May 2015 – Page 2 – Book Journey

Vintage by Susan Gloss

Published on May 18, 2015May 18, 2015 by Sheila (Book Journey)21 Comments

Violet Turner is the owner of Hourglass Vintage in Madison Wisconsin. Her shop is filled with delightful items from an array of decades. Violet loves her shop, her location, and the stories that the items she sells hold. When she discovers that her landlord is looking to sell the building Hourglass Vintage is in, Violet panics. She has the option in her lease to buy, but nowhere near the money being asked. Violet realizes she can not do this alone.

April Morgan is 18 years old, 5 months pregnant, and hurting from the loss of her mother as well as the broken engagement to be married that came as a shock. When April brings the vintage 1950’s wedding dress to Violet’s shop in hopes to return it, a surprising connection starts to develop…

Amithi Singh brings items of her heritage to Hourglass Vintage, items she had believed she would pass on to her daughter but her now grown daughter has shunned such traditional items. Reeling from shocking news about her husbands fidelity – or lack there of – Amithi is looking to find her way, and she may have made a right step by coming to Violet’s store…. What can these women of very different backgrounds find in common that may be able to help Hourglass Vintage?

Vintage by Susan Gloss was a fun read about a strong woman trying to make it with her dream vintage clothing shop. Each chapter starts with a unique item found in the shop, the description, approximate date of the item, and where it came from. It made for a fun look into a vintage clothing shop and the characters that shop there or the ones that drop off their items. Vintage is a light and fun book and fit in with what I needed at the time I was reading it. There were a couple “hmmmm” moments in the book for me but for the most past this is a book to not take too seriously and just enjoy the read.

Susan Gloss, Vintage, Bookies Book Club Brainerd Minnesota, Book Journey — To surprise the author many of us dressed in “vintage” clothing for the Skype session.

Bookies Review

Our book club the Bookies read this book and we Skyped with the author Susan Gloss. We enjoyed pizza (mentioned in the book), spaghetti, wine, cheese, and desserts. One of the girls in our group had vintage items from her own history which was incredible cool (see pictures below). The Bookies over all rated the book higher than I did. For the most part they found the book to be enjoyable and over all the 16 of us came up with an average rating of 4 out of a high rating of 5 which is pretty good.

Book Journey Vintage by Susan Gloss — Items brought by Laura for the review

How to host a book club event around this book

Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (September 2, 2014)

Morning Meanderings…. Current Randomness

Published on May 17, 2015 by Sheila (Book Journey)48 Comments

Sunday. Yesterday made six weeks since my life changed forever. There are days I want to write… I open up a new post… and then I walk away. I am still struggling fitting into a new normal and stubbornly I don’t even want a new normal.

I want everything back the way it was.

I miss writing. I miss reviewing. I want to do something besides sitting in my house trying to escape this new reality but having no idea how. I do read. I do get out a little. I am signed up for BEA (Book Expo America) on May 26 – 29 in New York but even now I go back and forth on if that is what I can do. I want to… I am nervous to… I am giving myself until this Tuesday to fully fully decide.

I am doing a little. This past Tuesday we had book club and we skyped with the author, Susan Gloss. Her book Vintage inspired us to dress up and since that was what we had planned to do when we originally discussed this book in March, we stuck with it. These little outings while probably good for me to do, are exhausting.

This past Friday a group of friends met at a cabin on a lake and we sat around and talked around a camp fire, grilled good food, and were just together. It was both sweet and also hard to do but I am glad I did it.

Below are the books and audio that have come in the last 6 weeks since I posted. I have picked away at a few of them finding that while I am unable to watch TV I am able to read a bit to take my mind off things.

Today is another rainy day in Central Minnesota. The last week + has been cold and rainy and while it fits my mood…it is getting old. After I post this I will probably try to read a bit before I lay down for a nap. I do have reviews to write, today I hope to start writing reviews and posting them but I have also learned these past 6 weeks that nothing happens on my schedule any more as it takes me forever to do the simplest tasks.

Until I write again. Thank you for reading whatever I am saying and thank you for being the amazing people on the other side of my posts.

Sheila

Morning Meanderings… Still Here

Published on May 5, 2015May 5, 2015 by Sheila (Book Journey)102 Comments

Checking in. At 31 days since the accident, life has taken on a new normal. I cry every day, yet every day I wake up and wonder if this will be the day I have no tears left. Every day to this point I have had more than enough tears. I have been surrounded with friends and family from morning to night and that has brought me through many HARD days. At this point I am trying not to lean so heavily on these amazing people who come to sit with me, text me, message me, or bring me coffee or provide dinner for my family or encourage me to go out for a walk or a bike ride. I am learning ever so cautiously to stand in this new world breathing this unfamiliar air and trying (trying trying trying) to imagine a world without the amazing light and love of Justin.

Quite honestly…. I don’t like it.

Which brings me to my point today. I can not sit and watch TV. My mind will not settle into the story line and something will leave me unsettled – a laugh in a comedy, a family… a pregnant woman. However, I have found that over the last couple of weeks I have been able to settle my mind into a book which does not surprise me. Through the tragedies of my life – it has been books I have always been able to turn to for escape and release of the pain of the real world. So slowly I am reading when I go to bed at 7 pm because I am done with what the day has to offer and I don’t know what else to do, I pick up a book and I read a little each night. I will write reviews because I love to talk about books. As easy as it would be to stop doing all the things I used to do I know that would make Justin very sad.

I always referred to him as the male version of me. If it was fun, unique, and crazy – we would encourage each other to do it. He loved that I lived life the way I did. I have to remember that. I will continue Book Journey. I imagine that my morning posts will become hopefully lighter than this one. I know I am changed forever and that will reflect on how I write, for better of for worse. That kid though, he is worth every bit of pain I am going through right now. I love him so much… and for that reason. I will continue to live life out loud. He would have wanted me to stay that way.

I am still here.