2010 – Page 2 – Book Journey

Morning Meanderings… A Happy Christmas Eve To You!!!

Published on December 24, 2010 by Sheila (Book Journey)24 Comments

Good morning!!!!

I had a wonderful nights sleep and am reading to put the finishing touches on Christmas planning and Christmas weekend.

This morning I sit at my kitchen table watching Al and Chance play cribbage. This is my version if a modern-day Normal Rockwell. Of course…. to the left of them you can add me to the picture with my oversized COFFEE CUP tapping away at my laptop and now the picture is complete….

I spoke to college Son already this morning and he is at the airport in Florida flying into Minnesota this afternoon and should be home around 5:30 pm. NICE.

Tomorrow both boys will be home, College Son and Navy Son and we will all spend the day together. I just have to figure out what I want to make for Christmas dinner and snackies…. 🙂

On Sunday morning College Son has to go back to Mankato for work and Myself, Navy Son, Chance and AL are heading to our cabin up North for the day to snowmobile and spend the night – we will be back on Monday.

I do have posts yet throughout this weekend and I pretty much have a SSSQQQUUUUEEEE idea of what may be under the tree for me so you can bet there will be pictures…. 😀

If I do not get a chance to chat with you over the weekend know that I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

What are your plans for this Christmas Weekend?

The Secret Society Of The Pink Crystal Ball by Risa Green

Published on December 23, 2010 by Sheila (Book Journey)16 Comments

Erin Channing is working hard to keep her GPA high so she can earn a trip to Italy. To be considered for this, she needs to write an essay that will blow the committee away, yet Erin fears she will not be chosen to win the trip because her life is the definition of boring. What could she possibly write about that would be interesting? How can she possibly win this honor?

When a distant Aunt suddenly dies unexpectedly and leaves Erin a pink crystal ball with instructions of how to use it Erin finds that the small requests she makes of the crystal ball seem to be coming true. With her best friends Lindsay and Samantha at her side, Erin uses the crystal ball without fully understanding all of its powers and at first finds it fascinating (asking the ball is she is “smexy” (smart + sexy = smexy). Then later finds herself making a mess of her relationships.

As Erin tried to figure out the true powers of the crystal ball she grows in her friendships and in herself.

I was really excited to write this review because I am a sucker for good books on friendships. I really love that and some of my favorite books have to do with strong female friendships. In my own life I know how important my girlfriends are to me.

I really enjoyed Erin for all she is worth. She is fantastic – an overachiever that looks at her own life and says seriously, what am I doing? And her two friends Samantha and Lindsey were well-developed characters that wanted to go hang out at the mall with, and I don’t even really like shopping!

All in all the book was a delight to read and a fresh breath into the YA genre that I so appreciated. I think YA’s will enjoy this read and I look forward in seeing what author Risa Green offers up next!

Amazon Rating

I received this book from review from:

Danielle DeLuca

Assistant to the Publicity Team

Planned Television Arts/ Ruder Finn Inc.

Morning Meanderings…

Published on December 23, 2010 by Sheila (Book Journey)16 Comments

Good morning!

Do you ever have those nights where you just toss and turn and feel like you never really slept?

I just had one of those. Until about 3:30 a.m. I am rolling around the bed, this way and that… my mind on some sort of mental caffeine rush. I am processing Christmas, the gifts, what is left to do, plans for the weekend, my kids, my life, work out schedules, eating habits…

(I really should have just got up and done something really productive like clean a closet or crochet a quilt)

ANYWAY… the inevitable thing with nights like this is that I usually crash in the deep sleep around 4 a.m. only to awaken 2 hours later knowing that I have to get up.

GAH.

All that said, I do feel pretty good and I am ready to rush off to work and have an awesome day as tomorrow – Friday, I am off.

WOO HOO!!! Perfect timing to prep for Saturday and the weekend… which I will talk more about tomorrow.

Relentless by Dean Koontz (audio review and epic FAIL)

Published on December 22, 2010 by Sheila (Book Journey)17 Comments

Bestselling author Cullen Cubby Greenwich is mortified when Shearman Waxx, the nation’s premier literary critic, savages his work. Cubby manages to find the syphilitic swine at Roxie’s Bistro in Newport Beach, Calif., where the author’s six-year-old prodigy son nearly pees by accident on Waxx in the restaurant’s men’s room. In retaliation, Waxx threatens Cubby with doom and gets things started nicely by blowing up his house. With almost superhuman ease, the book critic keeps track of Cubby and his family as they flee for their lives.

