Book Bingo: May 2024

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Author you've never read before: Chocolate: sweet science and dark secrets of the world's favorite treat by Kay Frydenborg. A very straightforward TEEN-level non-fiction book about chocolate. It has inspired me to be more contentious in my chocolate purchasing.

Under 100 pages: Until August by Gabriel García Márquez [translated by Anne McLean; edited by Cristóbal Pera]. This is a novella that the author didn't think worthy of publishing before he died but his children have decided otherwise. It's about a woman who makes an annual pilgrimage to an island to clean her mother's grave. She has affairs each year. It was tedious for the first 2/3 until you get to the end and realize What It's All About. And then it's brilliant.

Sitting alone beside the languorous blue waters of the lagoon, Ana Magdalena Bach contemplates the men at the hotel bar. She has been happily married for twenty-seven years and has no reason to escape the life she has made with her husband and children. And yet, every August, she travels by ferry here to the island where her mother is buried, and for one night takes a new lover. Across sultry Caribbean evenings full of salsa and boleros, lotharios and conmen, Ana journeys further each year into the hinterland of her desire and the fear hidden in her heart. Constantly surprising, joyously sensual, Until August is a profound meditation on freedom, regret, self-transformation, and the mysteries of love-- an unexpected gift from one of the greatest writers the world has ever known

Thriller or Suspense: Traitor's Purse by Margery Allingham. I mentioned this before. The best amnesia story I've ever read.



Book in a Series: A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny. Audiobook. 13 hours. Narrated by Robert Bathurst.
Author you've never read before: Chocolate: sweet science and dark secrets of the world's favorite treat by Kay Frydenborg.
Book older than you are: Death in Captivity by Michael Gilbert. 8 hours. Narrated by Gordon Griffin.
Graphic novel or Comic: Blacksad by Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido.
Animal or Pet Companion: Hop 'Til You Drop by J. M. Griffin.
Multiple POVs: Bullet Train by Kotaro Isaka. [Translated by Sam Malissa]
Under 100 pages: Until August by Gabriel García Márquez [Translated by Anne McLean]
Romance Plot or Sub-plot: Possession by A. S. Byatt.
Translated: The Mill House Murders by Yukito Ayasuji [Translated by Ho-Ling Wong]
Thriller or Suspense: Traitor's Purse by Margery Allingham. 8 hours.
With a Blue Cover: The Pattern in the Carpet: a Personal History with Jigsaws by Margaret Drabble.
Non-fiction: The Wager by David Grann. Audiobook. 8.5 hours. Narrated by Dion Graham.
Seasonal Read: Valentine Murder by Leslie Meier.
Book from your TBR: How to be a Poet by Jo Bell and Jane Commane.
Crime or Mystery: The Long Call by Ann Cleeves. 11 hours. Narrated by Ben Aldridge.
Sci-Fi or Fantasy: Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold. Audiobool. 8 hours. Narrated by Grover Gardener.
Banned Book: I am Jazz by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings.

Comments

[shipperslist]

Both the chocolate story and Until August sound very interesting!

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

The chocolate book was okay. Heavy on the history and then with anecdotes about modern strains.

Until August was tedious until the end, but it's not long so if you stick with it, at least in my opinion, you'll be rewarded.

[smallhobbit]

I recently listened to an abbreviated version of Until August, which I enjoyed. It was a Radio 4 book of the week.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Really? I am thrilled you enjoyed it. An abbreviated version might be the best version :)

[spiralicious]

You are well on your way to a blackout.

It's good to hear there are teen level books like the chocolate one. Sometimes it feels like those kinds of topics are reserved for "adult" spaces.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Yes the goal is black out by end of summer.

It was nice to have a straightforward read on a nonfiction subject.