gift from japan

when he was just a little boy, my husband’s family hosted an exchange student from japan. she became close friends with them, especially his older sister and they’ve visited over the years. recently, i had the good fortune to meet her for the first time. she was very lovely and kind. she brought karl a…

the sweetest fig~ book and recipe

Monsieur Bibot is a terrible man. a petty, cruel tyrant who relishes his work as a dentist and abuses his lovely little dog, Marcel. sweet marcel is too small to walk down the stairs but his master drags him down anyway. bibot is given two figs as payment by a poor woman. She tells him…

more tales to tremble by~ illustrated by gordon laite

published in 1968, “more tales to tremble by,” illustrated by gordan laite, is full of surprising creeps. although a children’s book, the selection of stories are anything but childike.  boasting stories such as, “the red lodge,” by h. russell wakefield and “the extra passenger,” by weird luminary august derluth, the stories are sure to frighten children and…

paper dolls ~english country murder prologue

i love mysteries~ human, eleusian, and literary. agatha christie’s miss marple was my introduction to the genre. at 12ish years old somehow, someone one left a volume of her short stories at our house. desperate for reading matierial i picked it and fell under their spell. however, dame agatha was soon replaced in my heart by…

coco chanel: legend and liar

“you could search forever for the whole truth about gabrielle chanel, and never find the last of the missing pieces; for when she cut up her history, she scattered it all around, losing some details, hiding others, covering her trail.”-coco chanel: the legend and the lifejustine picardie justine picardie’s excellent biography is heavily illustrated, as…