A short challenge is running between now and Saturday July 23rd at midnight Central time.
May the force (or the wand) be with you…. check out this link.… if you dare. 😀
Category: Book Giveaways
Literary Blog Hop June 25-29
The Literary Giveaway Blog Hop is hosted by Leeswammes’s Blog. Follow the link I provided here to sign up for many fun literary giveaways from now through Wednesday.
I am offering here an international chance to win one of 2 $10 Amazon gift cards! *I will email the gift cards to the winners so as long as you have access to an Amazon you are good to go! Simply leave me a comment here telling me what book you wish you currently had in your possession and why. That’s it! 😀 Party on fellow book lovers 😛
Blogiversary – year 2 and I want to party with you!!!
Oh I am just giddy with excitement!!! Today officially marks my two-year anniversary of my step into the book blogging world. Whoever thought that this day would come? I sure didn’t! When I first discovered book blogging I would never have dreamed what a life changing experience it would be… I did not know that by chatting books I would:
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start having conversations with authors
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be part of a Minnesota book event panel
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Go to New York – not once, but twice for BEA
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meet many awesome book bloggers throughout this wonderful and crazy hobby
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and of course, get to chat with all of you
Life is really not as it was before I book blogged. 😀
This party is to really celebrate you, because honestly…. if I was talking to myself every day…. I know I would not do this blog, at least not to the extent and to the love that I do now. SO please, come on in!
You may drop your coat at the coat check (be sure to get a claim number), and help yourself to the beverages and snacks. Excuse me a minute while I get the music going…
*runs into other room*
*runs back*
There. Nothing like a little cheesy 80’s background music. 😛
At this party – the gifts are for you! It’s easy to participate – simply leave a comment on this post about how you arrived at the party (have fun with this) and what virtual gift or food item you brought with you, such as you rode your scooter and brought flaming shish kabobs. (I did this last year and the sheer imaginative comments had me laughing for days after…. :D)
This giveaway is open for today only – tomorrow morning I will announce the winners using random.org on my Morning Meandering post. If you have a preference (package 1,2,3, or 4) you can say that in your comment and if your name is drawn that will be yours if not already won by someone else – otherwise no need to say which as you will be eligible for all.
Ok… let’s get to the good stuff:
An advanced reader copy of Forever by Maggie Stiefvater, Between by Monica Warman, Camerons Coffee (Caramel Brownie), Ghiradelli Chocolate, and a Mysterious Benedict Society puzzle
Nazareth Child by Darrell James, Ghiradelli Chocolate, Cameron’s French Vanilla coffee, The Soldiers Wife by Margaret Leroy, and Crooked Letter Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin.
The Art Of Choosing (AUDIO!), Dark Legacy and Secret Legacy by Anna DeStefano, Lethal by Sandra Brown, Lindt Truffles, Cameron’s Cinnamon Sugar Cookie coffee
The Little Women Letters by Gabrielle Donnelly, The Taker by Alma Katsu, The Sandalwood tree by Elle Newmark, Ghiradelli Chocolate, and Java delight Hazelnut Creme Coffee
*Personal thank you to publishers who gave me copies of these books to give away for this event.
Thank you readers of Book Journey – You make me smile with your comments, nod in understanding, and occasionally I laugh out loud. I am so appreciative of all of you!!!
Let’s get this party started!!!! I am opening the door….
Fairy Tale Fortnight: Review and Giveaway of Cloaked by Alex Finn
When I seen this bookish adventure coming up hosted by Misty at The Book Rat and Ashley from Basically Amazing Books, lets just say my “spidey senses”…. were activated…
I had not read any of the “New” fairy tales but have many fond memories of fairy tales as a child…
… and I remember my Great Grandmother reading these stories to me, large hard cover books with gorgeously detailed pages read so often that I knew the words before I could read them…. and who knew then that those stories would stick with me a lifetime?
So… the question was when I was asked to create a quest post about a fairy tale book of my choice… could I bring the magic of those books back?
Fairy tale is a type of short narrative that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments.
I personally find this interesting as in todays stories of wolves, vampires, fairies and feys – they are considered paranormal and not fairy tales at all.
And my quest began…. did I want to read and review a classic fairy tale… or did my literary mind long for a new fairy tale and see what they were like… not knowing of course, old or new – if I would be able to capture that fairy dust again that makes a fairy tale come to life…
“flip flip flip” I went through the pages of fairy tales I found on-line and “click click click” as I went through the books on Amazon until…. finally
FINALLY….
I settled on Cloaked.
Why?
I liked that is seemed to be a mix and match of old fairy tales put in a blender to make a new one… it was both old and new…. both classic and new release…. that appealed to me. I also liked that this was the author of Beastly which I have not read, but know of and know that it is also being made into a movie…. that too appealed to me.
The review and giveaway are not posted here as I did this review for this event at Book Rat and Basically Amazing books. Pop over to see the review here and the giveaway here.
