The Beekeeper’s Lament by Hannah Nordhaus

Beekeepers Lament, Hannah Nordhaus, Book Journey, Sheila DeChantal

The Beekeeper’s Lament follows John Miller, a multi generational bee keeper who moves his over 10,000 hives around the US to farmers who need the pollination that only the honey bee can provide.  Beekeeping, as one can imagine, is a lot of work and not for the faint of heart.  John will be stung frequently, deal with mites, weather, semi trucks loaded with bees turning over on highways, theft, and the CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder) epidemic that came about in 2004 and still is as mysterious today.

Miller moves onward with a sense of humor, a gift at writing, and a desire to help feed America despite all the obstacles.

 

 

 

Why did I want to read this book?  I am fascinated by bees.  I have a friend who raises honey bees and occasionally I get to go and help her out and I enjoy learning about the bees and all they can do!

 

I really enjoyed reading The Beekeepers Lament.  The fascinating things that honey bees provide (beside the obvious honey) by providing pollination to flowers, berries, fruit, and the big one… almond trees.

Author Hannah Nordhaus follows John Miller through all the steps to bee keeping.  She writes of the communications between herself and John between visits.  John likes email.  And jokes.  And Author Hannah Nordhaus writes as I would hope if I were writing about something similar, that I would write.

This book would be appealing to those who enjoy foodie books, fans of nature, and of course the fascination of bees.  I learned so much by reading this and found every page to be filled with fascinating (and occasionally funny) information.

 

 

  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Harper Perennial (May 24, 2011)

 

 

 

 

Summer Reading – Reading On The North Shore (and giveaway!)

Recently I was at our cabin on the North Shore, right off Lake Superior.  It is a 3 1/2 hours from our home… a jaunt by any account but one that is worth it.  Once there – I am out of internet and cell phone range.  It usually winds up being quite the reading time.

 

Sheila DeChantal, Book Journey, Summer Reading, Heather Gunderkauf, Little Mercies

 

Little Mercies by Heather Gudenkauf was one of the books I enjoy during this last trip.  I have read Heather before and enjoyed her writing very much.  This latest book, makes for GOOD Summer Reading!  I picked the book up in the sunny afternoon and I did not stop until I closed the last page that evening.

 

Little Mercies, Heather Gudenkauf, summer reading, Sheila DeChantal

 

About Little Mercies

In her latest ripped-from-the-headlines tour de force, New York Times bestselling author Heather Gudenkauf shows how one small mistake can have life-altering consequences… 

Veteran social worker Ellen Moore has seen the worst side of humanity—the vilest acts one person can commit against another. She is a fiercely dedicated children’s advocate and a devoted mother and wife. But one blistering summer day, a simple moment of distraction will have repercussions that Ellen could never have imagined, threatening to shatter everything she holds dear, and trapping her between the gears of the system she works for. 

Meanwhile, ten-year-old Jenny Briard has been living with her well-meaning but irresponsible father since her mother left them, sleeping on friends’ couches and moving in and out of cheap motels. When Jenny suddenly finds herself on her own, she is forced to survive with nothing but a few dollars and her street smarts. The last thing she wants is a social worker, but when Ellen’s and Jenny’s lives collide, little do they know just how much they can help one another. 

A powerful and emotionally charged tale about motherhood and justice, Little Mercies is a searing portrait of the tenuous grasp we have on the things we love the most, and of the ties that unexpectedly bring us together.

 

I have an opportunity working with Harlequin, to offer to one commenter a chance to win a Little Mercies Bundle (*SQUUUEEEEE!*) The bundle includes: Little Mercies, The Weight Of Silence, and These Things Hidden.  Leave a comment here on what you like to get out of your Summer Reading (thrillers, fantasy, beach reads, lite lit…)

 

   Follow Heather Gudenkauf on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest

·         Visit Little Mercies page on Goodreads

Morning Meanderings… Book Sale and Mediander

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Good morning!  Friday!  WOW!  Its hard t think that a week ago was the 4th and here we are rushing through July!

