EhEssBee Reads

If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. — Stephen King 

I try to read at least 50 books per year and get an array of styles and substance in so doing. I keep track of what I’m reading here and follow

2024

1. Homecoming, Dr. Thema Bryant
2. The High Five Habit, Mel Robbins
3. Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver
4. Happy Place, Emily Henry
5. The Roughest Draft
6. They Found Him Dead, Georgette Heyer
7. What About Men? Caitlin Moran
8. The 39 Steps, John Buchan 
9. The Wisteria Society for Lady Scoundrels, India Holton
10. The Leavanworth Case, Anna Katharine Green
11. Must Love Books, Shauna Robinson
12. The Neighbor Favor, Kristina Forest
13. The Last Devil to Die, Richard Osman
14. The Worst Best Man, Mia Sosa
15. Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman, Lucy Worsley
16. The Worst Wingman, Abby Jimenez
17. The Sleeping Car Porter, Suzette Mayr
18. The Science of Stuck, Britt Frank
19. You’re Not Lazy, Lara Wellman
20. Side Effects May Vary, Julie Murphy
21. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, Jennifer Smith
22. Arthur and Teddy Are Coming Out, Ryan Love
23. The Rom Con, Devon Daniels
24. Mom Com, Adriana Mather
25. Girl Abroad, Elle Kennedy
26. The Catch, Amy Lea
27. Unruly, David Mitchell
28. Kilt Trip, Alexandra Kiley
29. The Overdue Life of Amy Byler, Kelly Harms
30. The Worst Best Man, Lucy Score
31. Glutton, Ed Gamble
32. Yellow Birds, Karen Green
33. Funny Story, Emily Henry
34. Stop Saying You’re Fine, Mel Robbins
35. The House of Hidden Meanings, Rupaul
36. Here We Go Again, Alison Cochrun
37. I Only Read Murder, Ian and Will Ferguson
38. The Love of My Afterlife, Kirsty Greenwood
39. Pity the Reader, Kurt Vonnegut and Suzanne McConnell
40. Hi Honey, I’m Homo, Matt Baume
41. Bluebird Bluebird, Attica Locke
42. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan
43. How to Age Disgracefully, Clare Pooley
44. I Was Better Last Night, Harvey Fierstein
45. Wannabe, Aisha Taylor
46. And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie
47. Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?, Dr. Julie Smith
48. Pierre Poilievre: A Political Life, Andrew Lawton
49. Heaven, My Home, Attica Locke
50. Mythos, Stephen Fry
51. Slow Dance, Rainbow Rowell
52. The Match, Sarah Adams
53. Love in the Time of Serial Killers, Alicia Thompson
54. The Framed Women of Ardemore House, Brandy Schillace
55. The Seven Dials Mystery, Agatha Christie
56. I Hope This Finds You Well, Natalie Sue
57. Quack This Way, Bryan A. Garner and David Foster Wallace
58. The Secret of Chimneys, Agatha Christie
59. One in a Millennial, Kate Kennedy
60. We Solve Murders, Richard Osman
61. Death at the Sign of the Rook, Kate Atkinson
62. Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, Rick Riordan
63. All in Her Head, Misty Pratt
64. Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder, Julia Zarankin
65. The Off-Limits Rule, Sarah Adams
66. A Heart Full of Headstones, Ian Rankin
67. Candy Darling, Cynthia Carr
68. Percy Jackson: The Titan’s Curse, Rick Riordan
69. The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year, Ally Carter

I am also a member of a Facebook book club started by the lovely Laurie Kingston and carried on in her memory. Every year a Book Bingo card is set, and the group tries to bingo in whatever way they define. I usually try to hit every category and never quite succeed. 

This year’s bingo:

Judge a book by its cover – How to Age Disgracefully
Judge a book by its title The Wisteria Society 
Teaches me something new  Agatha Christie 
About resistance to oppression Homecoming
Banned for LGBTQIA+ content
Sing a song Yellow Birds
Laugh out loud Unruly
First in a series The Lightning Thief
Good reviews but I hated The Roughest Draft
By an Indigenous author
Pre-ordered when I first heard about it The Last Devil to Die 
Person’s name in the title Arthur and Teddy Are Coming Out 
A long, long, long book
Laurie would have loved The Overdue Life of Amy Byler
Palette cleanser They Found Him Dead
New to me book The Leavanworth Case
Featuring a pet/animal The Neighbor Favor
Made me stay up late Girl Abroad
New author You’re Not Lazy 
Won the Pulitzer Demon Copperhead
Book with a map Here We Go Again
A Canadian classic
Recommendation from my local bookstore/library The Catch
A retelling

2023:

