Book Journey

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

Published on August 10, 2014August 10, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)25 Comments

Molly Ayer knows the Foster Care System all too well. She has been a part of it for most of her life bouncing from one home to another. Now at seventeen years old she is required to do community service for a petty theft crime. She is required to go through an elderly woman’s attic and clean up, toss out, and organize the cluttered dusty boxes. An undertaking that on sight appears impossible, especially since the widowed old woman Vivian, does not seem to keen on parting with her things.

As Molly explores the attic and what is inside the boxes, she discovers that Vivian too was part of a much earlier foster system called the Orphan Train. The Train would take children from stop to stop where families could come to the train and choose children to go home with them… that system unfortunately, worked about as well as some of it does still today. As Molly and Vivian spend their days together in the attic they learn of each others experiences with the foster care system, some good..and some bad. Some times it was your wits and your desire to survive that pulled you through.

Both women find out that they have a lot more in common than one would ever guess by looking at them.

Orphan Train was our book club selection for August. We chose this book because we won the books for our group from Harper Collins – woo hoo!!!!!!!! AND the author Christina Baker Kline will be speaking in our town on August 12th, as it happens, our regular Tuesday that we hold our book club on.

Orphan Train turned out to be a delight. As I had loaned my copy of the book out to a friend, I did not have one in my possession so I decided to try it on audio. I had heard it was an excellent listen and that turned out to be true. Narrator Suzanne Toren was perfect for this book.

I went into this book with little knowledge of what it was about other than the Orphan Train (*spoiler alert… it’s the title! 😉 ) I had not read any reviews of the book so even the format of going from Molly’s story to Vivian’s was a surprise and a pleasant one at that.

I enjoyed the storyline and the knowledge I picked up along the way regarding the Orphan Train. It is a subject I hope to learn more about and I am hopeful that next week Christina Baker Kline will talk more about her research.

Historical Fiction fans will enjoy this read.

I will talk more about the Bookies Book Club thoughts on the book as well as the Author Event next week.

Audible Audio Edition
Listening Length: 8 hours and 21 minutes
Program Type: Audiobook
Version: Unabridged
Publisher: Audible Studios
Audible.com Release Date: April 2, 2013

Morning Meanderings… Rainy Day and Books

Published on August 10, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)20 Comments

Good morning. Mmmmmm….. coffee is good here. I am sitting at my kitchen table writing this post and watching it gently rain outside. It is a hazy kind of day – the kind that makes for good reading or keeps you inside to do house cleaning. I need to do a little of both today as I get ready for the basket assembly that will be happening here tomorrow morning with my friend Gail in preparation for the Wine and Words auction.

The bummer side of the rain is that today is the annual Church Picnic and baptism around 12:15 today. It still has time to stop raining, so perhaps things will just be nice and clean. We do need the rain it has been pretty dry here these last few weeks.

A few treasures came in this week:

Top Secret Twenty-One by Janet Evanovich (audio)

Thrones and Bones by Lou Anders (audio)

The Young World by Chris Weitz (audio)

The Girls Of August by Anne Rover Siddons (audio)

Enchantress by Maggie Anton

The Secret Sky by Atia Abawi

The Last Breath by Kimberly Belle

Always A Catch by Peter Richmond

Winter Street by Elin Hilderbrand

So We Read On by Maureen Corrigan

The Barter by Siobhan Adcock

Lots of good listening and reading! I have to go and get ready, but curious….

what do you like to do on rainy days?

California by Edan Lepucki (hmmmm….)

Published on August 9, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)24 Comments

It’s been two long hard years since the world as it was broke into this food scarce fend for yourself type shell of what it once was. The land of abundance is no more.

For Cal and Frida, life is quiet in the wilderness they have created a home within. They have a garden, and a house, and a water source near by. Admittedly it is a lonely world but it is what they have and for the most part they feel secure.

When Frida discovers she is pregnant she feels strongly that they must look for others. While Cal is uncertain of this move, he understands his wife’s fears and together they go off to search for other people. When they come across a community that is heavily guarded they are allowed inside, at least for a while to see if they will be accepted. The community is full of surprises – some personal, and some frightening such as the fact that there are no children there. As Cal and Frida cautiously look for answers they do not know who they can trust. Is this the best the world now has to offer? Were they better off alone where they were, or was that too only a temporary feeling of safety?

When I first heard about CALIFORNIA it sounded like a book for me. I love a good dystopian novel and I was excited to dig into this one.

