Book Journey

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on March 9, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)57 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!

I just came back home late this afternoon from Detroit Lkes, Minnesota. My friend Sara had a timeshare for the weekend and invited a few of us to go hang out. We shopped on Saturday in Fargo, North Dakota, went out to eat and watched a couple good movies, It was a great weekend.

Here is what I posted last week:

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell (Rowell is an author to keep your eye on!)

Summer -Cation Event (Thanks everyone who brought me a little sunshine!) The winner of my giveaway is:

Lois of You,Me and A Cup Of Tea

*winner chosen using random.org

Pretty light week for me. I am hoping to have a better week this week. I am digging in to some good ones:

For my Ears:

Three teens, three stories—all interconnected through their parents’ family relationships. As the adults pull away, caught up in their own dilemmas, the worlds of the teens begin to tilt.

Mikayla, almost eighteen, is over-the-top in love with Dylan, who loves her back jealously. But what happens to that love when Mikayla gets pregnant the summer before their senior year and decides to keep the baby?

Shane turns sixteen that same summer and falls hard in love with his first boyfriend, Alex, who happens to be HIV positive. Shane has lived for four years with his little sister’s impending death. Can he accept Alex’s love, knowing his life, too, will be shortened?

Harley is fourteen—a good girl searching for new experiences, especially love from an older boy. She never expects to hurdle toward self-destructive extremes in order to define who she is and who she wants to be.

Callahan Garrity is the owner of House Mouse, a cleaning service that tidies up after Atlanta’s elite. She’s also a former cop and a part-time sleuth. She and her coterie of devoted helpers can ransack a house for clues faster than it takes a fingerprint to set.

When Callahan Garrity gets caught in a liquor store holdup on the way home from a St. Paddy’s Day party, one of her best friends is shot. Callahan and her House Mouse cleaning crew dive into the investigation—only to discover that her old friend might have been working both sides of the law as an accomplice in a string of robberies. It will take every trick they’ve got to pierce the veil of secrecy surrounding an Irish police organization and prove that the case is more than it seems.

For my eyes

It’s a profile, like all the others on the online dating site. But as NYPD Detective Kat Donovan focuses on the accompanying picture, she feels her whole world explode, as emotions she’s ignored for decades come crashing down on her. Staring back at her is her ex-fiancé Jeff, the man who shattered her heart—and who she hasn’t seen in 18 years.

Kat feels a spark, wondering if this might be the moment when past tragedies recede and a new world opens up to her. But when she reaches out to the man in the profile, her reawakened hope quickly darkens into suspicion and then terror as an unspeakable conspiracy comes to light, in which monsters prey upon the most vulnerable.

As the body count mounts and Kat’s hope for a second chance with Jeff grows more and more elusive, she is consumed by an investigation that challenges her feelings about everyone she ever loved—her former fiancé, her mother, and even her father, whose cruel murder so long ago has never been fully explained. With lives on the line, including her own, Kat must venture deeper into the darkness than she ever has before, and discover if she has the strength to survive what she finds there.

I still have some reads to clean up from last week and just finishing the book club book that we will be reviewing on Tuesday. Looking forward to what you are reading this week! Please add your link to where it says “click here” an share what you read this past week and what you will be reading this week.

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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!

Summer-Cation Event with Giveaways!

Published on March 7, 2014March 7, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)31 Comments

Happy Summer-Cation! As I mentioned last weekend on the blog, I just need to do something SUNNY! I decided to host a last minute “let’s talk about something shiny” (THE SUN!) event where others were and are invited to join me to post something about a summery event, a giveaway, summer plans, WHATEVER as long as no snow or cold is involved.

I repeat….

No Snow and NO Cold can be mentioned in your posts. 😀

(What I just said there doesn’t count as I really have not started my post yet….. )

Ok… so thank you to the few of you who jumped on board and said Yes! I will chat sunshine with you!

Here is one of my FAVORITE summer pics from last year. This is from the Lakes Jam and there is so much to like about this pic.

I am with my good friend Amy
LOOK how tan we are!
No jackets or sweaters 😉
Crabby photo bomber in the back

Thinking of the warm weather things to come makes me happy… bike rides and runs, reading on the deck, New York the end of May…. all good stuff. 🙂

For my post today, I wanted to do a giveaway of one of my all time favorite reads and book club discussions, The Summer House by Jude Deveroux. It also makes me happy the word “summer” is in the title.

This giveaway will stay up through the weekend and I will announce the winner when I post Tuesday’s Morning Meanderings. To enter, leave a comment telling me something that you are looking forward to this summer.

As I was not the best planner and executor of this event, I am going to set up a linky for others to add their summer posts and giveaways for this Summer-Cation event (if I already had you on my radar and you have posted already this morning I will add your link for you)

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I am going to Detroit Lakes this afternoon for the weekend. My friend has a time share and I am looking forward to hanging out with friends, maybe watching a movie and playing some board games. It’s not summer there… but it is a start of doing something! 🙂

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

Published on March 6, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)24 Comments

Lincoln O’Neil would not have applied for the job of “Internet Security Officer” if he would have known it was going to be this.

Having accepted the position with images of putting his computer knowledge to work in tasks like fire walls and repairs. He was shocked to find himself working the night shift and basically reading the email exchanges between employees to make sure they were work related; and if they were not, writing up reports on them.

When Lincoln finds the conversations going on between two employees, Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder, he knows he should file a report. Instead, Lincoln finds himself absorbed in their conversations and can not bring himself to put a stop to it. Soon, he finds that he is looking forward to work just to see what the two girls will be talking about, and through the email exchanges, he finds that he is becoming attracted to Beth.

Now Lincoln is in a real pickle. He would love to meet Beth, but now he knows so many intimate and personal things about her, how can he?

Attachments is another fun read by Rainbow Rowell. Rainbow has a way with creating fun scenario’s with her protagonists. She did this in Fangirl, and in Eleanor and Park.

I enjoyed reading (quite honestly) the exchanges of the two girls Beth and Jennifer. Much like Lincoln, I too was captivated by their humor and some of the more serious topics they covered. I think that is exactly where Rainbow Rowell wanted her readers, right in the shoes of Lincoln.

It’s funny to say I “read their emails” as I listened to this one on audio. Perhaps that feeling that I was there is chalked up to the impressive narration of Laura Hamilton. She navigated through this book smoothly, easily giving each character their own voice.

Attachments, as all of Rainbow Rowell’s books that I have read/listened to at this time, are worth spending time with. Unique and fun.

My Cup Of The Grammys 2014

Published on March 5, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)7 Comments

Good morning! No idea how I fell off the face of the blog yesterday… but it happens…

and it happened to me. 🙂

(Probably because I was still out of coffee in the house and not thinking clearly….)

All is well today though – coffee is in my cup and the world is all shiny again.

On Sunday evening I watched the Oscars. I NEVER watch the Oscars. Oscars to me is something I recap the next day to see if there are any movies I should add to my “want to see” list. This year though some of the movies up for awards had caught my attention, Twelve Years A Slave, Gravity, and new to me but now on my radar as one I want to see, The Dallas Buyers Club. I also really appreciate Ellen and was curious how she would do up against the harshness of the Grammy press and movies that dealt with hard topics.

Fill up your coffee cup…. what I am about to write is my “One Cup Of Coffee” recap of the Oscars….. and go!

Ellen was wonderful, right from the start she was funny, mentioning the oldest person in the room (84)up for a Grammy and then repeating it loudly for her “I AM LETTING THEM KNOW YOU ARE UP FOR A GRAMMY”
AND Ellen was down to earth and that is really what I loved. She walked through the aisles instead of staying on stage. She announced actors while sitting in their seats. She was, well, Ellen.

This next person needs no introduction. However, if I do not introduce him, he will not know when to come out on stage. Please welcome, Brad Pitt.

And the speeches! There were some wonderful speeches. Jaret Ledo was the reason I googled Dallas Buyers Club and am not sure I had never heard of this movie, or probably more to the point, never heard what it was about.

And we can not forget Lupita Nyongo, who won for 12 Years A Slave and her speech brought tears to my eyes.

When Ellen had pizza delivered that was pretty sweet.
BUT I think the best moment was the Selfie pic, the pic that I am sure you heard by now…. broke Twitter. Tweeted and re-tweeted over 2 million times Ellen’s brilliant tweet broke the Twitter record (and caused Twitter to has technical errors)

Yes, the Oscars went long and there is some grumbling about that. I personally think Ellen made the whole event instead of a stuffy politely clap at the appropriate moments event, more of a fun party with friends celebrating each other.

The Grammy’s had 28.5 million viewers. It is said that it was a bigger turn out than the Friends finale. WHOA.

If you watched it count yourself in the numbers of seeing something pretty spectacular. If you missed it (you know watching Walking Dead, Amazing Race, or perhaps reading a good book…), try to catch some highlights on line. 😀

My cup is empty, time for a refill. Have an awesome day!

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on March 2, 2014March 2, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)54 Comments

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

Another fairly quiet weekend that allowed me a little audio time and a little book time. This week I managed to post:

12 Years A Slave by Solomon Northop

Winter People by Jennifer McMahon

Librarian For A Day Experience

Summer-Cation! Join in the on-line fun planned for next Friday!

Heartburn by Nora Ephron

This week I have a few commitments throughout the week and then a weekend get away next weekend that I am rather excited about. 🙂 With that said, here is the plan for the listening and reading this week:

For My Ears:

Winning what you want may cost you everything you love

As a general’s daughter in a vast empire that revels in war and enslaves those it conquers, seventeen-year-old Kestrel has two choices: she can join the military or get married. But Kestrel has other intentions. One day, she is startled to find a kindred spirit in a young slave up for auction. Arin’s eyes seem to defy everything and everyone. Following her instinct, Kestrel buys him—with unexpected consequences. It’s not long before she has to hide her growing love for Arin. But he, too, has a secret, and Kestrel quickly learns that the price she paid for a fellow human is much higher than she ever could have imagined.

I just received this one in the mail this past week and it is really catching my attention.

Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens.

Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; and a determined woman undertakes the most treacherous of journeys. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.

Well, here is the thing. I needed another audio from audible.com. My audio books on my phone have all been listened to. When I haven’t heard of or seen on a blog anything that has really grabbed me… I go to Google. This time I google “Best narrated audio books” and this one comes up on the list. By sheer MASSIVENESS I have shied away from these books although I have been slowly collecting them from the library sales as they intrigue me. SO… we will see.

For My Eyes:

When Lily’s fierce-hearted black “stand-in mother,” Rosaleen, insults three of the town’s most vicious racists, Lily decides they should both escape to Tiburon, South Carolina—a town that holds the secret to her mother’s past. There they are taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters who introduce Lily to a mesmerizing world of bees, honey, and the Black Madonna who presides over their household. This is a remarkable story about divine female power and the transforming power of love—a story that women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.

Yes, there are books that even avid readers like myself miss reading. This is the book club that my book club chose for our March read. Oddly, I think only one or two of us have read it. So… in honor of my friend Amanda who is a bee keeper…. here we go 🙂

Provence, 1970 is about a singular historic moment. In the winter of that year, more or less coincidentally, the iconic culinary figures James Beard, M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, Richard Olney, Simone Beck, and Judith Jones found themselves together in the South of France. They cooked and ate, talked and argued, about the future of food in America, the meaning of taste, and the limits of snobbery. Without quite realizing it, they were shaping today’s tastes and culture, the way we eat now. The conversations among this group were chronicled by M.F.K. Fisher in journals and letters—some of which were later discovered by Luke Barr, her great-nephew. In Provence, 1970, he captures this seminal season, set against a stunning backdrop in cinematic scope—complete with gossip, drama, and contemporary relevance.

Most times, when books arrive to review they go to my review shelf to be picked off at a later date. OCCASIONALLY… a book will not make it to the shelf as I do want it to get lost int he shuffle so it will take an honorary spot on the table in the library and it will wait to be picked up. This is one of those books.

