Summer Book Bingo - 2017

Summer Book Bingo (5/17/17 – 9/5/17)   

1.  Recommended by a librarian – The Watsons go to Birmingham – 1963 -- Christopher Paul Curtis    (6/27/17 – 7/4/17)

2.  Choose a book by its cover – Ubik – Philip K. Dick (6/2/17 – 6/20/17)

3.  You’ve been meaning to read – Kiln Zone - Sharman Badgett-Young (6/1/17 – 6/16/17)

4.  Young adult – In the Unlikely Event – Judy Blume   (8/5/17 – 8/24/17)

5.  Biography or memoir – Five Days in November – Clint Hill (7/8/17 – 7/10/17)

6.  Adapted into a movie - Harriet the Spy – Louise Fitzhugh (7/11/17 – 7/14/17)

7.  Graphic novel – Monster Mash – Jennifer L. Holm (5/26/17 – 5/29/17)

8.  By an author of color – Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison   (4/17/17 – 5/31/17)

9.  Recommended by an independent bookseller – The Shepherd’s Life – James Rebanks   (7/13/17 – 7/18/17)

10.  Set in another country – The Gambler – Fyodor Dostoyevsky (7/21/17 – 7/30/17)

11.  Genre that is new to you (Magical Realism) – The Ocean at the End of the Lane – Neil Gaiman  (7/19/17 – 7/27/17)

12.  Banned – I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou (6/3/17 – 6/12/17)

13.  Collection of essays or short stories – Patriotic American Stories – (8/5/17 – 8/15/17)

14.  Published the year one of your parents was born - The Man Who Was Thursday – G. K. Chesterton from 1908, year my dad was born – (6/25/17 – 7/8/17)

15.  Fiction – Augustus by John Williams (4/29/17 – 5/20/17)

16.  About art or an artist – The Quotable Artist – Peggy Hadden -- (6/20/17 – 7/7/17)

17.  A Seattle Arts & Lecture (SAL) speaker (past or upcoming) - Zone One – Colson Whitehead (6/15/17 – 6/27/17)

18.  Reread a book you read in school – The Ghost of Blackwood Hall - Carolyn Keene (6/16/17 – 6/20/17)

19.  Finish in a day – Heaven by Randy Alcorn (6/1/17)

20.  Washington state author - Shared Glory – D. M. Ulmer (5/16/17 – 5/31/17)        

21.  Poetry – Bronte – Poems – Emily Bronte (7/8/17 – 7/23/17)

22.  Science nonfiction or science fiction (STEM) – The Fourteenth Goldfish – Jennifer L. Holm – (6/12/17 – 6/15/17)

23.  LGBTQIA author or character – Beauty Queens – Libba Bray (7/31/17 - 8/9/17)

24.  Recommended by a young person – Double Fudge – Judy Blume (7/4/17 – 7/13/17) 

#56 - Norse Mythology - Neil Gaiman

Title:  Norse Mythology

Author:  Neil Gaiman

Genre:   Non-fiction 293.13

Read by:  author

Publisher/Date:   Harper Collins/2017

Dates listened to:   8/24/17 – 8/31/17

CDs/Hours: 6/6.5

IBSN:  978-0-06-266363-4

I very much liked Gaiman’s latest book on Norse Mythology.  It was like being a kid again and listening to fairy tales or in this case, stories about Loki, Odin and Thor and other Norse gods and goddesses.  Loki is the scamp – duping others and being duped.  Odin the father figure, highest of the high, wise, daring and also cunning.  Thor, Odin’s son, incredibly strong and in possession of a magic sword.  Combine all these with giants, dwarfs, caves and castles, a trip to hell and back and you have storytelling at its best. 

#55 - In the Unlikely Event - Judy Blume

Title:  In the Unlikely Event

Author:  Judy Blume

Genre:   Fiction  

Read by:  Kathleen Mc Inerney

Publisher/Date:   Alfred A. Knopf/2015

Dates listened to:   8/5/17 – 8/24/17

CDs/Hours: 11/14

Pages:  402

IBSN:  978-1-101-91404-5

Judy Blume was a teenager in Elizabeth, New Jersey, back in the 1950s when air travel was becoming popular.  She remembers the fatal crashes out of the local airport and now writes about that period of time in the life of fifteen year old Miri Ammerman.  Thirty-five years later she returns to her hometown to attend a commemoration of the worst year of her life.

My flood of tears seem to gauge how well I like a book and this was a five hanky story.  Actually, not so much in the middle where the tragedies occur but at the end where Blume pulls together her characters and their volatile and moving relationships.  She weaves together a haunting story of three generations of families, friends and strangers, whose lives are profoundly affected by these disasters.