Have you really enjoyed reading a work that qualifies and want to recommend it to others? This is the prime spot to help people out with those recommendations.

The way this thread works is that this thread will contain one top level comment for each Bingo square. In order to preserve the organization and readability of this post, please limit recommendations to only replies on those top-level comments. We will be removing comments that don’t follow this rule for for this specific post.

A B C D E
1 Older Than You Are Water, Water Everywhere What’s Yours is Mine Family Drama It Takes Two
2 New Release Plays With Words Independent Author Bookception Disability Representation
3 Eazy, Breazy, Read-zie Stranger in a Strange Land One Less There is Another… LGBTQIA+ Lead
4 Now a Major Motion Picture It’s About Time Award Winner Mashup Local to You
5 Debut Work It’s a Holiday Institutional Minority Author Among the Stars
Alt. Same Author, New Work She Blinded Me With Science Pseudonymous Work Translated A Change in Perspective

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  • JaymesRS@literature.cafeOPMEnglish
    2·
    9 months ago

    New Release:

    New for 2024/2025 (no reprints or new editions). First translations into your language of choice are allowed. HARD MODE: This is the first work you’ve read by this author.

    • JaymesRS@literature.cafeOPMEnglish
      2·
      9 months ago
      • Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
      • Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
      • Ella Minnow Pea: A Progressively Lipogrammatic Epistolary Fable by Mark Dunn
      • Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
      • Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
      • House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
      • A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
  • JaymesRS@literature.cafeOPMEnglish
    1·
    9 months ago

    Family Drama:

    Family is important, but sometimes it’s also the cause of problems. Family dynamics are fundamental to the narrative. HARD MODE: Involves three or more generations of family members.

    • JaymesRS@literature.cafeOPMEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago
      • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
      • The Sandman Graphic Novels by Neil Gaiman
      • The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
      • The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
  • JaymesRS@literature.cafeOPMEnglish
    1·
    9 months ago

    Now a Major Motion Picture:

    The work has been adapted into a show or single episode, movie, play, audio drama, or other format. HARD MODE: The adaptation is regarded as better than the original work.

    • JaymesRS@literature.cafeOPMEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago
      • Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
      • The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker
      • The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta
      • Big Fish by Daniel Wallace
      • Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp
      • American Gods by Neil Gaiman
      • All Systems Red by Martha Wells
      • Storm Front by Jim Butcher
  • JaymesRS@literature.cafeOPMEnglish
    1·
    9 months ago

    ALT - Same Author, New Work

    An author you’ve read before, but a series (or standalone) you haven’t. HARD MODE: Give an author you didn’t like a second chance.

  • JaymesRS@literature.cafeOPMEnglish
    1·
    9 months ago

    Among the Stars:

    Features space, astronomy, or stardom. HARD MODE: The title references the theme, too.

    • Audalin@lemmy.world
      3·
      9 months ago

      Mr Palomar by Italo Calvino.

      Also qualifies for hard mode (the character is named after an observatory).

    • JaymesRS@literature.cafeOPMEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago
      • Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
      • Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
      • 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
      • Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary K. Wolf (movie stars count)
  • JaymesRS@literature.cafeOPMEnglish
    1·
    9 months ago

    ALT - Translated

    Not originally in your native tongue. HARD MODE: Has been translated into at least ten other languages. This Wikipedia page is a good place to start for widely translated works.

    • Frodis_Caper@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      9 months ago

      “100 Years of Solitude” Gabriel García Márquez (this works for HARD MODE) “Love in the Time of Cholera” Gabriel García Márquez

    • JaymesRS@literature.cafeOPMEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago
      • Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
      • Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
      • The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
      • What You Are Looking For is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama
      • Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle
      • Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Thief by Maurice Leblanc
      • The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
  • JaymesRS@literature.cafeOPMEnglish
    1·
    9 months ago

    ALT - A Change in Perspective

    Written in third-person perspective. HARD MODE: Second-person perspective.

    • JaymesRS@literature.cafeOPMEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago
      • This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar
      • The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
      • The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
      • Space Vampire (Choose Your Own Adventure #9) by Edward Packard
  • JaymesRS@literature.cafeOPMEnglish
    1·
    9 months ago

    ALT - She Blinded Me With Science

    The author has a background and degree in a hard science. HARD MODE: More than one post graduate degree.

    • JaymesRS@literature.cafeOPMEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago
      • The Postman by David Brin
      • Contact by Carl Sagan
      • The Boat of a Million Years by Poul Anderson
      • Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
      • Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre
  • JaymesRS@literature.cafeOPMEnglish
    1·
    9 months ago

    ALT - Pseudonymous Work

    Published under a pen name. HARD MODE: The author generally never writes under their own name.

    • JaymesRS@literature.cafeOPMEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago
      • Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
      • A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain
      • Swordheart by T. Kingfisher
      • A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark
      • Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb
      • The Beast Master by Andre Norton
      • Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré
    • JaymesRS@literature.cafeOPMEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago

      This category is a bit tougher to recommend because the qualification depends on your age, but these are all over 100 years old and I’ve enjoyed all of them.

      • Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees
      • Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
      • King Solomon’s Mines by H. Rider Haggard
      • The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
      • Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
      • A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain
      • A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
  • JaymesRS@literature.cafeOPMEnglish
    1·
    9 months ago

    Eazy, Breazy, Read-zie:

    A light, popcorn-worthy read that’s not real deep (see also “beach read” and “airport novel”). HARD MODE: You actually read it while on a vacation/staycation.

    • JaymesRS@literature.cafeOPMEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago
      • Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
      • The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
      • The Mark of Zorro by Johnston McCulley
  • JaymesRS@literature.cafeOPMEnglish
    1·
    9 months ago

    Minority Author:

    Minority or LGBTQIA+ author. A minority can be any member of a generally underrepresented population where you live. HARD MODE: Minority and LGBTQIA+.

    • JaymesRS@literature.cafeOPMEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago
      • Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
      • Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
      • The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
      • Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
      • Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang
      • The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
      • Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
      • The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
      • Jade City by Fonda Lee
  • JaymesRS@literature.cafeOPMEnglish
    1·
    9 months ago

    It’s About Time:

    The passage or manipulation of time is a major theme or plot driver. HARD MODE: Backward in time, not forward.

    • JowlesMcGee@kbin.social
      3·
      9 months ago

      Won’t fit the hard mode, but Charles Sheffield’s Tomorrow and Tomorrow was an interesting read. The first third wasn’t really my thing, but after that the book goes way far into the future.

    • JaymesRS@literature.cafeOPMEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago
      • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald
      • The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
      • This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar
      • 11/22/63 by Stephen King
      • The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold
  • JaymesRS@literature.cafeOPMEnglish
    1·
    9 months ago

    Institutional:

    Set at a non-commercial institution or facility, like a school, science lab, or prison. HARD MODE: Not a school.

    • JaymesRS@literature.cafeOPMEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago
      • Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King
      • Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
      • The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
      • Any of The Scholomance Series by Naomi Novik