What's In A Name? Reading Challenge 2014

The What's In A Name? 2014 Challenge is hosted by Charlie at The Worm Hole.

The challenge runs from January to December. During this time, read a book from each of the following categories. Examples of books you could choose are in brackets.

1. A reference to time (Eleven Minutes, Before Ever After)

Foodies Reading Challenge 2014

Foodies Read 2014 is hosted by Vicki at I'd Rather Be At The Beach.

If you are new to a food/reading challenge, you may be wondering – what is a “food book?” A food book is a book which is centered around food and/or drinks. That could be a cookbook, a food biography or memoir, a non-fiction book focused around a specific food, wine, chef or restaurant, or a fictional story in which food plays a major role.

Here’s how the challenge works:

Decide how many food books you want to read in 2014. Pick one of the reading levels below: 

Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge 2014

This challenge is hosted by Lori at Escape with Dollycas into a Good Book.  

For the Alphabet Soup Challenge, by December 31, 2014, the bowl must be full — one book for each letter of the Alphabet. 

Each Letter Counts As One Spoonful.

The challenge is to read one book that has a title starting with every letter of the alphabet.  You can drop the A's and The’s from the book titles.

Books can be read in any order.  All formats – print – e-book – audio – are acceptable for this challenge. Click here for more details, and to sign up.

I will be filling my bowl of alphabet soup on my 2014 Reading Challenges page.

Cruisin' Thru the Cozies Reading Challenge 2014

I participated in this challenge in 2013.  Cozy Mysteries are my favorite genre, so I am signing up again. This challenge is again hosted by Yvonne at Socrates' Book Reviews.  

Here are the rules...

1. Choose the level you wish to participate:
        Level 1 - Snoop - Read at least 6 books
        Level 2 - Investigator - Read 7-12 books
        Level 3 - Super Sleuth - Read 13-20 books
        Level 4 - Sleuth Extraordinaire - Read 21 or more books

2. The challenge runs from January 1, 2014 and ends December 31, 2014.

3. Books can be in any format - paper, audio, ebooks....  It all counts!


For more info, and to sign up, go to Socrates' Book Reviews. 


For 2014, I shall be a Sleuth Extraordinaire.  I will list the cozies I read on the 2014 Reading Challenges page.

Heartache Motel | Blog Tour with Interview and Review

Welcome to the Jane Reads stop on the book tour for Heartache Motel!

I have three special guests for you today — the stars of each novella of Heartache Motel. 

My first guest is from LynDee Walker's Headlines in High Heels Mystery series.  Please welcome intrepid newspaper reporter Nichelle Clarke of the Richmond Telegraph.

Gratitude Hop, Nov 15 - 30

Welcome to the Jane Reads stop, on the 4th Annual Gratitude Giveaways Hop!

This hop is a way for Bloggers and Authors to thank our followers for your support throughout the year.  

There are over 175 other blogs participating.  After you enter my giveaway, hop over to another blog for another giveaway.  

Big Numbers, By Jack Getze | Blog Tour Review and Excerpt

Synopsis

Root for divorced dad Austin Carr, a funny, oversexed scamp who’ll use anything and everything to get his kids back.

Cat Thursday | Cats and Boxes (Oct 17)

Welcome to the weekly meme, hosted by Michelle at The True Book Addict, that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite LOL cat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Enjoy! (Share your post in the Mr. Linky on The True Book Addict).

The Eggstone Murders, by Herbert L Smith | Review and Guest Post

Synopsis

A thick-headed sheriff, a young, unsure, wannabe detective, and a savvy older criminal-turned-investigator, are only the beginning of the cast of characters included in this story of small-town life in southwestern Iowa, set in 1953.  Meet them on the streets of Hillville, at the town square, or at a big-business farm nearby.  They all have a story to tell, and some of them have a few things to hide. Others have quite a few.

Enjoy the storms, the intrigues, and the mid-western hospitality – including the wonderful food – of Hillville, Iowa, as its down-to-earth folk work their way through the dailiness of their quiet lives.

There are the murders, of course, which cause dismay, but the con-man-turned-detective, Guy, is able to resolve them, after a few hard bumps, and the guilty are punished – or, as is sometimes Guy’s choice, forgiven.

