Category: Book Stuff

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)108 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:

Heather at Based On A True Story

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


** And on a special note I totally overhauled the Prize Box earlier today and it is filled with new book choices!  So many in fact that I think for this next week we will have two winners!!!  Why do I do this?

  1. I think to get the full “community” of this meme, its important to go out and visit a few blogs that are new to you…. you may just find one that you love – and you will definitely hear about books that are new to you.  😀
  2. I always have books that I have read and reviewed that I do not wish to keep.  I like passing them on so they may be enjoyed by others.
  3. For every 10 blogs you stop in and leave a comment on and tell me here in the comment section, I enter you for a chance to choose a book.


So how we all doing now as we come to the end of August?  I find it pretty bitter sweet as I know my days of summer are flying by and fall is in the air.  While I love summer for the bike rides, the reading on the deck, trips to the cabin….  I appreciate fall because life starts to slow down and I tend to read more as I have more time to read.


Here is what I had happening here this past week:


The Postcard Killers by James Patterson (audio giveaway – woo hoo!!!!!!)

Summer At Tiffany by Marjorie Hart review (this is the Wordshaker online book club review!)


Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins review (with a link to a spoiler page so if you have read you can stop in and hash out your thoughts with other Mockingjay addicts….:D )


Author Chat with Marjorie Hart – author of Summer at Tiffany (this 86 year old spitfire has caught my heart!)


Summer At Tiffany – Hard cover SIGNED copy of this book giveaway (ummmm….. SSSQQQUUUEEEE!)


Where Is God In Your Life by Susan Provost (A book divided into three sections for retreat ideas)


eat the Cookies, buy the Shoes by Joyce Meyer (A review of the book and the audio)


That’s my week!  I actually read a few  more books this week but have not had time to post their reviews yet:

PREP

To Kill A Mockingbird

I Am Nujood Age 10 and Divorced


And – I am really excited about this week!  Here is what I am planning:


I will be announcing at some point  this week what the next read for the Wordshaker Online Book Club will be. I am waiting on one little detail…..  it’s a secret…. 😉


I am starting this one for my Bookies Book Club.  This is our September read and I am so excited to finally get a chance to get into this book 😀


Woo Hoo!  Just in from my library reserve is this little gem that I can not wait to dive into!  Doesn’t it look awesome?  Doesn’t it?  Huh?  Huh?  😀



Off the TBR Mountain(s), comes this mystery that the cooler evenings call me to.  I also have two of these.  Hmmmm….. what to do with the second one… what to do……. I think we will be having a giveaway!


Here is the audio I will be starting in my car this week.  Fresh from Hachette I am excited to start listening to this one.  I have a cabin road trip this weekend, and I may actually head up a day early to get things ready as will have guests this time.  Going early means going alone and going alone means – AUDIO!!!  😀


And this is a treat for my IPOD that I picked up off of Audible.com this week.  I am mere moments away from starting this one and – well, I know right?  It’s just calling to me!

Oh yes, my long anticipated author chat with Sarah Ockler, author of Twenty Boy Summer…. oh and yes, we are going to talk about her new book too!


So this looks like a big week for me and I obviously will not finish the audio this week, or for that matter the book club read either as I have until the second Tuesday of September to get that one done…. but it will be a fun start anyway.


I am so ready to hang out with all of you now and see what you can add to my TBR list are reading!!!  😀

Please add your post link to the spot below where it says “Click Here” so I and other happy “What Are You Reading memers” can pop in and say hi!  😀    I hope you meet some of our newer participants this week as well as our regulars – you are all such a fun group!


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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading!

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)96 Comments

Hi everyone – it’s that time again when we all get to share what books are making our current reads…. what’s coming up, and what maybe we wish we would have passed on….:D

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:

Dollycas

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


Here’s what graced my life this past week in bookish ways:

Review:  The Passage by Justin Cronin (I listened to all 35 hours of this audio and came out the other side with a “WOW”!


