Book Bingo update number 3

 

What Nanny Read

Poor nanny really lost her reading mojo this year. The pandemic and initial lockdowns all started while she and the Kentishbookboy's grandad were enjoying a holiday in Australia and the very stressful end to that, and the libraries being closed, really impacted on reading.

It didn't help that with visiting from family also limited there were less physical copies of books to share around. 

All of this allowing Nanny J still ticked off the following books from the bingo sheet:

A book set pre 1950: The Habit of Murder

A non-fiction book: The Private Life of the Hare

A book recommended by a friend: Secrets of Santorini

A book with animals as the main characters: The Umbrella Mouse

A Book chosen by Norfolkbookworm: The Night of the Flood*

A book from the school list: Clockwork

A Book set in another country: Umbrella Mouse to the Rescue

Free choice: The Uncommon Reader 

I am sure that Nanny J has read more than this in total but in a year as crazy as 2020 managing one book from each row seems an achievement to me! It also shows how good books written for children can be as all of us really recommend the Umbrella Mouse books.

*The eagle-eyed reader will notice that I (Norfolkbookworm) picked this as the book that nanny recommended to me - this can be explained in that Nanny J heard people talking about this and pointed it out to me, I then bought it, read it and afterwards passed it on as one to definitely bump to the top of the pile!

Book Bingo update 2 (Norfolkbookworm's sheet)

 

House!

Unlike the Kentishbookboy I've not been ticking my sheet off as I've been reading - which was a huge mistake. However as I do keep a full reading diary I have gone through that today and discovered that, pretty much by accident, I can tick off every square too!

This isn't necessarily a reflection of the books that will be in my top reads of the year but I am pleased that I haven't let the side down!

Kentishbookboy's choice: Harry Potter rereads

Non-fiction: Limitless (Tim Peake's autobiography)

Set in another country: The Cat and the City (Japan)

Norfolkbookworm's Choice: Girl, Woman, Other

Set pre 1950 - Hamnet

A book from the school list: Clockwork

A book with magic in: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

A graphic novel or comic: March vols 1-3

Recommended by a friend: Mudlarking

A funny book: Why Mummy's Sloshed

A book from the school list: A Bear Called Paddington

A book with animals in: The Travelling Cat Chronicles

A book recommended by nanny or grandad: The Night of the Flood

Free choice: The Island & the sequel One August Night

A poetry book: White Ink Stains

A book recommended by mum or dad: Umbrella Mouse to the Rescue

Some of these are likely to make lists at the end of the month/start of January but even subconsciously I think I've been picking books that tick the bingo boxes!

What the Kentishbookboy read 2020

 

Book Bingo 2020

I stand in awe of my nephew, with everything that 2020 has thrown at him he's just one square away from completing his bingo chart from the start of the year!

I'm not 100% sure I can say the same about my sheet and Nanny has already said that she's totally lost her reading mojo this year. 

Although he had ticked off some of the squares at the start of the challenge the definitive list of what books he'd like to count for each square are:

Kentishbookboy's choice: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Non-fiction: Sharks and other deadly ocean creatures

Set in another country: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Norfolkbookworm's choice: The Highland Falcon Thief

Set pre 1950 - Carrie's War

A book from the School list - Varjak Paw

A book with magic in: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

A graphic novel: The 13 Storey Treehouse series

A book recommended by a friend: The Train to Impossible Places

A funny book: 117-Storey Treehouse

A book from the school list - The Lion and the Unicorn

A book with animals in - The Umbrella Mouse to the Rescue

A book recommended by Nanny or Grandad - to be confirmed, possibly Wind in the Willows

Free choice: The Umbrella Mouse

A poetry book: A Poem a  Day

A book picked by mum or dad: Wonderscape

As well as this list of books Kentishbookboy has also shared his reading log with us, although none of us are convinced that this is 100% accurate as we suspect that there has been some rereading and sneak reading after lights out that isn't accounted for here! Well if he's anything like the Norfolkbookworm was as a child this is definitely the case!

As things stand, with just over a week of the year to go the Kentishbookboy is calling Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as his top book of the year.

House!

Book Bingo 2020 Progress

With two months of 2020 already gone Kentishbookboy has sent through his book bingo sheet to show me how he's getting on - and I think that he's already ticked off another box!