Yesterday I helped with the first ever Children’s Book Sale at the Brainerd Public Library.  Our regular sale is becoming so big and the children’s books take up a whole back wall and up the wall and under the tables.  The books are so many that we can not display them properly – instead they are crammed into full boxes and people have to dig.

I spent yesterday morning assisting in setting up the sale, we have a couple of hour break in the afternoon and then back at 3:30 to prep to open the sale at 4:00.

It went well:

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It pretty much looked like this and fuller from 4 – 7 pm.  Today we will do it again from 9-3.  It is not as crazy busy and exciting as the LARGE sale, but we are receiving lots of positive compliments on doing it this way.  Parents love that they can look through the books without being trampled and we sell them for 25 cents each so how can you pass that up?

 

In another discussion entirely, have you heard of Mediander?  It is a super cool website that you type words or topics in to and it will connect you to all sorts of info and media.  It’s pretty slick.  They had a big presence at the recent Book Expo in New York and I was on a panel with the Senior Editor.  We chatted and I was offered to write a review (hopefully more) for them.

I wrote a review on The Three by Sarah Lotz…. so goooooood!  Please check out my review on their site.

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Got to run… must get ready for the children’s sale, have a grad party later this afternoon and a fun work event after that 😀

Happy Friday!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bookies Queen Event 2014

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This past Tuesday July 8th was our annual Queen event for 2014.  It is always a wonderful time of Food, Fun, and Friends, and of course… off with the old Queens head and on with the new… sorry Angie 😉

The evening was gorgeous, and I was so caught with everyone’s conversation and everything that I forgot to take pics of the food!

We started our evening with a “photo shoot” of those of us who dressed for the event:

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fun 7

 

The speeches were awesome, poems, songs, bribing with candy…..

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It was a wonderful night.  In the end… we crowned a Queen:

 

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Congratulations Queen Sharon… she was the “Susan Lucci” of our group… runner-up for years, but never Queen!  😀

 

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This is our 8th Queen Event.  For more Queen Event pictures… see my past links here under Book Clubs.

 

 

 

 

Morning Meanderings… The BOOK Exchange!

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Good morning!

It is the morning of our Bookies Coronation.   SQUUUEEEEE!!!  I bought the dress on Saturday, I wrote my speech last night, giggling and texting my friend like a school girl about “How’s it going are you done?  Are you ready?”  with her texting back just as excited “just finishing up, now picking out my dress”

It will be great 🙂

Last month at book club, we had our Annual Book Exchange.  This practice started three years ago.  Each Bookie is supposed to wrap up in plain brown paper ( we are trying to avoid people picking the *pretty packaging*) a book that they have read in the past year that was a great read.  Obviously, not a Bookies Book Club pick.

Then…

We all randomly choose a book out of the pile and that will be the book we will each read and discuss in July (tonight) while we enjoy good food and conversation.  It is a fun tradition:

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collage for BJ

I had missed Bookies last month as I was at camp but I still participated.  I sent a book into the mix – the center picture above, Delicious by Ruth Reichl (LOVED that one!) and then the group picked a book out for me.  So what did I have picked to read this past month?

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I had Lethal by Sandra Brown.  This was a good one for me as I have tried Sandra Brown before and could not get through it.  She seems like an author I would enjoy, so this was a fun attempts again.  I finished it last night…. I will review the book later but for now I would describe it as very similar to the book Labor Day…. but a heck of a lot steamier.  😉

 

 

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

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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!

Another week and now July…. wha?  Hold the phone… JULY?????  Where is my lovely summer going so fast?

I had a fairly good week, seems like I am listening to audio and reading but between work and helping in the bee yard (more to come about that) I am wiped out hen I get home and writing reviews just seems like too much work.  I am currently 5 reviews behind.  EEP!

Here is what I was able to post this week:

Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedwick (short stories that all tie together in a mystical place)

How To Become A Narrator by Narrator Robert Fass (the last of the narrator interviews and giveaway!)

