"Last Exit to Brooklyn" by Hubert Selby Jr. was really brilliant and disturbing. He reminds me so much of Kerouac and Burroughs and Ginsberg. I never thought I'd find another author like them. It was a very dark but fascinating look at the seedier side of Brooklyn in the 1950s.
"The Woman who is Always Tan and Has a Flat Stomach" by Lauren Allison and Lisa Perry was a rather tepid collection of supposedly humorous essays. Some of them were mildly amusing, but none of them were out and out hilarious.
"Me Before You" by Jojo Moyes was brilliant. I smugly thought about a third of the way through that I had the ending figured out but then she did something completely unexpected and threw me for a loop. I like when that happens. Will was an active go-getter, a wealthy playboy bachelor before being turned in a quadriplegic after a motorcyclist plows into him. Louisa has just lost her job at a cafe when she finds out about an opening for an assistant to a man in a wheelchair. Turns out Will wants to die. He tried to commit suicide, but when that failed he made plans to go to an assisted suicide center in Switzerland. His parents have begged him for six months in which they hope to change his mind. They hire Louisa, hoping her cheerfulness will buoy his spirits. It was heartbreaking and sweet all at the same time.
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