Thursday, April 29, 2010

Review: The Missing Element by John L. Betcher


The Missing Element


John L. Betcher
CreateSpace (March 8, 2010)
978-1451512717
294 pages
Reader’s Choice Rating  * * * * *

The Missing Element is the story of James “Beck” Becker and his wife Elizabeth, who have returned to Beck’s childhood home in Red Wing, Minnesota to enjoy retirement from their covert government jobs. Of course, life is anything but quiet with Beck around.

When Katherine Whitson, a Minneapolis computer genius, disappears under mysterious circumstances, her husband George calls the local police. After receiving no help from police, George then solicits a Red Wing acquaintance to convince Beck to help find Katherine.

Beginning at Katherine’s luxury apartment in the Minneapolis Warehouse District, Author John L. Betcher puts his protagonist through a labyrinth of red herrings. Beck’s investigation starts with George as the unfaithful husband, and then his lover, to Katherine’s work colleagues and on through the ranks of an influential computer company and into the overwhelming world of computer microprocessors before he can begin to find answers.

To solve the mystery of why Katherine was kidnapped—and to save her—Beck must draw on his resources with the FBI and their computer experts, as well as the expertise of his wife Elizabeth the former CIA agent.

Betcher leads us into the world of advanced computer technology and international espionage with this captivating suspense thriller. As we follow Beck on his quest to locate Katherine we are introduced to several colorful characters. There is the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Deputy, Doug Gunderson, and his wife, Connie, who enlist Beck’s help. The brawn in this story is provided by the enigmatic Terry “Bull” Red Feather. Bull is drawn into the story when Beck requests his assistance in dealing with the nefarious characters who try to stand in his way.

The Missing Element is well-written, the plot is intriguing, and the characters are interesting. Betcher draws you in from page one and holds your interest to the very last. Unlike many recent novels, Betcher takes his time tying up the loose ends and concluding the story. This book is obviously the beginning of an exciting new series of suspense novels for Betcher. The Missing Element is recommended for those who love to curl up with an entertaining mystery/suspense novel. It offers a little something for everyone: lively characters, espionage and cyber-technology, and of course the mystery of who took Katherine Whitson and why. Fans of Parker, Grisham, and Clancy will enjoy this first installment in the James Becker series.

Reviewed by Deb L. Baker for Reader’s Choice Book Reviews

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Wednesday A-Z



Wednesday A-Z is a meme hosted by Vicki at Reading at the Beach.


Post:
1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link(amazon, barnes and noble etc.)
4~ Come back here and leave your link in the comments.

This week begins with the letter L. Here is my book.


The Lady and The Poet by Maeve Haran


Synopsis (from B&N):
Set against the sumptuousness and intrigues of Queen Elizabeth I’s court, this powerful novel reveals the untold love affair between the famous poet John Donne and Ann More, the passionate woman who, against all odds, became his wife.

Ann More, fiery and spirited daughter of the Mores of Loseley House in Surrey, came to London destined for a life at the court of Queen Elizabeth and an advantageous marriage. There she encountered John Donne, the darkly attractive young poet who was secretary to her uncle, the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. He was unlike any man she had ever met—angry, clever, witty, and in her eyes, insufferably arrogant and careless of women. Yet as they were thrown together, Donne opened Ann’s eyes to a new world of passion and sensuality.

But John Donne—Catholic by background in an age when it was deadly dangerous, tainted by an alluring hint of scandal—was the kind of man her status-conscious father distrusted and despised.

The Lady and the Poet tells the story of the forbidden love between one of our most admired poets and a girl who dared to rebel against her family and the conventions of her time. They gave up everything to be together and their love knew no bounds.



I missed last week what with my daughter's wedding and all. So now I am reading this during my leisure time in between reading specific  books for review. When I eventually finish this book, picked up from Barnes and Noble, I will post a review. Hope you all have a great week.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading in which two sentences are shared from a random page in your current read.

 'You are nearer to God than I,' he answered, his eyes still cloudy with desire. 'For I would have us be together were it God's will or not, even if it cost me my immortal soul.'
My eyes held his, soft with my new-found love. 'Then let us hope the price will be cheaper than that.'

 p. 232 The Lady and The Poet by Maeve Haran

Monday, April 26, 2010

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?



