I just finished Akashic Book's "Phoenix Noir"edited by Patrick Millikin. If you have not heard of Akashic Books, they publish a series of mystery and noir short story compilations set in specific cities. They pull together very famous mystery authors, lesser known mystery authors, and authors writing outside their genre. "Phoenix Noir" includes stories by Jon Talton, Robert Anglen, Dogo Barry Graham, Diana Gabaldon, and Laura Tohe (I especially liked her short story) among many others. It was well worth the read and I recommend it highly.

Another book read. This time I could not put down Jon Talton's latest David Mapstone mystery "South Phoenix Rules". I have read all of Talton's Dacid Mapstone mysteries and I am quite fond of the mix of  historical Arizona and the cold-case historian-deputy although this story does not have as much history and is very contemporary. If you love mysteries and Phoenix, this is a great very tightly written series of books. I am already looking forward to the next one.

Who I read

I am a long-time Amazon.com customer. Back in the day when Amazon started they had amongst all their features a subscriber tool where one could list their favorite authors and be notified whenever that author published something new. It was simple and useful. I am very busy. I don't make it to bookstores very often nor do I read about upcoming books very often. I do however get Amazon's emails and I always bought the books of the authors I follow as soon as I was notified. For some reason I cannot fathom Amazon took away this simple service. I still get Amazon emails but they rarely target the authors I like which is even more surprising since I usually buy my books from Amazon, especially now that Borders has closed (We will save that rant for a different post.), and Amazon still does not update me about my authors. Dumb. What an easy marketing tool. Anyway, to preserve my own memory and to publicly show what a unfocused reader I am here are the authors I read. Amazon, if you are listening, wtf? Let me know if any of these people publish something new, I will almost certainly buy it immediately.

Authors
Karen Traviss (Gears of War, Halo, Star Wars)
Richard Marcinko (Rogue Warrior)
Mario Acevedo (Felix Gomez)
Tana French (Dublin Murder Squad)
Jon Talton (David Mapstone)
Naomi Novik (Temeraire)
Benjamin Black
Rafik Schami
Greg Bear
Brad Warner
Susan Casey
Sean Connolly
Mary Roach
Dava Sobel
Larry Gonick
Robert Zubrin

Subjects
Halo
Gears of War
Phoenix
Arizona
Buddhism
Zen
Christianity
Physics
Chemistry
Astronomy
Mathematics
Mars
Ocean Science
Surfing
Navy
Education
Rugby
Coaching
Athletics