Friday, December 9, 2011
Monday, November 28, 2011
Thursday, November 24, 2011
HAPPY TURKEY DAY 2011
MEMORIES
EVERY THANKSGIVING AT GRANDPA'S HOUSE SITTING AT THE DINING TABLE. ALWAYS TURKEY, DRESSING, CRANBERRY SALAD WITH PECANS JELLO, MASHED POTATOES, SWEET POTATOES. ALWAYS OYSTER DRESSING FOR DAD. ROLLS THE KIND YOU BUY IN PCK.
THEN ALWAYS A NAP ON GRANDPA'S COUCH THE RED COUCH WITH THE VALOUR COFFE TABLE IN FRONT NOW UP STAIRS AND END TABLES. NOW ON MAIN FLOOR MOM AND DAD ALWAYS WENT AND DECORATED MOM'S WINDOWS.DAD TAKING OUT TURKEY AND SLICING
WASHING ALL THE DISHES AND DRYING.
EVERY THANKSGIVING AT GRANDPA'S HOUSE SITTING AT THE DINING TABLE. ALWAYS TURKEY, DRESSING, CRANBERRY SALAD WITH PECANS JELLO, MASHED POTATOES, SWEET POTATOES. ALWAYS OYSTER DRESSING FOR DAD. ROLLS THE KIND YOU BUY IN PCK.
THEN ALWAYS A NAP ON GRANDPA'S COUCH THE RED COUCH WITH THE VALOUR COFFE TABLE IN FRONT NOW UP STAIRS AND END TABLES. NOW ON MAIN FLOOR MOM AND DAD ALWAYS WENT AND DECORATED MOM'S WINDOWS.DAD TAKING OUT TURKEY AND SLICING
WASHING ALL THE DISHES AND DRYING.
Friday, November 18, 2011
There’s something in the pause to read that’s soothing in and of itself. A moment with a book is basic self-care, the kind of skill you pass along to your children as you would a security blanket or churchgoing habit.
There's nothing challenging that has ever happened in your life, Terri, that one day you won't look back upon with deep gratitude.
There's nothing challenging that has ever happened in your life, Terri, that one day you won't look back upon with deep gratitude.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Goodby james
James sutton passed away tonight. He will be missed by all forever. But now he is in heaven
I know he did not want to leave Myrtle
He is with junior Mabel Margie uncle lee Maggie Guthrie his mom and dad lula Wayne Has. I miss my mom and dad tonightvwould like to talk withbthem to lean on them
I know he did not want to leave Myrtle
He is with junior Mabel Margie uncle lee Maggie Guthrie his mom and dad lula Wayne Has. I miss my mom and dad tonightvwould like to talk withbthem to lean on them
Goodby james
James sutton passed away tonight. He will be missed by all forever. But now he is in heaven
Sunday, November 13, 2011
PICKED UP THIS BOOK AT ST VINCENT DE PAUL
CURRENTLY READING THIS BOOK, KIND OF SLOW BUT HAS SOME INTERESTING FACTS. BASICALLY A HUSBAND AND WIFE TALKE THROUGH ALL THE CLUES AND INTERVIEW A FEW PEOPLE AND FIND SOMEONE TO TALK WITH AT SCOTLAND YARDS. THAT IS AS FAR AS I AM.
Paul Prye may make his living as professor of urban history at Columbia, but at heart he is mad about crime. So is his wife Alice, art history prof at NYU and wild about Agatha Christie. In 1988, they go to London to celebrate a most curious centenary: Jack the Ripper's bloody safari through the city's dark bypaths and dead ends. Prye retraces the maniac's sinister progress in the company of others similarly smitten, and as marvelous luck would have it, one of their group is murdered. Could it have been an accident, as others insist? Prye knows better (and he is seldom, if ever, wrong). The Yard agrees. Somewhere in the thickets lurks a new Ripper fixated on replicating his master's bloodbath. But Prye's analytic intelligence and Alice's intuitive antennae eventually end the nightmare in this pleasant and clever, if not particularly suspenseful, little nocturnal excursion. (March 31).Albert and Helen Borowitz have been collecting in the area of true crime literature for many years. Albert Borowitz started collecting at the age of 12 when he asked his father, prominent book collector David Borowitz, to buy an edition of the complete Sherlock Holmes stories for him. Arising from the shared interest of father and son, the fiction of Arthur Conan Doyle is now one of the many high points of the Borowitz Collection at Kent State University. Albert Borowitz is a graduate of Harvard University with a B.A. in classics, an M.A. in Chinese regional studies, and a J.D. He is the author of numerous books and articles on true crime, including The Bermondsey Horror (1989), a nominee for the Gold Dagger award for true crime given by the Crime Writers' Association. Other true crime books written by Borowitz include Innocence and Arsenic: Studies in Crime and Literature (1977), A Gallery of Sinister Perspectives: Ten Crimes and a Scandal (1982),and The Thurtell-Hunt Murder Case: Dark Mirror to Regency England (1987). He coined the now commonly-used phrase, "psychological kidnapping," in his article "Psychological Kidnapping in Italy: the Case of Aldo Braibanti" in the American Bar Association Journal 57 (Oct. 1971): 990-995. Borowitz has also collaborated with his wife, Helen Osterman Borowitz, on book projects, including Pawnshop and Palaces: the Fall and Rise of the Campana Art Museum (1991). He is a retired partner of the international law firm of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue. Albert Borowitz's personal and professional papers are included in the collection.
Helen Osterman Borowitz, an art historian with literary interests, is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Radcliffe College and of Case Western Reserve University. She was formerly associate curator of the Department of Art History and Education at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Her articles have appeared in Art Journal, Criticism, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, and Modern Fiction Studies, among others. She is the author of several books, including The Impact of Art on French Literature: from Scudéry to Proust (1985).
