March 2016 – Page 3 – Book Journey

Level Up. Beyond The Turning Of The Page

Published on March 5, 2016March 6, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)43 Comments

About once a year, I get on my audio soap box. If you read me here, you already know I LOVE audio books. When I discovered audio books in 2010, I was amazed that I had found a way to enjoy books beyond the turning of the page. If you are into real books or your E-Reader, what I want to share here is that this is another way to EXPERIENCE books that will (I promise) take you to the next level.

One thing we can agree on before we get started….. we all love to read. We enjoy engaging in a well written story. We can close our eyes and picture our favorite reading spot…. a cozy chair, on the porch in the sun, in the evening curled up on the couch, outside on a swing, a park bench, leaning against a tree….

I get that. I am that. Often… I love to be on the back deck in the summer with ice tea and a great read. But for me.. life does not stop so I can read a book. Lets try this visual:

So many books…. so little time right?

So let’s get started.

We just covered the WHY and WHEN you should listen to audio….

HOW To Listen To Audio.

Audio books may give you a visual of old school audio tapes….. and uhhh….. no. Fast forward to something a little more current. Hip and happening…..

Audio books come in CD format. Perfect for your car and in your home. They also can be downloaded off your computer to ITUNES or even directly to your phone (my personal favorite). With an auxiliary cord, you can easily hook your phone up to your vehicles radio and listen to it within your car.

My personal favorite is on my phone because my phone is usually everywhere I am. I picked up an external speaker at Wal-Mart (found at most stores that has electronics). This allows your phone to connect with the speaker and amplify the sound. This way I can set the speaker and phone on my kitchen counter and work my way around the area without having to carry my phone with me to hear it. External speakers range any where from $9.99 to $89.99. I paid $14.98 for mine three years ago and it still works wonderfully. No need to go fancy. 🙂

For traveling purposes, such as walking the dog, traveling on a plane or mowing the lawn, ear buds come into play. These too can be picked up at most stores that carry electronics for fairly reasonable.

WHERE To Find Great Audio Books.

Audiobooks can be purchased in CD format at most stores that carry books. You can also pick them up on line off Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc… For downloading audio to your device of choice, there are several options.

Audible.com: This is the one I use and have used for 5 years. Audible lets you choose up to two audio books a month at a greatly reduced price from what you would purchase audio in the stores. I am on the two credits per month program and pay $22.95 per month. Many audio books, especially new and popular titles go for anywhere between $25 and $50 an audio book so this is a great reduction. As a new customer, you receive your first audio book free – just go on and pick one. Another thing I love about Audible is that if you are listening to a book that you do not find to your liking, go into your account and ask to return it. No questions asked they will give you your credit back! They also have wonderful sales where you can pick titles up for $4.95 each, as well a daily special where one audio book will be $2.95. No contract, quit any time.

Downpour.com is another site much like Audible, however they do not have DRM (which honestly I knew little about until I read the linked article. I have not spent a lot of time on this site yet, but I will. Definitely one worth checking out.

WHAT To Listen To

Ahhhh….. one of my favorite topics…. what to listen to on audio? Most sites will allow you to listen to a sample of the audio book. I highly recommend you do this. Not all audio is treated alike. Narration is so important and while you can read here or on other sites about favorite narrators…. you really need to hear for yourself and choose what you like. A good narration (IMO) lets you lose yourself in the book. You don’t hear someone reading, instead you become part of the story. You don’t hear a change in character voices, instead you hear a discussion. And when you are really really lucky – you fall in love with the narration and…. you stalk the narrator. You look for books that this narrator has narrated. That’s when you know you have it bad. I have done it.

I can give you a short list here of some of my favorites…. but definitely look around and see what other reviewers are talking about in audio books. I have picked many audio books on my own, but I have picked just as many or perhaps even more on someone elses raving.

A few of my top picks

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline Narrated by Wil Wheaton (soon to be a movie!)

11-22-63 by Stephen King Narrated by Craig Wasson (do not write this off because it is a King book. It is, and it isn’t!)

The Residence by Kate Anderson Brower Narrated by Karen White (This is such a great listen and so informative)

The Martian by Andy Weir Narrated by R.C. Bray (From the very first sentence I was all….. oh yeah. This is going to be fun)

YOU by Caroline Kepnes narrated by Santino Fontana (oh my word! The narration and Joe….. WOW!)

Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain Narrated by Susan Bennett

The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty Narrated by Caroline Lee (Oh I fell in love with this story and this narrator! I also enjoyed Big Little lies with the same narrator! It’s like narrator crack!)

