December BingoDOG Reads

Am I really the first to fill a Bingo square this month?

Well, anyways, I read A Hard Winter Rain, which gets me the weather square.

I ticked the "title contains a homophone" square with Au péril de la mer, by Dominique Fortier: the homophone is mer / mère.

I'm working on my last few squares. This time it's The Brownies and Other Tales by Juliana Horatia Ewing. While it could fit in either the fairy tale square or the children's square, I'm opting for fairy tale.

Finished A Home At The End Of The World for the title with 6+ words square.

Five squares to go - can I make it?!

>4 JayneCM: YES!! *waves pom poms* Go Jayne! Go Jayne!! Go Jayne!!!

Sorry, it's a bad day; Friday 13th has barely been this depressing. I need cheer wherever I can find it >;-)

>4 JayneCM: Yes you can! I'm pushing through 4 more squares myself—if I finish it will probably be New Year's Eve!

>5 Helenliz: Thanks for the cheerleading! I have been rewatching Glee lately so am all about singing and cheerleading at the moment. Hope the 14th is proving to be a better day for you.

>6 NinieB: I cannot think of anything better to do on New Year's Eve than read, so I will probably be joining you!

Adastra in Africa by Barry Windsor-Smith is a short graphic novel about a "disgraced princess", Adastra, who restores a starving, arid, desolate African village to health.

Three squares to go!

>4 JayneCM: >6 NinieB: Go Go Go!!

>9 MissWatson: Just starting A Cloud in the Shape of a Girl for the weather word in title square. Pushing to the finish line!

Today I finished A Cloud in the Shape of a Girl for the weather word in title square. Then I read Sarah, Plain and Tall for the prize winning book square. I felt a bit like I was cheating as it is only 64 pages, but I REALLY want to finish my Bingo card! And I do love the book anyway, as well as the movie.
I may have to choose a quickie for the fairy tale square as well!

Three squares to go!

>11 JayneCM: It's fine to read a short children's book for BingoDOG. I'm thinking of reading the picture book Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss for the mentioned in another book square since I just can't get that interested in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a book that I feel I should read.

>12 sallylou61: Don't you love Green Eggs and Ham?! Dr. Seuss certainly was a master. I haven't read Huck Finn for about 35 years (that is a scary thought!) but I remember loving it. I wonder if I still would.

>13 JayneCM: I really want to read/reread some Dr. Seuss books sometime. I don't remember reading Green Ham and Eggs; I just looked on the internet and discovered it was not published until I was in high school. If I read that Seuss book by the end of the year, I will need to go to another library in our public library system; the nearest one does not have any copies available. My parents continually read Horton Hatches the Egg to me as a young child.

Both Green Eggs and Ham and Huckleberry Finn figured prominently in books I read. The young severely handicapped boy in Quaking by Kathryn Erskine was always listening too/looking at the Seuss book. Lee Smith based her novel, The Last Girls on a reunion trip of a few women commemorating a trip she and a dozen or so of her college friends took on a raft in 1965 inspired by Twain's Huckleberry Finn. I think I may read the Twain book in January for RidgewayGirl's RandomCAT.

Next year I'm planning on only filling in one BingoDOG card; I'm content this year in leaving 2 blanks on my second card: the book mentioned in a book I read and the graphic novel squares. I have no desire to read a second graphic novel.

>14 sallylou61: Both of those books sounds good.

If you look on Youtube, there are quite a few read aloud for kids videos of Green Eggs and Ham. I guess that is kind of like an audio book version!

Two Bingo cards?! That is great. I have one square left on my first one. I read my first ever graphic novel for BingoDOG. I don't think they are really my genre, particularly not the ones that make classic literature into graphic novels to make them more accessible. I would hope that reading the graphic novel of say, The Handmaid's Tale, would encourage reading of the actual book.

>14 sallylou61: - >15 JayneCM: - I still have a few squares left that I won't get to and that's ok. One of which is the graphic novel square. I just couldn't bring myself to read one.

>16 dudes22: Maybe try one of the classic literature ones. I have seen quite a few at my library - Romeo and Juliet, Les Miserables, The Handmaid's Tale, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice. There are lots. Not sure how good they might be but might be of more interest than a contemporary graphic novel.

>16 dudes22: >17 JayneCM: Both of the graphic "novels" I read for this square were short story length. I didn't want to commit to full-length, and these worked well.

I have finished my Bingo card! My last book was for the book bullet square, The Reader by Bernhard Schlink. Thanks again to tess_schoolmarm - I think you talked about this book in the 1001 Books group.

>19 JayneCM: Great job, Jayne! And with 11 days to spare!

>20 NinieB: Now I just need to try and finish some of the CATs and KITs - I am not going to finish all of them this year unfortunately.

>21 JayneCM: I'm resigned that this December is just stressful and I won't meet all my reading goals. Started vacation this afternoon, though, so maybe more reading energy around the corner!

I read Dead with the Wind by Miranda James for the "weather word in the title" square. And with that, for the first time, I have completed my Bingo card! I think next year's will be more difficult for me to fill, but it will be fun.

>23 Montarville: Yay! I just completed mine a few days ago, very satisfying!

>24 JayneCM: Very satisfying indeed!

>23 Montarville: Well done! A finish is always cause for satisfaction.

>23 Montarville: Congratulations!

All right. I received for Christmas and read today Snow, Glass, Apples, a graphic novel adaptation of the retelling of "Snow White" by Neil Gaiman for the fairy tale square. This is a really lovely book, but it is indeed horror.

So that leaves one square open on my card. Surely, I can read a children's book by the end of the year. Challenge... accepted!

>28 sturlington: The illustrations for that one look gorgeous.
You can do it! Only one square to go!

I read a book bullet for the square: The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths.

I reread The Wolves of Willoughby Chase for the Children's Book square, which completes my Bingo card and my reading for the year.

>31 sturlington: Yay - congratulations! I love the Wolves Chronicles - hoping to start reading them to my last two boys next year.

>31 sturlington: Congratulations onf filling your Bingo card!

>31 sturlington: I would love to read The Wolves of Willoughby Chase at some point. I read it as a kid and I still remember it quite vividly. And I still like Gothic!

>34 NinieB: I was surprised by how much I remembered. I think it holds up.

With one day to spare I have wrapped up my second BingoDOG card for the year!

For the translation square, I read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. This book is the 36th most popular book on LT, but somehow I had managed to avoid knowing anything about the plot. Plenty of evil and nastiness but quite the page-turner.

For the children's square, I read Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott. It's pretty much the polar opposite of the first. In a completely different way, I enjoyed it as well.

Both of these books are the first in a short series--I think I'll be returning to both.

>36 NinieB: Congrats on finishing just in the nick of time!

>36 NinieB: Congratulations! Two Bingo cards is quite an achievement!

>37 sturlington: Thanks! I was almost prepared to let it go, then vacation kicked in and I decided to do some intense reading!

>38 JayneCM: Thanks! My reading this year seemed to coincide pretty well with the squares.

>36 NinieB: I love Rose in Bloom, the sequel to Eight Cousins, if that helps!

>40 christina_reads: Definitely on the 2020 reading list! I could probably squeeze it into 2019, actually, as I'm in California for the holidays, so it's still morning of the 31st here.