Suggestion: Margaret Owen - Little Thieves
My card (I struggled to find something for this square that wasn't romance, then gave up. I plan to try a couple of books, then the other recommendation here if I make it to this square and don't have any luck...): Marina Dyachenko, Sergey Dyachenko - Vita Nostra; Grace Draven - Entreat Me
Suggestions: Becky Chambers (I think all of her books qualify) - Monk & Robot; Diana Wynne Jones - Howl's Moving Castle
My card: Heather Fawcett - Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
Suggestion: Larry Niven - Ringworld
My card: China Mieville - The City & the City
Suggestion: any LGBTQIA+ romance, such as TJ Klune - Under the Whispering Door (or pretty much any other book by this author)
My card: TJ Klune - Wolfsong
Suggestion: Nghi Vo - The Empress of Salt and Fortune; Laini Taylor - Daughter of Smoke and Bone
My card: Barry Hughart - The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox (omnibus)
My card: Katherine Arden - The Bear and the Nightingale
Suggestion: Joe Haldeman - The Forever War
My card: Poul Anderson - The High Crusade
My card: Michelle West - Wild Road (est. releasing this month to Patreon backers)
Of course, here was my planned card, happy to share and hope it'll be useful for someone else if there are any repeat squares next time. Probably my favorite book from the card was Running Close to the Wind by Alexandra Rowland. I really didn't expect it to be as funny as it was, but I laughed out loud quite a bit. I ended up recommending it to all my friends afterward. I used the recommended thread, but I tried to pull as many books as possible from my TBR, to make some additional progress there as well, and almost all of these should qualify for hard mode.
1A - Older Than You Are: Hope Mirrlees - Lud-in-the-Mist 1B - Water, Water Everywhere: J.V. Jones - A Cavern of Black Ice 1C - What's Yours is Mine: Alexandra Rowland - Running Close to the Wind 1D - Family Drama: John Steinbeck - East of Eden 1E - It Takes Two: Stephen King & Owen King - Sleeping Beauties (not hard mode)
2A - New Release: Heather Fawcett - Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands 2B - Plays with Words: Anthony Burgess - A Clockwork Orange 2C - Independent Author: Michelle West - Hunter's Redoubt 2D - Bookception: Jasper Fforde - The Eyre Affair 2E - Disability Representation: Lois McMaster Bujold - The Curse of Chalion
3A - Easy, Breezy, Read-zie: T.J. Klune - The Lightning-Struck Heart (not hard mode for me, sadly) 3B - Stranger in a Strange Land: Edgar Rice Burroughs - A Princess of Mars 3C - One Less: Baroness Orczy - The Scarlet Pimpernel (hard mode with 1A) 3D - There Is Another: Adrian Tchaikovsky - Salute the Dark 3E - LGBTQIA+ Lead: K.J. Charles - The Magpie Lord
4A - Now a Major Motion Picture: Mario Puzo - The Godfather 4B - It's About Time: Rob Grant - Backwards 4C - Award Winner: Larry Niven - Ringworld 4D - Mashup: Aliette de Bodard - The House of Shattered Wings 4E - Local to You: Jonathan Lethem - Gun, with Occasional Music
5A - Debut Work: Ralph Ellison - Invisible Man 5B - It's a Holiday: Ray Bradbury - The Halloween Tree 5C - Institutional: Victor LaValle - The Devil in Silver 5D - Minority Author: Samuel R. Delany - Trouble on Triton 5E - Among the Stars: Christopher Paolini - To Sleep in a Sea of Stars
I started Victor LaValle's The Devil in Silver for the "Institutional" square of Book Bingo (and it seems well-written so far, don't get me wrong), but I'm taking a break in the middle to read some lighter fare.
I'm just trying to get through one row for Book Bingo instead of scattershot reading throughout the card, but my focus is all over the place.
Came here to say this, it's not quite cozy fantasy to me, but it's definitely a change of pace from world-ending stakes.
Hm, interesting. I wasn't sure I'd like it at first, but I jammed through Vita Nostra, and didn't realize there were already published sequels until a few days ago, when I immediately moved them to the top of my TBR pile. I'll try to lower my expectations to be more in line with reality--thanks for the heads-up!