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I can't believe it's the new year, 2015. I have to admit my stomach feels a bit cramped with anxiety. Usually, years come and go with my least amount of attention. I do look at the old year on documentaries: I remember those talented people we've lost. I think about the horrible airplane accidents and mindless murders of innocent people. Then, I just go on living waiting for the next celebration or the next bad shoe to drop in my life. This year it's different. I am very aware of the new year. I feel like the days of this year are precious. I should treat these days gently and with care like a jeweler would treat the new rubies and pearls that have come into his shop. I should treat the new year like a geneaologist would treat ancient papers from the Old City of Jerusalem or the way he would treat a diary from the Civil War. I should mentally put on white gloves and  treat the year  like a fragile package addressed to me. I want to live it differently. Not the same

Sunday afternoons in this house: cold ham and Songs of praise and heavy silences. It rushed up at Gina so vividly she could smell it. Everything she'd longed to get away from as a teenager, and thought in some ways she had--yet here she was, even down to the same Sunday-afternoon paranoia that she hadn't wrung enough out of the weekend as Monday approached. And the time ticking inexorably past, metronomed by the carriage clock on the 1950s slate mantelpiece. http://fredasvoice.blogspot.com

Prologue Item: a red cashmere scarf Longhampton, June 2008 Gina wraps her new scarf rightly around her wrist, like a bandage. It's a scarlet cashmere one that she bought on the way home from work two days ago, the color of lipstick and poisoned apples and danger. For something that cost so much, it took no time to buy: she was cold, she'd always wanted a beautiful big cashmere scarf, and the usual sensible voice of caution, reminding her of the gas bill or the council tax, had gone, and in the silence Gina could hear her own voice asking aloud, "Why not?" Berkley, Penguin, Random Thank you. http://rosecityreader.blogspot.com

Bethany House Pub. Pembrooke Park is a mansion which belonged to a family named Pembrooke. Pembrooke Park is in England. The time is the Nineteenth Century. Each person has a personal reason to return to Pembrooke Park. For those who are already living there, Pembrooke Park is like a living place that they pay tribute to each day by telling about hauntings and treasure. All have one thing in common. There is a need to make peace with the past. This is Christian Fiction at its best. Julie Klassen is an author with an extraordinary ability to make the past come alive. There are fine details that can not go unnoticed: a dollhouse, a green cloaked man or just his skull, a rusty gun, letters and journal entries placed between bricks in a wall, an emerald necklace and even a secret room. What really stays with me is the power of a scandal to hurt or destroy people. It hurts the people directly involved and those who just like a nicely packaged piece of gossip each morning with their c

Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt lived from 1842-1919. He influenced many lay people and religious leaders during his time. We, in America, are not as acquainted with his name and his inspiring writings. Blumhardt is known for his short prayers which are full of detail and always offer words of thanks. It's great to know that The Lord hears short prayers as well as lengthy prayers. At the beginning of each prayer is a scripture. There are also black and white sketches before each month in the year. There is a lighted  room at the top of a house. Each black and white sketch gives an idea of the season. For example, for January there is snow. For April,  there is a light breeze blowing the curtains. In this sketch the moon seems to shine although there is not any color. In November, there are leaves falling. These tiny black and white sketches help to center the mind on God and His creation. Also, in the beginning there is a fine biography about Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt. The

2) Write a poem using three of the following words: expensive, lampshade, bruise, convincing.   A Love Gift Bruise his lips with a kiss. Then, I am more likely to receive the expensive Chinese silk lampshade.

A Christmas Haiku A snowman in red mittens stands in my yard now. Life warm with cocoa. (Fifteen Minutes of Fiction)

Snowflakes float through the air like microscopic angels. Each one designed by God's hand. A million, trillion and one upon my scarf flutters like a cardinal's flapping wing. Psalm 74:17 It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth; you made both summer and winter.NIV topverses.com/about/winter  

"He went on to say, "There are injustices which no honorable man can put up with." Then he added, " I have never spoken about this to any one, but because you are my friend I will tell you. My uncle caused so much pain and sorrow to my father and mother that in the end my mother died of it. My uncle slandered my father; above all he spread such lies about me that he prevented me from marrying a young girl I had loved from childhood, and all this because he, an older man, wanted to marry her  himself. Can anyone forget such an injury?" he asked. "I will never forgive him, ever!" Plough http://fredasvoice.blogspot.com

Brother Robber by Helene Christaller " The hut hung like a swallow's nest on the southern slope of the Apennines . Built of the same stone as the rock on which it stood, it appeared a part of nature, not a work of man. A small window opening was stopped with straw to keep out the cold wind that blew over the mountains." http://rosecityreader.blogspot.com

"He descended the ladder and nodded toward the paintings she'd been studying. "That's Catherine of Alexandria, the Martyr. Many painting of saintswere destroyed after the Reformation. But the artwork in our little church here was spared." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_of_Alexandria

