Reading List: July/August

Pretty much everything I read in July was lame. Fortunately August picked up a bit.
Where They Found Her- Kimberly McCreight: compelling mystery, with enough twists and false leads to keep you guessing. I never felt caught up in a frantic need to keep turning pages, but still, I read it in a single afternoon.
Tell Me Lies- Jennifer Crusie: so insipidly stupid. Could have been a decent romance/mystery if the main character wasn't such a pathetic loser.
The Shining Girls- Lauren Beukes: captivating cat and mouse with a serial killer striking randomly across Chicago, and the escaped victim trying to track him down. Plus time travel, which worked much better than you'd think.
(R)evolution- PJ Manney: starts off like a bioengineering terrorist story and then veers into governmental conspiracies and secret power clubs. All with mind boggling "science" and a hero that gets less and less human. Started strong and ended ridiculous- like the book version of the movie Lucy.
Armada- Ernest Cline: decent, if totally predictable sci-fi, elevated to excellent by virtue of copious pop culture references.
The Blondes- Emily Schultz: A mysterious plague sweeps the Earth, affecting only blonde women and turning them into raging psychopaths. Except instead of being a chilling horror story, or thought provoking satire about beauty and cultural aesthetics, this book is focused on an insipid and morose protagonist. Such a waste of a clever concept.
Crash and Burn- Lisa Gardner: very twisty, hard to guess thriller. Bogged down by a little too much main character amnesia.
Dead Wake- Eric Larsen: fascinating narrative non-fiction about the last sailing of the Lusitania and the U-boat that took her down.
The Rithmatist- Brandon Sanderson: teen genre fantasy about a boy at a school where they train rithmatists- people that battle chalk drawings come to life. Sounds ridiculous when I explain it, but seriously, Sanderson is incapable of writing a stinker. If your kids (or you) like Harry Potter, give it a try.
Memory Man- David Baldacci: I always grab books by Baldacci because I know they will be fast paced and engrossing. This was no different- a brand new character I really like and hope to read more of.
Freedoms Child- Jax Miller: slightly disjointed thriller, with almost too many antagonists and story lines for proper suspense. Didn't love it, didn't hate it.
Half a War- Joe Abercrombie: Third book in a series, maybe not the strongest one but still good.
Finders Keepers- Stephen King: sequel to Mr. Mercedes, but you don't have to have read it to enjoy this one. Although you should, because they're both excellent. Great characters and plot, as you'd expect from King.