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November 30, 2010

Guest Author and Giveaway Dr. Robert Greer (posting 1 of 4)

It is always an honor and a humbling experience for me to be a host for a visiting author, especially when it's at the author's request. And today we have a very special and talented man, who is both author and noted physcian, that is taking time out of his busy day and discussing his latest book. So, please help me give a big welcome to Dr. Robert Greer.
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ABOUT DR. ROBERT GREER (photo by Elizabeth Gorman)
   ROBERT GREER is a professor of pathology, medicine, dermatology, and dentistry at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Denver, where he specializes in head and neck pathology and cancer research. The author of eight previous CJ Floyd mysteries, including The Devil’s Backbone, The Mongoose Deception, and Blackbird, Farewell, and two medical thrillers, he reviews books for KUVO, a Denver NPR affiliate.
Learn more about Robert Greer at wwwrobertgreerbooks.com.

FROM THE AUTHOR:
   The most frequent question I’m asked about my latest novel, FIRST OF STATE, is why a prequel? And that’s a reasonable enough question since you would think that after ten CJ Floyd novels readers would know my African-American Denver bail bondsman intimately. However, in my first CJ Floyd novel, THE DEVIL’S HATBAND, the reader meets CJ as a man of forty-four. In that novel you learn as much about the character as I could possibly weave into a single book. You learn that he’s a loner, that he has had a failed marriage, that he is a Vietnam veteran and that he is haunted by the horrors of that war. Yet as you follow CJ throughout the next nine novels, you never really know until FIRST OF STATE, what happened to him between the time he returned from Vietnam at the age of twenty-one and the opening of THE DEVIL’S HATBAND. How did CJ get to be who he is? Who taught him his investigative skills? How did he become friends with his murder-solving eclectic band of side kicks? And finally, what cases had he cracked and what murders had he solved prior to FIRST OF STATE?
   In FIRST OF STATE readers get to see a youthful CJ Floyd. An agitated troubled young man who is unsure of himself and a man who is haunted always by Vietnam. You have the opportunity to see him join his Uncle Ike’s bail bonding business and to watch him mature as an investigator under Ike’s tutelage. The reader also gets a glimpse of CJ as a novice western memorabilia collector long before he evolves into an antique collecting pro.
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ABOUT THE BOOK
   ROBERT GREER’S latest novel—a prequel to his CJ Floyd mystery series—takes readers back in time to a very different CJ Floyd. It’s 1972, and the twenty-two year-old decorated war vet has recently returned to Denver from Vietnam with post-traumatic stress disorder. Navigating depression, he finds a friend in World War II vet and amputee Wiley Ames, who shares his passion for rare and valuable western memorabilia.
   When Ames and a mysterious Chinese man are found murdered, CJ’s already fragile world threatens to collapse. His attempts to find his friend’s killer are thwarted at every turn, and finally he joins his Uncle Ike’s business as a bail bondsman and bounty hunter. Five years later one of Ames’s treasured antique license plates turns up at a Denver flea market, and CJ is once again off and running. The trail to Wiley Ames’s murderer leads CJ down a dark path strewn with backstabbing antique dealers, conniving friends and relatives of Ames’s, and a shadowy musician. Equally a white-knuckle-ride murder mystery and a tale of a traumatized young man coming to terms with his past, First of State features the kind of fresh characters, street smart dialogue, and ingenious plot twists that have made this series a critical and commercial success.
Watch for my review in the coming weeks!!!

CLICK HERE TO BRING YOU TO

THE GIVEAWAY ENTRY PAGE

DISCLAIMER / RULES
Giveaway copies are supplied and shipped to winners via publisher,
agent and/or author. This blog hosts the giveaway on behalf of the above.
I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me, in exchange for my
honest review.  No items that I receive are ever sold...they are kept
by me, or given to family and/or friends.
Winner will be chosen via Random.Org.  Winners will be notified via email.
Winners must respond with 48 hours (2 days).  I am not responsible
for lost or damaged products (books/products are shipped from agents.
I reserve the right to disqualify/delete any entries if rules of giveaway are
 not followed.




Tuesday Memes (2 of 4)

TUESDAY

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Happy Tuesday everyone!!!  Apologizing in advance.  There will be multiple posts today and tomorrow because there is just so much going on.  Authors visiting, new giveaways being posted and even an announcement for a Birthday Bash (that post is tomorrow).  Check both sidebars for all the giveaways and hope you enter for a chance to win, if not for you, maybe for someone on your Christmas list.

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Hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading
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!
She backed out of the room and hurried into the other bedroom, not wanting to accept what Jovanic had said about not finding Kylie.
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page 240


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Hosted by Katrina from Callapidder Days
Challenge Completed!!!!!
Week #10....Question
Do you have multiple books going at once? Or do you prefer to stick to one book at a time?
My Answer:
I am a one book gal, always have been. I feel that I might confuse plots, characters, or maybe even forget some details if I read more than one book at a time. Since reading for me is pure pleasure and enjoyment, I want to escape into the book I am currently reading and don't think it would be the same reading more than one. However, it does amaze me when I see other bloggers that can read even 4 books at the same time. Maybe some day I will try it just to see.


Award (3 of 4)

It has happened again....and the feeling never changes.  I still get excited and feel warm and fuzzy when someone leaves me that little message..."I have an award for you".   I guess it's because I still can't believe there are people who really like my blog, a blog that began as a personal journal.

Teresa, from Diary of a Domestic Goddess (don't you just love her blog's name....I do!!!) presented me with this award on Friday.  If you haven't visited before, please stop by, visit a bit and say hi.
Now for the criteria that comes along with accepting this award, however, I am going to take a little liberty and make some changes.  (am running out of things to tell you about myself lol)
Here are the rules:

Share 7 5 things about myself
Pass the award to 15 5 bloggers recently discovered
Notify the blogger recipients
Link to the blogger who gave the award

1.  The happiest time of my life was during my boys' childhoods.  Our house was always the "house to go to and hangout".  During the summer, their friends were here every single day having fun in the pool (hubby couldn't understand why the grocery bill was so much money but had to have pickies, pizza, soda, etc etc.)  I loved it!!!!
2.  Always wished I could sing4.  I am terrified of heights

3.  I'm a crier..happy, sad, whatever the situation, I cry.


5.  I am a Nervous Nelly and worry too much...working on changing that!!


I am now passing the torch to: (in no particular order):

The Caffeinated Diva Reads




November Wrap Up (4 of 4)

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I wish I did better and made more progress with my reading this month, but real life takes a front seat.  I am determined to do better in 2011 !!!!!   Books that I did finish and write reviews for were:

11/01  Fly Away Home by Jennifer Weiner (Rating 4)
11/02  Hollywood Savage by Kristin McCloy (Rating 1 DNF)
11/08  Blindman's Bluff by Faye Kellerman (Rating 3)
11/13  And One Last Thing by Molly Harper (Rating 4)
11/22  Rules of Betrayal by Christopher Reich (Rating 3)
11/28  Private by James Patterson (Rating 5)

Will do a 2010 Challenge Wrap Up next month.


November 29, 2010

And the winners are..........

.............for the  GRATITUDE FOLLOWER GIVEAWAY
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Here are your random numbers:
31

 7

Timestamp: 2010-11-29 12:54:16 UTC

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jackie b central texas said... 31    Okay since you confirmed me as a Facebook Friend one more entry in the hat...

dollycas aka Lori said... 7 I follower on GFC TOO!!

An email has been sent to the winners and they have 72 hours to respond with information of another winner will be chosen. 


