It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)

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.

This past weeks winner:

Kristin H from The Book Monsters!!!

Congratulations!  Please email me your book choice out of the Reading Cafe at journeythroughbooks@gmail.com. 

Can you even believe that it is July????  Half of the year is already over!  That blows my mind!  And I am now three months officially behind on updating my challenges, and I have the survey yet to post as well…. (thank you to all who took that, the results are really fun but it is taking me a long time to compile all the answers!)

So last week was audio book  week and all my posts were audio books… now if you are not an audio book reader, seriously check out some of these reviews.  You are truly missing out when you do not try some books on audio (one would be Ready Player One.)  I am currently listening to The Fault In Out Stars and seriously flipping out on how good this audio book is and so glad I listened to it instead of reading it.  Seriously…. expect a gushing review soon 😀

Here is what I posted this past week:

 

Lets Talk About Audio Baby!  (answering yours (and my) questions about audio books)

 

A Night To Remember by Walter Lord (The true retelling the night the Titanic sunk…. )

 

The Magicians by Lev Grossman (ooh… hello new narrator to me, Mark Bramhall)

 

Finding Ultra by Rich Roll (inspiring!!!)

 

LISTEN TO ME!  (a little audio info for newbies)

 

Ravens by George Dawes Green (oh wow this was FABULOUS!)

 

Marshmallow Madness by Shauna Sever (fun fun book!!!!)

 

 

Lots of good things to come this week too… I am in the middle of two pretty wonderful books and a couple audio books that will be ending this week as well that I am excited to talk about. 

For this upcoming week I have planned:

 

At the core of Krakauer’s book are brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a commandment from God to kill a blameless woman and her baby girl. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this appalling double murder, Krakauer constructs a multi-layered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, polygamy, savage violence, and unyielding faith. Along the way he uncovers a shadowy offshoot of America’s fastest growing religion, and raises provocative questions about the nature of religious belief.

 

 

 

 

Marcus Samuelsson was only three years old when he, his mother, and his sister—all battling tuberculosis—walked seventy-five miles to a hospital in the Ethiopian capital city of Addis Adaba. Tragically, his mother succumbed to the disease shortly after she arrived, but Marcus and his sister recovered, and one year later they were welcomed into a loving middle-class white family in Göteborg, Sweden. It was there that Marcus’s new grandmother, Helga, sparked in him a lifelong passion for food and cooking with her pan-fried herring, her freshly baked bread, and her signature roast chicken. From a very early age, there was little question what Marcus was going to be when he grew up.
 
Yes, Chef chronicles Marcus Samuelsson’s remarkable journey from Helga’s humble kitchen to some of the most demanding and cutthroat restaurants in Switzerland and France, from his grueling stints on cruise ships to his arrival in New York City, where his outsize talent and ambition finally come together at Aquavit, earning him a coveted New York Times three-star rating at the age of twenty-four. But Samuelsson’s career of  “chasing flavors,” as he calls it, had only just begun—in the intervening years, there have been White House state dinners, career crises, reality show triumphs and, most important, the opening of the beloved Red Rooster in Harlem. At Red Rooster, Samuelsson has fufilled his dream of creating a truly diverse, multiracial dining room—a place where presidents and prime ministers rub elbows with jazz musicians, aspiring artists, bus drivers, and nurses. It is a place where an orphan from Ethiopia, raised in Sweden, living in America, can feel at home.

 

 

 

Irene and Nate Stanley are living a quiet and contented life with their two children, Bliss and Shep, on their family farm in southern Illinois when Nate suddenly announces he’s been offered a job as a deputy sheriff in Oregon. Irene fights her husband. She does not want to uproot her family and has deep misgivings about the move. Nevertheless, the family leaves, and they are just settling into their life in Oregon’s high desert when the unthinkable happens. Fifteen-year-old Shep is shot and killed during an apparent robbery in their home. The murderer, a young mechanic with a history of assault, robbery, and drug-related offenses, is caught and sentenced to death.

Shep’s murder sends the Stanley family into a tailspin, with each member attempting to cope with the tragedy in his or her own way. Irene’s approach is to live, week after week, waiting for Daniel Robbin’s execution and the justice she feels she and her family deserve. Those weeks turn into months and then years. Ultimately, faced with a growing sense that Robbin’s death will not stop her pain, Irene takes the extraordinary and clandestine step of reaching out to her son’s killer. The two forge an unlikely connection that remains a secret from her family and friends.

