Welcome to It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

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 telling me how many you visited.  **You do not have to have a blog to participate! You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.

Martha from Reviews By Martha’s Bookshelf!!!

Congratulations!  Please email me your book choice out of the Reading Cafe at journeythroughbooks@gmail.com. 

 

Another crazy week has gone by and I wish I had more to report but this is what I accomplished this past week in posts:

Rebecca Read-A-Long (ooh this was fun!!!!)

will grayson, will grayson by John Green (what?  I am liking John Green books!!!)  😛

Looking For Alaska by John Green (*sigh*  I am so living John Green’s books!)

Yeah…. nothing impressive, still reading the same books… working on some new audio….  New for this week will be:

Lucy Bloom is broke, has been dumped by her boyfriend, and had to sell her house to send her 19-year-old son to drug rehab. Although she’s lost it all, she’s determined to start over. So when she’s offered a high-paying gig helping clear the clutter from the home of reclusive and eccentric painter Marva Meier Rios, Lucy grabs it. Armed with the organizing expertise she gained while writing her book, Things Are Not People, and fueled by a burning desire to get her life back on track, Lucy rolls up her sleeves to take on the mess that fills every room of Marva’s huge home. Lucy soon learns that the real challenge may be taking on Marva, who seems to love the objects in her home too much to let go of any of them.

While trying to stay on course toward a strict deadline – and with an ex-boyfriend back in the picture, a new romance on the scene, and her son’s rehab not going as planned – Lucy discovers that Marva isn’t just hoarding: she is also hiding a big secret. The two form an unlikely bond, as each learns from the other that there are those things in life we keep and those we need to let go – but it’s not always easy to know the difference.

I started this one yesterday and I am really enjoying it so far. 

 

Other than that, I am still trying to clean up some books I want to finish.  This week should be good for that as I have Monday and Tuesday off this week and I am sooooooo thrilled!!!!  😀  REST AND RELAXATION time!!!

What are you reading this week?  What did you read last week?  I am actually going to have time this week to stop by and see for myself what you are reading and I can not wait!  😀

Add your link to your post below where it says click here! 

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and those of you who read mainly children’s through YA reads – please also link your post here:

Welcome to It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

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 telling me how many you visited.  **You do not have to have a blog to participate! You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.

Quixotic Magpie!!!

Congratulations!  Please email me your book choice out of the Reading Cafe at journeythroughbooks@gmail.com. 

HI everyone!  I am going to lay this out a bit differently this week.  I have been out of town since Thursday at our cabin up North, returned yesterday early evening and left again this morning for a 5K with my son, came home later afternoon and spent the late afternoon and evening with both sons in town before Brad leaved back for the Navy tomorrow. 

That said, this is the quick version today – I am not going to post my  usual I have read last week and what I plan to read this week.  Next week I will return to full post mode, but this week – lest see what you are reading 😀  Please link up below.

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and those of you who read mainly children’s through YA reads – please also link your post here:

Welcome to It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

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 telling me how many you visited.  **You do not have to have a blog to participate! You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.

Lori From Escape With Dollycas!!!

Congratulations!  Please email me your book choice out of the Reading Cafe at journeythroughbooks@gmail.com. 

 

I had a 50 mile bike ride today in ST Joseph Minnesota and I am seriously wiped out so this will be short and hopefully sweet today!  😀

Here is what happened here this past week:

 

Total Memory Makeover by Merilu Henner

The Prophesy Sisters by Michelle Zinks  (I am glad I listened to this one!)

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green (OH RAVE!!!! and GUSH!!!  This is the best of the year!)

The Meryl Streep Movie Club By Mia March (grab some popcorn!!!)

Book Endings we Love and Hate (or just hate)

 

A pretty good week and I still have a couple audio books to review.  As for this week, it is a short week for me as I have book club on Tuesday,  a weekend at the cabin coming on Thursday to Saturday and then the Color Run on Sunday (more n that later this week!)  So, that being said, here is my only book goals:

 

Our read-a-long is coming due and I am so excited to read and explore this one with those of you who have signed up.  Still want to participate?  Click on the picture and it will take you to the details 😀

 

 

In the continuation of my “I Love John Green”, next up is this wonderful audio!

