particularly enjoy the book, alas, but at least now I can clear it off my shelves!

My totally random book was Under the Rainbow by Celia Laskey. I let a random number generator pick a book off my library list that I knew next to nothing about going in. I did enjoy it.

>68 Tanya-dogearedcopy: I am so fortunate to have been to Rome twice. It would take many more trips, or at least longer ones, to see the ruins, churches, fountains, and other interesting locations there. I did get to the Vatican and to Mass with Pope Francis, and to the Vatican museums, as well as some other churches and piazzas and of course shopping and dining.

The edition I read of The Sittaford Mystery by Agatha Christie featured a table (furniture) on the cover.

I read The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor for the “long title” square. It was a terrible disappointment.

>73 Charon07:
My "long title" book, The Curse of the Giant Hogweed, was a bit of a disappointment as well, or at least not at all what I expected.

My long title book was Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. Not a disappointment--it was a fun, light read, which is what I expected--but it is jarring to read these older books with their casual racism and offhand references to wife abuse.

Using On Chapel Sands for square 2 - features adoption.

I have filled six squares so far:

Set in a place you've never been: The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman, England
5+ word title: A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
Child is the main character: Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai
Features winged creatures: Within the Sanctuary of Wings by Marie Brennan
Travel: A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers
Translation: In the Heart of the Seas by Shmuel Yosef Agnon, from the Hebrew

I just read Simple Jess by Pamela Morsi, which is set in a place I've never been -- the Ozarks in Arkansas. Never been to the region or the state!

One more -- today I finished Beg, Borrow, or Steal by Sarah Adams, a fun enemies-to-lovers contemporary romance. The book has a piece of furniture on the cover, specifically a table.



Edited to add: This would also work for the "writing about writers" square, but I have something else in mind for that. :)

Sun on cover or in title: Cue the Sun, Emily Nussbaum.

*Long Title:*

Organizing Solutions for People with ADHD

I had glanced through this one a few times but never sat down to read it all the way. This was a good book with lots of helpful tips, and I would definitely recommend it, although there were a few things I know I'd never do.

For example, the author reiterates a lot about getting rid of anything you aren't sure you'll need, never buying things in bulk, etc. I have always been someone who would 'rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it', and while I recognise the need to tone that back in general, I'm never going to do exactly what she has prescribed here.

She also recommended going through your child's toys, clothing, etc and getting rid of things you don't think they'll miss, because they simply can't be asked to hold the attention required to determine for themselves if they need something or not. For anyone who wants to control their child's clutter, I would recommend purging after birthdays and holidays, and then storing those items somewhere kids can't see (top of your own closet, maybe) to see if they ask 'have you seen my...?' and if they don't miss it after six months or so, then I would take it to the charity shop or sell at a rummage sale. I'm a firm supporter of allowing children, even really little ones, at least some autonomy over their possessions.

Some of her more prudent tips, at least to me, include: open shelving, especially in closets, to reduce 'use it/wash it/buy it and then don't put it away' syndrome; storing things as close to the spot where they're used as possible, including buying duplicates if necessary of items like cleaning products, so that they're more likely to be put away; getting multiple laundry, recycling, and garbage bins, and putting them in every spot where those things begin to pile up; and creating 'staging areas' where the complex art project can sit for months without being in anyone's way, where things can sit while they await being moved to the correct location, and where stuff like purses and keys can be easily dumped without interrupting anyone else. She puts emphasis on systems that might work and look a little ugly (open shelving with towels and toiletries in the washroom) over systems that look perfect but which can't be maintained, and on reducing the amount of steps it takes to perform tasks and clean up afterwards.

Nonhuman narrator

The Incredible Journey / Sheila Burnford
3.5 stars

When their owners leave for months, two dogs and a cat are boarded with a friend many miles away, but when that person leaves for a few days, the pets (after a mixup with the people meant to care for them for those few days) head out to find their way to their owners’ home through the wilderness in Ontario. One of the dogs is older, one younger, but they all have bumps and bruises along the way and sometimes come close to death as the three do their best to survive and take care of each other as they encounter water to swim across, various humans (most who help), and various wildlife.

