Book Bingo: February 2021

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

E-book/Audiobook: The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham, narrated by one of my favourite narrators, David Case/Frederick Davidson. I chose this because I love David Case's voice, and I love reading about the artistic side of artists' lives. This is a satire of Edwardian mores and a fictional account of the life of artist Paul Gauguin, whose works I also like. The protagonist Charles Strickland is an ass but he also dies of leprosy so :/

YA/Children's: Song of Whale by Lynne Kelly. This is the story of a deaf girl who becomes interested in a whale called Blue-55 that sings a song other whales cannot hear/understand. A great family read. The protagonist is so determined and resourceful, and the family dynamics are very interesting. I learned a lot about deaf culture and whales. Would recommend. I read it because Minor's school has a book club sponsored by their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office and yesterday he and I and about 8 other pairs of moms & 4th/5th graders had a nice discussion of the book.

Crime/Mystery: It Walks by Night by John Dickson Carr. The Shedunnit book club pick for February. A locked room mystery in Paris. Introduces Carr's detective Inspector Bencolin. Lots of fun references to Poe, Baudelaire, Alice in Wonderland. It should be a black-and-white French film noir. I loved it. Carr's first work and he and I share an aesthetic, I think.

POC Author: If He Hollers Let Him Go by Chester Himes. Chester Himes wrote hardboiled detective fiction a la Raymond Chandler but some consider this to be his best work. It is work of racial protest and pain. Himes was a contemporary of Richard Wright and James Baldwin. This book follows four days in the life of Bob Jones, an African American man who works in the shipyards in Los Angeles in the early 1940's. It looks at the violence and racism he experiences and his anger and despair and violent reactions to it as well as attitudes about race within the African American community. He's falsely accused of rape by a white woman and ends up going into the Army to avoid being charged with it.

Classic/Published Before 1985: The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin [audiobook narrated by David Case/Frederick Davidson]. I listened to 5 minutes of The Origin of the Species and decided I preferred this one. It helps that I've been to many of the places Darwin was talking about: Galapagos Islands, Chiloe Island, Tierra del Fuego, the Argentine pampa, BA and Montevideo. It was delightful to listen to it while I did a botanical scene of a puzzle.



List
Sci-fi/Fantasy: Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Author You've Not Read Before: Alice Isn't Dead by Joseph Fink
E-book/Audiobook: The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham, narrated by David Case/Frederick Davidson
YA/Children's: Song of a Whale by Lynne Kelly
Crime/Mystery: It Walks by Night by John Dickson Carr
Female Identifying Author: The Port of London Murders by Josephine Bell
POC Author: If He Hollers Let Him Go by Chester Himes
Classic/Published Before 1985: The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin, audiobook narrated by David Case/Frederick Davidson

Comments

[smallhobbit]

Your bingo card is looking nicely sprinkled with books. Song of Whale sounds like a great book - and what a good idea to have a school book club.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Thank you!

Yes, you know very well I don't have much interesting in YA/Children's books (and certainly not this particular demographic, very early teens) but I really liked the book, the characters, the story, the science and culture involved.