Read Women discussion

We'll offer 2 BINGO cards for 2024. The first is a 6-month, first half of the year, BINGO card full of varied themes and criteria to be satisfied. Members seeking a way to expand out of their comfortable reading ruts without committing to categories that don't appeal can take the original BINGO approach and choose a 5-book path that offers themes and prompts that most appeal. Members seeking a more robust challenge either can complete all of the prompts on the card, or choose a 5-book path between 1 January and 30 June, and another between 1 July and 31 December.

This one will run 1 Jan through 30 June. We'll also publish an author BINGO card.

Any theme can be satisfied by either non-fiction or fiction books.

A1 Witches
B1 Science/Nature/ the Environment / climate change
C1 Booker, Stella or Booker International Prize Nom or Winner
D1 Author of Middle Eastern descent
E1 Graphic Novel

A2 Author of African descent
B2 Memoir or Biography (Woman subject)
C2 Classic (first published on or pre-1973)
D2 Short Story Collection
E2 Wales

A3 Author or MC identifies as LGBTQ+
B3 Fantasy
C3 FREE
D3 Indigenous Author
E3 Book in a Series

A4 YA or NA
B4 Essays
C4 Health, Fitness or Healthcare (includes Mental Health)
D4 Feminist Politics
E4 Author of Asian Descent

A5 Disability (author or theme)
B5 Africa
C5 Book by Zora Neale Hurston
D5 SciFi
E5 Retelling of a folktale or myth

1) The BINGO "card" tasks are populated as indicated above. The center card location is FREE, meaning you can read any book written by a woman author for this spot. You can declare your card complete when you finish a row, a column or a diagonal set of tasks running from corner to corner, or you can continue and accomplish additional tasks on your card, as you wish.

2) Books ideally are at least 175 pages, but if you want to vary that for your challenge, go for it. Audiobooks are books. Graphic novels are fine for any task as long if they meet the page count and task requirement.

The next comment will include links to the Google Doc Gail set up for member tracking which includes tables that look like BINGO cards (thanks again!) along with category-specific Listopias you can use, augment, consider...

Let us know what you're thinking about reading for your selected path to BINGO, and your thoughts on the books you read along the way.

The Google Doc. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Instructions @ comment 51 in the brainstorming thread. https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Listopias for Witches, Wales and Short Story Collections linked below:

Witches https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

Short Story Collections https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

Wales https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

I am going to give this a go! :) I haven't been able to complete Bingo challenges in the past on other groups but I like trying. :)

I have picked two lines that I will go for. O down for which I will read my first graphic novel and 2 across where outside my normal reading will be a memoir/biography.

Janice wrote: "I am going to give this a go! :) I haven't been able to complete Bingo challenges in the past on other groups but I like trying. :)"

I know the feeling well, Janice! Fingers crossed for 2024.

I love making reading plans so here is my bingo attempts (Three, to begin with; the only genre that I don't usually read is graphic novels)

B1: Witches, Witch-Hunting, and Women
I2: Singing Away the Hunger
N3: Trees for the Absentees
G4: A Little Feminist History of Art
O5: Medusa: A Novel

B1: Now She is Witch
I1: The Flow: Rivers, Water and Wildness
N1: Oh William!
G1: They Fell Like Stars from the Sky & Other Stories
O1: How to Have Feminist Sex

O1: Glass Town: The Imaginary World of the Brontës
O2: The Hiding Place
O3: Lucy by the Sea
O4: What the Body Remembers
O5: Stone Blind: Medusa's Story

I have never read a graphic novel and was also thinking of Glass Town or possibly Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands . I think I need to get back to using the library as graphic novels can be a bit pricey.

Carol & Anita,

Happy to see a Bingo Challenge and also for the full year - a different one for each half.

Am not quite sure what you mean by the option to choose a 5 book path for those who aren't comfortable with all the categories.

Are you suggesting that if the themes don't appeal, a non-robust member can just choose any 5 books of topics indicated and declare a successful one line of bingo.....and the robust member can choose any 5 books from the topics listed and call 1 line of bingo for each of the 2 bingo haves?

Could they continue on the rest of the other lines to follow the specific suggestions in order to complete a full bingo card?

Thanks for your clarification. It's much appreciated. I really do enjoy a Bingo Challenge.

