“By 1940 we couldn’t buy shoes or clothes. Then we couldn’t have cameras. Then we couldn’t buy coffee, chicken, fish or vegetables. We couldn’t buy coal to heat the house.
Year: 2011
And the winners are……….
Random Integer Generator
29 8 3
Random Integer Generator
30
degood said…I knew very little about their culture and I would like to learn more so I want to read this book.30
When visiting, please feel free to leave any suggestions,
ideas and/or comments. Would love to hear from you!!
This week’s musing [borrowed from an old BTT post] asks…
I once knew a man who read about WWII. He read everything he could get his hands on on the subject. He had a whole wall of books that were all about WWII. It amazed me. How could he continue to find one subject that engrossing? My mother, on the other hand, loves to read best sellers. I’ve known other people who read science fiction to the exclusion of everything else; for others it was philosophy, self-help, or history.So, to the questions…What kind of books do you like to read?
Why? Provide specific examples.
When visiting, please feel free to leave any suggestions,
ideas and/or comments. Would love to hear from you!!
First in a Series Challenge
Are you an avid series reader? Do you want to give a few new series a try? Then this is the reading challenge for you! Participants in the 1st in a Series Challengedecide to start a certain number of series in 2012 and then share their reviews with the community!
(This challenge has previously been hosted at J. Kaye’s Book Blog, Royal Reviews, and A Few More Pages)
Interested in joining the fun? Here are the guidelines:
1. Anyone can join. You don’t need a blog to participate. If you’re not a blogger, you can post your reviews at a review site like Goodreads, LibraryThing, or Shelfari and link them up here.
2. There are four levels for this challenge:
- Series Novice: Read 3 books that are the first in any series.
- Series Lover: Read 6 books that are the first in any series.
- Series Expert: Read 12 books that are the first in any series.
- Series Fanatic: Read 20 books that are the first in any series.
You can list your books in advance or just put them in a wrap up post. If you list them, feel free to change them as the mood takes you. Any genre counts. Any book format counts. 3.The challenge runs from January 1 through December 31, 2012. 4. You can join anytime between now and December 31, 2012.
5. A post will be created here where you can link-up your reviews and visit the reviews of other participants.
6. If you’re a blogger, write up a sign-up post that includes the URL to this post so that others can join in. Feel free to use the button! You can grab the code you need from the box in the right sidebar.
If you write up a sign-up post, enter the direct link to that post when you sign up here so we can find it easily. Otherwise, link away!
For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.
Merely Mystery Reading Challenge 2012
There are those who snub their noses at genre fiction, including crime fiction. I think they just haven’t met the right mystery for them yet. While crime fiction is known for being plot driven, it isn’t always. Nor does a good crime fiction novel have to sacrifice well developed characters, a strong setting and good writing. The best, in fact, often include all of those qualities.
Yes, it’s true. I am crazy. Just when I start to wonder if I should give up blogging, I decide to try my hand at hosting a reading challenge. As if there aren’t enough challenges out there already. Maybe only one or two people join. That’s okay. We’ll have a great time and maybe discover new authors and books to try!
The focus of this challenge is to explore the different types of crime fiction out there. If you are new to the crime fiction genre, want to step outside your comfort zone and try another kind of mystery or are a mystery lover needing an excuse to join another crime fiction related challenge, here’s your chance!
As sources go, there are a number of them that offer a wide range of sub-genres to crime fiction. For the purposes of this challenge, I’ve narrowed it down to the following because they tend to encompass the full breadth of mystery sub-genres. Within each sub-genre are even more categories (for example, add in a bit of romance or fantasy for good measure). So you have a never ending list of choices to choose from!
Sub-Genres:
- The Whodunit: The classic crime puzzle. The story generally revolves around determine who committed the crime, and potentially apprehending them. Some Whodunits, called “fair play mysteries”, will include all of the clues available in the text so that a careful reader can solve the crime on his or her own.
- Locked Room Mystery: Like the Whodunit, there is a puzzle (crime) to solve. However in this instance, the crime has taken place under impossible circumstances, such as in a locked room or on an island with no way to exit or enter.
- Cozy: The nice person’s mystery. Often the crime, particularly if it’s violent, occurs off scene. Sex and language are on the cleaner side. Humor is a common feature of the cozy.
- Hard-Boiled/Noir: Often cynical, bleak or realistic, hard-boiled and noir stories often focus more on the characters involved instead of the crime. Violence and sex are not downplayed.
- The Inverted Detective Story: In this style of story, the person perpetrating the crime is known up front. The point of the story is to see how (or if) the detective goes about solving the crime and how the perpetrator reacts to the investigation.
- The Historical Whodunnit: Simply put, this is a mystery set in a historical setting. Often the mystery has some historical significance and features detection methods that are appropriate for that era.
- The Police Procedural: Instead of featuring a independent detective, the police are investigating the crime in these stories. They often focus on the actual methods that police officers use to solve crimes.
- The Professional Thriller: This kind of mystery involves a professional who is not involved directly in law enforcement, such a lawyer or doctor, who nonetheless finds themselves investigating a crime.
