Welcome to It’s Monday! What Are You Reading! This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!
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 telling me how many you visited. **You do not have to have a blog to participate! You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.
Gina from Book Dragon’s Lair!
and from the previous week while I was in New York:
Lori from Escape with Dollycas Into A Good Book
Congratulations! Please email me your book choice out of the recently cleaned up and LOVELY Reading Cafe at journeythroughbooks@gmail.com.
What a week. I spent Sunday through Friday in New York at BEA (Book Expo of America) which is a book bloggers heaven – seriously…. books, author, Publishers, and blogger friends. I have attended the last three years and I HIGHLY recommend it. What a rush!!!
So… that said… I did not have a lot of posts this past week as by day I was at the Expo and by evening I was at Publishing house and author events and as much as I had good intentions of posting… I was really just too tired. Here is what I managed to put up last week:
Book Expo Recap #1
Where To Begin (a few pics from the past week)
BEA Recap #2
Yup… thats it. Needless to say, I am behind on book reviews… I think I have 4 books to review and 3 audio books to review yet. I have some writing to do, as well as more BEA recaps, and my Blogiversary party which will be here this Friday and you do not want to miss out as we have a lot of fun! (If you have come the past two years you know this is a great time!!!)
For my plan for this week:
Like everyone else, precocious high school senior Quentin Coldwater assumes that magic isn’t real, until he finds himself admitted to a very secretive and exclusive college of magic in upstate New York. There he indulges in joys of college-friendship, love, sex, and booze- and receives a rigorous education in modern sorcery. But magic doesn’t bring the happiness and adventure Quentin thought it would. After graduation, he and his friends stumble upon a secret that sets them on a remarkable journey that may just fulfill Quentin’s yearning. But their journey turns out to be darker and more dangerous than they’d imagined. Psychologically piercing and dazzlingly inventive, The Magicians is an enthralling coming-of-age tale about magic practiced in the real world-where good and evil aren’t black and white, and power comes at a terrible price.
Its Like Harry Potter in College! Thank you John from Brilliance audio for the recommendation! I am three hours in and really enjoying it!
How much change can one summer bring?
If you’re Caddie Winger — thirty-two years old, still living with her grandmother and giving piano lessons to neighborhood children — one summer can make the whole world look different. Caddie’s mother died when she was nine, and her grandmother raised her. Now their roles are reversed, and it’s Caddie who takes care of Nana. When her grandmother breaks a leg and insists on going into a convalescent home, Caddie finds herself being pulled out of her comfy, self-made nest. Living alone for the first time since college, she uncovers some startling truths from her past.
Jolted, she looks at the world with new eyes and begins to take charge of her future. As she makes a new best friend, takes risks she never dreamed she could, and navigates the depths and shallows of true love and devastating heartbreak, Caddie learns how to trust other people and, ultimately, how to trust herself.
Amanda McCready was four years old when she vanished from a Boston neighborhood twelve years ago. Kenzie and Gennaro risked everything to find the young girl—only to orchestrate her return to a neglectful mother and a broken home.
Now Amanda is sixteen—and gone again. Haunted by their consciences, Kenzie and Gennaro revisit the case that troubled them the most. Their search leads them into a world of identity thieves, methamphetamine dealers, a mentally unstable crime boss and his equally demented wife, a priceless, thousand-year-old cross, and a happily homicidal Russian gangster. It’s a world in which motives and allegiances constantly shift and mistakes are fatal.
In their desperate fight to confront the past and find Amanda McCready, Kenzie and Gennaro will be forced to question if it’s possible to do the wrong thing and still be right or to do the right thing and still be wrong. As they face an evil that goes beyond broken families and broken dreams, they discover that the sins of yesterday don’t always stay buried and the crimes of today could end their lives.
I have some books to finish up on so I think I will leave this as it is here. Monday, if the weather is cooperating, I am going to Duluth for their annual Library Sale. I know, I know…. I just got back from a book event – but this is one I have always wanted to go to and it has never worked out before. I plan on leaving early in the morning to get a good spot in line (I will share details in my Tuesday morning meanderings.)
In the mean time, I am super curious as to what you are reading! Please link up below and I will try to stop by and see your books/audio and whatever else you have going on 😀
Powered by Linky Tools
Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list…
and those of you who read mainly children’s through YA reads – please also link your post here:
Book Journey 
Will have to check out the Patricia Gaffney book! Our local huge book sale is this week. I can’t wait!
Oops, think my comment got lost. We have a huge book sale this upcoming week. I can’t wait. Will definitely watch for the Patricia Gaffney book.
I am going to add The Goodbye Summer to my TBR list. That sounds like a book I’d really enjoy and be able to relate to. I’ve heard that The Magicians is good but I don’t know how similar it would be to Harry Potter. I look forward to your review to find out 🙂
The Magicians so far (3 hours in) has a bit of magic and they are a magic school – there are three who are advanced in magic – two boys and a girl, much like Harry, Ron, and Hermoine… that’s about as similar as it is…. it feels more serious to me than the Potter books… 😀
I’ve enjoyed reading your recaps of BEA week – hoping I get to go next year. It about killed me last year to be there so close to the time and not able to go!
I hope so too Lydia! 😀
I have to make it a priority to go to BEA next year. Thanks for sharing.
I like the sound of Moonlight Mile. Have a grand week.
Yes you do Martha, if possible, every serious book blogger should experience this at least once! I love Lehane!
