May Reading

I'll try to keep this brief because I want to post about Book Bingo separately and that will take some space.  Here's my May reading:
Total Books - 8
Total Pages - 1,435
Total Inches - 6.5

Year to date totals:
Total Books - 41
Total Pages - 10,944
Total Inches - 44.75

My inch and page stats are a little low because I decided to start counting audiobooks in total books read, but not inches or pages for them.  Before, I wasn't counting them at all and that didn't seem quite right either.  I don't read many audiobooks - I really don't like them - but when driving to see family in Colorado it sure made the trip seem shorter, so I'll probably use them when we travel.

Without further ado, here's what I read:
1. Night by Elie Wiesel - this has been on my list for a long time and I finally read it to fulfill my "Something that scares you" category in Bingo.  It did.
2. The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig - Definitely going to have to read more of his books.  This was the selection for evening book club and it was really a well written book.
3. Fiddlers by Ed McBain - Grabbed this one quickly for the trip (an audiobook), and it fulfilled my "one-word title" category for Bingo, but it was an awful book.  Kind of a poorly done version of Dick Tracy like writing and vulgur.  I should have turned it off after one chapter but I kept hoping it would get better.  It did not.
4. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitzyn - Needed a book with a number in the title.  This one took me a surprisingly long time to read because I just couldn't get into it.  Very informative though.
5. The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman - an audiobook - read this one on our trip.  It is about Poland in WWII.  Not as good as I had hoped, but I haven't read much about Poland - usually it's Germany - during the war, so I'm glad I read it.  It's the only book I read this month (and possibly the past 3 months) that didn't fit on my Bingo card.
6. Spirit of Steamboat by Craig Johnson - This was the center square on the bingo card.  The whole state is supposed to read this one this year. They're calling it "One Book Wyoming" where everyone in the state reads the same thing.  Craig Johnson is a Wyoming native, and his books have been made into the A&E series Longmire (which is a really good show by the way).  He's coming to town this month for a book talk, so our daytime book club read this one and the next one I'll mention. This one had a lot of very interesting information about the Wyoming bucking horse logo.  I really learned a lot about it.
7. Another Man's Moccasins by Craig Johnson - I listened to this one as an audiobook because a friend said she loved the voice of the reader.  I didn't, but then I never do.  I really don't like audiobooks at all, and she loves them, so there you have it.
8. Between the Lines by Samantha Van Leer and Jodi Piccoult - This was my final spot on book bingo!  I read it for the category "Written by someone under 30." Samantha is Jodi's daughter.  She has potential, but needs practice.  I don't think there's any way this would have been published aside from Jodi's connections.  Interesting story idea, but not great writing.

I'm really excited to be finished with the Bingo card.  Now I can read whatever I want again!