Happy Leap-Year Extra day my friend! Welcome to the second Backlist Bingo 2024 Check in! We are enjoying working through our backlist and let’s see how much progress we made in February. Like last time, take a look at what other participants have been reading and which year of books we have been gravitating to as a community.
Ariel’s Backlist Bingo Update
Prompt: A Prequel
Book Name: Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldtree | Goodreads
Quick review: A highly anticipated prequel after loving Legends & Lattes, and an extra bonus of enjoyment having this be Kriti and my February buddy read! It was fun going back into the cozy fantasy world, and I hope there will be more in this universe.
Prompt: Friend’s Choice
Book Name: A Long Time Dead by Samara Breger | Goodreads
Quick review: My friend Colleen picked this book for me, and I’m so glad to have read it! I’m a fan of vampire stories, and this was no exception. It was a character driven novel that was like a coming-of-age, but rather coming-of-immortality as a young vampire. Filled with hope and meaning and found family, I am very glad my friend picked this out for me!
Prompt: Non-Fiction
Book Name: Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Y. Davis | Goodreads
Quick review: This book had been on my backlist for awhile, and I’m glad that it fits with this bookish bingo! Even though the book is almost 10 years old, it’s still incredibly relevant and I always learn so much from Angela’s essays. A powerful read, I definitely recommend to anyone looking to hear a voice about how global advocacy is connected with local advocacy, especially from the US framework.
Kriti’s Backlist Bingo Update
I read two more from review copies from my indie backlist this month.
Prompt: Poetry
Book Name: Trailing the Azimuth by Danita Dodson | Goodreads
Quick review: Trailing the Azimuth is an engaging collection that contemplates travelling through the woods and the world. The poems address many feelings, including those of longing, healing, getting to know the past, and making friends with strangers during travelling. As I read, I was transported to the setting that Danita wrote about. She beautifully captures moments of finding connection with strangers when people can see their cousins in her face. It speaks to her being a world citizen, and through many poems, she explores what it means to have roots all over the world.
Prompt: Short stories
Book Name: THE INSTITUTE Stolen Case Files by T.S. Galindo | Goodreads
Quick review: The Institute Stolen Case Files is a collection of eight stories about various escapades of the Institute. I love the feeling of suspense and conspiracy that T. S. Galindo portrays in the preface itself. He found these documents in his spam folder and pieced together the events that the redacted journalist had gathered together. The variety of stories and the writing shows how masterful a storyteller T.S. Galindo is. I highly recommend this for anyone looking for a scifi short stories collection to read next! Stay tuned for the longer review in a few weeks.
What have people been reading?
Between us and the participants, we have picked up 40 books so far across 23 prompts, the oldest being from 1962 (shown under pre-1990 category) and 2023 emerging as the year with the most books read with 2021 and 2022 books also being a focus in the community.
Here are the new books that made it to our spreadsheet in February:
- First Book in a series – Neon Gods (Dark Olympus #1), The Trials of Morrigan Crow (Nevermoor #)
- Second book in a series – Electric Idol (Dark Olympus #2)
- Third book in a series – Death in the Vines
- A non-debut novel – Iron Maiden: An Alternate History of the German Empire
- Historical Fiction – Bringing Down the Duke, The Monsters We Defy
- An audiobook/ebook – A Fall from Grace
- A Book of your choice – Honor by Elif Shafak
- More than 400 pages – The Self Beyond Itself
- An award nominated book – The Guns of August
- A nonfiction novel – Princess Isabel of Brazil: Gender and Power in the Nineteenth Century, Killers of the Flower Moon
- Horror – Dead Silence
- A Novella – Blood Legacy, A Psalm for the Wild-Built
- A physical book – Great War Fashion: Tales from the History Wardrobe, Beneath a Scarlet Sky
- Mystery – Someone is Always Watching
- Graphic novel – The Moth Keeper
- On the TBR more than 2 years – The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy
- SciFi – Leviathan Wakes
How was February for your backlist? Tell us in the comments or add to our spreadsheet. 🙂
As always, we love reading with you and even if you didn’t sign up before, you can join us for this challenge now. 🙂 Add your name to the list of participants here. In the same spreadsheet, you can add your books through the year so please bookmark it. You can tag us on X, BlueSky, Facebook and Instagram (Ariel, Kriti) with your updates. Download a printable copy of the bingo, Instagram story templates and post here.
Check back for updates at the end of next month!
I find interresting to see the year published!! Pretty sure I stay among the 2000’s.. but so far everything ive read has been backlisted 👏🏼👏🏼 earliest been horrorstör in 2014
I love seeing the years too and am curious if the focus will eventually move away from 2023 books. Great job on reading your backlist! Feel free to add to our spreadsheet if any work with the prompts. 🙂