Labor Day Book Party with Movie Anticipation!

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When our book club was first chosen to be one of the groups that received ten copies of Joyce Maynard’s Labor Day to read and discuss our anticipation for the movie I was thrilled!  I put out info on our Bookies Facebook page and sent it out by email… the first ten to commit to reading this book and discussing it at the end of our next book club meeting would get the books. 

The Bookies went wild.  😀

Within a couple of hours I had the ten spots filled and more.  Being the kind of awesome gals we are, we shared the books.  A couple of us downloaded it on to our readers, in the end – 14 of the 18 Bookies read Labor Day.  We had a few that could not make the discussion, one is in Florida (lucky gal) and one is preparing for a trip to Mexico (also lucky gal!) and one was out sick (poor gal!).

We tried our hand at creating a recipe to go with the book. I gave them the option of making the item, or creating the recipe.  We had a mix of both.   Amy P in our group came up with a Labor Day Lemonade (mmmmmmm), Angie created a recipe for Frozen Peach Lemonade for Labor Day, and Lori N created a Peach crisp that sounded heavenly.

Brenda brought a Cheesecake with a peach topping.  Laura brought a homemade pie.  I made a Labor Day Peach Slush that I called “Shake My Peach Tree” with frozen Mikes Hard Lemonade, a dry champagne, and (as I could not find fresh ones this time of year), canned peaches all blended and then put in an ice cream bucket to keep in the freezer until serving time (or… Labor Day!).

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We drank and sampled the yummy desserts and discussed what we were excited about for the movie. 

We discussed that we are excited about Josh Brolin playing Frank.  In fact many said that is who they pictured as they read the book.

The opening scene when Frank finds Henry and Adele at the store is one that we are excited about.  We are curious as to what that will look like when Frank first observes them, and feels that this will be a good choice for him to go with them.

The pie scene both in the book, and on the screen was a good discussion.  First of all personally, I want to try my hand at making that pie… it was described so well that I think me (a non pie maker) may actually be able to do it. 😀  There is also something a little sexy about a man making a pie in the first place. 

How they portray both Henry and Frank at different ages is also something we are looking forward to.  We are thinking that we will get together for appetizers either before or after the movie when we go to do a little group bonding and either anticipating or recapping, depending on when we go.

A few of us pointed out having seen the movie trailer that Frank appears scary in the movie and Henry and Adele appear scared but fear is not the feeling you get from the book.  It will be interesting how we interpret those feelings after we see the movie.

I have the recipes that we created to go with the book just not the time to post them this morning but they will be coming. 🙂  It was a fun discussion and we are looking forward to the movie! Thank you to Harper Collins for giving us this opportunity to chat about Labor Day.

What Book Are You Afraid Of?

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There are different ways to be afraid of a book.  The most common way to think of it is obviously, the scary ones… the ones that you feel may just be too dark, too frightening, or perhaps on a topic that kind of freaks you out… like lets say…. CLOWNS.

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GAH!

But there are also other ways to be afraid of a book and this is the type I am talking about today.  It could be that final book in a series that you want to read, but at the same time you don’t want to end… don’t want to set free that character, or perhaps really… even know what will happen. 

It could also be, as in my case…. a book you are afraid to read because you have put said author up so high on the pedestal from previous books they have written that you LOVE and you are afraid that this new book may just show you they are human after all.

My book that I am afraid to read is:

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If you know me as the BIG HARRY POTTER fan dork that I am… then you may understand why.  I thinking JK Rowling is brilliant.  Every time I re-read a Potter book or an article on the books – I catch something new and then I love her writing even more.  It’s kind of like people who do not want to go to a funeral of a friend because they want to remember them as they were….  and no I am not comparing Casual Vacancy to a funeral.  😛

I am not saying I will NEVER read Casual Vacancy.  It is JK Rowling after all.  I do own the book, I pre ordered it before release and it has sat on my shelf in the “R’s” ever since.  I will get there…. someday.  I just need time. 

Is there a book that you are afraid to read?  Please share your thoughts here! 

Readers! I Need Your Help With A Blind Date! ;) w/ giveaway!

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Hi everyone!  For February at our local library we are putting up a ♥ Blind Date Display.♥  I am pretty excited about the concept, which is to take people out of their comfort reading zone and try a new genre or a new author.  We will have a whole display up of books wrapped in brown paper with only the scan code uncovered for check out.  Other than that you have no idea what you are checking out to read.  We will put a little “singles ad” on the outside of each book so they have a little idea about who they will be dating…. for instance:

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If this book were wrapped up and on the shelf the singles ad may read… “I am overly sweet and predictable, but people tend to love those qualities about me.”

I am VERY excited about this!