As a whole, it’s a pleasant outing on an Iowa summer’s day.

Spooktacular Giveaway Hop, Oct 15 – 31

Welcome to the Jane Reads stop, on the 4th Annual Spooktacular Giveaway Hop!  

After you finish entering my giveaway below, hop on over to another blog and enter another giveaway. There are over 300 participating Bloggers' and Authors' websites listed below to choose from.      

Spooktacular Giveaway

$10 Amazon Gift Card or PayPal Cash

Strangled by Silk, by Barbara Jean Coast | Guest Post and Review

Strangled by Silk: A Poppy Cove Mystery

Synopsis

Darlings!   Here’s the scoop on my latest mystery STRANGLED BY SILK.  It’s all about Daphne and Margot –– two independent young California women in 1957 –– who own their own dress shop called Poppy Cove. 

When one of their top clients –– Constance Stearns-Montgomery –– is strangled to death with her own silk scarf at the opening ceremonies for her new girls’ academy, Daphne and Margot are shocked.  They can’t believe that such a horrid crime could take place in their sleepy little oceanside village of Santa Lucia.  Worse, they've lost one of their best clients.  The two women quickly become embroiled in solving the crime.  After all, if anyone can track down the killer, it should be them.  Margot’s long-time beau is the town’s top cop, and Daphne is a master at using her flirtatious wiles to extract information from unsuspecting men.  

Cat Thursday | Cookies (Sept 26)

Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite LOL cat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Enjoy! (Share your post in the Mr. Linky on Michelle's blog, The True Book Addict).

"Waiting On" Wednesday, Damage Control (Sept 25)

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

Teaser Tuesday, Strangled by Silk (Sept 24)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? | Strangled by Silk (Sept 23)

This meme is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.  The participants post the books read in the past week, the current reads and the planned upcoming reads, and often find books to add to never-ending TBR lists.

I am currently reading Strangled in Silk.

Banned Books Week Giveaway - OVER

9/29 Update:  Congratulations to the winner, Bethany N, entry # 233!  Thank you to everyone who liked Jane Reads!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Welcome to the 3rd Annual Banned Books Week Giveaway Hop, hosted by Kathy at I AM A READER and Mary at BookHounds.  There are over 75 blogs participating in the hop this year.  This is the first year that Jane Reads has joined in the fun.

But first, a word from our sponsor:
Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Typically held during the last week of September, it highlights the value of free and open access to information. Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community –- librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types –- in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.  
(from the ALA website)


The American Library Association has compiled lists (per decade) of the top 100 books that have been challenged or banned from public libraries and schools most frequently since 1990.  At least 46 of Radcliffe's Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century have

Cat Thursday, Maxie the Cover Cat (Sept 19)

Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite LOL cat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Enjoy! 

(Share your post in the Mr. Linky on The True Book Addict.)

~ ~ ~

My current favorite pictures of my beloved cat, Maxie, are the pics now featured on my newly redesigned blog.  Glogirl of Glogirly Design has done a fantabulous job with my (well, my blog's) total makeover!  

Maxie is thrilled, also, to finally

Emerald Isle, by Barbra Annino | Review

Emerald Isle, by Barbra Annino

From the author's website:

Stacy Justice may be a witch, but she still wants a nice, normal twenty-ninth birthday. Unfortunately, Stacy rarely gets normal. As her grandmother, Birdie, plans a birthday ritual for Stacy, disastrous news derails the celebration: the magic cauldron that supplies the world’s food has disappeared. And the last time it vanished, Ireland fell under the Great Famine.

A secret society known as The Council decrees that if Stacy finds the cauldron, she’ll receive the coveted role of Seeker of Justice, and her mother will finally be freed from prison in Ireland. But the grandson of nasty council member Tallulah challenges Stacy for the role. If he finds the cauldron first, Stacy will never see her mother again. And if they both fail, the world will suffer an unimaginable fate.

The fourth book in the enchanted Stacy Justice series, Emerald Isle follows Stacy’s journey to Ireland—and to a mysterious, magical world. But can the reluctant witch complete her international, intergenerational quest in time to save her mother—and the whole planet?