1. Two parts sugar, one part murder, Valerie Burns
2. If the shoe fits, Julie Murphy
3. This Time Tomorrow, Emma Straub
4. I Kissed Shara Wheeler, Casey McQuiston
5. Bookish People, Susan Coll
6. Be Dazzled, Ryan La Sala
7. The Unsinkable Greta James, Jennifer E. Smith
8. How to be a Writer, David Quantick
9. Watching Neighbours Twice a Day, Josh Widdicombe
10. I was told it would get easier, Abbi Waxman
11. Perfect Sounds Whatever, James Acaster
12. I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy
13. Other People’s Houses, Abbi Waxman
14. Sunny Side Up, Susan Calman
15. Rosalie Palmer Takes the Cake, Alexis Hall
16. Nora Goes Off Script, Annabel Monaghan
17. Peas and Queues, Sandi Toksvig
18. Paris Daillencourt is about to crumble, Alexis Hall
19. A Thousand Miles to Graceland, Kristen Mei Chase
20. A Spoonful of Murder, JM Hall
21. The Restoration of Celia Fairchild, Marie Bostwick
22. Life’s Too Short, Abby Jimenez
23. This Much Is True, Miriam Margolyes
24. Superfan, Jen Sookfong Lee
25. Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone, Benjamin Stevenson
26. The Sittaford Mystery, Agatha Christie
27. The Marlow Murder Club, Robert Thorogood
28. The Road Trip, Beth O’Leary
29. Snow Road Station, Elizabeth Hay
30. Be The Bus, The Pigeon (and Mo Willems)
31. The Dead Romantics, Ashley Poston
32. Have I Told You This Already, Lauren Graham
33. The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks, Shauna Robinson
34. Can Everyone Please Calm Down, Mae Martin
35. Yours Truly, Abby Jimenez
36. Imogen, Obviously, Becky Albertalli
37. Exes and O’s, Amy Lea
38. All That Heaven Allows, Mark Griffin
39. Begin Again, Emma Lord
40. The Book of Cold Cases, Simone St. James
41. Unprotected, Billy Porter
42. Glitterland, Alexis Hall
43. Good Girl, Bad Blood, Holly Jackson
44. All Alone With You, Amelia Diane Coombs
45. Every Body Yoga, Jessamyn Stanley
46. How to be Perfect, Mike Schur
47. Mama’s Boy, Dustin Lance Black
48. Just My Type, Falon Ballard
49. Practice Makes Perfect, Sarah Adams
50. Son of Elsewhere, Elamin Abdelmahmoud
51. Strong Female Character, Fern Brady
52. Letters to a Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke
53. Playing with Myself, Randy Rainbow
54. A Very Typical Family, Sierra Godfrey
55. Ducks, Kate Beaton
56. Booked on a Feeling, Jayci Lee
57. Greenlights, Matthew McConaughey
58. Strange Sally Diamond, Liz Nugent
59. Cassandra in Reverse, Holly Smale
60. Ten Steps to Nanette, Hannah Gadsby
61. Between Us, Mhairi McFarlane
62. Planes, Trains and All the Feels, Livy Hart
63. Romantic Comedy, Curtis Sittenfeld
64. Where the Deer and the Antelope Play, Nick Offerman

Book bingo:

Cup of tea:  Watching Neighbours Twice a Day
Folk Tales: Where the Deer and the Antelope Play
Book with a shape in the title: Exes and O’s
Written by a local author: Snow Road Station 
Book that was made into a film: All That Heaven Allows 
Set in a different time period: This Time Tomorrow 
Book that is magic: The Dead Romantics
Book that has something to do with the weather: Sunny Side Up
Book about beauty or ugliness: UnProtected
Book about illness: I’m Glad My Mom Died
Book about revenge: I Kissed Shara Wheeler
Own Voices: Superfan
Shakespeare (retelling, inspired or original):
That you would like your child to read: Be The Bus 
A love story: The Unsinkable Greta James
A banned book:
From the 2022 bestseller list: Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone
A childhood favourite:
Sherlock Holmes (retelling, inspired or original):
A book that’s been sitting on your shelf: I was told it would get easier 
A book recommended by the group:
A cookbook (try a recipe): Two parts sugar, one part murder
One hit wonder:
Most popular book from your local library, 2022: Ducks

2022:

1. Trixie and Katya’s Guide to Modern Womanhood
2. Parker Pyne Investigates, Agatha Christie
3. One Writer’s Beginnings, Eudora Welty
4. Little Pieces of Hope, Todd Doughty
5. Elephants Can Remember, Agatha Christie
6. Here’s To Us, Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera
7. And Away…, Bob Mortimer
8. When You Get The Chance, Emma Lord
9. A Carnival of Snackery. David Sedaris
10. Shine Your Icy Crown, Amanda Lovelace
11. Open Book, Jessica Simpson
12. Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband?, Lizzie Damilala Blackburn
13. The Kidnapped Prime Minister, Agatha Christie
14. Perfect Timing, Owen Nicholls
15. Out of the Sun, Esi Edugyan
16. 1919, Eve L. Ewing
17. A Pocket Full of Rye, Agatha Christie
18. The Storyteller, Dave Grohl
19. Five Little Indians, Michelle Good
20. Feminism is for Everyone, bell hooks
21. The Maid, Nita Prose
22. Nemesis, Agatha Christie
23. Death by Drowning, Agatha Christie
24. Tape Measure Murder, Agatha Christie
25. unlock your storybook heart, amanda lovelace
26. The Big Four, Agatha Christie
27. Body Work, Melissa Febos
28. All About Love, bell hooks
29. Midwinter Murder, Agatha Christie
30. Sleeping Murder, Agatha Christie
31. Send Me Into The Woods Alone, Erin Pepler
32. Dumb Witness, Agatha Christie
33. Queerly Beloved, Susie Dumond
34. By Any Other Name, Lauren Kate
35. remembered rapture: the writer at work, bell hooks
36. The Postscript Murders, Elly Griffiths
37. Adult Assembly Required, Abbi Waxman
38. Book Lovers, Emily Henry
39. One Night Only, Catherine Walsh
40. Bittersweet, Susan Cain
41. The Jake Ryan Complex, Bethany Crandell
42. Flying Solo, Linda Holmes
43. The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, Abbi Waxman
44. Cheer Up, Love, Susan Calman
45. Call Us What We Carry, Amanda Gorman
46. Meet Me In The Margins, Melissa Ferguson
47. The Man Who Died Twice, Richard Osman
48. Mad About You, Mhairi McFarlane
49. Burnout, Emilie and Amelia Nagoski
50. The Guncle, Steven Rowley
51. Mindful of Murder, Susan Juby
52. James Acaster’s Guide to Quitting Social Media, James Acaster
53. The Ticking Heart, Andrew Kaufman
54. 77 Fragments of a Familiar Ruin, Thomas King
55. Ayoade on Top, Richard Ayoade
56. She Gets the Girl, Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick
57. The Bullet That Missed, Richard Osman
58. Lucy by the Sea, Elizabeth Strout
59. Talking to Canadians, Rick Mercer
60. Between the Stops, Sandi Toksvig
61. Sad Cypress, Agatha Christie
62. Quiet, Susan Cain
63. How Y’all Doing, Leslie Jordan
64. Navigating the Messy Middle, Ann Douglas
65. Scattered Showers, Rainbow Rowell
66. Gilded Mountain, Kate Manning
67. This year you write you novel, Walter Mosley
68. The Diviners, Margaret Laurence

Laurie’s 2022 bingo

• A book someone in the group loved The Maid
• A book of poetry Shine Your Icy Crown 
• A book that took a turn Dumb Witness
• A Political Intrigue The Kidnapped Prime Minister 
• Not the book I thought it was One Writer’s Beginnings
• One that I own but hadn’t read Elephants Can Remember 
• A 2012 award winner Quiet
• A book written in another language
• An illustrated book Trixie and Katya’s Guide to Modern Womanhood
• By an author with a social media presence By Any Other Name
• A new-to-me author  Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband?
• About a profession And Away…
• A book you’ve been avoiding Book Lovers
• From Laurie’s lists Parker Pyne Investigates
• By an Indigenous author Five Little Indians
• ‘It’s the end of the world as we know it’ Lucy by the Sea 
• Book with a name in the title The Bookish Life of Nina Hill 
• Written by someone not known for being a writer Open Book 
• LGBTQ+ Here’s to Us 
• About or set in a non-patriarchal society All About Love 
• About the afterlife Bittersweet
• About a band or musician  When You Get The Chance 
• A required school reading book you never read The Diviners
• A book about your history Feminism is for everyone 

2021

1. How to Stop Feeling Like Shit, Andrea Owen
2. The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman
3. The Office of Historical Corrections, Danielle Evans
4. The Mysterious Mr. Quin, Agatha Christie
5. You Have a Match, Emma Lord
6. Wow, no thank you, Samantha Irby
7. The Quantum Weirdness of the Almost Kiss, Amy Noelle Parks
8. Burnout, Emilie and Amelia Nagoski
9. The Midnight Library, Matt Haig
10. Knots and Crosses, Ian Rankin
11. Hide and Seek, Ian Rankin
12. Ordeal by Innocence, Agatha Christie
13. Lead from the Outside, Stacey Abrams
14. The Feminist Agenda of Jemima Kincaid, Kate Hattemer
15. Tooth and Nail, Ian Rankin
16. Mrs. McGuinty’s Dead, Agatha Christie
17. Don’t You Forget About Me, Mhairi McFarlane
18. The Windsor Knot, S.J. Bennett
19. It’s Not Me It’s You, Mhairi McFarlane
20. Kate in Waiting, Becky Albertalli
21. Fat Chance, Charlie Vega, Crystal Moldonado
22. Atomic Habits, James Clear
23. A Good Hanging, Ian Rankin
24. One Last Stop, Casey McQuiston
25. The Fire and the Ashes, Andrew Jackson
26. More Than A Woman, Caitlin Moran
27. Shuggie Bain, Douglas Stuart
28. Pumpkin, Julie Murphy
29. People We Meet On Vacation, Emily Henry
30. If I Never Met You, Mhairi McFarlane
31. Broken (In the best possible way), Jenny Lawson
32. Behind the Scenes at the Museum, Kate Atkinson
33. Emotionally Weird, Kate Atkinson
34. As You Wish, Cary Elwes
35. Embrace Your Weird, Felicia Day
36. Dog Days, Erika Waller
37. The Naturals, Jennifer Lynn Barnes
38. Here’s Looking at You, Mhairi McFarlane
39. Whose Body?, Dorothy L. Sayers
40. Release the Beast, Bimini Bon Boulash
41. Unravelling Canada, Sylvia Olsen
42. How to Make Sense of Any Mess, Abby Covert
43. If the Fates Allow, Rainbow Rowell
44. The Heart Beats in Secret, Katie Munnik
45. The Prince and the Troll, Rainbow Rowell
46. Who’s That Girl, Mhairi McFarlane
47. You Had Me At Hello, Mhairi McFarlane
48. Five Little Pigs, Agatha Christie

2021 Book Bingo:

• About space (out there or in here) One Last Stop 
• About music or a musician The Windsor Knot
• That teaches you something new (how to or self help) How to Stop Feeling Like Shit 
• About a diaspora Unravelling Canada
• Armchair travel People we meet on vacation 
• Written by an author your pretty sure you’ll disagree with  Atomic Habits
• That you’ve always wanted to read
• About art Embrace Your Weird
• That takes you back  Fat Chance, Charlie Vega 
• Translated from another language
• About the body Whose Body?
• Written by someone you know The Heart Beats in Secret 
• A potato chip book  You Have a Match
• A recipe book How to Make Sense of Any Mess
• That takes you to your happy place
• That Laurie read  Ordeal by Innocence
• Biography or autobiography Lead from the Outside
• A Christie with neither Marple nor Poirot Mysterious Mr. Quin
• That makes you want to read more by that author The Midnight Library 
• About oppression of BIPOC The Office of Historical Corrections 
• An LGBTQ2S+ YA novel Pumpkin
• An award winning book from your home country
• That a friend couldn’t put down
• With a strong group of women If I Never Met You
• That helps you grow  Burnout 