Preparing for the Queen Event (and a few shots of the Bookies Queen events of the past few years) 

The Young World by Weitz (YOWZA!!!  This one is going places!  LOVED IT!)

Essentialism – The Disciplined Pursuit Of Less by Greg McKeown  (this one beat me up…)

The Dinner by Herman Koch (deliciously dangerous….)

 

This week is a busy one with a Friends Of The Library Meeting, an author event, and a children’s book sale on Thursday and Friday.  The weekend should be a little quieter and I hope to be enjoying…

 

For My Ears

 

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Once again Dorothea Benton Frank takes us deep into the heart of her magical South Carolina Lowcountry on a tumultuous journey filled with longings, disappointments, and, finally, a road toward happiness that is hard earned. There we meet three generations of women buried in secrets. The Lowcountry has endured its share of war and bloodshed like the rest of the South, but this storm season we watch Maisie, Liz, and Ashley deal with challenges that demand they face the truth about themselves.

Started listening to this one today while mowing… LOVE Robin Miles narration of these southern books… AMAZING LISTENING!

 

 

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The year is 2113. In Jenna Strong’s world, ACID—the most brutal controlling police force in history—rule supreme. No throwaway comment or whispered dissent goes unnoticed—or unpunished. And it was ACID agents who locked Jenna away for life, for a horrendous crime she struggles to remember. But Jenna’s violent prison time has taught her how to survive by any means necessary. When a mysterious rebel group breaks her out, she must use her strength, speed, and skill to stay one step ahead of ACID and try to uncover the truth about what really happened on that terrible night two years ago. They’ve taken her life, her freedom, and her memories away from her. How can she reclaim anything when she doesn’t know who to trust?

 

For My Eyes

Same things as last week 😉

 

 

Please add your link to your It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading below where it says click here:

 

 

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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:

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The Dinner by Herman Koch

The Dinner, Herman Koch, Book Journey, Sheila DeChantal

The Dinner is a deliciously disturbing read that tells the length that some of us will go to protect our children. ~ Sheila

 

It is a lovely summers eve in Amsterdam and Paul and Claire Lohman are meeting Paul’s brother and his wife for dinner.  Paul’s brother, Serge is well on his way to being Prime Minister of the Netherlands and Paul finds his brother to be full of himself and cringes at the thought of spending dinner at a restaurant where everyone will be watching them and treating them like royalty.

But there are bigger things to discuss at dinner.

Each of the two couples have a 15-year-old son and through appetizers to dessert it will become clear that the two boys have been involved in a horrific act involving the death of a homeless woman.  Some of the guests at this table know all about it… others are just starting to figure out what happened.  Through forced politeness and forks full of delicious food, this family tries to unite on what the right thing to do is…

and are they willing to do it.

 

 

 

I have been wanting to read this book for a while now – since I first heard about it.  First of all it is a foodie type book and I do love my foodie books.  It is also very intriguing that the entire book is set around this one dinner.  Told through flash backs and present time, from pleasant chit-chat around the subject of politics, menu choices, family and then…

We need to talk about our children.

 

I really enjoyed this book on audio.  Narrators Sam Garrett and Clive Mantle were appropriately chilling in their telling of this story that is fed to the reader/listener forkful by forkful.  I am glad I listened to it on audio, I feel it gave the story line a higher level of understanding and I especially enjoyed having the story unfold from Paul’s perspective.

Witty and a bit dangerous ( a little bit of a Jo Nesbo tamed down feel)… I did enjoy The Dinner.

