I'm currently reading "A Princess of Mars" by Edgar Rice Burroughs (in the Barnes & Noble "Martian Tales Trilogy" edition).

I'm also reading a hilarious detective novel by Warren Murphy called "Trace."

Next up: possible "Vampire$" by John Steakley...

I tend to read nonfiction recently, and I've got two books going:

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

and

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.

I've been reading a lot of books on food and sustainable practices, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is the latest. I've enjoyed other Barbara Kingsolver books (The Bean Trees, High Tide in Tucson, etc.), so I was definitely on board to read a book about how her family leaves the desert for a farm house in Virginia to live the locavore lifestyle for a year.

I took a long, hot bath and read several chapters last night while enjoying lavender bath salts from Blue Dragon Beauty.

At the same time, I'm about 1/3 of the way through The Devil in the White City. It's nonfiction that reads like a novel about the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago -- the huge effort to build it and the murder and mayhem surrounding this age of the growth of American cities. An excellent counterpoint to the country self-reliance of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

It's been an age since I read fiction for some reason. That's probably just more proof that I need to relax and have more fun for my own good!

I just finished Hit or Myth by Robert Asprin, thus completing my trip through the good years of the Myth series. I keep thinking I should start focusing on nonfiction research on the Serpent Mounds, or Catholic ritual... but I'll probably end up curled around more comic schlock. Ooo, when does the next Southern Vampire novel come out?

Whoops! I finished TRACE, then surprised myself by eschewing VAMPIRE$ (for now) and taking SHARPE'S COMPANY (by Bernard Cornwell) out of the library. I guess I just got the bug for a bit of historical fiction.

John, can you remind me of something? A while back, you mentioned a series of books about a vampire detective in the 1930s? What's it called and who wrote it?

You are thinking of The Vampire Files the by P.N. Elrod

Great series and I see that there is a new one out that I haven't read yet.

I just finished the first book in the Dresden Files. I really enjoyed it and ordered a few more in the series. I had watched the TV series, but I like the insight you get into the character from the books. It also reminded me how much I like reading about wizards and magic.

I mean, I'm a psychic (For reals! It says so on my business cards and everything) and to a certain extent I deal with real live magic every day. Not as flashy as the stuff in movies, but often a lot like some of the subtler stuff in books. One reoccurring point in Storm Front is that looking deeply into a person's eyes can show you a glimpse into their soul and show them a bit of yours. It rang so true with me and I thought about how much we give away through our eyes and how so many people try to ignore what they see - shutting that third eye to the truth of the world. Not bad for a quick read.