I enjoyed this. It was quick to read. I do suspect the author had pets herself as many of the descriptions of the animals seemed pretty true to life. Despite this being a Canadian “classic” (I think), I’ve never read it before, nor have I seen any of the movies.

>81 GraceCollection: Possibly the best opening line ever for a review about a book on organizing and ADHD 😀

Organizing Solutions for People with ADHD

I had glanced through this one a few times but never sat down to read it all the way

>83 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Oh! I hadn't even noticed. How funny! I can be such a stereotype, sometimes. I suppose that's why stereotypes persist, because sometimes, they're true.

I read The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth for #1 place you’ve never been, in this case Australia.

A suspense story about twins Fern and Rose. Fern has a sensory processing disorder but has a fairly normal life, working as a librarian. She is funny, pleasant, describes her condition well through her story told in first person narrative. Rose has chosen to be her carer, and her side of the story is told from a retrospective of her journal entries. Fern decided to have a baby that she would give to her sister who has had trouble becoming pregnant. Naturally that plan goes awry but not without some suspense.

Although the plot is predictable and somewhat banal, the story was light and entertaining.

If you liked Elinor Oliphant, you will like this one.

I read Cascade Failure by L. M. Sagas for the “nonhuman narrator” square. This space opera is told from the alternating points of view of the five main characters, one of whom is the ship’s AI.

In 2007, I moved from the East Coast to the West Coast but I couldn’t afford the moving costs of my library. So, a local Friends of the Library shop got a very large donation and, when I came out to Oregon, I basically started rebuilding my stacks. All this to say that, outside of some old college text books and some reference books (I love old dictionaries!), the oldest unread titles on my shelves are from 2007.
At that time, I read a book about Doolittle’s Raid and I became so interested in the event, that I collected a couple documentaries, an audiobook, a reference book (maps! 😍)… But then they got shelved unread while my attention was caught by something else 😬
Anyway, I spent this past weekend going down a rabbit hole and clearing out a corner of my bookshelves reading about Doolittle’s Raid, watching documentaries and, enjoying 30 Seconds Over Tokyo (starring Spencer Tracy and Van Johnson). The oldest book in stacks though was The Doolittle Raid 1942: America’s first strike back at Japan (Osprey Campaign #156; by Clayton K. S. Chun) and even though it was less than 100 pages, it took me a couple days to sort through it!

#OldestBookInYourTBR

Hello everybody,

I've three entries so far.

For the "travel" square: Galiläa by Pierre Loti. The travelogue of a journey through the middle east in 1896. Unfortunately it says more about the attitude of the author than about the land and the people he meets.

For the "language not my own" square: Archangel One by Currie Evans. A highly entertaining space opera action romp through the galaxy. If snark could win the universe, these people would do it.

For the "recommended by a friend" square: The Scar by China Miéville. I got these books (it's split in two in the German translation) as a gift from a friend many, many years ago and never got around to read them although I adore Miéville and already read some other parts of the Bas-Lag universe. So, it was high time, and I didn't regret it.

During the month of January, two of my reads fit the 2025 Bingo:

Lone Women by Victor LaValle for the Read a cat/Kit square
Leopard at the Door by Jennifer McVeigh for an animal in Title square

I've finished two books this month for Bingo blocks:

All the Colors of the Cattle by Alexander McCall Smith for title more than 5 words
My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout for author has first/last name of you or relative

I've been reading a lot of comics throughout January, and I managed to fill about 20 squares with comics alone, so, inspired by LadyoftheLodge, I think I will do a full bingo card with comics before I move on to more regular programming.

Most of the albums are in Danish, translated from the original French and Italian, so I don't think it will make a lot of sense to mention them here. I'll make sure to update the wiki though.

>91 amberwitch: Thanks for the recognition! I am so glad I could be an inspiration for your reading.

I read The Lucky Red Envelope: A lift-the-flap Lunar New Year celebration by Vikki Zhang for the "holiday in title" square. Beautiful illustrations! Highly recommended. I received a digital version, but I bet the lift-the-flap part is way cooler in print version.

Another last minute January entry for the "Read a CAT" square: H. Beam Piper's "Omnilingual" fits the Alpha Kit January with the letter O.