The books in Barbra Annino's Stacy Justice series just keep getting better and better!   The books should be read in order, however.  If you're new to the series, begin with Book 1, Opal Fire, then read Book 2 (Bloodstone) and Book 3 (Tiger's Eye) first.  Each of them has earned my Four Kitty seal of approval.  

Emerald Isle is wonderful!  I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.  The storyline

Private Spies by P.J. Nunn, Blog Tour and Review (August 18)

 Welcome to the Jane Reads Stop of the Private Spies Blog Tour!

Synopsis (from pjnunn.com)

When Jesse Morgan’s boss and best friend died, she inherited Private Spies, a private investigation firm that specialized in missing persons. Unfortunately, she knew little about the business aside from her intensive work on the computer. But if Joey thought she could handle it, she felt obligated to at least give it a try. How hard could it be, right?  

So Jesse took on her first case. Very straightforward. This guy is missing, find him. Oh but wait, he also kidnapped his own daughter. Find her too. Still not that hard. Except when she ran his report, the picture she found on his drivers license is of another guy. And when she found a guy who matched the first picture, he had another name. And when she found a girl that looked like the daughter, she didn’t match anything. Not good. 

Enter a retired police officer named Byron (really?) who says before Joey died, he hired him to work for them. Ok. This might be helpful. But then came a stalker, and a dead guy, a dead

Private Spies by P.J. Nunn, Blog Tour and Guest Post (August 17)

Welcome to the Jane Reads stop 

on the 

Private Spies Blog Tour!

Synopsis (from pjnunn.com):

When Jesse Morgan’s boss and best friend died, she inherited Private Spies, a private investigation firm that specialized in missing persons. Unfortunately, she knew little about the business aside from her intensive work on the computer. But if Joey thought she could handle it, she felt obligated to at least give it a try. How hard could it be, right? 

So Jesse took on her first case. Very straightforward. This guy is missing, find him. Oh but wait, he also kidnapped his own daughter. Find her too. Still not that hard. Except when she ran his report, the picture she found on his drivers license is of another guy. And when she found a guy who matched the first picture, he had another name. And when she found a girl that looked like the daughter, she didn’t match anything. Not good.

Enter a retired police officer named Byron (really?) who says before Joey died, he hired him to work for them. Ok. This might be helpful. But then came a stalker, and a dead guy, a dead

"Waiting On" Wednesday (August 14), W is for Wasted

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that readers are eagerly anticipating.



This week, my pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

Kinsey Millhone Mystery #23

From Goodreads:  

Two dead bodies changed the course of my life that fall.  One of them I knew and the other I'd never laid eyes on until I saw him in the morgue.

 The first was a local PI of suspect reputation. He’d been gunned down near the beach at Santa Teresa. It looked like a robbery gone bad. The other was on the beach six weeks later. He’d been sleeping rough. Probably homeless. No identification. A slip of paper with Millhone’s name and number was in his pants pocket. The coroner asked her to come to the morgue to see if she could ID him.

 Two seemingly unrelated deaths, one a murder, the other apparently of natural causes.

 But as Kinsey digs deeper into the mystery of the John Doe, some very strange linkages begin to emerge. And before long at least one aspect is solved as Kinsey literally finds the key to his identity. And just like that,” she says, the lid to Pandora’s box flew open. It would take me another day before I understood how many imps had been freed, but for the moment, I was inordinately pleased with myself.”

 In this multilayered tale, the surfaces seem clear, but the underpinnings are full of betrayals, misunderstandings, and outright murderous fraud. And Kinsey, through no fault of her own, is thoroughly compromised.

 W is for . . . wanderer . . . worthless . . . wronged . . .

~ ~ ~

I have been a fan of Kinsey Millhone for years, decades even ― ever since I learned from Sue Grafton that A is for Alibi. 

W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton will be released September 10, 2013.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (August 12)

This meme is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.
The participants post the books read in the past week, the current reads and the planned upcoming reads, and often find books to add to never-ending TBR lists.

Last week, I read two books:

Emerald Isle 

and

The Passion of the Purple Plumeria.

I am currently reading Grievous Bodily Harm.

The Blog Tour for Private Spies is coming up, August 17 and 18.

Well, that's it for my Book Week.  What about you? 

What did you read last week?  

What are you reading this week?