Last week I was reading the following:
1. The Missing Element by John L Betcher
2. Breakup: Enduring Divorce by Leo Averbach
3. Dead Man of the Year by Stephen Hawley Martin

I finished and wrote reviews for Dead Man of the Year and The Missing Element. I am still working on Breakup: Enduring Divorce. I am also finishing up North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell and The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. As those are for bookclub boards or just personal reading I am only able to read them in between the review books. My daughter's wedding last week went well and I should be able to start catching up soon.

This week I am reading:
1. Breakup: Enduring Divorce by Leo Averbach
2. Shakespeare's Landlord by Charlaine Harris (ebook on Nook)
3. Dancing with Jou Jou by Barbara Louise Leiding



Not sure which other book I will get started on after these. I am going to be working hard to get caught up. Have a great week: enjoy your books.

Deb


Sunday, April 25, 2010

In My Mailbox


This weekly meme is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren! Check out her blog to see what others are reading.


Received these books in my mailbox this week:


Easy As Pi The Countless Ways We Use Numbers Everyday by Jamie Buchan
 
I received this from FSB Media Books

Synopsis (from FSB Media Books):
  Have you ever stopped to think how many countless ways we use numbers? From the ring of the alarm clock in the morning to the numbers triggering our cell phones, our world is designed with numbers in mind. With Easy as Pi, you'll get the 4-1-1 on the fascinating origin of many of the numbers we use or read about every day.


•What makes "cloud nine" and "seventh heaven" so blissful?

•Why is number 7 so lucky and 13 so unlucky?

•Is "fourth-dimensional thinking" really out of this world?

•What prompted Ray Bradbury to call his novel Fahrenheit 451?

•How did 007 become James Bond's number?

For the math averse: Be not afraid. Easy as Pi is not a textbook but rather a lively look at the derivation of numerical expressions and their inescapable influence on our culture -- from book titles to bus schedules. To sum it up, Easy as Pi equals one clever and often hilarious collection.
 
 
I bought this book at Barnes and Noble this week:
 
The Creation of Eve by Lynn Cullen

Synopsis (From B&N):


It's 1559. A young woman painter is given the honor of traveling to Michelangelo's Roman workshop to learn from the Maestro himself. Only men are allowed to draw the naked figure, so she can merely observe from afar the lush works of art that Michelangelo sculpts and paints from life. Sheltered and yet gifted with extraordinary talent, she yearns to capture all that life and beauty in her own art. But after a scandal involving one of Michelangelo's students, she flees Rome and fears she has doomed herself and her family. The Creation of Eve is a riveting novel based on the true but little- known story of Sofonisba Anguissola, the first renowned female artist of the Renaissance. After Sofi's flight from Rome, her family eagerly accepts an invitation from fearsome King Felipe II of Spain for her to become lady-in-waiting and painting instructor to his young bride. The Spanish court is a nest of intrigue and gossip, where a whiff of impropriety can bring ruin. Hopelessly bound by the rules and restrictions of her position, Sofi yearns only to paint. And yet the young Queen needs Sofi's help in other matters- inexperiences as she is, the Queen not only fails to catch the King's eye, but she fails to give him an heir, both of which are crimes that could result in her banishment. Sofi guides her in how best to win the heart of the King, but the Queen is too young, and too romantic, to be satisfied. Soon, Sofi becomes embroiled in a love triangle involving the Queen, the King, and the King's illegitimate half brother, Don Juan. And if the crime of displeasing the King is banishment, the crime of cuckolding him must surely be death. Combining art, drama, and history from the Golden Age of Spain, The Creation of Eve is an expansive, original, and addictively entertaining novel that asks the question: Can you ever truly know another person's heart?

