Year: 2010

Morning Meanderings… is that bacon?

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)22 Comments


Hmmmm….. what is that smell this morning?  Is that bacon and pancakes?  Couldn’t be….

But it is!  😀

Normally life is so busy for Al and I we rarely have breakfast.  I may grab a banana on the way out the door or an instant packet of oatmeal to take to work with me but that’s about it.  Breakfasts – real breakfasts only happen when we get away for the weekends like to the cabin.  Even though we didn’t make it there this weekend, I still had purchased items to make the rare breakfasts.  (We pretty much have been eating everything I had packed in the cooler this weekend).

This morning – honestly…. we slept in.  We had a wonderful time at our friends house for dinner last night.  We sat on their deck and grilled chicken and enjoyed a lovely meal, and conversation until 10:30 at night!  This morning neither one of us were in any hurry to get up and I have to say that was kind of nice too.  So breakfast it is!  And I have to say, it does smell gooooooood!

Today I am going to catch up on a few things around the house, I may time a bike ride, spend some time with Chance and basically stay mellow before I hit the ground running tomorrow.

Couple “Blogkeeping” things:

June commenters – I adore you and have not forgotten you.  Using random.org here are my two comment winners who get to choose out of the prize box.  (And yes, this comment thank you continues each month – I just really need to make a sidebar widget for it!)

#348:  Jill Weatherholt

#541:  Esme

And my #1 commenter from June was:

Wordlily!!!

The top commenter each month wins a $20 gift card to Amazon!  Yay to Hannah!  😀

Dont forget that the survey that has been posted on top for the past month ends on July 15th.  If you had not taken a minute to fill out that form I would really appreciate it if you would…. I will post the overall results!

Deliver Us From Evil by David Baldacci – AUDIO Giveaway

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)41 Comments

Thank you Hachette for giving me three copies of this audio book to give away!

DELIVER US FROM EVIL
Evan Waller is a monster. He has built a fortune from his willingness to buy and sell anything . . . and anyone. In search of new opportunities, Waller has just begun a new business venture: one that could lead to millions of deaths all over the globe.
On Waller’s trail is Shaw, the mysterious operative from “The Whole Truth,” who must prevent Waller from closing his latest deal. Shaw’s one chance to bring him down will come in the most unlikely of places: a serene, bucolic village in Provence.
But Waller’s depravity and ruthlessness go deeper than Shaw knows. And now, there is someone else pursuing Waller in Provence-Reggie Campion, an agent for a secret vigilante group headquartered in a musty old English estate-and she has an agenda of her own.
Hunting the same man and unaware of each other’s mission, Shaw and Reggie will be caught in a deadly duel of nerve and wits.

How To Enter this Giveaway

David Baldacci is the author of 19 best selling books.  Looking at that list have you read any of these books – and if not, which book really catches your eye as one you would like to read (besides this one of course!)  (*This must be answered to be entered)


Want more chances to win?

(*not a requirement, just for those who wish)

For two extra chances to win, become a subscriber  (or be a current subscriber) of this blog (do this in the upper right side bar) and let me know in a separate comment

Blog about this giveaway and let me know in a separate comment and receive two more entries

Twitter about this giveaway or link tot his giveaway on Facebook and let me know here for another entry

This giveaway will end on July 30.  USA and Canada entrants only please.

Please see the separate giveaway being held for this in Hard Cover copies

Deliver Us From Evil by David Baldachi – GIVEAWAY HC

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)60 Comments

Thank you Hachette for the opportunity to give away three copies of this book!

DELIVER US FROM EVIL
Evan Waller is a monster. He has built a fortune from his willingness to buy and sell anything . . . and anyone. In search of new opportunities, Waller has just begun a new business venture: one that could lead to millions of deaths all over the globe.
On Waller’s trail is Shaw, the mysterious operative from “The Whole Truth,” who must prevent Waller from closing his latest deal. Shaw’s one chance to bring him down will come in the most unlikely of places: a serene, bucolic village in Provence.
But Waller’s depravity and ruthlessness go deeper than Shaw knows. And now, there is someone else pursuing Waller in Provence-Reggie Campion, an agent for a secret vigilante group headquartered in a musty old English estate-and she has an agenda of her own.
Hunting the same man and unaware of each other’s mission, Shaw and Reggie will be caught in a deadly duel of nerve and wits.

How To Enter this Giveaway

For me, I actually have a certain atmosphere that calls for me to crave a good thriller.  To enter this giveaway, please leave a comment here letting me know if there is a certain time of year, or setting that causes you to crave a good suspense/thriller.  (*This must be answered to be entered)


Want more chances to win?

