August Books

This is my list of books I finished reading in August.  I always imagine myself lying in a hammock under a shady tree, but I don't think I've ever done that.  I used to read outdoors when I was a kid, but now I'm too easily distracted.  I do most of my reading sitting / lying on the sofa.  This summer I did a lot of that with the air conditioning on.  I hate the heat, so I managed to only go out when it was absolutely necessary.

The Longer Bodies  -  Gladys Mitchell

Adventures of a Vegan Vampire  -  Cate Lawley

The Mystery of the Brass-Bound Trunk  -  Carolyn Keene

My Brother Michael  - Mary Stewart

The Monster of Grammont  -  George Goodchild

My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business  -  Dick Van Dyke

The Empty House  -  Michael Gilbert

X  -  Sue Grafton

Masquerade  -  Walter Satterthwait

The Redeemer  -  Jo Nesbo

Again, heavy on the mysteries.  I have a few non-mysteries in the works, but I have to admit that mysteries are just so easy to read and so satisfying.  I discovered a few new authors this month and hope to read more of their books.

Adventures of a Vegan Vampire - Cate Lawley

This was a $0.99 book from Amazon that I couldn't resist.  I'm a vegan, but not a vampire, so just the title intrigued me.

Mallory Andrews, responsible and hard working, goes out for drinks with coworkers and wakes up very sick.  A hangover?  No, she's becoming a vampire.  She doesn't know that until she finds a doctor who will see her quickly and who tells her she's a vampire.  The doctor refers her to a group of people who will help her transition.  There have been several other women similarly afflicted but who have died, really died.

One of Mallory's problems is that now that she's a vampire, she can't stomach blood, meat, or dairy, literally can't stomach them.  She finds that she can keep vegan nutritional supplements down.  As she experiments with what she can and cannot eat, she discovers that she's become that strange creature:  a vegan vampire.

Alex, a charismatic wizard, helps her with the transition.  He and some others also help her figure out which vampire bit her.  They intend to mete out a suitable punishment:  execution.

This was a fairly quick and quite unusual read.  I liked the characters and the novelty of the plot.  There are several more in the series, so, if you're looking for something different, have at it.