In The Honourable Schoolboy, all the agents travel a lot, so I’m using it for the travel square.

And I have filled the Hollywood! slot with Mord im Filmstudio which is set in a Vienna film studion in 1925.

My latest read, Penric's Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold, works for the "features fire" square -- the main character becomes a sorcerer and is able to start fires via magic, which becomes a crucial plot point in the climactic scene.

My totally random read was Die Toten vom Lärchensee, which I took down from the top of one of many piles.

For "fire," I read Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy, in which arson is a major part of the plot.

I finally filled another square! I finished Call Us What We Carry, a poetry collection by Amanda Gorman. The poems mainly deal with the covid-19 pandemic, so this fits the "medical topic". I am really happy about that because I thought that it would be a hard square for me to fill.

Child main character: Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman

BingoDog reads so far this month:

Library Mouse for Writers square
Library Lion for Library/Thing square
Arthur's Teacher Moves In for Profession square

I just finished Agatha Christie's The Seven Dials Mystery for a book "newly in the public domain." According to the Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke University School of Law, works originally published in 1929 are now in the public domain in the US. More info (and a list) here: https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2025/

>103 christina_reads: Thanks Christina. I'm thinking of reading Patrick Hamilton's play, Rope, on which the Hitchcock film was based. Patrick Hamilton is hard to read because he's so very bleak, but Rope is short.

Due to changes in copyright laws, nothing is newly in the public domain this year in Australia or Canada.

I read Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware for the "Child is main character" square.
The book begins as a letter to Rowan Caine’s lawyer in an attempt to show she is not guilty of a child’s death. It then goes on to tell the tale as it happened. When she was accepted as a nanny for a family in rural Scotland she was delighted even though the home was fully controlled by an app and her employers left on a business trip immediately. A captivating read.

*Place You've Never Been*: Alberta, Canada

Green Grass, Running Water

This was a wonderful book. In a non-linear style, King masterfully weaves indigenous oral tradition, Western canon, and the lives of five realistic, dynamic Blackfoot characters with his own wry brand of humour. The book sort of hits the ground running, so at times I got some characters mixed up, but I was sad to see this book end. The unique narrative structure really pulled at me: we would have a scene in the present, which would remind a character of something in the past, and at the end of the scene from the past, we would get an echo of the action happening back in the present. My description doesn't do it much justice; it isn't as confusing as it seems when you actually read the book. Catching cultural references or references to small details from earlier in the book, and seeing them all 'pay off' eventually, made this book a real treasure. I may have to revisit it another time.

"Library" or "thing" in title: Bodies from the Library, Tony Medawar, ed.

I read The Promise by Damon Galgut for the "place you've never been block". Took place in South Africa.

This may be thinking outside the box of "Features a Birth" a little bit but I'm counting The Six Wives of Henry VIII (by Alison Weir; narrated by Simon Prebble) for that square! Henry's reign from his ascension at the age of 18 to his death in 1547 at the age of 55 was largely defined by his six marriages which were in turn premised on the birth of an heir:

1. He had his first marriage annulled because Catherine of Aragon did not provide a male heir (and in consequence broke off the Church of England from Rome). It should be noted that Henry came to think that this marriage was a sin and that he was being punished by God by not being blessed with a son;
2. His second marriage in his quest for a boy was headed for the rocks when Anne Boleyn produced another girl (and cultivated quite the enemies list);
3. His third marriage to Jane Seymour only ended when she died in childbirth (producing his only male heir, Edward VI);
4. The Anne of Cleves marriage was never consummated because he didn't like the looks of her (so no spare);
5. Catherine Howard was young (17-18-yo!), vivacious and promising as a future mother-- except her infidelities caught up with her-- so after a year a marriage, she lost her head. It's also suspected that at this time Henry was impotent;
6. And finally, Jane Seymour who he found great comfort in; but again, no issue. Interestingly, after the King'a death, she would remarry and almost immediately conceive at the ripe old age of 37.

