Book Journey

Morning Meanderings… The Morning After Book Club

Published on February 12, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)15 Comments

Picture this.

Hair in my eyes, sleep pants and slip on sandals (I know… I know…), face still sleep lined but smile intact.

😀

That’s what the night after book club looks like.

Always.

After an evening of sharing food together, discussing the book, a glass of wine (or two), choosing the next book and just hanging out with a great group of girls…I always come home spent.

BUT in such a good way.

I marvel at this motley crew of girls from different backgrounds, assorted ages… and we all gather in a room and we send a book through the process of well.. whatever we do with it… love it – hate it – in between. Together we have shared tears, laughter, anger… but the cool thing is –

we genuinely care about one another.

AND THAT…

is the BEST part of Bookies. 😀

We reviewed Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. I knew it would be a great discussion. And afterwards we decided to use our book in the bag money we collected (A library program where ten copies of the same book are checked out at once for groups) and purchase Me Before You so other groups can discuss this one as well.

Next up… Secret Life Of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. An older title but I do not believe any of us have read it yet.

On another completely (COMPLETELY) random note – I bought a Modern Family calendar in January. I bought is because I LOVE the show and they are so funny… I have been meaning to put the quote each day up here and I forget. I will put today’s up now – and if you do not get it – you MUST watch the show…. even if you do get it – you must watch the show. Hilarious 😀

Claire: Nothing from the mini-bar, and no pay-per-view

Manny: Can we at least –

Claire: No, you can not send things out for pressing.

Have an AWESOME start to your day 😀

That Part Was True by Deborah McKinlay

Published on February 11, 2014February 11, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)10 Comments

I found McKinlay’s writing so delicious I had to say some of the lines out loud just to savor them on my tongue ~ Sheila

Eve Petworth finds her 40’s to be a bit of a rocky road. Living in London on her own after a divorce, and struggling as her own adult daughter is about to be married and leaning a little too hard on Eve, Eve takes solace in books written by a popular American Novelist, Jackson Cooper. When Eve writes to Cooper informing him of her appreciation of his books and comparing one of his lines about a watery summer day to ripe fruit, Cooper to her surprise, writes back.

Jackson Cooper has his own tales of love and loss. Now in his 50’s and divorced twice, he really does not know what he wants. Women fall all over him, and if that is what he wanted he would be set, but really he just wants to write that next book that seems stuck in his head without all the – well lets call it what it is: Drama. Writing to Eve in London is like writing to an old friend. They share recipes, they talk about books and the weather…

and both wonder in the middle of this messed up life… if their might be something more…

I am not even sure if I can tell you how impressed I am with That Part Was True by Deborah McKinlay. Even now weeks after I have read the book, I glance over at it as I type with a little smile on my face.

This book reminds me a little of the flow of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, but with a gentler flow to it. This one grabbed me as I enjoyed Eve and her struggles with her every day life as well as Jackson’s struggles as he continuously (sometimes hilariously) messed everything up.

This is the book I recommended for February in the Blogger Recommended publication. I hope you too will take a closer look at this book and give it a read. I seriously enjoyed it.

Morning Meanderings… Blogger Recommended

Published on February 11, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)7 Comments

Good morning! I am back… or still here. Or something like that. 😀 The weekend was busy – good busy….

Today – briefly as the clock is a ticking…. I wanted to tell you that if you are not subscribed to Blogger Recommended you should be. This is a monthly newsletter/email by some of the amazing book bloggers out there giving you a heads up on what is coming out in the next month and what they fell is going to be HOT HOT HOT!

I am thrilled (SQQQUUUEEEEE) to be a part of this group and I do hope you will check it out. I am currently working on finding ways to bring this newsletter into the libraries and book stores around the country so if you have any connections or ideas, please chat with me 😀

In the meantime… .check out the current issue:

That’s what I have for today. Tonight is book club and I am excited to see the Bookies and discuss, Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. 😀

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on February 9, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)60 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!

Hey all 🙂 Today is my birthday and I have had a wonderful weekend with both my sons and hubby. I went out to eat a couple times, bought a book, played WII, went to a movie, and learned to levitate….

