Book Journey

Going To Mankato – NOT Little House Style

Published on May 9, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)7 Comments

Good morning! Happy Friday. Miserable and wet here all week in Minnesota. I really am looking for anything in the forecast that is not cold or wet.

Anyhoo… in brighter news, College Son graduates tomorrow in Mankato Minnesota and Hubby (Pa) and I will be heading to Mankato this afternoon for the weekend. This will be fun but a 3 1/2 hour car ride… need to pick out a good audio that maybe we both will like 😉

Every time I mention Mankato I have flash back to Little House On The Prairie and the Ingalls’ family going to Mankato for supplies or for a doctor for Mary.

1caa — **We however will be going by car….**

Also – if you are friends with me on Facebook you may have seen my saga with the bird. For two days he keeps hitting my windows. I am so afraid he/she is going to hurt or kill himself but I can not get him to go away. I have shooed him, put tape on the windows, covered them with post its… he just keeps coming back. Sigh.

Books going on the trip are the Book Club Book Molokai and Chevy Stevens new read, That Night.

The Memory Garden by Mary Rickert

Published on May 8, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)5 Comments

Bay Singer knows nothing of her past. She lives alone with her mother Nan who is mocked by the community as a “witch” of sorts, putting out shoes all over the lawn with flowers planted in them. While Bay is protective of her mother, she is getting to the age where she wants to know more about her life and about her secretive mother. Nan is just not sure if Bay really knows what she is asking… the secrets of her birth… the caul… the box… and of course Nan’s own teenage past and the tragedies it holds within.

Reading The Memory Garden was like walking through a fairytale that shimmers with fantasy but at the same time feels so real. I liked Bay, and I liked Nan, and I really liked the two mysterious friends of Nan’s who come popping out of the past to help set things right after so many years.

The chapters each start with a flower or budding plant and gives you a little sample of what this flower can be used for:

PUMPKIN The round, edible fruit of a trailing vine, pumpkins are a symbol of fertility. Dead spirits are invoked by the pumpkin when faces are carved into it, and it is lit from within. The spiral of life is represented by the pumpkin; the harvest brings death, but the seeds bring birth.

It is a delightful fun romp of friendships and fantasy, secrets and celebrations, and well worth a read!

The Accidental Book Club by Jennifer Scott

Published on May 7, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)9 Comments

Recently widowed Jean Vison never dreamed she would be running a book club. Yet when you gather a few friends together to come over and bring food and wine, you pick a date, and you talk about a book…

Jean guessed that it what it was.

Loretta finds what she is lacking in her marriage within the pages of the books she chooses to read.

Dorothy’s home life with her out of control sons makes book club the idea l place to take a break from the norm.

May is always good for sharing her latest dating disasters.

Mitzi who always finds some underlying political agenda in every book – EVERY book.

And quiet Janet who keeps her voice low, her nose in the book, but can speak up when she needs to.

When Jean’s life takes an unsuspected turn and she is asked to take care of her delinquent granddaughter Bailey while Bailey’s parents try to salvage their marriage… things in book club become real very fast.

There’s something about a book club that brings everyone to a deeper level….

It’s not hard to please me. Put a word in a book title like “book Club, book store, _____________’s wife”, and I take a closer look. Yes, The Accidental Book Club drew me in by its title…. but it held me, with the story line.

Set with a cast of mismatched characters (as any book club will have) The Accidental Book Club is just what it should be…. a hot mess of women centered around a good or not so good book. Toss is a little teenage angst and you have yourself a story!

Our protagonist Jean is still recovering from the loss of her husband. Inviting a group of women in to her home and into her life is a big step for her but she is enjoying it. Add in a granddaughter she barely knows and things become a bit crazy not only for Jean, but for the rest of the book club as well.

Hey… we all have our stuff right?

The Accidental Book Club is a quick fun read with a cast of assorted characters that will keep you wondering, what will they read next?

The Storied Life of A.J.Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

Published on May 5, 2014May 5, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)11 Comments

“Endings can be happy or sad. I don’t care anymore as long as they are earned”. ~ The Storied Life of A.J. Fikrey

A.J Fikrey once had it all. He and his amazing wife Nic’ ran the book store, Island Books together and the store, as they, thrived. Now, after Nic’s untimely death, A.J. Has taken to drinking and the store is suffering for a lack of vibrancy as it once had. A.J. has given up on everything and is planning to sell a very rare book of poetry he owns to take him away from the book store to start somewhere new.

When A J discovers that the book that was supposed to be his ticket out has been stolen, he despairs that there is nothing good left in the world. And just as he has reaches his lowest of lows… something incredible happens. Something; that changes everything.

As someone who has often dreamed of owning a little book store in a remote place such as described in this book (and also when this dream began for me when I read Dance Upon The Air so many years ago…), the setting of this book is all so appealing to me.

The Storied life has a simple setting to it, yet drew me in to it with surprising dialogue that I liked the feel of on my tongue. There are several passages that are quotable and I savored every one if them.

Kudos to Author Gabrielle Zevin who wrote this delightful book in a way that has left me still thinking about it after that final page was turned.

Interestingly enough, there is a certain buzz around this book. Since I mentioned I was reading it, people are curious about it and asking what I thought. It is hard to say what I thought, while I didn’t find the story itself to be anything exception – there is something about the writing that is. I can not quite put my finger on it but I have a feeling this is a book I could read again and come away with an even deeper appreciation of it. ~ Sheila

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on May 4, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)22 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!

What a busy week but I am on the other side of it. I think after today I will feel rested and ready for whats next. 🙂 (Myself and an amazing team ran a GIANT garage sale this weekend that raised $5,300.00 (lets just say…. I ache from moving stuff 😉 )

Not a lot of reading or computer time this past week but this is what I posted:

The Unbearable Book Club For Unsinkable Girls by Julie Schumacher

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green – 2nd time around and still FANTASTIC!

Sleep Donation by Karen Russell

I have reviews to write just need to get on it 🙂 Here is what I am planning on for this week:

For My Ears

Paintings have been falling off of walls, a loud and loyal dog has gone missing, a specter has been seen walking the pier at midnight — strange things are happening all over the town of Stain’d-By-The-Sea. Called upon to investigate thirteen suspicious incidents, young Lemony Snicket collects clues, questions witnesses, and cracks every case. Join the investigation and tackle the mysteries alongside Snicket, then turn to the back of the book to see the solution revealed.

Billie Breslin has travelled far from her California home to take a job at Delicious, the most iconic food magazine in New York and, thus, the world. When the publication is suddenly shut down, the colourful staff, who have become an extended family for Billie, must pick up their lives and move on. Not Billie, though. She is offered a new job: staying behind in the magazine’s deserted downtown mansion offices to uphold the “Delicious Guarantee”–a public relations hotline for complaints and recipe inquiries–until further notice. What she doesn’t know is that this boring, lonely job will be the portal to a life-changing discovery.
Delicious! carries the reader to the colourful world of downtown New York restaurateurs and artisanal purveyors. And from the lively food shop in Little Italy where Billie works on weekends to a hidden room in the magazine’s library where she discovers the letters of Lulu Swan, a plucky twelve-year-old, who wrote to the legendary chef James Beard during World War II. Lulu’s letters lead Billie to a deeper understanding of history (and the history of food), but most important, Lulu’s courage in the face of loss inspires Billie to come to terms with her own issues–the panic attacks that occur every time she even thinks about cooking, the truth about the big sister she adored, and her ability to open her heart to love.

Paula McLain’s New York Times–bestselling novel piqued readers’ interest about Ernest Hemingway’s romantic life. But Hadley was only one of four women married, in turn, to the legendary writer. Just as T.C. Boyle’s bestseller The Women completed the picture begun by Nancy Horan’s Loving Frank, Naomi Wood’s Mrs. Hemingway tells the story of how it was to love, and be loved by, the most famous and dashing writer of his generation. Hadley, Pauline, Martha and Mary: each Mrs. Hemingway thought their love would last forever; each one was wrong.

Told in four parts and based on real love letters and telegrams, Mrs. Hemingway reveals the explosive love triangles that wrecked each of Hemingway’s marriages. Spanning 1920s bohemian Paris through 1960s Cold War America, populated with members of the fabled “Lost Generation,” Mrs. Heminway is a riveting tale of passion, love, and heartbreak.

I think that is the plan. What is your plan? Please add your Its Monday What Are You Reading post link below where it says click here.

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For those of you that read mainly middle grade and children’s books, be sure to also link to the younger version of It’s Monday by using the link below!

Morning Meanderings… WIPED OUT and MOVING Forward

Published on May 4, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)14 Comments

Coffee. I mean… good morning. 🙂

I just finished a marathon week of prepping for a massive garage sale that I was heading for our church. It has been a lot of accepting items and storing items and phone calls, and posting things on line, and meeting with people, and working with our staff to go through things we were going to sell as we are moving out of our current rented location to a place that we will own this fall. Oh yeah… and do my regular work too 🙂

Then a team came in to help on Friday evening (the earliest we could get into the gym we were renting for the sale) and we hauled items to the gym from all the places we had stored it and we marked things until after midnight.

Saturday morning I got up at 5:30 am, slapped myself together… grabbed COFFEE and was in to position at the gym by 6:15 am to continue final preps. The doors opened at 7:30 am and …

…. about 50 people poured in that had been waiting outside the doors for that initial starting rush

Yup. I have a picture.

When all was said and done at 7:30 last night (we closed the sale at 3 but re-opened it for after each service for people to come in and take what they want for free of they could leave a donation)…

The garage sale alone today made $4667.45
The Bake sale added in another $683.00
The items we sold pre-sale so far have come to $5,105.00
Putting us so far for the sale at $10,455.45

(We have two more services today to go through and then final clean up which I hope is going to be a snap.)

Ok… on to the books.

Thank you publishing houses that send me audio! Seriously – I am just so thrilled to have great listens as well as great reads.

13 Suspicious Incidents – Lemony Snicket – audio

The Snow Queen by Michael Cunningham – audio

Delicious by Ruth Reichl — audio

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart – audio

Ruin Falls by Jenny Milchman- audio

Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgewick- audio

Mrs. Hemingway by Naomi Wood

The Miracle Thief by Iris Anthony

Miracle Man by William Leibowitz

That Night By Chevy Stevens

I am so excited about these reads and listens – and I am SO EXCITED that it is sunny today and maybe this afternoon I can have my first time in 2014 of reading on the deck. Bliss awaits me! 😀

Have an awesome Sunday!

Sleep Donation by Karen Russell

Published on May 1, 2014May 5, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)10 Comments

Our world is in crisis. Sleep is no longer the luxury it once was. In fact a large portion of the population has lost the ability to sleep. Slumber Corps is the place to find relief, boasting that they can take sleep “donations” from those who sleep with ease, especially young children who do not carry yet with them the realities of life into their rest time. In fact Slumber Corps is discovering that the younger the child… the better the donation. Of course you need to be able to convince families that their child will not be harmed at all, will not even notice the sleep that has been ebbed away from them.

Enter Trish Edgewater. Trish has been an employee of Slumber Corps as a recruiter. Trish has a way with potential donors as her own sister Dori died a horrifying death when she was diagnosed with the lethal insomnia. Once potential donors here Trish tell what happened to her sister, “If only someone would have donated sleep to her….”, they tearfully agree to become part of the project.

Underneath it all, Trish knows the truth of those who donate and the side effects of this treatment that will show up eventually. Yet wearing her sister’s memory on her heart she repeats her story time and again to help Slumber Corps, to help.. ease her guilt.

When “baby A” comes along, Trish starts to waiver… wondering if what she is doing is really the right thing to do, and if not, what can she do to change things right under the companies ever watching eye.

Sleep Donation was an engaging listening experience on a frightening subject of a world which is losing its ability to sleep. Karen Russell is on to something pretty amazing (and scary) in her short 3 hours and 40 minute audio. I could easily imagine this being a TV series.

