Adult Summer Reading Bingo – 2 for 1

Adult Summer Reading Bingo Challenge – Overlapping Categories/Bingo Squares

Having trouble completing the rather ambitious Adult Summer Reading Bingo Challenge? Feeling overwhelmed? Fear not. I am encouraging all participants to find overlap between bingo squares and read 1 book for up to 2 squares! See below 20 recommendations of books that cover 2 squares. There are, of course, many more, but these should give you some ideas!

Note recurring themes in the lists below:

• Debut authors of novels with BIPOC Protagonists (5 titles provided)
• Debut authors of feminist retellings of myths/fairy tales (4 titles provided)
• Audiobooks narrated by the author that will also make you laugh (2 titles provided)
• Banned/challenged books that are also LGBTQ+ memoirs (2 titles provided)

There are a smattering of other, miscellaneous overlapping themes including queer romances that are also books about the ocean (or, at the very least, books with nautical themes). This is actually quite a rabbit hole one could fall into. See this bookish blog post all about “sapphic mermaid” literature, the vast majority of which is YA. Rivers Solomon, the author of a fantastic Afro-futurist novel and sapphic mermaid tale featuring a BIPOC protagonist, The Deep, was a special guest at the Maine Humanities Council (MEH)’s annual Readers’ Retreat held at SMCC this past May. I stumbled across this title a few years ago in a small indie bookstore in Minneapolis and was completely mesmerized by it. I highly recommend it!

Technically this title covers 3 bingo squares, which gives you 3 choices of where to cross-pollinate: 

• BOOK ABOUT THE OCEAN and NOVEL WITH A BIPOC PROTAGONIST
• BOOK ABOUT THE OCEAN and QUEER ROMANCE
• NOVEL WITH A BIPOC PROTAGONIST and QUEER ROMANCE

10 titles pulled from these lists:

• Bechdel’s Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (2007) – BANNED/CHALLENGED BOOKS and LGBTQ+ MEMOIR
• Kobabe, Maia’s Gender Queer (2019) – BANNED/CHALLENGED BOOKS and LGBTQ+ MEMOIR
• McNamara, Luna’s Psyche and Eros (2023) – DEBUT AUTHOR and FEMINIST RETELLING (MYTH/FAIRY TALE)
• Medina’s Sisters of the Lost Nation (2023) – DEBUT AUTHOR and INDIGENOUS HISTORY/VOICES
• Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books (2008) – BANNED/CHALLENGED BOOKS and WRITER’S MEMOIR
• Patel’s Kaikeyi (2022) – DEBUT AUTHOR and FEMINIST RETELLING (MYTH/FAIRY TALE)
• Poehler’s Yes Please (2014) – AUDIOBOOK NARRATED BY THE AUTHOR and BOOK THAT MAKES YOU LAUGH
• See’s The Island of Sea Women (2019) – BOOK ABOUT THE OCEAN and HISTORICAL FICTION (NON-WESTERN EUROPEAN) 
• Shearer’s River Sing Me Home (2023) – DEBUT AUTHOR and NOVEL WITH A BIPOC PROTAGONIST
• West’s Shrill: Notes From a Loud Woman (2016) – AUDIOBOOK NARRATED BY THE AUTHOR and BOOK THAT MAKES YOU LAUGH

10  more recommendations:

• Fu’s Peach Blossom Spring (2022) – DEBUT AUTHOR and HISTORICAL FICTION (NON-WESTERN EUROPEAN)
• Gonzalez’ Olga Dies Dreaming (2022) – DEBUT AUTHOR and NOVEL WITH A BIPOC PROTAGONIST
• Mottley’s Nightcrawling (2022) – DEBUT AUTHOR and NOVEL WITH A BIPOC PROTAGONIST
• Nethercott’s Thistlefoot (2022) – DEBUT AUTHOR and FEMINIST RETELLING (MYTH/FAIRY TALE)
• Slocumb’s The Violin Conspiracy (2022) – DEBUT AUTHOR and NOVEL WITH A BIPOC PROTAGONIST
• Tan’s Daughter of the Moon Goddess (2022) – DEBUT AUTHOR and FEMINIST RETELLING (MYTH/FAIRY TALE)
• Tokuda-Hall’s The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea (2020) – BOOK ABOUT THE OCEAN and QUEER ROMANCE NOVEL
• Van Pelt’s Remarkably Bright Creatures (2022) – BOOK ABOUT THE OCEAN and DEBUT AUTHOR
• Walter’s Malice (2021) – FEMINIST RETELLING (MYTH/FAIRY TALE) and QUEER ROMANCE NOVEL
• Wilkerson’s Black Cake (2022) – DEBUT AUTHOR and NOVEL WITH A BIPOC PROTAGONIST 

Good luck with your reading adventures and as always don’t hesitate to reach out to me with any questions you may have!

Courtney Kleftis (Adult Services Librarian – ckleftis@yarmouthlibrary.org)