It’s been just over a month since I last shared my Summer Book Bingo Card with you and I’m happy to say that I now have FOUR Bingos!

(ya’ll definitely need to click this to read it)

Here are the books I’ve finished, along with their corresponding Bingo squares, and reviews:

Square #18, About Food: Beach Music, Pat Conro
5 stars
This is a long book with a big amazing beautiful heartbreaking story. It made me cry, it made me laugh, and it will stay with me for a long long time.

Square #1, Seen on Gilmore Girls: A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
5 stars
Readers seem to fall into two camps with this book, they love it or despite it. You can count me as one who loves it.

Square #17, Person on the Cover: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman
4 stars
I truly enjoyed this book. Eleanor is a great character and I loved the progression of her story and the way she developed and overcame her past in a realistic and heartfelt way.

Square # 7: One-word Title: Less, Andrew Sean Greer
5 stars
Truly delightful and captivating!

Square #12: Set in a Different Season: Due or Die, Jenn McKinlay
3 stars
A light cozy mystery set in a library, perfect for a quick summer read.

Square #10: Written in the Second Person: Every Note Played, Lisa Genova
4 stars
A brutally honest depiction of what it’s like to live with and die from ALS, this is not an easy read. It’s sometimes gross, truly heartbreaking, and also absolutely beautiful.

Square # 6: Classic: Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson
4 stars
A haunting story of neglect and abandonment, this book tells a bleak and sad tale of a family’s inability to come to terms with tragedy, resulting in mental illness that lasts for generations. The sadness and loneliness of the characters is palpable, leaving me feeling wrung out and sad. Still, it’s beautifully written, worthy of praise, and I’m glad I read it.

Square #3: Magical Realism: Kindrid, Octavia Butler
4 stars
I read this book in practically one sitting as I could not put it down. The story is compelling in today’s time but would have been ground breaking in 1979. Highly recommended.

Square #1: Seen on Gilmore Girls: Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance
3 stars
I found this to be an interesting memoir of the author’s difficult childhood and how he rose above it to become successful. I think it’s good and worth reading but it’s not a treatise on our entire nation or even an entire region, it’s simply one man’s experience of poverty.

Square #2: Wanted to Read for More Than a Year: Etta and Otto and Russell and James, Emma Hooper
4 stars
Delightful, fluid and quirky, I enjoyed this book immensely. The ending is left to the reader’s interpretation and, while I find that slightly annoying, it forced me to really think through the entire story and fit all the pieces together in the way I found best.

Just 5 more books to go for my cover all!