Category: Book Stuff

Guest Post: Holiday Tour Of France

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)12 Comments

I found Esme over a year ago when I was blog hopping one day and discovered this book reviewer and food lover.  Her book reviews drew me in and then her food pictures and recipes held me there.  I was like a kid in a candy store and I told her I had to start limiting my visits to her blog because it made me hungry!  Who knew that this original connection with this California blogger would eventually put us together as roommates at BEA.  (Yes, another roommate!)  😀 You are also soon to discover… she is handy with a camera too!

Sheila

Hello, I am Esme from Chocolate and Croissants.  It is an honor for me to be guest posting at Book Journey.  Today I am going to take you to one of my favorite places France, as we tour the Christmas markets.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

This time of the year, Christmas markets can be found along the French-German border.  Given the tumultuous history this area has experienced changing hands between the French and the Germans the food is a beautiful mixture of both French and German cuisine. While each market enjoys it’s own potpourri of decorations, vendors and food, the baked goods reflect the history of the area.

A few years ago, I took the TGV train from Paris to Strasbourg.  Strasbourg home to the printing press was my gateway to a world of epicurean delights and Christmas treasures.


The largest market in Strasbourg could be found in the main square.  All the buildings were decorated with Christmas tinsel and holiday cheer.

From Strasbourg I had a rental car and drove through the French countryside visiting little villages.

These Christmas loaves are full of dried fruit, nuts and a healthy dose of liquor.  Each village had baked Christmas goods different from other villages.  By the time I left, my bags were packed with cakes and cookies to bring back home with me.

Of course, everyone should enjoy a chocolate Santa.

Of course, one must try marrons glace (glazed chestnuts).  Did I? No, I must confess I do not like chestnuts, but I think I really missed out.

Joyeaux Noel and Merry Christmas and be good you never know where Santa may be.


Stop in and bring your appetite at Chocolates and Croissants!

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)72 Comments

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading, is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week.  It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.

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.  You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.

Last weeks winner (using Random.Org) was:

TBA (I did not have time to pick yet)

Congratulations!  Please choose an item out of the PRIZE BOX and email me your choice with your mailing address as well!   journeythroughbooks@gmail.com

 

It has been a whirlwind of a week.  Chance has been staying with us since last Sunday and I have been prepping all week to get ready to go to Honduras this Wednesday.  In a nut shell (and that term is perfect) I have been running in several different directions this week and unfortunately reading didn’t always get on the agenda.


Here is my week in review:


Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows A Movie Adventure (Have you seen it?  Have you seen it?)


Don’t Sing At The Table… Life Lessons From My Grandmother by Adriana Trigiani (Book review – OH WOW!)


The GaMeS BiBlE by Leigh Anderson (Hey board gamers and card players – this is a “must have” book!


Saving Cee Cee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman (an audio review that is totally SSQQQUUUUEEEE worthy!)


Coffee and Fate by RJ Erbacher (a review of a book that still is making me wonder….)

The Secret Is Out… It Is I Who Has The Invisibility Cloak (my real tale of a recent shopping experience)

This week I have finally picked the three books that will go on the plane with me and the two audio books on my IPOD:

From the author of the bestselling The Good Women of China comes the uplifting story of three sisters who, like so many migrant workers in today’s China, leave their peasant community to seek their fortune in the big city.The Li sisters don’t have much education, but one thing has been drummed into them: their mother is a failure because she hasn’t managed to produce a son, and they themselves only merit a number as a name. Women, their father tells them, are like chopsticks: utilitarian and easily broken. Men, on the other hand, are the strong rafters that hold up the roof of a house. Yet when circumstances lead the sisters to seek work in distant Nanjing, the shocking new urban environment opens their eyes. While Three contributes to the success of a small fast-food restaurant, Five and Six learn new talents at a health spa and a bookshop/tearoom. And when the money they earn starts arriving back at the village, their father is forced to recognise that daughters are not so dispensable after all.