CALIFORNIA had a very slow start for me. It honestly could have been partially due to the changes going on in my life at the time of starting to read this one, but I found it slow-moving and not gripping enough to hold me to it. I picked it up, read a few pages and put it down off and on for weeks. When it finally started moving (about 100 pages in) then I became engaged in what was happening.

The book was good… very good in some ways, but as I progressed to the ending I knew that all the different plot lines that had been opened up could not possibly be closed within this one book. My biggest disappointment is I felt at the end it just…

ended.

Not a cliffhanger… but more like it ended like a chapter ends. There should be more but there was not.

I had a lot of questions left and felt there was a lot more that needed to happen to bring this story line to full and satisfying conclusion. No where that I have looked do I see that there are plans to make this into a trilogy or that there will be a sequel even. For now.. I am under the impression that was it and if that is the case… I am left unfulfilled.

Morning Meanderings…. Book Lovers In The Mud!

Published on August 9, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)25 Comments

Last weekend I went with fellow Bookie and awesome friend Amy to the Muckfest in Wisconsin. This is an annual mud run to raise money for MS… my 3rd time doing this one, her second. We brought with us two rookies…. Jennifer and Jody who did MARVELOUS!

For this weeks Saturday Snapshot I thought I would bring you some of our pictures from that muddy event.

Sheila DeChantal, Book Journey Muckfest — I did post this picture earlier this week – this is the picture we took at the check in. Look how clean we are!

Book JOurney, Sheila DeChantal — Amy (left) and Jody (right)

Sheila DeChantal — The end! Final pic of the Muckfest

Check out other Saturday Snapshots from West Metro Mommy Reads. You never know what people are taking pictures of 🙂

The One Safe Place by Tania Unsworth

Published on August 8, 2014August 8, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)Leave a comment

Twelve year old Devin is ill prepared for what to do when his Grandpa suddenly passes away. They lived on a farm, one of the precious few left in the dystopian type world of despair, drought, and destruction. When Devin leaves the farm to go and find help in the direction that his Grandpa had always told him to go in the case of needing help, he instead finds wild kids of his own age without the skills or the care that he was nurtured in.

When Devin and a new friend Kit, hear about the Gabriel H. Penn Home for Childhood, a place that is said to be filled with others their age, lots of food and great accommodations, they hurry on to find this place that sounds too good to be true. As the old adage says…. if something sounds too good to be true…

it probably is.

I was impressed with this Middle Grade (MG) style audio book. The One Safe Place gives a modern and possibly creepier feel to the old Hansel and Gretel story… and as I write this I think this is more like a dystopian version of that story – obviously with a modern twist that helps it hold its own.

I enjoyed this audio of a strange world of survival at any cost. I also like that instead of the usual YA (16-20) characters that are often found in this type of read, they targeted it to a younger group who I think will really enjoy the feel of the book aimed at the MG readers. Nicely played Tania Unsworth.

Mark Turetsky was the narrator for this book and I think that may be my only unfortunate take away is that the narration felt as though someone was reading to me. I personally like to fall inside an audio book, forgetting about the narration and immersing in the world the author has created. The fact that I found myself thinking of the narration while listening to this book shows that did not happen. Narration was pleasant, do not get me wrong, and I know that it is certainly a skill that I do not have, but that is my take away.

Middle Grade listeners and readers will enjoy this perfect level of age appropriate creepy.

Morning Meanderings…. You Would Think Life Would SLow Down….

Published on August 8, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)21 Comments

ridiculous.

Where did I ever get the idea that life would slow down once I decided to work from home? What a total nut bar am I! Here I am this morning breaking my own rules of calling people before 8 am because I need to.

The Library sale is this week and my crew that was lined up to pull books this Saturday is now unavailable to do so. I just found this out late yesterday afternoon. I have been emailing and making phone calls to come up with the plan “B” which I think is solved but just need confirmation. EGADS.

I have today and through the weekend to really work on the touches on my book if I am going to be able to be ready to submit by August 13th. The jury is still out on that one…but I am trying and plan to do my best to lock myself in the house the next few days to get er’ done.

Monday we put together the Wine and Words baskets here in my home and I have a meeting to plan the room layout.

Tuesday and Wednesday is book sale set up and Thursday Friday Saturday is the book sale.

The following week is Wine and Words – I need to prep the chalkboard doors. I have signs to make. There is much yet to do but the sponsors are in place, the brochure will be ready and the teams are all set for the event so event day will be smooth.

ONCE August is over, I think things will return to a simmer of normalcy and if I have anything to say about it… maybe even a little quieter than normal. It just seems that everything was suddenly loaded in to August.