Albert Borowitz's book, Blood & Ink: An International Guide to Fact-Based Crime Literature (2002) is an annotated bibliography which describes some of the items in the Borowitz Collection. The Borowitzes began donating their extensive collection to Kent State University in 1989.
Paul Prye may make his living as professor of urban history at Columbia, but at heart he is mad about crime. So is his wife Alice, art history prof at NYU and wild about Agatha Christie. In 1988, they go to London to celebrate a most curious centenary: Jack the Ripper's bloody safari through the city's dark bypaths and dead ends. Prye retraces the maniac's sinister progress in the company of others similarly smitten, and as marvelous luck would have it, one of their group is murdered. Could it have been an accident, as others insist? Prye knows better (and he is seldom, if ever, wrong). The Yard agrees. Somewhere in the thickets lurks a new Ripper fixated on replicating his master's bloodbath. But Prye's analytic intelligence and Alice's intuitive antennae eventually end the nightmare in this pleasant and clever, if not particularly suspenseful, little nocturnal excursion. (March 31).Albert and Helen Borowitz have been collecting in the area of true crime literature for many years. Albert Borowitz started collecting at the age of 12 when he asked his father, prominent book collector David Borowitz, to buy an edition of the complete Sherlock Holmes stories for him. Arising from the shared interest of father and son, the fiction of Arthur Conan Doyle is now one of the many high points of the Borowitz Collection at Kent State University. Albert Borowitz is a graduate of Harvard University with a B.A. in classics, an M.A. in Chinese regional studies, and a J.D. He is the author of numerous books and articles on true crime, including The Bermondsey Horror (1989), a nominee for the Gold Dagger award for true crime given by the Crime Writers' Association. Other true crime books written by Borowitz include Innocence and Arsenic: Studies in Crime and Literature (1977), A Gallery of Sinister Perspectives: Ten Crimes and a Scandal (1982),and The Thurtell-Hunt Murder Case: Dark Mirror to Regency England (1987). He coined the now commonly-used phrase, "psychological kidnapping," in his article "Psychological Kidnapping in Italy: the Case of Aldo Braibanti" in the American Bar Association Journal 57 (Oct. 1971): 990-995. Borowitz has also collaborated with his wife, Helen Osterman Borowitz, on book projects, including Pawnshop and Palaces: the Fall and Rise of the Campana Art Museum (1991). He is a retired partner of the international law firm of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue. Albert Borowitz's personal and professional papers are included in the collection.
Helen Osterman Borowitz, an art historian with literary interests, is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Radcliffe College and of Case Western Reserve University. She was formerly associate curator of the Department of Art History and Education at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Her articles have appeared in Art Journal, Criticism, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, and Modern Fiction Studies, among others. She is the author of several books, including The Impact of Art on French Literature: from Scudéry to Proust (1985).
Albert Borowitz's book, Blood & Ink: An International Guide to Fact-Based Crime Literature (2002) is an annotated bibliography which describes some of the items in the Borowitz Collection. The Borowitzes began donating their extensive collection to Kent State University in 1989.
IMAGES I LOVE
I LOVE FINDING IMAGES LIKE THIS ONE. SHE LOOKS SO HAPPY AND CONTENT. WHAT IS THE STORY BEHIND IT?
AND THIS IS IT NOT BEAUTIFUL HOW BETTER TO DESCRIBE THE WIND.....
AND THIS IS IT NOT BEAUTIFUL HOW BETTER TO DESCRIBE THE WIND.....
SUNDAY MORNING MEANDERINGS
WINDY WINDY WINDY
WIPPING, SWIRLING, WIND
WHERE ARE YOU GOING
SENDING LEAVES BRANCHES EVERYWHERE
CLEANING EARTHS HOME.....
YESTERDAY SEEING JAMES, I DON'T WANT HIM TO NOT BE THE JAMES I HAVE ALWAYS KNOWN, COMING TO TERMS WITH OUR HUMANNESS OUR FRAILTIES, MYRTLE AND JAMES THEY ARE THE BEST. BLESS THEM. OH WHAT IS THE WORD
AND THEN TALKING WITH ANN GOING TO SPEND THE DAY WITH SCOTT IN ANNAPOLLIS. THANK GOODNESS SHE HAS TODD.
WIPPING, SWIRLING, WIND
WHERE ARE YOU GOING
SENDING LEAVES BRANCHES EVERYWHERE
CLEANING EARTHS HOME.....
YESTERDAY SEEING JAMES, I DON'T WANT HIM TO NOT BE THE JAMES I HAVE ALWAYS KNOWN, COMING TO TERMS WITH OUR HUMANNESS OUR FRAILTIES, MYRTLE AND JAMES THEY ARE THE BEST. BLESS THEM. OH WHAT IS THE WORD
AND THEN TALKING WITH ANN GOING TO SPEND THE DAY WITH SCOTT IN ANNAPOLLIS. THANK GOODNESS SHE HAS TODD.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
BEAUTY AND ART. and a book I had forgotten about.
WOW LOVE THIS
Author Anita Diamant, in the voice of Dinah, gives an insider’s look at the details of women’s lives in biblical times and a chronicle of their earthy stories and long-ignored histories. The red tent of the title is the place where women were sequestered during their cycles of birthing, menses, and illness. It is here that Dinah hears the whispered stories of her four mothers — Jacob’s wives Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah — and tells their tales to us in remarkable and thought-provoking oratories. Familiar passages from the Bible take on new life as Dinah fills in what the Bible has left out — the lives of women. Dinah tells us of her initiation into the religious and sexual practices of the tribe; Jacob’s courtship with Rachel and Leah; the ancient world of caravans, farmers, midwives, and slaves; her ill-fated sojourn in the city of Sechem; her years in Canaan; and her half-brother Joseph’s rise in Egypt>
Books I have finished lately
a book I read on vacation was
This was a fun book to read around halloween. Kind of creepy, liked the characters, liked the setting southern and cemetary. Probably will not read more of this series. I left the book at the house in Sanible for the next person to read...
Read this book. It was pretty violent but did keep me guessing.In her first novel Rice presents a cast of passionate, colorful characters in a sultry, lush, Southern-gothic setting. Most of the residents of small, quiet Essex, S.C., know each other. Neighbors tend their gardens and leave the doors to their homes unlocked. City-dwellers like 30-ish engineer Stoney McFarland and his photographer wife Anna move to Essex to enjoy a simpler way of life--that is until Sarah Roth, a town matriarch, is found brutally murdered. Maum Chrish, a black woman who practices voodoo in the swamps, quickly becomes a suspect although there is no evidence to prove her guilt. Stoney has his own ideas about who murdered Sarah and he becomes obsessed with solving the crime. During one of South Carolina's worst heat waves, Stoney's suspicions draw the entire community, now paranoid with fear, into a dangerous investigation. Rice maintains a level of creepy suspense despite some awkward, overlong passages about sex and voodoo that sometimes lack credibility. Though the mystery is central to the plot, the identity and motive of the killer are not proven. But Rice's psychologically adept portrayal of a community suddenly forced to acknowledge evil, and her evocative use of atmospheric detail, make this an auspicious debut.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From the masterful New York Times bestselling and two-time Edgar Award-winning author of The Last Child and Down River, comes this tour de force of murder and the dark ripples it sends through a man, his family and community.
Jackson Workman Pickens—known to most as Work—mindlessly holds together his life: a failing law practice left to him when his father, Ezra, mysteriously disappeared, a distant wife, and a fragile sister, Jean, damaged by the shared past they’ve endured.
And then Ezra’s body is discovered.
Set to inherit his father’s fortune, Work becomes a prime suspect. But so does Jean. Fearing the worst, Work launches his own investigation, crossing paths with a power-hungry detective, a string of damning evidence, and the ugly rumors that swirl within his small, moneyed Southern town. Desperate for the redemption that has eluded him for so many years and stripped of everything he once valued, Work fights to save his sister, clear his name, and regain the love of the woman to whom he gave his heart so many years before.
Praise for King of Lies:
It's Halloween in the north Florida woods and Luanne Fogarty finds brand-new bones along with the old in an abandoned slave graveyard. An antebellum discord simmers into the present day and Luanne's college students are up to ghoulish tricks. She dives in slime-covered ponds and navigates folk legends with the help of forensics. The Southern past rarely stays buried long in the swamp. This is the sixth in the Luanne Fogarty series of spine-tingling swamp noir mysteries set in the springs and underwater caves of northern Florida where Luanne, a linguistics professor, serves as adjunct scuba diver for the sheriff's department.
Read this book. It was pretty violent but did keep me guessing.In her first novel Rice presents a cast of passionate, colorful characters in a sultry, lush, Southern-gothic setting. Most of the residents of small, quiet Essex, S.C., know each other. Neighbors tend their gardens and leave the doors to their homes unlocked. City-dwellers like 30-ish engineer Stoney McFarland and his photographer wife Anna move to Essex to enjoy a simpler way of life--that is until Sarah Roth, a town matriarch, is found brutally murdered. Maum Chrish, a black woman who practices voodoo in the swamps, quickly becomes a suspect although there is no evidence to prove her guilt. Stoney has his own ideas about who murdered Sarah and he becomes obsessed with solving the crime. During one of South Carolina's worst heat waves, Stoney's suspicions draw the entire community, now paranoid with fear, into a dangerous investigation. Rice maintains a level of creepy suspense despite some awkward, overlong passages about sex and voodoo that sometimes lack credibility. Though the mystery is central to the plot, the identity and motive of the killer are not proven. But Rice's psychologically adept portrayal of a community suddenly forced to acknowledge evil, and her evocative use of atmospheric detail, make this an auspicious debut. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From the masterful New York Times bestselling and two-time Edgar Award-winning author of The Last Child and Down River, comes this tour de force of murder and the dark ripples it sends through a man, his family and community.
Jackson Workman Pickens—known to most as Work—mindlessly holds together his life: a failing law practice left to him when his father, Ezra, mysteriously disappeared, a distant wife, and a fragile sister, Jean, damaged by the shared past they’ve endured.
And then Ezra’s body is discovered.
Set to inherit his father’s fortune, Work becomes a prime suspect. But so does Jean. Fearing the worst, Work launches his own investigation, crossing paths with a power-hungry detective, a string of damning evidence, and the ugly rumors that swirl within his small, moneyed Southern town. Desperate for the redemption that has eluded him for so many years and stripped of everything he once valued, Work fights to save his sister, clear his name, and regain the love of the woman to whom he gave his heart so many years before.
Praise for King of Lies:
“The King of Lies moves and reads like a book on fire.” ---Pat This was a good book , Loved the setting, hated his wife......... felt sorry for the girl he kept turning tooo. Loved that he brought home the dog....
It has been awhile
What have I been doing???????????????? I need to keep this lap top closer so I can write. I am forgetting alot of important things by not writing daily . I have been on vacation.... WONDERFUL. James has taken a turn for the worse...TERRIBLE..... It will be a year tomorrow since Scott had his stroke..SADDDDD.
LIFE HAS A WAY OF MOVING ON.
I got up early today just to have time to think and look at interesting things on the internet. Lots of book blogs. I found two books I want to order. One of my favorite things is reading Christmas mysteries. So of course a Mrs Jefferies book looks delicious
and this one looks really good.
The good thing is I sold
which was a great book but I don't want to keep it forever...
I am currently listening to John Grisham's "the litagators" which is really good
The partners at Finley & Figg—all two of them—often refer to themselves as “a boutique law firm.” Boutique, as in chic, selective, and prosperous. They are, of course, none of these things. What they are is a two-bit operation always in search of their big break, ambulance chasers who’ve been in the trenches much too long making way too little. Their specialties, so to speak, are quickie divorces and DUIs, with the occasional jackpot of an actual car wreck thrown in. After twenty plus years together, Oscar Finley and Wally Figg bicker like an old married couple but somehow continue to scratch out a half-decent living from their seedy bungalow offices in southwest Chicago.
And then change comes their way. More accurately, it stumbles in. David Zinc, a young but already burned-out attorney, walks away from his fast-track career at a fancy downtown firm, goes on a serious bender, and finds himself literally at the doorstep of our boutique firm. Once David sobers up and comes to grips with the fact that he’s suddenly unemployed, any job—even one with Finley & Figg—looks okay to him.
With their new associate on board, F&F is ready to tackle a really big case, a case that could make the partners rich without requiring them to actually practice much law. An extremely popular drug, Krayoxx, the number one cholesterol reducer for the dangerously overweight, produced by Varrick Labs, a giant pharmaceutical company with annual sales of $25 billion, has recently come under fire after several patients taking it have suffered heart attacks. Wally smells money.
A little online research confirms Wally’s suspicions—a huge plaintiffs’ firm in Florida is putting together a class action suit against Varrick. All Finley & Figg has to do is find a handful of people who have had heart attacks while taking Krayoxx, convince them to become clients, join the class action, and ride along to fame and fortune. With any luck, they won’t even have to enter a courtroom!
It almost seems too good to be true.
And it is.
I also last year listened to The Confession
An innocent man is about to be executed.
Only a guilty man can save him.
In 1998, in the small East Texas city of Sloan, Travis Boyette abducted, raped, and strangled a popular high school cheerleader. He buried her body so that it would never be found, then watched in amazement as police and prosecutors arrested and convicted Donté Drumm, a local football star, and marched him off to death row.
Now nine years have passed. Travis has just been paroled in Kansas for a different crime; Donté is four days away from his execution. Travis suffers from an inoperable brain tumor. For the first time in his miserable life, he decides to do what’s right and confess. But how can a guilty man convince lawyers, judges, and politicians that they’re about to execute an innocent man?
It kept me on the edge of my seat......
Also downloaded THE NIGHT Circus
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.
But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.
True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.
Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses
Have jsut listened to a little of this but am fascinated.
LIFE HAS A WAY OF MOVING ON.
I got up early today just to have time to think and look at interesting things on the internet. Lots of book blogs. I found two books I want to order. One of my favorite things is reading Christmas mysteries. So of course a Mrs Jefferies book looks delicious
and this one looks really good. The good thing is I sold
which was a great book but I don't want to keep it forever...I am currently listening to John Grisham's "the litagators" which is really good
The partners at Finley & Figg—all two of them—often refer to themselves as “a boutique law firm.” Boutique, as in chic, selective, and prosperous. They are, of course, none of these things. What they are is a two-bit operation always in search of their big break, ambulance chasers who’ve been in the trenches much too long making way too little. Their specialties, so to speak, are quickie divorces and DUIs, with the occasional jackpot of an actual car wreck thrown in. After twenty plus years together, Oscar Finley and Wally Figg bicker like an old married couple but somehow continue to scratch out a half-decent living from their seedy bungalow offices in southwest Chicago.
And then change comes their way. More accurately, it stumbles in. David Zinc, a young but already burned-out attorney, walks away from his fast-track career at a fancy downtown firm, goes on a serious bender, and finds himself literally at the doorstep of our boutique firm. Once David sobers up and comes to grips with the fact that he’s suddenly unemployed, any job—even one with Finley & Figg—looks okay to him.
With their new associate on board, F&F is ready to tackle a really big case, a case that could make the partners rich without requiring them to actually practice much law. An extremely popular drug, Krayoxx, the number one cholesterol reducer for the dangerously overweight, produced by Varrick Labs, a giant pharmaceutical company with annual sales of $25 billion, has recently come under fire after several patients taking it have suffered heart attacks. Wally smells money.
A little online research confirms Wally’s suspicions—a huge plaintiffs’ firm in Florida is putting together a class action suit against Varrick. All Finley & Figg has to do is find a handful of people who have had heart attacks while taking Krayoxx, convince them to become clients, join the class action, and ride along to fame and fortune. With any luck, they won’t even have to enter a courtroom!
It almost seems too good to be true.
And it is.
I also last year listened to The Confession
An innocent man is about to be executed.Only a guilty man can save him.
In 1998, in the small East Texas city of Sloan, Travis Boyette abducted, raped, and strangled a popular high school cheerleader. He buried her body so that it would never be found, then watched in amazement as police and prosecutors arrested and convicted Donté Drumm, a local football star, and marched him off to death row.
Now nine years have passed. Travis has just been paroled in Kansas for a different crime; Donté is four days away from his execution. Travis suffers from an inoperable brain tumor. For the first time in his miserable life, he decides to do what’s right and confess. But how can a guilty man convince lawyers, judges, and politicians that they’re about to execute an innocent man?
It kept me on the edge of my seat......
Also downloaded THE NIGHT Circus
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.
True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.
Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses
Have jsut listened to a little of this but am fascinated.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Thursday, September 22, 2011
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
I just finished this book it was a long book but kept me engaged. Just wish I understood more what really killed the 2 main characters. Was it the DR he does seem all along to be too interested in the house.
Starred Review. Waters (The Night Watch) reflects on the collapse of the British class system after WWII in a stunning haunted house tale whose ghosts are as horrifying as any in Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. Doctor Faraday, a lonely bachelor, first visited Hundreds Hall, where his mother once worked as a parlor maid, at age 10 in 1919. When Faraday returns 30 years later to treat a servant, he becomes obsessed with Hundreds's elegant owner, Mrs. Ayres; her 24-year-old son, Roderick, an RAF airman wounded during the war who now oversees the family farm; and her slightly older daughter, Caroline, considered a natural spinster by the locals, for whom the doctor develops a particular fondness. Supernatural trouble kicks in after Caroline's mild-mannered black Lab, Gyp, attacks a visiting child. A damaging fire, a suicide and worse follow. Faraday, one of literature's more unreliable narrators, carries the reader swiftly along to the devastating conclusion. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Bookmarks Magazine
At its core, The Little Stranger is an old-fashioned ghost story, complete with spooky house, eccentric inhabitants, an air of general madness and malcontent, and a narrator who may not be as mild-mannered as he seems. What elevates this novel from the crowded genre is Waters’s ability to evoke the subtleties of the past as she skillfully weaves tension and dread into each paragraph. The reviewer from Newsday likened this tale to the psychological classic The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. Perhaps the critic from the Telegraph (who voiced only a very minor complaint about the ending) summed up the reviewers’ opinions best of all by hailing this novel as a genuinely creepy story “guaranteed to make anyone with a pulse gibber in fright.”
Copyright 2009 Bookmarks Publishing LLC
Copyright 2009 Bookmarks Publishing LLC
The Spiritualist
Set in 1857 New York City, this erotically charged chiller from Chance (An Inconvenient Wife) features spirit rappings, table tippings, deception and murder among its titillating treats. Michel Jourdain, a captivating Creole medium, has enthralled Dorothy Bennett, a sickly society matron who holds regular spirit circles to communicate with deceased loved ones. At one séance—attended by Evelyn Evie Atherton; Peter, her attorney husband, whom people suspect she married for his fortune; and Ben Rampling, Peter's law partner—an errant pistol shot nearly kills Michel. Suspecting the misfire was no accident, Peter determines to investigate, but winds up dead from a knife wound in the East River just days later. When society shuns the upstart Evie, who's charged with Peter's murder, Ben offers his legal assistance. Dorothy gives Evie refuge at her mansion, where the seductive Michel, whom Dorothy plans to adopt, instructs Evie in spiritualism. Evie's eerie discovery that the thirst for justice can reach beyond the grave enhances the neat resolution. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
I liked this book, it was a good mystery with some plot twist.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Friday, September 2, 2011
Wallace Simpson and prince albert I think
Read about thes two in the kings speech and another master piece mystery
Sep 2nd
i am now reading the spiritualist by by Megan Change and I am very frustrated by the way the main character is attracted to the medium after the death of her husband not a few days before which she professed to love. Some parts of this book just don't ring true
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Sunday Aug 28
Summer is coming to a end fall is in the air, cool nights, warm days. In a nutshell perfect unless you like very warm water to swim.
The tale of Halcyon Crane
Good book. Halcyon Crane finds out that the mother she thought was dead has been alive the hole time.
Father faked there death to get her away from haunted house where a murder took place. She comes back and inherates the house and the mystery. I loved it
In search of answers, Hallie travels to the place where her mother lived, a remote island in the middle of the Great Lakes. The stiff islanders fix her first with icy stares and then unabashed amazement as they recognize why she looks so familiar, and Hallie quickly realizes her family’s dark secrets are enmeshed in the history of this strange place. But not everyone greets her with such a chilly reception—a coffee-shop owner and the family’s lawyer both warm to Hallie, and the possibility of romance blooms. And then there’s the grand Victorian house bequeathed to her—maybe it’s the eerie atmosphere or maybe it’s the prim, elderly maid who used to work for her mother, but Hallie just can’t shake the feeling that strange things are starting to happen . . .
In The Tale of Halcyon Crane, Wendy Webb has created a haunting story full of delicious thrills, vibrant characters, and family secrets.
There I found an enormous main room with a fireplace tucked into one corner. On the wall across from the king sized bed cherry wood headboard antique I assumed hung a flat screen television a nice mix of old and new it was in a word awesome and I don't use that word lightly it was a perfect place for me and Eden I didn't need any other part of the house. I could've lived right there. Books were piled on the nightstand a couple of recent best sellers a big bay window bigger than the one at the manitou inn looked out onto the lake it seemed to be a feature of many of the houses here next i poled my head into the bathroom i was delighted to see a hug claw foot tub under one of the windows and a tiled shower in one corer the bedroom opened up to another room a study book shelves lined the walls and other fireplace stood in a corner. big overstuffed leather chairs with ottomans stood in front of the fireplace with a comfy chaise on the opposite walls back in the bedroom I opened a door to find a walk=in closet with clothers hanging from long reach on both walls
This is what I want by bedroom to be like if I ever get to build it.
Father faked there death to get her away from haunted house where a murder took place. She comes back and inherates the house and the mystery. I loved it
A young woman travels alone to a remote island to uncover a past she never knew was hers in this thrilling modern ghost story.
When a mysterious letter lands in Hallie James’s mailbox, her life is upended. Hallie was raised by her loving father, having been told her mother died in a fire decades earlier. But it turns out that her mother, Madlyn, was alive until very recently. Why would Hallie’s father have taken her away from Madlyn? What really happened to her family thirty years ago?In search of answers, Hallie travels to the place where her mother lived, a remote island in the middle of the Great Lakes. The stiff islanders fix her first with icy stares and then unabashed amazement as they recognize why she looks so familiar, and Hallie quickly realizes her family’s dark secrets are enmeshed in the history of this strange place. But not everyone greets her with such a chilly reception—a coffee-shop owner and the family’s lawyer both warm to Hallie, and the possibility of romance blooms. And then there’s the grand Victorian house bequeathed to her—maybe it’s the eerie atmosphere or maybe it’s the prim, elderly maid who used to work for her mother, but Hallie just can’t shake the feeling that strange things are starting to happen . . .
In The Tale of Halcyon Crane, Wendy Webb has created a haunting story full of delicious thrills, vibrant characters, and family secrets.
- Hallie’s father talks about seeing Madlyn at the nursing home the day before he died. Do you think he really saw her spirit, coming for him? Why or why not? Do you believe the veil between the living and the dead is lifted as a person passes from one life to the next?
- Hallie has twice been sidelined by men she loved: her husband and her father both were different men than she knew them to be. How did their deception—nonmalicious though it was—affect her? Did she do the right thing by ultimately trusting Will?
- Each child born of the spell from the Witch of Summer Glen has a special otherworldly ability or gift. With Hallie, her gift develops the longer she stays on the island. Do you think Hallie simply grew more aware of her innate talent, or did being on the island somehow change and enhance her abilities?
- What is the significance of mirrors with respect to Hallie’s ability to “see”?
- Why couldn’t Madlyn understand the danger the island posed to her young daughter Hallie? Was Madlyn a good mother?
- Was Hallie’s father justified in taking his child away from his wife and their home? Did you think he could have handled that situation differently—perhaps more openly and truthfully?
- Mira befriends Hallie, but she also harbors a great secret that isn’t revealed until the end of the book. Did you understand Mira’s decision to keep the truth to herself for so long, given that she barely knew Hallie, or should she have revealed it sooner? What secrets would you keep from a friend?
- Did you enjoy the way Hallie’s “tale” is slowly revealed to her? Are there storytellers in your family who have kept family lore alive?
- Forgiveness is one of the themes in this novel. Who most needed to be able to forgive? Who most needed to be forgiven?
- Have you ever seen a ghost? Do you know anyone who has? What are some of the best ghost stories you know?
There I found an enormous main room with a fireplace tucked into one corner. On the wall across from the king sized bed cherry wood headboard antique I assumed hung a flat screen television a nice mix of old and new it was in a word awesome and I don't use that word lightly it was a perfect place for me and Eden I didn't need any other part of the house. I could've lived right there. Books were piled on the nightstand a couple of recent best sellers a big bay window bigger than the one at the manitou inn looked out onto the lake it seemed to be a feature of many of the houses here next i poled my head into the bathroom i was delighted to see a hug claw foot tub under one of the windows and a tiled shower in one corer the bedroom opened up to another room a study book shelves lined the walls and other fireplace stood in a corner. big overstuffed leather chairs with ottomans stood in front of the fireplace with a comfy chaise on the opposite walls back in the bedroom I opened a door to find a walk=in closet with clothers hanging from long reach on both walls
This is what I want by bedroom to be like if I ever get to build it.
© Wendy Webb. All Rights Reserved. Author Web Development by
THE KING OF LIES by John Hart
Starred Review. Hart's stunning debut, an exceptionally deep and complex mystery thriller, compares favorably to the best of Scott Turow. Jackson Workman Pickens, whom most people call "Work," is a struggling North Carolina criminal defense attorney. Work has wrestled with inner demons for most of his life, especially after the death of his mother and the disappearance of his wealthy father, Ezra Pickens, a highly successful lawyer who took him into his practice. Trapped in a loveless marriage and haunted by poor emotional choices and his sister's psychological trauma, Work finds himself under suspicion when his father's corpse surfaces more than a year after Ezra was last seen alive. Work's quest for the truth behind his father's demise opens old wounds and forces him to face the consequences of his own decisions. Few readers will be able to resist devouring this tour-de-force in one or two sittings—or clamoring for more John Hart.
Four and twenty blackbirds by Cherie Priest An Eden Moore Story
Southern gothic my favorite.
old southern mansion and graveyard
The classic Southern gothic gets an edgy modern makeover in Priest's debut novel about a young woman's investigation into the truth of her origins. What Eden Moore digs up in the roots of her diseased family tree takes her across the South, from the ruins of the Pine Breeze sanitarium in Tennessee to a corpse-filled swamp in Florida, and back in time to the Civil War, when the taint in her family bloodline sets in motion events building only now to a supernatural crescendo. Priest adds little new to the gothic canon, but makes neo-goth chick Eden spunky enough to deal with a variety of cliché menaces—a scheming family matriarch, a brooding Poe-esque mansion and a genealogy greatly confused with inbreeding—that would have sent the genre's traditional wilting violets into hysterics. Eden is a heroine for the aging Buffy crowd, and her adventures will play best to postadolescent horror
Now Eden must decipher the secret of the ghostly trio before a new enemy more dangerous than the fanatical assassin destroys what is left of her family. She will sift through lies in a Georgian ante-bellum mansion and climb through the haunted ruins of a 19th century hospital, desperately seeking the truth that will save her beloved aunt from the curse that threatens her life.
old southern mansion and graveyard
The classic Southern gothic gets an edgy modern makeover in Priest's debut novel about a young woman's investigation into the truth of her origins. What Eden Moore digs up in the roots of her diseased family tree takes her across the South, from the ruins of the Pine Breeze sanitarium in Tennessee to a corpse-filled swamp in Florida, and back in time to the Civil War, when the taint in her family bloodline sets in motion events building only now to a supernatural crescendo. Priest adds little new to the gothic canon, but makes neo-goth chick Eden spunky enough to deal with a variety of cliché menaces—a scheming family matriarch, a brooding Poe-esque mansion and a genealogy greatly confused with inbreeding—that would have sent the genre's traditional wilting violets into hysterics. Eden is a heroine for the aging Buffy crowd, and her adventures will play best to postadolescent horror
A
lthough she was orphaned at birth, Eden Moore is never alone. Three dead women watch from the shadows, bound to protect her from harm. But in the woods a gunman waits, convinced that Eden is destined to follow her wicked great-grandfather--an African magician with the power to curse the living and raise the dead.Now Eden must decipher the secret of the ghostly trio before a new enemy more dangerous than the fanatical assassin destroys what is left of her family. She will sift through lies in a Georgian ante-bellum mansion and climb through the haunted ruins of a 19th century hospital, desperately seeking the truth that will save her beloved aunt from the curse that threatens her life.
The Tattooed Map
"I'm beside myself, I can barely write this the design on my left hand is now extended up my wrist ..."So deepens the enigma of The Tattooed Map, a richly illustrated and thoroughly captivating first novel by Barbara Hodgson. Somewhere in Northern Africa, an intrepid traveler awakens with a mysterious mark on her hand that soon develops into a detailed, macabre map spreading across her skin. As Lydia's private journal entries unfold complete with fold-out maps, photographs, drawings, and handwritten notes the reader becomes as drawn into the conundrum of the tattooed map as Lydia herself. When Lydia disappears and her friend Christopher takes up her journal to record his search for her, the situation becomes even more puzzling until the book's haunting resolution. In this unique novel, as engrossing to look at as it is to read, Hodgson has crafted a spine-tingling mystery that will make armchair adventurers want to embark upon their own journeys
Barbara Hodgson's novel, The Tattooed Map must have been as fun to write/compile as it was to read. I suppose you would consider it a novel, but it almost seems more of an 'entertainment' as the story can easily be read in one sitting. Much of the enjoyment comes from perusing the ephemera and marginalia that illustrate the novel. I wrote about it briefly here, but I don't think I ever described the story.
Told in a series of journal entries, The Tattooed Map, is a mysterious, almost dreamlike tale of two former lovers who embark on a journey to Morocco, but it becomes an entirely different kind of journey. Where it ends is left up to your own imagination. Lydia and Chris are good friends but even more so, good travel companions. They can't seem to live together, but they do travel well together. Their trip to Morroco is a combination of pleasure, adventure and work.
Lydia is the sort of traveler who likes to immerse herself in the people and culture of a country even before she sets foot on the plane. Once there she is happy meandering about, meeting people and exploring. Chris is more indifferent when it comes to travel. He's an assured traveler, but there is little planning. Lydia is sure it is all luck. Chris would rather hide behind a newspaper than interact with strangers, but he is successful in his business, which is dealing in antiques--finding just the right thing for the right client.
Shortly after they arrive, Lydia notices what she believes are a cluster of flea bites on her left hand, the result of sleeping in a strange bed in less than hygienic circumstances. As the days pass what appears to be a tattoo of a map begin emerging on her arm, which she keeps covered with her shirt. She's confused and unsure of what seems to be happening and not comfortable telling Chris about this strange occurrence.
Part of the mystery and part of the explanation of the mystery is a strange Morrocan man who seems to be at every café Chris and Lydia visit. Lydia wonders if he's following them. As she awaits the arrival of Chris one afternoon he approaches her table.
"He unravelled a story, slowly, like reluctant insomnia. The steady, monotonous voice so much like my own thoughts--repetitious, relentless, unforgiving. I panicked as his finger traced round and round the tender skin of my wrist and tried to pull my hand away. His grip tightened and I heard him say, 'Only your skin and your tears will allow you this journey'."And then Lydia disappears. Leaving everything behind except her passport and money, Chris has no idea what has happened to her and is mystified by what she has written in her journal. He must overcome his indifference before he can understand what has happened to Lydia.
The story is a puzzle, both for Chris and the reader. Perhaps part of the solution is knowing that Lydia is an inveterate traveler and that is she had her way, she would never stop. Hodgson leaves much up to the reader's imagination--particularly with the ending, but somehow it seems fitting with such a story that is in it's own way as labyrinthine as Morrocco's ancient cities.
if only they could be sure of their return
A Treasury of Victorian murder vol 1
I liked this book I love illustrated books and hope to find more. This was alittle to expensive for its sizeill
t
Thankfully NBM have made available once again the first of the excellent "Treasury of Victorian Murder" series which has been out of print for a while now. Included in this short 72 page book are 3 cases:
The Ryan Tragedy
The Dr Pritchard Case
The Mrs Pearcey Murders
The Ryan Tragedy featured a brother and sister who were found stabbed to death in their small New York room. No murderer was ever convicted nor any real motive discovered though they did find out in the autopsy that the sister was pregnant and so the gossipy theories began.
The Dr Pritchard Case, the longest in this book, features a strange, possibly mad, certainly deluded, doctor who poisoned his wife and her mother. It seems he wanted to get rid of the two in order to marry his 15 year old maid with whom he had been carrying on an affair with. He was convicted and was the last man to be publicly hanged in Scotland.
The Mrs Pearcey Murders were the murder of a young mother and her baby. Mrs Pearcey was having an affair with the husband of the murdered woman and the father of the baby, and she had been unable to forget the affair once it was over. She lived in solitude in a house near the family and became consumed with jealousy until one day her loneliness and anger boiled over and she murdered the wife and child.
All the stories are interesting and well told, as well as drawn in Geary's signature style. It's great that it's been brought back so that fans can have access to this book once again. Fans of the series will enjoy it although the book is over too quickly and the stories aren't as satisfying as other book length stories like the Lincoln murder or the Jack the Ripper killings. Good read at any rate. cv r
The Ryan Tragedy
The Dr Pritchard Case
The Mrs Pearcey Murders
The Ryan Tragedy featured a brother and sister who were found stabbed to death in their small New York room. No murderer was ever convicted nor any real motive discovered though they did find out in the autopsy that the sister was pregnant and so the gossipy theories began.
The Dr Pritchard Case, the longest in this book, features a strange, possibly mad, certainly deluded, doctor who poisoned his wife and her mother. It seems he wanted to get rid of the two in order to marry his 15 year old maid with whom he had been carrying on an affair with. He was convicted and was the last man to be publicly hanged in Scotland.
The Mrs Pearcey Murders were the murder of a young mother and her baby. Mrs Pearcey was having an affair with the husband of the murdered woman and the father of the baby, and she had been unable to forget the affair once it was over. She lived in solitude in a house near the family and became consumed with jealousy until one day her loneliness and anger boiled over and she murdered the wife and child.
All the stories are interesting and well told, as well as drawn in Geary's signature style. It's great that it's been brought back so that fans can have access to this book once again. Fans of the series will enjoy it although the book is over too quickly and the stories aren't as satisfying as other book length stories like the Lincoln murder or the Jack the Ripper killings. Good read at any rate. cv r
Picture the Dead by Adele Griffin and Lisa Brown
This was a really good book a illustrated novel. They took old pictures and changed them into illustrated pictures to tell the story of two brothers. One who did not come home from the civil war and is trying to warn his fiance' not to get involved with his brother who survived. 
ALMOST EVERY CHARACTER in Picture the Dead has a real-life 19th century counterpart, unearthed from the archives of the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. Here are some of my models and their correspondant illustrated selves.
.
And here a little side note regarding dear Aunt Clara. I honestly had trouble finding a model who was detestable enough to represent Clara in all her vile-ness. I was particularly keen to portray Adele’s incredible description of a “chin that wobbled like aspic.” Nobody during the Civil War era seemed to have such a chin. I tried concocting a composite from several existing portraits, but, in the end, I had to invent Clara out of whole cloth, sketching her out by hand. I gave her the requisite double chin, little girly ringlets, and an air of entitlement. Voila. Aunt Clara.
Here, at least, is an example of a model for her dress, expanded:
Our book takes place 150 years ago, but their language is spare and the images are modern,” says Adele Griffin. “While set in another time, we wanted to speak to our own.” Lisa Brown’s fanciful daguerreotype reconstructions accompany the spookily ethereal story, cunningly providing clues to the puzzle… through a bramble of lies, humiliations, yearnings and ghosts, readers are introduced to such historical riches as the lifestyle of Boston Brahmins, the wiles of spiritualist photography and the awful reality of Andersonville prison.
A ghost will find his way home.
Jennie Lovell's life is the very picture of love and loss. First she is orphaned and forced to live at the mercy of her stingy, indifferent relatives. Then her fiancé falls on the battlefield, leaving her heartbroken and alone. Jennie struggles to pick up the pieces of her shattered life, but is haunted by a mysterious figure that refuses to let her bury the past.
When Jennie forms an unlikely alliance with a spirit photographer, she begins to uncover secrets about the man she thought she loved. With her sanity on edge and her life in the balance, can Jennie expose the chilling truth before someone-or something-stops her?
Against the brutal, vivid backdrop of the American Civil War, Adele Griffin and Lisa Brown have created a spellbinding mystery where the living cannot always be trusted and death is not always the end.
ALMOST EVERY CHARACTER in Picture the Dead has a real-life 19th century counterpart, unearthed from the archives of the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. Here are some of my models and their correspondant illustrated selves.
.
And here a little side note regarding dear Aunt Clara. I honestly had trouble finding a model who was detestable enough to represent Clara in all her vile-ness. I was particularly keen to portray Adele’s incredible description of a “chin that wobbled like aspic.” Nobody during the Civil War era seemed to have such a chin. I tried concocting a composite from several existing portraits, but, in the end, I had to invent Clara out of whole cloth, sketching her out by hand. I gave her the requisite double chin, little girly ringlets, and an air of entitlement. Voila. Aunt Clara.
Here, at least, is an example of a model for her dress, expanded:
Our book takes place 150 years ago, but their language is spare and the images are modern,” says Adele Griffin. “While set in another time, we wanted to speak to our own.” Lisa Brown’s fanciful daguerreotype reconstructions accompany the spookily ethereal story, cunningly providing clues to the puzzle… through a bramble of lies, humiliations, yearnings and ghosts, readers are introduced to such historical riches as the lifestyle of Boston Brahmins, the wiles of spiritualist photography and the awful reality of Andersonville prison.
A ghost will find his way home.
Jennie Lovell's life is the very picture of love and loss. First she is orphaned and forced to live at the mercy of her stingy, indifferent relatives. Then her fiancé falls on the battlefield, leaving her heartbroken and alone. Jennie struggles to pick up the pieces of her shattered life, but is haunted by a mysterious figure that refuses to let her bury the past.
When Jennie forms an unlikely alliance with a spirit photographer, she begins to uncover secrets about the man she thought she loved. With her sanity on edge and her life in the balance, can Jennie expose the chilling truth before someone-or something-stops her?
Against the brutal, vivid backdrop of the American Civil War, Adele Griffin and Lisa Brown have created a spellbinding mystery where the living cannot always be trusted and death is not always the end.
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