Book Bingo season is a time to reconnect with reading for joy and discovery. To help readers across King County find great picks for their Book Bingo board, the owners of West Seattle’s Paper Boat Booksellers join a Seattle Public Library Reader Services librarian with suggestions for three bingo categories.
Learn about Book Bingo and get started on your own board by visiting any SPL or King County Library System location, or by visiting www.spl.org/bookbingo. Submit your board by Sept. 8 to be entered to win great prizes!
PNW Black, Indigenous, or POC Author
“Thunder Song” by Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe
“The thing about our stories is that they haven’t been told,” writes Coast Salish poet and artist Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe in her essay collection “Thunder Song.” “Thunder Song” begins with ruminations on LaPointe’s childhood on the Swinomish reservation near La Conner, Skagit County, and her great-grandmother’s tenacious pursuit of a symphony homage to their heritage at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall.
LaPointe follows in her great-grandmother’s spirit, sharing her name and her determination to be seen despite cultural erasure. Exploring punk rock, queer and biracial identity, Indigenous foodways and the long shadows of intergenerational trauma, LaPointe’s prose creates spaces of counternarrative and reclamation.
“I’ll Watch Your Baby” by Neena Viel
Whidbey Island-based author Neena Viel once again brings social issues to the fore in her latest horror novel, “I’ll Watch Your Baby.” The persistent power of the welfare queen stereotype takes center stage in this layered narrative replete with crime, drama and revenge.
Two timelines — 1974 and 1994 — introduce two women who know how to get what they want. Lottie Turner and Bless are two sides of the same coin, both striving to hoodwink a system created to destroy them in this pulse-pounding supernatural thriller. Viel’s novel is also a fit for the Horror category.
Myth & Legend
“D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths” by Ingri and Edgar D’Aulaire
“D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths,” by Ingri and Edgar D’Aulaire is an oversized children’s book that brought Greek mythology to life for generations of American kids. It’s recognized as much for its beautiful lithograph-style illustrations as for its stories. Read it to your kids or read it yourself, if you can find your way back to your inner 8-year-old. Either way, it’s a good time.
It begins with Mother Earth and the Titans, then on to Cronos, Zeus and the rest of the Greek pantheon. Picture mighty Zeus, laid low by a pounding headache, and the blacksmith Hephaestus, grabbing his tools, prying open his father’s skull, and jumping back as the goddess Athena springs from the crack in his head.
The stories started as oral tradition and were shaped by poets and playwrights who picked the version that suited them. They were eventually popularized by writers such as Thomas Bulfinch and Edith Hamilton. Finally, here at the end of the chain with D’Aulaires’, they were smoothed into something palatable to children — and adults.
“Circe” by Madeline Miller
If you’re interested in a less tidy version of these stories, you could try “Circe,” Madeline Miller’s bestseller that reclaims the story of Circe, a witch and the banished daughter of Helios, who — among many other things — famously turned Odysseus’ crew into pigs.
“The Odyssey” by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson
And speaking of Odysseus, if you have plans to see the new Christopher Nolan movie “The Odyssey,” we recommend one of our favorite translations of Homer’s epic poem, the acclaimed edition by Emily Wilson. The older Robert Fagles translation has also been recently published as a beautiful bookish work of art that is a joy to read and looks stunning sitting on the shelf.
Suggested by an Independent Bookseller
“Blob: A Love Story” by Maggie Su
“Blob: A Love Story,” the debut novel from Maggie Su, takes readers on a young woman’s journey of self-discovery in unusual and unpredictable ways.
Leaving a bar late one night, Vi Liu discovers a peculiar blob of goo in the ground. Curiosity, a failed relationship and a touch of boredom with everyday normalcy cause her to pick it up and take it home. She feeds it, controls it and the series of events that follows will change both Vi and The Blob forever.
Su’s novel is beautifully written with just the right amount of strangeness. The story — unforgettable, forgiving and funny — is a reminder that life’s unexpected turns can become its best love story.
“Good People” by Patmeena Sabit
Another excellent pick for this category is debut author Patmeena Sabit’s “Good People,” a story about family, class and what it means to be a good person.
Does having money mean you are a good person? Does having what looks to be the perfect family mean you are a good person? After an unthinkable tragedy occurs to a prominent Afghan American family in northern Virginia, readers are taken on a journey of multiple perspectives, with public opinion and judgment at the forefront of the quest to find out how this tragedy occurred.
Sabit tells a riveting story about the hardships of trying to keep up with the American dream. Her writing style — unconventional and spectacular — immediately draws readers into a polished story about what’s behind a picture-perfect facade.
By Misha Stone, Eric Judy, and Desirae Wilkerson
This column was originally published in part in the Seattle Times as part of our monthly column, and is reprinted here with permission.