As for here….. what are your thoughts on Fairy Tales? Yay back in the day but Nay now? Or yay and yay? Do you like the new and creative touches to the old classic tales or do you prefer them left untouched as they were?
Dewey Read-A-Thon Mini Challenge: Book Club Recommendations
Hey there all you read-a-thoners…. how YOU doing? 😛
Had a little Joey from friends flash back…
This challenge is now completed – the winner using random.org is Shel from The Hungry Readers! Congratulations Shel! 😀 Please email me at journeythroughbooks@gmail.com with your book choice from Amazon up to a $15 value.
Ok…. on to the Mini Challenge! It’s no secret I LOVE talking books and honestly – not all books are “chat worthy”. I have been in my book club for 10 years now and the book reviews I enjoyed the most and remember the most are the ones that really brought out great discussion. My challenge for you today – if you choose to accept it, is to share with me in the comments a book you would recommend as being very chat or discussion worthy. You do not have to be part of a book club to do this challenge, I am just looking for a book title with author that you would recommend as being a great thought-provoking and/or discussion worthy book.
***For a bonus entry – add in a menu that would go along with the book discussion – (my book club loves to theme food around the books we review).
That’s it! I plan to eventually make a post of all the book club recommendations that show up on this post and link back to you as suggesting that book (if you have a blog). Yes, it is ok to put down a book that someone else recommends, I am looking for a list of different reads but certainly will count your entry even if someone else already suggested it.
When this mini challenge ends I will choose one winner using random.org to choose a book I can purchase from Amazon.com that is $15.00 or less and I will send that book to you.
Oh – and get up and stretch your arms and grab a fresh cup of coffee, a bottle of water or a granola bar…. stay strong and keep on reading!!! 😛
Literary Blog Hop
This is a sticky post – all new posts are below 😀
My friend Judith at Leeswammes has put together this 4 day Literary Giveaway HOP. I am thrilled to share in this opportunity for you to win a great book and think I put together a pretty good selection here:
Sadly, many on this grouping I have not read myself. To enter this giveaway leave a comment here on which of these 8 books you would like to win. If you are my winner (drawn with random.org on February 24th) I will ship you the book directly from Amazon and if I have not read it myself, I will order one for me as well. I love win, win….LOL
This book giveaway is open to US only. If you are out of the US and have access to order from Amazon, you are welcome to participate and if you are the winner I will email you a $10 gift card from Amazon instead.
Make sure you pop on in and see the rest of the hop at Leeswammes’ Blog!
Morning Meanderings… Back in Minnesota and with a giveaway!
Good morning!
I am sitting at MY OWN kitchen table this morning with MY OWN coffee cup.
We left Honduras (84 degrees) yesterday at 1:00 pm and arrived back on my doorstep at 1:30 a.m. (17 degrees and snowing) this morning.
Finally… the snow on my blog makes sense again.
I am glad to be home and over the next few days I will share pictures, happenings, and recipes with you surrounding the 10 days I spent traveling around Honduras with 6 friends, exploring options of where we can team up in the future. It was an amazing trip, but we spent a lot (A LOT) of time in a car traveling here and there, sometimes 4 -5 hours one way so you can imagine that I am excited to start moving (literally) again!
The people who were with us and drove us around were Terry and Colleen Hawk. Missionaries of Honduras and amazing people. I have known them for years, but this year was the year these two amazing people went from acquaintances to friends.
Terry’s dad, Don Hawk was the man who came to Honduras on a banana boat in 1968 to start a school for underprivileged boys. He applied to do this through a mission agency and was turned down – however he felt called to do this anyway, so packed up his wife and his two small sons at the time and to Honduras they went.
Now all these years later, while Don passed away at the age of 59, the school (the farm school I showed pictures of earlier) flourishes, and Terry’s sons and grandchildren are still doing things in Honduras that has really changed the country. It was an honor to spend time getting to know Terry and Colleen better.
SO – I tell you all this today because the book, Come What May by Betty Hockett is the story of Dawn Hawk. I read it several years back but now that I know more of the story, I want to read it again.
The Giveaway
The giveaway I want to do is for a bag of Honduran coffee (which is delicious!). All I would like is a comment here for letting me know a trip that you have taken that has inspired a book purchase (trip and book title).
One Bonus Entry
If you would like to subscribe to my blog (upper right side bar) and let me know in a separate comment here (or if you already subscribe) and that will count as an extra entry.
Winner will be chosen using random.org on Wednesday morning – December 14th.
It’s good to be home!
How About Some AMAZING Winners?
Crackling fireworks Batman! It is time to announce some winners for recent giveaways….. I am hoping to have all my winners in and mailed by the time I leave on Wednesday…. so lets see what Random.Org had to say…
My Lost Daughter by Nancy Thayer Rosenberg
I have three lovely copies of this book and they are going to (using random.org)….
