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.

One of many Blackouts from last year’s Summer Book Bingo.

Except that you’ve left the most challenging squares for last, and you’re not really sure if certain books “count,” and you want to make you’re on the up-and-up (after all, what’s lower than cheating at honor system Book Bingo?), but you also want the satisfaction of seeing all 25 squares filled in.

That’s my situation. Although as a Library staff member, I can’t officially enter Summer Book Bingo (cards due Sept. 6 by the way), I can enter the staff version of the contest. And on my second year of Book Bingo, I’m as obsessed as any Bookstagrammer. So I turned to a few Library experts for their tips on honorably going for blackout. In the process, they answered a few other pressing questions that come up from bingo players.

Yes, audiobooks count — and you will need them: Most of you probably know that audiobooks are, well, books. It’s just a different format. So fill in those squares with as many audiobooks as you complete (matching the category, of course). My personal tip for using this to your bingo advantage: Ditch your podcast habit for the summer and listen to audiobooks. Through the magical Libby app, you can borrow, listen and fill in squares while walking the dog, running errands and doing housework.

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 of the latest options for this year’s Book Bingo book-to-screen category.

Several classics have been adapted (again) recently from Jane Austen’s Emma, to Joan Lindsay’s Picnic at Hanging Rock, to Shakespeare’s Macbeth (in a film directed by none other than Joel Cohen). In July, Austen’s Persuasion receives a similar treatment as Autumn de Wilde’s 2020 film Emma, a fresh, cheeky, pastel-infused take on one of Austen’s most problematic heroines starring Anya Taylor-Joy. The latest of many adaptations, Carrie Cracknell’s Persuasion premieres on Netflix on July 15^th, and features Dakota Johnson, Cosmo Jarvis, and Henry Golding in yet another rich, dashing romantic lead. Also worth watching/reading in the classics/historical category is Gentleman Jack, an HBO series adapted from the memoir The Secret Diaries of Anne Lister, or ParkChan-Wook’s 2016 film The Handmaiden, adapted from Sarah Waters’ 2002 novel Fingersmith. 

Paul Gallico’s charming 1957 novel Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, about a London charwoman who falls in love with a client’s Dior dress and decides she simply must have one of her own, is getting a big-screen movie release

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 the tone of your reading adventure!

Between now and Tuesday, September 6th, you can keep track of your summer reading with the goals of either getting a line of Bingo (a line across, down, or diagonal) or Blackout (filling every square on the board) and submit your entry by September 6th to be entered into a drawing for a gift certificate to a local independent book store, provided by a generous donation from the Friends of The Seattle Public Library, or to enter into the Blackout drawing for a chance to win a subscription to the 2022/2023 SAL series of your choice!

#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 for immediate download from your library.

Here are some past SAL speakers who not only have books available for in our catalog, but – for all of you who miss attending literary events – whose podcast appearances at the Library can also be enjoyed right away:

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#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 travels!

 

First stop is Iraq with The Beekeeper: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq by Dunyā Mīkhāʼīl. A nonfiction book translated from Arabic, it tells the story of several women who have been held captive by Daesh (ISIS) and of their escape with the help of a local beekeeper.

Second stop on our journey is Casablanca in The Happy Marriage by Tahar Ben Jelloun. Translated from French, this fiction novel is told from two separate points of view, the husband who has written and hidden a book blaming everything wrong with his life on his wife. When his wife finds it, she writes her own interpretation of the events held within.