In 1967, not long after the Six Day War, three young Arabs ventured into the town of Ramla, in Jewish Israel. They were on a pilgrimage to see their separate childhood homes, from which their families had been driven out nearly twenty years before during the Israeli war for independence. Only one was welcomed: Bashir Al-Khayri was greeted at the door by a young woman named Dalia.

This act of kindness in the face of years of animosity and warfare is the starting point for a remarkable true story of two families, one Arab, one Jewish; an unlikely friendship that encompasses the entire modern history of Israelis and Palestinians and that holds in its framework a hope for true peace and reconciliation for the region.

In a middle-class neighborhood of Iran’s sprawling capital city, 17-year-old Pasha Shahed spends the summer of 1973 on his rooftop with his best friend Ahmed, joking around one minute and asking burning questions about life the next. He also hides a secret love for his beautiful neighbor Zari, who has been betrothed since birth to another man. But the bliss of Pasha and Zari’s stolen time together is shattered when Pasha unwittingly acts as a beacon for the Shah’s secret police. The violent consequences awaken him to the reality of living under a powerful despot, and lead Zari to make a shocking choice…

 

A young woman appears in a small NC town. She makes one friend, a woman who lives nearby, but other than that, she keeps to herself. Soon, however, a series of events pulls her into the circle of a local merchant, a widower with two children, and against her better judgment, she finds herself drawn to him and letting down her carefully constructed guard.

For this women has a secret, a secret that has forced her to hide her identity, run as far away as she can from home, and escape a past that still haunts and terrifies her.

It is inevitable that her past will catch up with her-in the form of an abusive husband who refuses to let her go. But what remains unknown is whether she will allow herself to love and trust again, and to what extent her husband will go to ensure that she’ll have a future…but only if it includes him…

Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them-in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul-they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman’s love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival.

I hope in the next ten days to accomplish getting through all of these between the plane time and hopefully some down time between our travels.

There will be a It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading? Next week – I am pre-setting the post.  AND I hope you will stop by after Wednesday and check out the wonderful bloggers who have shared a Christmas story with you as well as a book recommendation.

I am excited to see what you are reading!  Please add your post to the LINKY below where it says click here.


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Morning Meanderings…. Chilly Weather Cancels Turkey Bowl

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)19 Comments

Good Morning everyone on this Thanksgiving Morning.  I was up and out of bed at 7 a.m. (insert Rocky theme here)

turkey bowl at the Franklin football field.  He layers up… and then I make him layer up again (it is 1 degree below zero this morning.)  double layered I put on my snow boots hop into the pre-warmed Durango and drive to the football field.

We are greeted by Lynfield (organizer and mastermind behind this odd tradition of snow football) who informs us that the turkey bowl has been canceled due to the cold weather.

“DOH!”

No worries…. we live about 3 miles from the field so its not like we traveled for hours to the event.

So back home we go…. as my hubby plows out the driveway I do my Thanksgiving dinner check list (I have to do this as I am notorious for remembering a dinner item I forgot to put on the table about half way through the meal….) .

Today I am making one of my favorite salads, its quick, easy and delicious.

Broccoli/Cauliflower Salad

chop up equal bite size pieces of cauliflower and broccoli

cut in half both red and green seedless grapes

cook up and cut in little pieces several slices of turkey bacon (optional)

Put all in large salad bowl

add light miracle whip and sugar to taste (I use Splenda)

Mix well – refrigerate until ready to eat


Today, be thankful for the people who make up your life….they are part of your life book, leaving their mark on your heart in so many different ways.  They may be with you for a lifetime… or for a season… but they are all part of your story.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!  May your day be filled with heart joy!

 

 

 

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)68 Comments

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading, is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week.  It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.

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.  You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.

Last weeks winner (using Random.Org) was:

Laurel!!!

