#34: What the Dead Know

What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman is a mystery type book about the disappearance of 2 young girls in 1975.  The book starts with a woman driving and reminiscing about her childhood.  She is involved in an accident and instead of stopping flees the scene.  She is found and taken to a hospital and claims to be one of the missing Bethany girls.  The rest of the book goes through flash backs of the woman's life.  The current police as well as the former police officer from the 70's work together to determine if she truly is who she says she is and finally solve the case.

I liked most of this book, but I felt that rather than focusing on the Bethany girls and their family, the author tried to add too many side stories.  She gave lots of private details about the police officers, detectives, attorneys, etc.  It just felt like lots of those details weren't needed.

There was a twist at the end that I didn't see coming.  Overall, I think I like how it ended.

#33: Further Joy

Further Joy by John Brandon was the first book I received from my McSweeny's bookclub membership.  This was a series of short stories.  Most of the characters in the stories weren't on the right track in their lives, either from career problems, social issues, breakups, etc.  I liked some of the stories better than others.  Some at the beginning were a little predictable, but others were open for interpretation.  The one thing I don't like about short stories is that they sometimes just end without a conclusion to the story and leave you wanting more.
My favorites in this book were probably Palatka and The Inland News.

Up Next:  What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman

#32: Me Before You

I just finished Me Before You by Jojo Moyes.  It's a good thing I'm done with this book, because I didn't want to put it down and really haven't gotten anything done the past 2 days.

This story was beautiful, funny, and sad.  I really loved the characters of Will and Lou.  It was a love story in the strangest setting.  It really makes you think about everything you need to do in life or not do to make someone happy.  Lou was faced with lots of hard decisions after meeting the Traynor family, but it really made her grow as a person.

The ending was powerful and I cried the last several pages.  A book I will recommend to many.

Still Reading:  Further Joy