Update on books read and giveaway

Hello everyone!  Thanks so much for getting this series off to a great start.  You all read a lot of books last month.   I'm working on getting the 2011 reads page updated with all the entries.

Just one word regarding the forms for the books read and giveaway.  Since I'm trying to do at least one giveaway per month, I will close the form after the month ends.  If you didn't get a chance to enter the books you read that month before I close the form, you are welcome to enter it on the current form however please don't mark that you want an entry for the giveaway.  Please only mark that if you are listing a book read that month. So, for example, if you read a book in April but haven't filled out the form you, you won't be able to enter it on the April reads form.  Instead, enter it on the May Reads form however don't enter the giveaway for May.  I am closing the form because I don't want people filling it out and entering the giveaway when the giveaway is closed.  Hopefully this won't confuse anybody but if it does please let me know.

May Reads and Giveaway

Please use this form to let us know what book(s) you have read for this challenge in May. The giveaway is only for May, so please enter by midnight May 31st (central time) for a chance to win.

I'm happy to report that I have two giveaways this month!  Anybody who reads at least one book is ellligable for both giveaways.

The first one is for Following Polly by Karen Bergreen. I haven't read anything by Karen Bergreen before but Following Polly sounds good and I thought cozy readers would enjoy it.  

The second one is for Flowerbed of State by Dorothy St. James.  This is another Berkley release and since the publisher is offering this book for review, I'm once again allowing readers an extra entry if they read at least one book for this challenge (for this month) from the same publisher.  So..get out your Berkley Prime Crime, Signet,  and Obsidian series and get reading! 

Only the first two pieces of the form are required, the rest are optional.  However, if you do enter the giveaway please include a mailing address so I can give it to the publishers once a winner is selected.

Food With a Side of Murder

Thanks to Stepfordmomto2 for bringing this article to my attention.

CNN had an article titled "Dig In: Food with a Side of Murder" where they talk about culinary mysteries.  How fun to see CNN giving the cozy genre a nod.

I thought the article was rather interesting and wanted to create a post and share with you since I know several of you like the culinary mysteries (as do I).

April reads and giveaway

Hello everyone! I'm so excited this challenge has officially started and I hope you all are too.

I'm going to list the books read this year, similar to last year only hopefully quicker.  If you finish a book for this challenge please come back to the challenge blog and let us know what you read.

As mentioned in the post I have giveaway's this year and I'm happy to start things off with one.  This month I'll be offering a copy of Mourning Gloria by Susan Wittig Albert.  Mourning Gloria is the latest in the China Bayles series.  While I admit to being way behind on this series myself (but made it a goal to catch up on this year) it is one of my first cozy series I really got into and one of my favorites.  If you haven't read any of them I highly recommend checking them out.      Since the publisher is offering this book for review, I'm giving readers an extra entry if they books they read for this challenge (for this month) are from the same publisher.  So..get out your Berkley Prime Crime and Obsidian series and get reading!
Update 4/19/11 - Signet Mysteries will count for an extra entry too!

Only the first two pieces of the form are required, the rest are optional.  However, if you do enter the giveaway please include a mailing address so I can give it to the publisher once a winner is selected.

Miss Marple comes to life..maybe

While I haven't read an Agatha Christie book in years and don't remember being a big fan (although I think I should give her books a try again), I know several cozy readers love her books so I wanted to pass this tidbit along.

I read a post on the Omnimystery News blog that says Disney has bought the rights to the Miss Marple character.

The article had this to say:
Disney has acquired the film rights to Agatha Christie's character Miss Marple, and envisions creating a comtemporary setting for the amateur sleuth. Mark Frost (Hill Street Blues,Twin Peaks) will write the screenplay, which is expected to be an original story, not one adapted from one of the many Christie novels.


And an article the following day updated us with this info:
Now we're reading that Miss Marple will be played by Jennifer Garner, clearly a significant departure from reader (and viewer) expectations.

It will be interesting to see how this project progresses.

Cozy Mystery giveaway's on my other blog

Good afternoon everyone!  I wanted to do a really short post to let you know I have 2 giveaways on my other blog, Not Enough Books, for 3 cozy mysteries.   If you are interested..please head on over!

Beaglemania by Linda O. Johnston

Fruit of All Evil by Paige Shelton and  A Touch of Gold by Joyce and Jim Lavene

Cozy Mystery Challenge 2011 - Rules and Sign-up form

It's that time of year again, time to sign up for the annual Cozy Mystery Challenge and start thinking about the books you'll want to read for the next 6 months.

Last year we had a great turn out and I hope we do just as well, if not better,  in 2011.

For those who might wonder what a cozy mystery is, here's a great website that explains it and is a great resource for series:  Cozy-Mystery.com   I also have the 2010 list of read books still available on this blog, so feel free to browse through the list to see what members read last year.

Here are the rules:

1. The challenge runs April 1st, 2011 through September 30, 2011.

2. The goal is to read at least 6 cozy mysteries, one for each month.  You can choose to read more, but you must read 6 in order to complete this challenge. You don't have to read 1 each month, you can read them whenever you like, you just have to read at least six.

There are three participation levels for this challenge:

Only the required amount - 6

I think I can do better - 7-10

Feeling very ambitious - 11+

3. While you can overlap with other challenges, please try to have at least 2 of the books only count towards this challenge.  However, if you are doing a challenge such as 100 Books in 2011 or similar, where you are working towards a page count or book count, it's ok to count these books towards that challenge. 

4.Sign-up using the dedicated form. While it would be great if you signed up before April 1st,  you can sign up anytime between now and September 1st.

5. You do NOT need a blog to participate.  If you do have a blog, I would love to see a dedicated post linking back this post, but that's not required either.

6. You do NOT have to list the books you plan to read ahead of time, although you can if you want to (and the list can change throughout the challenge).

7.  Prizes!! Everyone loves a prize! Everyone who completes this challenge will get a bookmark made by yours truly.  My goal is to use the challenge button this year for the bookmark! That will probably help me mail them out a bit faster

This year I am also happy to announce that I'll be able to offer giveaways!  I think most of us cozy fans are aware that Penguin has two divisions with some awesome cozy series, Obsidian and Berkley Prime Crime.  I'm going to be able to offer a multi-book giveaway in September and possible one or two books before that. I don't know what books will be offered yet, just that I've been in contact with a wonderful person who works for them and they have been nice enough to allow me to do the giveaway(s).    

Due to the publisher providing the books for the giveaway, I'm going to put a twist on the giveaway entry.  Every person who completes the challenge will be able to fill out the giveaway form and earn 1 entry.  However, on top of that, for each Berkley Prime Crime and Obsidian book you read, you earn an extra entry. I'll have more details towards the end of the challenge when the giveaway is announced.  ( I want to disclose that the publisher did NOT request I do this, rather I came up with the extra entries as a way to help promote their books since they were kind enough to allow me to do the giveaways. )

Please let me know if you have any questions and most importantly....HAVE FUN!

Pssst - There is another cozy challenge going on this year, Crusin' Through the Cozies, being hosted by Socrates' Book Review Blog.   If you signed up for that one (heck..I did), you are more than welcome to sign up for this one as well. The only thing I ask is that you do pay attention to rule #3 and read at least 2 cozies specifically for this one..that you don't count for the other one.