 

 

A long over due listen for me…

 

 

So thats me – what is your line up like?  Please link your What Are You Reading post below where it says click here.  😀

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and those of you who read mainly children’s through YA reads – please also link your post here:

 

Welcome to It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

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 telling me how many you visited.  **You do not have to have a blog to participate! You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.

Kristin H from The Book Monsters!!!

Congratulations!  Please email me your book choice out of the Reading Cafe at journeythroughbooks@gmail.com. 

Can you even believe that it is July????  Half of the year is already over!  That blows my mind!  And I am now three months officially behind on updating my challenges, and I have the survey yet to post as well…. (thank you to all who took that, the results are really fun but it is taking me a long time to compile all the answers!)

So last week was audio book  week and all my posts were audio books… now if you are not an audio book reader, seriously check out some of these reviews.  You are truly missing out when you do not try some books on audio (one would be Ready Player One.)  I am currently listening to The Fault In Out Stars and seriously flipping out on how good this audio book is and so glad I listened to it instead of reading it.  Seriously…. expect a gushing review soon 😀

Here is what I posted this past week:

 

Lets Talk About Audio Baby!  (answering yours (and my) questions about audio books)

 

A Night To Remember by Walter Lord (The true retelling the night the Titanic sunk…. )

 

The Magicians by Lev Grossman (ooh… hello new narrator to me, Mark Bramhall)

 

Finding Ultra by Rich Roll (inspiring!!!)

 

LISTEN TO ME!  (a little audio info for newbies)

 

Ravens by George Dawes Green (oh wow this was FABULOUS!)

 

Marshmallow Madness by Shauna Sever (fun fun book!!!!)

 

 

Lots of good things to come this week too… I am in the middle of two pretty wonderful books and a couple audio books that will be ending this week as well that I am excited to talk about. 

For this upcoming week I have planned:

 

At the core of Krakauer’s book are brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a commandment from God to kill a blameless woman and her baby girl. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this appalling double murder, Krakauer constructs a multi-layered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, polygamy, savage violence, and unyielding faith. Along the way he uncovers a shadowy offshoot of America’s fastest growing religion, and raises provocative questions about the nature of religious belief.

 

 

 

 

Marcus Samuelsson was only three years old when he, his mother, and his sister—all battling tuberculosis—walked seventy-five miles to a hospital in the Ethiopian capital city of Addis Adaba. Tragically, his mother succumbed to the disease shortly after she arrived, but Marcus and his sister recovered, and one year later they were welcomed into a loving middle-class white family in Göteborg, Sweden. It was there that Marcus’s new grandmother, Helga, sparked in him a lifelong passion for food and cooking with her pan-fried herring, her freshly baked bread, and her signature roast chicken. From a very early age, there was little question what Marcus was going to be when he grew up.
 
Yes, Chef chronicles Marcus Samuelsson’s remarkable journey from Helga’s humble kitchen to some of the most demanding and cutthroat restaurants in Switzerland and France, from his grueling stints on cruise ships to his arrival in New York City, where his outsize talent and ambition finally come together at Aquavit, earning him a coveted New York Times three-star rating at the age of twenty-four. But Samuelsson’s career of  “chasing flavors,” as he calls it, had only just begun—in the intervening years, there have been White House state dinners, career crises, reality show triumphs and, most important, the opening of the beloved Red Rooster in Harlem. At Red Rooster, Samuelsson has fufilled his dream of creating a truly diverse, multiracial dining room—a place where presidents and prime ministers rub elbows with jazz musicians, aspiring artists, bus drivers, and nurses. It is a place where an orphan from Ethiopia, raised in Sweden, living in America, can feel at home.

