The Cozy Mystery List Blog

Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV

Amazon MatchBook Program Information

MJ sent me an interesting letter during September that I have been meaning to post:

MatchBook is a new service from Amazon that is due to launch sometime in October. This service puts a new spin in the publishing world! MatchBook works like this: when you buy a print edition book from the MatchBook section of Amazon, it will allow you to also buy a copy of the same book as an e-book for either $2.99, $1.99, $.99 or free. The books have to be in the Matchbook program to qualify for this, and it will apply to thousands of books dating back to 1995 (when Amazon opened its online store). It not only applies to your present purchases, it also applies to your book purchasing history with Amazon. Did you know that Amazon has a list of every book you have ever purchased from them?

For example, if you bought the book I Know This Much is True, by Wally Lamb, back in 1998 from Amazon (this book is part of the MatchBook service), and you would now like to re-read it on your e-reading device, you would be able to purchase the electronic version through MatchBook for anywhere between $2.99 and free. (By the way, the prices are determined by the publishers, and the titles that are available are determined by both the publishers and the authors.) I think this is really great for those of you who love your print version books, but who are slightly envious of the convenience offered with an e-book.

Amazon MatchBook Program Information

This looks like a pretty great deal, MJ. Thank you so much for this letter!

[My husband read the “real book” copies of all of Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series, and now he is re-reading them in Kindle format (so he can control the font size).  When he heard about Amazon’s MatchBook program, he wondered if these books would be in the MatchBook program. He didn’t bother to find out since he didn’t get the books from Amazon…]

Thanks, again, MJ!

Craft (and Cooking) Ideas on Hallmark’s Channel Home & Family

I have talked about the TV ritual I go through every fall, in which I tape every new sitcom that is being shown >>> to see if any of them will make my personal favorites list. (I also try any new non-sitcom shows that catch my fancy.) I have written about shows that were on my favorite sitcom list… WERE being the operative word.

I had grown tired of the comedy shows that I used to follow. Actually, last year I dropped all of my sitcoms except for Hot in Cleveland and Happily Divorced. (Unfortunately, Happily Divorced was cancelled, based on people’s opinions that are totally 180° different than mine. The whole cast was a treasure, Rita Moreno was absolutely delicious in her characterization of Fran Drescher’s mother.)

Getting back to this entry’s purpose. (Yes, I do actually have something to tell you all.)

I have complained in the past about all of the crafting shows being taken off the HGTV channel. They were great resources for young parents, looking for crafts their children could enjoy making while improving their fine motor skills – as well as their self concepts. (Apparently there’s a bigger viewership which the sponsors prefer paying for in Do-It-Yourself-Bathroom-Make-Overs!)

Again, I lost my purpose… Oh, that’s right…

Last year, I tried the Hallmark channel’s new Home & Family show when it first premiered. There was something not quite right with it, so I deleted it from my recording queue. Had I stayed with the show I would have found out that they revamped it six weeks after it began. Happily, I put this show on this fall’s TV ritual round-up, and I’m happy I did. It is currently on my TV watching list.

The real reason for this post is to tell you that this Hallmark channel morning show has crafts! All two hours are not dedicated to crafting, but there is at least one crafting segment per show. (This is based on just the last two weeks that I have viewed the show.)

So, while there may not be any television shows solely dedicated to crafting (that I’m aware of) at least the Hallmark channel’s  Home & Family has some crafting segments. (The show airs on Monday – Friday,  from 9:00 – 11:00 AM central time zone.)

Happy holiday crafting!

***** March 4, 2014 Update:

Now that the holiday season is way behind us, I am not quite as keen about the Home & Family show. I have to say that I find it extremely annoying to watch one of the hosts cut people off almost all of the time. Yesterday, one of the hosts started the show by welcoming the viewers to the Home and Fa— when the other host quickly cut in  with his/her welcome.

This morning I was watching a doctor talk about something quite interesting, only to AGAIN be treated to another “amazing story” from this host of the show. I was much more interested in what the doctor had to say than this host’s story, which I have heard many times before from this host. Very annoying!*****

Starry Night’s Debbie Macomber on the Hallmark Channel’s Home & Family Show

Here’s a quick note to let those of you who are Debbie Macomber’s fans know that she will be on the Hallmark channel’s Home & Family show tomorrow, Tuesday, October 22. I know this is short notice, but better now than never.

I am currently writing a post about the Home & Family show, so I will keep this brief. It airs from 9:00 to 11:00 AM (Central), obviously on the Hallmark channel.

Debbie Macomber is on the Cozy Mystery site, even though she is not a mystery author. I know a lot of you follow her books. (I believe I added her to the site after watching the first of the two Mrs. Miracle Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel. Mrs. Miracle in 2009 followed by Call Me Mrs. Miracle the next year. >>> Can you tell I enjoy her Christmas movies?)

Debbie Macomber will be talking about Starry Night, her 2013 Christmas novel. I don’t know how they plan on interviewing her, but a lot of the time, on this show, they have the guest for the day stay with them the entire two hours. We’ll see what they do tomorrow!

Calling All Future Mystery Author Icons…

Regina sent me a note saying me the following:

“… I did have an idea the other night for a discussion topic… Do you think that any of today’s present crop of writers will become the icons of mystery authors Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Marjorie Allingham and Conan Doyle are? …”

So, here I am, asking you all to give us your opinions about Regina’s topic. What do you think, will any of our current mystery authors become classic mystery icons for future generations?

Oh, and before I post this, I had better say we should limit “today’s present crop of writers” to people who have currently (or within the last year) published a mystery book. So in cases where you might think: “Oh, Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael mysteries will certainly be read in fifty years.” >>> she wouldn’t actually qualify. Where as, someone who has been putting out wonderful mysteries since the 1960s would qualify since (let’s use the example of the excellent author, Ruth Rendell) she published her last mystery this year.

Thank you, Regina, for this great topic AND thanks to ALL of you for your responses.

P.S. Some time in the past I had an entry where I asked you all to actually name all of the current authors who you thought would become classic authors for future generations to seek out, but this time we should probably not name any authors. This way we can be just as negative as we want! (Yes, every once in a while I have that kind of mind frame!)

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