Feels like a solid plan to me. 🙂 I am curious what you are reading this week and what you read this past week. I pick up so many book ideas from all of you! Please add your What Are You Reading post to where it says “click here” below.

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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!

Heartburn by Nora Ephron

Published on March 2, 2014March 2, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)8 Comments

Seven months pregnant and author of several cook books, Rachel Samstat finds herself in a pickle she never thought she would experience. She has just discovered that her husband Mark had fallen in love with someone else. Oh, and not just “any” someone, no, it would have to be a wife of someone both Rachel and Mark knew quite well.

As Rachel tells a friend, “The most unfair thing about this whole business, is that I can’t even date.”

As Rachel’s marriage breaks down, she turns to what she knows, cooking, and her therapy group, and even that proves to be a bit dangerous at times. As Rachel and Mark try to still act as a couple at functions and friends homes, the layout turns into quite a humorous tale.

Heartburn is the first book I have read by Nora Ephron and I felt that it was about time I gave this author a try. Ephron, the creator of When Harry Met Sally, SIlkwood, and Sleepless in Seatle. ANother strange draw for me to Heartburn was the fact that this book was actually based off the true happenings in the break up of Ephron’s real marriage to Carl Bernstein. The book was close enough to hitting home that Carl threatened to sue Ephron. Later, the book was made into a movie staring Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson.

Heartburn is a quick funny read, or in my case listen as I tried this one on audio. The way Rachel gets back at Mark is pretty funny yet there are also moments that I wish she would quit giving him control. I will definitely try something else by this author, and if you haven’t done so yourself, I recommend you try her as well. Nora Ephron was definitely a part of the media culture we live in and should not be missed.

1aa — Heartburn takes place in Washington DC

Morning Meanderings…. Caffeine Apocalypse #needmycoffeenow

Published on March 2, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)5 Comments

Good morning!

Sunday already! I spent the most part of yesterday working on the Camp Benedict website. What I thought would be a few tweaks, led to more links, etc…. and then when I thought I could work on it more today, found out that it was being shown at a camp benefit show last night and needed to look sharp. *gulp* Back to it, all through dinner, but it is done. 😀

As per my goal, I did not leave the house yesterday which led to my late morning crisis of going to make a second pot of coffee and seeing I did not have enough.

😯

NO coffee…and of course now here I am (since I did not leave the house yesterday) sipping on a cup of green tea and trying to pretend it is the same thing. For the record… it’s not the same thing.

Books last week – had some fun ones come in….

Yes, three audio books! You have no idea how excited that makes me 🙂 I am in need of some great audio! The books also look great, I have some reading to do this afternoon after I get home.

And finally… because I am out of coffee and I think hash tags can be funny (#gettingmycaffeineon, #coffeeless, #showmethegrounds, #jonesingforthebrew, #cupacupa, #headingtostarbucks, #musthavecoffee) I thought I would leave you this funny clip with Jimmy Fallon and Hashtags. 😀

We Interupt This Winter for A Summer Beach Break Event With Prizes!

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

Everywhere I look in Minnesota there is SNOW SNOW SNOW. We are having wind chill warnings weekly, snow storms, and more school closings this year then I remember in my entire life. 😯 Then I go on-line and read other book reviewers in the same boat – unusual cold temperatures, winds, snow in states that normally do not get snow…

And then here are two things that pushed me over the proverbial edge that came to my attention in the last 24 hours:

1. Our Local Water and Light Company has advised that to prevent pipes from freezing we run a pencil width stream of water in our home faucets from now until (wait for it……) April 15th. APRIL 15th???

2. Minnesota lakes are reporting having 30 – 36 inches of thick ice on them. At this rate we will be ice fishing in June.

Due to all of that… I am calling an emergency Summer-Cation. We need to talk sunshine people!!!! This event will take place next weekend, March 7-9th. I am looking for people to write posts of a great summer experience (sun is not optional… I repeat sun is not optional! 😀 ) While not mandatory, I hope that most of the participants will offer a summery type giveaway…something beach or vacation worthy, preferably bookish as well but doesn’t have to be.