Prologue London, England May 1817   "I sat across the table from the man I most admired, feeling self-conscious. How I wished I'd taken more time with my appearance. But my meeting with the housekeeper had run long, allowing me barely enough time to wash my face and repin my hair in a simple coil. I had planned to wear a new evening dress--but instead I'd slipped into the plain ivory gown I usually wore. It had far fewer fastenings." Bethany House http://bibliophilebythesea.blogspot.com  

Merielle's parents live in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. When Mireille, their daughter, son-in-law, Michael, and grandson, Christophe arrive for a visit, no one has any idea how their life will change. Later one psychologist will tell Mireille straight out that her life will never be the same again. On one fine day for an outing, Mireille, is kidnapped outside gates of her parents' mansion. The kidnappers will torture her with a laugh on their lips. As a matter of fact, she is gang raped over and over again. For me, it was very hard to read those beginning to middle pages. I can not describe what this poor woman lived through. When Mireille is set free, her battle at home is just as bad as the one led while in the presence of her captors. She is a different woman. Her family becomes different. How in the world do you treat a woman who has in many ways died? Her sister, Mona and the rest of the family have been raped too in their way. However, Mireille becomes angry when of them sta

"I was silent. I looked up into the sky, clear and blue, the sun high and bright. A flock of birds passed over head. I raided my arm high above my head. I wanted to grab hold of their dark feathers so they might lift me from the ground, take me away....The birds disappeared past the horizon. They left me. Nothing would take me away." http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com

http://bookjourney.wordpress.com I finished The Heretic by Henry Vyner-Brooks. I also finished Dead Gorgeous by Elizabeth Flynn. It's for a blog tour. So I haven't published it on the blog yet.   I am still working on My Little People by... It's very good information. It just takes a long time to read it because its like a reference work. It's not written like a novella. For that reason the subtitle might be misleading. I also finished Home for the Holidays by Rochelle Alers. It's my second holiday book for 2014.

Iris and Collier are falling in love while withstanding many problems in their relationship. Collier is home for the Christmas holidays. He is in the military. He has about two more years to go before retiring. However, the PTSD he suffers will be with him for much longer. It is painful to know he suffers with nightmares and flashbacks from the battlefield. It is far more painful to know that these ugly, brutal memories might separate him from the woman he loves, Iris. Iris also is fighting her demons. She has been in a marriage where she suffered Domestic violence. A strong memory is of a broken nose and dislocated jaw. When Collier jumps her one night like he might kill her, she draws away from him quickly. Although fighting in his sleep is not his fault, it's awfully frightening to the woman who is about to become his wife.  Collier is very understanding of her fears. He's a gentle man. It is interesting to find out whether these two fine people will be able to work o

I enjoyed this mystery by Elizabeth Flynn. The mystery involves the fashion world. The fashion world is pretty dramatic. Those times when fashion designers prepare models to walk down the catwalk can involve negative emotions like jealousy. Some designers go as far as stealing another designer's fashion designs. Kirsty is one of many women who dreams of becoming a model. Sadly, she is too short. She must find her place in another part of the fashion world. Like all young women along the way she falls in love and out of love. After Kirsty is strangled to death with a scarf, many people will say she was a playgirl going from one guy to another guy. Kirsty in Dead Gorgeous by Elizabeth Flynn is more complicated than the solution to the mystery. I wasn't shocked by the findings of Angela, Gaz and the other detectives. What I couldn't figure out was the character of Kirsty. Although I never met a living Kirsty in the novel, Elizabeth Flynn does a fine job with the dead cha

"Darren set his mouth in the stubborn way that Sandra didn't like. "I ain't got no story," he said, thrusting out his chin. "I was at the gym all afternoon and that's all there is to it. And you came round here to break the news to me. That's only natural, it's no secret." http://www.fredasvoice.blogspot.com

http://rosecityreader.blogspot.com "The Passionista magazine third anniversary reception had begun well. With the lights, the wall coverings, and the highly polished black  floor, the stevedores who once worked in this converted docklands warehouse would have had trouble recognizing the place. Designers, columnists, editors, models, trendsetters, fashionistas, and a galaxy of stars mixed and mingled, making air kisses as they came together and small talk as they moved on."

Driedl   Discovered this word for Bing.com. 12/16/14 on about.com.  A dreidel is a four-sided spinning top with a Hebrew letter on each side. It is used during Hanukkah to play a popular children's game that involves spinning the dreidel and betting on which Hebrew letter will be showing when the dreidel stops spinning.judaism.about.com/od/holidays/a/dreidel http://bermudaonion.net  A fiord is defined as a u-shaped glacier-carved valley which has been flooded by the sea. The fourteen fiords that fringe this south-west corner of the South Island were 100,000 years in the making, with the final details added during the most recent ice age just 10,000 years ago.