Congratulations!  Please choose an item out of the PRIZE BOX and email me your choice with your mailing address as well!   journeythroughbooks@gmail.com

Lots of reading completed this week as I could squeeze it in but really need to catch u on my reviews this week and my goal is to a book review a day.

Here is this week in review


Life Sentences by Laura Lippman (audio review)  Not my favorite Lippman but I have not given up!

Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl (book review) LOVED this book about a food critic!

Book Blogger LOVE and a Pistachio Thumbprint cookie recipe


I have read none of what I said I would last week, because Tuesday I thought about it and decided it was INSANE to be reading all these other books on the week the theaters release Deathly Hallows .  SO…. I tossed my book list out and instead I have been re-reading The Deathly Hallows.  (Seen the movie Sunday afternoon – review coming up later on Monday!)

This Weeks Reading Plan

I leave for Honduras in 9 days so I am going to try to keep my plan real….

 

I met author Selene Castrovilla in New York in May and I am so excited to read her book!

Just a few months ago Jesse was junior class president, a star baseball player, the newspaper editor, and the crush of every girl at Midland Prep in Manhattan. Now he is fighting a rare cancer with only a 4 percent survival rate. When Samantha, his best friend and next-door neighbor for the last 15 years, turns her compassion for Jesse into a relationship, the teens fight the unknown with their growing love. Sam’s wavering voice, at times mature beyond her years and other times still needing her mother’s comfort, gives readers insight into both Jesse’s burden of dying and her own story of being the one left behind.


 

I met author Rhonda Hayes at BEA in New York in May as well, and can’t wait to read this delightful looking read!

Fifth-grader Abbie Adams is a witch in a family of witches. When her father, who is trying to find a cure for Witch Flu, brings home a kitten, she realizes that there is something strange about it. It turns out that the cat is Thomas Edison. Her parents do everything they can to make him comfortable while they try to find the right spells to break the curse and get him safely back to his own era before history is changed forever. Abbie is a likable character, and readers should relate to her. She loves her little brother (even when she has to clean up his magical messes), is nervous about her first school play, and wishes she didn’t have to keep secrets from her non witch friend.


 

Oh!  You have no idea how excited I was to get this one in my mailbox for review!  Seriously I have been drooling over this when I seen it on other blogs!

A volunteer for a French relief organization, Elsa Murphy, a young nurse, has left her tragic life behind in Boston in the hopes of finding a purpose by providing aid and medical care in Afghanistan. Living without running water and on rationed kerosene, the one comfort from home Elsa allows herself is lipstick, which helps her retain her identity behind the veil she wears. Elsa’s work engenders two relationships that will change her life: a friendship with Parween, a young, strong-willed Afghani widow whose hatred of the Taliban is born out of unimaginable loss, and a romance with Mike, a handsome, brave U.S. soldier with flashing blue eyes. Though the Taliban have largely been driven out by the soldiers, Elsa learns they are still very much a presence.

 

I think with the Thanksgiving weekend this list is pretty doable…. we do not have a lot going on during the holiday.  College son will be home on Thursday for the day but has to go back to Mankato to work the weekend.  Chance will be staying with us but he is super easy, so I anticipate a weekend of movies and board games… and of course a few books to!  😀

 

Now for my favorite part…. checking out what you are reading!  Last week I found five books by reading all your posts and four of those five are currently in my home thanks to my library!  Please add your link to your post below where it says “click here”.

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Life Sentences by Laura Lippman (audio review)

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)10 Comments

Writer Cassandra Fallows achieved critical and commercial success with an account of her Baltimore childhood growing up in the 1960s and a follow-up dealing with her adult marriages and affairs. The merely modest success of her debut novel leads her back to nonfiction and the possibility of a book about grade school classmate Calliope Jenkins. Accused of murdering her infant son, Jenkins spent seven years in prison steadfastly declining to answer any questions about the disappearance and presumed death of her son. Fallows (white) tries to reconnect with three former classmate friends (black) to compare memories of Jenkins and research her story. In the process, she discovers the gulf (partially racial) that separates her memories of events from theirs. Fallows’s pursuit of Jenkins’s story becomes a rich, complex journey from self-deception to self-discovery.