Henry's reign would be remembered for the policies and seismic cultural shifts predicated on his need for a male heir. Collectively, his six wives would provide only three children: "Bloody" Mary, Elizabeth I, and Edward VI-- the latter who would not survive past his fifteenth birthday. So, "birth" as a theme and a few births actually featured :-)

#FeaturesABirth #MaleHeirs #FemaleHeirs #HeirAndASpare

Child main character

Better Nate Than Ever / Tim Federle
3.25 stars

13-year old Nate lives in Pennsylvania, but dreams of being on Broadway. When there is a casting call for a musical production of E.T., he and his best friend Libby collaborate so he can get into NYC for a day without his parents finding out so he can try out for the part of Eliot. Nate was excited, not only to try out, but to also experience New York for a short time.

I listened to the audio and this was enjoyable. Some humourous bits thrown in. It’s meant for a young audience and I expect many that age would enjoy this little adventure of Nate’s. It looks like this is the start of a series, but I’m not sure if I’ll continue. The narrator was the author himself and he did a very good job. Adding an extra ¼ star for his narration.

My "child main character" is Little Nick, as read in his original comic strip adventures from 1955: Le Petit Nicolas – La Bande Dessinée Originale.

Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens contains a couple of nontraditional families. First, the Boffins are more parental to John Harmon than his own father was. Second, Jenny Wren, who calls and treats her alcoholic father as her child, ultimately finds a father in Mr. Riah.

I finished The Wrong One by Dervla McTiernan, which features a fire in the end of the novella, when the house itself, which is supernatural/haunted in a good way, starts to burn in order to save the innocent and kill the perpetrator.

This creates my first bingo! Yay!

I read The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver for the square “Features adoption/foster care/nontraditional family.” The plot involves a young woman who has a toddler dumped on her by an unknown woman at a bar near the Cherokee reservation in Oklahoma. It’s all about found family, and there’s an adoption.

>113 MissBrangwen: Congratulations! :-)

I have filled two more squares:

Medical topic: The New Menopause by Mary Claire Haver
Non-traditional family: Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear by Seanan McGuire

One of the main characters of The Hermit of Eyton Forest by Ellis Peters is 10-year-old child Richard Ludel. Another square filled in!

For the "adoption/nontraditional family" square, I read The Tale of Mallory Mouse which is about a mouse who gets adopted.

I read Terrace Story by Hilary Leichter for the square “A piece of furniture on the cover.” There are many pieces of furniture, since the cover shows the cross section of a house with several rooms: a bed, table, chairs, chaise longue, china cabinet, etc. Sadly, I didn’t like the book as much as I liked the cover. I listened to the audiobook, read by Xe Sands, who I think I’ll try to avoid in the future since I seem to never like the books she reads, and I’m vaguely thinking it has something to do with her style.

I decided to use a ColourCAT book for the "read a CAT" square, as that brings me closest to my first Bingo (one more and I’m there): Die goldene Stadt by Sabrina Janesch.

A former retiree gone supersoldier, a cloned only partly human teenage super-supersoldier and their adopted daughter go into a bar - to save a newly minted planetary colony destined to fail by galactic politics. If that doesn't count as "Non-traditional family", I don't know.

The Old Man's War series by John Scalzi is a great read, and The Last Colony works perfectly for the Bingo square :)

I don’t remember when I bought Auf der Suche nach dem Goldenen Mann, but it must have been during my university days. So it is clearly among the oldest books on my TBR.

I read The Poet by Yi Munyol, which perfectly fits the "Writing about writers" square.

...and I have also read (and looked at) The Map of The Hobbit by John Howe & Brian Sibley. The cover shows the front hall of Bag End with a stool, a table and a bench, so I am using this for "A piece of furniture on the cover".

I finished listening to Oliver Twist (by Charles Dickens; narrated by Jonathan Keeble). This could counts towards the prompt for “Features adoption/foster care/nontraditional family” as Oliver is an orphan who finds himself in a few family situations— loving or criminal and/or temporary. But, as I have already satisfied this prompt with The Mysterious Howling (by Maryrose Wood), I’m counting this book towards “Features child as a main character”. Oliver ages from 9 to 12 over the arc of the narrative.

#ChildAsMainCharacter #Tween #NontraditionalFamily #Orphan #Adoption

>125 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Interestiung choice! As I recall, most of Dickens’ novels have unusual families of some kind...

