A May reading recap

I finished some books in May. A handful. Nothing too amazing. But nothing too awful either.

The totals for the month look like this: Four books, 1,152 pages. That brings the total for the year to 21 books and 6,617 pages. Not bad. I'm halfway to my goal of 40 books for the year. Page wise? I'm not even sure what I was shooting for, and I'm too lazy to see if I even set a goal.

So what'd I read during May? Here's the list:
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Not Quite a Mom by Kirsten Sawyer
Life on the Refrigerator Door by Alice Kuipers
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

There's one other book that I've spent the last 10 days or so reading, Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI: 1933-34 by Bryan Burrough. It's all about the gangsters we know so well: John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd and Alvin Karpis and the Barker family. It's pretty interesting stuff. I know the names, knew they were a bunch of guys who robbed banks. But other than that? I honestly didn't know much. History class didn't teach me, or else I wasn't paying attention. But when Johnny Depp came to town to shoot scenes for the movie, I got interested and picked up the book. And it's full of even more interesting stuff. How the FBI was formed and how it screwed up during its investigations, what these guys did and how they died. Plus it paints a picture of who these guys were, what they were like when they weren't robbing banks. Maybe I'm enjoying it so much because I spend my days writing about crime and grime for a living, but I'd still recommend the book.

But you notice it isn't on the list of finished stuff for May. That's because even though I was hoping to finish it off this weekend, I still have one band of gangsters alive and about 50 pages left to read before it's done. So I guess it'll have to top the June list. I couldn't help mentioning it though since it has taken up a good chunk of May.