Hachette Giveaway "Peace and Plenty" 12/2 to 12/15

PEACE and PLENTY
by SARAH BAN BREATHNACH

December 2nd to December 15th

Synopsis:
   "When money is plentiful, this is a man's world. When money is scarce, it is a woman's world." Unearthed in a 1932 Ladies Home Journal, this quote is the call to arms that begins PEACE AND PLENTY, Sarah Ban Breathnach's answer to the world's-- and her own personal-- financial crisis. As only Ban Breathnach can, she culls together this compendium of advice, deeply personal anecdotes, and excerpts from magazines, books, and newspapers-- particularly those of the Great Depression-- to inspire readers who are mired in today's financial difficulties.

   Focusing on her own personal path, Sarah Ban Breathnach will relate never-before revealed details about how she fell from the financial top to the bottom. Readers will immediately see how deeply she understands the plight of those trying to maintain a happy and comfortable home, while at the same time not even knowing if they will be able to make the mortgage to keep that home.
   Sarah has proved to be the voice of comfort for years to women who are spiritually bankrupt, and now she will reach to those who are financially strapped, showing them how to pull themselves out of their psychic and fiscal crises while providing deep comfort and reassurance throughout.

THANKS TO ANNA AND THE AWESOME
PEOPLE AT THE HACHETTE BOOK GROUP
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I HAVE THREE (3) COPIES OF THIS
INSIGHTFUL BOOK TO GIVEAWAY

CLICK HERE TO BRING YOU
TO THE ENTRY GIVEAWAY PAGE



Monday Memes (2 of 2)

MONDAY
I will be announcing the winner of the Follower Graditude Giveaway later on today.  Is it you??

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Wrap Up:
Didn't do as much reading as I had planned.  But finished one book, wrote and posted the review and started another. 


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Hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading
Miz B has announced that Musing Mondays has been suspended.
crying smiley icon 



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November is being hosted by Julie from Knitting and Sundries Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia of The Printed Page and is now on tour.
According to Marcia, “Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.”
Before I share what books came into my house this week, I want to thank Julie for hosting this month and doing a fabulous job!!!  Thanks Julie!!!

Monday 11/22
                      Author                              ARC Librarything               Hachette







Hosted by Java from Never Growing Old
"Meet Me On Monday!"
Blogging is a funny thing...we tell our most intimate thoughts for all to read and yet most of the time I find myself sitting and wondering, "who is this person!?" I know them...but yet I don't know them! I want to know who the person is behind all those words so I thought of a great way for all of us to "meet" each other!
Questions:

1. What is your favorite way to eat chicken?
Baked Chicken with veggies
Don't have a favorite..eat it all ways...baked, fried, in soup, parmigian, etc etc.
2. Have you decorated for Christmas yet?

No.  I have been spoiled for many years.  My youngest son used to
decorate the house inside and out by himself.  He now lives 5 hours away. 
So either hubby and I have to or son needs to take a ride home lol

3. What is your favorite article of clothing?
pj's
At this time of year, my flannel jammies.

4. Do you pay your bills online or write checks the old way?
Checkbook
Both

5. Do you make Christmas cookies?

Unfortunately, the baking gene did not get passed down to me.  BUT my son's gf, Heather,
 is quite a baker and she makes delicious and so many different varieties each year.





November 28, 2010

Review "Private"