 

 

  • Audible Audio Edition
  • Listening Length: 8 hours and 55 minutes
  • Program Type: Audiobook
  • Version: Unabridged
  • Publisher: AudioGO
  • Audible.com Release Date: February 13, 2013

 

 

This is probably a stretch but I really want to connect this review to Weekend Cooking over at Beth Fish Reads.  😀  It wasn’t really cooking… but it was foodie and it was listened to over the weekend 😀

 

 

Morning Meanderings… Looking Forward to a BOOKISH Week

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Good morning Happy Sunday of the 4th of July Weekend!  Yesterday was a gorgeous day here in Central Minnesota… light breeze, lots of warm sun and I spent most of the day inside working on the year-end book for book club this week, and house stuff thinking that today I would go out and mow and catch the outdoor stuff.  Alas, since 3:00 am it has been thunder storming making it probably an indoor day.  *sigh* I should have reversed the projects.  😉

 

In bookish news, here is what came in the house this week:

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Alex the Ant Goes to the Beach by Eric Wayne Dickey

Invisible by James Patterson and Dave Ellis (audiobook)

The Farm by Tom Rob Smith (audiobook)

Shunning Sarah by Julie Kramer (picked up at the Brown Bag author event)

Defector by Susanne Winnacker

The Meta Rise by J.V. Kade

The End Of Absence by Michael Harris

Delivering Death by Julie Kramer (picked up at the Brown Bag author event)

CALIFORNIA by Eden Lepucki

Lots of goodies!

 

 

This week I have a crazy book week.

Monday – Friends Meeting in the morning, Brown Bag Author at noon

Tuesday – Bookies Book Club annual Queen event

Thursday – set up and start of Children’s Book Sale

Friday – 2nd day of Children’s Book Sale

Around that I work, will be helping out with the bees, and possibly going to the cabin this next weekend.

Ahhh Summer.

 

What do you have going on this week?  Any bookish events? 

 

Morning Meanderings.. Parades In Small Towns

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Good morning!  How did everyone survive the 4th of July?  We had a fun time with friends but wow… it wiped me out. 😀

As I mentioned yesterday morning, we were going to a parade about 30 miles from here in a town called Hillman Minnesota – population 38.  Apparently, I was told, they do an amazing job, and me, not the biggest fan of parades but all about adventure….

was curious. 🙂

For todays Saturday Snapshot, here are pictures from the Hillman Minnesota parade:

Hillman Minnesota, Book JOurney
On our way there we seen this little delight on the road… truly happy 4th celebrators on their way to Hillman!

 

Hillman Minnesota, parade, Book Journey
My friend’s daughter having a little face painting done before the parade start

 

Hillman Minnesota, Book Journey
These flowers were over by the craft tables and I needed a picture so I could look more closely at them after I came home. I love these.

 

Hillman Minnesota, Book Journey
Close up of the pics

 

Hillman Minnesota, Book Journey
Population grew IMMENSELY during the parade, a good 3,000 were all over the place.

 

Hillman Minnesota
Calf in the parade

 

Hillman Minnesota, Book Journey
1916 car. That was pretty cool.

 

Hillman Minnesota, Book Journey
Wizard of Oz float

 

Hillman Minnesota, Book Journey
The guys… the center one is my hubby.

 

The parade was about an hour-long.  There was a lot of old cars, souped up trucks, of course – people running for offices – Sheriff, etc…, lots of candy for the kids, and just a good time over all.

Afterwards we went to a friend’s home for hanging out, grilling, and catching up.  There were about 14 of us. Al (hubby) and I came home around 6:30 pm, I sat down with a book and promptly fell asleep by 7:30 pm.  *embarrassing*

It was a great way to spend the 4th.

Please stop and see other Saturday Snapshots here.

What did you do with your 4th of July?

Essentialism – The Disciplined Pursuit Of Less by Greg McKeown

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Do you ever feel stretched too thin, flitting from one project to the next, feeling over extended and really enjoying nothing because you are already thinking of your next “to do”?

Do you ever feel overworked and underutilized?

Do your days tend to get hijacked by someone else’s agenda?

Do you say yes to fill a need or because you feel you should only to stress and regret it later?

 

Greg McKeown shares in this enlightening book that you can say no to things – you can do less, feel better about it, and produce a better outcome.  It is about regaining control of our own choices where to spend our time and energies instead of giving others permission to do it for us.

