Meanderings – Page 7 – Book Journey

My Advice…. Dream and go BIG

Published on March 22, 2016March 26, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)16 Comments

Over the past few weeks (ok months really) I have been chatting here or there about the idea of a Gatsby event in our home town. It stuck in my head a couple of years back when I heard that the Roseville Library in the Cities had such an event. To quote Harry Potter just because I want to I thought the idea was brilliant.

The author of The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a Minnesota author. Gatsby, set in the 20’s has a lot of appeal right now with swing dance lessons being popular, the clothing styles, and just the ability to dress up in fun and gorgeous costumes.

When our Friends board decided to give it a go our main draw was to attract a new group of people beyond those that come to our Wine and Words event. We knew there would be some overlap of attendees to both events, but felt this might appeal to the 20’s to 40’s age group (which it did…. and then some!)

In a book I recently read… the question was presented…

Do you think it is better to fail at something worthwhile, or succeed at something meaningless?

I dreamed for Gatsby to be worthwhile.

From the start, I had a vision in mind of a jazz band, dancers, a photographer, awards, and 20’s style drinks to try. It slowly came together. The Brainerd High School jazz band said yes to using volunteer community hours to play for us. My good friend and photographer Joey Halverson offered to be our event photographer, a local lady who knew my mom made our trophies and donated the printing which brought our cost way down, and the venue we used, Arrowwood Lodge was willing to work with us on providing a drink option called The Bee’s Knees and a Mary Pickford.

Our goal was 100 guests. We closed out 2 days prior to the event at 191. If we would have been able to keep selling tickets we would have been over 200. Most amazingly, almost everyone of those people dressed up. I would say close to 98%. People really got into it. But you don’t have to take my word for it…

Besides the great 20’s look, amazing photos, excellent jazz music, food, drinks, and dancing – the local newspaper also came and took a ton of pictures for the paper as well as made an amazing video of the event. Not only did we attract a younger age group, we had an amazing diverse mix of ages which was an awesome bonus. We would call this a wonderful success.

You can see all the pictures on our website page. You can see the fun short video here.

I will add this to Saturday Snapshot this week…. a walk back in the 20’s that is what I have been up to.

Next up… Wine and Words.

Morning Meanderings… The Gatsby Connection

Published on March 19, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)13 Comments

We did it.

Month s of planning, little details to put together, A WHOLE LOT OF amazing people stepping up and in to places from check in, to champagne and fascinator sales, to set up, to taking it all down…

Gatsby in Brainerd Minnesota was a HUGE SUCCESS.

Our goal for this event was 100 people. I think for first year events that 100 people is enough to show there is an interest. We closed up ticket sales at 191. If we had not had to stop selling tickets a couple of days out, we would have easily cleared 200.

See, I am not the only one that likes to dress up. 😉

For today’s Saturday Snapshot, here are a few pictures from last nights Friends Of The Library Fund Raiser. There are mostly from my phone so they are not awesome, but by next week I should have better pictures from our photographer to show.

My camera for the most part took blurry pics so I can not wait to see everyone elses! For the full effect watch this great short video that our local paper took of the event. I seen this today and it made me cry. We did it. Oh my gosh, we did it. Link to video

Today I have a board meeting in St. Cloud and then I am unplugging from much of the outside world for the next month. We are so close to a year since Justin’s accident here and I need time just to be and work my way through that. This Gatsby event was something he and I had talked about and I know if he could have been, he would have been here right beside cheering me on as he always did. Perhaps, in a way, he was.

Morning Meanderings… The Gatsby Trials

Published on March 15, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)4 Comments

Talk about hitting the ground running…

Over this past weekend we completed the Spring Friends of the Library book sale. Yesterday I jumped into full Gatsby mode – picking up the materials we need to make the fascinators, a planning meeting, trivia questions prepped, promoting, props for the photo station, and then last night a few of us met at the library to sew and put together the fascinators.