Review:   auf Weidersehen by Christa Holder Ocker (a memoir of a young girl during WWII)

Attack Of The Library Sale with theme music! (Seriously… there is a theme song…. don’t you have one?)

Author Chat with Colin Sokolowski – author if The Accidental Adult (Colin is a laugh a minute!)

Sleeping At The Library (see what first in line looks like at the annual fall library sale in my town)  😛

Review:  The Evolution Of Shadows (A fiction book that read and felt like non – fiction)

That was my past week!  Now moving forward to this week – I am playing it a bit safe as I will not be back in town until Tuesday night (more about that below) So here’s the plan:

This one I have read some good reviews on  and picked it up from my library.  I am not that far into it but have liked it so far.

I am going to have a mocking week – (you will see more of this on Wednesday) but part of that is going to be that I am finally going to take the time to read To Kill A Mockingbird – and yes, it will be my first time.


AND….. Finally I will be reading and reviewing Mockingjay – the long anticipated finale to Suzanne Collins Hunger Games Trilogy.  I CAN NOT WAIT!!!!  It is being released on Wednesday and I am taking the day off from work and reading it.  Yes I am.  😛

So, that’s my plan!  By the time this post goes up I will be In Grand Marais Minnesota at a Leadership training camp until Tuesday evening.  I am 98% sure I will have no internet even though I brought my security Laptop.  🙂  I will catch up on checking out all your Monday posts on Wednesday.

Please enter the link to your Monday What Are You Reading below where it says “Click Here”.  I cant wait to see what you are reading this week!


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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)125 Comments

Seriously did that feel like 7 days to you?  I think we skipped a day or two because here we are at Monday again and I feel like it is Friday.  😛

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:

Jennifer at Rundpinne

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


So lets see what happened in my little corner of the blogosphere this past week:


Why I participate in a bike ride for a camp for people with AIDS

I wrote a guest post for Trisha at Eclectic Eccentric while she is away and I played “Housekeeping for her blog”… embarrassing pictures and all….


Review:  White Ghost Girls by Alice Greenway


Review:  Thumbing Through Thoreau compiled by Kenny Luck


The Island by Elin Hilderbrand Audio Giveaway


Review: Between Sisters by Kristin Hannah


Long Overdue Winners Post


I guess not such a bad week.  I have several reviews still to get posted and that is really where I am at right now.

Reviews yet to post:


Summer At Tiffany by Marjorie Hart (this will go up with the online book club review)

Clementine, Friend Of The Week

The Evolution of Shadows by Jason Quinn Malott

Eat The Cookies, Buy The Shoes by Joyce Meyer (book and audio reviews)

Men and Dogs by Katie Crouch  (audio review)

auf Wiedersehen by Christa Holden Ocker

Blind Hope by Meeder and Sacher (with giveaway!)

BUT – looking ahead here is what I have brewing for this week:

I recently asked on a giveaway post for readers to recommend great summer reads for me.  I still want to get my “summer on”.  Hannah from Word Lily recommended Sarah Dessen as that was enough of a push for me to pull this book off my shelf.  This is the only Dessen I own and I have been wanting to try this author for some time.


I LOVE this cover…. I so want to know what’s inside and can not wait to give this book a try!


The book chosen through the “Choose The Next Book I Read” post.  Using random.org, the winning # was 9 and that was Julie at My Book Retreat pick.  I will read this one and pass it on to her.

That’s my reading plan this week.  I have a bike ride on Saturday and Sunday afternoon I leave for a Leadership Retreat until Tuesday afternoon.  I will have the Monday What Are You Reading post up before I go….


Please enter the link to your Monday What Are You Reading below where it says “Click Here”.  I cant wait to see what you are reading this week!

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Between Sisters by Kristin Hannah

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)27 Comments

I was thinking I had not read Kristin Hannah before this read but then recalled that yes I had.  I had read Firefly Lane in early 2009 while I was in Honduras.  I was curious if her characters could speak to me like the ones in my first read of hers did.

Sheila

30 something Meghann Dontness is a divorce lawyer in Seattle and doing quite well for herself.  Clare Cavenaugh, Meghann’s younger half-sister, is a single mom to a five-year old daughter in a small town in the Pacific Northwest who helps her father run a small resort.

