G’ Mornin’! We are here again! This week has flown by so quickly! I had such great plans of what I would get done earlier this week and now…. here it is Thursday and between work, work outs, and meetings…. yeah. I pretty much have accomplished nothing.
Tomorrow after work I leave for the cities to meet up with Reagan (Miss Remmer’s Reviews) and throughout the weekend, 5 other book bloggers from around the area. That will be fun. We will all be at the Twin Cities Book Festival and just yesterday I received questions from the panel I will be on:
1. What do you see as the biggest change to reading and books of the last 5 years? Please name one good and one bad.
2. Based on that, what is the biggest challenge to what you do each day as a books professional/avid hobbyist?
3. What needs to change for the book business to be all it can be?
4. How do you personally decide what to read next? What is your “reading strategy?”
There are great questions and I would to hear your take on these if you have any. I am excited and nervous to be on this panel. I know it will be a lot of fun and I am hopeful that all the book bloggers I am with have a chance to meet some incredible authors and publishers.
I have to run… this cold, or virus, or whatever I have going on has run me down to the point I am sleeping later and not having as much time in the morning as I usually do to hang out and enjoy that extra cup of coffee. 😛
It’s no secret I love talking books. And I am betting that many of you are the same way. I like to read books, discuss books, search out new books…
Well… you get my point. 😛
As per my earlier post today, ♥I LOVE MY BOOK CLUB ♥. We have met for ten years and I have met some incredible women through this group who have stretched me into authors and books that I never dreamed I would read… or enjoy…. and have!
For me, it started with my desire to know the people I worked with better. I had worked the same job foe 10 years and found it sad that many of us knew nothing about each other, other than what department we worked in and maybe what we ate for lunch.
So… the book club idea came to be.
To this day this is one of my favorite books of all time.
I posted a note on the time clock – chose a book (Dance Upon The Air by Nora Roberts), put a time and place and waited. No one said boo to me about it.
I felt like an idiot.
The day of the meeting I showed up at the designated restaurant pretty much planning to drink a diet coke by myself and go home. Then two ladies showed up. We had a blast. And the next month, another one came. And before too long we were 8 and then we grew again to 12, and now we are at 18.
What brings me to this topic today is that I have been blessed by this great group of women and wish everyone had the opportunity to be in a book club. It’s not always easy and with growth we did have growing pains (where to meet as we outgrew spaces, how to keep everyone focused on the book at hand – I am a real stickler that we do discuss the book!) All of us have worked together to bring “more to a group”. By more I mean – we try to bring pictures of events described in books, we discuss the author, we have an annual Queen Event, a Christmas Party, and an October Classic Read. We potluck themes to go with the books, and we do a Year In Review handout every January of the past year, what we read and the funny, or real moments we had. We vote for the best book pick of the year… and the worst.
My questions to you are:
Are you involved in a book club? Why or why not?
Is it online or off-line (or both!)
If you are, what do you do to keep everyone engaged?
Would you be interested in a group that shares book club ideas (ie. fun things to do around certain books, how to get a book club started, how to get the group engaged…)
Good Morning! Wednesday already can you even believe it? I feel like the days are flying by and now I am only two days out from going to the Twin Cities for the Book Festival and Book Blogger Meet Up! WOW! I will talk more on that yet this week 🙂
Last night my book club met and reviewed The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. Every October we read a Classic and this year we thought it would be fun to wear old-time hats. My search went on after work yesterday where my goal was to go for the whole look. We have two great second-hand stores in town and my first stop found me the best shoes for the look – in fact they looked a lot like the shoes on the book cover which to me was “SQQQQUUUUEEEEE” worthy.
The Book Cover
My Shoes
However, my first stop had nothing for vintage hats. SO…. I hit the second stop (one of my faves) and they had MANY vintage hats. So I grabbed a couple of dresses and about five hats and of to the dressing room I went. I left with the hat you will see in the pictures and a dress that you will not. The dress was so awesome – black with a pick trim and lace around the bottom, it would have been perfect but was a size to small. It was so cute and I can use it in the future and was such a low price that I could not pass it up (plus now it is an inventive!). Maybe with a little luck by Halloween we can see that dress! Or, err….. shortly after. 😛
We had a wonderful meeting and good food. The way we choose our books for our next read is that we each are allowed to nominate one book. Then we go around and we each get two votes and the book that receives the most votes wins. This was our nominations:
I know right? Look at that selection! It was so hard to choose! A few of these are currently on my shelf to be read! The winning vote went to The Boticelli Secret. That will be our November Bookies book club read.
I am off to work and then Group Power and tonight a planning meeting for Honduras. It’s hard to believe out trip is really only about 6 weeks out.
I will leave you with a couple of pics from last night. This is not the entire book club, just the ones who wore hats.
There are rumors of hardships to come in England and Norman Mortimer’s is not the type of man who just sits around and waits for things to happen. He is a man of action and forward thinking. Anticipating the worst, Norman moves his family from their lovely home to an old drafty castle looking home, a fortress really. He secretly starts spending a lot of time in the basement with his son Geoff, hammering away at something that his wife and his other three children Nessie, Barry, and Ellen know nothing about. Later it is discovered that Norman has built shelves all along the basement walls and has stock piled canned good and food staples. He plans ahead by purchasing clothes for his children in larger sizes to accommodate growth. In Norman’s plan, his family will be able to survive whatever hardships come their way and he will protect them and their home from the outside world.
But can such a plan work? As the times get hard, and food is being rationed and stores are closing and people are starving…. what are the moral realities here?
Well hello dystopian fiction!
Days after I have finished this book I am still questioning how I felt about it. I started out finding it slow and immediately taking a string dislike to Norman as a father and especially as a husband. His lack of including his wife in any of his decisions and how he treated her as a possession without an opinion rubbed me the wrong way.
Early on in the book I sat it down and went on to a different read.
This past weekend I picked the book up again during the read-a-thon and found to my surprise that I was getting into the story line. As England took the predicted economy turn, I had to wonder was Norman a genius or a control freak? Or both? I especially liked Norman’s son Barry who seemed to have a good head on his shoulder’s and cared about others outside his home as families were literally starving to death.
What was interesting is that this book was originally published in 1975 and recently re-published. While there were parts of the book I enjoyed reading and found interesting, the ending felt unfinished to me and I found I had many questions unanswered. I closed the final page with out a solid feeling about the book that still has not really left me.
I found on-line that apparently there once was a TV series of Noah’s castle that is out on DVD.
I also found this ring tone for Noah’s Castle which is supposed to have been taken off the ending theme song.
I received my copy for review of this book from October Mist Publishing
Morning. I am feeling a little ill. I am hoping to shake it as I work today, and have book club tonight. Every October we read a classic and this years pick is Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. We are all suppose to wear an old-time hat in honor of the classics, but I am really hoping I can pull off a whole classic ensemble. As of this moment however, I do not even have a hat. 😛
“Hello?”
“This is procrastination calling. Congratulations! You are our number one customer!”
*sigh*
I love that our book club likes to take things to the next level and it makes for great memories of our discussions and our year-end reviews. I must be a team player.
Today after work I will take a buzz through a local thrift store and see if they have anything that inspires me. If I could come up with something like this I would be thrilled:
Ok I am out of here. Have a super day and hopefully tomorrow I will feel awesome and have something way more intelligent (or at least funny) to say. 😛
After a blurred trauma over the summer, Melinda enters high school a selective mute. Struggling with school, friends, and family, she tells the dark tale of her experiences, and why she has chosen not to speak.
During Banned Books week I had the opportunity to review the book SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson. The book was brought to my attention during the big hype about the recent controversy surrounding the book and its status as a banned and challenged book. I read the book and found it to be very well and tastefully done.
While doing a little research on the book I was surprised to discover it had also been a movie. Surprise #2 was that the lead role of Melinda was played by non other than Kristen Stewart (you may know her better as Bella in the Twilight movies). I was instantly fascinated with this early role for Kristen as well as the movie itself.
Thank goodness for the miracle that is Netflix. I was able to find the movie that was released in 2004.
I appreciated the movie as much as I appreciated the book. Again, I was brought to the brink as I relived the books harder parts through the screen. Kristen Stewart does well in this role being at first silent with fear and later, able to SPEAK of what has happened to her. I found this movie to a wonderful companion to the book and highly recommend this to those who have had the opportunity to read this heartfelt book of a young girl’s life after rape.
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading, is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.
I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! As part of this weekly meme I love to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme. I offer a weekly contest for those who visit 10 or more of the Monday Meme participants and leave a comment. You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.
Congratulations! Please choose an item out of the PRIZE BOX and email me your choice with your mailing address as well! journeythroughbooks@gmail.com
What a great weekend! I had a great time being a part of the Dewey read-a-thon and I am hoping many of you participated too. If you did, you probably have a few more books read this week than usual. I do! I have yet to write reviews but I did make a small dent in the TBR! 😀 I think Lynne, from Lynne’s Book Reviews, put it best… today is like a book hang over. Little groggy…. but happy. 😛
I read several books during the read a thon and have not wrote a single review yet. GAH! Oh well…. 😛
Here’s what my plan is for this week
I loved this author’s book, Water For Elephants. I was excited to see this book come out and hope it is a wonderful story!
This book looks fantastic. Doesn’t it? Look at it. See? I told you. I seen this on another blog and thought it looked sooooo good. 😀
Pete is 13 the summer the Preacher Man comes to his small town, vulnerable with both adolescent yearning and the need to find religious fulfillment. His parents are lapsed church-goers, who neither share nor encourage their son’s deeper convictions. The Preacher Man, with mesmerizing blue eyes, is a traveling evangelist who holds revivalist meetings in Pete’s town that summer; Pete finds in him a companion who can understand his feelings about God without speaking a word. As the Preacher Man takes on Christ-like proportions in his mind, Pete decides to travel with the man when he leaves town. Pete waits for him all night, his bags packed, feeling as if he were called to this journey. But Rufus, his best friend and a confirmed atheist, is the one who tells Pete that the Preacher Man has run off with a woman. A year later, Pete understands that the Preacher Man’s fallibility was of this earth, not to be confused with a betrayal by God.
I am keeping it light this week. I have meetings Monday, Tuesday (BOOK CLUB!) and Wednesday evenings. Then Friday I leave for the cities for the Twin Cities Book Festival and Minnesota/Wisconsin meet up. Seven of us will meet there! More on that later this week. 😀
I am so looking forward to stopping by and seeing what you are reading! This is actually one of my favorite things to do each week. Add your What Are You Reading post to the linky where it says CLICK HERE and we all can visit the posts!
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I had the privilege of first hearing of Bill Walker through his book Titanic 2012. I found this beauty of a book and being a fan of all things Titanic, had to – had to read it. I really enjoyed (and recommend) the book and was curious about the author who would write a book about a future Titanic. This is how I met Bill.
Please welcome Bill Walker to Book Journey
Bill Walker
First off Bill, I need to know how you take your coffee.
Bill: I like mine sweet and white.
Bill, what books will I find on your bookshelf?
Bill: You’ll find over 500 books on my shelf. I’m literally surrounded by them in my little office/nook. As to why they are there? Well, because each one of them called out to me “Buy me!” and I couldn’t resist that literary siren call. My problem is I buy them faster than I can read them 😉
No! You are kidding me! That never happens to me! Ok, I kid… I have about that many books as well. What is the earliest book you can remember reading?
Bill: Now that’s a tough one. I don’t know if I remember the first one I read, but I do remember the first book that really inspired me to write. It was a famous children’s book called Ben and Me, which is about Ben Franklin and his pet mouse, Amos, and was told as if Amos wrote it. I loved that book so much I wrote my own pastiche called The Adventures of Mouser. I thought my book was long lost, but recently received it back in the mail after nearly forty years. One of my oldest friends had borrowed it and forgotten to return it before he and his family moved away. It’s really kind of neat and strange to see where my head was those many years ago and how much I’ve learned about the craft of writing in that time.
Bill I love that! I enjoyed reading your book Titanic 2012. I have always had a passion for the Titanic. Could you share a little about why you wrote a book about this famous ship?
Bill: Again it was a situation where I was inspired by another work, in this case James Cameron’s Titanic. Writing it was my way of extending my feelings and experiences from watching the film.
I now have in my hands your newest book, A Note From An Old Acquaintance. A little different from your Titanic story. Why this book? Why this story?
Bill: All my books have a romantic subplot, even the ones that remain unpublished, and it was my desire to write a novel where the love story took center stage. I also wanted to tell a story set in Boston, which is where I spent many happy years.
I love this trailer Bill, which is saying a lot as I don’t usually like book trailers! Book you are reading right now?
Bill: One Second After by William Forstchen. It is a very realistic story about what might happen if America were hit by an EMP attack. That is when a nuclear device is exploded high in the atmosphere to allow an Electromagnetic Pulse to bathe the ground beneath it. It would basically wipe out every high-tech gadget in the country, whether it was turned on or not. It would be instant middle ages and what makes it so frightening is that anyone with a nuclear device, such as North Korea, and a high altitude method of delivery, such as a missile, could do it. It is especially frightening when you think about how dependant we are on all this gadgetry and how helpless we would be without it. We would all find out very quickly how thin the veneer of civilization really is.
It is tradition for me to ask those I interview to share a little known fact about themselves. (This could be an unusual talent, embarrassing moment, an award you won, an instrument you play, funny happening…)
Bill: I don’t know how little known this fact is, but I’m an inveterate rock and roller who loves to plug in my Les Paul and wail. I find it psychologically liberating.
That is awesome Bill! Thanks for your time!
Bill: And thank you for having me over.
Readers, if you want to know more about Bill and/or his books please link to him through his website:
Mornin….. *groping to find coffee cup*. How ya’ all doin’? *said in a deep froggy voice like I had smoked a pack of cigarrettes* (Apparently when I am tired I abbreviate any word I can).
Here is my recap of the Read-A-Thon. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed just sitting aside a day of no big commitments other than to relax at home and read. I didn’t plan well on the snacks and by early afternoon I ran to the grocery store for a little variety of good reading snacks, however I listened to audio there and back so I was still “plugged in”.
I started out strong and was cleaning up a few partial reads I had going. By the time I got to SOLD by Patricia McCormick I was laying down and well… yeah… I fell asleep about 4 pm until about 4:30. Woke up, finished the read and then made dinner and chatted with hubby for about an hour.
I ended with The Bell Jar and read that until I crashed again on the couch and this time knew I was done. I got up and went to bed.
So over all, I completed 5 books and half of the 6th. The Bell Jar is my book club read for our Tuesday meeting so that will be my focus this afternoon. It is our classic read that we do every October so I need to also search for a classic hat to wear to this review.
During the Read-A-Thon I was able to get out and visit a few blogs, but not many as I was focusing on the reading. I participated in some of the challenges and was a winner in one! 😛
Later I hope to pop over and see some of the new people who stopped by to say hi and “you go girl”. A special thanks to Jill and her Cheerleader Squad – I think I was cheered for about 6 times throughout the event and that was pretty cool.
And since this song has been in my head every time I felt like quitting yesterday – I will pass it on to you and hopefully it will get stuck in your head and I will be set free.
Are you ready! I am and soooo looking forward to this. I have most of the day set aside to read, with the slight possibility of attending a wrap up potluck gathering for our kick ball team late afternoon – that has yet to be determined.
This post will be up all day and this is where I will post updates and any mini challenge info I participate in. (updates are at bottom of post)
Mid Event Survey Challenge:
1. What are you reading right now? finishing up Sold by Patricia McCormick
2. How many books have you read so far? 4
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? I am hoping to treat myself with City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day? No, my day was free by design… I just made sure to avoid any commitments.
5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? I haven’t house has been quiet. 😀
6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? I love the commitment of all the readers… its fun to think of us all over the world taking this day to read.
7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? nope… I know it takes a ton of work to pull this off and many hands. I think they do a fantastic job.
8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year? This is my third time participating so I kind of plan to just not commit myself to too much and enjoy the day with books.
9. Are you getting tired yet? I crashed about an hour ago for 30 minutes so uhhhh…. no I feel…. refreshed. 😀
10. Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered? I break it up a bit – I am not stuck in the chair. I have read from the kitchen, the couch, the reading room… I took the dogs for a short walk to get the blood pumping…
Read!
Say what? Say what?
Read!
That’s what we do!
We Read!
We Read for you!
We choose a book, and read it through,
Then pick another, to later review!!!!
I am reading Indie Books!!!
some of the books.... not all 🙂
Hour Sixteen Update
Current read: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Books Completed: 5
1. Mistaken Identity by Don and Susie Van Ryn and Newell, Colleen and Whitney Cerek (non-fiction)
2. 100 Banned Books Censorship Histories of World Literature by Nicholas J. Karolides (non-fiction)
3. Noah’s Castle by John Rowe Townsend (fiction)
4. The LORAX by Dr. Suess (Childrens read and banned book)
5. SOLD by Patricia McCormick (Fiction)
Total amount of time spent reading: 13 hours, 11 minutes
Total pages read so far: 621
Eats? Just oatmeal and a lot of coffee! Ummm…. and a few candy corns. And now add on a cup of salsa chicken chili and a yogurt. And some Fritos…. 😛 Later in day had diet Pepsi and pizza w/ hubby.
Crashed and had a little nap = now up and drinking water….. Rocky Theme song going on in my head 😀
Book Journey 