Sigh. Bear with me. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. I am sure of it. 🙂

Tell me something crazy going on in your life.. it will make me smile. CRAZY loves company.

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

Published on August 7, 2014August 8, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)26 Comments

Talk about your hot messes.

When the Pirriwee Public Schools Annual Trivia Night ends, no one who was there will ever be the same. People are hurt. Some have broken bones… and one parent is dead.

Second marriage Madelaine Mackenzie is 40 years old. She has the clothes, the style, and the attitude. By all appearances she can hold her own but deep down inside she hurts when her teenage daughter prefers her remarried fathers company to Mackenzie’s.

Celeste is by anyone’s description; beautiful. She is the type of woman that most of us would not want to stand too close to for fear of being compared and found wanting. She has two adorable twin boys and what seems to be the perfect marriage to Perry… but behind closed doors it is becoming more and more apparent that things are not as perfect as one would think.

Jane is the fairly new in town single mom to the sweet boy Ziggy. She is working hard to fit in with the other women, but holds tight to keeping the secret of Ziggy’s father a closed conversation.

As the police start their investigation of the happenings at the Trivia Night that Madelaine, Celeste and Jane all attended, they find out a lot more than they had initially anticipated. What started out looking like an accident… may have been cold blooded murder.

SQQQQUUUEEEEE! Let’s just get that out of the way now. This book is totally SSSQQQUUUEEEE worthy! I LOVED it. I have listened to all of Liane Moriarty’s books on audio and get a thrill every time. Narrator Caroline Lee (who also narrated The Husband’s Secret) is PERFECT for this style of book. Her distinct voices between the characters and her amazing animated ways made this a true delight to listen to and I did not want to stop!

Fantastic story line, wonderful three dimensional characters and all mixed in with an important topic made this listen a huge WIN. Do not miss out on this one – in book or audio it is sure to be fantastic! I wish Author Liane Moriarty could write faster, I am already jonesing for her next book. 🙂

And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard

Published on August 6, 2014August 6, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)8 Comments

Emily Beam is in a Boarding School for girls in Massachusetts. It is probably due to the fact that her once boyfriend Paul came into the school with a stolen gun and threatened Emily and then took his own life. It is probably due to the pregnancy.

Now Emily, left with the guilt of ending the relationship and the anger for feeling guilty. She is not quick to make friends with her dark personality but soon finds that a couple of the girls just won’t shake off so easy. While Emily is not sharing her tragic story with anyone, it slowly comes out in her writing and her poetry. As Emily seeks for solace in the once home of Emily Dickinson that is open for tours just down the street from the boarding school… together it seems the two Emily’s – one in flesh and one in spirit heal together in this strange and uncertain world.

I chose this book initially for two reasons. One, I love that Emily Dickinson is part of the story and that they put the home that she wrote in close to where Emily Beam stays. Two, I adore this cover… a cover like this – could go many directions but I see a closed off, angry and uncertain girl who at the same time is trying hard to look like she is holding it all together.

I can not say I loved this book. The topics are heavy from teen pregnancy, to suicide, to abortion. I listened to this book on audio and at a little under 6 hours, it just felt too heavy for my liking. Emily was not a character I felt for, most of the characters fell flat, to the point that other than the main character and the boyfriend Paul, I could not name another character int he book right now if I needed to.

This book may be a better fit for young adults, but I question if even they too would find it heavy and not of the quality and engagement of much on today’s YA reads. The book had potential but never quite found it.

Narration by Erin Spenser was very good.

Listening Length: 5 hours and 53 minutes
Program Type: Audiobook
Version: Unabridged
Publisher: Listening Library
Audible.com Release Date: July 8, 2014

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on August 3, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)51 Comments

Hey there! Welcome to It’s Monday, What Are You Reading!

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. Fair warning… this meme tends to add to your reading list! 😉

CRAZY busy week…. which is funny… I did not anticipate it being that busy. Last weekend my son and I worked on setting up my home office – I put the finishing touches on it today:

Then I spent the week between Library commitments, Wine and Words planning, and working on the book. On Friday I left for Wisconsin with friends to do the Mud Run on Saturday for MS, and then headed to Crosslake Minnesota where I stayed overnight Saturday to Sunday for the AIDS bike Ride Fundraiser which I am on the board of. *whew*

Sunday afternoon I worked a bit on the book, cleaned up my house, and prepped for a meeting I have tomorrow with the Friends Of The Brainerd Library. Here is what I managed to post this past week:

Little Lies by Author Heather Gudenkauf

Brown Bag YA Author – Johnathon Friesen

Brown Bag Author Terri Peterson Smith

The One and Only by Emily Griffin (audio)

I Don’t Know What You Know Me From by Judy Greer (audio)

Books in the house… probably mud too… 😉

I have a few books yet to write reviews for and I think a couple more Brown Bag Authors. For this week the plan is:

For My Ears

Penobscot Indian Molly Ayer is close to “aging out” out of the foster care system. A community-service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping Molly out of juvie and worse….