Laurel
Kelly B
Mary Beth l
Woo hoo and chick a pow wow….. (I have no idea where that came from….)
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
Next up…. you may remember the fantastic book package … 3 copies each of SIGNED BOOKS from the
lovely Lori Lansen!!!
Here are the much-anticipated winners:
The new and proud winners of The Wife’s Tale are:
Julie
Anita Yancey
Rhonda
The ultimate and super fine winners of The Girls are:
Robyn Lee
Sarah G
Sandra
Oh and lets give it up for the Rush Home Road peeps who can officially make room on their book shelf:
Kathy
Julie P
Melanie L
Thanks every one for participating in this fun giveaway!!!!
Interview with The Wicked…. errr… Sorely Misunderstood Witch of Snow White
Readers, today I am excited and maybe a little nervous to be interviewing the witch from Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs. I am extremely thankful that she was able to take time to meet with me here today at Book Journey as I know that this is normally a very busy time of year for witches, however she was able to fit us in. Please give a warm welcome to uhhhh……. errrrrrrr….. Snow White’s evil Stepmother…. The Witch.
♦ ♦ ♦
Welcome! I usually open up my interviews by asking my guests how they take their coffee.
Thank you for asking, but I am really more fond of apple cider. This time of year I prefer it hot.
Ummmm….. ok. I think I can handle that. I am a little embarrassed to admit this, but I do not know your first name.
Well that is kind of you to ask. Most people just refer to me as Wicked Witch or Evil Step Mother and that is a bit degrading. However, my name was never mentioned in the original story of Snow White or during the film. In both cases this is really a sore spot with me. My name is in the script though, and it is Grimhilda.
Grimhilda! Why it is lovely! Thank you for sharing that.
No. It’s not lovely, it was handed down to me from my great great great great great great great grandmother, Grimhilda, the first, and believe me, she was not any peach. You think I was hard on Snow White? HA! That woman would have made us look like sorority sisters.
Oh. Ok. Well, since you mentioned that some referred to you as the Wicked Witch, I am curious about how you feel about all the attention now given to Elphaba, the true wicked witch from The Wizard Of Oz. I mean, ever since Gregory Maguire wrote Wicked in 1995, she has received a lot of attention.
Oh barf on a cracker! That really gets my green up! Everywhere I look it is Elphaba this, Elphaba that! Yeah poor Elphaba, you would think she was the only one ever born green. She is like a Lifetime story in the making. As if the book wasn’t bad enough, then she became the star of a Broadway play. I saw the play. What a bunch of fly stew hookey. I just rolled my eyes. You know I was there while she was growing up…. there is another side to that witch that you do not even know. I keep waiting for her and her sob story to appear on Oprah. Or maybe she will be sipping tea with the ladies of The View.
I am sorry, I didn’t realize I was bringing up such a sensitive topic. Were you not featured in the book, The Fairest Of Them All? It just came out the fall of last year.
That book? Oh please! I was so misquoted I don’t even want to talk about it.
Lets move on. Uhhh….. I must say your hair looks quite lovely and not at all the way I remember it from the book or the movie. What is your secret?
I just added these highlights yesterday for this interview. I mean breaks like this don’t come around often for me. No one really talks about me anymore, so I need to take full advantage when I can. I do use a little apple sauce when I wash it.
What would you like to say to everyone, Grimhilda?
I just want people to know that I am still around. Sure I don’t star on Broadway, but I do exist. I have a little cottage that I live in year around on Nantucket. The sea air really does wonders for my skin.
Well I do not want to keep you, this is Halloween after all and I am sure you probably have a lot going on.
No, not really. I just don’t get into it like I did when I was younger and able to mess with Snow White’s head. Actually tonight I am making a huge bowl of popcorn and plan to watch the first season of LOST. Sawyer really gets the heart pumping.
Well, that’s just awkward. Ok, I think I should wrap this interview up, but it is tradition that I ask each person…. errr….. witch, I interview to share with me a little known fact about themselves.
Well – that’s just easy as pretty much everything about me is little known because I have not been the star of my own book. Hmmmmphhh. I speak fluent Spanish. I belong to a Book Club that has been meeting monthly for 280 years. We are called The Coven and we are currently reading The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. I also play the accordion and I am working on my first novel, ‘It Ain’t Easy Being Green’.
Thank you for sharing your time with us today Grimhilda. I wish you all the best in your future and I look forward to your book!
Readers, in the spirit of Halloween I would like to offer a lovely copy of Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs by Cynthia Rylant, an author I just recently read and enjoyed. I will also toss in a Halloween treat.
To enter simply leave a comment here on this interview. If you would like to ask Grimhilda a question, I believe I can get her to stop back in and respond. This giveaway will stay open until Thursday November 4th. USA and Canada addresses only please.
Book Journey 