Category: Meanderings

Morning Meanderings… A Little Bit Of JK In My Life

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)13 Comments

Mmmmmmm morning. 

It is fall so Wednesdays are back and in full force.  I work on Wednesdays until 3:00 pm, run home, let dogs out grab something to eat and go back to work with students from 5 – 8 pm.  It wipes me out.  😯

But this morning I got up and as I sit here with my coffee reading the morning emails I remember that today is the release of JK Rowling’s new book The Casual Vacancy. 

SSQQQQUUUEEE!!!!!

As I preordered that baby should be on my doorstep at some point today (thank you UPS!) and since the book room is done!  SQQQQQUUUEEEE again!  They finished the shelves yesterday, it will be going in there.  😀 

In Shelf Awareness today JK Rowling says that she feels she will go back to writing for children, maybe younger than the Harry Potter crowd – BUT (and I love this but!) she has not ruled out that if an idea stemmed off the original Harry Potter series and she could enter that world again in a new and refreshing way – she would.

“That’s all I need to hear you say JK!  That is all, that there is a possibility!”
So this morning I am humming Mambo #5 which makes no sense at all except that I am singing “A Little bit Of J K in my life….” in place of a little bit of Monica…. and really thats all I know of the song so I keep repeating that same line :D.

 

 

Today will be WILD.  I am going to work until noon – come home and put together the book room.  SSSQQQUUUEEEE!  ANd Ia lso need to write up my Bloggiesta mini challenge post, my Banned Book Week blog hop giveaway post, a review, and an article for Her Voice Magazine.  Tonight is the first Meryl Streep Movie Club night at my house and I will be serving wine and cheese in honor of the book room – which, you will see pics of Saturday morning. 😀 

Ok – must get moving.  Did you pre-order the new JK book?  Put a hold on it at the library?  Do you plan to read it?  Skip it?  Wait to see what people are saying?

Morning Meanderings and two VERY Different Books I Want To Read

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)15 Comments

Good morning. 😀
*pause for dramatic and slow sip of coffee*

How ya all doing?

I am feeling pretty good and pretty “on task” for this weekends get together at my home.  Yesterday I cleaned out the garage…. so small feat, but it needed to be done and now it is so clean it looks like we were robbed.  The dead vacuum is gone, the totes of spare sheets that I use for when we serve with IHN for the homeless are packed away in a spare room, the bikes not in use have been moved to the other garage, the leaves and dirt that seems to blow in and accumulate… all removed.  Hopefully if the weather cooperates this space will be the hub of the get together with people drifting to the back deck and in the house and yard.

 

This morning I was reading Shelf Awareness (love this email – if you do not have it be sure to check it out on my right sidebar and grab it) and they had two books that caught my eye for very different reasons.  The first, October Mourning, still haunts me after seeing the trailer…

 

 

Matthew Sheppard’s story has pulled at my heart for years.  I have another book on the shelf about his story that I have yet to read just because I know it is going to be a book that breaks me down.  I will get there, hate crimes make me so angry.

 

And then… on a completely different brain wave I found this book to look interesting as well:

 

Mmmm hmmmm, doesnt that sound good?  I love books with cooking themes. 

 

SO I have to go get ready for work and call a friend but that is my morning thoughts today.  Hope your day is wonderful. 

 

What book has you wanting to make a purchase?

Morning Meanderings! SUNDAY and MUD SNOBS!

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)21 Comments

 

Good morning!  I totally skipped out on posting yesterday.  Friday I had a three hour bike ride and then came home and hubby wanted to go out to eat and by the time I was home from that I was exhausted.  😯

Saturday morning I was up at 5:45 to get ready and meet at my friend Amy’s with Paula and Courtney so we could drive the two hours to Brooklyn Part and take part in the 5K Mud Factor… which was….

a bust.

After participating in the AWESOME Muckruckus in August which was from start to finish mud mud and more mud, sticky mud, watery mud, thick mud, stinky mud, you name it – it was mud…. this was pretty much not what we thought it would be.

The Mud Factor took place in a corn maze which for the first three miles of the 3.2 run was just dirt trails and the occasional obstacle.  Some of the obstacles were small piles of dirt to go over… some were where they had dug a little hole for you to either jump in or over, but mud free.  There was some of the cool rope climbing and tough girl stuff like that – but not enough to make this a win.  At the very end there was a small slide down a hill into a little mud… very little, and at the very end you crawled through some thick mud under plastic ropes. 