- The Spy Novel: Related to the other professional mysteries, spy novels focus on intelligence operatives as they work to prevent or avenge some criminal plot. Spy novels can feature either in fantastic or realistic settings.
- Caper Stories: While other crime and mystery stories look at the aftermath of crimes, caper stories feature criminals as the lead characters. The story usually details the planning and commission of a crime.
- The Psychological Suspense: In these stories, the detective story takes on a psychological component.
- Spoofs and Parodies: Spoofs and parodies make light of crime fiction, often with the goal of commenting on the conventions of the genre. Many feature famous characters, e.g. Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, Philip Marlowe, or pastiches of those characters.
The Merely Mystery Reading Challenge will last the entire year (January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2012), giving participants a chance to read at their own pace. In addition, to make things easy, participants can complete one of two levels. One is for those of you who want a more relaxed challenge while the other is for those more serious about exploring the various sub-genres:
Down on Her/His Luck Gumshoe – Read two or more books falling into any of the above sub-genres. Each book can be from the same sub-genre or can be varied among the different sub-genres. You pick the combination and the number of books.
Shamus Who Has Seen It All – Read at least one book from each of the sub-genres for a total of 12 books. If you are feeling ambitious, read more than one book from each sub-genre.
Making a reading list ahead of time is not mandatory, but it’s fun–not only for you, but also for your fellow readers. Even if you don’t stick to the list, we’d love it if you could share a few of the titles you are considering reading.
*Audio books and graphic novels are welcome.
*Crossover books from other challenges are okay.
*Cross-genre books are perfectly fine.
To sign up, please fill out the below form. The challenge is open to everyone, regardless of whether you have a blog. If you have a blog, please provide a link to your initial blog post committing to the challenge. Participants without blogs can post reviews on general review sites such as LibraryThing, Goodreads or Shelfari. I will be creating a post in which all participants will be able to link their reviews so that everyone can follow everyone’s progress and perhaps get a few good mystery recommendations.
Sign ups are open ended and so you are welcome to sign up at any time throughout the year.
There will be a prize! The biggest reward will be completion of the challenge, of course, but isn’t it more fun when, at the end of the day, there’s a drawing for a prize? For all those who complete the challenge, your name will be entered into a drawing for an as-of-yet-unspecified prize.
If there is an interest (and volunteers), I would like to feature guest posts from authors and readers on the topic of crime fiction throughout the course of the challenge. It won’t be every day. Maybe once or twice a month at most, depending on volunteer interest (so, if you are interested, please let me know! Shoot me an e-mail).
I hope you will join me for the Merely Mystery Reading Challenge!
For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.
When visiting, please feel free to leave any suggestions,
ideas and/or comments. Would love to hear from you!!
Guest Author Lesley Kagen
How I wish that genies in bottles were real and I would come across one, don’t you? I know one of my wishes would be to have the ability to read every single book I wanted to, including the one written by today’s guest. But, unfortunately, that isn’t the case. However, Nicole from Tribute Books, is stopping by today to introduce us to this author and I have already put her book on my tbr list. Please help me welcome Ms. Lesley Kagen!!
I attended Marquette University for one year, fell in love, and followed my boyfriend to New York City. I lasted about six months. I was so intimidated, I spent most of my time running from my apartment to the grocery store and back to my apartment, which was located above a 24 Hour Soul Record Store. Hence, I have the dubious ability to recite every lyric to every James Brown tune ever recorded.
After returning to Milwaukee, I enrolled in the University of Wisconsin where I majored in Radio and Television. I fell into a job as a morning drive DJ on one of the country’s first alternative radio stations—WZMF. I got to interview lots of very cool rock n’ rollers like Frank Zappa, Hendrix and John Lennon.
In 1976, I moved to Los Angeles, where I began a ten year career working for Licorice Pizza record chain where I produced, wrote and voiced thousands of commercials as Lesley from Licorice Pizza. When I set out to expand my career, I ended up doing on-camera commercials, a couple of Movies-Of-The-Week, and a Laverne and Shirley.
I met my husband, Peter aka Sushi Man, in Malibu, which is pretty funny considering he was from Milwaukee as well. While we both loved living in California, after the birth of our kids, Casey and Riley, we felt this overwhelming need to return to the roost, so we moved back home in 1990.
Well, that’s about it. Oh, wait. The writing. I adore it. I crave it. But it wasn’t until Casey went off to college, and teenage Riley made it clear that any form of communication between us was to be restricted to—”With or without pepperoni”—that I found the opportunity to sit down and let ‘er rip. I hope you love reading Whistling in the Dark, Land of a Hundred Wonders, Tomorrow River and Good Graces as much as I loved writing them.
Whistling in the Dark captivated readers with the story of ten-year-old Sally O’Malley and her sister, Troo, during Milwaukee’s summer of 1959. The novel became a New York Times bestseller and was named a Midwest Honor Award winner.