This afternoon I will be going in and setting up the window at the library to let people know about this and encourage them from February 1st – 15th to come in and check out a blind date.  🙂  Once they return the “date” they will have an opportunity to the end of February to fill out a little “Rate Your Date” survey with fun questions like, “Would you date this author again?”  “How was your date as a whole, did you find you had things in common? ”  Stuff like that.

Here is where YOU come in. 🙂

I am working on compiling a list of books for the library staff that would make for great dates.  As we will be pulling these books off the shelf we do not want to use the uber popular books that are hot right now, but instead books that may expand the reader.  You know, the favorites of your past.  A book that might make the reader, “Go wow! I have truly been missing out!”

My challenge to you that I hope you will accept is to leave in the comments titles of books that you think would fit this “blind date” event.   I will enter each person who responds with a book title between now and January 17th into a drawing for a $10 Amazon gift card.  IF you can also give me a fun singles ad to go with the book you suggest you will receive two entries. 😀  We want to have enough books to keep filling the shelf we set up as they are checked out.  I will be encouraging my book club to go in and give it a try as well.  🙂

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So there it is. I was working on ideas at home and then thought, who better than to ask the readers what books would make for great blind dates? 

Thanks in advance!  I so look forward to what books you will come up with!

Morning Meanderings…. Devils Spawn

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Good morning and happy Tuesday!  Today is my first day back to work for the week and I am ready.  It was fun having an extra day off but really…. I need to get moving 😀

Two things this morning – one is that Gautami Tripathi from India and from the blog Everything Distils Into Reading, sent in her picture of her book of the year yesterday and here it is: 

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If you have never checked out her blog, you should.  I enjoy reading her posts. 😀

Secondly… and reason for the CREEPY title of this post, did you see I posted my review last night of Flowers In The Attic?  A re-read for me probably from 25+ years ago.  It was a fun adventure back into the attic. 

I was sharing this read synopsis with a friend I had lunch with over the weekend.  She had not ever read the book and I was sharing a few details that included the Grandmother calling the children something close to Devils Spawn but not quite.  This led to me saying it in a very creepy voice over and over…. “Devils Spawn”.  Then…. I thought it must be part of the post…

Well, it didn’t make the post, but I thought maybe it could make the morning meandering recap because if you have read the book (and even if you have not) – the grandparents are a few sandwiches short of a picnic….. awful people.

Where Were You When Dumbledore Died?

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It was book 6, The Half Blood Prince; so much was going on… Sirius had died,the Order of The Phoenix was a mess, and Dumbledore had taken Harry under his protective wing, sharing secrets of Tom Riddle.  This is the book where we learn of the Horcrux’s.  And this is the book… when Dumbledore dies and my heart breaks a little….forever.

It would take me 8 years before I realized this was my favorite book of the series.

~Sheila

I dont know why but this question has been in my head for a few weeks now and finally has made it to the blog.  It is one of those pivotal fiction moments that is embedded in me forever.  

I was at the YMCA on the treadmill.  I had just read through the whole chapter of Harry and Dumbledore searching for a horcrux and they had just made it back to Hogwarts, Dumbledore being in a weakened state.  It is Malfoy who approaches Dumbledore first and Harry is hiding below the staircase where he can see it all as it plays out.  Soon Belatrix arrives with her sister and they are shouting at Malfoy to do it, just kill him… but here is where you see that Malfoy is not as evil and dark as he wished he was.  It is then that Snape comes up the stairs quietly past Harry and you think that Snape will save the day….  but he doesn’t.  He instead kills Dumbledore and the pages become a massive blur of smear as I try to keep reading and understanding believing it must be a joke… it has to be really great magic …. it can’t be….

but it is.

That July day in 2005 I was at the YMCA on a treadmill with tears rolling down my face reading a big hard cover book that was hard to hold on the treadmill but it didn’t matter.

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It is amazing that even as I write this I have to pause and take a deep breath because it all comes rushing back.

I write this post because much like the loss of a beloved relative or friend or famous actor, we tend to remember forever where we were when we first heard… first knew… it amazes me that in a really incredible read, that can happen as well.

For you maybe it wasn’t the death of Dumbledore… maybe there was another beloved character out there that even when you think of them today tears can come forward or your heart takes that little extra beat of sorrow. 

I would love to know who that character was for you and from what book.  Sure, for me there have been others, but Dumbledore was the one that really taught us all lessons (not only the students) through the years of the books leading up to book 6.  I still hold his wisdom true today and occasionally quote him the way some would quote Yoda. 😉

Please add in the comments either the answer to the BIG question, where were you when Dumbledore died, or where you were when that character you loved and cherished ceased to be.

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*Oh and just in case anyone calls “Spoiler alert” to my description of the death scene…. I am sorry but…. REALLY?  I think the statute of limitations on spoilers in a book like this ran out a long time ago.  If you have not read this or any of the Harry Potter books you are truly missing out on the books that changed fantasy writing forever. 