No kidding – my son helped me create this:

I know right? Is that not fun? We also did one for him:

Fun! Seriously!

Here is what I posted this past week:

Labor Day By Joyce Maynard

Bookies – Pre Labor Day Movie Get Together pics!

Labor Day Movie Review

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris (oh ha ha… don’t miss this!)

The Literary Blog Hop is going on now and I have a fun giveaway and a BONUS birthday giveaway as well 😀

And for what I am listening to/reading this week:

I do not think I will have new audio this week from the two I listed last week 🙂

Reading:

Tracing the historic arc of Lincoln’s life from his picaresque days as a gangly young lawyer in Sangamon County, Illinois, through his improbable marriage to Kentucky belle Mary Todd, to his 1865 visit to war-shattered Richmond only days before his assassination, I Am Abraham hews closely to the familiar Lincoln saga. Charyn seamlessly braids historical figures such as Mrs. Keckley—the former slave, who became the First Lady’s dressmaker and confidante—and the swaggering and almost treasonous General McClellan with a parade of fictional extras: wise-cracking knaves, conniving hangers-on, speculators, scheming Senators, and even patriotic whores.

We encounter the renegade Rebel soldiers who flanked the District in tattered uniforms and cardboard shoes, living in a no-man’s-land between North and South; as well as the Northern deserters, young men all, with sunken, hollowed faces, sitting in the punishing sun, waiting for their rendezvous with the firing squad; and the black recruits, whom Lincoln’s own generals wanted to discard, but who play a pivotal role in winning the Civil War. At the center of this grand pageant is always Lincoln himself, clad in a green shawl, pacing the White House halls in the darkest hours of America’s bloodiest war.

Gettin’ my Lincoln on.

Nobody really believes in a curse. Until you know the people who disappear. Too much coincidence, you look for reason. Too much death, you grasp for something to blame. Carson pulled Delaney out and he died on the side of the road with her mouth pressed to his. Her air in his body. Troy. She told the cops it was suicide. Didn’t matter. The lake released her and grabbed another. But when Decker’s father dies in a pool of spilled water on their kitchen floor, all Decker can feel is a slow burning rage. Because he knows that Delaney knew that his dad was going to die. She knew and backed out of his house and never said a word. Falcon Lake still has a hold on them both, and Decker can’t forgive Delaney until he knows why.

My birthday gift from Justin 😀

That’s my week! How is yours looking? Please add your link to Monday What Are You Reading 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… Gift Or Entrapment? You Be The Judge ;)

Published on February 8, 2014February 8, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)41 Comments

So it is Saturday! *yay yay people applauding and dancing in the streets* Saturdays are my ABSOLUTE favorite day of the week 🙂 They are usually the only day I have where I choose what I do with my day without any “have to’s”. Love that.

In honor of this weeks Saturday Snapshot, I thought I would share with you a little visual story for (hopefully) your enjoyment.

Back story: This Sunday is my birthday.

So…. yesterday I meet my dear friend Gail for coffee at Cocoa Moon. Great name for a coffee shop right? 😀 Gail has brought me a beautiful gift bag for my birthday. We have coffee… we chat books, life, the strange dude who keeps peering through the window of the coffee shop at us, and weekend plans.

Gail asks me to open my gift.

*SQQQUUEEEE! I thought she would never ask!*

I start with the top tissue layer and in that is…

Ok…. YUM!

Then I unwrap the next layer of tissue and….

Shut the back door! Wine sleep pants! AWESOME! (Gail is my co-chair for Wine and Words)

So I have wine pants…. I unwrap the final tissue layer and….

Here are the words! A BEAUTIFUL copy of Gone With The Wind in a nice hard case.

Gone With The Wind is one of Gail’s all time favorite books. She knows I have never read it. (don’t look so shocked…. I have said this before 😯 ) The gift all goes together, I am supposed to get comfy in the sleep pants and enjoy the tasty goodies while curled up with Gone With The Wind.

Gift or Entrapment? I think… a little of both – but in a good way. 😀 Now that I have a lovely copy of Gone With The Wind I do want to stick my nose in it. And yes, possibly while wearing the pants and having the chocolate… maybe… just maybe….