As she helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, Molly learns that she and Vivian aren’t as different as they seem to be. A young Irish immigrant orphaned in New York City, Vivian was put on a train to the Midwest with hundreds of other children whose destinies would be determined by luck and chance. Molly discovers that she has the power to help Vivian find answers to mysteries that have haunted her for her entire life – answers that will ultimately free them both.

Not only is this our book club read for this month but the author will be speaking in town here on the day of our book club meeting so we are all going out to dinner and then to see the author speak. Yippy!

Madeline is a force to be reckoned with. She’s funny and biting, passionate, she remembers everything and forgives no one. Her ex-husband and his yogi new wife have moved into her beloved beachside community, and their daughter is in the same kindergarten class as Madeline’s youngest (how is this possible?). And to top it all off, Madeline’s teenage daughter seems to be choosing Madeline’s ex-husband over her. (How. Is. This. Possible?).

Celeste is the kind of beautiful woman who makes the world stop and stare. While she may seem a bit flustered at times, who wouldn’t be, with those rambunctious twin boys? Now that the boys are starting school, Celeste and her husband look set to become the king and queen of the school parent body. But royalty often comes at a price, and Celeste is grappling with how much more she is willing to pay.

New to town, single mom Jane is so young that another mother mistakes her for the nanny. Jane is sad beyond her years and harbors secret doubts about her son. But why? While Madeline and Celeste soon take Jane under their wing, none of them realizes how the arrival of Jane and her inscrutable little boy will affect them all.

Listening to this currently and really enjoying it!

Lauren Elliott has waited years for her long-term boyfriend, Todd, to propose, yet he seems more focused on his career than their relationship. When Lauren learns that her younger sister is pregnant before she herself even has an engagement ring, she feels overjoyed yet disheartened. Knowing she can’t put her future on hold, Lauren prepares to make a bold choice—one that leads her to a man she never dreamed she’d meet.

Newly married to her second husband, Max, Bethanne Scranton is blissfully in love. But with Max’s job in California and Bethanne’s in Seattle, their long-distance marriage is becoming difficult to maintain. To complicate matters, Bethanne’s cunning ex will do anything to win her back.

Lydia Goetz, too, is wonderfully happy with her husband, Brad, though lately she worries about the future of A Good Yarn. As she considers how to bring in business, she discovers that someone has beaten her to the punch. Baskets of yarn are mysteriously popping up all over town, with instructions to knit a scarf for charity and bring it into Lydia’s store. Never before has her shop received so much attention, but who hatched this brilliant plan?

Started this one in the car and really am getting into it!

For My Eyes

Still finishing up California (I know… I know….)

So what are you reading this first week of August? What did you finish up July with? Please share your Its Monday What Are You Reading using the link below where it says click here. I am curious about what your choices are as head into Fall!

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For those of you who read mainly children and middle grade books, please also feel free to add your link here:

Two Weeks Of Books and a LOT of Mud … Time To Tell You About Them

Published on August 3, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)27 Comments

I am home. Wiped out. Tired. Lots to do. Home.

Friday I drove with my friend Amy to a hotel in the cities to meet up with Jennifer and Jody, the other two girls that we were doing the mud run in Wisconsin with on Saturday morning. It was a lot of fun and I will have pics up later of the mud run – we use old school disposable camera’s because.. well it’s mud. And lots of water we jump in, swim in… and well, more mud.

Sheila DeChantal, Muckfest — Amy, Me, Jody, and Jennifer

Then… after the Mud Run we drove to Shakopee Minnesota to drop Amy off with friends for Canterbury Downs (horse races!) and I hurried home to shower, change, pack, and head to Crosslake Minnesota for day two of the Camp Benedict AIDS bike ride. I did not ride as I had missed day one and did not want to have my car and bike and have to figure out how to get the car back home, 40 miles away. I did go to cheer on the riders and spend time with friends. I was tired but it was good to catch up with everyone and I seen them off this morning as they started their ride.

So now I am home and need to get in my office and get some work done. I have work to do on the book and I need as much time as possible in the office this week to make the deadline coming up. Here are the books that came in the house the past two weeks: