You could win $100 just by reading: How to enter USA TODAY's Spring Book Challenge
You could win $100 just by reading: How to enter USA TODAY's Spring Book Challenge
The flowers are blooming, the weather is warming and it's time for another round of our book bingo challenge. Back by popular demand, you could win a $100 Bookshop.org gift card just by reading this spring. Our printable bingo card has categories across genres to expand your reading goals and is open from now until June 30.
Our last winner was Alison Vornsand, a reader from New Jersey, who was able to cross off bingo squares after reading "Onyx Storm" by Rebecca Yarros (a 2025 release), "Reckless" by Lauren Roberts (in a series) and "The Spanish Love Deception" by Elena Armas (set in a country you've never visited), among others.
Now if your TBR pile has you feeling lucky, we'd love to see your submission. Here's how to enter USA TODAY's Spring Book Challenge.
Click here for a printable version of the bingo board.
How to participate in USA TODAY's Spring Book Challenge
To submit your bingo card, fill out this entry form and let us know your contact information and what books you've read to complete the challenge. Be sure to read all instructions and only fill the form out once.
Our Spring Book Challenge runs through June 30. Anyone who participates and submits their bingo card will be entered into a gift card giveaway. The winner will be notified via email within five business days of the drawing. Check out the full contest rules here. You must be 18 or over to enter.
The challenge includes intentionally varied bingo spaces so readers of all genres can participate. For example, you could read five books and clear the entire top row, or take advantage of the free space in the middle and check off four other boxes. Just know that each box needs to correspond to a different title – no counting one book in multiple boxes! Here's an example of how I would fill it out:
Romance: "Story of My Life" by Lucy Score
About wildlife: "Raising Hare" by Chloe Dalton
Free space
Suggestion from a friend: "Everything is Tuberculosis" by John Green
AAPI author: "Boat Baby" by Vicky Nguyen
We'd love it if you also tagged us on social media (@usatodaylife) with your filled out bingo card yourself (here's how I made this on my Instagram story with screenshotted photos of book covers), but remember you still have to fill out the entry form for a chance at the giveaway.
Looking for your next great read? USA TODAY has you covered.
Taste is subjective, and USA TODAY Books has plenty of genres to recommend. Want a buzzy new title? Check out these new books released in March. Are mysteries your thing? Try these titles similar to "Verity" by Colleen Hoover or see if you're brave enough for one of our favorite horror novels. Or if you want something with lower stakes and loveable characters, see if a "cozy mystery" or "cozy fantasy" book is for you. If you want the most popular titles, check out USA TODAY's Best-selling Booklist.
Clare Mulroy is USA TODAY's Books Reporter, where she covers buzzy releases, chats with authors and dives into the culture of reading. Find her on Instagram, subscribe to our weekly Books newsletter or tell her what you're reading at cmulroy@usatoday.com.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
DDG asks judge to stop Halle Bailey from traveling with their son
DDG asks judge to stop Halle Bailey from traveling with their son DDG and ex-girlfriend Halle Bailey are continuing to hash out their custody issues in court. On June 4, lawyers for the 27-year-old rapper and Twitch streamer – born Darryl Dwayne Granberry Jr. – requested a temporary emergency order in Los Angeles Superior Court, according to a filing reviewed by USA TODAY. The filing, made as part of Bailey's restraining order case against DDG that was initiated in May, asks the judge to prohibit the 25-year-old actress from traveling to Italy with their 18-month-old son, Halo. His team also asked for a continuance, or a postponement, of the domestic violence restraining order hearing that had been scheduled for June 4. According to People and E! News, in a 44-page filing, DDG's lawyers leveled allegations that cast doubt on Bailey's fitness as a parent, calling her "an imminent emotional and psychological risk." Per Billboard, the judge overseeing the case indicated she would soon issue an order on whether Bailey can travel with their son on June 4. The next hearing in the case is reportedly June 24. Bailey had been granted a temporary restraining order from DDG the same day she filed her request, according to a May 13 notice reviewed by USA TODAY. USA TODAY has reached out to Bailey's representatives for comment. Halle Bailey's allegations: Inside her restraining order request against DDG Met Gala: Halle Bailey wears suit dress Halle Bailey shines on the Met Gala red carpet in a mini-suit dress. Halle Bailey accused DDG of abuse in restraining order request In her May filing, Bailey accused DDG of physical, emotional, verbal and financial abuse and requested full legal and physical custody of Halo. As a result of DDG's alleged abuse, Bailey demanded no-contact and stay-away orders for herself and Halo that prevented DDG from getting in touch with the mother-son pair, in addition to requiring the rapper to remain 100 yards away from them and to stop posting about Bailey and Halo on social media. "I realize that there is no placating Darryl," Bailey wrote in a statement attached to the filing. "I cannot allow this abuse any longer. I cannot keep living like this. I never know when he is going to demand our son be in his mother's care and whether I will be subjected to his threats and abuse." If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence, RAINN's National Sexual Assault Hotline offers free, confidential, 24/7 support in English and Spanish via chat and at 800-656-4673. If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233 or text "START" to 88788. Contributing: Edward Segarra, USA TODAY
USA Today
4 hours ago
- USA Today
'Gypsy' star Joy Woods dishes on her Tony Award nomination and advice from Audra McDonald
