#BookBingoNW

  • Teen Book Bingo, Round Two

    Teen Book Bingo, Round Two

    Summer is half over!  How easy is it to fill in your card?  Here are more suggestions for each of our squares in the Teen Book Bingo, two titles per square.  Finding books set in the Pacific Northwest can be a challenge.  The easiest way to search for them is to do a keyword search… Continue reading

  • Book Bingo NW 2025: Great Escapes

    Book Bingo NW 2025: Great Escapes

    Perhaps more than any other Book Bingo category this year, Great Escapes invites personal taste and creativity into the conversation. A guidebook to somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit? A portal to a world you wish you could escape to? A memoir of around-the-world travel? A gripping thriller or sigh-worthy romance that gives you an… Continue reading

  • Book Bingo NW 2025: Dystopia

    Book Bingo NW 2025: Dystopia

    Whether offering hope in the dark or a warning about that which may well come to pass, dystopia challenges us to examine not only where we’re headed, but just as often where we already are; it allows us to bravely think and feel through anxieties of the present mapped onto nebulous future-spaces. While the future… Continue reading

  • Book Bingo NW 2024: BIPOC Romance

    This summer, dive into these romances starring Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) characters that may have you smiling or swooning in the sunshine (or rain). The Mis-arrangement of Sana Saeed by Noreen Mughees follows Hijabi Sana Saeed in her pursuit for ishq (a transcendent love that intertwines “mind, body, and soul”) in this second chance romance… Continue reading

  • Book Bingo 2024: Short Story Collection

    I have a confession – in the past I was not a fan of short stories. They always left me wanting MORE. But recently, I have evolved from a hater to a serious fan. There are so many incredible collections out now that are chock full of absolute bangers. Below, I’m highlighting four stunning short… Continue reading

  • #BookBingoNW2023: Debut Essays or Short Stories

    I’ll be honest, I’m quite distractible. And I’m a book piler. I go back and forth between novels, poetry, comics, and so on. So, what could be better than reading deeply personal or timely topical essays, or short fiction that affords the fulfilling seeds of an unfulfilled story plot or character formation? How about an… Continue reading

  • #BookBingoNW2023: Manga or Graphic Novel

    Here at the library, we have so many great manga and graphic novel titles that it can be hard to decide what to read next! Here are some suggestions for your Summer Book Bingo reading: Those Who Helped Us by Seattle-born Ken Mochizuki (author) and Kiku Hughes (illustrator, Displacement), blends a fiction and nonfiction Japanese… Continue reading

  • On Your Bookmark: Summer Book Bingo Starts Today

    On Your Bookmark: Summer Book Bingo Starts Today

    Grab a stack of books, a friend and start reading — Seattle’s favorite summer reading contest is on! The Seattle Public Library and Seattle Arts & Lectures just launched this year’s Summer Book Bingo, which encourages people to read for pleasure and to talk about books with friends, coworkers and neighbors. Need a refresher? Book… Continue reading

  • Going for #BookBingoNW2022 Blackout? Shoot the moon with these tips

    It’s almost mid-August, and maybe you’ve had an especially good summer for reading. Perhaps you’ve been playing Summer Book Bingo (or Bingo de Libros) and you’ve filled in enough squares that the once impossible-seeming goal of Blackout seems actually … attainable. Except that you’ve left the most challenging squares for last, and you’re not really… Continue reading

  • Recent and upcoming Book-to-Screen Adaptations

    Recent and upcoming Book-to-Screen Adaptations

    It’s easy to wonder sometimes if there are any new ideas in Hollywood, as so many movies and TV series are adapted from books, plays, comics, etc. But the best adaptations make the original content feel fresh and new, drawing audiences back to the source material. Continuing our tradition of books-to-screen posts, here are some… Continue reading

  • Adult Summer Reading Book Bingo NW 2022 Starts TODAY!

    Adult Summer Reading Book Bingo NW 2022 Starts TODAY!

    Today is the day–Wednesday, May 18th is the start of our 8th Year of Summer Book Bingo with our amazing partner Seattle Arts & Lectures! The bingo card artwork by local artist Jorge Villavicencio highlights the Library’s Year of Wonder theme with vibrant, whimsical balloons, kites, and reading aliens from outer space to help set… Continue reading

  • #BookBingoNW2020: A SAL Author (past or upcoming)

    You may be pleasantly surprised by just how many options there are to read a Seattle Arts & Lectures (SAL) author. SAL has been bringing writers to Seattle for over thirty years (here is the complete list), so there are literally hundreds of options. Or check out this amazing list of SAL Speaker titles available… Continue reading

  • #BookBingoNW2020: In Translation

    This year traveling around the world is put on hold, but there is another way you can do it this summer with Summer Book Bingo. The “In Translation” square let’s you travel by armchair from China to Morocco to India. Here are a few recommendations to get you started on your Book Bingo journey. Safe… Continue reading

  • #BookBingoNW2020: History or alternate history

    “Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” – Winston Churchill One of the squares for adult bingo this year is History or Alternate History.   History is just one great big story told from different perspectives.  Also, since it’s so diverse the chances are high that you will find a story… Continue reading

  • #BookBingoNW2020: Debut Book by Author Over 50

    Does age matter when we’re talking about a book’s author? It does for this specific Book Bingo square! Here we’re celebrating authors who published their first book after they reached 50, reminding us it’s never too late to start writing. Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantas Washington state author Karl Marlantas published… Continue reading

  • #BookBingoNW2020: Afrofuturism

    #BookBingoNW2020 is upon us! One of the new categories this summer is Afrofuturism. If you saw Black Panther or watched Janelle Monaé’s emotion picture for their album “Dirty Computer,” then chances are you have already been exposed to Afrofuturism. But have you read any Afrofuturist books? Dictionary.com defines Afrofuturism as (noun) “a cultural movement that… Continue reading

  • #BookBingoNW2020: Set At or By the Sea

    It seems as long as people have told stories, they have told sea stories. Gilgamesh crosses the sea and even dives to the bottom in the quest for eternal life. The nautical adventures of Homer’s Odysseus are literally legendary, as are those of Jason and the Argonauts. More recently, both Edgar Allan Poe’s Narrative of… Continue reading

  • #BookBingoNW2020: Epistolary

    And then there’s that square marked “epistolary.” You’d be forgiven for Googling that one, where you’ll find it means a story told in the form of documents, such as diaries, emails, texts, and – most traditionally – letters – aka, epistles. To which you might respond “they write novels in the form of letters?” Oh… Continue reading