#SummerSoLit Book Bingo Reading Challenge

via GIPHY

What better way to spend the summer than with the #SummerSoLit Book Bingo Reading Challenge? I hope you'll join me in getting out of your comfort zone and reading and supporting books by POC.

If you Twitter, post updates at #SummerSoLit to join in on the fun.

Challenge dates:

 Summer Solstice (June 22) - Fall Solstice (September 22)

1. "HEAT" in the title: Heat of the Night by Sylvia Day (For romance readers who like to skip to the good parts. Steamy paranormal romance.) 🌟🌟🌟🌟

2. Graphic novel with a PoC in it:  Monstress, Vol. 1 by Marjorie M. Liu (Gorgeously drawn fantasy-steampunk graphic novel with a creative and compelling plot and a badass MC with a secret.) 🌟🌟🌟🌟

3. Last in a series: Manners & Mutiny (Finishing School #4) by Gail Carriger (Fun, action-packed conclusion to a steampunk/comedy of manners series.) 🌟🌟🌟🌟

4. Takes place on an island: Jane, Unlimited by Kristin Cashore (Kind of a genre-spanning, choose-your-own-adventure in which each choice the main character makes sets her on a path to face a truth about herself. The more I think about it, the more I like it.) 🌟🌟🌟🌟

5. Collection of short stories by a PoC: Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado (Genre-defying, feminist stories about women and their bodies. Think Margaret Atwood with way more queer sex.) 🌟🌟🌟🌟

6. Read 11+ books this summer: LOL. Done by mid-June.

7. Non-fiction about a PoC: Handbook for an Unpredictable Life: How I survived Sister Renata and My Crazy Mother, and Still Came Out Smiling by Rosie Pérez (An inspiring memoir of surviving and thriving despite childhood trauma. Added all of her movies to my Netflix queue. You know, for when my eyes are tired from reading.) 🌟🌟🌟🌟

8. Disabled male author

9. Fireworks on the cover: Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake by Anna Quindlen (A memoir about turning 60, full of wit and wisdom.) 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

10. Local author

11. Made into a movie

12. High school summer

13. FREE SPACE: In Other Words/In Altre Parole by Jhumpa Lahiri (Her memoir about her love affair with the Italian language and how it reveals her search for identity and belonging.) 🌟🌟🌟🌟

14. LGBTQ main character: Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire (As soon as Nancy arrives at the Home for Wayward Children, she becomes the prime suspect in some creepy murders. All she wants is to find a door back to the land of the dead.) 🌟🌟🌟🌟

15. Roadtrip: Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi (Fast-paced fantasy-adventure about a quest to restore magic to a fictional African kingdom. Dynamic characters and fantastic world-building.) 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

16. One word title: Circe by Madeline Miller (Circe finally gets to tell her side of the story you may have heard if you read The Odyssey. Gorgeous writing and compelling characters. Plus, some subtle LGBTQ rep.) 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

17. Latina main character: The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (Xiomara is a teenager struggling to find her voice in a neighborhood where her curvy body brings unwanted attention and her super-religious mother will do anything to keep control of her daughter in this free-verse novel. I loved the way Spanish is seamlessly woven throughout.) 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

18. Camping: A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (A humorous account of what happened when an inexperienced hiker took on the Appalachian Trail.) 🌟🌟🌟🌟

19. 50 year old sci-fi 

20. "SUMMER" in the title

21. A Beach on the cover: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (The story of a family's life, told in two parts--before and after the death of Mrs. Ramsay. The visit to the lighthouse is a metaphor for all that is unfulfilled in her life.) 🌟🌟🌟

22. New York Times Bestseller: The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae (An entertaining collection of essays that mostly skim the surface. I'm more of a fan of her work in television, where her voice absolutely sparkles.) 🌟🌟🌟

23. One word title: Dietland by Sarai Walker (A feminist manifesto that takes on diet and rape culture.) 🌟🌟🌟🌟 

24. Muslim female author: Amina's Voice by Hena Khan (Middle grade fiction featuring a Pakistani-American girl navigating friendships, faith, and family.) 🌟🌟🌟

25. Historical fiction with Asian main character: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford (First love between a Chinese-American boy and a Japanese-American girl that jumps back and forth between 1942 and 1986.) 🌟🌟🌟