2013 – A Look Back… The Books, The Rides, and all the craziness in between

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Holy smokes… where did the time go?  Here we are creeping up on 2014 at break neck speed and I need a moment to look back over the year that is… 2013.

Join me please for a walk through of 2013… the best moments (maybe a couple “UGH” ones) … shall we begin?

January

Best books of the month:

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The Midwives Tale by Sam Thomas

The Gilly Salt Sisters by Tiffany Baker

It was also the first 5k of the year which was an obstacle course called The Ice Man

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February

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Eat and Run by Scott Jurek

 

March

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Six Years by Harlan Coben (rumors are this one could be a movie!)

 

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7K run for St Patricks Day… it was like 20 below zero – SOOOOO COLD!

 

April

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The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

May

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While We Were Watching Downton Abbey by Wendy Wax

Return To Sullivan Island by Dorothea Benton Frank

June

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Quiet by Susan Cain

The Last Original Wife by Dorothea Benton Frank

July

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Looking For Me by Beth Hoffman

 

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Bookies Queen Event!

Rescuing Mater… a year later

 

August

Wine and Words – 1st Annual Brainerd book event

8 posts.  I had 8 posts in August.  WOW.  An all time low.  I had the camp bike ride, then a week of working at the camp, then a mud run, then Wine and Words.I guess that explains August.  I read…. nothing. 

September

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The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda

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A little time in a police car

October

Yes I read, but nothing I would consider “the best of”

1bLadies Night Out – Halloween Style

November

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The Husbands Secret by Liane Moriarty

City Of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

City Of Glass by Cassandra Clare

City Of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

 

Mmmm hmmm…. had a bit of a Cassandra Clare episode.  😉

 

December

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Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

City Of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare

I read a lot of older titles this year.  And I really lacked in the summer months.  I am hoping 2014 will be a fresh start.  I am really looking forward to the New Year 😀

First Book Of The Year 2014

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Every year I get excited about what will be that first book that I will be chatting about going into the new year.  I make a big deal out of picking the book.  It is usually a book I have wanted to read for awhile and for whatever reason, I just have not been able to make the time to read it.

This year I would love for you to join me in this tradition of picking the book that you will be reading into the new year.  It can be a coveted book that you have been waiting to read, a guilty pleasure book, a re-read of a favorite that you want to explore once again… whatever you want.

Our posts of what we are reading will go live on January 1st.  You do not need to be done with the book on January 1st, just reading it on January 1st and yes, you can start on the 31st and be reading into the New Year.  I would like to link up all your posts here on the 1st as well so others can visit you and cheer you on!  If you are interested, please feel out the short form below.

Retrieving My Readers

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Many moons ago (ok, 4+ years…) I started this little book review site called Book Journey.  It was a lot of fun to get going and every reader comment was so exciting to see in my email.  In those beginning years I was able to not only comment back to very comment given me, but if they were fellow bloggers I went and visited their blog as well.  This really was the start to my readership and my daily visitor stats grew.

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It really was a lot of fun to book chat every day with those I came to “know” through this blog.  I would learn their name, and remember things they posted so I could comment about their dog, something going on in their life, or a particular book we both enjoyed.  It was like a whole group of friends out there in the world that I may or may not ever meet face to face and this was pretty cool.

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The “It’s Monday What Are You Reading” meme opened blogesphere doors for me with new visitors and I made sure that when they stopped in, this blog was something they would want to come back to. I kept my sidebars current and my reviews frequent.  I posted about bookish topics, I proposed questions about e readers, publishing trends, and one of my person favorites… what to do when authors attack.  I engaged my readers in conversations with me and with each other.

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As time went on, I even wrote for a few Book Reviewer events on the topic of bringing in readers and keeping them.  I answered questions and wrote posts about blog traffic.  Each day I came home from work and would quickly check my email to see who had commented on my review or my meandering, and I would respond.  I set a goal to visit 20 blogs a day and maintained it…

and then one day…

I didn’t.

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Life became…. busy.  Between work, writing, working out, reading, and everything else I crammed into a day… for the past 9 months… this blog has been fairly quiet with about one or two posts a week.  I stopped responding to comments.  I found no time to go and visit other book blogs. I rarely requested a book for review or accepted a review offer. The Monday What Are You Reading post became a”had to” instead of something I wanted to do; and yes, for a while I was wondering if I had lost my love for blogging.

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I am not sure what, but something made me hold on.  I enjoyed and still enjoy my online friends.  I knew I was not ready to give that up.  I wanted to hang on to see if after the busy time of summer and fall if I would be able to retrieve some of this bloggers life I love…

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and I am glad I did.