All in all we agreed it was too much money ($70 to register, $10 for a t shirt, $10 for parking and $5 for them to hold your bag of clothes to change into in a place that was watched).  The Mud Ruckus was $100 registration but it was for MS and it included parking, a t shirt, your bag keeping, and food at the end. 

Anyhoo – live and learn and it was still a good time hanging out with friends.

Pics were taken on a disposable camera which I have not turned in yet so watch for them to show up later this week.  😛

 

BOOKS.

A few books did come in the door this week, as my reading has slowed so has my review requesting. 

The bottom three are review books, the top is an audio version of The Knife of Never Letting Go which I purchased.

This morning I have church and later tonight I have a get together.  I hope to work on the book room a bit this afternoon and if it warms up perhaps cleaning out the garage for next weekends family get together.. I think it will be an audio day. 😀

What are you doing today?

Morning Meanderings… Things are about to get CRAZY

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)20 Comments

 

Good morning!  It’s a gorgeous Fall (yeah, I said the “F” word) morning here and as I sit and sip at my coffee enjoying watching the dogs play I have an underlying buzz that things are about to take off…

and this is going to be fun. 😀

This morning I just posted out to my book club and a group of friends reminding them that this next Thursday is the kick off to our Meryl Streep Movie Club.  This is where we have decided to (those who want to anyway) to watch a Meryl Streep movie a month – randomly picked and our first one will be The Deer Hunter.  This movie was Meryl’s second movie released in 1978 and the trailer is super cheesy but I bet our gathering is fun.  I am going to open this up as an online club as well so those who wish to follow along and join in the discussion that I will post monthly may do so.  I will probably put that post up tomorrow afternoon….

 

 

Last night I stayed up late and emailed everyone who has signed up to participate in the Banned Book Week event I am hosting here and I assigned everyone their post dates and confirmed what they are doing.  This is going to be a lot of fun – there are over 50 blogs signed up to participate with banned book posts, giveaways, etc…  it’s not to late to sign up if you want to join in the fun. 

 

As I am enjoying a quiet morning I know that soon I need to continue working on the book room, clean off my deck in anticipation for next weekends family gathering here, finish laundry, start cleaning up the garage, run to town for a few things I need to pick up, mail out some invites this afternoon, and maybe – maybe take a little bike ride.

Tomorrow I run in the Mud run in Bloomington Minnesota and I am a tad apprehensive.  I have been so busy lately that I have not done any form of exercise in the last two weeks and this… must change.  My goal is to get in 7 hours of work outs a week – some days longer than an hour to have a day or two off but I need to get in some better habits. 

Reading wise, I have not picked up a book all week and once again thank goodness for audio.  I am sailing along listening to PREP for banned book week, and just picked up The Chocolate War from the library, also for banned book week.  Over this weekend I will finish Defending Jacob which has been very good, and Back Seat Saints.

So thats what is happening around here.  I am finally going to finish writing my post for this months book club book that rated the all time low in 11 years of the Bookies.  That post, will go up today 🙂

 

How is your weekend shaping up?  Anything fun happening?

Morning Meanderings… What DO YOU Do With All Those Books?

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)65 Comments

Good morning.  COFFEE is good today as I sit in the early light anticipating a full day.  I work today and have an event to assist with tonight so I suspect it will be one of those days that I have maybe an hour or so between work and event so may just be at work all day and night… home around 9:00 pm. 

Right now though, I am still relaxing and thinking about my book room.

If you have been around here lately you know we are in the process of revamping the book room.  It was way too crowded with all the individual book shelves and I finally made the leap to putting the selves on the wall.  As of yesterday the person working on the room had run out of the wood that was needed for the shelves but half of the room is done and the other will be once the wood comes in.  The wood is on back order and has a 14 day lead time, they (the wood store) is unsure when the wood was ordered so while that is frustrating, the project is looking really good and I am hopeful it will still be done before the family gathering I have here at the end of the month.

When I came home yesterday I started working on the part of the room that is done and by that I started organizing by

1.  Creating review shelves (books to review)

2.  A food shelf (all books food related – memoirs, cook books, healthy eating…)

3.  I started alphabetizing my non review books (but many still need to be read) by authors last name. 

This…

is quite the project.

