Book Journey

Morning Meanderings… MONSTER Rabbit

Published on July 13, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)20 Comments

Happy Sunday! The sun is out and I get the good feeling it is going to be a beautiful day! Not a lot of the agenda today – I may try to take a bike ride this afternoon, after all we have the 50 mile ride next Sunday and I have hardly rode at all this year! EEP!

This year we have a few rabbits in the yard and I love that. In the evening from the back deck I can sit and watch two little ones play out on the edges of the property between the house and Al’s shop. I never seem to have my camera ready when I can catch them up close.

Yesterday morning I was on the phone chatting away with a friend on the deck when a LARGE rabbit lumbered (lumbered? yeah… that’s right) through the yard. I told my friend he must be about a 20 pounder… like a small dog! (Ok, I may have told her 40 pounder but you know… look at the size and double it… like fishing. 😉 )

Last night I finally caught a picture of him but he was far out and I did not get a great shot, but I will keep trying.

In bookish news, a few treasures came in this week:

The Drop by Dennis LeHane (ooh I like LeHane’s writing!)

Inamorata by Megan Chance (BEAUTIFUL cover!)

The Pearl That Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi (there is some buzz going around about this one!)

Great reading ahead! Currently… I just finished Hurricane Sisters (LOVED!!!!!!) and should finish today You Should Have Known; also really good. More about that tonight, when I post It’s Monday, What Are You Reading.

The Hurricane Sisters by Dorthea Benton Frank

Published on July 12, 2014July 13, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)10 Comments

Three generations of southern women, Maisie who is eighty years old and set set SET in her ways. Liz, Maisie’s daughter is taking care of a career, middle age, and one eye on her adult children, especially Ashley, and the other eye on her husband who makes more and more frequent trips to their apartment in New York. Then there is Ashley, in her twenties she is sweet and innocent but has her eye and her heart set on the cute young senator; despite her roommates warnings.

Ashley has her older brother Ivy who cheers her on from afar when he is not able to visit from his San Francisco home where he lives with his partner. Ashley lives in one of the family homes with her roommate Mary Beth; living on a shoe string budget but having dreams (and ideas) of how to make some big money to help them reach their dreams… as long as Ashley’s family doens’tfind out and then render her homeless.

These women love each other fiercely but you wouldn’t always know each. Each woman has their secrets…. and like the hurricane sisters they are about to become… things are about to get crazy.

WOW OH WOW OH WOW OH WOW OH WOW. I adore Dorthea Benton Frank and her books too! If you are an audio person – I highly HIGHLY encourage audio for this one. Robin Miller has a fantastic variety of voices that clearly define each of the southern characters of this book, both male and female. I seriously had moments I laughed out loud during this one. I can only imagine that narrating it was just as fun.

A perfect summer read that makes you think of summer flings and summer parties. But this book is no fluff… in fact I am very impressed with Dorthea Benton Frank’s handling of a hard topic mixed within this story line.

This is a book that will leave you looking for more of Dorthea Benton Frank. I have read her before… and I am already looking through her books to see what I may have missed.

Fantastic through and through!

Written by: Dorothea Benton Frank
Narrated by: Robin Miles
Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
2014 Harper Collins Publishing
Format: Unabridged

The Beekeeper’s Lament by Hannah Nordhaus

Published on July 12, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)10 Comments

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!)

Published on July 12, 2014July 12, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)74 Comments

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.

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.

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

Published on July 11, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)14 Comments

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:

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.

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

Published on July 10, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)21 Comments

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:

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

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

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

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

Morning Meanderings… The BOOK Exchange!

Published on July 8, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)15 Comments

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:

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?

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?

Published on July 6, 2014July 6, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)40 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!

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

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!

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 😉

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The Dinner by Herman Koch

Published on July 6, 2014July 6, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)29 Comments

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

Published on July 6, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)29 Comments

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: