Summer Reading [2022, part 1]

This summer, I did not get to participate in the Summer Game with the Ann Arbor District Library, but my local library had their own, albeit smaller, summer reading event. Part of their summer reading was book bingo, which I more or less completed with only very minor creative license taken. The first twelve of twenty-five bingo squares are below; the second half will be in the next post.

Read a nonfiction nature book – Into the Planet: My Life as a Cave Diver, Jill Heinerth
- This was a pretty interesting look at the incredibly dangerous sport/hobby of cave diving. It covered some of the techniques used, advances in diving technology, and descriptions of trips to dive caves in Florida, Mexico, and Antarctica, so it’s nonfiction and takes place in nature.

Attend a library event
- I’m counting the library book sale as an event. There aren’t a huge number of events for adults, and a good number of them involve knitting, so the book sale was my event.

Read a book by an author [with something in common with you] – Women of the Silk, Gail Tsukiyama
- Set in rural 1920s China, Women of the Silk follows a group of women working at a silk factory and the bonds they form as WWII approaches and the country is invaded by the Japanese. I liked this book, and it gave some insights into China’s history.

Read a book with an animal – How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Charles Yu
- I have a list of mostly sci-fi/fantasy books to randomly select from if I’m looking for something to read, and this was on the list. The main character/author, a time machine repairman, lives in his time machine with his nonexistent dog and depressed computer while looking for his father, who is lost in time somewhere. Throughout the book, you learn about the science fictional universe the author lives in and how the time machine was invented. The concept was good, but this didn't end up being a super engaging book for me.

Read a memoir or biography – The Autobiography of Jean-Luc Picard, David A. Goodman
- Hear from the Captain Picard himself about his childhood on a French vineyard, journey to and through Starfleet Academy, and time aboard the USS Reliant and Stargazer before taking command of the Enterprise. I really enjoyed reading this, and seeing how it led to and lined up with events from The Next Generation.

Borrow a museum pass
- We have borrowed museum passes before, but we didn’t this summer. However, we went to a local nature area for an outdoor art exhibition. Close enough.

Reread a book – Blind Descent, James Tabor
- In the quest to find the deepest cave on Earth, teams led by American Bill Stone in Mexico and Ukrainian Alexander Klimchouk in the Republic of Georgia rappel, tunnel, dive, and worm their way through darkness hundreds and thousands of feet underground. I reread this because Jill Heinerth (Into the Planet, above) was involved in at least one scouting trip in the Mexican cave system and I couldn’t remember if any of the other cave divers she worked with were in this book.

Read a book set in your home area – Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
- Nominally set in Concord, Massachusetts, Little Women describes the lives of the March family in the 1860s, their everyday goings on, shenanigans with their neighbor, dreams of becoming artists and writers, or of marriage and starting families. It’s a classic.

A book set in your dream vacation destination – Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
- Apparently my dream vacation is to the moors of England (I didn’t have anywhere else to put Wuthering Heights). Like Pride and Prejudice, I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, in spite of (or because of?) Heathcliff and Cathy’s awfulness.

Take a photograph in nature

Mushroom

Read a book under 200 pages – Hard Reboot, Django Wexler
- On a future Earth riddled with malware that infects any civilized human’s brain implants in seconds, the planet is mostly only good for giant robot fights. A visiting scholar gets conned out of money she doesn’t have by one of the robot pilots and must figure out how to settle her debts before her university sponsors find out. This was a quick read, but with fairly well-developed characterization, setting, and plot, though the ending was a bit predictable.

Read a book over 400 pages – A Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin
- Now a TV phenomenon, GoT started out as one of those really thick fantasy novels with tons of characters, long battle descriptions, and a new plot thread on every page. I’ve only read the first book, but it’s been good so far.