I worked on this from 3:30 – 8:30 and then decided that was enough for the night.  I have been sorting out my personal books between keepers, books for my book club to get first chance at, and books to donate to the library.  I have 4 big bags of books that will be leaving the house and that feels good. 

When the project is finished I want to find some sort of library check in that I can scan in all my books and know what I have.  I can not wait until it is finished and I can share the whole thing with you.  😀  I did post some before pics the other day… it will never look like that again.

One of the corners of the book room that I worked on last night. ALPHABETIZING.
Filling the shelves…
The books that will be donated.

Another thing to perhaps do with a book or two is give it to this great online program ran by Book Soulmates – RAK.  RAK is  Random Acts Of Kindness and book lovers can sign up with a list of books they have on their wish list and the point is that participants check the list – send a book off someones wish list to them and hopefully someone sends you one off your wish list as well.  It is a monthly program and this month I am finally participating.  I am watching the wish lists for books that I have and may be willing to pass on to someone else.  You can check out the program here.

What do you do with your books when you are done reading and they are not keepers? 

Morning Meanderings…. Ever just feel weepy? (And The Midwest ROCKS!)

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)23 Comments

Good morning.  Its a bit nippy here in Minnesota this morning.  Currently a whopping 40 degrees with a high today of 59.  Ugh…. I finally have to admit, fall is here.  So, is that what is making me weepy?

Weepy could be because I am so close to have my book shelves done that I can taste it (wow, that don’t seem right…) and hopefully today will be the final day my home is invaded by the awesomeness of construction and alas when I come home from work I will be able to start moving books on to them.  SSQQQUUUEEEEE!

OR am I weepy because last night I watched Hunger Games and teared up when Prim’s name was called and Katniss says the all so famous line:

“I volunteer as tribute!”

OR…

was it Rue’s final moments and while Katniss weeps (apparently like me), she also shows she is still strong…

And just when I thought it was only last night where I was weepy, alas no…. because this morning I watched the World Book Night Video for the Midwest (give it up for my peeps!) and again… I tear up.

 

 

Awesome huh?   And as I sit here this morning I realize I still have not written my review for our book club book of September that rated the all time lowest rating we have ever given a book as a whole since we began in 2001.  😯

And that will have to wait for tomorrow because…

I already wrote today’s review last night and I have to go get ready for work as I want to be out of here and have the dogs settled before the construction begins today…

plus…. I really want a Caribou Coffee….

Whats the last big project you did at your home?

.

Morning Meanderings… A Night With Sandra Brannan

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)24 Comments

 

Oh what a night, is what is in my head right now!  My friend and fellow Bookie Susan went with me yesterday afternoon to drive the 2 1/2 hours to Minneapolis to go to a book event at Magers and Quinn Booksellers (also where Michelle from Red Headed Book Child) works.  We arrived around 4:35 pm where we checked out the book store and then Sandra found us. 

The three of us went down the block to a Thai restaurant that was fun and delicious and then we proceeded to talk for the next two and a half hours about books and research and life and well… we had a BLAST!  We then went back to the store for Sandra’s book event where we shared more about her books, the direction they are going – and what might be coming next!  SSSQQQUUUEEEEE!

We were there until about 9:45 pm when we made out way to the parking ramp and started out trek home – but no complaints coming from this chick – we had so much fun – Sandra is so down to earth and so filled with awesomeness – really – if you get a chance to meet her do not hesitate to do so. 

 

 

That was a great night! 

As far as books that entered my home this week – it was a mellow week and the top two I purchased last night:

I have to run, I am meeting a friend this morning and then I want to get home to read and chill today – my life explodes back to BUSY tomorrow. 😀

Morning Meanderings: We Are Off To See The Author!!!

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)51 Comments

 

Good morning.  What a week and it has not ended yet.  I have a full morning and then a friend from Book Club and I are going to the cities to have dinner with Sandra Brannon and then go to her book event at Magers and Quinn Booksellers.  While I am tired now, I suspect as the time draws nearer I will get more and more excited.  😀

For Saturday Snapshot today I was hoping to have pictures for you of my new and finished book shelves – but no, while the racks are up… the shelves are not.  So… I will show you before and current state… and next week, hopefully the finished look.

One end of the book room before… (do not judge…) 🙂

 

 

Another section of the room

 

 

 

After I emptied the room….

