Rhondak101 Starting the Bingo Challenge

1. Ivory Vikings by Nancy Marie Brown Lewis Chess Pieces
2. The House Saphir by Marissa Meyer Bluebeard Retelling
3. The Aran Islands by John Millington Synge W. B. Yeats' Library
4. To Wake the Dead by John Dickson Carr 1938
6. Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
7. Crossings by Alex Landragin
8. The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie
9. Hild by Nicola Griffith
10. The Ballad of Tom Dooley by Sharyn McCrumb
11. And Isolated Incident by J. D. Kirk
13. The Absent One by Jussi Adler-Olsen Nordic Mystery for MysteryKIT
14. Dead Weight by Batt Humphreys Great First Sentence
15. As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams by Lady Sarashina
16. Nine Times Nine by Anthony Boucher (1911-1968)
17. Forgotten Bones by Wes Markin
18. Belfast Confetti by Ciaran Carson
19. The Trackers by Charles Frazier
20. Jar City by Arnaldur Indriðason 2002 Glass Key Award for Scandinavian Mystery
21. The Croaking Raven by Gladys Mitchell
22. 4:50 From Paddington by Agatha Christie
24. The Songs of Trees by David George Haskell
25. A Snowball's Chance in Hell by J. D. Kirk

Welcome, and I hope you enjoy your Bingo reading!

Welcome to the challenge. Enjoy your reading.

Welcome and have fun with your Bingo!

Updated June 8
This weekend I planned out some more of my BINGO books
✅ *State Next Door The Ballad of Tom Dooley by Sharyn McCrumb (North Carolina)
✅ *Green Silent Spring by Rachel Carson or The Nutmeg's Curse by Amitav Ghosh The Songs of Trees by David George Haskell
✅ *Onomatopoeia Farewell, My Cuckoo by Marty Wingate or The Creak on the Stairs by Eva Bjorg Aegisdottir The Croaking Raven by Gladys Mitchell
*Indigenous Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse
✅ *Poetry Belfast Confetti by Ciaran Carson
✅ *At Sea Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
✅ *Beautiful Cover Hild by Nicola Griffith
✅ *Microhistory Smoke and Ashes by Amitav Ghosh (history of opium trade China to UK) Ivory Vikings by Nancy Marie Brown (history of the Lewis Chess Pieces)
✅ *Mode of Transport Orient Express by Graham Greene The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie
✅ *Difficult to Categorize Crossings by Alex Landragin (not the book by Danielle Steele)
*Female Author Debut The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
*End It Lingo: Around Europe in Sixty Languages by Gaston Dorren (started in June and never finished)
✅ *Legacy Library Aran Islands by John Millington Synge (Yeats' Library)
✅ *Road Trip The Trackers by Charles Frazier
✅ *Classic of Another Tradition As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams by Lady Sarashina
✅ *Senior Citizen 4:50 From Paddington by Agatha Christie
✅ *Great First Sentence Dead Weight by Batt Humphreys

As you can see, I have a backlog of Amitav Ghosh on my iPad!

Still working on Classic of Another Tradition, Senior Citizen, and Great First Sentence (I hope it finds me).

It didn't seem so daunting until I typed it out!

Good luck with your bingo reading!

I’ve got some of those Amitav Ghoshs on my TBR, looking forward to your comments.

I completed Crossings by Alex Landragin for "difficult to categorize," but I might replace it later. The novel starts with a preface. The first sentences are "I didn't write this book. I stole it." The conceit described in the preface: a bookbinder in Paris is given three manuscripts to bind together. His long-time customer, the Baroness, tells him not to read the manuscripts. When he completes the project, he learns that she had been gruesomely murdered. He keeps the book and reads it, finding it contains a short story written in the hand of Charles Baudelaire, an account by Walter Benjamin of his last days in Paris before the Nazis arrived, and a memoir of a woman who is able to cross into the bodies of others.