Mj wrote: "Carol & Anita,

Happy to see a Bingo Challenge and also for the full year - a different one for each half.

Am not quite sure what you mean by the option to choose a 5 book path for those who aren'..."

The reader would need to complete a row or column to successfully complete the BINGO challenge. Carol was simply stating that a member can play the card traditionally and successfully complete the challenge with one row or column, or they could continue and challenge themselves to complete the entire card, or get as many BINGO’s as they’d like really. But no, one could not randomly choose tiles and call a BINGO.

Hope that helps clarify!

Thanks Anita for you quick and informative response. It helped clarify my questions about the 2024 Bingo Challenge.

I now understand that:

1. if participants complete only 1 row or 1 column in order, based on the squares' specific criteria, they have successfully completed the challenge.

2. Participants can also choose to complete the entire bingo card or as many rows or columns as they wish.

3. A change from previous Bingos is that no alternatives are suggested for substitutions as no substitutions are allowed.

I think I will try to complete Row 1 first:

[updated Jan 30]

A1 Witches
B1 Science/Nature/ the Environment / climate change
C1 Booker, Stella or Booker International Prize Nom or Winner
D1 Author of Middle Eastern descent
E1 Graphic Novel

My plan (as always, subject to whimsical change) is to read

A1 Borders Witch Hunt by Mary W. Craig,
B1 I read Reindeer: An Arctic Life by Tilly Smith DONE (loved it)
C1 The Gate of Angels by Penelope Fitzgerald (shortlisted for the 1990 Booker Prize) DONE
D1 The Happiness of Blond People: A Personal Meditation on the Dangers of Identity by Elif Shafak DONE
and E1 My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness by Kabi Nagata (will finish it this week)

What is everyone else planning to tackle and read?

Crazytourists_books wrote: "I love making reading plans so here is my bingo attempts (Three, to begin with; the only genre that I don't usually read is graphic novels)

B1: Witches, Witch-Hunting, and Women
I2..."

You always give me great ideas I don't find anywhere else, CT! I'm adding your Column 1 books to my TBR and starting several searches for them.

@Gail - the Google Doc is timing out on me so fast it won't even let me insert my name over a bingo card. I can only reload if I lose my "changes." Is it me?

I am starting with row 2 as I have books for all the prompts. So far have read The Reef and Dear Life

Carol wrote: "@Gail - the Google Doc is timing out on me so fast it won't even let me insert my name over a bingo card. I can only reload if I lose my "changes." Is it me?"

I was on it earlier today and it wasn't giving me any problem. Let me check it out!

Okay, so I went in and made a few "tweaks" on mine, added your name to column AS, closed out, reopened to confirm that all the changes were still there. No problem. Can you try again? Do you have some version of Microsoft 365?

I have a number of book ideas for many of the Bingo Squares and hope to give it a go in 2024. Really enjoyed it last year.

Carol, thanks for setting up widgets for most annual challenges and thanks Hannah for asking about this. I would also love a widget for the annual 2024 Bingo challenge if possible. I know Gail has set up an on-line document as well. Thanks Gail. However I used the widget format for 1st half of 2023 Bingo last year and found it quite helpful.

I'd really appreciate a widget for the annual 2024 Bingo challenge if it's a quick set up for you. Fingers crossed. Thanks in advance.

Carol wrote: "Crazytourists_books wrote: "I love making reading plans so here is my bingo attempts (Three, to begin with; the only genre that I don't usually read is graphic novels)

B1: [book:Witches, Witch-Hun..."

Thank you Carol! I'm trying to find titles that are not as advertised as others, and quite often I find real gems! Let me know what you think when/if you read them :)

Sonia wrote: "I am starting with row 2 as I have books for all the prompts. So far have read The Reef and Dear Life"

I loved Dear life, I am a big fun of Munro, and one of my goals this year is to read more of her work. I've also read Too much happiness and I loved that too!

Crazytourists_books wrote: "Sonia wrote: "I am starting with row 2 as I have books for all the prompts. So far have read The Reef and Dear Life"

I loved Dear life, I am a big fun of Munro, and ..."

I'm reading my first Munro and loving it so far. I believe I'm reading her very first book, from 1968.
And BTW, impressed you're not even overlapping- a different witchy book for each line with B1, etc!

