The official start of spring is just a few days away. There are blossoms on many of the trees in the neighborhood, and the crocus and even a few daffodils are up. I've even seen a few hardy gardeners already out in their yards during some of the lulls in the rain this past weekend. Soon those of us with allergies will start sneezing!

I'll admit it right up front ... I am a fan of CSI shows. NCIS is a favorite, as is Castle, Murdoch, and Elementary, and, from the past, Columbo and Ellery Queen. It has certainly influenced my reading, both fiction and non-fiction.

Dead Men Do Tell Tales: the Strange and Fascinating Cases of a Forensic Anthropologist by William R. Maples and Michael Browning. Dr. Maples really can tell the age, gender, and race from looking at bones, or even fragments of bones. They tell him how the victim died, and, most of the time, who the victim is. Read about his most unusual cases in this book, including the death of President Zachary Taylor. Stiff: the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. Through the ages bodies have been used for more than just the study of anatomy. From testing guillotines to being used for practice for surgery to studying how they decompose under various circumstances on a body farm the author tells all .... always with respect, but sometimes with a humorous touch. (It is Mary Roach, after all).

Unlucky Stiffs: New Tales of the Weirdly Departed by Cynthia Ceilan. Death is not funny, however, sometimes the means of death can be and in this, the author's second such book (the first was Thinning the Herd: Tales of the Weirdly Departed), more spectacularly dumb deaths have been gathered together. Maybe it's a good thing none of these folks were around to see the headlines they caused?

It did give me cause to do some thinking, however, which lead to Exit Strategy: Thinking Outside the Box by Michelle Cromer. There are dozens of suggestions here for something other than the traditional burial, including making jewelry from the ashes of a loved one, to becoming part of a reef in the ocean or being jettisoned into space. There are many 'green' suggestions, as well as some that are rather bizarre. I liked this book well enough to buy my own copy.

And lastly, for some quick reading, there's The Little Book of Bathroom Crime Puzzles: Two Minute Forensic Mysteries to Challenge Even the Best Amateur Detective by M. Diane Vogt. All the information you need to solve the crime is provided ... but just in case you can't, the answers are in the back of the book. :-)

Reading Hermit With Dog