March's Wrap up

For the Calendar of Crime I had to read a book in which the title has a word starting with M.

The book was All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda. It was originally published in July 2016. So it is not very old as of yet but

I had not heard anything about it before but picked it up because it was categorized as a mystery/thriller. 
It is about a girl who has moved away from the small town where she grew up after the disappearance of her best friend. She is forced to return when economic distress hunts her family by then her father is already living in a home and is suffering dementia. 
The story is told in a very annoying for my taste. It goes a bit backward after she arrives at her home town another person goes missing after being asking around about the girl who went missing all those years ago. Now Analice, the young woman who went missing bring light to the missing case of the girl who went missing a decade ago (Corrine). Nicolette is an annoying person because she does not know what she wants and it seems like she's playing with the men who care about her, and yet it does kind of make sense the way she behaves. She never moved on after Corrine went missing and instead of facing the issues she ran away to college and never came back. Now she is forced to face the past. The story does take some unexpected turns and it keeps you guessing what really is going on and what happened in the past with the last mysterious disappearance.  The one thing it bothered me was the storyline was not my favorite, it begins with Colette getting to her hometown but then it skips a couple of days and then the story starts to be told backward. The first day was not told right away exactly, I don´t know it moves to day14 then day 10 day 7 day 3 etc. So you have to continue getting the information you should have had before and that way the mystery is solved. Once you have the whole thing it felt a better story. After having it all done it was a very good way to build up the mystery so it was a great idea, unfortunately, I was not feeling up for it XD
If you read it all in one go or in a small amount of time, it makes more sense, it is a smallish book around 380ish so I could have read it in a day if I had tried but I was still feeling meh reading the slump just doesn't go away... So it has been harder to finish books. 
Overall it was a good book. It might have been more exciting if I had been in a better mood maybe. 

In the challenge for the Good Reads Choice Awards, I only managed to read a single book.

I'll be gone in the dark by Michelle McNamara. It is true crime non-fiction so I used this for two challenges the GR choice and the personal goal I set for myself to read more non-fiction.
It is a very interesting reading giving you information about the Golden State Killer, it follows the first crimes, description of the main events, theories of how he planned and picked his victims. A retelling from the people who were hunting him down; it is not necessarily overly detailed but it is enough to send chills down your back and make you paranoid in your own home if you are very affected by what you read. Even if you, like myself don't even live in the same country where this took place.  

For the Buzzwordathon I had picked maybe 8 books but the dates for the readathon was right in my vacations in which I had to visit my family out of town so I knew it was going to suck for my reading... and it did XD I barely read 4 and it does not sound so bad but for 4 out of the 8 days I did no reading because I was visiting family jajaja so I in reality I could have finished them all if I had tried.

The first one I picked up was What I saw and how I Lied by Judy Blundell this was originally published Novemember 2008 so this is a bit older over 10 years ago but again it was found in Scribd so that's the only reason I picked it XD
This is the story of a young girl who is trying oh so very much to be grown up even if she's only 15 and how she gets dragged in a mystery and crime investigation all due to her stepfather's greed pretty much. She is a bit annoying, wanting to be taken as an adult and comparing herself to her mother and wanting to be desired by older men as if that is all there is in life. After the whole thing goes down, she ends up becoming a bit more mature so she has a good development. The mystery was ok, no too mind-blowing really you can see what is coming up but still enjoy the development and how it all comes up to be discovered. A nice quick read. 

The girl who stopped swimming by Joshilyn Jackson published in

January 2008. This one had a nice family struggle, the main struggle happens between two sisters so I felt it was relatable. It was a bit annoying because everyone seemed very selfish and self-centered making more problems that were necessary but it is always good to see family struggles. It had a bit of supernatural touch, ghosts and such even if it was a bit vague so you could still think it as a normal contemporary with someone who has very strong hunches if you wish. It has love, mystery, family drama.... It is again a quick read with a nice twist you don't necessarily see coming until it's almost there or at least for me XD The twist was not what I had initially expected. 

When changing nothing changes everything by Laurie Polich Short published in July 2016. This is non-fiction and it was surprisingly a very religious focused book. I had no idea when I picked it up. I expected this to be a book about changing your perspective to help your mental health yet but it is heavily based on religion. Even though I am not too religious it was still very enjoyable, it gives very well advise and it gives excellent life experience. Initially, I was uncertain about actually take it for the readathon because it was going to be full of religion but it was good really. I was surprised but in a good way. Go into it with an open mind because it does quote from the bible constantly but it is still a very good book full of insight that maybe you can come up with it if you start to analyze life and such but if you are like me, you certainly do not so... yeah. Having someone give it to you feels very good. 
Also, this book was used for the read more non-fiction doubling up for with this challenge.

The last book was Failure: Why science is so successful by

Stuart Firestein. Another book we used for the non-fiction and this readathon. It was mainly talking about why science is taken in stride the way it is, that it is not always getting to work and yelling Eureka every single day. It is not overly secret revealing of scientific lifestyle or anything. It was simply a nice read but in the end, I did not feel like it gives anything relevant to a scientific career. It gives you an opinion about how research is taken and how it could be maybe better if everyone was more forward with what really happens when the research is not going as well or something, I mean it was interesting because for people who do not have a career on it it gives you nice details but I did not take anything away from it. But I enjoyed the descriptions of the different way people do research and how people try to make it better as they go along in their field. It is a good quick read and an easy audiobook to get through.