'Gypsy' star Joy Woods dishes on her Tony Award nomination and advice from Audra McDonald Show Caption Hide Caption 'Gypsy' star Joy Woods calls Audra McDonald 'graceful.' Here's why. Joy Woods, a first-time Tony nominee for her role in "Gypsy," chats with USA TODAY's Ralphie Aversa about the musical and her co-star Audra McDonald. NEW YORK – Joy Woods is a first-time Tony Awards nominee for her performance alongside Audra McDonald in director George C. Wolfe's revival of the Broadway musical "Gypsy." Ahead of Sunday's award show, the Chicago-born actress asked McDonald, who is also nominated, how she should prepare. "(McDonald) said to expect chaos," Woods, 24, tells USA TODAY. "But it's also a celebration. So it's not a bad kind of chaos. It's one that we can look forward to." Woods also decided that she'll face the "chaos" without any family nearby. "My brother or my parents or my grandma are usually at openings with me," she says. "Those things, you get pulled in so many directions that you never really get to see them. So I was like, 'I'm going to do this alone. I'm going to take my Kind bars and my Celsius (drink) and wing it honey, and I think that's going to be really good for me." 'Gypsy' made headlines and Broadway history "Gypsy," based loosely on the memoirs of striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee, first came to Broadway in 1959. It and several of the subsequent revivals earned Tony recognition. The original earned eight Tony nominations, and the 1989 production won the Tony for best revival. Patti LuPone played Gypsy's mother, Rose, in the 2008 revival and won the Tony for best leading actress in a musical. This year, McDonald, the first Black actor cast in the role on Broadway, is nominated in the same category for the same role. She and LuPone have been in the headlines together recently following an interview with the New Yorker, published on May 26, in which LuPone was critical of McDonald for supporting a criticizing social media post by Broadway performer Kecia Lewis. LuPone complained that "Hell's Kitchen," a Broadway show that Lewis is in, was too "loud." At the time, LuPone was in the comedy "The Roommate," which played next door. Lewis took to social media to call LuPone's criticism and actions, "racially microaggressive." On Instagram, McDonald supported Lewis' post. LuPone responded in the New Yorker by saying McDonald "wasn't a friend." After the New Yorker feature, McDonald told "CBS Mornings" that she was unaware of any rift between her and LuPone. Then, the Broadway theater community wrote an open letter that called for the "Agatha All Along" actress and other performers who "use their platform to publicly demean, harass or disparage fellow artists" to be excluded from the Tony Awards and similar industry events. LuPone has since apologized for her remarks. In his review of the 2025 production, USA TODAY's Patrick Ryan wrote, "In casting a Black actress as Rose for the first time ever on Broadway, the show takes on subtle yet powerful new meaning, despite no changes to Arthur Laurents' original book. It's blatant, for instance, that Rose prioritizes the lighter skinned June, in hopes that she might seem more palatable to the predominantly white vaudeville circuit." Woods, the first Black performer cast as Louise on Broadway, reveals she and McDonald have had "a few" conversations about the role of race in "Gypsy." "I think she's been very graceful at letting me find this on my own," Woods says of McDonald's mentorship. "She's just the most patient, calm, giving scene partner and I felt like I was such a fish out of water starting this process. I didn't know if I was ready. I didn't know if I was right for it. "We haven't had many conversations about (my casting), but I think it's felt when we're (on stage together), which I think is really special."
USA Today
4 hours ago
- USA Today
Diddy told Cassie's friend 'I'm the devil and I could kill you,' she testifies
Diddy told Cassie's friend 'I'm the devil and I could kill you,' she testifies Show Caption Hide Caption Security guard says Sean Combs offered cash for hotel video Eddy Garcia testified Sean Combs paid $100K for hotel footage showing him kick, hit and drag Cassie Ventura Fine, according to court testimony. Among the disturbing allegations emerging from Sean "Diddy" Combs' ongoing criminal trial is a statement the hip-hop mogul supposedly said to one of Cassie Ventura Fine's friends years ago. Bryana "Bana" Bongolan testified June 4 that she was doing an impromptu beach photoshoot with Ventura Fine and a photographer friend one day when Combs went up to her and issued a threat. "He came really close to my face and said, 'I'm the devil and I could kill you,'" she told the court. She admitted she was likely high on cocaine at the time. Regardless, she "was terrified" and unsure why Combs said that to her. Bongolan's remarks came on the 20th day of Combs' trial, which kicked off with jury selection on May 5. During her time on the stand, which will continue into a second day of cross-examination, Bongolan also detailed a 2016 incident in which Combs allegedly held her up on Ventura Fine's 17th-floor balcony and balanced her on the railing, making her think that she might fall. The event was first described in Ventura Fine's 2023 lawsuit, and Bongolan filed her own suit seeking $10 million in damages from Combs a year later. Who is Bryana 'Bana' Bongolan? Bongolan told the court she'd first met Ventura Fine in the mid-2010s while working at a streetwear company called Diamond Supply Company, where the latter had been tapped to design a clothing line. She didn't meet Combs until about a year into their friendship, Bongolan said, but she knew she "wasn't fond of what I was seeing" in his relationship with Ventura Fine. She didn't really want to meet him, she testified. Bongolan also said that during a FaceTime before "The Perfect Match" premiere, she witnessed the black eye Ventura Fine allegedly suffered from Combs assaulting her in the hallway of the InterContinental Hotel in May 2016. "I was pretty quiet. I remember saying, 'I'm sorry.' She was also pretty quiet," Bongolan testified. Federal prosecutors claim Combs led a "criminal enterprise" that operated on sex trafficking, kidnapping, drug offenses and forced labor, among other crimes. Combs leveraged his wealth and celebrity status to "fulfill his sexual desires" in a "recurrent and widely known" pattern of abuse, investigators allege. He faces two counts of sex trafficking, two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution and one count of racketeering. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Contributing: Patrick Ryan and Gina Barton, USA TODAY