What really captures my attention in Lippman’s books is that most of them are based on true stories. This particular one is in reference to the disappearance of a Baltimore woman’s son. The woman chose not to make a statement and in doing so spent seven years in jail for contempt of court.

I of course enjoyed the storyline of the main character Cassandra as she was an author.  Bookish characters always fascinate me and automatically seem to have an “in” with me.   I liked the idea that Cassandra wanted to write about a childhood friend acquaintance and was doing research to find out about Callie’s reason for going to jail rather than answer questions about her son.

What ensues seems to me like a long drawn out maze of happenings as Cassandra visits old friends and finds out that if they even know she is a writer, they are so not impressed. Somewhere along all of this I lost touch with the book and waited anxiously to see where it was all going and when would it get there.  In the end, I just didn’t like Cassandra very much.

I have read and enjoyed Laura Lippman before and know that many things could have contributed to my eventual lack of interest in this one, including the fact that I listened to it in my car on audio.  While I am a huge advocate for audio, I am well aware that at times audio is not the way to go as you can miss key points in a story that if reading, I would have back tracked through the pages to figure out what I missed.

I have heard wonderful things about Laura’s book, ‘What The Dead Know’ so I believe that will be my next Lippman adventure!

Amazon Rating

 

Book Journey’s 2010 reading map has been updated to include Life Sentences

Cover Story:  Hmmmm….. I guess I am not fond of it and do not see where it captures the heart of the story

I borrowed this audio from my local library

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)104 Comments

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading, is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week.  It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.

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.  You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.

Last weeks winner (using Random.Org) was:

Liz of Roving Reads

Congratulations!  Please choose an item out of the PRIZE BOX and email me your choice with your mailing address as well!   journeythroughbooks@gmail.com

*I have been a little late getting out the last few weeks winners and am doing that today.

I had a pretty sweet week here – my first ever Zumba class (which was hilarious but fun!), continued sessions for my book, a lovely low-key low commitment weekend where I was able to chill out and do a little research as well as veg out and watch several movies on Netflix:  The Cure, The Band Played On, When In Rome, and New In Town.  I know right?  What a total lazy head!  AND yes, I did get some reading in too and feel pretty good about all I managed to accomplish – even the chilling part.  😀

So…. What Did I Read This Week?

Peanut Butter Balls cookie recipe from our Girls Weekend

Snicker Surprise Cookie Recipe from our Girls Weekend

The Boticelli Secret by Marina Fiorato (our Bookies Book Club read for November)

Glass Ornament Decorating **Bonus post**

Cake Boss by Buddy Valastro

Silence by Shusaku Endu (review coming this week)

Shoulder Bags and Shootings by Dorothy Howell (review coming this week)

Hide! by Jeff Foxworthy (review coming this week)

By Fire By Water by Mitchell James Kaplan (review coming this week)

The Last Queen by C W Gortner (review coming soon)

Don’t Sing At The Table by Adriana Trigiani (review coming soon)

I did get some reading done this week but did not get many reviews done.  I hope to catch up on some of that this week.

As for this week – I hope to read:


A Darcy Christmas has three shorter stories within the pages for fans of Austen!  I am excited to read this one!

Christmas Present
by Amanda Grange

A Darcy Christmas
by Sharon Lathan

Mr. Darcy’s Christmas Carol
by Carolyn Eberhart

 

Cydney Sanders thought she knew God’s plan for her life. She’d marry, have kids, and then snap her body back into shape by doing Tae Bo. But she’s celebrating her fortieth birthday as the maid of honor at her little sister’s wedding…and still single. Now her life is suddenly complicated by the best man. He’s the opposite of what she wants in a husband…and yet, he keeps defying her expectations. Starting with a lavendar rose–symbolizing enchantment–each rose he sends her reflects his growing love for her.

