Part 2 of our book recommendations for the Adult Summer Reading Book Bingo is here! This game is put together by Seattle Arts & Lectures (SAL) and the Seattle Public Library (SPL). We've got lots of amazing picks for the second half of the bingo card so you can easily check off those squares and be on your way to getting bingo or a full card blackout! The challenge goes until September 7th so you've still got plenty of time to get in some great summer reading and potentially win some prizes.

Are you participating in the Seattle Public Library's Summer Book Bingo? Have you been meaning to do it during summers passed? Is this the first you're hearing about this? Well, however you answered these questions, I'm here to tell you all about the wonderfulness that is Book Bingo 2021!

Every summer, the Seattle Public Library (SPL) and Seattle Arts & Lectures (SAL) team up to bring hundreds of readers and non-readers alike 24 squares of reading opportunities. Why do kids get to have all the fun? You have until September 7th to read a line of five for a bingo or to read all 24 for a blackout. After submitting it via email, in-person, or social media, you are in the running to win some very cool prizes. 

While novels generally take center stage and (let’s be real) steal all the limelight, it behooves me to share my love for the often overlooked and misjudged genre of short stories and essays.

You might be a diehard reader of grand tales and thick tomes. Preferably with lots of characters and plot that grows for pages and pages. The bigger, the better; the longer, the more exciting. And perhaps you believe that short stories and essays tend to end abruptly and without very good resolutions. But I am going to let you in on a secret. The shortness and brevity of these stories can actually work in your favor!

What better way to celebrate April than with poetry books! I am a bit biased as someone who reads poetry not only during National Poetry Month but every other month as well. But I’m here because I love poems and I want more people to love them too. 

Studying it in college, reading it during my lunch breaks, and writing it in my spare time, I am very familiar with the eye rolls and shrugs I get from people when I mention poetry. And, believe me, I understand when they say they just don’t get it because I don't get all of it either. One of the most common responses I hear is that school ruined it for them because required reading sometimes has a way of doing that.The overanalyzing in high school English class, your teacher and their unforgiving red pen, deters readers and nonreaders alike from picking up some of these amazing writers that are doing incredible things with language. Like Billy Collins writes, "all they want to do / is tie the poem to a chair with rope / and torture a confession out of it." You don't need a rope, a chair, or a confession - I promise.

Photo by Malte Wingen on Unsplash

Why we love audiobooks and Libro.fm. Hint: it has to do with five free audiobooks.