I have read and reviewed 2 books this past week after my daughter's wedding. I should get through many others this week. I will be posting the 2nd review soon. It is on a book by John L. Betcher, The Missing Element, a suspense mystery book.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Review: Dead Man of the Year



Dead Man of the Year by Stephen Hawley Martin
Pub. Date: July2010
Publisher: Oaklea Press
272 pages


Durston Negus is a medium-sized advertising firm located in Richmond, Virginia. Brian Durston leaves a lucrative job at a Madison Avenue Agency to join the smaller firm. Promised a stake in the firm by his Uncle Rod, Brian’s future looks bright. Bright until the night he discovers his uncle’s body slumped over his desk. The police rule it a suicide which cancels out Uncle Rod’s life insurance policy. Without the insurance money Brian cannot purchase his Uncle’s shares of the firm. Who benefits? The surviving partners of course.


Brian decides an investigation is in order. While beginning the investigation the firm’s largest account goes into review and Brian must also work to save the account and the firm his uncle built. An up and coming copywriter steps in to help Brian solve the murder and perhaps save the firm. Could she be involved in the murder? Who can Brian trust?

A romance taunt with suspicion, an ad campaign that must be outstanding, partners who might have reason to murder the largest shareholder, Brian has his hands full. Will he be able to prove his uncle was murdered, inherit the money to buy his uncle’s interest, and save the agency?

This is a classic whodunit with many interesting story lines. Martin leads us through the exciting pace of an ad agency on the verge of success or failure. Brian is a hero who is reminiscent of a modern, lighter “Madmen” advertising character. He is likable though a little naive at times. The romance though sudden and a bit confusing at the beginning gains some merit as the story progresses. Dead Man of the Year has some of the feel of a cozy mystery mixed into a suspense mystery. This story is a page turner mystery. You just have to find out if it is a murder and if so who the murderer might be. This book is recommended for mystery buffs everywhere.

Monday, April 19, 2010

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?


Last Week I Was Reading:
1. Dancing with Jou Jou by Barbara Louise Leiding
2. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
3. Mum's the Word by Kate Collins (for Cozy Mystery Saturday)

This Week I Am Reading:
1. The Missing Element by John L Betcher
2. Breakup: Enduring Divorce by Leo Averbach
3. Dead Man of the Year by Stephen Hawley Martin


I am still working on last week's list as well. No time to read during the wedding weekend. And for all of those who asked about The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, I am still working my way through the book. I have to keep putting it on the backburner due to books I need to review. I should be able to get much more done now that my daugher's wedding is over. Thank you all for your encouragement and patience.






Here is a sample of  my photos of the weekend.








In My Mailbox


This weekly meme is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren! Check out her blog to see what others are reading.


Received these books in my mailbox this week:

The Missing Element by John L. Betcher

Sent For Review by Reader's Choice Reviews

Synopsis:
After decades of clandestine government operations, James "Beck" Becker and his wife Elizabeth return to Beck's childhood hometown to enjoy a settled retirement in the small Mississippi river community of Red Wing, Minnesota. But "settled" is a relative term and no matter where Beck goes, intrigue follows.

When Minneapolis computer genius, Katherine Whitson, disappears under peculiar circumstances, her husband exploits a sympathetic Red Wing acquaintance to enlist Beck's aid in finding her.

As Beck searches for Katherine, the tangled trail leads from her luxury apartment in the Minneapolis Warehouse District, through her husband's in-the-closet personal escapades, past the entrenched hierarchy of elite computer professionals, and into the mind-bending world inside computer microprocessors.

Katherine's kidnapping is clearly more complicated than a typical abduction.

As it turns out, the Becker's must use all of their considerable experience--his, as a military intelligence operative; hers, as a CIA code-cracker--to save Katherine and bring her abductors to justicve.




Breakup: Enduring Divorce by Leo Averbach

Sent For Review by Reader's Choice Review

Synopsis:
Forged in divorce hell.

In this compelling and brutally honest memoir Leo Averbach draws you into the cauldron of marital disintegration. Written as a journal in real time, Breakup interweaves the writer's daily ordeal and the couple's ongoing travails with the insights and experience of psychotherapy.

The book chronicles Averbach's struggle to cope with his wife's betrayal and its implications for their family. His first-person narrative, which is confessional and deeply reflective, reveals everything in describing the acrimony and emotions as the marriage falls apart. But what begins as a tale of anguish and despair becomes a story of transformation and regeneration, leading Averbach to a new life.

