Books read in January

I'd like to keep track of what I'm reading this year, so here we go with the first installment.

1. Dead Travel Fast- Stalking Vampires from Nosferatu to Count Chocula by Eric Nuzum-- This is by a man on a quest to understand the vampire phenomenon. It's pretty much his journal of the quest. It wasn't quite what I expected, though I'm not sure what I did expect it to be. Not a bad book, but not quite satisfying.

2. Foolishly Forgotten Americans by Michael Farquhar-- A look at the lives of thirty Americans most of us have never heard of. I enjoyed this one, and found myself wishing some of the chapters were a bit longer or more in depth. That's okay, it's a good jumping off place for more research on my own.

3. Four Queens- The Provencal sisters who ruled Europe by Nancy Goldstone- I loved this book. The history of four sisters from Provence in the 1200s. One became Queen of England, one Queen of France, one Queen of the Romans (wife of the Holy Roman Emperor), and one Queen of Sicily. This ties for my favorite of this group of books with Weird Chicago.

4. Weird Chicago by Troy Taylor, Adam Selzer, and Ken Melvoin-Berg-- A history of Chicago's odd bits. Ghosts, gangsters, murders, fires, all that sort of stuff. This one plays to my love of folklore and ghosts as well as my enjoyment of history. Lots of information packed into it.

5. Crowned in a Far Country by Princess Michael of Kent-- Brief histories of 8 highborn women who left their own countries to marry princes. Not a bad book, but I was a bit disappointed because I didn't like it as well as her earlier book, Cupid and the King.