Cydney’s best friend Dana appears to have the perfect marriage–until she discovers her husband’s affair and her world goes into a tailspin. Then there is Phyllis–who is out of hope and out of prayers after asking God for six long years to help her husband find faith. When she runs into an old friend who is the Christian man she longs for, she’s faced with an overwhelming choice.

 

A mosaic of stories that follow the intertwined lives of three girls coming of age. Two young girls from Jewish and Christian families and their elderly widow next door try to find happiness in a seemingly cruel world. In spite of their different cultural and economic backgrounds, Rebecka, Helen, and Adelle all share the delicate and self-conscious journey to womanhood. All three search for love and meaning in a variety of places a charismatic church, a Depression-era orphanage, a moonlit Savannah park, an orthodox Jewish boarding school and end up finding lasting strength in the power of their friendships.

That is my plan as well as a couple I need to finish up on…. And now I want to know what you are planning on reading this week and what was the awesome and not so awesome reads of this past week!  My trigger finger is itching to get to see what you have been reading.  Add your What Are You Reading post to the linky below :D


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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)72 Comments

First off – Happy Halloween or if you are reading this on Monday, November 1…. Happy belated Halloween.  I put up a fun interview late afternoon on Sunday and if you have not checked it out I hope you do as there is a giveaway attached to it.  (See link below)

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading, is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week.  It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.

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.  You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.

Last weeks winner (using Random.Org) was:

Sharon from Garden Of Books

 

Congratulations!  Please choose an item out of the PRIZE BOX and email me your choice with your mailing address as well!   journeythroughbooks@gmail.com

 

This week was kind of funny as all three of the audio I had been listening to for weeks (one in the kitchen, one in the car, and one in my I POD) all finished this week.  It was like an audio rush…. not only to write reviews, but also to pick out three more!  (That’s the fun part!)  😀

Here is what happened in the House of Books this past week:


My interview with the Witch from Snow White (This is the one I mentioned above –  check it out!)


The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (audio review and wow – AMAZING!)

The Island by Elin Hilderbrand (audio review)

The Postcard killers by James Patterson (audio review – not a fav….)


Wig Begone by Charles Courtney ( book review -fun read!)


The DUFF by Kody Keplinger (book review)


A Fine White Dust by Cynthia Rylant (audio review)


Left To Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza (review to come this week)


HIDE! by Jeff Foxworthy (review to come this week)


Silence by Shusako Endo (still completing)


This week I am hosting my first special event in my new position so that will take up some of my reading time and this coming weekend I have a girls weekend at our cabin where we are spending the weekend making crafts, baking cookies for Christmas, and watching chick flicks.  YAY!!!  That too will swallow up some reading time so in light of all of that – here is my plan for this week:

I haven’t read Lehane in a long time but loved his writing in Mystic River and Shutter Island (both movies I couldn’t stand but LOVED the books!  I cant wait to try him in the new release!

I have watched this one be raved about all summer from afar….. and now FINALLY I have captured this read for my  I POD and I am starting it today!

Audio for my kitchen CD player and I started this one today as well.  The synopsis of this one is haunting and something I have come to appreciate in Laura Lippman’s writing…. which you are about to see because look below…..

Yup – another Laura Lippman, this one is for my car.  My Lippman phase was not intentional, they both just came into the library for me at the same time so… well, here we go!  😀

You can click on any of the above pictures to take you to more information about the reads.

 

So that is where I am this week.  I can’t wait to see what you are all reading.  It seems like life has been so busy lately I hardly have time to get around and see your posts and if I have missed you recently I apologize, and am hopeful that as my life is getting somewhat back to normal that I will be able to visit all of your posts today.

Please add your link to your Monday What Are You Reading post below and have a super fantastic week!  😀

 

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Interview with The Wicked…. errr… Sorely Misunderstood Witch of Snow White

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)34 Comments

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.

Have a safe and Happy Halloween!