Breakup is an unusual divorce memoir. Divorce is Breakup's prime concern but what elevates this from a personal account of a common occurrence into a story with wider significance is the upheaval surrounding the breakup. The tragedy of marital disintegration triggers Averbach's soul-searching, forcing him into a process of change, and driving him to seek a resolution. As a series of entries taken directly from the author's diary, Breakup is doubly unusual.

I picked these up at Barnes and Noble last week:

Fool's Puzzle by Earlene Fowler

Synopsis from Barnes and Noble:
Meet Benni Harper... a spirited ex-cowgirl, quilter, and folk-art expert who's staking out her own corner of the contemporary American West. She's got an eye for murderous designs - and a talent for piecing together the most complex and cold-blooded crimes...


Leaving behind memories of her late husband, Benni's making a fresh start... Moving to the trendy California town of San Celina, she takes an exciting new job as director of a folk-art museum. While setting up an exhibit of handmade quilts, she stumbles upon the body of a brutally stabbed artist - and hopes to conduct an investigation of her own. She crosses paths with the local police chief, who thinks this short and sassy cowgirl should leave detecting to the cops and join him for dinner. But it's hard to keep a country girl down, and soon Benni uncovers an alarming pattern of family secrets, small-town lies - and the shocking truth about the night her husband died...

Annotation
Introducing a delightful new mystery series featuring Benni Harper--ex-cowgirl, quilter, folk-art expert, and crackerjack sleuth. When an artist is found dead on the eve of a quilt exhibition, Benni must piece together the clues to clear her cousin of murder.

The Lady and the Poet by Maeve Haran

Synopsis from Barnes and Noble:
Set against the sumptuousness and intrigues of Queen Elizabeth I’s court, this powerful novel reveals the untold love affair between the famous poet John Donne and Ann More, the passionate woman who, against all odds, became his wife.


Ann More, fiery and spirited daughter of the Mores of Loseley House in Surrey, came to London destined for a life at the court of Queen Elizabeth and an advantageous marriage. There she encountered John Donne, the darkly attractive young poet who was secretary to her uncle, the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. He was unlike any man she had ever met—angry, clever, witty, and in her eyes, insufferably arrogant and careless of women. Yet as they were thrown together, Donne opened Ann’s eyes to a new world of passion and sensuality.

But John Donne—Catholic by background in an age when it was deadly dangerous, tainted by an alluring hint of scandal—was the kind of man her status-conscious father distrusted and despised.

The Lady and the Poet tells the story of the forbidden love between one of our most admired poets and a girl who dared to rebel against her family and the conventions of her time. They gave up everything to be together and their love knew no bounds.

I ordered this last month after reading about the book listed on a book tour:


Watermark by Vanitha Sankaran

Synopsis from Barnes and Noble
Publisher's Weekly
Medieval France is no place to be born albino: when Auda emerges from the womb “undercooked” and “white as bone,” an ignorant healer's apprentice tears out the child's tongue to keep her from “spread[ing] the devil's lies.” Though her mother dies in childbirth, a small stroke of luck graces Auda's childhood: her father makes his living as a scribe and a papermaker, so she learns reading and writing to compensate for her inability to speak. Together, father and daughter work to make his experimental paper the new standard for France's writing stock (replacing parchment); against the odds, they field an order from the local vicomtesse, who then takes on Auda as her personal scribe. At the palace, Auda grows more independent and finds romance with an artist who saves her from a witch-hunting mob. When Auda begins writing potentially heretical verse about women's empowerment, however, she tempts fate and the inquisition, setting off a chain of unlikely events. Though improbable plot twists detract, Sankaran has created a likable, easy-to-root-for protagonist in Auda. (Apr.)

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Sunday Sabbatical

Sorry for being away so long. My daughter's wedding was beautiful. We are totally exhausted. I will catch up on my post tomorrow. Hope you all had a great weekend.


Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Wednesday A-Z


Wednesday A-Z is a meme hosted by Vicki at Reading at the Beach.