When I call this the Gatsby trials… I do not mean “a formal examination of evidence before a judge, and typically before a jury, in order to decide guilt in a case of criminal or civil proceedings”. What I mean is: test (something, especially a new product) to assess its suitability or performance. We are seeing if this event is a good fit for our community and worth our time and efforts as a non profit. Our goal is to reach out beyond our current influence and I think by the names I have seen on the guest list…. we are doing just that!

This week… is all detail work. Finalizing volunteers, talking with all of those involved, and making sure we are ready to roll….or I guess swing, would be the more appropriate word. We need to be ready to swing. 🙂

Morning Meanderings…. Don’t Ever Tell Me That Real Books Are A Thing Of The Past

Published on March 13, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)11 Comments

Oh Sunday! It was so nice to get up this morning and not have to run out the door. This past week has been crazy busy with the spring book sale for the library. We moved it to a local mall this time that had a large unrented space that used to be a book store. It was perfect! We get so many book donations that our room at the library just gets too crowded.

On day one I arrived at 6:30 am with lawn chairs, per tradition. The sale opens at 9 am however years a go a friend and I thought it would be funny to show up hours early like book groupies. It became a trend. Now at the sale at the library I need to show up around 4:30 am to be first in line. Its a ~~little~~ lot crazy, but a lot of fun too.

Amy and I took our traditional picture.

By the time the sale opened at 9 am we had an incredible amount of people waiting to get in. I recorded the line on my phone, and spent a lot of time yesterday trying to put that video here on the blog with no luck. It is on Facebook and its only 40 seconds so please check it out if you have not seen it yet. Here it is.

Usually I shop the sale with everyone else but this year I was so emotional seeing all of these book lovers rushing in to pick up second hand books for 50 cents that I started to cry. Instead I took a few pictures and then went right to work helping people check out.

We had a record setting day. Usually our first day sales are around $1700.00. On Thursday, the first day of the sale we made $4200.00. That is a lot of 50 cent books!

Due to my not shopping, by the time I did get a chance to look at books I walked away with my smallest pile ever from the sale:

As for books that made their way into my home this week (not by book sale):

Some pretty exciting titles there!

Today other than a quick commitment to go pick up around the sale area for an hour or so, I am laying low. Listening to a little audio ( The Dorito Effect) and maybe I will read a bit too. Friday is our Gatsby event and it will be a busy week of preparing for that so today – I am slowing it down to a crawl.

Just for today.

Morning Meanderings….. OH! What A Night!

Published on March 9, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)22 Comments

Good Morning!

I feel tired and energized all at the same time. What is that??? 😛

Yesterday I helped to continue setting up the book sale. It is looking so good. Today will be detail work…. hanging signs, prepping the Friends Of The Library table… I am excited for the sale to start tomorrow morning.

Yesterday evening, we had book club at my house. We had decided to do soups and I was running around straightening the living room, chilling the wine, vacuuming the carpet, mopping the kitchen, and setting up chairs and little tables to set soup bowls on. I made two soups – Chicken wild Rice to go with the book…. ha ha and a Squash soup because it looked YUMMY. Lori in our group brought Chicken Tortilla soup. mmmmmmm

It was a fun night. While the book was not what we expected (more on that later) we always have such a good time together. This next month we are reading A Man Called Ove and I am excited for this one. We used the book in the bag program from the library but I am thinking I may go audio…. I listened to a sample and I liked it! It is also always fun to give an audio report on a book at the discussions.

Speaking of Audio, I signed up for the Audio Book Blogger of The Year which the winner will be able to attend the 2016 Audie Awards Gala in Chicago on May 11th. I will be there for the Book Expo this year so thought I would throw my hat (ear?) into the ring. I think it would be a BLAST!

So today, off to the book sale set up again, but should be home early today which makes me sooooo happy as I work the sale the next 4 days from open to close. I may rent ROOM to watch tonight…. I have been excited to see how it is.

Morning Meanderings…. The beginning of a CrAzY Two Weeks

Published on March 7, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)11 Comments

Monday.

And here we go.