I would love to come to BEA, if I’m lucky enough to get a trip to the US, I hope we can time it with BEA. The Magicians is on my TBR mountain but The Goodbye Summer sounds like my type of read, looking forward to your thoughts on that one
Have a great week and happy reading and catch up 🙂
Thanks Sheree, it is good to be home. It would be so awesome if you made it to BEA!!!
The Magicians – well, I bought it when the next in series came out … liked it, but didn’t LOVE it … I liked it enough to keep The Magician King on my to-buy list – I think part of it may have been that my reading mood wasn’t exactly right for this book, or maybe that I have a hard time picturing so many apathetic, cynical teens – after all, cynicism shouldn’t set in until at least your thirties! 🙂 Dennis Lehane – just absolutely one of my favorite authors of all time – I haven’t read a book by him that I didn’t love, including Moonlight Mile. What a great reading week for you!
I love Lehane too, impressive writer and this one has waited too long for me to read it! 😀
I really enjoyed The Magicians, so I’m glad you are as well! I really need to read more Lehane; I loved Shutter Island a few years ago. By the way, my mud run was last week. We had a blast! I have a recap up on my blog if you’re interested!
I loved Shutter Island! I read it about ten years ago and was so surprised when they made it a move (the book is so much better!) if you have not read Mystic River that one is wonderful too (book, not movie…. movie was awful!)
I am totally going to check out your mud run!!!
I enjoyed reading about your BEA experiences – even if I am deeply envious 🙂 – thanks for sharing them! Looks like great book son your TBR list this week, I hope you enjoy them!
Shelleyrae @ Book’d out
It is a blast and if I can bring any of the experience back I try to….. 😀
I’ve wanted to read The Magicians for years now! I really must get around to it. 🙂
I am really enjoying it Stephanie… seems like I have been doing a lot of non fiction lately – this was a nice change. 😀
Some gorgeous reads here. I liked reading about BEA as well. sounds such a blast.
Its fun to share what happens there Mystica 🙂
“read the Magicians for years now”? I must be really out of date!
I look forward to your reviews but it looks like I’ll be adding two more books to my tbr list.
Thanks for the book!
Gina @ Book Dragon’s Lair
YAY for adding books to the pile….. LOL… I know, I am crazy that way 😀
I participated in Armchair BEA for the first time and it was great. One day I hope to get to the actual BEA – I only live 25 minutes from the city!
The Goodbye Summer looks really good. I think I’ve read at least one other of her books.
Have a great week!
Kristin – 25 minutes out and you dont go? You absolutely should…. the books, the bloggers….. 😀
Haven’t read Lehane yet. Embarrassed. I hadn’t heard of this new title either. I do like Patricia Gaffney. She writes wonderful Contemporary romance.
Lehane is an awesome read…. Mystic River was so wonderful and Shutter Island shocked me – and that is not easy to do 🙂
Will have to put on my list.
I”m
Haven’t touched any of my new BEA ARCs yet. Am trying to force myself to write some overdue reviews first! The only book I’m reading right now is An Available Man by Hilma Wolitzer (started before BEA and had to put aside, so it’s grandfathered in).
Laurie, thats where I am at too… I have some books i have trying to get cleaned up on – that is my goal before I reward myself with BEA treats! 😀
Sheila–Just wanted to stop in and tell you that I really enjoy your blog! This is my first time participating in the meme and I am looking forward to visiting with the participants. Thanks again!
Rebecca
Well thank you Rebecca! I am so glad you stopped by and like the meme 😀
I’m trying to catch up too. It’s ironic that we go to BEA because we love to read but don’t do any reading while we’re there.
Kathy I was so tired every night – I think it was Thursday afternoon I tried to read a bit before we went out to dinner and I just fell asleep with the book open…. not one page read.
I almost at the end of “Murder Can Botch up Your birthday” by Selma Eichler . Love it. This is the 8th in the Desiree Shapiro cozy series I’ve read.
That has an interesting title! Glad you are enjoying it Ellen!
Don’t let Selma Eichler’s titles fool you. Desiree Shapiro is a fun sleuth. A great cozy series. finished iit today and will start Mary Jane Maffini’s “The Icing on the Corpse” tomorrow morning. It’s her 2nd in the Camilla MacPhee series.
I always forget to post that I commented on at least 10 blogs. Thanks for the link to the Armchair BEA info last week. I hadn’t heard of it before and it was fun.
Oh I am glad to hear that Heather – I was hoping I could help drive some traffic there way! 😀 I seen some of the posts while I was in New York and was really impressed how well it was put together.
The Goodbye Summer is going on my list! I love the look of it…and the blurb drew me right in.
Moonlight Mile is another must-read for me.
Enjoy!
I am enjoying it Laurel…. on audio 😀 You know… it is audiobook month… I think you should try one 😀
The Magicians sound great.. I have to check it out and add it to my TBR… Happy Reading
Jenea @ Books Live Forever
Thanks Jenea!
Just found your blog and thet Monday Reading initiative. I just put my Monday reads on my blog…I’ll try to keep up on my reading goals this month, but that will be difficult while we are following the European Soccer Champship this month! I have to watch 25 games!
Glad to have you here Nancy! 25 soccer games? Holy moly….lol 😀
Welcome home Sheila! I’m sure you will get caught up soon!
I hope so Jo Jo! I have the best of intentions but by the time I get done with life stuff…. I am too tired to write reviews 😀
I have The Magicians on my TBR list as well. I can’t wait to read your review.
Interesting books! I visited all of the blogs and commented on ten!
a more serious version of Harry Potter sounds good, for those fans who are growing up, right? Loved Harry Potter, and enjoy a lot of similar books.
I almost missed this week, better late than never, though – yes?