Post:
1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link(amazon, barnes and noble etc.)
4~ Come back here and leave your link in the comments.

This week begins with the letter J. Here is my book.

Joe Jones by Anne Lamott


Synopsis (Barnes and Noble)
Joe Jones is Anne Lamott’s raucous novel of lives gathered around Jessie’s Cafe, “a restaurant from another era, the sort of broken-down waterfront dive one might expect to find in Steinbeck or Saroyan.” Jessie, “thin, stooped and gorgeous at seventy-nine,” inherited the cafe years before and it has become home to a remarkable family of characters: Louise, the cook and vortex, “sexy and sweet, somewhere on the cusp between curvaceous and fat”; Joe, devoted and unfaithful; Willie, Jessie’s gay grandson, (“I thought he just had good posture,” said Jessie); Georgia, an empress dowager who never speaks; and a dozen others all living together in the sweet everyday. Lamott’s rich and timeless themes are also here: love and loyalty, loss and recovery, staying on and staying together, the power of humor to heal and to bind. Out of print for fifteen years, Joe Jones is a novel of hilarity and joy.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Teaser Tuesday


Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading in which two sentences are shared from a random page in your current read.



"Sometimes the universe sends out a sign that's impossible to ignore--like a large, white duck named Peepers. He charged out of his private little pool behind the waterfall at Tannery Pond, flapping his wings in a rage. His quacking  was loud and harsh. I thought it would never end."


Dancing with Jou Jou by Barbara Louise Leiding
p. 3

Sunday, April 11, 2010

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?


Last week I was reading:
1: Dancing with Jou Jou by Barbara Louise Leiding
2. Still trying to finish The Poisonwood Bible
3. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (for B&N Literature by Women Board)


This week I am reading:
1. Dancing with Jou Jou by Barbara Louise Leiding
2. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
3. Mum's the Word by Kate Collins (for Cozy Mystery Saturday)

My daughter is getting married on Saturday so please forgive me if I get distracted and can't get all of my reading done this week or all of my post on time. I am working to get many things done a head of time.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

In My Mailbox

This weekly meme is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren! Check out her blog to see what others are reading.


Received these books in my mailbox this week:



Just Don't Call Me Ma'am: How I Ditched the South, Forgot My Manners, and Managed To Survive My Twenties With (most of) My Dignity Still In Tact by Anna Mitchael

Received from Newman Communications, Inc.

 Synopsis (Barnes and Noble)

Anna Mitchael is like a lot of twentysomething women with full lives. In her fast-moving world, she might be called on as a friend, coworker, daughter, girlfriend, confidante, brat, cynic, or domestic-goddess-in-training. But there’s one label she’s simply not ready to embrace: ma’am.
Like so many bright-eyed college graduates before her, Mitchael begins her twenties armed with the conviction that the world is hers for the taking. And she discovers that it is, mostly—only no one told her just how often she’d have to pick herself up off the floor along the way.

From moving to new cities to domestic disasters to the occasional nervous breakdown, Mitchael guides readers through the various stages of her self-discovery with disarming humor and—like the best of friends—unmitigated honesty. Written for every woman who’s experienced the ups and downs of trying to figure out who you’re really meant to be, Just Don’t Call Me Ma’am is a story of one woman and the choices that add up to be her twentysomething life—and of how sometimes you have to remember where you came from before you can figure out where you’re going.



Dead Man of the Year by Stephen Hawley Martin

Received from The Oaklea Press Inc.

Synopsis (Barnes and Noble)

Brian Durston left a bright future at a big Madison Avenue agency to join his uncle's medium-sized firm because his uncle promised him a stake in the business. The future looked bright until Brian discovered his uncle slumped over his desk with a bullet through his brain. The cops think it's suicide, which means his uncle's life insurance won't pay, and Brian won't inherit the money to buy his uncle's share. Who benefits? The surviving partners. So Brian decides some investigating is in order. Meanwhile, the agency's largest account goes into review, and Brian must pull out the stops to save it, or there won't be much agency left. In steps the beautiful and enigmatic copywriter, Nickie D'Agostino. She wants to help Brian save the account and find the killer. But wait, could she be the one who did it? A romance tortured by suspicion follows, and a frantic race to find the murderer before Brian's share of the business reverts to the surviving partners, or worse - he joins his uncle in the afterlife.

