Show Us Your Books - What I Read in May

Well mon frers, we've entered summer reading season. I foresee many hours of beach reading in my future. Or front porch reading. Or, when it's too hot, couch reading. So, basically the same as the rest of the year only more outside than in. Do you have any new reading spots summer brings out?

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This link up happens the second Tuesday of every month.

The next one is Tuesday, July 12, 2016

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Here's what I read since the last linkup. When the previous month ends on a Tuesday, SUYB always seems late but here it is, right on time, on the second Tuesday of the month like always. 

Engrossing Reads

Red Rising (Red Rising #1) by Pierce Brown - I was unprepared to like this book as much as I did. I had to request the second one immediately. (see below) (library hardback) 

The Girl in 6E (Deanna Madden #1) by A.R. Torre - A book about a psycho...my favorite kind. I found this very interesting and really good. And, shocker, I found the psycho likable. I'll read the second one. (library paperback)

Golden Son (Red Rising #2) by Pierce Brown - Solid second book in this trilogy, and I think I liked it better than the first book. Parts of it, anyway. I'm anxiously awaiting the third book. (library hardback)

The After Party by Anton DiSclafani - Fucked up people up in here! I loved the story though, even though the narrator was on my very last nerve by the end. I love reading about women in the 1950s and how different life was then from now. (library hardback)

You Know Me Well by Nina LaCour and David Levithan - I read this through the Orlando tragedy at the gay club...and this is a YA novel about gay kids and kids coming out. It was so full of love and hope. It was a comfort to me. A little wild fanciful week in the world of these kids. I enjoyed it. (free from Netgalley, e-book)

Passed the Time Just Fine

The Cocktail Waitress by James M. Cain - First of all, the cover on this book is awesome. I plucked it off the shelf, and I think it was a shocker when it first came out. These days, with what shocks, it was tame. I liked it though. (library hardback)

How to Start a Fire by Lisa Lutz - I liked Lutz's examination and chronicling of female friendship in this book. It's written non-linearly, which I know is a problem for some people. I don't think it could have been written another way and told as well. (library hardback)

The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney - Eh. This reminded me of another book I read last year - the title escapes me - where I was waiting for something to happen and it never did. I didn't like most of the characters, I thought there was one extremely extraneous plotline that annoyed me, and it fell flat for me. (library hardback)

Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn - Well written but not sunny in any way. My stomach hurt over the struggles in this book...all of them. The dialect was hard for me and it took me a little while to get into it, but once I was in, I was in. ( free e-copy from Netgalley)

Deadline (Virgil Flowers #8) by John Sandford - In addition to the awesome name Virgil Flowers and the even better nickname That Fuckin' Flowers, Virgil has a friend named Johnson Johnson. No shit. This crime series is also hilarious. Keep pumping them out John. (library hardback)

Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy - I thought it was okay. The subject was heavy. It was YA angsty on top of that. And I didn't like one of the main characters. I would have hated it if Murphy wasn't an excellent writer. But she is. Discussed on The Armchair Librarians here. (library hardback)

Hard No

Flesh and Blood (Kay Scarpetta #22) by Patricia Cornwell - Time to put Dr. Scarpetta to bed, Patricia. The nit picking among her little crew is super annoying. (library hardback)

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