The Rap Sheet (mystery)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle  

MY RECOMMENDATION:  YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: N/A 


WEB ADDRESS: http://therapsheet.blogspot.com/

 BLOG DESCRIPTION:  This is a review site: Send Us News: The Rap Sheet is always on the lookout for information about new and soon-forthcoming books, special author projects, and distinctive crime-fiction-related Web sites.

Sample Post:

A View to a Thrill

During a ceremony at this weekend’s ThrillerFest VII in New York City, winners of the 2012 Thriller Awards were announced as follows:

Best Hardcover Novel: 11/22/63, by Stephen King (Scribner)

Also nominated: Buried Secrets, by Joseph Finder (St. Martin’s Press); A Hard Death, by Jonathan Hayes (Harper); The Ridge, by Michael Koryta (Little, Brown); and The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes, by Marcus Sakey (Dutton)

Best First Novel: Spiral, by Paul McEuen (The Dial Press)

Also nominated: The Genesis Key, by James Barney (Harper); She Can Run, by Melinda Leigh (Montlake Romance); The Fund, by H.T. Narea (Forge); and Midnight Caller, by Leslie Tentler (Mira)

Best Paperback Original: The Last Minute, by Jeff Abbott (Sphere/Little, Brown UK)

Also nominated: Threat Warning, by John Gilstrap (Pinnacle); The Glass Demon, by Helen Grant (Delacorte Press); The Queen, by Steven James (Revell); and Already Gone, by John Rector (Thomas & Mercer)

Best Short Story: “Half-Lives,” by Tim L. Williams (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM], March-April 2011)

Also nominated: “One More Lie,” by James Scott Bell (Compendium Press); “Anything to Win,” by Michael Z. Lewin (The Strand Magazine, June-September 2011); “Happine$$,” by Twist Phelan (from Mystery Writers of America Presents The Rich and the Dead, edited by Nelson DeMille; Grand Central); and “A Hostage Situation,” by Dave Zeltserman (EQMM, September-October 2011)

On top of all that excitement, true-crime writer Ann Rule was presented with the True Thriller Award. Novelist Jack Higgins (né Harry Patterson) acted as the convention’s ThrillerMaster.

As usual, congratulations to all of the winners and nominees!

MY REVIEW:  Another excellent blog for mystery lovers, with multiple authors.


RECENT POSTS:
--A View to a Thrill
--The Scribe Has Spoken
-- The Book You Have to Read: “Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game”
--New Life in Older Books
--Small-screen Crime Wave




 _______________
Reviews published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Killzone (Mysteries and the authors who write them

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle  

MY RECOMMENDATION:  YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: N/A 


WEB ADDRESS:  http://killzoneauthors.blogspot.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION:  The Kill Zone is the musings of 9 top thriller and mystery authors covering topics that inspire, anger, amuse, and entertain us. Each day, we’ll share what goes on inside our heads as we observe and write about the world around us. The Kill Zone is a doorway into the thriller and mystery writer’s mind. Enter at your own risk!

Sample Post:

Don't Stop Believin'

Never. Give. Up. It can’t be said often enough. Whether it’s writing or making Seal Team 6 or winning the heart of your one true love the only person you can’t beat is the one who tells you “quit” when you look in the mirror in the morning. Writers get a lot of that from their reflection, and it’s the self-doubt that you have to kick to the curb whenever and however often it rears its ugly head.

You can find all sorts of stories about authors who persevered. Get a Facebook account, list “writer” in occupation and sooner or later you will find one of those posts listing which authors got s number of rejection slips before getting published and becoming overnight sensations. This isn’t one of those stories. You can find such elsewhere. This is one you will only read here, and it’s not about an author. It’s about Lisa, my wife.

Lisa wanted two things from the time she was a little girl. She wanted to be a mother and she wanted to be a teacher. The second goal was the one she reached first, teaching special education in Oak Hill and Fayetteville, West Virginia, two places about as diametrically opposite from her birthplace on Long Island as one could imagine. She made an impression on any number of young lives --- to this day, a quarter-century on, she still gets letters, some addressed in pencil, from former students --- often scraping together money she didn’t really have to but shoes when she noticed a seven year old limping in the back of the room because they’d outgrown an older sibling’s Keds. At one point, however, she heard that biological clock ticking and without any likely prospects for a husband took matters in hand and began a course of artificial insemination. It was a one hundred fifty mile round trip to get-er-done, but it was what Lisa wanted, and she did it for two years, all the while teaching at a small school named Gatewood Elementary. Lisa used to stand and watch the children on the playground during recess duty, imagining that one day her child would be out there playing with them. At the end of two years, Lisa was given the solemn news that she would never get pregnant.  She kept teaching, took in a couple of foster children, and hoped that down the road a miracle would happen, all the while watching other parents’ children on the slides and swing sets.