The girls, coming from a disrupted childhood of a mother who chose Hollywood to raising her children.  Meghann who pretty much single-handedly raised Clare still keeps an eye on her from afar but finds some of Clare’s choices to be annoying (like falling for the country singer and planning to marry him), but the differences between the girls are all pushed aside when Clare is diagnosed with a brain tumor and Meghan may have the connections needed to make amends in more ways than one…


This was a smooth read of two sisters who lives had become far from each others.  Hardened Meghann had grown up too fast and drover herself too hard to be the best she could be.  Opposite to this is Clare who lives life in the slow lane enjoying each moment.  It takes a tragedy to bring these two together to work out things of the past.

It’s no secret that I enjoy books on friendships and this book is no exception.  Written in a way that seems consistent with what little I have read of Kristen Hannah, I found the characters to be well-developed with life breathed into them.

My only complaint is that the plot occasionally felt a bit stretched, a little too much of several things coming into play that made it feel unreal and took away from the read for me, but was not a deal breaker.

A good breezy summer read.  In the end I closed the final page feeling satisfied and will admit that this was a three kleenex book for me – so do not say you were not warned. 🙂

Amazon Rating

Book Journey has updated the 2010 Reading Map to include Between Sisters

If you are in Seattle looking for a good lawyer like Meghann – or for that matter a good cup of coffee, your stop would be Bauhas Books and Coffee.

Cover story:  I do like my cover, but actually prefer the one I seen online – it is lighter and more summery looking which appeals to me.

I purchased my copy of this book from our local Library sale.


Choose (and WIN!) The Next Book I Read

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)59 Comments

It is time for round four of “Choose The Next Book I Read!”   For those who are new to this occasional post, I will explain what this is.

I LOVE book sales and our local library has a spring and a fall one that are wonderfully priced books that I can not resist.  The books are beautiful and gently used.  The opportunity lies in the fact that once I bring these treasures home they tend to stay in the box I placed them in when I purchased them for months to come.  This is where you come in.

What I am posting here is the pictures of all the books I have picked up from the spring library sale as well as the new additions of the books I purchased last weekend at the Silver Bay Minnesota Library sale.

All you do is look over these titles and leave a comment here with the name of the book you would like to win.  On Sunday morning, August 15, I will use random.org to choose a winner.  Then that book will go with me this weekend to be read and once read I mail it on to the winner.  It is a win – win!  I actually read one of the treasures that I bought, and you get a book that you would like!  :D

So here my little beauties are – have fun picking!

** Note:  In the following pictures Between Friends is no longer available as that was last months win that is on its way to Elisha this week!

Note #2:  I will read the winning book at my earliest possibility and then send it on.

There’s the choices.  In your comment below please put which of these books you would like me to read and then pass on to you.

**USA and Canada only please unless the winner can give me an address to send it to in one of these areas.  Sorry but the cost to ship beyond that is frightening.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)102 Comments

Happy Monday everyone!  I just came home a few hours ago from a two-day 150 mile bike ride for charity and I am pretty wiped out right now.  I had a blast and the weather was pretty good to us.  I do a more detailed post about this on Tuesday.

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:

Nancy at  A Musing Reviews

and I have to confess I have been reading Nancy’s blog at A Musing Mother and she seriously cracks me up!  You may need to check this out.  🙂


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


Last week was fairly busy and I did not get the reading done that I had hoped to.  Here is what I did accomplish:

The Wildwater Walking Club by Claire Cook review

Hearts On A String by Kris Radish review

My thoughts on The Color Purple Movie (I was really blown away!)

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hollows by JK Rowling (audio review)

Author Chat with Barbara Richardson (author of Guest House)

My Game On Diet Journal (my active game journal)

What Does It Mean To Be Present by Rana Diorio

I have several reviews to be written and I hope to really make a dent on them this week.  I am keeping my reading plans fair, but not too heavy as I have an out of town meeting this week and not sure my weekend is going to hold.  here is the game plan:

Summer at Tiffany is a book I am so looking forward to!  This is the Wordshaker read a long for August 22.  If you are signed up and taking part in this review, YAY!  If you have not, and right now you are going GAH!  I wish I would have known about that, no worries, you can still connect here.