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (Trick or Treat reviews)

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)20 Comments

Thank you to Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness

who told me at BEA in May of this year

that this was a must read.

 

You may have heard of her as HeLa, and in some instances as started by the Minneapolis Tribune, Helen Lake.  She was Henrietta Lacks, a poor southern African-American farmer.  She lived a simple life, married her cousin and had several beautiful children.  At the age of 31 she was diagnosed with cervical cancer and the doctors of the “colored ward” of John Hopkins Hospital in the 1950’s, took samples of her cells as they did with all patients, for testing.  Henrietta’s cells were different.  They continues to grow in culture, the first cells to ever do that.  They were marked as HeLa, as it was custom to take the first letter of the patients first name as well as the first letter of the last name to identify the cells.  Nobody at that time knew how big a deal this sample was.

Henrietta died from her cancer on October 4th, 1951, now 60 years later, her cells continue to live all over the country.  These cells became vital in developing the Polio vaccination, discovering some of the secrets of cancer, AIDS research, in vitro fertilization, cloning, gene mapping and as such has saved countless lives. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they’d weigh more than 50 million metric tons—as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings.

 

Henrietta’s family did not know about the cells for nearly 20 years after Henrietta’s death.  No one had ever told them about the tissue sample taken or the amazing results from the tissue that had now been bought and sold all over the world.  All of us have somehow benefited from these cells either by a vaccination or a pill we have taken.  The cells have now made billions of dollars for the drugs industry and Henrietta’s family never seen a dime.

 

Henrietta and her husband David "Day" Lacks

 

Trick or Treat?  Treat!

You may read the first paragraph about this book and think that Halloween is the perfect time to review this book.  Even as I wrote it I thought wow, this sounds like something right out of a horror movie…. living cells, never dying…. growing and growing all over the world. Yet, this is not fiction.  Henrietta did really live and is really the woman who changed science as we know it.  She never lived to know her contributions to the world, but as her family says, she would  be happy to know that her dying helped others to live.

Rebecca Skloot dialogues an amazing trip from her first hearing about HeLa and becoming fascinated about knowing more about the woman behind the cells.  As her fascination grows she takes her credit cards and student loans to fund her desire to learn more and in doing so meets the amazing family of Henrietta, including building a strong friendship with Henrietta’s daughter, Deborah.

Henrietta as a child

I find as time goes on I become more and more engaged in reading memoirs and non fiction.  I have developed a strong thirst for knowledge.  I started listening to this on audio about a month ago and as the book progressed I started asking people I knew if they had ever heard of Henrietta Lacks.

Nobody had.

I am so thankful I had the opportunity to experience this read and I would highly recommend it others.  The writing is engaging, I never found it to lull, and it left me with a strong knowledge of cells as well as Henrietta Lacks.  HBO is planning to make a movie about Henrietta Lacks and her cells.  I for one will be anxious to see it.

Amazon Review

 

Book Journey has updated the 2010 reading map to include The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Cover Story:  Very appropriate.  This is the picture of Henrietta Lacks that was found in text books and magazine articles

In May of this year, Henrietta's once unmarked grave received a headstone provided by Morehouse School Of Medicine
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I purchased this audio at audible.com

Morning Meanderings…. Halloween is in the air

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)16 Comments

I am feeling good.  We were considering going to the cabin this weekend, just Al and I, but the weather is fairly decent, the premature snow has melted and instead he is going to chop wood and I am going to pick up our lawn furniture and chillax at home.

I am hoping to get some reading done, maybe a movie with Chance on Saturday afternoon and Sunday I have a fun evening planned and a little something special planned for here as well.

On a fun note, I was interviewed over at the wonderful Trish’s blog, Hey Lady! Watcha Reading? about my beloved book club.  Thanks Trish!  😀

In the meantime, let’s have some fun with Jib Jab:  (I hope this link works well… I tried for the longest time to figure out how to get the video to post on here.)