Furniture on the cover: Schlumpf Erwin Mord. It's hard to see on the photo, but the men are sitting in a pub at a chair and table:

Read The Long Flight Home by Alan Hlad for the "Winged Creatures" square, as it deals with homing pigeons used to gather intelligence for the Brits in German-occupied France during WW2. I really liked the historical backdrop, didn't like the romance and the juvenile writing.

I read Sally Hepworth's book The Good Sister for "a place I've never been" (Australia) but as it features a birth I'm going to move it to that square instead. For anyone else searching for one to fill this square I can recommend it.

*Author with the same first or last name as yourself or a family member*: Laura
More Than Mythology

This was actually a collection of articles adapted from an academic conference on the same topic, so each chapter was written by a different person about something different. Some of the articles talked about the Finnish and the Saami or the Finnish and the Karelian, but some were just about your everyday Norse mythology (Oðinn, Þor, & co.) Perspectives included Finnish linguistics/literature, Viking grave archeology, and early Christian proselytism, so there really was a little bit of everything.

It wasn't quite what I had expected from the description, but it was interesting and I did learn a lot. I skipped the last two chapters as, at a glance, they didn't seem to address Finno-Urgic culture/mythology. My favourite chapter was 'Gender, Sexuality, and the Supranormal', which discussed, in part, magic that women were believed to possess to protect their families and livestock and to curse others.

That chapter was written by a Laura Stark, and one of my favourite aunts is named Laura, so I'm counting it for that bingo square!

I have finished Der wunderbare Massenselbstmord, translated from the Finnish which is definitely not my own language.

Place you've never been: The Sermon on the Fall of Rome by Jerome Ferrari is set mainly in Corsica and partly in Algeria.

Non-traditional family: One Perfect Day by Diane Burke is about adoption.

Bingo!

I read The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard for the square “the sun on cover/in title” for my first bingo.

>134 Charon07: Congrats!

For "a profession in the title" I read The Nanny by Gilly Macmillan.
There were so many twist in the plot that I couldn’t bear to put the book down. Every time I decided I had solved it, another twist came about. I really enjoyed this very clever psychological mystery.

I just made it through the whole bingo card with all comics/graphic novels! And in the proces I think I read (and reread) more than 50 albums and collections, covering a period of time from 1904 to 2023.
Now I’ll start a new bingo card, to see how far I get with my more regular reading.

*Features Adoption/Non-Traditional Family*
The Girl Who Drank the Moon

I really enjoyed this fun children's fantasy adventure about the power of love, stories, and the moon. The traditional 'witch demands a baby as sacrifice' gets a sort of twist here — the witch picking up these babies has no idea why they are winding up in the woods, only when they are abandoned so that she can save them and usher them into new, loving families on the other side of the forest. The journey is treacherous, so she feeds the babies starlight when she runs out of milk. Only, one night, she accidentally feeds a baby moonlight, and the magic of that moonlight turns Luna into a witch herself.

Without offering a cheap summary of the rest of the book, this was an engaging fantasy even for an adult to read, and taught some moving and important lessons — about grief as love, about love as magic, about evil not as an inborn trait but as misplaced sorrow, about what it means to grow up — but all of it without the kind of condescension you see in a book that is trying too hard to teach children lessons.

One thing I really loved about this book was the way it portrayed adoption. Adoption in fiction, especially in fiction that isn't really trying to make a point about adoption but simply features it as a byproduct of other tropes (especially in fantasy as a genre), often has a point about 'real parents'/'real family', such as 'we are your real family because we're the ones who took you in and raised you,' or the alternative but no less hurtful 'you're magic because your real parent(s) were the most powerful wizards the galaxy has ever seen/gods/superhuman/etc.' Even conversations in real life about adoption often hedge, implicitly or explicitly, on the adoptee 'choosing a side' to love and be a part of at the exclusion of the other. I didn't find that in this book. Over and over again, the main character affirms that being reunited with her mother gives her additional family, not alternative family — 'My love isn't divided. It is multiplied.'

Although this book could have fit in many BingoDOG spaces (child main character, features a winged creature, features fire), because of this, I'm counting it firmly in 'features adoption/non-traditional family'.