Fast forward fifteen years or so. A combination of circumstances brought Lisa from West Virginia to Westerville, Ohio where, we met ironically enough in the hallway of a school. One thing led to another, as such things sometimes do, and we fell in love and became engaged. By that time I was aware of her dream; more importantly, I was aware of the type of person she was. I already had three children on the cusp of adulthood, but I knew what I knew, and I knew she wanted a child of her own. I told her that once we got married we could try to bring our own new life into the world. She repeated to me what the experts had told her. I waved the sage pronouncement away. “You just haven’t been with an Italian,” I said. “You’ll be pregnant within a year.” She replied, “You’re a cocky little b*****d, aren’t you?” We were both right.

Fast forward another fifteen years to last month. On our way to Charlotte and points south from Ohio we --- Lisa, myself, and Annalisa, our fourteen year old who the experts and specialists said would never happen --- stopped in West Virginia and did a tour of Lisa’s former schools and residences. As the sun began to set over the New River Gorge Bridge to the west we drove seventeen miles down a long holler on Gatewood Road, turning right into the parking lot of a small school. I drove around to the back while Lisa and our daughter Annalisa got out. Annalisa, unbidden, went over to the playground and got on a swing. And for a few moments, the world stopped as a dream came true and --- I swear --- the next song up on the    iPod shuffle was  “Don’t Stop Believin.’”

MY REVIEW:  If you're a mystery fan, you'll love this blog. Check it out. Each day, there's a different author. Clare Langley-Hawthorne, Kathryn Lilley, Kathleen Pickering, Joe Moore, Nancy Cohen, Michelle Gagnon, Jordan Dane,  Joe Hartlaub, and James Scott Bell


RECENT POSTS:

• Don't Stop Believin'
• Reader Friday: Where do YOU write?
• Getting Out of the Protection Racket
• Conference season and the pitch
• Rethinking the "Like" button
• What Your E-Reader Knows...
• 7 Things Writers Need to Do Right Now
• Like Sugar on a Sidewalk
• Reader Friday: Where do we write?
• Essential Twitter Hashtags for Authors, Readers an...
• Celebrating Freedom to Choose
• Identity Theft: Cloud Files and Urgent Phone Calls...
• Omit Needless Words!
• Successful Fiction Begins With a Great Concept

 _______________
Reviews published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Simply Left Behind (politics)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Simply Left Behind, by Carl

WEB ADDRESS: http://simplyleftbehind.blogspot.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: "Democrats Work For Solutions; Republicans Pray The Problem Will Go Away" - Actor212

MY REVIEW: Rush Limbaugh castigates Liberals all the time...here's the rebuttal from Simply Left Behind (from the TV character Matt Santos on The West Wing):

"Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. What did Conservatives do? They opposed them on every one of those things...every one! So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, 'Liberal,' as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won't work, Senator, because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor." -- Matt Santos, The West Wing

From that, you get the idea of what this blog is about. You'll find these articles very interesting. Subscribe!

Sample post

Is Wisconsin 'broke'? Answer is in the eye of the beholder, experts say
In his inaugural budget address, Gov. Scott Walker stood before a joint session of the Legislature and delivered the somber news: We're broke.

"Too many politicians have failed to tell the truth about our financial crisis," he said. "The facts are clear: Wisconsin is broke and it's time to start paying our bills today so our kids are not stuck with even bigger bills tomorrow."

The governor has repeated the message time and again, from his Inauguration Day speech to a "fireside chat" to discuss his proposal to limit collective bargaining for most public employees. It is usually followed by calls for budget cuts.

Trouble is, many experts say Wisconsin isn't really broke.

"That is not correct," said Andrew Reschovsky, a professor of public affairs and applied economics at UW-Madison's La Follette School of Public Affairs. "Wisconsin has a range of options other than cutting spending."

There are a number of ways to judge whether a state's finances are in order.

Economists often look at a state's pension funds, and whether they have more liabilities to be paid than money saved. They also typically look at the imbalance between the money coming in and money going out in any given budget, known as the structural deficit.

Pension outlook good

When it comes to its pension system, Wisconsin is far from broke. Current assets in the Wisconsin Retirement System total about $80 billion, expected to cover its obligations promised to current workers and retirees, making Wisconsin's retirement system one of the largest and most solvent pension funds in the country.

"Wisconsin gets a gold star," Reschovsky said. "We have a strong pension system."