Today we start setting up for the spring book sale. Today as in ummmm…. in about an hour. We are excited to be moving it to the local mall which has a large open space for us use for the sale so our books and our patrons will not be crowded. It is exciting but also a lot of work. 🙂 We will continue to set up through Wednesday and official sale dates are Thursday – Saturday…. Sunday we will offer a free day but “shhhhh” we are keeping that under wraps. 😉 I literally laid in bed last night and thought of signs that I need to make, how to set up our Friends Of The Library info board, the best way to move the books…..

Tomorrow is book club, here at my house. We are reading All The Birds In The Sky by Charlie Jane Anders. As yesterday was beautiful here in Central Minnesota, 50 degrees, I switched to audio on this one so I could listen while I cleaned the garage and the back deck. More on that later this week.

Coming out of the book sale will have me running right towards the Gatsby Gala which is a week from this Friday on the 18th. That too is coming together well and I am hopeful that this weeks sale will assist in promoting the Gala. This event is an idea two years in the making and seeing it come to reality really means more than I can say here. Later today I will look at 20’s style costumes for the event.

In other news, I signed up to take part in the Armchair Audies this year and I am super excited about the audio books I will listening to. I will be judging in the Non-Fiction and in the Humor categories. Check out the website and you too can be a judge if you would like!

Is Spring coming your way? Is this a season that you read more or less? Do you turn to audio more during busy times?

United For Libraries – Literary Landmarks

Published on March 5, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)8 Comments

I am part of a committee that meets to place a Literary Landmark once a year somewhere in Minnesota. Literary Landmarks are a part of ALA (American Library Association). The purpose of Literary Landmarks is to recognize an author who is from the area. The author needs to no longer be living for at least 5 years. In past years Minnesota has recognized:

Jon Hassler

Sinclair Lewis

Maud Hart Lovelace (Betsy Tacy!)

Scott Fitzgerald (Gatsby!)

Our committee started meeting last fall to discuss who our next author should be. As the last couple of years had been in the Brainerd lakes area and in Ely, we felt it was time to come back toward the Twin Cities. Once we have chosen our author, we need to find a place to put the plaque. It is a beautiful large plaque and it can go indoors or outdoors; on the side of a building, in a library, in a park, a museum, wherever. We then plan a ceremony around the dedication.

After narrowing down our list, we were excited to choose Gordon Parks as our Literary Landmark for 2016.

Gordon Parks was not only an author. He was also a photographer and became the first African American to write and direct a Hollywood feature film based on his bestselling novel The Learning Tree. In 1971, his book Shaft became a hugely successful motion picture. He had a deep commitment to social justice and died in 2006.

Yesterday, I drove to St. Paul Minnesota to meet not only with our committee, but we were also lucky enough to have two of Gordon’s relatives present as well. Russell Balenger is Gordon’s nephew and Robin Hickman his grand niece. It was so exciting to meet them and see that they both are involved in social justice themselves, carrying on in Gordon’s footsteps.

gordon parks, book journey, ALA< Literary landmark — L: Russel, Robin, Joe (from our committee)

gordon parks, literary landmark, book journey minnesota — L: Barbi and Isabel from our committee

I am enjoying being a part of this group. It is wonderful to be able to recognize authors who have made a difference. I am submitting this post to Saturday Snapshots.

Morning Meanderings… A Mix of Grief and A Smile

Published on March 4, 2016March 4, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)15 Comments

I have a picture file in my computer named “Justin”. It is all the pictures that I have from friends postings on-line that I have copied and saved in my file. There are over 500 pictures.

I am Gollum.

Everything…. is my precious.

It has been a while since I have added anything to this file. While friends are still posting pictures and talking about him (thank you thank you thank you) they are mostly pictures I already have.

Until yesterday.

The Honduras Team is back in Honduras. This is a trip that Justin would have been on and he would have been so excited to return to Honduras and those kids. He had just returned last March for his 5th time going and we had a long talk on how much this trip had impacted him. He was already talking about this years trip.

Yesterday this was posted on-line:

This is the plaque that is on the building that was dedicated in Justin’s memory. It is so beautiful. He would have loved this connection to the kids.

It is 11 months today. I can hardly believe that. This picture of the plaque somehow seems like wonderful timing.