Cat Thursday (August 8), Authors and Their Cats - Mark Twain

Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite LOL cat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s).   Share your post in the Mr. Linky at The True Book Addict, hosted by Michelle.  It's all for the love of cats!  Enjoy!

The 2nd Cat Thursday of each month is Authors and their Cats Thursday.

My featured author this month is Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain.

"While the rest of the human race
are descended from monkeys,
redheads derive from cats."

"Waiting On" Wednesday (August 7), The Whole Enchilada

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that readers are eagerly anticipating.

This week, my pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

The Whole Enchilada, by Diane Mott Davidson

From Goodreads:

Goldy Schulz knows her food is to die for, but she never expects one of her best friends to actually keel over when she's leaving a birthday party Goldy has catered. At first, everyone assumes that all the fun and excitement of the party, not to mention the rich fare, did her in.

But what looks like a coronary turns out to be a generous serving of cold-blooded murder. And the clever culprit is just getting cooking.

When a colleague—a woman who resembles Goldy—is stabbed, and Goldy is attacked outside her house, it becomes clear that the popular caterer is the main course on a killer menu. With time running out, Goldy must roll up her sleeves, sharpen her knives, and make a meal out of a devious murderer, before that killer can serve her up cold.

~ ~ ~

I'm a big fan of the Goldy Bear Culinary Mysteries from way back, and always look forward to the next book in the series.  This one will be special for personal reasons, however;  I will be reading it as the proud mom of a recent culinary school graduate!

The Whole Enchilada, by Diane Mott Davidson, will be released 8/27/13.

Too Much Blood by Jane Bennett Munro, Review and Author Interview!

Too Much Blood, by Jane Bennett Munro

From the author's website.

Too Much Blood is a gripping book that reveals how one midnight call drastically changes everything in the life of a brilliant and young female pathologist—leading her to a life-threatening situation. Between its covers, you will follow Toni Day as she must use all her expertise to unmask a killer and save herself and her loved ones from a gory death. Follow her as she attempts to uncover the truths of the suspicious circumstances and complex web of events and resolve the conundrum. Riveting and action packed, this book will take you on a mind-blowing journey of a lifetime!

 Pathologist Toni Day returns in this gory tale of a sleazy lawyer and his scam involving the doctors at Perrine Memorial Hospital, in which their earnings go directly into his hedge fund via an offshore leasing company, avoiding taxation. That is, until the economy takes its worst dive since 1929, and Jay Braithwaite Burke’s hedge fund is revealed as a Ponzi scheme. The Feds move in. Jay declares bankruptcy and disappears, only to reappear two months later, dead in his car in the middle of the snowy interstate.

 At autopsy, Toni discovers that Jay bled to death. Shortly thereafter, Jay’s partner also bleeds to death. Jay’s widow and four children are kept on the move by a series of house fires, and soon everybody ends up at Toni’s house. Toni’s life is already complicated enough; her work schedule is brutal, and she fears that her husband, Hal, is having an affair. In the meantime, a mysterious illness casts a bloody pall over the Christmas season. Toni must use all her pathological expertise to keep her loved ones from a similar fate, and in so doing nearly comes to a bloody end herself.

Too Much Blood is the second book in the Toni Day Mystery series by Jane Bennett Munro, MD.  Dr Munro is a pathologist in a small hospital in Twin Falls, Idaho, as is Dr Toni Day Shapiro.  There, the similarities end, I trust.  The citizens of the real Twin Falls are better behaved, hopefully, than those of the fictional Twin Falls.  The scheming, homicidal and incendiary nature of a few of the residents of fictional Twin Falls make Too Much Blood a very good read, however.  

Toni is a very likable character, well written and three-dimensional.  The amateur sleuthing of the protagonist in some other cozy mystery series can seem so far-fetched.  Toni's assistance to the Twin Falls police officers is crucial to solve these murders.  Her husband Hal, her mother Fiona, and her friends are also well-developed characters, and add a lot to the enjoyment of the book.   

I am finding it difficult to explain further about why I like this book so much, without giving major spoilers (and I don't do that), or else just repeating what is in the synopsis.  But I do.  Really, really like it ― another five-kitty read for Jane Bennett Munro!

Speaking of Jane Bennett Munro, I am very pleased to have the author of Murder Under the Microscope and Too Much Blood with me here in the studio today.  Studio audience, you are in for a treat!  Please join me in welcoming Jane Bennett Munro to Jane Reads!