Kentishbookboy's reads are:

Set in another country: & on the list from school - Clockwork by Philip Pullman

A book on the list from school - A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket

A book with magic in - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J K Rowling

A book set before 1950 - War Horse by Michael Morpurgo (not crossed off yet)

My reads are:

A book set in another country - The Cat and the City by Nick Bradley (set in Tokyo)

A book on the list from school - Clockwork by Philip Pullman

A book set before 1950 - Mrs Tim Carries On by D E Stevenson

A non fiction book - Difficult Women by Helen Lewis

So we're both ahead in our challenge at the moment...

Kentishbookboy Goes It Alone

A Series Of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

As I said in my last post I've been reading for various projects recently and so I haven't had time to keep up with the Kentishbookboy, however this year as well as having our book group we also taking part in a family Book Bingo challenge.

This lets chart lets me, KBB, his mum, his nanny and his great aunt all count other reads towards our game - although we are all planning on sharing lots of books too! 

(just one review this time - all from Kentishbookboy)

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning

Synopsis:
Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire are intelligent children. Even though they are charming and clever, the Baudelaire siblings lead lives filled with misery and woe. From the very first page of this book when the children are at the beach and receive terrible news, through to itchy clothing, a plot to steal the family fortune and cold porridge for breakfast, the children have much to overcome,

Dilemma:
The Baudelaire orphans are sent to live with their distant relative, Count Olaf. From their first day, they experience nothing but non-stop torture. They need to work together and stop Count Olaf from getting hold of the Baudelaire fortune.

Morals/Themes:
There are a few themes for this book. I think cunning, greed, courage, love and family are the main ones. I think courage is one because in chapter 10 the eldest Baudelaire, Violet, tries to save her sister, Sunny, by making a grappling hook to climb up the forbidden tower. She shows courage when she climbed up, she hoped it didn't fall down to the ground.

Recommendation:
This book is an interesting story and it contains from weird bits too. I think Lemony Snicket is a great author and has a talent for writing stories. I would like to read the next book: The Reptile Room and give it four stars.

I'm really glad that Kentishbookboy enjoyed this book - I remember reading both this one and The Reptile Room when they were first published in the UK and quite enjoying them but I don't think I read on past these two. I definitely haven't seen the film or TV series, although I did get to meet Lemony Snicket's alter ego Daniel Handler once...

Reading Challenge Updates

Personal Reading Challenges.

As was proved in 2017 I really suck at reading challenges, even ones I set myself for fun!

This year I am trying to do a little better. My job has changed somewhat and for the first time in 21 years I am not working directly with books, authors and readers.
As I've survived a brain hemorrhage and regained the ability to read it feels very important to not lose my book world knowledge or my love of books.

I belong to an online book discussion group linked to Norfolk's libraries and for this we created two challenges for 2018.

One is a simple monthly challenge:

And so far I have managed to complete the first quarter's challenges

• In January I read Flat Share by Beth O'Leary
• In February I started If Cats Disappeared from the World by Genki Kawamura, a book I only bought because I fell in love with the cover! (I didn't actually finish this one in Feb but I'm counting it as a challenge sucess!)
• In March my reservations for Two Weeks in Florence and Yesterday Morning by Diana Athill arrived and I enjoyed both of these short books, one a diary of a holiday to Italy and the other a memoir of a Norfolk Childhood.

We also launched a bingo style challenge to inspire reading:

Without even realising it I have actually 'ticked' many of the boxes here as many of my reads do tick more than one box!

• Is a story about a real character - Becoming Mrs Lewis
• A debut novel - The Flat Share
• A number in the title - Vintage 1954
• Set during war time - Island Song
• A non fiction book - The Cut Out Girl
• Award Winning - The Cut Out Girl
• A book from my wishlist - Chasing the Sun
• An item from a library that is new to me - Beauchamp Hall
• Read a children's book/watch a children't film - The Lego Movie 2
• Read a book set in Norfolk - Beauchamp Hall
• Read a book in translation - Vintage 1954

If I do complete this one, I might go back and try to get a unique item for each prompt.

Just this week one of my closet friends shared the reading challenge that she has developed as part of her job and I am tempted to start that one too.

I think that I like these challenges so much because I don't have to read anything set but can retrofit my choices!