 

 

 

Irene and Nate Stanley are living a quiet and contented life with their two children, Bliss and Shep, on their family farm in southern Illinois when Nate suddenly announces he’s been offered a job as a deputy sheriff in Oregon. Irene fights her husband. She does not want to uproot her family and has deep misgivings about the move. Nevertheless, the family leaves, and they are just settling into their life in Oregon’s high desert when the unthinkable happens. Fifteen-year-old Shep is shot and killed during an apparent robbery in their home. The murderer, a young mechanic with a history of assault, robbery, and drug-related offenses, is caught and sentenced to death.

Shep’s murder sends the Stanley family into a tailspin, with each member attempting to cope with the tragedy in his or her own way. Irene’s approach is to live, week after week, waiting for Daniel Robbin’s execution and the justice she feels she and her family deserve. Those weeks turn into months and then years. Ultimately, faced with a growing sense that Robbin’s death will not stop her pain, Irene takes the extraordinary and clandestine step of reaching out to her son’s killer. The two forge an unlikely connection that remains a secret from her family and friends.

Years later, Irene receives the notice that she had craved for so long—Daniel Robbin has stopped his appeals and will be executed within a month. This announcement shakes the very core of the Stanley family. Irene, it turns out, isn’t the only one with a shocking secret to hide. As the execution date nears, the Stanleys must face difficult truths and find a way to come to terms with the past.

 

 

I think that is it for this week, if there is time I may get a start on our read-a-long, Rebecca.  Now I want to know what you are reading!  Be sure to link your post below where it says click here:

Powered by Linky Tools

Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list…

 

and those of you who read mainly children’s through YA reads – please also link your post here:

Welcome to It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

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 telling me how many you visited.  **You do not have to have a blog to participate! You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.

Laura Fabiani from Library Of Clean Reads!

Congratulations!  Please email me your book choice out of the Reading Cafe at journeythroughbooks@gmail.com. 

I think this week was pretty good… here is what I posted:

Fairest by Gail Carson Levine (A YA book review by Camryn)

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

These Girls by Sarah Pekkanen

Long Gone by Alafair Burke

Wife 22 by Melanie Gideon

 

My “Summer Recommendation” guest post over at Ryan’s – Wordsmithonia while he is on vacation!

Literary Blog Hop – taking place through the 27th of June – answer my question and go into a drawing for a book of your choice valued up to $20.00

 

You may notice, lo and behold… no audio book reviews up this week!  WHAT?  😯  The reason is that starting on Monday, this is Audio Book Week and I am planning on reviewing only audio books this week!    I have a great line up that I think you will enjoy if you are an audio book person or not (Laurel…. I still am working on you!).  I will also have many giveaways and I am working on a few surprises as well.  😀   

Here is what I plan on reading or listening to this upcoming week:

 

Two sisters and the cousin they grew up with after a tragedy are summoned home to their family matriarch’s inn on the coast of Maine for a shocking announcement. Suddenly, Isabel, June, and Kat are sharing the attic bedroom–and barely speaking. But when innkeeper Lolly asks them to join her and the guests in the parlor for weekly Movie Night–it’s Meryl Streep month–they find themselves sharing secrets, talking long into the night–and questioning everything they thought they knew about life, love, and one another.
 
Each woman sees her complicated life reflected through the magic of cinema: Isabel’s husband is having an affair, and an old pact may keep her from what she wants most . . . June has promised her seven-year-old son that she’ll somehow find his father, who he’s never known . . . and Kat is ambivalent about accepting her lifelong best friend’s marriage proposal. Through everything, Lolly has always been there for them, and now Isabel, June, Kat–and Meryl–must be there for her. Finding themselves. Finding each other. Finding a happy ending.

OOH – can not wait!!!

 

 

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.

 

 

One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, Will Grayson crosses paths with . . . Will Grayson. Two teens with the same name, running in two very different circles, suddenly find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, and culminating in epic turns-of-heart and the most fabulous musical ever to grace the high school stage. Told in alternating voices from two YA superstars, this collaborative novel features a double helping of the heart and humor that have won them both legions of fans.

