Dino Vicelli, Private Eye by Lori Weiner

Dino Vicelli: Private Eye in a World of Evils

The little Chihuahua, Humberto, walked past Dino.
"Hey, Mr. Private Eye. How are you doing?"

from

Dino Vicelli: Private Eye in a World of Evils by Lori Weiner

Publisher''s description: "an alternate-reality version of New York City, in which talking dogs interact regularly with humans. The hero, Dino Vicelli, is a private investigator who just happens to be a sharply dressed Italian greyhound with a great fondness for cigars. He takes on what initially appears to be a routine missing person case but soon finds himself in the midst of a sinister plot that involves kidnapping, murder, and bizarre scientific experiments aimed at controlling the world. As he investigates this strange case, Dino repeatedly encounters mortal danger, while also finding romance with a beautiful blonde Afghan dog."

Comments:
I've read mysteries featuring dogs and even talking cats, but this is my first mystery read with talking dogs! A little unusual yes, but the author Lori Weiner owns an Italian greyhound, Dino, who is the inspiration for the hero of her book.

Dino may be a greyhound but he talks, walks, dresses, and acts human. He has no doggie traits, so this is definitely not a "pet mystery."

I'm disappointed that Dino doesn't chase criminals on four feet as a greyhound might. He really is a human PI in disguise!

The book was published by Dorrance Publishing Co., Inc., 2009. Paperback, 91 pages. Author Lori Weiner lives in Rancho Mirage, California, and is interested in show dogs. She owns an Italian greyhound named Dino.

Thanks to Carol Fass Publicity for a review copy of the book.

For more teaser quotes, visit Teaser Tuesdays

Review: Denise's Daily Dozen, exercise and diet tips

Things come in simple 12's in Denise's Daily Dozen: The Easy, Every Day Program to Lose Up to 12 Pounds in 2 Weeks.

"Eating right isn't about will power. It's about changing those bad habits." (p. 174)

I liked the simplicity of this exercise and diet book by Denise Austin. I found it easy to follow and the exercises basic enough for me to remember and try!

1. 12 easy exercises in 12 minutes a day

2. A daily eating plan which I found useful and uncomplicated! And a checking list to keep you on track.

3 servings of vegetables
3 servings fruit
3 servings protein
2 servings healthy grain
1 serving healty fat

Total: 12

3. A daily exercise regimen, meal plan, recipes, and shopping list for each weekday, Monday through Sunday. I liked some of the food and fruit combinations: chopped oranges combined with blueberries; a wheat pita sandwich of turkey, sliced apples, baby spinach and a dollop of honey mustard!

Avoid eating right out of a box or bag - something research shows can cause us to eat up to 20 percent more. Make sure anything you eat is put on a plate or in a bowl and enjoyed while (you're) seated. ( p. 246)

     - 12 Ways to Add Physical Activity to Your Daily Routine
     - 12 Tips for Filling Your Life with Fiber
     - 12 Ways to Trim Your Body and Your Food Costs
     - 12 Ways to Prevent Bloat
     - 12 tips on "How to Get a Better Night's Sleep "  and
     - 12 Healthy Rewards for Your Hard Work.

If I can't follow the day to day regimen set out by the book, for whatever reason, I'd definitely still use this as a reference book for quick exercises and healthy recipes.

About the author: Denise Austin has been a health and fitness advocate for over 25 years and has sold over twenty million exercise videos and DVDs. She is a two-term member of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and sports. Her show, Denise Austin's Daily Workout, has aired for over 24 years and is the top-rated fitness show in the history of televevision. Denise lives with her husband and daughters outside Washington D.C. You can visit her at www.deniseaustin.com

Thanks to the Hachette Book Group for providing a review copy.

Book Review: Simply Quince by Barbara Ghazarian

"Some Biblical scholars speculate that quince may have been the true forbidden fruit," writes cookbook author Barbara Ghazarian, who would love to have this traditional Old World fruit brought back to popularity in U.S. kitchens. "I am passionate about quince."

What's a quince?  Simply Quince gives the fruit's history, its migration from the Old World to the New, and shows traditional and new ways to prepare the fruit. "Marmelo in Portuguese, coing in French, quitte in German, ayva in Turkish, and sergevil in Armenian - across the globe, the fruit-bearing quince tree (Cydonia oblonga)is cultivated and prized for its versatility in the kitchen." (from Simply Quince, introduction)

The raw fruit is astringent and mouth pucking and hardly ever eaten as a fresh fruit. Quince is delicous when poached, baked, put into preserves, or cooked in many other ways.

What I learned from this cookbook: Quince can be put into salads, stews, condiments, compotes and preserves, pies and tarts. Some of the recipes in this cookbook include quince jam and quince apple pie, roast pork tenderloin with quince and root vegetables, lamb-stuffed quince dolmas, and duck breasts with quince-sambal chutney. Let's not forget carmelized quince upside down cake and quince infused spirits, grappa and vodka!

My experiences with quince: I fell in love with the fruit, quince, as a sweet jelly with its unusual but delicious flavor. I fell in love with the tree when I saw the beautiful coral pink blossoms every spring as I walked my dog past a neighbor's prolific flowering quince tree. The tree bore lots of fruit in the summer but they were never harvested for cooking. I picked one up about five years ago and planted the seeds. Today I have two small bushes. One of the trees has borne blossoms and two small fruit two seasons now. I hope for increasing blooms and fruit with each new season.

My quince tree however may very be the flowering ornamental quince, prized for its showy coral blooms and not for the fruit. The fruit-bearing quince tree that has edible fruit has white or pink flowers; the tree is best gotten from a nursery. Simply Quince has recommendations for places to buy trees and quince products.

Barbara Ghazarian has created a community of quince lovers, Team Quince, and directs us to her website, Queen of Quince, which offers quince food products. Ghazarian is also author of Simply Aremenian: Naturally Healthy Ethnic Cooking Made Easy.

For a link to an interview with Barbara and a February GIVEAWAY of two copies of Simply Quince, click here.

Disclosure: This book was provided free of any obligation by Publishing Works, Inc. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.  Publishing Works, Inc. is offering a 20 percent discount at the website, http://www.publishingworks.com/ At checkout, include the Coupon Code BLOG for a 20% DISCOUNT, courtesy of Publishing Works, Inc. and their continued support of book blogging! Happy reading!

Giveaway and Book Review: Knit, Purl, Die by Anne Canadeo

Who would think that a group of five knitters would have murder and mystery on their minds, not only once, but now for a second time?

Knit, Purl, Die by Anne Canadeo is the second book in the Black Sheep Knitting Mystery series.

Synopsis: Gloria Sterling had everything, as far as everyone could see. A very goodlooking woman, she had a young husband she playfully referred to as her "trophy" husband, money and property inherited from former husbands, a large and luxurious modern home, and social standing in the community.

Gloria is even a good knitter. She befriends the five members of the Black Sheep Knitting Club - Maggie, Lucy, Dana, Suzanne, plus Phoebe, a college student working at Maggie's knitting shop - so that she might join the group.

When Gloria is found floating facedown in her swimming pool, the five knitting club members become convinced her death is not suicide but foul play. They do some investigating on their own to find out the truth about their new friend, Gloria.

Inbetween discussing, planning,and solving the crime, the group spend their time as regular knitting club members might, with their social chatter, plans to knit a blanket for charity, sharing knitting tips and cooking recipes, and discussing their personal lives.

Comments: This mystery fits the bill of a cozy - there is no "blood and gore", the murder takes place "off scene," and the sleuths are amateurs, not professional  investigators. Knit, Purl, Die is also an easy-to-read and entertaining whodunit. Never mind that you might guess the culprit before the very end of the book. The true motives behind the crime will remain a mystery till the end.

Challenges: 100+, Thriller & Suspense

Pocket Books Blog Tours: Thanks to Sarah Reid of Simon and Schuster for a copy of the book for review and for making this possible.

GIVEAWAY for U.S. only : To enter to win one of two copies of this book, 1) leave a comment with your email address so I can notify winners, and 2) tell us the title of one of your favorite mystery novels. For an additional chance to win, become a follower. Pocket Books will mail directly to the winners. No P.O. boxes please. Contest ends Feb. 4; winners must respond by Feb. 6, after which new winners will be chosen.

Book Review: The Cuban Chronicles by Wanda St. Hilaire

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. Choose two sentences from your current read, and add the author and title for readers. Anyone can join in.

The Cuban Chronicles: A True Tale of Rascals, Rogues, and Romance by Wanda St.Hilaire

"The group will be returning to Calgary in November, and he wants to see me. I would like to see him but I don't know if it's a good idea to take on a third lover, especially one from Havana."
(from the Oct. 23 journal entry, 2006).

Spicy? Yes!

My comments: What I thought would be a light book on Cuba turned out to be an unusual travel memoir and more - add personal experiences behind the scenes, some away from the main tourist attractions. The author doesn't do only tourist jaunts. She has some good experiences but also some unpleasant ones, unhappy love affairs, and mixed encounters with tourists and expatriates from various countries.

 The author travels back and forth from her home in Calgary, Alberta, Canada to Cuba and writes this book as a journal that runs from September 2006 to January 2007. Canada has formal diplomatic relations with the Caribbean island, so Canadian citizens have no difficulty traveling there.

Author Wanda St. Hilaire is a sales and marketing rep as well as a traveler and writer. She lives in Calgary, Alberta. This book was published by iUniverse in 2009.

Thanks to Paula of AME for a review copy of this book.

Book Review: The Youngest Son by Oreste LeRoy Salerni

The Youngest Son: Memoirs from the Homeland is more than a diary of a professor in a foreign land. Written from the heart with a good dose of humor, this memoir recounts a very special and wonderful time in Oreste LeRoy Salerni's life – a pilgrimage to the motherland.

The book is the product of a 6 ½ month sabbatical in Italy at the University of Pisa, which was a way for Salerni to pay tribute to his Italian immigrant parents. The completed sabbatical marked the fulfillment of a dream, full of joys, anxieties, travels, new friends, humor and the frustrations the Italian bureaucracy had with him.

About the author: Oreste LeRoy Salerni, the youngest son of Italian immigrants was born in Bolivar, Pennsylvania. He received his BS and his MS degrees from Duquesne University and his Ph.D from the University of Illinois, Chicago. He was...Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the Butler University College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Indianapolis, for 36 years. Salerni and his wife, Marti, reside in Bradenton, Florida, not far from Pirate City, the spring-training site of the Pirates. Pages: 374" (from the publisher: Peppertree Press)


My comments: This is a delightful and informative account of Prof. Salerni's six months sabbatical at the University of Pisa in Tuscany, where he lectured, wrote research papers, and helped to edit scholarly publications in his field of pharmacy and medicinal chemistry. He and his wife Marti made numerous trips to other parts of Italy to visit relatives, sightsee, and to act as host to many visitors from the U.S.

I learned a lot about the cities in Tuscany - the mountain top villages in Abruzzo where Oreste Salerni's parents were born, and the little town of Marlia near Pisa where the Salerni's lived during the sabattical. The travel memoir also took you to Florence, Siena, south to Naples and the Amalfi coast, and further south to Sicily.

Half of the book is about his experiences as a visiting professor at the University of Pisa, where he made many friends among professors and students alike. Throughout the book are references to friendly people, the food of Italy, and the hospitality he enjoyed, even from strangers.

I came away with a vision of a country with good food and a lot to see - historical buildings, countless churches and Roman ruins, breathtaking scenery. Oreste Salerni did a superb  job of selling his parents' native country, giving wonderful descriptions and detailed information from his diary. He based his book on a journal he kept of his sabattical in Italy.

I love traveling and this book satisfied my curiousity about parts of Italy I've never seen as well as my love of a good narrative.

Thanks to Paula and Peppertree Press for the review copy of this book.



Challenges: 100+ Reading Challenge; Chill Baby, Chill! review challenge

Mystery Read-A-Thon Wind-up

I finished the Mystery Read-A-Thon this past weekend but have to confess I did not spend 12 hours reading mystery novels as planned!

The Golden Globe Awards, chores, and other activities ate into my time! But I did finish Knit, Purl, Die by Anne Canadeo and started Pilikia Is My Business by Mark Troy.

I'd love to do this read-a-thon again, on a longer 3-day weekend!