 

 

And now, the beginning phases:

I am excited to get the shelves up and start organizing books!  😀 

Ok, final thing this morning…. winners from the BBAW week:

The Gods Of Gotham :  Lindsey from Literary Lindsey!!!

Seconds Away by Harlan Coben audio Elizabeth from Silver’s Reviews!!!

Night Road by Kristin Hannah:  Joys from Joys Book Blog!

and the $15 gift card goes to Karen White!!!

Thanks everyone – winners email me your mailing info (no po boxes please) to journeythroughbooks@gmail.com and I will get those shipped to you this week.  😀

BBAW: ANd so… the time has come…

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)23 Comments

 

Wow did that week go by fast or what?  I am sitting here with COFFEE CUP looking at the books I was giving away this week – I still have one more – and well… wow.  This is it.

Todays questions was what did we get out of the week.  This was the first week, yesterday actually – where I was able to actually just sit down and enjoy blogs and blogging.  Usually I am squeezing in a few minutes here, half a post there, drafting when I can..but yesterday I had my first lay low day in a long time and I took full advantage of hanging out with Laptop and pounding out a couple posts and a lot of visits, and you know what?

It felt good.

Today will be a bit the same.  The crew is finally coming today to start my book shelves and I am going to take laptop and the dogs downstairs and do a little reading and writing and stay out of the construction.  (Unless I sneak up to get a picture or two….)

Have a great rest of BBAW everyone.  Be sure to check out the BBAW site and see the giveaways and the posts – and maybe meet a new blogger or two along the way. 😀

My last giveaway is Night Road by Kristin Hannah.  I have two copies of this book.  I have not read it yet but have heard good things.  Leave me a comment today sharing with me what you enjoy most about book blogs. 😀  I will choose a winner and announce tomorrow winner along with my other giveaways going on this blog this week.

 

Happy Friday! 😀

BBAW: Pimp That Book

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)24 Comments

Good morning.  Yesterday totally got away from me… I started writing a poem for yesterdays BBAW post and then I had to go to work… it was a big day – annual meeting day and I am in charge of special events so between working, texting my son in Florida who has gull bladder surgery yesterday, and then finally coming home last night at 9 pm from work… I was exhausted and was hardly on-line at all.. let alone write a post.

However – here we are on Thursday the sun is shining and due to my busy work hours this past week, I have a bonus day off – today!  SO… you are getting me chatting for BBAW and let me warn you… I know how to pimp a book.  😛

I have two books that came to mind right away… both are YA, and there was a time (and there still might be) where I was going to write a post called “I am Patrick Ness’ Baby Mama.”  Ok, ok… totally not true and probably border line inappropriate, but you have to admit… that post title would catch your attention.  😛  My point is – have you read his Chaos Walking Series?  If not… you must!  They are The Knife Of Never Letting Go, The Ask and The Answer, and Monsters Of Men and yes all three are available and yes, you do want them all at once because when one ends you will be all like “HOLY COW!!!!!  WHA???????” and you will want to jump into the next book right away. 😀

(Oh and look how nice of me to link those titles to my reviews….. ahhhh. Sheila.  So thoughtful.  LOL 😆 )

When I first was drawn to the books Monsters Of Men had just hit the shelves.  People told me I needed to have all three at once so I ordered all three at once. 

Then… I worried about that.

I thought that was a bit extreme, what if I am into book one and I am thinking “ugh” and not I have a beautiful “ugh” set?  Well, no worries there, awesome awesome awesome series that I have pimped out to all my friends – told them not to get scared about the talking dog in the early pages…. its different, but you will find out it works. 😀

Ok…I, am not finished.

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green led to perhaps my only 2012 (so far) book melt down where I loved that book so much I have been pushing John Green like crack – and I guess, devouring his books in much the same manner.  (No, no-no, I am not a crack user, I just play one on this blog.  :razz:)

So there is my input on today’s topic. 

 

 

In other news, I wrote a post on Community on the BBAW site.  It sums up my past three years on book blogging and how it is the community of awesome book bloggers that keeps me going. 😀

Be sure to check out my BBAW giveaways if you have not already.  I have this one going, and a giveaway for Gods Of Gotham as well as another one coming up in my review later today. 😀

I have a nice fairly lazy day planned of reading blogs, writing a review and reading. I have a birthday dinner tonight and will be making cupcakes later but for the next few hours… I think I will be right here in this chair. 😀