40. Good Wives - Louisa May Alcott
The sequel to Little Women, but actually most of the second half of the movie versions.
I liked this. It was sweet and easy, but Alcott's moralizing got on my nerves sometimes.
41. Darkly Dreaming Dexter - Jeff Lindsey, read by Nick Landrum for Recorded Books
Really good. At first, I was bored, because the plot of Season one of the show is pretty much the plot of the book, so I knew everything that was going to happen. Until the end. Whoa, that was unexpected. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, so I'll just say that it's very different from the end of the show, it makes Dexter much more complex and scary, and I spent some time afterwards hypothesizing and philosophizing on Dexter and where book two would go.
Aside from plot, I felt that in general the book was more creepy and complex than the show. You get a lot more interior monologue, of course, since Dexter is the narrator, but the way he talks about his Dark Passenger struck me more than when watching the show. The metaphor is continued, to the point where Dexter talks of "chuckles from the back seat," which always gives me shivers, in the best possible way.
42. The Cyclops - Euripides
A play about Odysseus meeting the cyclops on his way home from Troy.
43. Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America's Struggle for Equality - Richard Kluger
A fascinating book. A little dated, published in 1976, but that doesn't make any difference, I think. While I heartily recommend this book, it is loooong. 800 pages more than you ever thought there was to know about Brown v. Board of Education. It is detailed, down to what color tie Thurgood Marshall was wearing at court. But the style was fantastic, for all that, chatty and, occasionally, wonderfully, sarcastic.
44. Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout
A collection of short stories taking place in Crosby, Maine, and all centered around or involving, even peripherally, the title character, Ms. Kitteridge.
I didn't love this. The writing was technically good, but I was left with a feeling of depression, brokenness, and resignation, while no story had that punch at the end that makes a good short story worthwhile. At least, for me.
