Explanation: As illustrated above, the answers to seven starred clues make seven other words if you add -BOOK to the end of them. Those seven other words match seven other clues in the puzzle. The first letters of the answers to those seven other clues, read in order of the original seven answers, spell ULYSSES.

There were 58 correct answers and 19 incorrect submissions this month. With only two exceptions, all of the incorrect submissions were The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. That covers step one of the meta, but you had to keep looking for step two to get to the real answer!

Congratulations to this month’s randomly chosen winner: Brian Egleston of Colorado Springs, CO! The prize this month (as it is every month) is a copy of a thematically apt novel embossed with FROM THE LIBRARY OF ARIADNE. You might think this month the novel would be Ulysses, but no, instead, inspired by those incorrect submissions, I’m going with The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Congratulations, Brian!

You can read Ben Chenoweth’s blog post about this month’s contest over at Crossword Fiend, where you can also rate the puzzle or leave a comment.

OK, but How Can You Read This?

Several solvers noted, either in their submission email or more obliquely (to avoid spoilers) in a discussion on the XWord Muggles Forum, that of course Ulysses is an apt answer to a puzzle titled “How Can You Read This?” because it is famously difficult to read. Ben also mentioned this in his Crossword Fiend write-up. But some out there, including some ACL solvers, have apparently undertaken this herculean task, and Bill W. offered some advice for anyone who is considering giving it a try. From Bill: “I got interested in the idea of reading Ulysses and found a book by Patrick Hastings, The Guide to James Joyce’s Ulysses. It is terrific for people like me who are first or second time Ulysses readers. It made the challenge possible to complete. Also going slow and steady, never more than one chapter in a day.”

Dubious Honors

This month’s Tick-Tock Award, which is awarded to the solver whose submission I received first, goes to Yash N., whose answer came in at 9:54 AM EST on February 1. The White Rabbit Award, which is awarded to the solver whose submission I received last, goes to Tom M., whose answer came in at 10:28 AM EST on February 8. I have no actual prizes to hand out to these solvers, they just get the satisfaction of BOOKending this month’s contest. Well done!

Can you beat their times next month??

More to Explore

Well, ACL’s February contest is over, the February MMMM finished up last night, the Super Bowl has been played, and I assume that means you’re all looking for something else to do. Since the goal of this project is to publish contest crosswords by women and woman-aligned constructors, I thought I’d take a second to draw your attention to some meta crosswords published in other outlets over the last month that were constructed by women. I only have one to point to: “Is Anyone Here a Doctor?” by Wendy Walker, published as part of the “Smooth Sailing Sundays” series over on the XWord Muggles Forum. See that post on the Muggles Forum for puz and PDF files as well as a Crosshare link. A fun meta solve, check it out!

If you know of any other meta/contest crosswords constructed by women or woman-aligned constructors that I should shout-out, please send links to those puzzles to damefoxwords@gmail.com and I’ll mention them in next month’s solution write-up.