Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

This year, the Boston Public Library's adult summer reading challenge is in the form of a bingo card. The prize for completing a row, column, or diagonal is a BPL "summer reading" tote bag, plus entry in a drawing for a gift card. The tote bags are "while supplies last," but when I asked a couple of days ago, they told me they had them available at every library branch. The categories range from "debut author" and "essays or short stories" to "book with a red cover." Having completed a line, I took the bingo card with me when I returned a book this afternoon.

I did choose a couple of things to fill out the bingo squares, in between looking up author biographies (for "indigenous author," "debut author," and "LGBTQ+ author."The card also includes several entries like "read outdoors" and "learn something new."

The Stuff Between the Stars, written by Sandra Nickel and illustrated by Aimée Sicuro: a children's book about the astronomer Vera Rubin's life and discoveries, including her difficulties with sexist male astronomers. (for the "children's book" square)

The Library Book, by Susan Orlean: a book about the Los Angeles Public Library, anchored by a massive fire in the Central Library 1986, the rebuilding afterward, and someone who was accused of having set the fire. Orlean goes back to the founding of the library, and forward to the 2010s.

She also discusses fire investigations, and the odd assumptions about arson that were part of them for decades--in particular, the idea that if the investigators couldn't find an accidental cause for a given fire, that was sufficient to prove that it had been arson. Orlean has loved libraries since she was a small child, and she came to know Los Angeles after moving there for her husband's job. (I read this for the "a book about libraries" square.)

The Blue Hawk, by Peter Dickinson, for the Scintillation Discord book club. This is a children's (maybe middle grade or YA) fantasy novel, and yes there's an actual hawk, which doesn't die. I liked it, but am not sure what else to say about it.

Once upon a Marquess and After the Wedding, Regency romances by Courtney Milan. After the Wedding is sort of a sequel to Once upon a Marquess, but doesn't assume the reader already knows the characters. I didn't read them one right after the other; when I went to add After the Wedding to my booklog, I realized I hadn't recorded the first book.

Currently reading: Views of Nature, by Alexander von Humboldt (which will go in the "book in translation" bingo square).