(*not a requirement, just for those who wish)

For two extra chances to win, become a subscriber  (or be a current subscriber) of this blog (do this in the upper right side bar) and let me know in a separate comment

Blog about this giveaway and let me know in a separate comment and receive two more entries

Twitter about this giveaway or link tot his giveaway on Facebook and let me know here for another entry

This giveaway will end on July 30.  USA and Canada entrants only please.

Please see the separate giveaway for this book in audio format

Morning Meanderings…. the best laid plans

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)30 Comments


Ahhh…. the best laid plans.  After completing all my little errands yesterday around town, shopping for our trip to the cabin, loading the bikes on the rack, filling the cooler with all our refrigerator items, and 40 pounds of ice…. we had to cancel.

The plan was that I would get everything ready to go, Al would work in the office and prep to leave the business for the weekend, and we would meet back at the house early afternoon and hit the road.  About 4:00 pm I sent a text to my husband seeing when we were leaving.  He called me back and we had a snag in our plan.  A dump truck we had purchased and had been waiting to be delivered was coming through Duluth on Saturday and would need to be picked up by us and brought to Brainerd.  This piece of equipment is important to the current state job we are doing…so alas, we had to wave the white flag and change our plan.


I am not really too bummed…. yes for the cabin and for the relaxation but this has happened before and I have kind of learned to roll with the waves.   🙂   Instead we ate a late dinner at home, I watched a somewhat odd Lifetime movie and went to bed.

So plan B.  I am hitting the gym this morning and then probably driving with Al to Duluth to get the truck.  I have been bribed with lunch and a book store stop.  I am still in need of a copy of The Color Purple so I am all about the book store stop.  Maybe later I will take Chance to a movie or take a bike ride.

There’s a big bike ride in the area tomorrow that I have had my eye on.  Tour of Saints is a ride I do almost every year and this year because of our cabin plans I didn’t sign up.  I am watching the weather for tomorrow – chance of rain, but if it clears I may go do that ride…. maybe.  🙂

Here is the song in my head today…. it brings back memories of my best friend Traci in high school and road tripping to Cambridge Minnesota to see her family.  We would be in her old mustang that we fondly called “Rustang” because of all the rust and this may have been the song we blared out of the speakers.

Have an awesome day everyone!  😀

Step On A Crack by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge (audio)

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)11 Comments

Step on a crack is the first in the series surrounding the Michael Bennett family.  Michael is not your usual run of the mill detective.  What might set Michael apart is first and foremost he is the father of ten adopted kids from ages 3 to 12.    Secondly while trying to keep New York safe, he is also trying to manage his home life and his breaking heart as his wife, the love of his life, is dying of cancer in the hospital.

Patterson does know how to weave an interesting tale doesn’t he?

But wait – there’s more…

In the midst of Mike Bennett’s already chaos of a life, the former first lady is poisoned and while St. Patrick’s Cathedral is filled to capacity with Government leaders and celebrity mourning this loss… the entire congregation is kidnapped at the hands of a group of unknown gunmen.  All this is happening right in Bennett’s back yard.

St Patrick's Cathedral in New York

Life….  it’s never dull.

This is the first book in the Michael Bennett series and if you have followed my reviews for any amount of time you may be aware that yes, I read (or listened) to them in the wrong order.  I have already listened to and reviewed Run For Your Life and Worst Case. I loved them both, and this one, the one I should have listened to first, is no exception.

It’s hard to explain what I really find in good audio – but this is it.  The narrators, John Slattery and Reg Rogers lead you into a full body sense of suspense when they alternate the voices between good guy Bennett, and the eerie flat tone  of the man known only as Jack.

A good story line – I enjoy the tameness a family man like Bennett brings to a genre that on occasion can be harsh – even offensive.  yet at the same time – this story is not weak by no means.  I bounced between the intensiveness of the kidnapping a church filled with well-known people… and the story line between Mike and his wife Maeve from the hospital bed.  The latter causing me to sit in my car while parked in the garage to listen a little longer to their conversations with tears hitting my steering wheel.

I have raved about Patterson’s audio before and I am doing it again.  Don’t write off audio until you have experienced one of Patterson’s recent audio – and even if you are not a Patterson fan, do not write off Patterson until you have read/listened to,  this series.

In a word:  Intense.

Amazon Rating

Book Journey has updated the 2010 reading map to include Step On A Crack

For those in the New York area, like Mike Bennett, and hanging out by St Patrick’s Cathedral,be sure to take the short walk over to Candle Cafe for a great cup of coffee and a delicious bite to eat.