 

 

I have other books I will be working on if I get through what I have here.  NOW I am curious what you will be reading this week!  Is it a new release?  Is it an oldy but a goody?  Is it a random find?  Please link below where it says click here so we can all come and check out what you are reading.  😀

 

Powered by Linky Tools

Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list…

and those of you who read mainly children’s through YA reads – please also link your post here:

Welcome to It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

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 telling me how many you visited.  **You do not have to have a blog to participate! You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.

Heather from Based On A True Story!

Congratulations!  Please email me your book choice out of the recently cleaned up and LOVELY Reading Cafe at journeythroughbooks@gmail.com. 

I had moments this past week where I wondered if I would ever review a book again!  😛  It wasn’t that I didn’t want to, I just felt (and still feel a bit_ so behind!)  I have a list of reviews to do that is currently 9 long of unreviewed but read/listened to books.  Mainly – this week has been a whirlwind of activity… Monday I was in Duluth at the book sale, Tuesday was book club, Wednesday I had a friend over to help me with the BEA book boxes, and another friend over for dinner, Thursday I had a birthday dinner for a friend, Friday I had company for dinner, Saturday Al and I went out to dinner for Fathers Day.  And each of those days (other than Monday and Saturday) I worked at the office as well.  😯

Due to that… I hardly reviewed books at all this week.

BUT here is what did go up:

The final BEA (Book Expo) recap

Rebecca Read-A-Long!  Come on and join in!

The Bookies book club new idea for a July read

The books I brought home from the Book Expo in New York

Come Home by Lisa Scottoline (yes, same author as my book club read this week)

BLOGIVERSARY party!!!!  (The comments are hilarious!!!!)  The giveaways were awesome!)

127 Hours by Aron Ralston (the true story of the guy who caught his arm between a rock and a wall while hiking and actually cuts his own arm off to get free and survive. 

Look Again by Lisa Scottoline (book review and Bookies book club review)

 

How To Build A Better Blog (just my thoughts…. :razz:)

 

I am also running a Blog Survey this week that will end next Friday.  I would love it if you could give me some feedback – the survey is only a couple minutes long, mostly multiple choice.

 

Ok..looking at all that, I guess maybe I did have a busy blog week too.  While all my posts were not reviews… I did have some big posts between the BEA books and recaps, a read a long and a blogiversary.  😀

 

Looking at this week, here is my plan:

Everything is about to change. The government has seized control of every aspect of society, and this is the astonishing testimonial of Wisty and Whit Allgood, a sister and brother who were torn from their family in the middle of the night, slammed into prison, and accused of being a witch and a wizard. Thousands of young people have been kidnapped; some have been accused; many others remain missing. Their fate is unknown, and the worst is feared–for the ruling regime will stop at nothing to suppress life and liberty, music and books, art and magic . . . and the pursuit of being a normal teenager.

 

 

 

When Shaw McBride and Romeo Zderko drive into the small town of Brunswick , Georgia, their only thought is to fix their car’s leaky right tire and continue on to Key West, Florida, away from their dead-end jobs as computer technicians in Ohio. But when Shaw discovers that the 318 million dollar Georgia State Lottery has just been claimed by an ordinary Georgia family, he sees an opportunity – he and Romeo will blackmail the Boatwright family for half their winnings and ditch their deadbeat lives for good.

Disguised as a state lottery representative, Shaw enters the Boatwright’s home and holds the family hostage, while Romeo patrols the town, staking out the homes of the family’s loved ones, should the Boatwrights refuse to comply with their demands. But Shaw isn’t your average criminal out to make a quick buck. Instead, he has a grand messianic vision and he’ll stop at nothing to see it through — and soon, the Boatwrights find themselves living a Flannery O’Connor American nightmare from which they can’t properly awaken.

 

 

 

An ancient prophecy divides two sisters–one good, one evil.

Who will prevail?

Twin sisters Lia and Alice Milthorpe have just become orphans. They have also become enemies. As they discover their roles in a prophecy that has turned generations of sisters against each other, they find themselves entangled in a mystery that involves a tattoo-like mark, their parents’ deaths, a boy, a book, and a lifetime of secrets.