The bookbinder's wife notices that some pages have numbers written on them and discovers that the book may be read by following that alternate sequence, moving between the three manuscripts. The bookbinder offers the readers a choice: read the three manuscripts in order or follow the "Baroness" sequence, which provides an alternate narrative. I, of course, read the Baroness sequence. It was a very different reading experience, not knowing how much I had read already and how many pages were left.

This is an excellent novel, requiring dedication and particular type of engagement (saying more here would be a spoiler). I find myself wishing--not exactly for a sequel--but for a similar type of book. Alas, this is Landragin's only novel.

>8 rhondak101book: Thanks for the review. That sounds like an unusual and challenging book.

Set in an adjacent state/province (North Carolina)

Micro-History

Legacy Library: W. B. Yeats

Set at Sea:

>8 rhondak101book: The Landragin novel sounds interesting. I will look for it.

I read one of the McCrumb books years ago and meant to continue the series...But, too many books.

>12 rhondak101book: I am a sucker for island books. I will definitely add this to my list.

>14 BLBera: In my Global Challenge , I have added a North Atlantic Islands category under UK and Northern Ireland although the islands don't have to belong to the UK. Islands. (Obviously, the Arans, don't).
Under consideration:Orkneys, Shetland, Faroes, Hebrides, Isle of Man, Canary Islands, and Azores.

Beautiful Cover

I've owned a copy of Hild for a while, ever since a friend raved about it. It sounds like I should dust it off and read it!

Classic From Another Tradition

Great First Sentence: "If you can choose your approach to a city always take her by sea." I am not sure I approve of the gendering language here, but this line certainly made me want to keep reading.

Features Senior Citizens: 4:50 From Paddington

I had not planned to read a Miss Marple for the BINGO challenge: Features Senior Citizens. Also, I had not planned on writing a review, as there are so many. However, I am more than 24 hours away from reading 4:50 from Paddington, and yet I am still thinking about it. So, here goes…

I decided to use this book for the challenge because it contains three very different elderly characters, Miss Marple, Mrs. McGillicuddy, and Mr. Crackenthorpe, whose aging is a part of their identities. Christie handles this is a sophisticated way, showing both the characters’ own awareness of their aging and their awareness of how others see them because of their age. Mr. Crackenthorpe can get annoying with his protestations, but that is a part of the role he plays in the narrative.

The novel begins with Mrs. McGillicuddy traveling on the train to visit Miss Marple. While on the train, she sees a murder being committed in another train running parallel. She reports what she saw to the railroad authorities and the police. Both institutions doubt her veracity (befuddled old lady, probably dreaming), especially when no corpse appears in a train or along the railroad lines. Miss Marple and Mrs. McGillicuddy test a few theories by traveling on the train, but soon Mrs. McGillicuddy leaves St. Mary Mead and eventually travels overseas to visit relatives.

Miss Marple considers: “For if heretofore murder had, so to speak, been forced upon her, in this case it would be that she herself set out deliberately to seek it. And she was not sure that she wanted to do so… She was old—old and tired.” As she comes to the conclusion that she is “too old for anymore adventures,” Miss Marple is visited by inspiration, an inkling of how the murder could have been committed. At that point, Miss Marple returns to the “assets list” she has complied and determines how she can deploy friends and relations to gather information and do her legwork. I really liked seeing this interiority of Miss Marple, something Christie rarely shows in her detectives. Yet, after Miss Marple deploys her minions, she is mostly off-stage until the reveal. The detecting is divided between DI Dermot Craddock, godson of Sir Henry Clithering, and Lucy Eyelesbarrow, one of Miss Marple’s former acquaintances.

The mystery itself is usually ranked in the second tier of Miss Marples, with significant “facts not in evidence” and some issues in logistics, but it is certainly in the realm of “fair play.” And I agree. Despite all of that, I enjoyed this different function of Miss Marple.

Finishing two Bingos with this one.
Road Trip
The Trackers by Charles Frazier
Link to Review

Only 3 squares left!
Green Book

>22 rhondak101book: That’s great progress!