My only gripe is that it was so short and I feel that the story could have been more powerful if it slowed down and took time to develop the story more. Still, although a quick listen it left me wishing there was more.

Morning Meanderings…. I Have a Problem….

Published on April 30, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)7 Comments

Good morning! Hope you are reading awesome things!

I did mention I have a problem….

Confession: I like cold water. COLD water. In fact I like water so cold, I like to put bottles of water in the freezer until they get “slushy” that is the perfect temp of water. You may be thinking, “Sheila, why don’t you just drink ice water?” and you would be ok thinking that – I do like ice water… but I REALLY like the little ice chips that form when it is slushy because in essence… I am drinking ice. 😀

So here is the thing… I do this at home…

a lot.

And, I do this at work…

a lot.

It is clearly a task of knowing when to remove said water bottle out of the freezer before it reaches the “full ice” phase, where are which point it is too frozen and now must be fully thawed to room temp and started again.

I do this A LOT.

And so here is the problem.

On my kitchen counter right now…. yesterdays sacrificial water. 🙂

Recently at work we had an all hands on deck cleaning day…. we spent the entire morning cleaning, vacuuming, shampooing, and dusting and tossing out things in the office areas, the conference room, and yes the kitchen. I chose to help in the kitchen as the refrigerator is always a pet peeve of mine…

at least until we opened the freezer.

I kid you not…. we removed 16 frozen water bottles from the freezer.

😯

Yes…. all mine.

😳

So….. embarrassing.

What happens is this… I bring in water to work with me and put them in the freezer. And yes, I become busy forget about them and come in the next day this new water (after all, yesterdays is frozen!) and put that in the freezer….

and yes, forget about them.

I am trying to break the habit…

there is worse things I could do right?

Right?

Busy day today – prepping for a HUGE garage sale this Saturday at church. I have been working to “spring clean” my home as well as help organize the sale items coming in. Its going to be great… but the end of the weekend I suspect I am going to be wiped out 🙂

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green (just as good the second time around)

Published on April 29, 2014April 29, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)27 Comments

It was two years ago when I last listened to this book. It was my first John Green. It was the Fourth Of July. I was on the back of a motorcycle with my ear-buds in and tears streaming down my face… ~Sheila

16-year-old Hazel Grace has stage three cancer. She is depressed and has little to do with anyone besides her parents and a couple of friends. When encouraged to go to a support group for other kids with cancer, Hazel meets Augustus Waters, the once adorable basketball hero who has lost a leg to cancer and is now in remission. The two quickly form a friendship, drawn to each others quick wit and the way they look at the hand they have been dealt in life.

As the two teens get to know each other Hazel shares that her favorite novel of all time is a book called Imperial Afflictions, a book that has left her with questions she has always wished she knew. She has written the author who lives in Amsterdam several times but has never heard back from him. When Augustus asks Hazel is she has used her make-a-wish yet, Hazel says she has.

“Please, please tell me it wasn’t on Disney World.” Augustus groans.

Hazel remains silent,

“Oh no! You didn’t!!!! Disney World? Really? It is so cliché!”

Hazel shrugs… “I was 13”

Turns out though, Augustus has not used his wish.

Why did I choose to listen to this book again? If you have to ask…. clearly you have never read or listened to this book. 🙂 John Green writes a powerful story of two young people with cancer brought together by circumstance but soon it gowns into something more.

This story is written so beautifully you just fall into it and I listened to the 7 hour audio in one day during the recent on-line read-a-thon. It is beautifully narrated by Kate Rudd. And while yes it is a book about two kids with cancer, it is also very witty, very funny, very passionate…. as a reader you do not drown in sorrow, instead you embrace the lives of these two amazing people.

A quote from the book:

“Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.”

That’s the way I feel about this book. If you have not read it… READ IT. If you have read it…. READ IT AGAIN. The movie is coming out this year… I can not wait!

Fun fact about author John Green: After announcing he would sign all 150,000 copies of this title’s first print run, it shot to the top of Amazon and Barnes & Noble’s best-seller lists six months before publication.