 

I am still working on cleaning up some books this week so I am going to leave it at that. 😀  I am excited to see what you are reading!  Please link up below where it says click here!  Checking out what others have to read this week is part of the fun!

 

Powered by Linky Tools

Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list…

and those of you who read mainly children’s through YA reads – please also link your post here:

Welcome to It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

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 telling me how many you visited.  **You do not have to have a blog to participate! You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.

** I am currently in New York and will choose last weeks winner when I return and announce that winner with next Mondays winner as well 😀

As I stated above, I am currently running around New York being extremely bookish… yes, more so than usual.  SO this will be the mini version of the Monday meme….

I brought with me to read Look Again by Lisa Scottoline which is our book club read for June and Long Gone by Alafair Burke for a book tour.

Add your Monday what are you reading to the link below… other participants love to come around and see the different books and audio that everyone is reading… I know I always add to  my wish list!  😀

Powered by Linky Tools

Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list…

Welcome to It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

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 telling me how many you visited.  **You do not have to have a blog to participate! You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.

Lauren from Gimme More Books!

Congratulations!  Please email me your book choice out of the recently cleaned up and LOVELY Reading Cafe at journeythroughbooks@gmail.com. 

A BUSY holiday as it turns out for me – what stared out to be a rainy dreary day turned into a sunny day with a plan!  I went from sweater and jeans to a tank and capris in the afternoon, cleaned up out back deck – hauled out the patio set, went grocery shopping and had two other couples over for dinner.  FUN.  YES.

Here is what happened here this past week:

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver (Review by Camryn)

Blue Asylum by Kathy Hepinstall

Arranged by Catherine McKenzie (ooh so good!!!!)

Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner

City Of Bones by Cassandra Claire

Eat This!  NOT That! By David Zinczenko (a book that will make you think before you eat…)

I will post what I am reading this upcoming week tomorrow morning.  It has been a gorgeous day in the sun and now I just want to hang out a bit with my hubby and the TV 😀  I have tomorrow off from work (woo hoo!!!!) so I should make it around to visit many of you, be sure to link your Monday posts below!

As for this weeks agenda, this will be an interesting week as after today with the holiday it will be a short week and I will be in New York by next Sunday so I will keep it a little lite…

She was the world’s biggest-ever ship. A luxurious miracle of twentieth-century technology, the Titantic was equipped with the most ingenious safety devices of the time. Yet on a moonlit night in 1912, the “unsinkable” Titantic raced across the glassy Atlantic on her maiden voyage, with only twenty lifeboats for 2,207 passengers. A Night To Remember is the gut–wrenching, minute-by-minute account of her fatal collision with an iceberg and how the resulting tragedy brought out the best and worst in human nature.

I have always wanted to read this book… I recently acquired it on audio and I think I will be listening to this one in my car.

In October 2006, the night before he was to turn forty, Rich experienced a chilling glimpse of his future. Nearly fifty pounds overweight and unable to climb the stairs without stopping, he saw where his sedentary lifestyle was taking him. Most of us look the other way when granted such a moment of clarity, but not Rich. Plunging into a new way of eating that made processed foods off limits and prioritized plant nutrition and daily training, Rich morphed—in mere months—from out-of-shape midlifer to endurance machine. Ninety days into his physical overhaul, Rich left the house for a light jog and found himself running a near marathon. It was time to scale up his goals.

How many of us take up a sport at age forty and compete for the title of the world’s best within two years? Finding Ultra recounts Rich’s remarkable journey to the starting line of the elite Ultraman World Championship competition, which pits the world’s fittest humans against each other in a 320-mile ordeal of swimming, biking, and running. Following that test, Rich conquered an even greater one: the Epic5 Challenge—five Ironman-distance triathlons, each on a different Hawaiian island, all completed in less than a week.

That’s the plan – I am looking forward to seeing yours!  Here is the link:

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and those of you who read mainly children’s through YA reads – please also link your post here: