Ready to fire up your summer reading? Summer Book Bingo is ON, and we have everything you need to "win" this annual reading challenge, however you might define that.
Every summer, The Seattle Public Library partners with Seattle Arts & Lectures (SAL) for Book Bingo, which encourages adults and teens to read widely for pleasure. This year, the King County Library System (KCLS) is joining the fun by offering adult Book Bingo, which means readers in all corners of King County can participate.
How to Get Started
Head to any of 27 SPL locations or 50 KCLS locations to pick up an adult Book Bingo card. SPL also has Book Bingo cards for teens.
Before diving in, take a moment to admire this year's stunning Book Bingo cards, designed by Seattle-based artist Marlowe (Odd Rabbits).
Each bingo square has a suggested genre. Choose a book within that genre, and when you're done reading it, color in the square. Fill in a row of five consecutive squares (a bingo!) or go for a blackout — filling all the squares on the card — and enter to win prizes.
How to Submit Your Card
Submit your card with a bingo or blackout by Tuesday, Sept. 2, at 6 p.m., either at a library branch or online, to be entered in a prize drawing. Prizes for adults include a commemorative tote bag (for bingo) and a "Create Your Own Series" subscription to SAL's 2025-2026 season (for blackout).
Prizes for teens include a $25 Visa gift card for bingo and a grand prize of a $100 gift card to Elliott Bay Book Company for blackout.
Looking for book ideas? Check out the suggestions below for selected book genres, or ask your local librarian. Happy reading!
Gender Bender
Unsex Me Here by Aurora Mattia
Mattia weaves together a new queer mythology that challenges form, spirituality, and the entire category of fiction. Reading Unsex Me Here felt like gaining a new sense I didn't know I had. Her prose is rich, gorgeous, and densely layered with some of the best metaphors I've ever encountered. Upon completion, I nearly turned around and read the whole thing again. —Eliza Summerlin, Teen Services librarian
Stag Dance by Torrey Peters
The only way to follow up the success of Peters' bestselling novel Detransition, Baby? Do something completely different. Stag Dance is composed of three short stories and one novella, spanning genres, timelines, and a compelling cast of characters grappling with their identities and desires. I was fiercely drawn to the messiness and profundity of their flaws and found myself rooting for love against all odds. —Eliza Summerlin, Teen Services librarian
Resistance
Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology, edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.
Across 26 chilling stories by Native writers, this collection of Indigenous brilliance puts the "horror" genre on notice. "Are you ready to be un-settled?" —Bean, Southwest Branch librarian
Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal by Mohammed El-Kurd
El-Kurd, a poet and journalist, centers Palestinian dignity in his powerful work of nonfiction. Astonishing in its moral clarity, this book is a demand to Palestine's supporters and adversaries to face Palestinian rage and resistance and the conditions that demand it. —Bean, Southwest Branch librarian
Hope
Inciting Joy by Ross Gay
For doses of hope that range from bite-sized to all-day contemplation, poet and essayist Ross Gay always delivers. Inciting Joy expands upon essayettes introduced in The Book of Delights, offering longer-form pieces on everything from basketball to gardening to grief. By declaring loss and grief to be essential components to experiencing joy, Gay provides a more robust and hopeful worldview. —Jane Singer, Reader Services librarian
Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052-2072 by M. E. O'Brien and Eman Abdelhadi
This fictionalized oral history takes place in the late 21st century, chronicling the societal collapse and subsequent communization of the world, with a focus on New York. The reimaginings of collective care, family structures, gender, Palestinian liberation, and more allow for hope to enter the conversation when it comes to large-scale structural change. —Jane Singer, Reader Services librarian
Disability
Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
If I could only recommend one book about disability, it would be this collection of essays about the ways in which disabled people live, experience the world, and, most profoundly, care for one another. It fundamentally shifted the ways I relate to those in my life, and it is essential reading for those interested in a care revolution. —Jane Singer, Reader Services librarian
Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
I love seeing disability representation across genres, and Talia Hibbert does it so well in this romance. After a near-death experience, Chloe Brown, chronically ill protagonist, decides it's time to spice up her life. Who better to help than her hunky new building superintendent, Red? —Jane Singer, Reader Services librarian
BIPOC Historical Fiction/Nonfiction
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
Wilkerson's debut novel has it all: family drama, mystery, and romance, tucked into a dual-timeline story that stretches from 1960s Caribbean to present-day California. Estranged siblings Benny and Byron come together after their mother's death for a peculiar inheritance: an audio recording and a slice of their mother's famous black cake. As they listen to her recount her hidden life before motherhood, more questions than answers emerge. —Jane Singer, Reader Services librarian
Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson
I'm a firm believer that adults can and should read books written for children and teens, and this middle-grade novel is a perfect one to try. Based on folks who lived in the real Great Dismal Swamp, this book chronicles the journey of two young children, Homer and Ada, who escape from enslavement at a white Southern plantation to a swamp haven that exposes them to a new way of life. Vivid details, tenderly drawn characters, and a liberation narrative make this an exceptional read. —Jane Singer, Reader Services librarian
Author from Another Continent
Sister Deborah by Scholastique Mukasonga, translated by Mark Polizzotti
In 1930s Rwanda, a healer arrives, part of a Black American missionary group. As Sister Deborah's renown spreads, a cult forms. Years later, Ikirezi is herself healed by Sister Deborah in exile, and tries to dig down to the truth — colonial powers referred to Sister Deborah as an "incident," a disruption; local memory ties her to a long history of folk tradition. In this witty novel, Mukasonga asks: Who decides the truth, and who writes the tale? —Andrea Gough, Green Lake Branch librarian
The Silver Bone by Andrey Kurkov
In the rubble of post-World War I Kyiv, unemployed electrical engineer Samson Kolechko loses his right ear to Red Army soldiers — but the ear doesn't lose its hearing. This proves a boon when Samson takes a job with the police, investigating thefts of silver and unsolved murder, leaving his ear in various places to eavesdrop. —Andrea Gough, Green Lake Branch librarian
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