>137 amberwitch: Congrats! I am almost done with my children's/YA card.

I read I'm My Own Dog for the "nonhuman narrator" square.

I have filled in a number of Bingo squares that I haven't reported here:
* The Thirteen Problems by Agatha Christie, for writing about writers. Miss Marple's nephew Raymond, who features throughout the book, is a writer.
* The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie, for newly in public domain (this year).
* Guiltless by Viveca Sten, for features a birth. Thorwald's birth affects his parents in ways that guide the plot.
* Mr. Parker Pyne, Detective by Agatha Christie has a profession in the title.
* The Mysterious Mr. Quin by Agatha Christie features travel to the Riviera and Corsica.
* Closed Circles by Viveca Sten was published in a language not my own.
* Lord Edgware Dies by Agatha Christie has main characters who have starred in Hollywood motion pictures.

I'm using Knife by Salman Rushdie for the medical topic square.

I used Tom Lake for the Hollywood! square because one of the characters does become a movie star and there is a small section set in Los Angeles. I may choose another book later in the year if it's more fitting, though, but here's a recommendation for Tom Lake, which is lovely.

The Practical Heart by Fiona Hill has an embroidered screen on the cover, so I've put it in the Furniture on Cover square.

I read Mary Barton, which features a factory fire for the square.

I finished the first Bingo with Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster for the "Writing about Writing" square.

I read Pageboy, a memoir by actor Elliot Page, which fits the Hollywood square.

>137 amberwitch: Congratulations on covering your card!

I just read Small Bomb at Dimperley by Lissa Evans, fully intending to count it for the "recommended by a friend" square (thanks, @pamelad!). But it also has a main character who was a foster child, and I can't think of anything else on my TBR that would fit the "adoption/foster care/nontraditional family" square, so I'm counting it for that one instead.

Two more squares filled:

Writing about writers: Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge
Features a birth: The Lost Bookshop by Evie
Woods

Curious George Curious About Fall for the favorite season square.
Close to Famous for the Hollywood square, since the main character aims to have her own baking show, modeled on a favorite Food Network show and baker.

Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo for square 20: recommended by a friend, in this case Judy, aka @DeltaQueen50
This is a story of Tommo Peaceful, a boy living in a rural community under the stern control of the colonel, and magistrate, in “the big house”. When Tommo and his brother Charlie become old enough to enlist in the army they go to fight in The Great War. Although intended for a young adult audience, this book can be appreciated by adults. Although there was nothing really distinctive in the story that hasn’t been covered often in other books about love and loss and the class system of the early 20th century, it is nicely presented by Morpurgo taking the still underage Tommo from his comfortable village life to the savagery of the WWI battlefields.

I read The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie, which entered the public domain in the US last year.

Features a birth - Family and Borghesia by Natalia Ginzburg. There are a couple of children born in Borghesia.

Author has relative's 1st name: John

Curious George Curious About Fall for the favorite season square
Close to Famous for the Hollywood square
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day for the furniture on cover square
What was the Great Chicago Fire? for the fire square

I've filled 4 blocks in February:

The Ride of Her Life by Elizabeth Letts for the "Travel" block
The Promise by Damon Galgut for the "place You've Never Benn" blcok (South Africa)
Circling the Sun by Paula Mclain for the "Sun on Cover or in Title" block
The Grave's a Fine and Private Place by Alan Bradley for the "Child as a Main Character" block

My dad's name was John. For the author has name of a relative square, I read:

The Russia House by John le Carré
Without doubt, John le Carré is the best author of espionage. In this one the writing is tight, the plot is complex yet clear enough to follow easily, and his characters are developed to perfection. As with all of le Carré’s books, I was hooked and couldn’t put it down. Every time I read one, I want to go back and enjoy them all again from the beginning.

Set in my favorite season (autumn): Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders. (read in galleys, due to be published in August, and happily recommended)

During the Month of February I completed four more Bingo squares.

: Newly entered into the public domain - The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie
: Travel - Turn Right for Japan by Steve Anthony Tallon
: Share name with author - Red Water by Judith Freeman
: Non-traditional Family - The house on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

I read Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House by Eric Hodgins for the author-with-the-same-name square. My brother's name is Eric.