The state is in especially good shape compared to our southern neighbor, Illinois, which has one of the worst pension shortfalls in the United States.

Another common measure of a state's bottom line is how much of its budget is already spoken for because of commitments made in prior budgets, the structural deficit.

Before Walker introduced his budget, the state faced a $3.6 billion deficit for the two years ending July 2013. That's close to 13 percent of its budget, putting it in the middle of states nationally, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Eye of beholder

Even so, Wisconsin hasn't been bouncing checks or defaulting on loans.

"Wisconsin is Republican broke, but it's not broke," said Mordecai Lee, a UW-Milwaukee political science professor and former Democratic state lawmaker. "Broke suggests near bankruptcy."

Using the word "broke" helps Walker frame the debate around his controversial budget plans on his terms, Lee said, suggesting spending cuts are the only option and any tax increases are out of the question.

He cited Walker's business tax cut laws, passed during a special session on the economy, as an example. The legislation could end up costing the state about $116 million in the next budget.

"We weren't too broke to do tax breaks for corporations," Lee said.

Walker makes no apologies for using the term. "I've never said we stand alone," he said. "But if you have a budget deficit, you're broke."

Walker said he is not only concerned about balancing the upcoming budget but is thinking in terms of balancing the one after that.

Other budget options

Most agree this is not going to be an easy budget, especially without the option of tax increases. Walker's proposal includes $1 billion in cuts to education in addition to Medicaid cuts and less money going to counties and municipalities.

Walker and Republican leaders have said the law to dramatically limit collective bargaining for public workers, currently on hold because of a legal challenge, would help local governments make up for cuts in state aid by raising pension and health care contributions on employees. Many of those municipalities say it won't be enough to cover the cuts.

Of course, there are other options. Other governors, Democrats and Republicans, have raised taxes and fees, raided money from segregated funds such as the transportation fund, or used one-time sources of revenue to balance the budget.

Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, said he supports targeted tax relief tied to job creation. But he said proposed tax breaks could create tax loopholes for large corporations.

For example, changes to a current state law requiring large, multistate companies that do business in Wisconsin to be considered one company for tax purposes, a policy known as combined reporting, could mean millions of dollars less in tax revenues, Barca said, at the cost of key programs such as education.

"Education is your seed corn," he said.

He added Democrats faced a much larger deficit, about $6 billion, two years ago and addressed it while protecting things such as education and health care.

'Acting broke'

But to do that, Republicans say, Democrats and then-Gov. Jim Doyle used short-term fixes, causing the problem to reappear this year.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said in recent years, budgets have been patched together by multiple "budget repair" bills, numerous fund raids and federal money to mask the continuous deficit. And he pointed to a November 2009 Pew Center report that named Wisconsin one of the top 10 states "in fiscal peril."

This budget will end those money tricks and create greater financial stability, he said.

"Do we have a responsibility to put in place an honest and legitimate budget? Yeah," Fitzgerald said.

He added the state has other obligations that need to be taken into account, including $1.6 billion in unemployment insurance money owed to the federal government.

But are we broke?

Maybe not. But when he looks at the increasingly desperate measures governors and lawmakers have taken to get from one budget to the next, Fitzgerald said, "we've been acting broke."

RECENT POSTS:
--Privatized Fascism
--Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeea! Not Happening
--Two-Fer
--I'll Take Twelve
--This May Be Worth A Closer Look
--The Reason The Debt Ceiling Debate Is Political No...
--The End Of The Birthers
--Fighting Fat?
--I May Need To Take Some Pot-Graduate Courses. I me...
--We Should Go Back And Finish The Job
--Cowards Of The Country
--If You're A Conservative Budgeteer....
--High Art
--Wisconsin Is Broke! Broke, I Say!
--The Other Uncle
--Coming To A Theater Near You
--War's A-Coming
--Romneycare Is On The March
--Boener Must Read My Blog
--*Rubbing Hands With Glee*
--The Zen Way To Publishing Success
--An Illustrative Example
--At What Price?
--I Wish Matt Taibbi Would Be A Little Less Shy

_______________
Reviews published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
_______________________
Check out the following blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report

Retro Review: Volcano Seven

REVIEWED BY: Ms. Cairo

MY RECOMMENDATION: Yes

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Volcano Seven

WEB ADDRESS: http://volcnoseven.blogspot.com

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Documents treasure hunters - those searching for lost gems, lost people, lost mines, lost aircraft, lost ships, lost cities, and of course, pirate treasure

MY REVIEW: It is no accident that the Pirates of the Caribbean movies have been so successful (although I must say the first one was the best, and the other two rather disappointing from my point of view!) - everyone is fascinated by pirates and pirate treasure. Well...probably more by pirate treasure than pirates!

Who doesn't dream of walking on white sands, with an azure sea, and coming across a gold coin or two, washed in from a sunken galleon?

There's plenty of treasure out there - not just gold, silver, and jewelry on board sunken ships, but also cultural treasure, and perhaps most important, knowledge. There are lost ships, lost aircraft, lost people (Judge Crater, for example)...and Volcano Seven documents the search for (and sometimes the finding) of them all.

Sample post:

A couple of years ago, I bought shares in Odyssey Marine, hoping the stock would rise and I would become rich beyond the dreams of avarice. It didn't happen. Actually, I have lost half of my investment! (Not that this was a great tragedy....I only bought 100 shares.)

Now, I'm not really dissing Odyssey Marine. They've got a lot to deal with - they've found a ship in international waters and yet Spain is claiming it, and the treasure it contains to be their's, so there are lawsuits and the lawyers are taking away all the money and leaving none for shareholders.

Still, there story is interesting and here it is.

From their website:
Odyssey is the world leader in deep-ocean shipwreck exploration, searching the globe's vast oceans for sunken ships with intriguing stories, extraordinary treasure and precious artifacts spanning centuries of maritime travel. Our important discoveries also uncover priceless new knowledge and history from the depths. As we recover these shipwreck treasures once believed lost forever, we also resurrect lifetimes long forgotten, offering a rare and fascinating window into historic events that would otherwise remain obscure.

Our passion for shipwrecks and the amazing stories they tell is as deep as the oceans we explore.

No one knows shipwrecks better than our world-class team of researchers, scientists, technicians, and archaeologists. We've surveyed and mapped more than 10,000 square miles of seabed and spent more than 9,000 hours diving on shipwreck sites using advanced robotic technology, while more importantly, applying the highest archaeological standards. Our expert team has discovered hundreds of shipwrecks ranging from 3rd century BC Punic sites to U-boats and Colonial warships.

In 2003, we discovered the Civil War-era shipwreck of the SS Republic® and recovered over 51,000 coins and nearly 14,000 artifacts from the 1,700 foot (518 meters) deep site. In May 2007, we announced the recovery of over 500,000 silver and gold coins, weighing 17 tons, from a Colonial-era deep-ocean site code-named "Black Swan." In 2008, Odyssey discovered what is considered one of the most significant shipwrecks in history, HMS Victory, Admiral Sir John Balchin's flagship which perished in 1744. And our expeditions continue to unveil new sites with fascinating stories and cargoes.

RECENT ARTICLES:
--Lost Aircraft
--Odyssey Marine
--Arthur McKee, Jr. Part 2
--Arthur McKee, Jr. - part 1
--The Search for the Guggenheim Treasure
--CSS Texas

Simply Left Behind

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Simply Left Behind, by Carl

WEB ADDRESS: http://simplyleftbehind.blogspot.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: "Democrats Work For Solutions; Republicans Pray The Problem Will Go Away" - Actor212

MY REVIEW: Rush Limbaugh castigates Liberals all the time...here's the rebuttal from Simply Left Behind (from the TV character Matt Santos on The West Wing):

"Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. What did Conservatives do? They opposed them on every one of those things...every one! So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, 'Liberal,' as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won't work, Senator, because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor." -- Matt Santos, The West Wing

From that, you get the idea of what this blog is about. You'll find these articles very interesting. Subscribe!

Sample post

Is Wisconsin 'broke'? Answer is in the eye of the beholder, experts say
In his inaugural budget address, Gov. Scott Walker stood before a joint session of the Legislature and delivered the somber news: We're broke.

"Too many politicians have failed to tell the truth about our financial crisis," he said. "The facts are clear: Wisconsin is broke and it's time to start paying our bills today so our kids are not stuck with even bigger bills tomorrow."

The governor has repeated the message time and again, from his Inauguration Day speech to a "fireside chat" to discuss his proposal to limit collective bargaining for most public employees. It is usually followed by calls for budget cuts.

Trouble is, many experts say Wisconsin isn't really broke.

"That is not correct," said Andrew Reschovsky, a professor of public affairs and applied economics at UW-Madison's La Follette School of Public Affairs. "Wisconsin has a range of options other than cutting spending."

There are a number of ways to judge whether a state's finances are in order.

Economists often look at a state's pension funds, and whether they have more liabilities to be paid than money saved. They also typically look at the imbalance between the money coming in and money going out in any given budget, known as the structural deficit.

Pension outlook good

When it comes to its pension system, Wisconsin is far from broke. Current assets in the Wisconsin Retirement System total about $80 billion, expected to cover its obligations promised to current workers and retirees, making Wisconsin's retirement system one of the largest and most solvent pension funds in the country.

"Wisconsin gets a gold star," Reschovsky said. "We have a strong pension system."

The state is in especially good shape compared to our southern neighbor, Illinois, which has one of the worst pension shortfalls in the United States.

Another common measure of a state's bottom line is how much of its budget is already spoken for because of commitments made in prior budgets, the structural deficit.

Before Walker introduced his budget, the state faced a $3.6 billion deficit for the two years ending July 2013. That's close to 13 percent of its budget, putting it in the middle of states nationally, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Eye of beholder

Even so, Wisconsin hasn't been bouncing checks or defaulting on loans.

"Wisconsin is Republican broke, but it's not broke," said Mordecai Lee, a UW-Milwaukee political science professor and former Democratic state lawmaker. "Broke suggests near bankruptcy."

Using the word "broke" helps Walker frame the debate around his controversial budget plans on his terms, Lee said, suggesting spending cuts are the only option and any tax increases are out of the question.

He cited Walker's business tax cut laws, passed during a special session on the economy, as an example. The legislation could end up costing the state about $116 million in the next budget.

"We weren't too broke to do tax breaks for corporations," Lee said.

Walker makes no apologies for using the term. "I've never said we stand alone," he said. "But if you have a budget deficit, you're broke."

Walker said he is not only concerned about balancing the upcoming budget but is thinking in terms of balancing the one after that.

Other budget options

Most agree this is not going to be an easy budget, especially without the option of tax increases. Walker's proposal includes $1 billion in cuts to education in addition to Medicaid cuts and less money going to counties and municipalities.

Walker and Republican leaders have said the law to dramatically limit collective bargaining for public workers, currently on hold because of a legal challenge, would help local governments make up for cuts in state aid by raising pension and health care contributions on employees. Many of those municipalities say it won't be enough to cover the cuts.

Of course, there are other options. Other governors, Democrats and Republicans, have raised taxes and fees, raided money from segregated funds such as the transportation fund, or used one-time sources of revenue to balance the budget.

Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, said he supports targeted tax relief tied to job creation. But he said proposed tax breaks could create tax loopholes for large corporations.

For example, changes to a current state law requiring large, multistate companies that do business in Wisconsin to be considered one company for tax purposes, a policy known as combined reporting, could mean millions of dollars less in tax revenues, Barca said, at the cost of key programs such as education.

"Education is your seed corn," he said.

He added Democrats faced a much larger deficit, about $6 billion, two years ago and addressed it while protecting things such as education and health care.

'Acting broke'

But to do that, Republicans say, Democrats and then-Gov. Jim Doyle used short-term fixes, causing the problem to reappear this year.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said in recent years, budgets have been patched together by multiple "budget repair" bills, numerous fund raids and federal money to mask the continuous deficit. And he pointed to a November 2009 Pew Center report that named Wisconsin one of the top 10 states "in fiscal peril."

This budget will end those money tricks and create greater financial stability, he said.

"Do we have a responsibility to put in place an honest and legitimate budget? Yeah," Fitzgerald said.

He added the state has other obligations that need to be taken into account, including $1.6 billion in unemployment insurance money owed to the federal government.

But are we broke?

Maybe not. But when he looks at the increasingly desperate measures governors and lawmakers have taken to get from one budget to the next, Fitzgerald said, "we've been acting broke."

RECENT POSTS:
--Privatized Fascism
--Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeea! Not Happening
--Two-Fer
--I'll Take Twelve
--This May Be Worth A Closer Look
--The Reason The Debt Ceiling Debate Is Political No...
--The End Of The Birthers
--Fighting Fat?
--I May Need To Take Some Pot-Graduate Courses. I me...
--We Should Go Back And Finish The Job
--Cowards Of The Country
--If You're A Conservative Budgeteer....
--High Art
--Wisconsin Is Broke! Broke, I Say!
--The Other Uncle
--Coming To A Theater Near You
--War's A-Coming
--Romneycare Is On The March
--Boener Must Read My Blog
--*Rubbing Hands With Glee*
--The Zen Way To Publishing Success
--An Illustrative Example
--At What Price?
--I Wish Matt Taibbi Would Be A Little Less Shy

_______________
Reviews published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
_______________________
Check out the following blogs:
Seaborn: Oceanography Blog
Star Trek Report: Space Sciences
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
Rush Limbaugh Report