Books

 I finished the Jungle Tales of Tarzan, a loosely connected series of short stories in which a young, pre-Jane Tarzan falls in and out of love, tries fatherhood, steals, murders, kidnaps, is confused by dreams, contemplates the existence and meaning of God, and stays perfectly still as poisonous insects crawl on his eyeballs. Whatta guy!

 It is rumored that Edgar Rice Burroughs did not like Jane and wanted to get rid of her. Like A. Conan Doyle, he swiftly found out that fans don't like it when favorite characters get killed off, especially with no warning (and in a really nasty way). So though we know that Jane's death isn't permanent, in Tarzan the Untamed, Lord Greystoke doesn't. And he really, and I do mean really, doesn't like the Germans.

I have no idea how to classify Robert Kroese's Mercury Falls, but this story of a weary reporter, an angel, and the Antichrist, all fighting to postpone The Apocalypse, made me laugh out loud three times in the first three chapters. I understand that this book was self-published, and I only found it through Amazon's Kindle Deal of the Day, and I would not have bought it if it had not been 99 cents, but it's solid proof that self-publishing does not automatically equal a poorly written book. I don't know if the story will hold up, but so far, I'm wildly entertained and have already ordered the next book in the series, Mercury Rises.