Let me share a little background info about me and Dean. No, we didn’t know each other back in school, or ever really crossed paths – except of course within the pages of his books that i could not read fast enough…. and in my opinion he could not write fast enough.

Yes it is true…. back when I was 20, Dean Koontz was one of a very elite group of my favorite authors. I read and loved:

Whispers

Phantoms

Twilight Eyes

Strangers

Watchers

Lightening (Oh Yeah!)

Midnight

Cold Fire

Hideaway

The Key To Midnight

Door To December

The Funhouse (first book I ever read of his)

Breathless

Brother Odd

Odd Thomas

Eyes Of Darkness

False Memory

Fear Nothing

Tick Tock

One Door Away From Heaven

Winter Moon

yes…. I think it is safe to say I have been a fan.

And now this is where it gets….

awkward.

I was so excited to listen to this audio and I LOVED the idea of the main character being an author who gets a bad review…. (I know a bit ironic right now…..). A fun fact about Dean’s books is that he almost always includes some sort of “bookish” theme in his writing – either his character is a reader, or a writer or there are mentions of books shelves…

BUT.

This time I just could not pick up what Dean was putting down. The storyline was so outrageously over the top – the strange killings in the book beyond gruesome and a bit wacky and well…

I finally gave up as I was so confused and surprised by the book that it didn’t even have the regular “Dean Koontz” feel to it that I have come to know and love through the years. It felt a little more like James Patterson when he goes a direction that I do not like.

Will I read Dean Koontz again? I am sure I will. I have found him to be not as dark as Stephen King, and not as light and funny as Harlan Coben. He is a great middle of the road.

I received this audio from my library

Morning Meanderings…. Baking Hangover

Published on December 22, 2010 by Sheila (Book Journey)24 Comments

G’ Morning.

It is true that I am over the worst of being sick. All that is really left is the cough which is annoying but doesn’t feel like I am on death watch like I felt a couple of days ago.

With the post I put up yesterday about all the Biscotti that I was cranking out in my new-found health… I have to add that the insanity continued into last night as well.

I believe I am pretty much “biscottied” out. Ten batches and way too much sampling has put me in a biscotti like coma…. seriously, I think you could dip me in a cup of coffee and I would hardly crumble at all. I even smell like a cookie and that is after my shower…. it must be in my pores. How festive of me. 😎

I am going to seriously need to hit the gym and hit it hard after the holiday weekend.

Any other baking comas out there?

Morning Meanderings… Up To My ………… in Biscotti

Published on December 21, 2010 by Sheila (Book Journey)39 Comments

Good morning.

Lets recap yesterday to relive how I made it to this post title…

Morning…. blah’s still sick, skip the gym. have a 10 a.m. meeting to attend but go home from work afterward. Fall asleep in recliner until 4:15 pm.

Afternoon: Wake up when Chance gets home off of bus. The plan is to crawl from my recliner position to my bedroom and go back to sleep, but oddly I have a burst of energy.

Late afternoon: I start making Biscotti for my co workers. I had bought the ingredients over the weekend but have not felt well enough to do anything with that. I start by making a double batch of Chocolate Dipped Orange and then a double batch of Chocolate-Chocolate. I complete both of these and then proceed to make Pickle Butts (hey – I don’t make the names for these things!) for an appetizer potluck and White Elephant Christmas party we are invited to.

6:30 pm: Arrive at White Elephant party, eat real home-made connoles made in front of us by a guy who is 100% Sicilian. Uhhh… yum.

8:30 pm: back home and crank out a double batch of Cinnamon hazelnut biscotti to finish off my gift bags for tomorrow at work. Finish cooking at 10 pm.

1aa — Cinnamon hazelnut Biscotti (I added chocolate Hershey bar to this recipe)

6 batches of biscotti – thus the post title.

As of this morning I am feeling good and am optimistic that my 4 days of being bogged down with this horrible sinus/cold/headache/achy bone thing is over.

*Happy dance.*

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on December 19, 2010December 19, 2010 by Sheila (Book Journey)73 Comments

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.

Two weeks ago winner:

Lori at Dollycas’s Thoughts

Congratulations! Please choose an item out of the PRIZE BOX and email me your choice with your mailing address as well! journeythroughbooks@gmail.com

Its been a good week back home and of course (of course) I did not get as much done as I always think I will. I did ok but have been battling a head cold nasty sinus thing here for the past three days and has really made me not want to do anything much but sleep and watch 80’s movies. (Hey – do not judge me!) 😀

So here is my week in review:

A Darcy Christmas

Bookies December meeting…. potluck and gift exchange

The Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck (Bookies book review December read!)

Sawyer On Lost…. can’t get enough of his nicknames…

Gourmet Rhapsody by Muriel Barbery (author of The Elegance Of The Hedgehog)

Secret Book Santa! LOVE THIS!!!

Author Chat with Beth Hoffman (yeah…. that’s right SSSQQQUUUUEEEE!!!)

Almond Peanut Butter Ritz Cookies recipe (Recipe from my friend Heidi and uhhh…. YUM!)

The Witchy Worries of Abbie Adams by Rhonda Hayter

This week I am planning to read:

Grace, 17, loves the peace and tranquility of the woods behind her home. It is here during the cold winter months that she gets to see her wolf—the one with the yellow eyes. Grace is sure that he saved her from an attack by other wolves when she was nine. Over the ensuing years he has returned each season, watching her with those haunting eyes as if longing for something to happen. When a teen is killed by wolves, a hunting party decides to retaliate. Grace races through the woods and discovers a wounded boy shivering on her back porch. One look at his yellow eyes and she knows that this is her wolf in human form. Fate has finally brought Sam and Grace together, and as their love grows and intensifies, so does the reality of what awaits them. It is only a matter of time before the winter cold changes him back into a wolf, and this time he might stay that way forever.

The wolves of Mercy Falls return in this sequel to Shiver (Scholastic, 2009), and familiar characters mingle with more recent recruits into the Minnesota werewolf pack. Sam, now cured of his werewolf affliction, is adjusting to year-round life as a human. His girlfriend, Grace, suffers from headaches and other symptoms that may be related to a childhood wolf bite. When her parents discover Sam sleeping in her bed, they ground her and threaten to keep the two apart permanently. Tremendous angst and declarations that parents just don’t understand ensue. Meanwhile Isabel, whose brother did not survive the meningitis cure that saved Sam, feels a strong connection with Cole St. Clair, one of the newest members of the pack. In his old life, Cole was the lead singer of a rock band. This volatile bad boy is a welcome foil to Sam, who is sulky this time around. The addition of Isabel and Cole as narrators dilutes the intensity of Grace and Sam’s relationship, and the spark between Isabel and Cole remains underdeveloped. The tantalizing possibility of Cole’s true identity being exposed also deserves more exploration.

I am so behind on this series that this week I have committed to it. The third book in this series, Forever comes out in July.

So that is my plan this week… well that, and writing reviews I am behind on. I really hope to get around to all your blogs to see what you are reading as well. I pick up my best book recommendations through this meme! 😀

Please add your What Are You Reading post to the link below where it says “click here”. See you on the blogs! 😀

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Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list…

The Witchy Worries of Abbie Adams by Rhonda Hayter

Published on December 19, 2010December 19, 2010 by Sheila (Book Journey)14 Comments

This is a delightful read for young YA readers! Full of imagination and a little history too!

Sheila

Abbie would just like to be like a normal eleven year old girl. She wishes her only worries were her over bearing and heavy homework handed teacher Miss Linegar (rhymes with vinegar), and sharing secrets with her best friend Callie…

But Abbie is a young witch and that adds a whole other dimension to her eleven year old being.

For instance… she has a younger brother they call Munch. Munch can also do magic but has not figured out the boundaries of doing magic in non magical settings…. uhhhh…. like school. And really anywhere in public. Abbie is always having to keep an eye on him and put forget hexes on all those who see Munch in action. And of course there is Callie….. Abbie wishes she could share this secret with Callie, her one true best friend… but she can not.

Who knew 11 could be so hard?

And then comes Benjamin, the new kitten Abbie’s dad brought home for her. Abbie has wanted a kitten for like EVER! Yet there is something different about this kitten who seems to enjoy reading everything he can get his paws on…..

and that is where it really gets interesting…

I met author Rhonda Hayter at BEA this past May. She was a delight to talk to and she gave me this book to read and review. As life tends to happen, it has taken me quite a while to get to this book, but once I did…. I couldn’t believe I had waited so long.

Abbie is a fun character that I can really see young girls from 7 – 15 really enjoying reading about. Yes, I would say this book is a MG (Middle Grade) read and I for one am cheering about that. While I have enjoyed many a YA, I also appreciate a well written MG to keep the pre YA’s reading. It’s a tough genre because you want it to be mature enough to hold their attention but not quite to the YA level of teen parties, dating, boyfriends, etc…

Rhonda Hayter does well in putting forth a likable and interesting character in Abbie Adams. I look forward to what Abbie will be up to next, and I thing MG readers will as well.

Amazon Rating

I received this book from the author, Rhonda Hayter

Morning Meanderings…. but barely

Published on December 19, 2010 by Sheila (Book Journey)23 Comments

Good morning…. it is late morning, this is true – but still morning.

I woke up late feeling like I had been hit by a large piece of equipment. (I will give you a moment to wrap your mind around that visual.)

027 — Yeah thats really me... Feb. of this year after walking for hours looking at excavating equipment with my hubby at the Equipment auctions in Florida

I am sniffly, headachey, coughing, weary…… and this is day three. Seriously…. I am tired of talking about it and just wish I felt wonderful again.

Anyway, Brad (Navy Son) was over for dinner last night and that was fun. We celebrated his birthday (which was the 16th) and hung out. He and Chance took the snowmobile out for a spin which he enjoyed as he now lives in Florida. Today he is out ice fishing with a buddy.

Justin, College Son is currently in Florida with a friend at their beach house. He will be hanging out there on his school break and flying back into Minnesota on Christmas Eve.

Busy kids.

I am here at home with my sniffles and Chance (Kinship Partner) who is now staying with us. I am reading and well… so is he, but I am not as into character as he is. I am reading Linger (I know – its about time right?) and he is reading A Long Way Gone by Ishamael Beah, about a boy soldier.

Ok… off to write a book review and hopefully later today if I am feeling up to it I am going to make Biscotti.

Happy Sunday!!!

Morning Meanderings… Cookies, Navy Son Home, and Feeling BLAH?

Published on December 18, 2010December 19, 2010 by Sheila (Book Journey)27 Comments

GAH. Day two and still feel pretty blah. I am achy and coughie and tired.

This is so not me and it is sucking up all my weekend.

I have yet to Christmas shop. It’s true! I was out of the country December 1 – 10, arrived back in Minnesota a week ago today and tried to get organized last weekend, worked all week and now my big shopping plans consist of me once again in the recliner, with my blanket, laptop, and books.

Not cool….. not cool.

Brad (Navy Son) after a bit of turmoil yesterday that looked like he would not be able to come home for Christmas resulted in good news, with a little maneuvering and help on this end, we got him on a plane and he will be here for dinner tonight. WOO HOO!!! His birthday was the 16th so we are doing his birthday tonight. He will be staying in Brainerd until the 30th.

*using all my strength I do a fist pump in the air*

My final chatter this morning is a recipe. In early November my girlfriends and I had a girls baking and crafting weekend at our cabin. It was a blast and many of the recipes I had shared with you, but have yet to complete the craft projects or this recipe here.

My friend Heidi brought this one for us and it was YUM!!! Easy to make, no baking required, and tasty too. What’s not to love? SO today I leave you with this:

Almond Peanut Butter Ritz Cookies

A box of Townhouse crackers

Smooth Peanut Butter

Almond Bark (white or white and chocolate)

Optional: sprinkles, chocolate chip drizzle

wax paper

Lay out a large sheet of wax paper where you will be working.

Take Ritz crackers and spread peanut butter on one, and top with another to make a sandwich. Continue doing this until you have created as many cookies as you would like.

Melt almond bark (if doing them all white, melt enough white to cover all cookies…. is making them half white and half chocolate melt enough white to cover 1/2 the cookie (in this case you would dip one end in until half way up the cookie, let dry on wax paper and then dip other end with chocolate).

Dip all your cookies covering them completely and then set on wax paper to dry. ** If you wish to add sprinkles do so while the bark is still wet. If you are going to melted chocolate over the tops, wait until bark is dry. (For faster drying put cookies on wax paper in refrigerator on a flat space.

These cookies are easy to make as a quick treat and freeze well.