Private by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
Published by Little, Brown and Company
ISBN 978-0-316-09615-7
At the request of The Hachette Book Group, a HC was sent, at no cost to me, for my honest opinion.
  Synopsis (from book's jacket): THE POLICE CAN'T HELP YOU Former Marine helicopter pilot Jack Morgan runs Private, a renowned investigation company with branches around the globe. It is where you go when you need maximum force and maximum discretion. The secrets of the most influential men and women on the planet come to Jack daily-and his staff of investigators use the world's most advanced forensic tools to make and break their cases.
  THE PRESS WILL DESTROY YOU Jack is already deep into the investigation of a multimillion-dollar NFL gambling scandal and the unsolved slayings of thirteen schoolgirls when he learns of a horrific murder close to home: his best friend's wife, Jack's former lover has been killed. It nearly pushes him over the edge. Instead, Jack pushes back and devotes all of Private's resources to tracking down her killer.
  ONLY ONE PLACE TO TURN: PRIVATE But Jack doesn't have to play by the rules. As he closes in on the killer and chooses between revenge and justice, Jack has to navigate a workplace love affair that threatens to blow the roof off his plans.
  My Thoughts and Opinion: Here I sit wondering what can I say about this book and only 3 words come to mind: Pure James Patterson!!! I have been a big fan of Mr. Patterson's books for years and have not yet read one that I didn't like. It contained all the elements that the author does best. Short chapters for that "read just one more chapter moment" and you find yourself 10 chapters forward. Pulls you in with the first page and doesn't let you go until the very last page. Nonstop action whereas it is a "page turner" and a "can't put down type of book". Twists and turns you don't see coming. The main character, Jack Morgan, was believable and likeable and am hoping that there will be future books related to this character.
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DISCLAIMER

I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me, in exchange for my honest review.  No items that I receive are ever sold...they are kept by me, or given to family and/or friends.

Thankfully Reading Read-A-Thon

SUNDAY
Hi everyone!!!  Hope you are having a great weekend.  Because I am participating in this weekend's Read-A-Thon, Slapdash Sunday meme will be on break today but will return next week.


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Update:
I was able to get some reading done and am reading the perfect book, Private by James Patterson.  Will be done with this book today and on to the next!!!!

November 27, 2010

Read A Thon Update and A Bit of Me

SATURDAY

Happy Saturday one and all!!   Hope you are all doing great and enjoying your long weekend.  For me, and you might have noticed yesterday, that I did a disappearing act.  I was sitting in my recliner reading Private by James Patterson ( love his books) and WHAM!!!   It came from left field.
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I have a very low immune system due to Epstein Barr, also called Chronic Fatigue Immune Deficiency Syndrome  CFIDS, and catch everything.  Except my body can't fight viruses so it puts me down.  I went to bed at 11:30am and woke up this morning.  So needless to say, I did not make much progress in reading.  Going to try again today.



 
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Update:
Just a few chapters.  





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Hosted by Danielle at There's A Book
From her blog:
We all leave our “footprint” on the world, in one way or another. We each, individually, do something or are someone that makes the world a little better just by being here. I created this weekly meme to get to know the blogging community I love just a bit better. To know what makes them tick, outside of books, that is. Each week I will post a question to be answered in the following week’s “A Bit of Me(Me)”. Check back each Saturday to get the info for next week’s post and link up with your current post right here.
This week's question:  Tell everyone a little bit about your favorite Birthday
Read more: http://www.theresabook.com/#ixzz168lGsF7E
Yes...I know...what am I thinking, but, my 50th was very special.  It was a combo celebration spent with the favorite people in my life.  Not only did we celebrate my bday but 3 days later, it was our 25th wedding anniversary.   Hubby and I rented a limo, made dinner reservations at a fancy smancy restaurant, that was an hour away in Boston, a table for 6.   Hubby, myself, and our 2 sons and their gfs all went out for a night on the town.  We were all dressed in formal attire.  One son surprised us with CDs he made of songs from the year we were married, for the hour's ride .  We sang and were silly on our way to the restaurant.   And yes, I will admit, since we were all of the legal age to drink, we toasted to a wonderful celebration.  The dinner was fabulous.  And on our way home, we made one more stop.  We surprised the kids and went to the top of the Prudential Center and had an after dinner drink on the 52nd floor, overlooking all of Boston, absolutely beautiful !!!  And then continued our silliness and singing for the ride home.  It was a wonderful night that I will never forget.

November 26, 2010

Friday Meme, Weekend Challenge and An Amazing Award

FRIDAY
How was every one's Thanksgiving?  Are you having the same feelings as me.....wishing that I hadn't taken that extra piece of pie?   What are your plans for today?  Some of you may be shopping for those great bargains or maybe going to the gym to work out after having such a big meal............