In Good Graces, it’s one year later, and a heat wave has everyone in the close-knit Milwaukee neighborhood on edge. None more so than Sally O’Malley, who remains deeply traumatized by the sudden death of her daddy and her near escape from a murderer and molester the previous summer. Although outwardly she and her sister, Troo, are more secure, Sally’s confidence in her own judgment and much of her faith have been whittled away. When a series of disquieting events unfold in the neighborhood-a string of home burglaries, the escape from reform school of a nemesis, and the mysterious disappearance of an orphan, crimes that may involve the increasingly rebellious Troo-Sally is called upon to rise above her inner demons. She made a deathbed promise to her daddy to keep Troo safe, a promise she can’t break, even if her life depends on it. But when events reach a crisis point, will Sally have the courage and discernment to make the right choices? Or will her false assumptions lead her and those she loves into danger once again?
Lesley Kagen’s gift for imbuing her child narrators with compelling authenticity shines as never before in Good Graces, a novel told with sensitivity, wit, and warmth.
Book Details
Hardcover
Price: $25.95
ISBN: 9780525952381
Pages: 352
Release: September 2011
Amazon buy link
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0525952381/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=tributebooks-20
Barnes&Noble.com buy link
http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=dcSBhG3Rj8w&offerid=229293.9780525952381&type=2&subid=0
IndieBound buy link
http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780525952381
Books-A-Million buy link
http://www.booksamillion.com/product/9780525952381?id=5003903803737
eBookPrice: $12.99
Kindle buy link
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005DIAUA4/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=tributebooks-20
Nook buy link
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/good-graces-lesley-kagen/1100483667?ean=9781101549063&itm=1&usri=good%2bgraces
YouTube author interview video HTML embed code<iframe src=“http://www.youtube.com/embed/KMdfe-blKk0?rel=0” allowfullscreen=”” width=”375″ frameborder=”0″ height=”220″></iframe>
When visiting, please feel free to leave any suggestions,
ideas and/or comments. Would love to hear from you!!
When visiting, please feel free to leave any suggestions,
ideas and/or comments. Would love to hear from you!!
When visiting, please feel free to leave any suggestions,
ideas and/or comments. Would love to hear from you!!
Challenges, so much fun!! It’s like being a kid again. Or maybe it isn’t and I am just plain addicted!! But it is FUN!!! I know a lot of them I probably wont complete but I will try my darnedest. Some of them are just fun to see my progress throughout the year.
I participated last year, didn’t complete it, but it was fun!!! So I’m doing it again.
It was great to see all the places I visited, without having to pack, or the cost of a flight and hotel room. Want to travel with me? Then here’s all the info:
Sign Up Time: 2012 WHERE Are You Reading Challenge
So how do you decide what state a book is categorized under?
How to get started
Questions?
Do you have to have a blog to participate? No. You can do everything on the map above without linking the book to a review.Do I have to have my post up by January 1st, 2012? No, but I would think you would want to get started right away at the beginning of the year. However, you will be able to sign up throughout January as well.How will people see my map? There are a couple of possibilities. On your original challenge post you should have a link to your map. You could also put it on your side bar to draw interest to it (see mine on my left side bar) I will be linking my map to every review I will also set up a monthly link here to post updates if you wish.I dont get it – I cant figure out how to use Google maps but I really want to participate! No worries! You are welcome to create a challenge post that lists the 50 states (as well as bonus out of USA spots) and then fill them in as you read in the areas.Do audio books count? ABSOLUTELY!
And then I was visiting Yvonne’s place Socrates ‘Book Reviews,and saw this new challenge, which looked like fun and has a great looking button, SO, well at least I won’t be out causing trouble, right? lol I’ll be too busy!!! Want to join me?
A-Z Challenge 2012 Hosted by Lindsey http://www.babiesbooksandsigns.com/p/z-challenge-2012.html
Technical Stuff
So there are two different ways you can set up your own A-Z challenge.
A – Make a list now of 26 books, picking one for each letter of the alphabet. For example: A – Atonement B- Black Beauty C – The Count of Monte Cristo D – Dances with Dragons etc.
OR
B – The lazy way (how I do it) : Make a list on your blog from A-Z. Throughout the year, as you go along, add the books you are reading to the list. Hope that by the end of the year you have read one book for each letter. Towards the end of the year, you can check and see which letters you are missing and find books to fit.
Each month, I will add another challenge to this main challenge. It might to read a book with both A and Z in the title or to read a book with 3 words that all start with the same letter. I might host a few random giveaways too for good measure.
So to join along….
1. Write a blog post about this challenge and whether you are going go with A or B.
2. Add the button to your blog.
3. Attach yourself to the linky.
4. Follow my blog so that you can see when I post the monthly challenge!
When visiting, please feel free to leave any suggestions,
ideas and/or comments. Would love to hear from you!!

























































































































