TITTLE ERROR and a Bit About the Book on the Block

I'm so very sorry, and I feel so very stupid: but the title of the book I am currently reading, is Death's Acre, not Death's Arch. I had one of those moments where you read something as a word that it looks like and then don't realize it for quite sometime that its actuality different word, in this case, for over a month.
A sincere thank you goes out to all the people who saw this and didn't realize/tell me that I was wrong. (I'm not being sarcastic. Really.)
Fact being that Death's Acre is a memoir, as compared to a fast-paced Kathy Reich's style realistic fiction, there isn't mush story arch. And I'm going to put it down for a whileSo, I figure that I'll tell you about the next book that I'm going to read (I've started it, but haven't finished it. I don't always read things all the way through. I have a wonderful attention span) And that book is:
The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens
The Mystery of Edwin Drood, or tMoED, as I will be calling it, is a Victorian-era set murder (mystery). Now, just to warn you so you don't get your hopes up or bet money on who the murderer is, THERE IS NO ENDING. Mr. Dickens was writing tMoED in twelve instalments, shortly after finnishing the sixth instalment, the man fell into a coma and subsequently died. Sounds like a great storyline for a musical, no? Well, it is a musical, and although I may be a tad partial to it, if you ever have the chance you must go see it. Or I will hunt you down, and we will have a little chat. The musical version was written by Rupert Holmes, who i was fourtuante enough to meet April 2009 when I worked backstage at a preformance of the show. But more on that later. TMoED is set in a small town nicknamed Cloisterham by Mr. Dickens. The novel takes off when Edwin Drood (need I say, he is the protagonist), a 17 year-old orphan is visiting his uncle, John Jasper, the resident music teacher and choirmaster of Cloisterham. Other mentionable charaters are:
Rosa Bud: Of course, often called Rose Bud. She is the fiancee of Drood, as arranged by their fathers. She is also orphaned.
Nevile and Helena Landless- Twins form Ceylon (Present day Sri Lanka) They are orphaned as well and are temporally under the care of Reverend Crisparkle. Their true guardian is Mr. Honeythunder (Whom I will not be addressing in this section) In their youth, they were abused and deprived by their father.
Rev. Crisparkle- A philanthropist, and Reverend of the local church.
(The) Princess Puffer- Yes, it's a drug reference. Puffer runs an opium den. Jasper often frequents there.
Mr. Sapsea- An auctioneer. He also becomes the Mayor of Cloisterham

Death's Arch (Dr. Bill Bass and Jefferson)

So, one day I was in Barnes and Nobel's looking for a book to read, just browsing isle by isle, regardless of content. I found Death's Arch, by Dr. Bill Bass, in the weight loss section. Dying is a convinent way to loose weight, but its a tad extreme!
Death's Arch is the memoir of Bill Bass, PhD. He worked at the University of Knoxville in TN for sometime. While he was there, he helped start the Anthropology Research Center, a.k.a. The Body Farm. Here, the use bodies donated to science to study human decomposition patterns in select environments and how the mortises form (well, by the time they get the body, palor and livor are probably already taken care of!) It's an interesting read because if i had to decide today where to go to college and I could go anywhere, I'd chose UK without hesitation!
I've already learned a lot. Bass writes in an extremely vernacular form. When he does use sciency mumbo-jumbo, he explanes it quickly.
He's also very down to earth about what he's doing. He's dealing with murder victims. He gives them a name, a face, and shows people how their final hours were. He brings their killers to justice, after years, decades of them having escaped the law. It's quite beautiful.

SECOND QUARTER BEGINS HERE