and there was a scent  on the air
 that was a mixture of bonfires and wet leaves and woolen scarves that got into your mouth.
You had the feeling that you were walking backwards in time, or even into a different world altogether. 
the old tower was as horrid as she had thought. It was dark and menacing and it was old, so old that you could almost smell the oldness breathing out frim it, and you had the feeling that if yous tretched out your hands yolu would be able to plunge them, wrist-deep, into the swirling miasma of the long- ago

TRUE

"All the best stories in the world are but one story in reality — the story of escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times, how to escape."

—  Arthur Christopher Benson(Source: readfaster.com

A STORY

SUPER BOWL SUNDAY

WATCHING THE NEW YORK GIANTS AND THE NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS PLAY
FEELING VERY SAD FOR ANN

"Of course anyone who truly loves books buys more of them than he or she can hope to read in one fleeting lifetime. A good book, resting unopened in its slot on a shelf, full of majestic potentiality, is the most comforting sort of intellectual wallpaper."

— David Quammen (via prettybooks)

 

 

 

 

 

Some say I live a pretentious life, hiding in pages and pages of countless books. They just don’t understand that these alternate worlds are actually the ones keeping me sane and alive

 

 

"Books are like oxygen to a deep-sea diver,” she had once said. “Take them away and you might as well begin counting the bubbles."

— Alan Bradley, I Am Half-Sick of Shadows (via thegirlandherbooks)(Source: booksandnerds)

"Don’t let the world convince you that you can’t write. That may ultimately be true, who knows, but it’s way too early to tell. You’re playing the long game, and in the meantime don’t take any guff from those swine. Maybe you don’t look or act or talk like the chosen one. That’s all right. Because in the end writers aren’t chosen. You choose yourself."

— Lev Grossman (via oliveryeh)(Source: levgrossman.com)

Bad day

I am having severe fight or flight today. I want to go home straight home and not talk to anyone. Unsure why today. 12:52 time to go back in

What do you now fear, Terri? How will you use this? You're welcome, The Universe Every fear is a gift, Terri, though every gift needs unwrapping. "Oh look, it's me, only more

books i've read in Jan

Mrs Jeffries and the mistletoe mix-up   
The scroll by anne Perry

The clairvoyant countess by dorothy gilman

Dorothy Gilman is better known for her Mrs. Pollifax stories, but she's written quite a few stand-alones for adults and children. Mrs. P is the calm center in her stories, and in The Clairvoyant Countess, it's Madame Karitska, a psychic, who holds the center together.

The book contains a series of vignettes, starring Madame Karitska and her reluctant believer, Lt. Pruden of the Trafton, New Jersey, police. She can tell the future, see the dead, find missing objects and people, and always lands on her feet.

This work is a little dated, referring to hippies and modest gang activity in an urban setting. There's an innocence attached to how Lt. Pruden begins to rely on the psychic and in how Madame Karitska's flamboyant background is portrayed.

In the end, it's just good fun, with interesting characters in simpler times.

 

The holidays are coming, but neither Elaine nor Daniel is feeling very festive. She never loved the husband her father bought with a large dowry settlement, but now she controls her money since her last living relative died. Daniel wants free access to her funds to cover bad investments including a fortune in Far Eastern antiquities; he is broke. Their evening is interrupted by the arrival of guests who he plans to show off his latest acquisition.

A fire breaks out in the servant's quarters. The blaze is put out quickly, but everyone evacuates the house due to the smell. When they return to the home they find Daniel bleeding to death in his office from a sword bludgeoned into his neck artery. Inspector Witherspoon leads the homicide investigation, which proves difficult because everyone present at the gathering had motive and opportunity. Of course, Witherspoon has a top secret weapon so clandestine he is ignorant of the help he receives on his cases from his brilliant housekeeper Mrs. Jeffries and the rest of his loyal intelligent staff. However, this murder may remain unsolved as the suspects are numerous.

The latest Mrs. Jeffries and retinue Victorian mystery (see Mrs. Jeffries Forges Ahead) is a delightful puzzler as the title heroine and her "under the stairs" crew work a difficult case through their employer. The basic theme of this wonderful long running series remains the same, yet once again the whodunit is fresh as Emily Brightwell provides another riveting historical investigation.
Fans of Emily Pollifax (Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station) will welcome back the well-mannered, tea-pouring Garden Club chairman, who is also an adroit and canny agent for the CIA. This time her assignment seems simple: while she and her husband Cyrus Reed are vacationing in Thailand, she is to pick up some valuable information on drug smuggling from an informant called Ruamsak. Everything goes awry immediately: Ruamsak is murdered, Cyrus is kidnapped and Emily joins forces with Bonchoo, an intriguing stranger with complex reasons of his own for wanting to find Cyrus. The usual phalanx of muddled but supportive CIA agents try to follow Emily through the jungles of Thailand and are seriously rattled when one of their directors abruptly vanishes, only to reappear in the Golden Triangle as the head of all illicit drug trafficking. Pollifax needs all her wiles and her considerable skills in the martial arts, not only to track her husband but also to put a serious dent in the heroin trade. She accomplishes everything with vigor and charm.