IN which I do battle with an evil...

...potential cold. This cold has been trying to take hold since perhaps Wednesday evening. Feeling throaty, a little phlegmy and a little sore-ish. Head achey, tired, etc. So this morning I am throwing everything at it: lots of fluids, mega multivitimin and Zicam. Never tried Zicam before and wasn't really thrilled with the idea of swabbing my nose so I got the tablets that melt on your tongue. I probably should have gone with the nose swab because the tablets do leave a yucky-ish aftertaste that's hard to dispell. Zinc-like. So we'll see. I'm already feeling less throaty but that could just be mind over matter. I will NOT be sick.

Finished DEXTER BY DESIGN by Jeff Lindsay. Dexter's world is a funhouse of dark humor. It's a nice place to visit but it's time to move on.

I'll be starting a new release, BLEEDING HEART SQUARE by Andrew Taylor. This is a stand alone and has 448 pages. Here's a description:

It's 1934, and the decaying London cul-de-sac of Bleeding Heart Square is an unlikely place of refuge for aristocratic Lydia Langstone. But as she flees her abusive marriage, there is only one person she can turn to--the genteelly derelict Captain Ingleby-Lewis, currently lodging at Number 7. However, unknown to Lydia, a dark mystery haunts the decrepit building. What happened to Miss Penhow, the middle-aged spinster who owns the house and who vanished four years earlier? Why is a seedy plain-clothes policeman obsessively watching the square? What is making struggling journalist Rory Wentwood so desperate to contact Miss Penhow? And why are parcels of rotting hearts being sent to Joseph Serridge, the last person to see Miss Penhow alive? Legend has it the devil once danced in Bleeding Heart Square--but is there now a new and sinister presence lurking in its shadows?

The author's first novel won the John Creasey Award, and he has also been shortlisted for the Gold Dagger and the Edgar. The only author to receive the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award twice, Taylor lives in England. And just recently Crime Writers’ Association in its infinite wisdom has awarded him the Cartier Diamond Dagger for 2009. His website can be found at http://www.andrew-taylor.co.uk/.

Today's Blog/Website of the Day is the official blog for those who wish to read more: an independent initiative to encourage more readers to read more books.. The Campaign for the American Reader is found at http://americareads.blogspot.com/. I focus a lot on crime fiction and historicals or the combination of the two because those are what I love most to read. I recognize that that is not everyone's cuppa tea. This blog features entries that are all over the book spectrum.

There is a quote by Mark Twain that is profound to me: "A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read." Reading is fun and is never a waste of time because you learn something about your world or yourself either through nonfiction accounts or through the eyes of a fictional character. Read a book, read a newspaper, or a magazine... It's like a muscle, the more you practice, the better you get at it.

I think I'll start a new feature on the side for some great reading art as inspiration. This will serve for today's but look for something new tomorrow.

Much love,

PK the Bookeemonster