Over the past few weeks I have started updating some of my page links here.  I started writing the reviews that have backed up in my mind like a massive car pile up on a highway.  I started making time to visit the blogs I enjoy reading and hope they did not die of shock when they seen a comment from me.  For the first time in probably over a year, I visited all the blogs that linked to this weeks Monday What Are You Reading, something I used to love to do – and loved doing it again. 

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What I guess I am trying to say is, I am back. 😀  I know I do not have to go to the extreme in which I once blogged… but I truly am getting that desire to write posts again. For the first time in a while when something funny or odd happens to me I think, that would be a great Morning Meandering post. (It has been a while since I have thought in “posts”).

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I am glad it is not over for me as I love this life of reviewing and chatting up books – one of my FAVORITE all time topics.  This post was mainly to let you know that readers, I hope you are still around and I hope you pop in once in awhile and say hi and chat books with me.  My promise to you is:

1.  I will always write honest book reviews (you get my real thoughts here 😀 )

2.  I will occasionally be snarky, but never mean.

3.  I will share with you the craziness of the life of a want to be writer, half marathon training, book loving, adventure seeking, constantly on the go, audio book addicted, frequently fails but gets back up again, rescue dog adopting, gets up too early and stays up too late girl.  

Welcome to Book Journey.  Hope to see you around the blogs. 😛

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

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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. Fair warning… this meme tends to add to your reading list!

It’s been a pretty good week.  It was busy, I had a sick day, but all in all… I got some reading in which always makes me happy 😀

This past week I posted:

City Of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare (ooh I am loving the Mortal Instrument series!)

My Review Of The Tassimo Coffee Pot

I still have reviews to post!  As for what I am reading now…

1bCecilia Fitzpatrick lives to be perfect: a perfect marriage, three perfect daughters, and a perfectly organized life. Then she finds a letter from her husband, John-Paul, to be opened only in the event of his death. She opens it anyway, and everything she believed is thrown into doubt. Meanwhile, Tess O’Leary’s husband, Will, and her cousin and best friend, Felicity, confess they’ve fallen in love, so Tess takes her young son, Liam, and goes to Sydney to live with her mother. There she meets up with an old boyfriend, Connor Whitby, while enrolling Liam in St. Angela’s Primary School, where Cecilia is the star mother. Rachel Crowley, the school secretary, believes that Connor, St. Angela’s PE teacher, is the man who, nearly three decades before, got away with murdering her daughter—a daughter for whom she is still grieving.

I started this one on audio today while I was painting the entryway and wow I really am getting into it.

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Manuel Perrine doesn’t fear anyone or anything. A charismatic and ruthless leader, Perrine slaughters rivals as effortlessly as he wears his trademark white linen suit. Detective Michael Bennett once managed to put Perrine behind bars, the only official in the US ever to accomplish that. But now Perrine is out, and he has sworn to find and kill Bennett and everyone dear to him.

Detective Bennett, along with his ten adopted children, their nanny, and his grandfather, are hidden safely on a rural California farm, with guards courtesy of the FBI’s witness protection program. Perrine begins to embark on an escalating series of assassinations across the country, killings whose brazenness and audacity bring into question the possibility of safety and law in the US. The FBI has no choice but to ask Detective Bennett to risk it all in Perrine’s war on America.

My guilty pleasure series – you may not enjoy Patterson but I bet you would like this series.  Fantastic on audio!

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The Mortal War is over, and sixteen-year-old Clary Fray is back home in New York, excited about all the possibilities before her. She’s training to become a Shadowhunter and to use her unique power. Her mother is getting married to the love of her life. Downworlders and Shadowhunters are at peace at last. And—most importantly of all—she can finally call Jace her boyfriend.

But nothing comes without a price.

Someone is murdering Shadowhunters, provoking tensions between Downworlders and Shadowhunters that could lead to a second, bloody war. Clary’s best friend, Simon, can’t help her—his mother just found out that he’s a vampire, and now he’s homeless. When Jace begins to pull away from her without explaining why, Clary is forced to delve into the heart of a mystery whose solution reveals her worst nightmare: she herself has set in motion a terrible chain of events that could lead to her losing everything she loves. Even Jace.

Loving this series!

Thats my week!  I am excited to see what you are reading and think I have time this week to check out your posts.  Be sure to add your What Are You Reading post to the link below where it says click here.

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For those of you that read mainly middle grade and childrens books, be sure to also link to the younger version of It’s Monday by using the link below!

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

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Hi everyone!  I am currently in Florida with my College Son enjoying sunny weather, Harry Potter World, great food, and a Pirates Show.

On Sunday evening, Vicki from I’d Rather Be Reading At The Beach has graciously offered to host for me this week.  Please stop over there to connect all things It’s Monday!

I will be back in town Monday night.

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