Essentialism isn’t one more thing – it’s a different way of doing everything.

 

 

 

First up – I loathe self-help books.  I think, probably more accurately I loathe the category “self-help”.  It implies (IMO) that we are unable to help ourselves… it makes me personally feel weak-minded.  And not to say that there is anything wrong with these books – I just do not like how they are categorized.

This is NOT a self-help book.

This book is a way of tweaking how you do life, and more specifically what you say yes to, and evaluating why you say yes.

Family obligation

you feel if you don’t do it, who will?

There is a need and no one else is offering

It’s not a big commitment

 

I do all of his… ALL THE TIME.  I have turned into a yes person, and it is not all bad – by saying yes to things I have really experienced some awesome things.  I do have to admit though I have also taken on too much, been bitter about my commitments, missed out on things I wanted to do because I said yes to something else…. you get the picture.

I wanted to listen to this audio because I find the whole concept interesting.  Our world we live in is full of choices and commitments and opportunities… oh my!  I can not even imagine how many choices I make in a day.

What Greg is saying in his book, that saying no does not have to be a bad thing.  If saying yes to something at work is going to overextend you, make you stay late, put pressure on your other projects – then politely decline.  While it may cause irritation in the beginning from those who are used to you saying yes, in the long wrong it will gain your respect.

(for the record I am that person who will say yes, stay late to get it done, be upset with myself because now I have made myself late to whatever was next….  vicious circle!)

I enjoyed listening to this audio.  Greg McKeown narrates this himself (great accent!) I did pick up some things from it that I can apply and hope to. I like to learn, and by listening to this audio I did pick up on some tips I can apply to my own life and know that you should say yes…

to the right things 🙂

 

Publisher:  Crown Business

Release date: April 15, 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Do you sometimes feel overworked and underutilized?
  • Do you feel motion sickness instead of momentum?
  • Does your day sometimes get hijacked by someone else’s agenda?
  • Have you ever said “yes” simply to please and then resented it?

If you answered yes to any of these, the way out is the Way of the Essentialist.

The Way of the Essentialist involves doing less, but better, so you can make the highest possible contribution.

The Way of the Essentialist isn’t about getting more done in less time. It’s not about getting less done. It’s about getting only the right things done. It’s about challenging the core assumption of ‘we can have it all’ and ‘I have to do everything’ and replacing it with the pursuit of ‘the right thing, in the right way, at the right time’. It’s about regaining control of our own choices about where to spend our time and energies instead of giving others implicit permission to choose for us.

In Essentialism, Greg McKeown draws on experience and insight from working with the leaders of the most innovative companies in the world to show how to achieve the disciplined pursuit of less.

– See more at: http://gregmckeown.com/essentialism-the-disciplined-pursuit-of-less/#sthash.QpirtZky.dpuf

  • Have you ever found yourself stretched too thin?
  • Do you sometimes feel overworked and underutilized?
  • Do you feel motion sickness instead of momentum?
  • Does your day sometimes get hijacked by someone else’s agenda?
  • Have you ever said “yes” simply to please and then resented it?

If you answered yes to any of these, the way out is the Way of the Essentialist.

The Way of the Essentialist involves doing less, but better, so you can make the highest possible contribution.

The Way of the Essentialist isn’t about getting more done in less time. It’s not about getting less done. It’s about getting only the right things done. It’s about challenging the core assumption of ‘we can have it all’ and ‘I have to do everything’ and replacing it with the pursuit of ‘the right thing, in the right way, at the right time’. It’s about regaining control of our own choices about where to spend our time and energies instead of giving others implicit permission to choose for us.

In Essentialism, Greg McKeown draws on experience and insight from working with the leaders of the most innovative companies in the world to show how to achieve the disciplined pursuit of less.

– See more at: http://gregmckeown.com/essentialism-the-disciplined-pursuit-of-less/#sthash.QpirtZky.dpuf