Cover Story:  It holds mystery and fits well with the other two covers of the books so far in the series.  I am not really sure what the theme is though.  Is it a carving off a building?  Is it part of the cathedral itself as that is in all three books?  I do not know.

I purchased this audio book from Amazon.com


Morning Meanderings…

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)25 Comments


Morning!  Coffee Cup and I are attempting an early start to our day because it is a full one.  I feel the need to self-torture by attending Group Power at 8:25 this morning even through I am hurting all over from the class I took two days ago.  Must – get – back – on – routine…..

Then…. I am off to clean out my Durango, pack it for the weekend, go to Wal- Mart and get supplies, post office, library,  – have lunch with my son, and then Al and I are off to our cabin for the weekend.

YAY!!!  *cartwheels!*

We do not get there very often, in fact the last time was in early October of last year.  How sad is that?  So we are packing it up for the weekend and I am grabbing a few books (although I don’t know why – I have a whole other book shelf there loaded with books I have not read yet) to take along.  Lap Top is coming and I do have some posts planned so I should be active through the weekend.  I am excited to just chill and read and perhaps, chill some more.  🙂    I am bringing our bikes as well as there is a wonderful state trail just a few miles from us that is just gorgeous this time of year so I am camera ready!

When the boys were growing up and we had “cabin time”, we had a movie that was pretty much a cabin-weekend-must, and it was The Great Outdoors with John Candy.  I never got tired of this movie and we still pack it with us for the memories.  I should really just get a second copy and leave it there.

Any North Shore bloggers out there?  I am heading your way!

Have a great weekend everyone!!!!!

Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)39 Comments

Anna is turning 15 and has an amazing life.  She lives next door to her two best friends, Frankie, who is the same age as Anna, and  Frankie’s older brother Matt.  Matt is 17 and Anna’s best-friend-who-is-a-boy.  As she blows out her birthday candles she makes her wish…  the same wish she has made since Frankie and her were ten and Matt was twelve.  Anna wishes Matt loved her the way she loves him.

This year, Anna’s wish comes true and Matt finally kisses her, and shares that he too has feelings for her.  BLISS!   Matt asks Anna to let him tell Frankie as they are all so close.   And Anna, filled with warm butterflies and a swelling heart agrees to keep it a secret until Matt tells Frankie.

When tragedy strikes, Anna is left holding on to the secret that never had a chance to be told as well as a fragile version of her best friend Frankie.

A year passes…. and Anna is invited to go to California, with Frankie and her family, to spend a few weeks where Frankie’s family vacationed every year.   The exception being, that this year will be the first without Matt.  As summer starts to move its way across the sky, Anna finds herself torn between old ghosts, and new possibilities, the best friend she once knew, and the stranger Frankie seems to have become…

♥         ♥         ♥         ♥         ♥         ♥         ♥         ♥

I seem to be on a YA kick.  I know partially it is the time of the year…. it’s summer and summer calls me to  light, summery feeling reads, and this book was a perfect fit.  It was beyond what I thought it would be and when I finished it I knew it was totally “gush worthy.”


There are so many things I liked about this book.  Anna, Frankie, Matt – all likable well-developed characters that I had no trouble at all picturing as real flesh and blood teens.  I liked Anna a lot.  She was a wonderful girl who did her best to hold on to Frankie as Frankie tried to move on from her brother’s death, having no idea the pain and the secret that Anna was clinging to.

And for Anna – how do you move on from the ghost of a …… she wasn’t even sure what Matt was to her.  Boyfriend?

Author Sarah Ockler writes a compelling read that made me feel all the highly intense emotions of the characters.  When love is so fresh and new you actually can feel it in the air like electricity…. and when pain hits like a flash of white light – it is so powerful it takes your breath away and leaves you grasping at whispers of memories….

“Anna, what’s the number one coolest thing you’ve ever seen in your life?”

‘What’s yours?”

“It’s always been the ocean but I’m thinking about changing my answer.”

Twenty Boy Summer made my heart ache.  I would have never guessed that this was a debut authors book.  Beautifully written, sweet and touching – it will remind you of teenage years, warm beaches, best friends, and first love…  at least it did for me.  ♥

*Note:  Twenty Boy Summer does have some sexual content

My Amazon Rating

Book Journey’s reading map has been updated to include Twenty Boy Summer

If you are in the area to visit Anna and Frankie at Zanzibar Bay you should stop for coffee (or smoothies) at Zanzibar Cafe

290 pages

Cover Story:  Love it – instantly curious about the red piece!  (And later, loved how the red piece played into the story!