The Handmaid’s Tale is a read-a-long taking place over at Hey, Lady!  Watcha Reading? It s not too late to join in the fun!

And that’s it … not a big goal but as I said above, I am super tired tonight (still Sunday evening when I post this) and I want to honestly add a third book from the TBR but that is way across the room and I really can not move.  😉  AND – on that note where I usually hang around and start seeing what you are reading right away, I think tonight I am going to bed, getting a good nights sleep and tomorrow (Monday) U will be around to see what you are reading.

Please enter the link to your Monday What Are You Reading below where it says “Click Here”.


Have a super reading week!

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)100 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:

Dollycas:  Dollycas’s Thoughts

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

Ok – I seriously blinked and missed the weekend.  I traveled to our cabin on Friday, did some cleaning and reading, and came back Saturday evening.  Sunday morning we left early to take out youngest son to college and help him set up his apartment he is renting.  By the time we got back to Brainerd…. the weekend had passed us by.

Here is what I read happened here this past week:


Review Not Without Hope by Nick Schuyler (heart wrenching read!)

Review:  Game On Diet by Krista Vernoff and AZ Ferguson (You may want to read this review as I am going to be talking A LOT about this book in August!  😀

Review:  The Color Purple by Alice Walker (I had never read this before and it really blew me away!)


Finished reading/listening to:

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hollows Audio (review coming soon)

The Wildwater Walking Club by Claire Cook (review coming soon)

Auf Wiedersehen by Christa Holder Ocker (review coming soon)

Men and Dogs (audio) by Katie Crouch (review coming soon)

Hailey Twitch is Not A Snitch by Lauren Barnholdt (review coming soon)

I had a good reading and audio weekend due to all the travel.  This week will be a tight one with the big bike ride this weekend I know I will pretty much get no reading done over the weekend.  So knowing that here is my plan for this week:

This is a tour book coming up on Wednesday and I am kind of pumped about this one!  😀

This one is from my library giveaway and the winner (Jennifer) chose this as my next read.  Once it is read I will be passing it on to her and then I will run the contest again.  😀

And that is it for my plan – I am keeping it light this week, if I am able to complete more I will be thrilled.   So I am so anxious to see what you are all reading (now that my name is cleared at the library…. LOL  see my I am on the lam post about that one…. hee hee)

Please enter the link to your Monday What Are You Reading below where it says “Click Here”.  Have a good week with great reads!  😯

Have a super reading week!

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Morning Evening Meanderings… Off To Mankato (I feel like the Ingall’s!)

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)30 Comments

**This post was supposed to go live this morning but WordPress was down and I had to leave for the day, as you will see below.  So – since this is a time sensitive post…. and will make no sense in a couple of days,  I am posting it now.  😀

(as told at 7 am this morning):

I am sitting here sipping coffee  This is the kick off to a busy, crazy, fun and wild month.

  • Today we move college son back to Mankato into his apartment he is renting with a friend.  Yes, Mankato Minnesota is the one and the same “Big town” where the Ingall’s family would go shopping for supplies.  🙂


  • Today starts the Game On Diet – 30 days….. I am hopeful I will do well.  To follow this journey I have made a journal on my sidebar… Game On!


  • Next weekend Aug. 7-8 is the 150 mile bike ride for a camp in Brainerd that is for children with Aids.  This will be my second year doing this ride.


  • Aug. 10 I am in Minneapolis for the day training for my job on a software program, sadly that is the same day as my book club meets and I am more than likely going to miss attending.   I really dislike missing book club.
  • August 21 is a 75 mile bike ride through Itasca Park and I will be doing this one with Wendy.  This was a beautiful ride last year and I am so excited to be on this one.
  • August 22 – 24 I am up at Mink Lake Camp in Grand Marais Minnesota for Leadership training
  • Somewhere in there I am hoping to get tickets to Wicked which will be performing in Minneapolis.  I had tickets two years ago when they were here and a friend of mine decided to get married on that day and I was in her wedding so I gave my ticket away.

