Victoria Finlay’s Jewels. A Secret History is brilliant. Well-written and extensively researched, it draws you into the world of jewels. A world where amber burns with a lovely scent, where “[Colombia’s] emerald barons are as powerful as the cocaine kings”, and Britain’s freshwater pearling was destroyed by “pearlers, power stations, and pollution”. Did you know…

Barbara Michaels/Elizabeth Peters writes witty, suspenseful, romantic mysteries. Some are definitely modern Gothic. Others, like the Amelia Peabody series, are historical. If you like her novels, you might try: Charlotte McLeod/Ailsa CraigLaurie King (the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series that starts with The Beekeeper’s Apprentice)Mary Stewart Her books are classics in the genre of…

Too nervous to smiletoo lonely to stay awayanonymous dreamercoffee shop star.

Can you live with the advertising for the benefit of a quick link to a book description and other people’s reviews? I hope so.

I promise I’ll review Soulless by Gail Carriger soon–I’ve already read it twice and intend to reread. It’s great fun–however at the moment I’m testing whether this link/image gadget from Amazon works. It’ll be much easier than saving book covers to my computer. And Soulless is a stand out cover. Changeless is pretty cool too.