Today I drive to St Paul. I am on the Minnesota Literary Landmark committee and we are discussing this years placement over lunch. As much as I would love to stay home curled up in my own grief, going is probably the better choice. It is hard to keep going with such a large piece of your life missing, but I continue to do it because I know he would want me to. ♥

Morning Meanderings….. Top Books…. I Wonder How They Are On Audio?

Published on March 2, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)23 Comments

Good morning. MMMMMM….. Coffee. Hang on.

Had to get a refill.

That’s better.

I seen a link on Facebook yesterday afternoon about the 20 best books we should be reading this spring. Did you see it?

There are some good looking books in this group! The post was originally made by Redbook. I have to admit however, I instantly wondered how they are on audio. 😛

It is getting to be that time of year for me. Our Spring Library Book Sale is this next week. The week after is our Great Gatsby event. We are putting together a benefit event for my son at the end of April….

life gets BUSY.

I have said it many times, but I will say it again, I probably listen to audio 4 to one over books. At least. I can listen to audio in the morning while I get ready, in my car while I travel, at home while I cook and clean, and while I work on a project like painting or picture albums. I love it and I am always looking for great audio.

Yesterday I finished listening to Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes and narrated by the oh-so-amazing-I-want-him-to-read-the-newspaper-to-me the #isitwrongtoloveakiller #Iamsoamazedbycreepyjoe #Carolinekepnesbooksrockedmyworld #cansantinofortananarratemylife…. basically I am jonesing for more great audio.

Ok you get the drift. I can not be the only person who has actually stocked narrators to find out what else they have narrated so I can listen to them again. IE. Wil Wheaton. *sigh*

Ok… I digress. What I am super interested in is knowing if any of the “Must Read This Spring” list has been listened to on audio. Is there another hot audio book I need to listen to? I need to download an audio for my phone today and I have been spoiled by what I have just listened to. Watch for my review of Hidden Bodies later today.

Off to the library and a coffee date (yes more coffee!).

Morning Meanderings…. Today’s Hot Topic…. Breast Feeding

Published on March 1, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)10 Comments

So….Tuesday.

I mentioned a week or so ago about the Spoiler Pages and the traffic they can drive, especially when a book becomes a movie. Current example of that is ROOM by Emma Donoghue, read and reviewed in 2010, reviewed by my book club in 2011, and then of course the SPOILER PAGE…

and it is that Spoiler Page that is drawing the attention now.

The movie, just released and is currently at our theater here in town.

What is the hot topic? In the book, (I have not seen the movie) Jack is 5 and still breast feeding. The book is told from Jack’s perspective. It is discussed in the book that when he is hungry he will say “want some” and then he will breast feed. It was something that made me double take, as well as my book club and it was admittedly, a part of our discussion. We understood the reasoning behind it in the book, they never know when and if food will be coming.

What is happening on the spoiler page for the most part is opinions on breast feeding as well as the occasional jab at me for admitting on that page that I found that part of the book a little disturbing to my mid western upbringing. 🙂 It is an interesting discussion, and really always has been. I even interviewed the author, Emma Donoghue about this topic and she said she was surprised the reaction, especially from the US. Here was what she wrote to me in 2011…

Emma: Finally, your breastfeeding question. It seems to me that Jack mentions it pretty rarely, actually: he gives far more analysis of what they have for lunch and dinner. But it’s such a touchy subject (especially, I’m finding, in the US) that it stands out. I kept it in because it seemed entirely natural that Ma would keep up that most comforting part of the mother-baby bond as long as they are living very much like a mother-and-baby (never apart, never socializing with other people) in ROOM.

Has anyone seen the movie? A friend of mine told me last night she had seen it. I asked her if it was a movie theater movie or a Red Box movie. She said Red Box. Any other thoughts on that?

Any hoo….. that’s what is happening on Book Journey today.

Things are starting to move here now. It has been a fairly quiet winter for which I am grateful. It has been nice to have time to process and grieve at my own pace. Now, in March, we have our spring book sale next week. The week after that on the 18th is the Gatsby Event. Then we will start working on Wine and Words, April will bring an Edible Book Fair, May a benefit, June Camp…..

Here we go.