Sarah Ockler and I in New York, May 2010

I purchased this book in New York at the Author Carnival Event

Morning Meanderings….

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)30 Comments


*Ouch*  I have been so busy lately I have really let me work out schedule slide.   I knew I hadn’t been to the gym for a while to take my Group Power Class, but did not know until I went in yesterday afternoon (determined to get on track!) that it had been a month to a day since I had been there.

*sheepishly wiggles foot on ground and hangs head*

After an hour of lifting weights I met my friend Wendy out on the bike trail and we biked 18 miles chat chat chatting.  (and no, 18 miles of talking is not a record for me…. ask my poor cousin who I talked to for 150 miles last year during the two-day bike ride…. I don’t think he will ever be the same as we covered pretty much every topic I could think of.) 🙂

On the bookish front –

My super cool friend Heather (who I met at BEA) over at Age 30+ A Lifetime of Books, is hosting along with Nicole from Linus’s Blanket (Nicole is also super cool and I met her at BEA as well!) a read along for The Color Purple.   Would you believe I have never read this book?  I think I seen the movie a long time ago – but I am so excited to join in on this!  The read along is for July so grab yourself a copy and come join in on the fun!  🙂

On July 16 – 18, I am taking part in Kristen’s (Bookworming in the 21st Century) Book Extravaganza!  I am pretty excited.  This event will be a weekend of fun giveaways and I am still working out what exactly I am doing here – but lets just say I have an idea and it has to do with certain “gush worthy” reads…

and…. last but not least, the amazing Trish (also met at BEA) over at Hey Lady!  Watcha Reading? is putting together a discussion on Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaid’s Tale, that will take place in later August.  This is another book I have not read but sadly has been on my shelf like FOREVER so I am excited to get the motivation I need to read this!  🙂


That’s more than enough morning chatter for now!  Coffee Cup needs to hit the shelf and I need to hit the road…. hoping later today I can take a bike ride and continue enjoying this wonderful weather!

At Witt’s End by Beth Solheim

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)21 Comments

Welcome to Witt’s End, a resort in Northern Minnesota.  This isn’t your average resort, at least it’s not like the resorts I have stayed in Minnesota.   Nope.  This particular resort is a last stop for those who have passed from this world, but have yet to enter the next.  Sixty four year old Sadie and her twin sister Jane are the owners and conduit (Sadie) to the hereafter at the resort.

With a cast of wildly flamboyant characters, including Sadie herself, Beth Solheim writes a humorous and outrageous book.  The first draw for me of course was the fact that this is a Minnesota read.  Beth’s book is so unusual and funny I just sat down and enjoyed myself from start to finish.

In the midst of this cozy mystery there is a lawsuit and a murder to solve.  Never a dull moment when you check in to Witt’s End.  Is “gufah” is a word – I can use it to describe this book – I think that is the laugh that came out of me several times unexpectedly as I turned through the pa.

You can check out the very funny Beth Soleheim at her website here.

My Amazon Rating

Book Journey had updated the 2010 reading map to include At Witt’s End

Cover Story:  I like it – quirky and mysterious….. would you check into this resort?  😉

I received this book for review from author, Beth Solheim

Morning Meanderings…

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)44 Comments


College son Justin is home for the summer from College.  This is my first year experiencing this but it’s not like he is “home” like he used to be home when he lived here under our care and parent guidanceship (yes, my word – a ship… sometimes like a cruise ship, other times like the titanic).   He has a job and his friends and a lot of times we see each other in passing – one or the other of us coming or going, but that’s about it.

So that is why – I share with you my witty journalist sons text conversation we had earlier yesterday:

J:  Miss chatting with you.  May I take you out to lunch Friday?

Me:  Wow!  Yes!

J:  I’ll have my people call your people with the details.

Me:  Excellent.  My people will be thrilled.


Yup, that’s the way we role.  texting, Facebook, email….. when it comes to my kids I communicate any way I can 😀

Yesterday I rollerbladed with my friend Wendy 24 miles.  Not a typo.  24 miles.  I have never gone that far on blades before and as we “rolled” back into town I decided it was about 4 miles to many!  😀  A little sore, but ehhh…. it was fun to hang out on a beautiful evening.

Have a great day everyone – I have more to chat about, but it will have to wait until tomorrows meanderings…  (hint – I came across a few book related read a longs that sound fun, and have a couple of book recommendations as well).

Mine are a little cooler than this 🙂