How similar are the  fictional Twin Falls, Idaho and the real Twin Falls, Idaho?   The fictional Twin Falls, Idaho has a combination funeral director / coroner.  What about the actual Twin Falls?

JBM:  Right now our coroner is a retired detective from the Twin Falls Police Dept. However, several other towns around us have had owners of funeral homes as coroners. It’s an elected post. They used to call on local pathologists to do the autopsies. Back in the day when I was in solo practice, the county hospital did all the coroner’s cases for Twin Falls County, but I did them for the surrounding five counties. Now I’ve joined forces with the pathology group from the county hospital; my competitors are now my partners, and none of us has time to spend in court and still get our work done. So now the coroner’s cases go to Boise.

The fictional Twin Falls funeral director / coroner makes middle-of-the-night calls to announce his need for an autopsy tomorrow.  Did you receive annoying-yet-useless calls like this, during the 24 years when you were in solo practice?

JBM:  All the time. I can count on the fingers of one hand how many of those calls I actually got during the day.

Dr Toni has to perform autopsies at the funeral home, because Perrine Memorial doesn't have a proper morgue.  Was  this the case, when you were starting out in Twin Falls?

JBM:  When I was in solo practice, I had no morgue. I was the first and only pathologist my hospital ever had, up until we were bought out by the county hospital and I joined their pathology group. Since then, we’ve had a morgue. But yes, I did have to travel to funeral homes, lugging all my paraphernalia with me; until I made an arrangement with one particular funeral home to use their embalming room as my “morgue” and keep my equipment there.

Nearly all of the medical staff of Perrine Memorial invested in Jay's hedge fund, later revealed to be a Ponzi scheme.  Did something similar happen at the hospital you worked at?

JBM:  Yes, back in the eighties. Instead of a Ponzi scheme, it was a leasing company. The way it worked, the doctors became employees of the leasing company, who leased them to the hospital, who paid the leasing company for their services, and the leasing company paid the doctors. This way, they were able to deduct things from their income taxes that most people couldn’t,  and there was no limit on how much could be put into a pension plan. At the time, it was perfectly legal.

The lawyer who got us into it had started by putting us all in personal corporations, which lasted only a few months before the law changed and made them illegal for hospital-based physicians who used hospital employees instead of hiring their own. So the next step was the leasing company. My husband and I were skeptical. We figured if the law could be changed once, it could be changed twice, and we declined to participate. But all my other colleagues did, as well as many more doctors, lawyers, and the like all over Idaho and some in other states. It lasted five years, then it all fell apart in 1987, when Black Monday happened. The law changed again and made the leasing company illegal, and all the participants found themselves owing beaucoup bucks in back taxes, interest and penalties. One doctor sued and got some of his money back. But after that, the lawyer declared bankruptcy and left town. Nobody else got any of their money back.

You worked your way through medical school as a medical technologist.  I am a medical technologist, and have worked with someone who was working his way through pharmacy school.  He worked every weekend, double shifts as I recall.  How did you do it?   

JBM:  That’s pretty much what I did, too. I met my husband in that job, as well as friends who are still my friends today.

Is Dr Toni's freakin' good friend Elliott drawn on anyone in your life?

JBM:  Yes, he was a lawyer married to a friend of mine. His name was Elliott, too. They’re divorced now.

How long have you been a fan of Flip Wilson? 

JBM:  Decades. My husband and I got a German shepherd when we’d been married about a year. We named him Killer.

You gave several teasers about the possibility of a new love interest for Fiona.  Will all be revealed in Grievous Bodily Harm? 

JBM:  Yes, and that’s all I’m going to say about that.

Thanks for this opportunity!

You're very welcome, Jane!  Thank you so much for visiting Jane Reads for this interview.  I have enjoyed it very much, and I am sure the studio audience has also.  

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I look forward to reading more about Toni, her family and friends in future books in the series.  Book three in the series, Grievous Bodily Harm, is out now, and book four is in progress.

I rated Too Much Blood five out of five kitties.  I give it my highest recommendation, for anyone who enjoys medical murder mysteries.

Note:  I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author, with no expectation of a positive review.