Years later, Irene receives the notice that she had craved for so long—Daniel Robbin has stopped his appeals and will be executed within a month. This announcement shakes the very core of the Stanley family. Irene, it turns out, isn’t the only one with a shocking secret to hide. As the execution date nears, the Stanleys must face difficult truths and find a way to come to terms with the past.

 

 

I think that is it for this week, if there is time I may get a start on our read-a-long, Rebecca.  Now I want to know what you are reading!  Be sure to link your post below where it says click here:

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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:

66 thoughts on “It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?”

  2. I have The Fault in Our Stars on my iPod but haven’t listened to it. I did read the print version and thought it was pretty good. The Crying Tree sounds pretty good, kind of like a Jodi Picoult novel. I am almost certain that a few years ago when I purchased that book for the library I peeked at the ending. Still I may read it someday and look forward to hearing what you think of it.

    Reply

  6. I didn’t participate in audio book week, but I do enjoy listening to them on my way to and from work. Glad you had a good time. I know what you mean about half the year being gone, it’s hard to believe. Have a good week!

    Reply

  13. Hi, I wanted to let you know, I had submitted my link, number 38, and just realized when I tested it, that its wrong, its a link to Goodreads, when I copied it, it didn’t copy, so the last thing i did, was what showed I have put my actual link in 39. If you can remove 38 i would appreciate it. I feel bad. I will come post how many I visit tomorrow. I did 7 so far, i try to go to all the links

    Reply

  16. Loved this post and you have read some great sounding stuff!! Have a great week and a Happy 4th of July!

    Reply

  17. I find Marcus Samuelsson’s life and upbringing absolutely fascinating. I think Yes, Chef will be a great read! It’s on my to-read list by Lord only knows when I’ll actually get to it.

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  20. Hi Sheila,
    Thanks for the heads up on The Crying Tree, sounds really good. I am reading Tumbleweeds by Leila Meecham. It has a beautiful cover, and a great story line that spans years between 3 friends in a small Texas town. Halfway through and hard to put down.

    Reply

    1. The Crying Tree is from a book pick we did for Book Club with our July read. It was something new we tried where each member had to wrap up a much beloved read and we took turns picking a book that we will talk about at book club in a couple weeks. I am excited about my pick!

      Reply

  23. Audio Book Week was a lot of fun and I managed to get quite a few audiobook reviews up. I also got some new tips for what I should be including in those audiobook reviews.

    Have a great week!

    Reply

  28. I have had to all but stop blogging right now… life is just too busy and my health requires less laptop/computer time (sleep, food, etc…). But know I’m reading! Hope you have a wonderful 4th holiday. I’m home this week but then basically leave for six weeks of back to back travel, so you can image how much prep is needed. 🙂

    Reply

  29. The year is half over with? Eeek! I was thinking of July 1 as still very early in the summer – now you’ve given me a different perspective – where has the time gone??

    We just returned from a 3-week vacation (and a 3-week blog hiatus), so I am buried in catch-up stuff, including almost 1000 unread e-mails. yikes!

    Sounds like you are enjoying some great audio books! We listened to one on our trip, Revived, a teen sci fi/romance, that was very good.

    Enjoy your books this week!

    Sue

    Reply

  30. Hi Sheila….I am making a comment, so it works from this end. BUT—-now that you mention it, I think it might be Blogger that doesn’t let YOU make comments. Is that true? If so—that’s crappy. Hmmmmm… now I’m going to have to check out my comments to see if anyone other than bloggers account have commented.

    Reply

  31. i start that Krakauer book years ago when I had it out of the library. Was really into it too yet somehow have not sought it out again for awhile. Will likely have to start over when I do.

    Wow the year is half over? How did that happen? That means we’ve lived over half a year in our ‘new’ place yet it still feels like last week the move in. That’s partly due to having spent more than 2/3 of that time at my Mom’s I suppose.

    Reply

  34. Hi, came by to work on visiting from the linky list. I got 16 so far, and left them comments, and most those I am a new follower. 🙂 Hope they follow back , would be cool. Thanks, will work on more of this list tomorrow, see how many new ones I can hit. 🙂 and the old ones too of course. Have a good night.

    Reply

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