Episode 265 || Bookshelf Bookish Bingo

This week, Annie is joined by The Bookshelf manager, Olivia Schaffer to discuss some of their category choices for Bookshelf Bookish Bingo—a reading challenge which was released by The Bookshelf in January.

Most of the books discussed in today’s episode are available on The Bookshelf’s website:

A book from the year The Bookshelf was founded (1982)

  • Not the Hippopotamus and Opposites by Sandra Boynton

  • James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

  • A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton

  • The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende

Books by indigenous author:

  • Pashmina by Nidhi Chanani

  • The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar

  • There There by Tommy Orange

  • The Round House by Louise Erdrich

  • The Birchbark House book series by Louise Erdrich

  • The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee by David Treuer

  • Where the Dead Sit Talking by Brandon Hobson

  • This is Paradise by Kristiana Kahakauwila

 Newsy non-fiction title:

  • Brief Answers to the Big Questions by Steven Hawking

  • Maybe You Should Talk to Somebody by Lori Gottlieb

  • Dopesick by Beth Macy

  • She Said by Jodi Kantor and Twohey

  • Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow

  • Bad Blood by John Carreyrou

A book your favorite aunt read and loved:

  • A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

  • Wild by Cheryl Strayed

  • The Case of the Velvet Claws by Erle Stanley Gardner

  • Elizabeth the Queen by Sally Bedell Smith

  • The Other Side of the Coin by Angela Kelly

A work that became an Oscar winner:

  • Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

  • First Man by James R. Hansen

  • The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

  • The Martian by Andy Weir

  • Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot

  • No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

  • The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

  • Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

Foodie memoir with a recipe that you’ll try:

  • Flour + Water by Thomas McNaughton and Paolo Lucchesi

  • The Apprentice by Jacques Pepin

    Devil in the Kitchen by Marco Pierre White

  • Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

  • The Supper of the Lamb by Robert Farrar Capon

  • Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl

  • Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl

  • Delancey by Molly Wizenberg

  • Bread & Wine by Shauna Niequist

A novel about the immigrant experience:

  • Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

  • Be Prepared by Vera Brosgol

  • A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi

  • We’re Not From Here by Geoff Rodkey

  • The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez

  • Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue

  • How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C. Pam Zhang

A book set in your favorite decade:

1920s:

  • The Paragon Hotel by Lyndsay Faye

  • The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

  • Bernice Bobs Her Hair by F. Scott Fitzgerald

  • Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

  • Z by Zelda Fitzgerald

1980s:

Sports book to prep for the Olympics:

  • Believe It by Joshua Cooley and Nick Foles

  • Seven Days in Augusta by Mark Cannizzaro

  • Friday Night Lights by Buzz Bissinger

  • Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

  • The City Game by Matthew Goodman

  • Open by Andre Agassi

Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations. 

This week, Annie is reading Friends & Strangers by J. Courtney Sullivan and Olivia is reading The Extraordinaries by TJ Klune.

If you liked what you heard on today’s episode, tell us by leaving a review on iTunes. Or, if you’re so inclined, support us on Patreon, where you can hear our staff’s weekly New Release Tuesday conversations, read full book reviews in our monthly Shelf Life newsletter, follow along as Hunter and I conquer a classic, and receive free shipping on all your online orders. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch.

We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week.

Annie Jones