I'm having fun trying to fill a bunch of Bingo squares. For many planned reads, I haven't yet figured out which spot they'll fill as they apply to many. But I'm enjoying seeing my reading stretched outside my usual genres- young adult, sci-fi, etc...

I loved Dear Life which was my first Munro, a bargain charity shop buy. Will definitely be looking for more, think she could be an author I read a lot from.

I'm planning on doing a full card bingo. So far I have finished:
Memoir or Biography: Where the Light Gets In: Losing My Mother Only to Find Her Again by Kimberly Williams-Paisley
FREE: Naked Once More by Elizabeth Peters
Sci-Fi: Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Retelling of a folktale or myth: Sistersong by Lucy Holland

I'm currently reading:
Science/Nature/ the Environment / climate change: Plastic-Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too by Beth Terry
Book in a Series: Wicked as She Wants by Delilah S. Dawson

I'm planning:
Author of Middle Eastern descent: The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak
Classic (first published on or pre-1973): Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Fantasy: House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas (releases 1/30)
Indigenous Author: A Vicious Game by Melissa Blair (releases 2/6)
Author of Asian Descent: The Bone Shard Emperor by Andrea Stewart
Book by Zora Neale Hurston: Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"

Haven't decided the others yet!

Ok I'm on way to getting column 1 first, and all women of color:

A1: Witches
A2: Author of African Descent
A3: LGBTQ+ Author or MC
A4: YA or NA
A5: Disability

-White Is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi
-The Warmth of Other Suns: the Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
-We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir by Samra Habib
-As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh
-My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness by Kabi Nagata

I'm going to try for two lines again, but haven't figured out which ones yet.

@ Jen - hope you enjoy We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir by Samra Habib. I read it in 2020 before it won the Canada Reads Award. Highly recommended.

My review if anyone is interested:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Mj wrote: "I have a number of book ideas for many of the Bingo Squares and hope to give it a go in 2024. Really enjoyed it last year.

Carol, thanks for setting up widgets for most annual challenges and thank..."

Sure thing, Mj. Thanks for your patience. It's been a week, at work.

It's on the landing page and can also be accessed here:
https://www.goodreads.com/challenges/...

Mj wrote: "@ Jen - hope you enjoy We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir by Samra Habib. I read it in 2020 before it won the Canada Reads Award. Highly recommended. ..."

Mj, FYI I just finished it and wrote some of my thoughts in the year-long nonfiction thread, but yea, 5 stars from me too- LOVED it. I love your review of it and other books too!

I think my witchy read will be next!

☀ Completed 1st: Column N

N1: Booker Prize Winner: Hotel du Lac
N2: Classic (first published on or pre-1973): 1966: Garden by the Sea
N3: FREE: The Radcliffe Ladies’ Reading Club
N4: Health, Fitness or Healthcare (includes Mental Health): Transcendent Kingdom
N5: Book by Zora Neale Hurston: The Mule-Bone (actually this is a play)

Congratulations on your first bingo, Gail!

Congrats, Gail!

Way to go Gail!!

Go you! That's awesome.

Gail W wrote: "Finished my first bingo:

☀ N1: Booker Prize Winner: Hotel du Lac
☀ N2: Classic (first published on or pre-1973): 1966: Garden by the Sea
☀ N3: FREE: [book: The Radc..."

What an awesome and varied set of reads. What did you think of Garden by the Sea? I hear such a mix of responses - bought it based on the positive ones, but lost a bit of steam on the meh ones.

Yes, nice job, Gail! Nice lineup. I also been curious about Rodoreda. And yay for reading Hurston. I’m kinda fan-girling for her lately.

Jen wrote: "Yes, nice job, Gail! Nice lineup. I also been curious about Rodoreda. And yay for reading Hurston. I’m kinda fan-girling for her lately."

I need to read more Hurston. I was so excited last year after (finally) reading Their Eyes Were Watching God - which was entirely surprising since I went into it knowing nothing - that I bought Moses, Man of the Mountain, which now sits beautiful but collecting dust. What have you read and loved?

Congratulations Gail! So many books in so little time! ;)

Carol wrote: "Jen wrote: "Yes, nice job, Gail! Nice lineup. I also been curious about Rodoreda. And yay for reading Hurston. I’m kinda fan-girling for her lately."