I've finished Educated by Tara Westover for Unconventional family where the author was raised and home schooled by fundamentalist Mormon parents.

Writing about writers: Women Writing Musicals, Jennifer Ashley Tepper.

I read Toad of Toad Hall for newly in public domain square.

Children of War by Ahmet Yorulmaz was translated from the Turkish, so I am using it for "a book originally published in a language not your own".

"Thing" in title

Medical topic

For the "author has your or a relative's first or last name," I read The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren. The book would also work for the "travel" square, as the main characters go to Hawaii and do various touristy activities there.

Travel

I have reached my first Bingo with a book recommended by a friend (my sister, actually): Frankie.

I just read Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men on the Bummel for the "travel" square. It's a faux travelogue in which the three main characters do a bicycle tour of Germany (as well as some bits of what was then Austria-Hungary).

I've filled the "place you've never been" square for New York with Run Away by Harlan Coben. I'm usually not a thriller reader, so I was a little astonished that I was able to guess the basic crime constellation at less than half the book, but it was an enjoyable pageturner nonetheless.

Filled a few more squares:

Sun on the cover/in title: Sun of Blood and Ruin by Mariely Lares
Profession in title: The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djeli Clark
Recommended by a friend: Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez, rec from my sister
Furniture on cover: Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez, someone is sitting in a chair

I read Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle for the “features fire” square, featuring the fires of hell as it does.

I just finished The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials #3; by Philip Pullman). It featured three types of winged creatures:
• Angels - Ephemeral creatures that could only be seen in certain half-light conditions. There are three specifically identified in the story but there are also hosts that are enjoined in epic battle. Feathers everywhere!
• Harpies - Each has a face like ugly woman and a body like a vulture. These stand guard at the gate to a plain of death. Numerous harpies shriek and intimidate; but one stands out and later serves as a guide through the plain.
• Tualapis - Winged "sail-birds" large enough to serve as boats, they resemble swans but with a fore and aft configuration of wings instead of wings on either side of their body.

#FeaturesWingedCreatures

I read All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot for the Medical Topic square, as it's about veterinary medicine.

This gives me my first Bingo!

profession in (sub)title

My book for a title with more than 5 words is Armut, Reichtum, Schuld und Buße der Gräfin Dolores by Achim von Arnim, a very long tale of a marriage with lots of digressions.

I read Three Apples Fell from the Sky by Narine Abgaryan for the square “originally published in a language not your own.” It was originally published in Russian.

The "medical topic" square was filled by The Angel Tree by Lucinda Riley, a family drama over three generations fuelled by amnesia and mental illness. It was okay, only far too long and dragging in places (especially when it was terribly predictable), and I found some of the protagonists pretty annoying.

Features fire - there were a number of fires set, by the Donnellys? Not sure, maybe by others, but it was one of the many things the Donnellys were accused of. In any case, someone set a number of fires (among other things) in the community

>140 NinieB: I have substituted An Editor's Tales by Anthony Trollope in place of The Thirteen Problems for "writing about writers. The stories in An Editor's Tales have as their central theme writers and writing, so this is a better choice for the square.

I read The Lindbergh Nanny by Mariah Fredericks for "a profession in title".

I’m using Ungeduld des Herzens for the medical topic, because the female protagonist cannot walk and is desperate for a cure when a young cavalry officer takes an interest on her which she misreads.

I’m counting The September House by Carissa Orlando for the “set in your favorite season” square. I didn’t select it for the BingoDog, but my library hold came in. The book isn’t so much set in the fall in general as in September specifically, which is a dramatic time in this haunted house.

Just finished Frau im Mond, a very early SF novel by Thea von Harbou for the "newly in public domain" square. She was not only Fritz Lang's wife, she also wrote the scripts for most of his movies, Metropolis probably the best known, as well as a number of accompanying novels. And as she died in 1954, her works are in public domain according to German law since last year.

Filled out a few BingoDog squaredans so far this month:
19. Either "Library" or "Thing" in title: The library of the unwritten
A bit of a disappointment - I was not impressed with the writing, the worldbuilding or the characters. Too derivative for my taste.

