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Books reviewed this week include DON'T TELL A SOUL by David Rosenfelt; THE MADONNAS OF LENINGRAD by Debra Dean; PHANTOM PREY by John Sandford; THE 47TH SAMURAI by Stephen Hunter; HIT AND RUN by Lawrence Block; EIGHT IN THE BOX by Raffi Yessayan, and many more.  Check out the Latest Reviews!

Got books?  I do - and I'm giving them away.  Check out the WIN BOOKS page to see all the great books that are up for grabs!  This month look for a new, standalone thriller by my favorite author, David Rosenfelt, DON'T TELL A SOUL. Barbara Parker fans won't want to miss her latest standalone thriller, THE DARK OF DAY.  Or try newcomer Martina Cole's CLOSE, a legal/police thriller garnering rave reviews.  Michelle Gagnon returns with another creepy thriller, BONEYARD and Lin Enger will help you cool off with UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY, set in the cool autumn of Minnesota.  If you're looking for the perfect summer romance, look no further than A SUMMER AFFAIR by Elin Hilderbrand.  And don't forget to check out the Win Thrillers page to find out how you can win signed copies of nine fabulous thrillers! 

Congratulations to all the winners of May's contests!  And check back soon to see who won in June.

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Kyla from Morris, IL; Joy from Glenwood, GA; Catherine from Cleveland Hts., OH; Ariel from Lamar, Mo; Virginia from Lockhart, TX all won copies of THE HOST by Stephenie Meyer

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Debora of Toronto, ON; Aliza of Brooklyn, NY; Seung-Ju of Vancouver, BC; Mike West Rutland, VT &
Janice of Sterling, AK won copies of CHILD 44 by Tom Rob Smith

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Melanie from Kittanning, PA; Anna from Roswell, NM; Harry from Elkhorn, MB, Canada; Thomas from Tucson, AZ & Robert from Burke, VA all won copies of A GUITAR AND A PEN: Stories by Country Music's Greatest Songwriters, Edited by Robert Hicks

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Elaine from Medicine Hat, AB; Gale from Houston, TX; Kathy from Pierce City, MO; Beth from Salem, OH &
Peggy from Preston, Ct. all won copies of QUIVER by Peter Leonard

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Patty of Durham CT; Mary of Chestnut Hill, MA; Norine of New Rochelle, NY; Jeanne of Pittsburgh, PA &
Carol of San Jose, CA won signed copies MAHU FIRE by Neil Plakcy

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Diana of Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Merrill of Sugar Grove, IL; Connor of Vienna, VA; Patricia of Island Lake, IL; Rebecca of Salem, OR; Kate of Centreville, VA; Judy of Royal Oak, MI; Christine of Elkhorn, Manitoba; Sharada of Albuquerque, NM & Melanie of Kittanning PA all won signed copies of BABY SHARK'S HIGH PLAINS REDEMPTION by Robert Fate

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Marilyn from Humble, TX; Daryl from Winnipeg, Manitoba; Darla from Smithland, KY; Leola from Joplin, MO; Anne from Valparaiso, IN; Louise from Mentor, OH; Randy from Rochester, MN; Bill from Huntington, WV; Timothy from Shelton, WA & Mimi from Miami, FL won copies of JUDGMENT DAY by Sheldon Siegel

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Harry of Elkhorn, Manitoba, Canada won signed copies of BLACK OUT by Lisa Unger; THE ANGEL by Carla Neggers; DIAL M FOR MISCHIEF by Kasey Michaels; SHADOW OF POWER by Steve Martini; THE DEAL by Adam Gittlin; NO ONE LEFT TO TELL by Jordan Dane; NICK OF TIME by Ted Bell, courtesy of the International Thriller Writers

Winning entries from the Worst Job Ever contest!

Elaine Viets pored over all the entries, struggling to find the Worst Job Ever.  Finally, at the end, she found three winners...

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First place: Hannah of Ridgefield, CT won a signed copy of CLUBBED TO DEATH by Elaine Viets for this winning entry:  I'm a medical technologist and when I was an intern, in a large Boston hospital, part of my job was performing lab tests on 72-hour collection of stool samples, which the patient would collect over the course of 3 days in metal cans, the same ones that a gallon of paint is sold in. To thoroughly mix the sample, so the contents would be homogeneous, the can was placed on the same kind of shaker that the paint store uses to mix the paint, and that would vigorously turn the sample into one homogeneous mixture. However, in certain instances, the patient would fail to properly seal the can, which the person doing the test was not able to detect until it was in motion. I'll leave the rest to your imagination! (You didn't just have dinner, did you?)

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Second place:  Cindy of Eden, UT won a copy of the first book in the Dead End Job Series, Shop Till You Drop by Elaine Viets with this winning entry:  My worst job was when I was around 18 years old and I worked in a Plasma center. Needless to say, 99.9% of the people who donated plasma were drunks. They would then take the $5 over to the store next door to buy booze as soon as they'd leave the center. Anyway, I had to take their temperature (ick!) and if they had a fever, get this, the nurse told me to give them a glass of cold water. Huh, that may lower the temp but if there's an infection, I highly doubt that glass of water would magically make it go away. The smells were bad, unwashed bodies and booze breath. That job made changing poopy baby diapers seem like a cake walk.

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Third place:  Merrill of Sugar Grove, IL won a copy of the first book in the Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper series, Dying in Style by Elaine Viets with this winning entry: The worst job I ever had was at Sweetheart Plastics Factory. I was assigned to the Injection Mold department, where I stood at the end of a conveyor belt and took plastic lids off the belt and put them in a box all day long. For 8 hours a day. Five days a week. I didn't even have to count how many lids, just put them in the box until it was full! AND this was in dead of summer! It was at least 120 degrees in the factory every day. It was this job that convinced me of the worth of a college education!

 

If you live in South Florida, or are planning on visiting, please check out the Florida Update.  Lots of great author signings coming up including best-selling thriller writer Harlan Coben at Murder on the Beach in Delray Beach; football player turned author Tim Green at Borders in Plantation, Barbara Walters at Books & Books, and lots more.

I put a little time into MySpace, please add me as a friend if you haven't already!  And there's a new kid on the block called CrimeSpace, a social network for mystery writers and readers.  Don't forget FaceBook, I'm on there too.  And Good Reads. And LibraryThing, which is probably the only one really worth investing any time into - it's a place to create a catalog of your books, a personal library if you will.  You can keep it private, or share it and see who else reads what you read.  It's completely fabulous, free if you want to limit the number of books you catalog; 200 books are free.  Or very reasonably priced to go hog wild - list as many as you want for $10 a year, or the best deal of all, $25 for a lifetime membership.  Only problem is I don't know where I'm going to find the time to keep up with it all...but I will. 

Lots of new stuff in the BookBitchBlog -  Check out my interview with Elaine Viets, author of CLUBBED TO DEATH, my guest blogger, author NEIL PLAKCY, and read about Robert Alexander's new online book club.

Looking for a gift for the reader in your life?  Consider visiting the BookBitch Online Store.  Get a T-shirt, tank top, coffee cup or even a bookbag like Janet did - then she had it signed by all her favorite thriller writers at ThrillerFest!

Latest Book Reviews

A list of the current month's reviews are here, but to read them in their entirety please go to LATEST REVIEWS.

DON'T TELL A SOUL by David Rosenfelt

THE MADONNAS OF LENINGRAD by Debra Dean

OUT OF THE FRYING PAN: A Chef's Memoir of Hot Kitchens, Single Motherhood, and the Family Meal by Gillian Clark

PHANTOM PREY by John Sandford

FINAL THEORY by Mark Alpert

THE 47TH SAMURAI by Stephen Hunter

HIT AND RUN by Lawrence Block

A NAIL THROUGH THE HEART by Timothy Hallinan

EIGHT IN THE BOX by Raffi Yessayan

 

Last month's reviews:

 

THE SEVEN SINS by Jon Land

JUDGMENT DAY by Sheldon Siegel

AUDITION by Barbara Walters

THE DARK OF DAY by Barbara Parker

SHADOW OF POWER by Steve Martini

DEATH AND HONOR by W.E.B. Griffin

SOMEBODY OWES ME MONEY by Donald E. Westlake

THE FIREMAN by Stephen Leather

DAWN PATROL by Don Winslow

QUEEN OF BABBLE GETS HITCHED by Meg Cabot

TIGERHEART by Peter David

THE MEMORY OF WATER by Karen White

THE RICHEST SEASON by Maryann McFadden

A SHARE IN DEATH by Deborah Crombie

MERCY STREET by Mariah Stewart

FEARLESS FOURTEEN by Janet Evanovich

BLACK OUT by Lisa Unger

THIS CHARMING MAN by Marian Keyes

SEX & THE CITY: The Movie by Amy Sohn

HOLLYWOOD CROWS by Joseph Wambaugh

PELHAM FELL HERE by Ed Lynskey

BABY SHARK’S HIGH PLAINS REDEMPTION by Robert Fate

WHISKEY AND WATER by Nina Wright

BLOOD HARVEST by Brant Randall

CRAZY FOOL KILLS FIVE by Gwen Freeman

NINE FINGERS by Thom August

FATAL ENCRYPTION by Debra Purdy Kong

MADE IN THE U.S.A. by Billie Letts

RING by Koji Suzuki

THE SISTER by Poppy Adams

I SHALL NOT WANT by Julia Spencer-Fleming

THE SUGAR QUEEN by Sarah Addison Allen

SACRIFICE by S.J. Bolton

THE BLOOD DETECTIVE by Dan Waddell

THE BLOOD DETECTIVE by Dan Waddell

THE DIRTY SECRETS CLUB by Meg Gardiner [2]

THE WRITING CLASS by Jincy Willett

THE BLOOD DETECTIVE by Dan Waddell

DEVIL MAY CARE by Sebastian Faulks

EMPTY EVER AFTER by Reed Farrel Coleman

THE FORGERY OF VENUS by Michael Gruber

SHADOW WALTZ by Amy Patricia Meade

WHAT BURNS WITHIN by Sandra Ruttan

RUBICON by Lawrence Alexander

THE FRONT by Patricia Cornwell

STONE CREEK by Victoria Lustbader:

THE WOLFMAN by Nicholas Pekearo

NOTHING TO LOSE by Lee Child

MURDER NOTEBOOK by Jonathan Santlofer

BOBBIE FAYE’S (KINDA, SORTA, NOT EXACTLY) FAMILY JEWELS by Toni McGee Causey

COFFIN COUNTY by Gary A. Braunbeck

THE HOUSE AT MIDNIGHT by Lucie Whitehouse

A CARRION DEATH by Michael Stanley

TERROR TOWN (#9) by Stuart Kaminsky

THE DEAD DON’T LIE (#10) by Stuart Kaminsky

SAFE HOUSE by Christine Duncan

THE SNATCH by Bill Pronzini

 

 

Win Books!

These terrific books are just waiting to be won - have you entered yet?

DON'T TELL A SOUL by David Rosenfelt

CLOSE by Martina Cole


THE DARK OF DAY by Barbara Parker

BONEYARD by Michelle Gagnon

 

A SUMMER AFFAIR by Elin Hilderbrand

 

UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY by Lin Enger
 


Go to the Win Books page to learn more about these fabulous books

and how you can win your own copy!

 

 Bookreporter.com's Annual Mother's Day Contest

 

Win Thrillers!

ITW JULY BOOKSHELF

One lucky winner will win autographed copies of all nine of these thrillers:

 

KILLER VIEW by Ridley Pearson

NOX DORMIENDA by Kelli Stanley

THE LAST ORACLE by James Rollins

 STALKING SUSAN by Julie Kramer

 THE LAST PATRIOT by Brad Thor

 BREAKING COVER by J.D. Rhoades

 TINY LITTLE TROUBLES by Marc Lecard

SOUTH OF HELL by PJ Parrish

THE GARDEN OF EVIL by David Hewson

 

Check out the Win Thrillers page to find out more about these books

 and how you can win!

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Welcome. I'm so glad you've found me.  I've had a life long love affair with books and this is my opportunity to pay homage to the written word.  

This is a forum for any and all information regarding the printed matter bound between cloth or paper, or even read aloud onto tape or CD.  I offer reviews -  lots of reviews - as well as lists of books that I have enjoyed, information about the reading groups that I facilitate, and links to various websites extolling the virtues and practicalities of  reading groups, the publishing industry, writers, and booksellers.  This is a constantly evolving work in progress.  I welcome constructive criticism, ideas, suggestions and/or feedback of any kind.

Peruse and enjoy!

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In memory of my beloved mother, Selma Kapson, 1934-2008 

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Last updated: March 31, 2008.
Copyright © 1998-2008 Stacy Alesi.   All rights reserved.  No part may be reproduced without written permission from the author.  
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