Me.....well my plans are not as stressful.  I plan on getting comfy, grabbing my coffee and start reading for the Thankfully Reading Weekend.  I plan on spending less time on the computer today, but when I need a break from reading I will be doing a little blog hopping.  Whatever your plans are today, have fun!! 





Hosted by Java from Never Growing Old
From Java's blog:
Are you a blogger over 40? Yeah, welcome to the club!
Please join in the fun and get to know your fellow bloggers!!
Every week Java selects one blog via Random.org to be showcased and................
WooHoo!!!  My blog was chosen!!!!




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Hosted by Jenn at Jenn's Bookshelves, Candace from Beth Fish Reads and Jen from Devourer of Books
From Jenn's Bookshelves:
  Last Thanksgiving, Candace from Beth Fish Reads, Jen from Devourer of Books & I unveiled Thankfully Reading, an excuse to do an obscene amount of reading over the long Thanksgiving weekend. I’m excited to announce that we’ll be doing the event again this year!
Here are the details:
  There are no rules to the weekend, we’re simply hoping to devote a good amount of time to reading, and perhaps meeting some of our reading challenges and goals for 2010. We thought it’d be fun if we cheered each other on a bit. If you think you can join in, grab the button and sign on to Mr. Linky. If you don’t have a blog, use the comments!
  During the weekend, come back and link any Thankfully Reading Weekend posts to the Mr. Linky we’ll put up here on Friday, November 26. Feel free to link as many posts as you’d like. On Sunday will put up another Mr. Linky for your wrap-up post.
  We’ll also be checking in on Twitter using hashtag #thankfulreading. Join in for the weekend or for only a single day. No rules, no pressure!
  This year, we will be doing some fun Thankfully Reading mini-challenges over the weekend. Be sure to check back Thanksgiving weekend for more details!
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I hope to put a small dent into my pile, but it never seems to fail, every time I sign up, real life interferes. So we shall see how much I get accomplished. I will be on the computer when I need a short break, so if you don't hear from me, you know what I am doing!! Good Luck for all those that are participating, and for those who want to join in, here is all the info:
I will post over the weekend to let you know if I make any progress.



An Amazing Award!!!
  I am sure you feel the same way, but I am still truly amazed at the how many nice people I have met this past year and the friendships that have formed.  For those new followers, a little history.  Last year around this time I stumbled onto a book blog, never knowing this world existed, and wanting to participate because it looked like so much fun with the challenges, memes, and even the sounds of friendship from the comments I would read.  I got the courage to email a blogger to ask how do I start.  Poor Vicki from Reading At The Beach, she was the lucky one lol.  But she told me  "don't be afraid to ask questions of any book bloggers, because book bloggers were the nicest bloggers in bloggyland".  And how right she was.  To this day, she still answers my questions.
  Well, history has repeated itself.  Not too long ago I received the sweetest note from Joann at Joann's Best.  Her email reminded me of the one I had sent Vicki.  Yesterday morning I checked my email and this was waiting for me with these words "I  made this just for you!  Its an award for your blog! Thanks for everything."
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I can't believe she took the time to do this for me!!!  Isn't it beautiful!!!  All because I answered some questions.  Not only are book bloggers the nicest, they have the biggest hearts!!!  Thank you so much Joann!!!!  You don't know how much this means to me!!!  And if you haven't been by Joann's place, please stop by, say hi, introduce yourself and welcome her into the community,  the community as Vicki said, "the nicest there is".



November 25, 2010

Holiday




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Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Today I will be taking a day off from blogging, to celebrate and give Thanks for everything that I have.  We will be spending the day with family, eating too much, talking about everything and anything, then complain that we ate too much but, sure, I'll have another piece of that pie lol. And then if we can get up from sitting at the table,  head on home so we can unbuckle our pants and put on something comfy and relax.
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So to all that may stop by today, Happy Thanksgiving!!!!  See you tomorrow!!!