There are affiliate links in here. I get a small commission if you purchase through them at no extra cost to you.
This year I’m going to be doing things a little differently in my book club. Instead of just having one book to read, there will be a few to choose from so you can hopefully find one you love!
You might even be able to cross out book bingo spots with the monthly books. I figured seasonal bingos would be easier than monthly because that’s a lot to read in a month and I want this to be fun, not stressful.
I haven’t included specific suggestions for the book bingo, but feel free to ask in the group or comment here looking for any suggestions if you’re having a hard time finding something for a particular square.
I tried to make the boards easy, but also challenging and diverse. I’ve also just been trying to read more diverse books and will try and seek those out for some of the squares that might be more generic or just easier to do (like published in a certain month or with a certain color cover.)
Here I’ve given each months theme with a few different options on what to read for that theme! It gives you options if you’ve read one or more of them and maybe you can read more than one if you want.
January – OWN Voices novel
- With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo
- I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver
- Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
- Homegoing by YaaGyasi
- Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan
- These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
I made a whole list that you can find here.
February – Solo female travel memoir
- A Thousand New Beginnings by Kristin Addis
- Miss-adventures: A Tale of Ignoring Life Advice While Backpacking Around South America by Amy Baker
- Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude by Stephanie Rosenbloom
- Wanderlust: A Love Affair with Five Continents by Elisabeth Eaves
- How Not to Travel the World by Lauren Juliff
You can find a few more ideas from what I read in August 2020. I wrote a home post about solo female travel memoirs, too.
March – Graphic novel
- I Was Their American Dream by Malaka Gharib
- An Embarrassment of Witches by Sophie Goldstein
- Banned Book Club by Kim Hyun Sook
- Quince by Sebastian Kadelecik
- Almost American Girl by Robin Ha
- The Customer is Always Wrong by Mimi Pond
You can find more graphic novel suggestions here.
April – YA dystopian
- Internment by Samira Ahmed
- Bumped by Megan McCafferty
- Blue Ticket by Sophie Mackintosh
- Aberrant by Ruth Silver
- Sanctuary by Paola Mendoza and Abby Sher
- Hush by Dylan Farrow
May – Set in a state you haven’t visited
This will obviously be different for everyone but I have a list that will help you find one easily! Here is my 50 states reading challenge where you can find 3-8 books set in each state.
June – Historical fiction set in the Middle East
- To Keep the Sun Alive by Rabeah Ghaffari
- Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji
- The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer
- The Stationary Shop by Marjan Kamali
- Homesick by Eshkol Nevo
- A Pigeon and a Boy by Meir Shalev
July – Set in the South Pacific
- Tiare in Bloom by Celestine Vaite
- Breadfruit by Celestine Vaite
- Frangipani by Celestine Vaite
- The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific by Paul Theroux
- All Good Things: From Paris to Tahiti: Life and Longing by Sarah Turnbull
August – Fairytale retelling by an author of color
These aren’t all specifically fairytale retellings, but retellings of myths, folklore, fairytales and other things like that.
- Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron
- The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen
- This is All Your Fault by Aminah Mae Saffi
- Bestiary by K-Ming Chang
- Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
September – Book about food
- Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl
- Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of an All American Meal by Eric Schlosser
- The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears at the World’s Most Famous Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn
- Pandora’s Lunchbox: How Processed Food Took Over the American Meal by Melanie Warner
- The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais
You can see more suggestions on books about food here (specifically foodie travel).
October – Set in a haunted house
- Twelve Nights at Rotter House by J.W. Ocker
- The Family Plot by Cherie Priest
- The Graveyard Apartment by Mariko Koike
- The Grip of It by Jac Jemc
- The Women in the Walls by Amy Lukavics
November – Nordic Noir
- I’m Traveling Alone by Samuel Bjork
- Marked for Life by Emelie Schepp
- The Lost Woman by Sara Blaedel
- The Missing by Caroline Eriksson
- The Chestnut Man by Soren Sveistrup, Caroline Waight
You can find suggestions for this month AND next month in my Finland, Iceland, and Greenland book posts. They aren’t all Nordic Noir, but I usually mention if they are.
December – Set in a snowy location
- The Silent Land by Graham Joyce
- Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeiffer
- Midwives by Chris Bohjalian
- Polar Dream: The First Solo Expedition by a Woman and Her Dog to the Magnetic North Pole by Helen Thayer
- Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Geiman
- The Impossible First: From Fire to Ice – Crossing Antarctica Alone by Colin O’Brady
- Surviving Antarctica: Reality TV 2083 by Andrea White
Here are some snowy books (lots of cozy and romance on this list if that’s your thing).
2021 Book Bingo Cards
Finally, the book bingos! I’m only going to have current/past ones on here, so as the new season comes, I’ll add the new boards. I’ll be doing winter December to February, spring March to May, summer June to August, and fall September to November.
This means you get three months for each bingo board which feels like a much more manageable timeframe to actually complete any of it. I would love for you to save/screenshot the bingo boards to share your progress in my book club group on Facebook!
This page will help you find books published in certain months. It was for a Popsugar challenge, but it works for this, too.
And while I don’t have all the colors up yet, my Rainbow Reads series will help you find books with covers of certain colors.
Winter book bingo
Spring Book Bingo
