Oh, The Glamourous Life!

Dear Constant Reader,

As usual, this summer I participated in the Boston Public Library’s summer reading challenge, BLP Bingo. And, like last year, I took on both challenges, the one with 12 books (and 12 other activities) and the one with 24 books. Technically, you only need to complete one line on the bingo card to claim victory, but I strive to overachieve. My personal rule is no re-reads (which made the Epistolary category a bit of a challenge*), unless specifically stated. Here’s what I read from June to August:

For the regular reading challenge:
Author of Color:The Black God’s Drums by P. Djèlí Clark
Indigenous Author: Where They Last Saw Her by Marcie R. Rendon
Book with a Green Cover: Killer High: A History of War in Six Drugs by Peter Andreas
Suggestion from Library Staff: A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher
LGBTQ+ Author: You Wanna Be on Top?: A Memoir of Makeovers, Manipulation, and Not Becoming America’s Next Top Model by Sarah Hartshorne
Book Published in 2025: Never Flinch by Stephen King
Teen or Children’s Book: Another by Paul Tremblay
Book About an Immigrant: When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb
Anthology or Short Story Collection: Roald Dahl’s Book of Ghost Stories by various authors
Banned or Challenged Book: Flamer by Mike Curato
Disabled or Neurodivergent Author: The Undetectables by Courtney Smyth
Book in Translation: The Aosawa Murders by Riku Onda (translated by Alison Watts)

These were the Read More categories:
Book Set in the ’70s: Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Graphic Novel: Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley
Book by an Activist: They Called Us Enemy by George Takei
Nonhuman Protagonist: A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland
Trans or Nonbinary Author: Cleavage: Men, Women, and the Space Between Us by Jennifer Finney Boylan
Page to Screen: The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
First Nations Author: Taaqtumi: An Anthology of Arctic Horror Stories by various authors
2nd Person POV: Candelaria by Melissa Lozada-Oliva
Suggestion from Library Staff: Death in the Cards by Mia P. Manansala
Epistolary: Piranesi by Susana Clarke
Asian American Author: Mỹ Documents by Kevin Nguyen
Reread a Childhood Favorite: The House with a Clock in its Walls by John Bellairs
Found Family: The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
Autistic Author: All the Little Bird-Hearts by Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow
Book with a Name in the Title: The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean
Genre You Don’t Often Read: Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes by Leah Litman
Debut Novel: Hungry Bones by Louise Hung
Book from your TBR: A Day at the Dragon Shelter by various authors
Book about an Animal: A Cat’s Tale: A Journey Through Feline History by Baba the Cat
Time Travel: To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
Book Set in Latin America: The Ruins by Scott Smith
Afrofuturism: The Ephemora Collector by Stacy Nathaniel Jackson
Novella: Coup de Grâce by Sofia Ajram
Book About an Artist: The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick by Mallory O’Meara

Many of these were picked from the suggestion lists at the BPL, but some were recommendations from others: 

• The Morbid Curiosity Podcast Discord recommended a bunch of great books, but To Say Nothing of the Dog was a stand-out. Thanks, Butts! Also, two of the members are also authors appearing in A Day at the Dragon Shelter.
• Roald Dahl’s Book of Ghost Stories and The Ruins were selections for the Slightly Sinister Book Club.
• I read The Phantom of the Opera to prepare for my trip to Masquerade.
• Scratch suggested When the Angels Left the Old Country, specifically as an audio book. He was right.
• I was absolutely reading Sarah Hartshorne’s ANTM memoir as soon as it arrived, but finding a category was a challenge, until I read one particular section. (Sarah is an old friend and I’d had this book on preorder since she announced the release date)
• I knew I was going to read Hungry Bones — I’ve been following Louise since “Creepy Corner” on XOJane. I asked her via her Patreon, if she wanted her book to fulfill “Debut Novel” or “Asian American Author” and to recommend a book for the other category.  She picked the former and recommended Mỹ Documents for the latter.

Top 10 favorite books (in alphabetical order)
A Cat’s Tale
A Day at the Dragon Shelter
Hungry Bones
Never Flinch
A Sweet Sting of Salt
They Called Us Enemy/Mỹ Documents (yes, this is two but I feel they should be read as a set)
To Say Nothing of the Dog
When the Angels Left the Old Country
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking
You Wanna Be on Top?

Have you read anything good this summer?

*The obvious choice being Dracula

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