33. Glow

By Amy Kathleen Ryan (255pp ebook)

This is a YA book with a great premise. Two generation ships from earth are traveling across the universe to populate a new planet. One ship attacks the ship that our protagonists live on and they don't know why. Lots of intriguing questions and plenty of action. Unfortunately, the story loses its way in the middle and gets bogged down. I lost interest by the end. There is also a religious aspect that could have been interesting but is too heavy handed to work.

32. In the Presence of the Enemy

By Elizabeth George (623 pp)

This is a murder mystery that I picked because I read a writing book by this author (Book #31). I had some problems with this book but I think it's more because it's not my kind of book that problems with the book. I enjoy reading a murder mystery every once in awhile. This one seemed endlessly long, I had several episodes of character fatigue and I didn't care enough to go back and figure who was who, and there were a lot of details that I thought bogged the whole thing down. I think there is a type of murder mystery reader who loves those kind of details. There were also a couple of revelations that I thought were pretty obvious and I'm not the kind of reader who likes to crow about how "I knew it!" Recommend to people who like long murder mysteries.

31. Write Away

By Elizabeth George (pp 254)

This is a writing book that came highly recommended so I grabbed a copy. She does have some helpful stuff on research and process that I liked. I've never read her fiction so I picked up a paperback to add to the never ending stack of books to read.

30. The False Prince

By Jennifer Nielson (342 pp)

Kira passed this book to me when I was in Atlanta. It's a YA book about four orphans who are bought by man who wants to pass one of them off as the King's long lost son. It's a competition to see which boy could pull this off the best. Great protagonist and fun book to read.

29. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

By Junot Diaz (335 pp)

This won the Pulitzer in 2008 and it is terrific. It's about a geeky fan boy who lives in New Jersey. His family is from the Dominican Republic and the story goes back a couple of generations to tell the story of their life in the DR. It is one of those stories that is both sad and funny. Great characters and a real world place that I knew nothing about. Recommend.