What does August look like for you?

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)42 Comments

Celie is 14 years old and considers herself to be a good girl.  She hasn’t caused any trouble in her young years and has listened to her mama.  She helps take care of her siblings, helps with the cooking and the cleaning.  But things are about to change for Celie and not for the better.

What happens to Celie over the next 20 years of her life is indeed, The Color Purple.

Read entirely at the cabin

I have several confessions.  One:  I have never read this book before.  Two:  I have never seen the movie.  Three:  I truly had no idea what this book was about.  Sometimes, I think I live under a rock.

Saying that, if you have experienced this book or the movie, you can imagine then my shock and disbelief by the time I read page one.

Yes, page one.

And the pages that follow do not get any better than that.  As I type this review words fly through my mind, shocking, heartbreaking, electrically charged, high emotions…

And yet once I picked up the rhythm of the language and the story line, there was no way I was putting it down.   Celie’s story may be shocking – yes, but it also rang real for me, of a time and a way I know nothing about except from my small presence on the outskirts of Celie’s porch (where in my mind I planted myself within these pages as an observer).

When a woman marry she spose to keep a decent house and a clean family.  Why, wasn’t nothing to come here in the winter time and all these children have colds, they have flue, they have direar, they have newmonya, they have worms, they have the chill and fever.  They hungry.  They hair ain’t comb.  They too nasty to touch.

Page 19, The Color Purple


Much of the book is Celie’s prayers to God.  In fact the first words of the book are “Dear God”.  Later in the book there are letters from Celie’s younger sister Nellie who now as an adult and a Missionary in Africa writes Celie of her life and how she is trying to get back home to her sister.

I appreciated this book that pulled me out of my comfort zone and into a time and a place that is so foreign to me and yet so real.  Real people with real happenings.  I am trying to be so careful with this review as I am sure there have to be others out there that have not yet experienced this read.  And let me tell you – this book needs to be fully experienced.  If you have never had the opportunity to read The Color Purple I highly recommend this book.

Heather had posted discussion questions for this read and I am going to put them on a Spoiler Page – enter only if you have read the book.



Bookjourney has updated the 2010 reading map to include The Color Purple

288 pages

Cover story:  Perfect.  I have what I think is a newer cover on my copy but it shows as much as I think you could possibly hope to know going into this read with no prior knowledge of where this book will take you.

I read this book as part of a read a thon I found on Heather’s Blog 30+ A Lifetime of Books – thank you to Heather and to Nicole at Linus’s Blanket for finally giving me the kick I needed to read this book.  😀

I purchased my copy of this book from Barnes and Noble in Duluth, MN

Choose (AND WIN!) The Next Book I Read

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)93 Comments


We have played this before and it is time for round three of “Choose The Next Book I Read!”   For those who are new to this occasional post, I will explain what this is.

I LOVE book sales and our local library has a spring and a fall one that are wonderfully priced books that I can not resist.  The books are beautiful and gently used.  The opportunity lies in the fact that once I bring these treasures home they tend to stay in the box I placed them in when I purchased them for months to come.  This is where you come in.

What I am posting here is the pictures of all the books I have picked up from the spring library sale as well as the new additions of the books I purchased last weekend at the Silver Bay Minnesota Library sale.

All you do is look over these titles and leave a comment here with the name of the book you would like to win.  On Friday morning I will use random.org to choose a winner.  Then that book will go with me this weekend to be read and once read I mail it on to the winner.  It is a win – win!  I actually read one of the treasures that I bought, and you get a book that you would like!  😀

So here my little beauties are – have fun picking!

New From The Silver Bay Sale

Part 2 of the Silver Bay Sale

Brainerd Spring Sale

Brainerd Spring Library Sale

Brainerd Spring Library Sale

You choose the book 😀