2020

1. Washington Black, Esi Edugyan
2. The Misadventures of Awkward Black Gril, Issa Rae
3. The Sleeping Murder, Agatha Christie
4. Why Mummy Drinks, Gill Sims
5. Dear Girls, Ali Wong
6. Recipe for a Perfect Wife, Karma Brown
7. The Killer Across the Table, John Douglas
8. Name Drop, Ross Matthews
9. The Fact of a Body, Alexandria Lesnevich-Marzano
10. You’ll Grow Out of It, Jessi Klein
11. The Upside of Unrequited, Becky Albertelli
12. Tweet Cute, Emma Lord
13. Parsnips, Buttered, Joe Lycett
14. The Favorite Daughter, Kaira Rouda
15. The Pale Horse, Agatha Christie
16. Little Weirds, Jenny Slate
17. Classic Scrapes, James Acaster
18. Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick, Zora Neale Hurston
19. Escape to Havana, Nick Wilkshire
20. The Moving Finger, Agatha Christie
21. Savage Appetites, Rachel Monroe
22. Son of a Critch, Mark Critch
23. A Caribbean Mystery, Agatha Christie
24. Believe Me, Jessica Valenti and Jaclyn Friedman
25. Stay Sexy and Don’t Get Murdered, Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
26. Wayward Son, Rainbow Rowell
27. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, JK Rowling
28. Moxie, Jennifer Mathieu
29. Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie
30. Crooked House, Agatha Christie
31. A Good Girls Guide to Murder, Holly Jackson
32. The Upside of Falling, Alex Light
33. Eight Perfect Murders, Peter Swanson
34. Legendary Children, Lorenzo Marquez and Tom Fitzgerald
35. Yes, No, Maybe So, Becky Albertelli and Aisha Saeed
36. Hallowe’en Party, Agatha Christie
37. We Have Always Been Here, Samra Habib
38. Such a Fun Age, Kiley Reid
39. Everything’s Trash But It’s Okay, Phoebe Robinson
40. Moon of the Crusted Snow, Waubgeshig Rice
41. Why Didn’t They Ask Evans, Agatha Christie
42. This is Your Life, Harriet Chance!, Jonathan Evison
43. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
44. Freedom is a Constant Struggle, Angela Davis
45. Love Creekwood, Becky Albertelli
46. Again, But Better, Christine Riccio
47. Last Bus to Woodstock, Colin Dexter
48. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
49. Power Shift: The longest revolution, Sally Armstrong
50. Peggy and Me, Miranda Hart
51. The Dead of Jericho, Colin Dexter
52. Break your glass slippers, Amanda Lovelace
53. Only Mostly Devastated, Sophie Gonzales
54. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
55. I hope you’re listening, Tom Ryan
56. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
57. Mindhunter, John Douglas
58. Songs for the End of the World, Saleema Nawaz
59. A Song for the Dark Times, Ian Rankin
60. What We’ll Build, Oliver Jeffers
61. The Pull of the Stars, Emma Donoghue
62. Untamed, Glennon Doyle
63. Shit, Actually, Lindy West
64. How to Not Always Be Working, Marlee Thomas
65. The Break, Katherena Vermette
66. Bill Bailey’s Remarkable Guide to Happiness, Bill Bailey

2020 Book Bingo

• Book that someone else in the group posted about The Pull of the Stars
• Fairy tale Break your glass slippers 
• A book you would recommend to Laurie Moxie 
• Picture book What We’ll Build 
• Book’s that’s been made into a screen production The Moving Finger
• A whodunnit you didn’t solve The Sleeping Murder 
• Historial fiction (not romance)  Washington Black 
• Sci-fi or fantasy Wayward Son
• A book that someone you love would hate Name Drop
• Involving a family The Favorite Daughter
• Time travel Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 
• Written by someone you know (or someone you know knows) Recipe for a Perfect Wife 
• About a game or sport  Legendary Children 
• Non-fiction outside your area of expertise The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl
• Chosen for its cover Tweet Cute 
• An award winner We Have Always Been Here
• One you heard about on talk radio Dear Girls 
• One you’ve avoided reading Stay Sexy and Don’t Get Murdered 
• About reconciliation with Indigenous people The Break 
• Chrone lit Hallowe’en Party 
• An earlier book by an author whose later book you enjoyed Why Mummy Drinks
• A YA book  The Upside of Unrequited
• A book published the year you were born The Dead of Jericho 
• A new author Tweet Cute

2019

1. The Hanging Valley, Peter Robinson
2. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, Stuart Turton
3. All Our Relations, Tanya Talaga
4. Half Spent was the Night, Ami McKay
5. Feminists Don’t Wear Pink, Scarlett Curtis
6. Starlight, Richard Wagamese
7. Final Account, Peter Robinson
8. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling
9. Becoming, Michelle Obama
10. Fractured, Karin Slaughter
11. The Kept Woman, Karin Slaughter
12. This Will Only Hurt a Little, Busy Philipps
13. My Squirrel Days, Ellie Kemper
14. 1984, George Orwell
15. Promise Me, Dad, Joe Biden
16. Go Tell It On The Mountain, James Baldwin
17. Leah on the Offbeat, Becky Albertalli
18. How to be a Champion, Sarah Millican
19. What If It’s Us, Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera
20. American Like Me, America Ferrera
21. Anne of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
22. Happy Parents, Happy Kids, Ann Douglas
23. Crazy Rich Asians, Kevin Kwan
24. Chop Suey Nation, Ann Hui
25. China Rich Girlfriend, Kevin Kwan
26. Rich People Problems, Kevin Kwan
27. Too Much is Not Enough, Andrew Rannells
28. Kings, Queens and In-Betweens, Tanya Boteju
29. The mermaid’s voice returns in this one, Amanda Lovelace
30. Puddin’, Julie Murphy
31. Call Them By Their True Names, Rebecca Solnit
32. No Choice, Kate McKenna
33. Helter Skelter, Vic Bugliosi
34. Big Sky, Kate Atkinson
35. That Lonely Section of Hell, Lori Shenher
36. Monday’s Not Coming, Tiffany D. Jackson
37. On the Other Side of Freedom, DeRay Mckesson
38. First, we make the beast beautiful, Sarah Wilson
39. Motorcycles and Sweetgrass, Drew Hayden Taylor
40. Love Lives Here, Amanda Jetté Knox
41. I know I am, but what are you?, Samantha Bee
42. The Lazarus Files, Matthew McGough
43. Evvie Drake Starts Over, Linda Holmes
44. The Stranger Beside Me, Ann Rule
45. A Noise Downstairs, Linwood Barclay
46. Chase Darkness with Me, Billy Jensen
47. Hello I Want to Die Please Fix Me, Anna Mehler Paperny
48. Turtles All The Way Down, John Green
49. To Drink Coffee with a Ghost, Amanda Lovelace
50. Had It Coming, Robyn Doolittle
51. Anne of Avonlea, LM Montgomery
52. Why Mommy Swears, Gill Sims
53. Everywoman, Jess Phillips
54. Animal, Sara Pascoe
55. Straight Outta Crawley, Romesh Ranganathan
56. The Witches are Coming, Lindy West
57. Let It Snow, John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle
58. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, JK Rowling
59. Him and Me, Jack and Michael Whitehall
60. So You Ant To Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo

2019 Book Bingo

• Biography/Autobiography This Will Only Hurt a Little
• Written 50 years before you were born Anne of Green Gables 
• About travel or a journey The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
• An earlier book by an author whose later work you have enjoyed The Hanging Valley
• Recommended by a book group buddy
• Set across a geographical border from you Promise Me, Dad 
• By an author with the same initials as you Leah on the Offbeat
• A classic that you’ve always wanted to read  1984
• About your ancestors
• About a sport/game
• An exploration or discovery Feminists Don’t Wear Pink 
• A book of instructions
• A book published in 2019 Chop Suey Nation 
• About someone who has beaten the odds  First, we make the beast beautiful 
• Translated from another language
• An investigation Final Account 
• With a scientific term in the title
• By an Indigenous writer All Our Relations
• Short-listed or won an award Monday’s Not Coming
• With a transgender protagonist or character American Like Me
• A book of poetry the mermaid’s voice returns in this one 
• History of another country  Call Them By Their True Names
• From a little free library or equivalent
• Written by an author in your home country/province/region Starlight
• That you wanted to read in 2018 Half Spent Was The Night

2018

1. First Among Sequels, Jasper Fforde
2. Nasty Women, Samhita Mukhopadhyay
3. One of Our Thursdays is Missing, Jasper Fforde
4. The Woman Who Died A Lot, Jasper Fforde
5. The Woman in the Window, AJ Finn
6. The Accident of Being Lost, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
7. The ABC Murders, Agatha Christie
8. The Princess Diarist, Carrie Fisher
9. Dead Man’s Folly, Agatha Christie
10. Crime Seen, Kate Lines
11. Not My Father’s Son, Alan Cumming
12. What Happened, Hillary Clinton
13. Lord Edgeware Dies, Agatha Christie
14. The Girl with the Lost Smile, Miranda Hart
15. The Body in the Library, Agatha Christie
16. One Native Life, Richard Wagamese
17. They Do It With Mirrors, Agatha Christie
18. Cards on the Table, Agatha Christie
19. 4:50 From Paddington, Agatha Christie
20. This is Just My Face, Try Not to Stare, Gabourey Sidibe
21. Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud, Anne Helen Petersen
22. After the Funeral, Agatha Christie
23. Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda, Becky Albertalli
24. The Sittaford Mystery, Agatha Christie
25. Where Am I Now?, Mara Wilson
26. My Name is Lucy Barton, Elizabeth Strout
27. Peril at End House, Agatha Christie
28. In Conclusion, Don’t Worry About It, Lauren Graham
29. At Bertram’s Hotel, Agatha Christie
30. We Were Feminists Once, Andi Zeisler
31. Too Much and Not in the Mood, Durga Chew-Bose
32. Embers, Richard Wagamese
33. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, Michelle McNamara
34. Jane of Lantern Hill, LM Montgomery
35. Emotional Intensity in Gifted Students, Christine Fonseca
36. A Murder is Announced, Agatha Christie
37. The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Agatha Christie
38. Red Dragon, Thomas Harris
39. The Outsider, Stephen King
40. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
41. The Woman in Cabin 10, Ruth Ware
42. The Good Daughter, Karin Slaughter
43. Why Young Men, Jamil Jivani
44. The Death of Mrs. Westaway, Ruth Ware
45. Mystery of the Blue Train, Agatha Christie
46. My Dog: The Paradox, The Oatmeal
47. Pretty Girls, Karin Slaughter
48. Shrewed, Elizabeth Renzetti
49. A Girl’s Guide to Joining the Resistance, Emma Rose Gray
50. Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert
51. Small Claims, Andrew Kaufmann
52. Children of the Revolution, Peter Robinson
53. Not that Bad, Roxane Gay
54. Gallows View, Peter Robinson
55. One Story, One Song, Richard Wagamese
56. The Crossroads of Should and Must, Elle Luna
57. Ayoade on Ayoade, Richard Ayoade
58. Fishing the Sloe Black River, Colum McCann
59. A Dedicated Man, Peter Robinson
60. To Make Monsters Out of Girls, Amanda Lovelace
61. A Necessary End, Peter Robinson
62. Elevation, Stephen King
63. The Art of The English Murder, Lucy Worsley
64. Lethal White, Robert Galbraith
65. Dare to Lead, Brene Brown
66. We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson
67. The Grownup, Gillian Flynn
68. Drop Dead, Laura Poplak
69. In a House of Lies, Ian Rankin
70. GuRu, Rupaul
71. Pieces of Her, Karin Slaughter
72. The Saturday Night Ghost Club, Craig Davidson

2018 Book Bingo

• About politics Nasty Women
• Set in the region of your country with the smallest population Jane of Lantern Hill
• Borrowed from a friend  4:50 From Paddington 
• Suggested by a child in your life The Girl with the Lost Smile
• A book you think everyone should readOne Native Life
• Published the year you were born Red Dragon
• That made you uncomfortable The Accident of Being Lost
• That you’d like to read to LaurieFirst Among Sequels
• Written in the late 80s
• An Agatha Christie book Dead Man’s Folly 
• Recommended by someone with whom you usually disagree
• With a place name in the title
• About history in another countryWhat Happened
• About reconciliation from colonization Embers
• Published before 1800
• That you enjoyed as a child
• Recommended by Laurie in a previous year Not My Father’s Son
• Originally released in serial form The ABC Murders
• With a weather term in the title
• Canadian sci-fi or fantasy
• That you started previously and didn’t finish A Murder is Announced
• With an LGBTQ2 protagonist Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda
• About cancer or by someone with cancer  Pieces of Her
• That won a prize on a different continent

2017

1. the princess saves herself in this one, amanda lovelace
2. Alias, Brian Michael Bendis
3. Rather Be The Devil, Ian Rankin
4. Fences, August Wilson
5. What She Knew, Gilly MacMillan
6. In a dark dark wood, Ruth Ware
7. The Wonder, Emma Donoghue
8. Wishful Drinking, Carrie Fisher
9. Scrappy Little Nobody, Anna Kendrick
10. In Such Good Company, Carol Burnett
11. You Can’t Touch My Hair, Phoebe Robinson
12. The Promise of Canada, Charlotte Gray
13. The Spellman Files, Lisa Lutz
14. Columbine, Dave Cullen
15. Is It Just Me? Miranda Hart
16. Swimming Lessons, Claire Fuller
17. Adnan’s Story, Rabia Chaudry
18. Hidden Figures, Margot Lee Shetterly
19. Big Fit Girl, Louise Green
20. Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
21. Still Mine, Amy Stuart
22. The Mother of All Questions, Rebecca Solnit
23. The Gifts of Imperfection, Brené Brown
24. Essex County, Jeff Lemire
25. One Day We’ll All Be Dead And None Of This Will Matter, Scaachi Koul
26. Standing in Another Man’s Grave, Ian Rankin
27. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck, Mark Manson
28. Big Girl, Kelsey Miller
29. Roughneck, Jeff Lemire
30. Men Explain Things To Me, Rebecca Solnit
31. Into the Water, Paula Hawkins
32. The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde
33. This Is How, Augusten Burroughs
34. Lost in a Good Book, Jasper Fforde
35. Well of Lost Plots, Jasper Fforde
36. We are never meeting in real life, Samantha Irby
37. Something Rotten, Jasper Fforde
38. Wednesday’s Child, Peter Robinson
39. Milk and Honey, Rupi Kaur
40. Hunger, Roxane Gay
41. The Breakdown, BA Paris
42. Born a Crime, Trevor Noah
43. The Child, Fiona Barton
44. The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness, Paula Poundstone
45. Odd Thomas, Dean Koontz
46. The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas
47. Indian Horse, Richard Wagamese
48. The Canadian Federal Election of 2015, Jon H. Pammet
49. Man Up, Ross Matthews
50. Collected Tarts and Other Indelicacies, Tabatha Southey
51. Lost Dogs, Jeff Lemire
52. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
53. Letters to a Young Writer, Colum McCann
54. Seven Fallen Feathers, Tanya Talaga
55. Ramona Blue, Julie Murphy
56. Anything Goes, John Barrowman

Book bingo

1. By an author you’ve never read before What She Knew
2. Memoir/AutobiographyWishful Drinking
3. Indigenous authorIndian Horse
4. Nobel Prize winning author
5. Book that made you crythe princess saves herself in this one 
6. A re-readThe Eyre Affair
7. Book of essays The Promise of Canada
8. Love storyOdd Thomas
9. Set in another world
10. With ‘some’ in the title Something Rotten
11. A novel by a Muslim writer
12. Refers to songs or musicFences
13. Non-fiction Scrappy Little Nobody 
14. Turned or being turned into a movie or TV show Hidden Figures
15. More than 5 words in the titleYou Can’t Touch My Hair…
16. By an author who shares one of your namesStill Mine
17. Graphic NovelAlias
18. Featuring a road tripIn a dark dark wood
19. Set on a different continent from the one in which you live Rather be the Devil
20. By someone you know or have metRoughneck
21. Animal in the title Indian Horse
22. Banned or challengedEssex County
23. That made you laugh out loudIn Such Good Company

Book Riot Read Harder Challenge:

1. Readabookaboutsports.
2. Read a debutnovel.What She Knew
3. Read a bookaboutbooks. Swimming Lessons 
4. Read a book set in Central or South America, written by a Central or South American author.
5. Read a book by an immigrant or with a centralimmigration narrative.
6. Read anall-ages comic. Lost Dogs
7. Read a book published between 1900and1950.
8. Read atravelmemoir.
9. Read a book you’ve readbefore. The Eyre Affair
10. Read a book that is setwithin100milesofyourlocation.
11. Read a book that is set more than 5000 milesfromyour location. Rather Be The Devil (technically 4990 miles)
12. Readafantasynovel.Odd Thomas
13. Read a nonfictionbookabouttechnology.
14. Readabookaboutwar.
15. Read a YA or middle grade novel by an author who identifies as LGBTQ+.
16. Read a book that has been banned or frequentlychallenged in yourcountry. Essex County
17. Read a classic by an author of color. Fences
18. Read a superhero comicwith a female lead.  Alias
19. Read a book in which a character of color goes on a spiritual journey Roughneck
20. Read an LGBTQ+romance novel 
21. Read a book published by a micropress.
22. Read a collection of stories by a woman. The Mother of All Questions 
23. Read a collection of poetry in translation on a theme other than love.
24. Read a book wherein all point-of-view characters are people of color. Hidden Figures

2016

1. The Heart Goes Last, Margaret Atwood
2. Let It Bleed, Ian Rankin
3. Carry On, Rainbow Rowell
4. I’ll Give You the Sun, Jandy Nelson
5. How to be a Parliamentary Researcher, Robert Dale
6. The Year of Yes, Shonda Rhimes
7. The Interestings, Meg Wolitzer
8. 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, Mona Awad
9. When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi
10. Dumplin’, Julie Murphy
11. The Widow, Fiona Barton
12. The Tiny Wife, Andrew Kaufman
13. The Reason You Walk, Wab Kinew
14. Life on the Road, Gloria Steinem
15. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving
16. Two Little Girls in Blue, Mary Higgins Clark
17. Moranifesto, Caitlin Moran
18. Mortal Causes, Ian Rankin
19. Shrill, Lindy West
20. Me, My Hair and I, Elizabeth Benedict
21. Lily and the Octopus, Steven Rowley
22. Sex Object, Jessica Valenti
23. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, JK Rowling, Jack Thorne, John Tiffany
24. Full Frontal Feminism, Jessica Valenti
25. Birdie, Tracey Lindberg
26. The Diva Rules, Michelle Visage
27. End of Watch, Stephen King
28. Fun Home, Allison Bechdel
29. Still Life, Louise Penny
30. I Let You Go, Clare Mackintosh
31. Why Is This Night Different From Other Nights?, Lemony Snicket
32. Indigenous Writes, Chelsea Vowel
33. Sister Citizen, Melissa Harris Perry
34. Witches of New York, Ami McKay
35. Talking as Fast as I Can, Lauren Graham
36. Setting the Table, Danny Meyer
37. CEO of Everything, Gail Vaz-Oxlade and Victoria Ryce
38. 13 Ways of Looking, Colum McCann

2016 Book Bingo (Italics are the books I plan to read that fit into that category)

A mystery Let It Bleed
From a recommended list13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl 
Non-fiction about a controversial subject Shrill
A book you should have read in school
A book you own but have never read A Prayer for Owen Meany
Released in the last 12 months Carry On
First book by an author The Tiny Wife
A book in a series Witches of New York (sort of) 
A book chosen for you by someone you love
A book that intimidates youSister Citizen
Time travel or a different country than the one in which you liveThe Widow
A book with an animal in the titleBirdie
A book that was banned
A book that has been made into a movie
Award winning
Science fiction or fantasy
A book you’ve been meaning to read The Interestings 
A book published before you were born 
A book with instructions How to be a Parliamentary Researcher
Survival (of the wilderness, work, school, life, relationship) The Heart Goes Last 
Scary 
A book recommended by your local librarian or booksellerI’ll Give You the Sun
A book about travelThe Reason You Walk
A book with a colour in the title Two Little Girls in Blue 

2016 Penguin-Random House Book Bingo

A book written by a female author  The Heart Goes Last
A book set outside of Canada Carry On
A bestsellerWhen Breath Becomes Air 
A book with a blue spine How to be a Parliamentary Researcher
A book that takes place before you were bornFun Home
A graphic novel or comic book Fun Home
A book with an illustrated coverDumplin’
An award-winning novel
A book recommended by a family member
A book you find in #WeNeedDiverseBooks Birdie
A book published the year you were born
A book written by a person of colour The Year of Yes
An author who shares your initials
A book becoming a movie in 2016
A book recommended by a librarian I’ll Give You the Sun
A book with a map on the front
A book with a female protagonist 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl
A book you picked up because of the cover The Interestings
A book in a genre you’ve never read beforeHarry Potter and the Cursed Child
A book set in CanadaThe Tiny Wife
A retelling of a classic
A book with a character who has a disability A Prayer for Owen Meany
A book that scares you
A book based on a true story

2015

1. A Bear Called Paddington, Michael Bond
2. Bad Feminist, Roxane Gay
3. Looking for Alaska, John Green
4. Revival, Stephen King
5. Etta and Otto and Russell and James, Emma Hooper
6. Deadpool Kills The Marvel Universe, Cullen Bunn
7. The Rabbit Back Literature Society, Pasi Ilmari Jaaskelainen
8. One Year in Coal Harbour, Polly Horvath
9. Fatal Vision, Joe McGuinness
10. Reconcilable Differences, Stephen Azzi
11. The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins
12. The Journalist and the Murderer, Janet Malcolm
13. The Cuckoo’s Calling, Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling)
14. The Silkworm, Robert Galbraith
15. The Big Shift, John Ibbitson and Darrell Bricker
16. All My Puny Sorrows, Miriam Toews
17. Finders Keepers, Stephen King
18. The Right to be Cold, Sheila Watt-Cloutier
19. Dark Places, Gillian Flynn
20. We Should All Be Feminists, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
21. Adult Onset, Anne Marie Macdonald
22. Tough Shit, Kevin Smith
23. Let’s Start a Riot, Bruce McCulloch
24. The Morning After, Chantal Hebert with Jean Lapierre
25. Choose Your Own Autobiography, Neil Patrick Harris
26. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, Mindy Kaling
27. Sick in the Head, Judd Apatow
28. Don’t Tell the Prime Minister, Patrick Weller
29. Speaking in Bones, Kathy Reichs
30. The Doodle Revolution, Sunni Brown
31. Retiring the Crow Rate, Arthur Kroeger
32. The Book of Negroes, Lawrence Hill
33. Furiously Happy, Jenny Lawson
34. Even Dogs in the Wild, Ian Rankin
35. Bazaar of Bad Dreams, Stephen King
36. Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates
37. Why Not Me? Mindy Kaling
38. The Family Fang, Kevin Wilson
39. The Inconvenient Indian
40. Career of Evil, Robert Galbraith
41. A Study in Scarlet, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
42. Modern Romance, Aziz Ansari

Book Bingo 2015:

A book on the Giller short list All My Puny Sorrows

A book translated from another language Rabbit Back Literature Society (Finnish)
A book your teenage self would have hidden from your parents Fatal Vision
A book more than 100 years oldA Study in Scarlet (published 1887)
A book by an author you’ve never read Bad Feminist
A book a friend lent/gave youEtta and Otto and Russell and James
A biographyTough Shit
A classic children’s novel  A Bear Called Paddington
A book you bought in 2014Reconcilable Differences
A national or international award winnerThe Book of Negroes
A book that made you laugh out loud Let’s Start a Riot
A book set in a country you haven’t visitedThe Girl on the Train
A book that teaches a skillOne Year in Coal Harbour (has recipes)
A book set in the province in which you were bornAdult Onset
An audiobook The Power of Habit
A graphic novelDeadpool Kills the Marvel Universe
A book by or about an Indigenous person The Inconvenient Indian
A book you couldn’t put down Looking for Alaska
A guilty pleasure book Revival
A good book with a bad coverThe Journalist and the Murderer
A book by an author you love The Cuckoo’s Calling
A book in a genre you don’t usually read The Right to be Cold (Autobiography)

2014

This year my goal is 50 books

1. The Shining, Stephen King
2. Come, Thou Tortoise, Jessica Grant
3. Doctor Sleep, Stephen King
4. Daring Greatly, Brené Brown
5. The Cursing Mommy’s Book of Days, Ian Frazier
6. Tooth and Nail, Ian Rankin
7. Reasons Mommy Drinks, Lyranda Martin-Evans and Fiona Stevenson
8. My Journey, Olivia Chow
9. Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank
10. Serena, Ron Rash
11. A Long Way Down, Nick Hornby
12. The Good Mother Myth, Avital Norman Nathman
13. Bones of the Lost, Kathy Reichs
14. Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg
15. The Amazing Thing About The Way It Goes, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
16. Wild, Cheryl Strayed
17. I Just Want To Pee Alone, Various authors
18. Paper Towns, John Green
19. Devil’s Knot, Mara Leveritt
20. Raising the Spirited Child, Mary Sheedy Kurcinka
21. HIde and Seek, Ian Rankin
22. Show Your Work, Austin Kleon
23. Orange is the New Black, Piper Kerman
24. Thirteen Reasons Why, Jay Asher
25. Room, Emma Donoghue
26. Anne of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
27. Veronica Mars: The thousand dollar tan line, Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham
28. The Dinner, Herman Koch
29. Growing Up Duggar, Jill, Jinger, Jessa and Jana Duggar
30. Nurtureshock, Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman
31. Where are the Children?, Mary Higgins Clark
32. Juliet, Naked, Nick Hornby
33. Call the Midwife, Jennifer Worth
34. The Blood of Innocents, Guy Freel
35. Landline, Rainbow Rowell
36. Life After Death, Damien Echols
37. Without You, Anthony Rapp
38. Us Conductors, Sean Michaels
39. It Only Takes a Moment, Mary Jane Clark
40. The Farm, Tom Rob Smith
41. The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
42. The Moth, Various
43. When Day Breaks, Mary Jane Clark
44. This is Where I Leave You, Jonathan Tropper
45. An Abundance of Katherines, John Green
46. Not That Kind of Girl, Lena Dunham
47. I am Malala, Malala Yousafzai
48. Mr. Mercedes, Stephen King
49. Yes Please, Amy Poehler
50. Dark Spell, Mara Leveritt
51. Shouldn’t you be in School? Lemony Snicket
52. The Look of Love, Mary Jane Clark
53. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Stephen King
54. Will Grayson, Will Grayson, John Green and David Levithan

Adding an element: Book Bingo – These are all the categories on the card for this year and I plan to try and hit each of them, though some will be harder than others. I’m told you can make your own rules and definitions for this, so I will. I have a big pile of books ready to read this year (and I’m going to try not to buy new ones until I’ve worked my way through a good portion of them) so I’m going to fill out some of this in advance and then cross them off when they’re read.

• A book with more than 500 pages  Doctor Sleep
• A forgotten classic Diary of a Young Girl
• A book that became a movie The Shining
• A book published this year My Journey
• A book with a number in the titleThirteen Reasons Why
  
• A book written by someone under 30 Show Your Work
• A book with non-human characters Come, Thou Tortoise
• A funny book The Amazing Thing About The Way It Goes
• A book by a female author  I Just Want to Pee Alone
• A book with a mysteryBones of the Lost
• A book with a one-word titleSerena
• A book of short storiesThe Good Mother Myth
• A book set on a different continentTooth and Nail (UK)
• A book of non-fictionWild
  
• The first book by a favourite authorAnne of Green Gables
• A book you heard about onlineDaring Greatly
• A best-selling bookPaper Towns
• A book based on a true storyOrange is the New Black
  
• A book at the bottom of your to-read pileRaising the Spirited Child
• A book your friend lovesLean In
• A book that scares you Room
• A book that is more than 10 years old Devil’s Knot
• The second book in a seriesHide and Seek
• A book with a blue coverA Long Way Down

Starting again, June:

• A book with more than 500 pages  Mr. Mercedes
• A forgotten classic
• A book that became a movieThis is Where I Leave You
• A book published this year Dark Spell
• A book with a number in the title The thousand dollar tan line
  
• A book written by someone under 30Growing Up Duggar
• A book with non-human characters  Shouldn’t You Be In School?
• A funny bookJuliet, Naked
• A book by a female author Yes Please
• A book with a mysteryWhen Day Breaks
• A book with a one-word titleLandline
• A book of short storiesNurtureshock
• A book set on a different continent The Farm
• A book of non-fiction Life After Death
  
• The first book by a favourite author Where are the Children?
• A book you heard about onlineThe Dinner 
• A best-selling book Not that Kind of Girl
• A book based on a true storyCall the Midwife
  
• A book at the bottom of your to-read pileThe Moth
• A book your friend lovesUs Conductors
• A book that scares you I am Malala
• A book that is more than 10 years oldBlood of Innocents 
• The second book in a series It Only Takes a Moment
• A book with a blue coverThe Graveyard Book