A few ideas to get you thinking of your giveaway would be:

A great summer read

A Beach bag to bring your books along with you

sunglasses, tanning lotion, beach towel….

You get the idea. 😀

If you want to participate please fill out the form below.

Morning Meanderings… Saturday My Favorite Day Of The Week!

Published on March 1, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)20 Comments

If you read me I think you know I LOVE Saturdays. Quite often they are the day that I have no commitments and I really need a day like that, preferably at least once a week or I get a little boggled. 😀

Today… is a no commitment day.

I have really had no super excitement as of late, the run I was supposed to do last Sunday I did not do because of my injured foot (the ol’ dropping of the treadmill) and our roads here in Central Minnesota were BAD last weekend after yet another snow storm. There was an opportunity to do a Polar Plunge today about 30 miles from here but with the temperatures still dipping below zero, and the people I knew that thought they were going to do it really never decided…. I will wait another year to do that again. 😀

I thought today or Saturday Snapshot, since outside is cold and dreary I would just post a few past fun things that will make me; and maybe you… smile.

**This is the Polar Plunge we did I think three years ago. Notice how I am being drug into the water… EEP!**

**This was a sign at the Color Run Justin and I did on 2013. I thought it was so funny I told him we had to pose by it.**

**About 45 minutes from Brainerd there is an apple orchard and this display is what sits out on the road by their entrance… some photo ops are too good to pass up 🙂**

This (above) pic was taken in August 2011, our ten-year anniversary of our book club. Angie and I are two out three of the original Bookies and we are sitting in the same booth we sat in when we had our very first Bookies meeting in August 2001. Now.. there are too many Bookies to fit into this booth, although it would have been fun to try 😀 Oh and if you are wondering what that first book was that was read by the Bookies it was Dance Upon The Air by Nora Roberts. Awesome book.

This is the full Bookies book club (missing one in this picture – Susan) as of last February. It’s not often that we all make it so this was a great time to take a photo-op and show off the goodies that Author Sandra Brannan had sent us in a “Care Package” for our review of In The Belly Of Jonah.

There is my Saturday Snapshot for this week. 😀 Hope you all have a wonderful Saturday, I have some reading to do and house stuff and unless Al and I hit a movie later today I think I may just stay in. 😀

Morning Meanderings…. Ladies Night Out Recap

Published on February 28, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)3 Comments

Good morning! Happy HAPPY Friday!

My ladies night excursion last night was fun! Myself and three of my friends went around to local business and had our cards punched and did everything from shooting hoops, to trying a room key at a hotel to see if we won a suite for a weekend, to hula hooping. 😛 At the stops we received samples, coupons, and tasty treats.

GNO (Girls Night Out) is a fun event that happens twice a year in Brainerd, once in February and once in October… you may remember the October one… they encourage us to dress up:

This event is actually a brilliant way to get women to go out and learn about the businesses in our community. We are given a list of places to go to get the punch on our card. AT these businesses we may need to answer questions about the business to enter to win something (they always make it easy to find the answers), or you may play a game like mini golf… at one of the stops last night they were giving massages…. NICE! Not only do we learn about the businesses in our community, we have a great time with our friends!

Each stamp on our card earns up a ticket at the end of the night. The tickets go into a big drawing box and then winners are announced on the radio at 8:15 am the following morning. If they announce your ticket # you have two minutes to call in or they draw another #. This morning they gave away a spa package, a pair of diamond earrings, a $500 cash prize, and a $10000 cash prize. They said about 240 women participated last night which is down from over 450 in the fall, but we are still battling cold awful weather here. The $1000 winner did not call within two minutes this morning so they drew another #. It’s exciting and fun!

None of the girls in my group won but you can be sure we will try again in the fall. 😀

Today I have a meeting about the camp applications for this years Camp Benedict, a camp that I am on the Board of. I also need to work out, write a review, work on Wine and Words brochures, work on Friends Of the Library brochures, run a few errands in town, purchase my BEA plane ticket, finish laundry, plan dinner… it’s going to be a great day 😀