I read The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey, published in 1929, for the “newly in the public domain” square. This was her first Inspector Grant mystery. I’ve had her The Daughter of Time in my TBR for a while, and I look forward to reading it after seeing what Tey could do so early on in her career.

For "writing about writers," I've read Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast, which discusses Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Hemingway himself, among others.

And for "originally published in a language not your own," I read Anna Gavalda's Hunting and Gathering for (I think) the third time. It was originally published in French (as Ensemble, c'est tout, a much better title) and was translated into English by Alison Anderson.

>187 christina_reads: That's a strange translation of the title for sure! In German it's Zusammen ist man weniger allein which means Together one is less alone/lonely, which is long, but sounds quite poetic and at least a little closer to the original.

For the square "library" or "thing" in title, I read E. M. Delafield's The Way Things Are.

For 16. Medical topic, I read Hjernegymnastik, which is about brain health and dementia. It purports to be about how to keep your brain healthy, but I did not find it particular useful or instructive. And with a name like ‘brain gymnastics’ I expected very clear directives, not just generalised observations and anecdotes.

I completed 3 more squares in March bringing my total to 9 completed squares.

: Random Book - True Grit by Charles Portis
: Features Winged Creatures - Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen
: Hollywood - The Hollywood Daughter by Kate Alcott

I read Limu the Blue Turtle and His Hawaiian Garden for the "recommended by a friend" square. This was a colorful picture book that my sister brought for me when she once visited Hawaii.

I read kunsten at handle klogt for ‘22. Oldest book in your TBR’.
I have no idea how or when I acquired this book, but it has been sitting around for years.

Read in translation: The Rabbit Factor by Antti Tuomainen, originally written in Finnish (David Hackston, translator).

Two for the Lions (Marcus Didius Falco #10; by Lindsey Davis; narrated by Simon Prebble) - Marcus and his partner take on the role as revenue auditors for Vespasian and in the course of one case, become somewhat distracted by the death of a man-eating lion. From the Coliseum in Rome to the shores of North Africa, Marcus pursues leads wherever and whenever the opportunity strikes— some to comical affect, others tragic. Ms Davis usually sets herself stories either firmly in Rome or in some distant and exotic outpost but this time we get a taste of both: She renders the sights and crowds of the Coliseum in Rome vividly but with an equally artistic touch describes the heat and Punic influences on Triplotania in North Africa. When Marcus travels abroad, the passages take on the descriptive tone of a tourist and it’s easy to imagine the author transposing her own experiences from visiting these places to that of her protagonist. While this book isn’t the travelogue that Last Act in Palmyra is (the whole is a tour through the Hellenistic Decapolis), the wonders and travails of journeying through Ancient Rome are incorporated smoothly into the narrative. Marcus travels by boat (which he hates), horseback (uncomfortable), litter (he had a cold and his wife bundled him up in a hilarious outfit) and, when he can, on foot.

#Travel #NorthAfrica #Boat #Horse #Litter #OnFoot

Read Cast in Atonement, the latest book in the long running series, The Chronicles of Elantra, by Michelle Sagara and used it to cross of “15. Originally published in a language not your own”
It was never all that well-written, but I have found it to be a comfort read over the years. This one was, unfortunately, a bit weaker than others in the series, or else I was a bit more critical.

I decided at the beginning of the year that my "totally random" book would be the 12th book I read that wasn't filling any other Bingo square -- a small enough number that I knew I'd get to it, a big enough number that I wouldn't be specifically plotting how to get to it -- and that turned out to be The Sirens' Call by Chris Hayes.

I read Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver, essentially about the impact of global warming on monarch butterfly migration in the context of a small Appalachian town, which qualifies for the “flying creatures square.”

I finished 3 books for my Bingo card this month:

Fowl Eulogies by Lucie Rico for the block "features a winged creature"
The Five Wishes of Mr. Murray McBride by Joe Siple for the block "medical topic"
The Wife You Know by Chad Zunker for the block "features fire".

I just finished The Lost Ticket by Freya Sampson, which features a birth.

Seemed like the perfect time to continue this thread:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/369663