By Heart: Poetry, Prison, and Two Lives by Judith Tannenbaum & Spoon Jackson

Received from newvillagepress courtesy of Librarything.com

Synopsis (Barnes and Noble)

“A boy with no one to listen becomes a man in prison for life and discovers his mind can be free. A woman enters prison to teach and becomes his first listener. And so begins a twenty-five year friendship between two gifted writers and poets. The result is By Heart— a book that will anger you, give you hope, and break your heart."—Gloria Steinem
For most of their adult lives, since meeting as teacher and pupil at San Quentin State Prison, Judith Tannenbaum and Spoon Jackson have conferred, corresponded, and sometimes collaborated, producing very different bodies of work resting on the same understanding: that human beings have one foot in darkness, another in light. Moving stories of their childhoods and adult creative lives reveal both tragedy and beauty.

In alternating chapters—part memoir, part essay—By Heart reveals painful truths about prison, education, and which children our world nurtures and which it shuns. At its core are two stories that speak for human imagination, spirit, and expression.

Judith Tannenbaum is a nationally respected poet, educator, lecturer, and the author of Disguised as a Poem, among other works, including poetry, anthologies, and guidebooks for teaching arts in prison. She coordinates training at WritersCorps.

Born into an impoverished family of fifteen boys, Spoon Jackson was sentenced to life without possibility of parole by age twenty. He discovered himself as a writer for the first time in prison, eventually becoming an award-winning, internationally-known poet and essayist, as well as a facilitator of creative writing classes for other prisoners.


 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith


Received from FSB Associates

Synopsis (Barnes and Noble)

With more than one million copies in print, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was the surprise publishing phenomenon of 2009. A best seller on three continents, PPZ has been translated into 21 languages and optioned to become a major motion picture.

In this terrifying and hilarious prequel, we witness the genesis of the zombie plague in early-nineteenth-century England. We watch Elizabeth Bennet evolve from a naïve young teenager into a savage slayer of the undead. We laugh as she begins her first clumsy training with nunchucks and cry when her first blush of romance goes tragically awry. Written by acclaimed novelist (and Edgar Award nominee) Steve Hockensmith, Dawn of the Dreadfuls invites Austen fans to step back into Regency England, Land of the Undead!


Queen of Your Own Life: The Grown-Up Woman's Guide to Claiming Happiness and Getting the Life You Deserve by Kathy Kinney & Cindy Ratzlaff

Received from FSB Associates

Synopsis (Barnes and Noble)

Discover the Seven Best Gifts You Can Give Yourself
Queen of Your Own Life is a philosophy, a decision and an invitation to happiness for women who have made the tough but rewarding journey to the midpoint in their lives. Kathy Kinney (best known as Mimi on The Drew Carey Show) and Cindy Ratzlaff (marketing genius behind the launch of The South Beach Diet) have been best friends for more than thirty years, and have helped each other navigate the ups and downs of their lives with humor and grace.

In this entertaining and inspiring book, they share the tried-and-true techniques they call "the seven best gifts a woman can give herself." They reveal how they learned to value themselves just the way they are—women in full bloom, sensual, vibrant, wise and more beautiful than ever—and they'll show you how you can, too.

With these seven gifts you'll discover how to:
• Claim your beauty and feel your power
• Clean your mental closet and find your queen voice
• Admire yourself for who you've become
• Build deep, fulfilling friendships with other women
• Establish firm boundaries that will strengthen all your relationships
• Learn the simple trick to finally being happy
• Place the crown firmly on your head

With humor, comfort and inspiration, Queen of Your Own Life offers easy step-by-step actions to blast away at the societal tall tale that young is beautiful and old is just old. If you've been feeling that the best part of your life may be behind you, then this book will prove to you just how untrue that is, and that the door to being happy is not only never closed,but just waiting for you to fling it open. Remember, you don't have to be twenty to have your whole life ahead of you. Now is the time to become Queen of Your Own Life!