United For Libraries – Literary Landmarks

Published on March 5, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)8 Comments

I am part of a committee that meets to place a Literary Landmark once a year somewhere in Minnesota. Literary Landmarks are a part of ALA (American Library Association). The purpose of Literary Landmarks is to recognize an author who is from the area. The author needs to no longer be living for at least 5 years. In past years Minnesota has recognized:

Jon Hassler

Sinclair Lewis

Maud Hart Lovelace (Betsy Tacy!)

Scott Fitzgerald (Gatsby!)

Our committee started meeting last fall to discuss who our next author should be. As the last couple of years had been in the Brainerd lakes area and in Ely, we felt it was time to come back toward the Twin Cities. Once we have chosen our author, we need to find a place to put the plaque. It is a beautiful large plaque and it can go indoors or outdoors; on the side of a building, in a library, in a park, a museum, wherever. We then plan a ceremony around the dedication.

After narrowing down our list, we were excited to choose Gordon Parks as our Literary Landmark for 2016.

Gordon Parks was not only an author. He was also a photographer and became the first African American to write and direct a Hollywood feature film based on his bestselling novel The Learning Tree. In 1971, his book Shaft became a hugely successful motion picture. He had a deep commitment to social justice and died in 2006.

Yesterday, I drove to St. Paul Minnesota to meet not only with our committee, but we were also lucky enough to have two of Gordon’s relatives present as well. Russell Balenger is Gordon’s nephew and Robin Hickman his grand niece. It was so exciting to meet them and see that they both are involved in social justice themselves, carrying on in Gordon’s footsteps.

gordon parks, book journey, ALA< Literary landmark — L: Russel, Robin, Joe (from our committee)

gordon parks, literary landmark, book journey minnesota — L: Barbi and Isabel from our committee

I am enjoying being a part of this group. It is wonderful to be able to recognize authors who have made a difference. I am submitting this post to Saturday Snapshots.

Morning Meanderings… A Mix of Grief and A Smile

Published on March 4, 2016March 4, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)15 Comments

I have a picture file in my computer named “Justin”. It is all the pictures that I have from friends postings on-line that I have copied and saved in my file. There are over 500 pictures.

I am Gollum.

Everything…. is my precious.

It has been a while since I have added anything to this file. While friends are still posting pictures and talking about him (thank you thank you thank you) they are mostly pictures I already have.

Until yesterday.

The Honduras Team is back in Honduras. This is a trip that Justin would have been on and he would have been so excited to return to Honduras and those kids. He had just returned last March for his 5th time going and we had a long talk on how much this trip had impacted him. He was already talking about this years trip.

Yesterday this was posted on-line:

This is the plaque that is on the building that was dedicated in Justin’s memory. It is so beautiful. He would have loved this connection to the kids.

It is 11 months today. I can hardly believe that. This picture of the plaque somehow seems like wonderful timing.

Today I drive to St Paul. I am on the Minnesota Literary Landmark committee and we are discussing this years placement over lunch. As much as I would love to stay home curled up in my own grief, going is probably the better choice. It is hard to keep going with such a large piece of your life missing, but I continue to do it because I know he would want me to. ♥

Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes

Published on March 3, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)8 Comments

Joe Goldberg is no stranger to the sacrifices one has to make for love. In fact, within the past ten years, he has four bodies that he has buried to prove just how much he is willing to sacrifice. Once a book store manager, Joe thought he had met the love of his life but that turned out to be wrong.

Very wrong.

And now once again, Joe finds himself in love with someone new, someone better… and also someone who hurts him very badly. Joe makes the decision to move and start fresh, perhaps a different view will give him just what he needs to leading a much simpler life. Yet the past has a way of creeping back up and Joe has to wonder how many more bodies is he going to have to hide to keep his secrets safe?

Oh wow oh wow. You know the books that you hate to finish because you don’t want them to end? This would be one of those books. I, sickeningly enough, adore Joe. Like YOU (the first book that brings this creepy funny witty protagonist to life) I listened to Hidden Bodies on audio. Let me say this. If you enjoy audio, I absolutely insist that you listen to both of these books. If you are new to audio, this would be a great way to start. Narrator Santino Fontana literally embodies Joe. This narration is so good, you forget that you are listening to a book. I had moments where I laughed out loud, and believe me, I do not laugh our loud often.

I also absolutely need to give a hats off to author Caroline Kepnes. I am so impressed that this book is written by a female author. She has captured Joe, the essence of GUY in these books. She is an amazing writer, and I love her dry humor. I can not wait to read (or hopefully listen to!) more from her.

As you can probably tell, I find this book gush worthy. I don’t think I loved it as much as YOU, but it was pretty close. YOU is somewhat lighter if I dare say that, and while I believe YOU was more sexually graphic; the book references, the movie references, really made it wonderful. If it wrong to fall in love with a killer I don’t want to be right. If you can handle a book that is a little vulgar at times, I have to tell you this one is so worth it. If you read my reviews, you know I don’t say that lightly. While this book does have sexual content, I would say it is never over the top and never gory. I would say I think the difference is Joe. You have to experience Joe.

Hidden Bodies starts off right where YOU leaves off. While you do not have to read/listen (oh my gosh listen to this one!!!) to You before you move into Hidden Bodies, I highly recommend that you do. YOU really lets you get to know Joe in a way that is not as fully developed in Hidden Bodies. There are also many references (some really funny) that you will miss if you have not experienced YOU first.

Please look at other reviews of this book as well. There are quite a few bloggers out there that I enjoy that are gushing about these two reads as well.

Audible Audio Edition
Listening Length: 13 hours and 3 minutes
Program Type: Audiobook
Version: Unabridged
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Audible.com Release Date: February 23, 2016

Morning Meanderings….. Top Books…. I Wonder How They Are On Audio?

Published on March 2, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)23 Comments

Good morning. MMMMMM….. Coffee. Hang on.

Had to get a refill.

That’s better.

I seen a link on Facebook yesterday afternoon about the 20 best books we should be reading this spring. Did you see it?

There are some good looking books in this group! The post was originally made by Redbook. I have to admit however, I instantly wondered how they are on audio. 😛

It is getting to be that time of year for me. Our Spring Library Book Sale is this next week. The week after is our Great Gatsby event. We are putting together a benefit event for my son at the end of April….

life gets BUSY.

I have said it many times, but I will say it again, I probably listen to audio 4 to one over books. At least. I can listen to audio in the morning while I get ready, in my car while I travel, at home while I cook and clean, and while I work on a project like painting or picture albums. I love it and I am always looking for great audio.

Yesterday I finished listening to Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes and narrated by the oh-so-amazing-I-want-him-to-read-the-newspaper-to-me the #isitwrongtoloveakiller #Iamsoamazedbycreepyjoe #Carolinekepnesbooksrockedmyworld #cansantinofortananarratemylife…. basically I am jonesing for more great audio.

Ok you get the drift. I can not be the only person who has actually stocked narrators to find out what else they have narrated so I can listen to them again. IE. Wil Wheaton. *sigh*

Ok… I digress. What I am super interested in is knowing if any of the “Must Read This Spring” list has been listened to on audio. Is there another hot audio book I need to listen to? I need to download an audio for my phone today and I have been spoiled by what I have just listened to. Watch for my review of Hidden Bodies later today.

Off to the library and a coffee date (yes more coffee!).

Morning Meanderings…. Today’s Hot Topic…. Breast Feeding

Published on March 1, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)10 Comments

So….Tuesday.

I mentioned a week or so ago about the Spoiler Pages and the traffic they can drive, especially when a book becomes a movie. Current example of that is ROOM by Emma Donoghue, read and reviewed in 2010, reviewed by my book club in 2011, and then of course the SPOILER PAGE…

and it is that Spoiler Page that is drawing the attention now.

The movie, just released and is currently at our theater here in town.

What is the hot topic? In the book, (I have not seen the movie) Jack is 5 and still breast feeding. The book is told from Jack’s perspective. It is discussed in the book that when he is hungry he will say “want some” and then he will breast feed. It was something that made me double take, as well as my book club and it was admittedly, a part of our discussion. We understood the reasoning behind it in the book, they never know when and if food will be coming.

What is happening on the spoiler page for the most part is opinions on breast feeding as well as the occasional jab at me for admitting on that page that I found that part of the book a little disturbing to my mid western upbringing. 🙂 It is an interesting discussion, and really always has been. I even interviewed the author, Emma Donoghue about this topic and she said she was surprised the reaction, especially from the US. Here was what she wrote to me in 2011…

Emma: Finally, your breastfeeding question. It seems to me that Jack mentions it pretty rarely, actually: he gives far more analysis of what they have for lunch and dinner. But it’s such a touchy subject (especially, I’m finding, in the US) that it stands out. I kept it in because it seemed entirely natural that Ma would keep up that most comforting part of the mother-baby bond as long as they are living very much like a mother-and-baby (never apart, never socializing with other people) in ROOM.

Has anyone seen the movie? A friend of mine told me last night she had seen it. I asked her if it was a movie theater movie or a Red Box movie. She said Red Box. Any other thoughts on that?

Any hoo….. that’s what is happening on Book Journey today.

Things are starting to move here now. It has been a fairly quiet winter for which I am grateful. It has been nice to have time to process and grieve at my own pace. Now, in March, we have our spring book sale next week. The week after that on the 18th is the Gatsby Event. Then we will start working on Wine and Words, April will bring an Edible Book Fair, May a benefit, June Camp…..

Here we go.