I picked up Murder at the Library of Congress, by Margaret Truman, at the lunch bunch book swap, although I was pretty sure I had read it before.  Nice light reading; the details and plots in Margaret Truman’s mysteries are interesting, well written and plausible.  This one is about a murder at the Library of Congress that is connected with an art robbery and a mysterious diary written during one of Columbus’s voyages.  Now, I did read the book (and for the second time because I had read it before), but I still couldn’t remember what it was about and had to check Amazon to refresh my memory.

Whatever You Do, Don’t Run by Peter Allison, was one of the first books I bought for my Kindle back in 2009, when I was stocking up on books for my assignment in Riyadh.  I chose it because it was written by a safari guide who worked in Botswana, and, since I had been on safaris in Botswana, I thought it might be interesting.  Four years later, I finally read it.  It’s a fun read, Peter Allison is a good storyteller but obviously not a professional writer and the book could have done with some editing.  The young, naïve Peter Allison moved from Australia to southern Africa with dreams of wildlife and adventure, but no actual knowledge about African game animals and their habitats and habits.  Africa does have a way of taking in adventurers though, and he found work in the Botswana tourist safari business, quickly working his way up to guide and manager at a high-end safari camp in the Okavango Delta.  I’ve read more compelling and authoritative books about wildlife and about Africa; the real insights and entertainment in this book are the behind the scenes details about running the unpredictable business of showing wild animals to the unpredictable people who have paid big bucks for the experience.

The Mental Floss History of the World is another book from the initial 2009 stock of Kindle books.  This is a lighthearted but factually respectable history of the world: many parts of the world over thousands of years, not just the European/North American parts.  The authors are editors of Mental Floss magazine, which I haven’t read, although I do like the Mental Floss website, especially the quizzes.  I have read this book in fits and starts, over a period of years, and still haven’t finished it, but not because it is boring.  It is cleverly and concisely constructed, and the perfect thing to dip in to between other books.

Bookstores, and especially used bookstores, are dangerous places for me, and I seldom go into one.  But several people had recommended Mr. K’s bookstore here in Charleston, so we finally went.  Mr. K’s is a huge and very organized bookstore, although I found the organization so detailed it was confusing and hard to figure out where things should be, and the prices for used books, particularly mass market paperbacks, seemed high.  Of course I eventually found some books and authors that have been on my various Wish Lists for a while, and I’ve actually read one already.  I found Little Tiny Teeth, by Aaron Elkins, in one of the mystery sections.  Elkins writes a series about forensic pathologist Gideon Oliver, and I’ve read and enjoyed several of them.  Problem is, I have a terrible time remembering the author’s name, and whenever I’ve found Elkins’ books in the library or a bookstore, it’s always been by luck, not design.  The little tiny teeth in the title are piranha teeth, and the setting is a dilapidated river boat taking a botanical expedition on the Amazon.  The plot was a little tricksy, but the descriptions of the characters and the boat and the river were a lot of fun.   Now that I have Aaron Elkins’ name straight, I can look for more of his books in the library.