Cozy Mystery Saturday

Cozy Mystery Saturday is a meme hosted by BookMagic. If you love cozy mysteries check out her meme.

This weeks Cozy Mystery is:
Murder Uncorked by Michele Scott


Murder and mayhem in Napa Valley, Murder Uncorked tells the story of Nikki Sands, an actress/waitress from Los Angeles. After a disastrous evening culminating with the loss of her waitressing job, Nikki is offered a job at a winery located in the Napa Valley. Derek Malveaux offers Nikki several times her waitressing salary to come to Napa and work at his vineyard.

Desperate to escape from LA, Nikki flies with Derek to Napa for a tour of the Malveaux vineyard and to make her decision. Before she can settle into the guest cottage, Nikki discovers the body of murdered winemaker Gabriel Assanti. Nikki discovers that there are many quirky and often dysfunctional people in the area who all seem to have a motive for the murder. Nikki chases down every lead to find the identity of the murderer while fighting against her attraction to the blonde-haired, blue eyed, owner, Derek Malveaux.

Nikki is a not-so-good actress coming to terms with her lack of real acting talent while discovering her talent for food and wine pairings. She is likeable and fun. Derek is an interesting character who remains a little mysterious to Nikki and the reader. He is complex and maybe a little too good to be true. Among the other characters in Murder Uncorked are Derek’s step-mother and ex-wife, the “Botox Twins”, as they are referred to, as well as Andres Fernandez, a neighboring winemaker, who seems to be eccentric, dark, and brooding. The plot is fun and engaging. Throughout the book recipes and wine pairing recommendations are shared. Murder Uncorked is a delicious, fast- paced, and fun loving cozy mystery with a surprising twist at the end. If you love a fun cozy mystery, a nice glass of wine, and good food you will enjoy this book. I recommend this book, curl up and enjoy.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Wednesday A-Z


Wednesday A-Z is a meme hosted by Vicki at Reading at the Beach.

Post:

1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link(amazon, barnes and noble etc.)
4~ Come back here and leave your link in the comments.

This week begins with the letter I. Here is my book.

Ines of My Soul by Isabel Allende

Synopsis:

This magisterial work of historical fiction recounts the astonishing life of Inés Suárez, a daring Spanish conquistadora who toiled to build the nation of Chile—and whose vital role has too often been neglected by history.


It is the beginning of the Spanish conquest of the Americas, and when Inés’s shiftless husband disappears to the New World, she uses the opportunity to search for him as an excuse to flee her stifling homeland and seek adventure. After a treacherous journey to Peru, she learns of his death in battle. She meets and begins a passionate love affair with a man who seeks only honor and glory: Pedro Valdivia, war hero and field marshal to the famed Francisco Pizarro. Together, Inés and Valdivia will build the new city of Santiago and wage a ruthless war against the indigenous Chileans. The horrific struggle will change them forever, pulling each toward their separate destinies.

Inés of My Soul is a work of breathtaking scope, written with the narrative brilliance and passion readers have come to expect from Isabel Allende.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading in which two sentences are shared from a random page in your current read.

"It's possible that he's still alive. Just shaken up," Jafford said. "We just have to submerge him in the creek to see if that will revive him."
"Creek?"
Jafford laughed. I like the sound of Woody Woodpecker.
"That's my Southern talking. I've always called a stream a creek. Or do you prefer brook?"



Dancing with Jou Jou by Barbara Louise Leiding
p. 11
Publisher: IUniverse

Monday, April 5, 2010

It's Monday! What are you Reading?


Last Week:
1. An Unfinished Score by Elise Blackwell
2. Sixty Slices of Life....On Wry by Fred Flaxman
3. Murder Uncorked by Michele Scott

Life happened and I did not get finished. I am also working on finishing The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver so that I can start Very Valentine by Andriana Trigiani






This Week:
1: Dancing with Jou Jou by Barbara Louise Leiding
2. Still trying to finish The Poisonwood Bible
3. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (for B&N Literature by Women Board)