Finish your #BookBingoNW2021 card with some Peak Picks

Need to fill a couple of spots on your Book Bingo card, and looking to get a book quickly? The Peak Picks display at your Library may have just what you need to get at least one bingo line or, perhaps, an entire blackout. Although we think all Peak Picks should be on a reading list, for the sake of time (and finishing as much as you can for Book Bingo), we’re featuring titles that are either relatively short, or readily available now. It’s down to Book Bingo business for these next eight days…

Romance: Accidentally Engaged by Farah Heron:  “A fake engagement sparks real romance on the set of a cooking contest in this delightful rom-com. Reena Manji, an aspiring baker, is initially charmed by the flirtatious smile and ‘brown Captain America’ good looks of her new neighbor, Nadim Remtulla—until she discovers that their meeting was not serendipitous but the result of a business deal between their fathers. Reena immediately rejects the idea of an arranged marriage with Nadim, but when an opportunity arises to appear on a Toronto cooking show for couples, she turns to him for help. Equally sweet and spicy, this is sure to leave readers smiling.” – Publishers Weekly.
Also: One Last Stop.

#BookBingoNW2021: Mystery and Crime under 250 pages

As Summer Book Bingo 2021 comes down to the wire (deadline: Sept. 7), you may be looking to maximize your remaining reading time. To that end, here are a selection of mysteries that clock in under 250 pages, for rapid reading. Feeling more leisurely? Check out our longer list of suggested mystery/crime novels.

#BookBingoNW2021 Sports

Still struggling to find the right book for your Sports Book Bingo square? Never fear, your intrepid Seattle Public Library sports librarian has some suggestions for you, whether you’re a diehard sports writing fan, or have never picked up a book about sports before in your life.

Confession time: despite serving as the Library’s sports librarian for the past 8 years, I never really understood the appeal of reading about sports until I picked up Levels of the Game by John McPhee a few years ago. This slim volume hooked me from the first page with its insightful profiles of a young Arthur Ashe and his wealthy, white opponent Clark Graebner, skillfully woven into a nail-biting narrative of a career-changing tennis match. In fact I enjoyed McPhee’s sports writing so much that I returned to him to complete my square for this year’s Book Bingo by reading A Sense of Where You Are, his fascinating portrait of Bill Bradley and his phenomenal basketball playing at Princeton.

#BookBingoNW2021 BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, or Person of Color) Food Writing

Need a suggestion for your BIPOC Food Writing Book Bingo square? Expand your reading (and eating) palette with these tasty, filling and thoroughly engrossing memoirs and cookbooks!*

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

Noted indie rock musician Zauner (Japanese Breakfast) has penned a heartfelt and captivating memoir about growing up Asian American in a predominantly white Pacific Northwest community and her complex relationship with her mother, with whom she shared a fierce love of Korean food. Zauner writes candidly about her mother’s early death from cancer, her attempts to care for her and her grief, weaving evocative descriptions of Korean dishes and cooking throughout. Currently available at most Library locations as a Peak Pick.

Notes From a Young Black Chef by Kwame Onwuachi 

Top Chef fans may remember Onwuachi from Season 13, when he wowed the judges with his pickled shrimp with cucumber onion salad, among other delectable dishes that drew on his Nigerian heritage. In this absorbing memoir, he recounts his journey from a rough childhood in the Bronx to working in three-star Michelin restaurants and finally opening his own highly anticipated restaurant before he turned 30.

#BookBingoNW2021 Cli-fi or Environmental Non-fiction

The Cli-fi/Environmental Non-Fiction square offers lots of good reading options! From visions of how the world might look after a climate apocalypse, to intensely personal stories of connection with the land; from accounts of how we got to this point in time, to examinations of the intersection of capitalism and climate; and much more. Check out a few suggestions below to get you started, and find many, many more on our Cli-fi or Environmental Non-fiction booklist.

The Disaster Tourist by Yun Ko-eun
Fiction
Yona works for a travel agency, Jungle, which arranges high-end vacations to areas ravaged by disasters: floods, avalanches, earthquakes, etc. Her most recent assignment is as an evaluator, joining four vacationers on an island off the coast of Vietnam with a somewhat lackluster sinkhole. With the local economy now entirely dependent on Jungle’s tourists, Yona discovers a plan to punch up the drama – and the danger. This is a fast-paced satire that interrogates issues of capitalism, tourism, and climate change.