I need to read more Hurston. I was so excited ..."

My fan-girling is based on what I learned about her on a Black Southern Gothic Lit podcast. Seems it was online content created by an instructor for her class during the pandemic, but if you search Apple podcasts for that title you should find it, if anyone is curious.
I read TEWWG decades ago in high school and don't remember it much. Eager to revisit it with new eyes and very interested in the nonfiction Barracoon because a good friend highly praised it. And because of the podcast, I'm also interested in Mules and Men (short stories).

Brilliant job, Gail!

I tried to read "Their eyes wew watching God" last year, but I had to dnf it. English is not my mother tongue, and it was very difficult to follow. But I do believe it's an important read and I'll try to read it in greek

Crazytourists_books wrote: "I tried to read "Their eyes wew watching God" last year, but I had to dnf it. English is not my mother tongue, and it was very difficult to follow. But I do believe it's an important read and I'll ..."

Oh that's a good point for folks whose mother tongue is not English. She writes in African American vernacular and even spells things in less familiar ways. This was actually touched on in the podcast as a point of contrast with other prominent Harlem Renaissance writers.

Crazytourists_books wrote: "I tried to read "Their eyes wew watching God" last year, but I had to dnf it. English is not my mother tongue, and it was very difficult to follow. But I do believe it's an important read and I'll ..."

Yes, I can't imagine reading anything in translation where the author has used dialect. Dickens, I imagine, would be similarly impossible.

Jen wrote: "Crazytourists_books wrote: "I tried to read "Their eyes wew watching God" last year, but I had to dnf it. English is not my mother tongue, and it was very difficult to follow. But I do believe it's..."

Along with the life choices of her characters, it's why many of her peers were not fans of her work. I'll check out the podcast and may look for her NF, to switch things up. Thank you!

Carol wrote: "Crazytourists_books wrote: "I tried to read "Their eyes wew watching God" last year, but I had to dnf it. English is not my mother tongue, and it was very difficult to follow. But I do believe it's..."

I've only read "A Christmas carol" in english, and it was ok but everything else by Dicken's I've read in greek.
Jane Austen's "Northanger abbey" was quite tiring as well; she is much more pleasant to read in greek.

About Hurston, I think her choice of language was what her book needed, it would have sounded "fake" in "proper" english. It was just exhausting for me to try and understand it, unfortunately.

I would love to hear what people are reading for A5: Disability (author or theme).

There are two books: Fourth Wing and Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros which are book 1 and 2 of a series and the main character has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome just like the author and her sons. They don't call it that, of course, in the book because it's a fantasy series. I definitely recommend this series.

I have started reading Hummingbird by Natalie Lloyd. It is a kids' book (I'm a substitute teacher, so I often read books with the kids). I started with a fifth grade class, and I haven't finished it yet. The main character has osteogenesis imperfecta (often called "brittle bone disease"). I have really enjoyed what I have read so far. I love the representation in a kids' book. I haven't seen that a lot.

You know what? I think I will just start a thread in the chat area! Please come over and share your recommendations.

Misty wrote: "You know what? I think I will just start a thread in the chat area! Please come over and share your recommendations."

Sounds like a great idea! I really try to focus on reading disability stories/authors more lately!

I finished a bingo line:

D1: Middle East - The Bastard of Istanbul
D2: Short stories - Heads of the Colored People
D3: Indigenous - Bad Cree
D4: Feminist politics - Breasts and Eggs
D5: Science fiction - The Light Pirate

Nice, Susan! I loved The Light Pirate, Heads of the Colored People, and Bad Cree. What did you think of Breasts and Eggs and The Bastard of Istanbul?

Congratulations on your BINGO, Susan! I have Bad Cree on my TBR.

Congratulations Susan on your first Bingo line. Am on a wait-list for Bad Cree myself. Looks like you quite liked The Light Pirate. While Sci-Fi is not my cup of tea - your 5 stars have me wanting to check it out.

Susan wrote: "I finished a bingo line:

D1: Middle East - The Bastard of Istanbul
D2: Short stories - Heads of the Colored People
D3: Indigenous - Bad Cree
D4: Femini..."

yay :) I'm aiming to get this line too. The sci-fi will be outside my usual realm but I have an Ursula K Leguin planned for May.