Ok ok… I will put this book into action and will read Gone With The Wind in 2014. It is written. 😉 Thanks Gail!

See other Saturday Snapshots here

Today I am meeting my College Son who wants to hang out for the day in ST Cloud together for my birthday. He is taking me to lunch and Barnes and Noble, and maybe a movie. 😀 I haven’t seen him since Christmas so this is exciting!

Oh! And if you have not seen my super fun and awesome giveaway that ties in with the blog hop going on now with a bonus birthday opportunity from me, please checkout my post about that … I think you will be excited about what I am offering!

Have a SUPER Saturday!

Literary Blog Hop and Birthday Weekend Giveaway!

Published on February 7, 2014February 13, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)138 Comments

Note: This is a sticky post – all new posts are below this one 🙂

I am super excited to be a part of this blog hop! When Judith announced the dates I was thrilled as for once I did not have anything going on that would take me away from putting up my post PLUS it is my birthday this coming Sunday and I do like to celebrate (well… I like to celebrate just about anything really) with giveaways!

As this is a literary giveaway… I wanted to pick some delicious looking Literary reads… plus, a personal favorite of mine, The Book Club Cook Book – which is filled with delicious recipes and menus that go well with the literary books we love. ♥

The winner at Book Journey will have their choice of one of the above books mailed directly to them from Amazon.

How to enter?

In the comment area below tell me the title of the book you are reading currently, and what sort of food would go well with your book. (IE. if you are reading about Italy maybe you would be serving up steaming bowls of pasta and a nice wine, If you are reading Labor Day you most definitely must be having the peach pie 😉 )

One bonus entry if you follow Book Journey by email (see link to do that in the upper right side bar) – and of course let me know in a comment.

And there is a Birthday bonus. Being a HUGE fan of Ready Player One and the hidden Easter egg within that books story…. I have hidden an Easter Egg in one of the other participating blogs posts. Yes, just like that pretty gold one you see above. If you find the blog that has the egg, simply email me at journeythroughbooks@gmail.com with the correct blogs name and I will enter you into a bonus drawing for a $10 Amazon gift card. Oh and Shhhhhh! Don’t mention where you found it, and dont bring attention to it on the blog in which it sits. Just email me. Quietly… tiptoe away, of course after you enter that blogs amazing giveaway 😉

I will email both winners on February 13th. I do like to celebrate 😀

You can find the other blogs participating in this fun blog hop at our host site Leeswamme’s Blog or you can see them right here:

Happy Hopping to you!

Dress Your Family In Corduroy And Denim by David Sedaris

Published on February 7, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)12 Comments

Did you ever imitate your parents when you were a kid? Or better yet, imitate your parents imitating someone else? Or try to win favor by pretending to be well-behaved children talking in tones like, “yes father, I would be delighted to pick up the common area of all of my things”?

“Real love amounts to withholding the truth, even when you’re offered the perfect opportunity to hurt someone’s feelings”

“I won’t put in a load of laundry, because the machine is too loud and would drown out other, more significant noises – namely, the shuffling footsteps of the living dead.”

“She’s afraid to tell me anything important, knowing I’ll only turn around and write about it. In my mind, I’m like a friendly junkman, building things from the little pieces of scrap I find here and there, but my family’s started to see things differently. Their personal lives are the so-called pieces of scrap I so casually pick up, and they’re sick of it. More and more often their stories begin with the line “You have to swear you’ll never repeat this.” I always promise, but it’s generally understood that my word means nothing.”

I fell in love with David Sedaris’ writing when I listened to his book Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls. I then went on to list to Me Talk Pretty One Day and his line about the youth in Asia (euthanasia) still cracks me up when I think about it.

It was only natural for me to crave his style of funny humor again. And trust me – David makes anything funny. He talks about anything from what to eat for dinner to doing laundry and I find myself giggling. Be warned though – nothing is sacred. NOTHING. You never quite know what David will say next.

While Dress Your Family In Corduroy and Denim is funny, it is not my favorite f the three I have listened to. It is good, and it filled my David fix. I will definitely be listening to him again.

If you are planning to give his books a try I highly recommend to listen to them on audio. David narrates them himself and he has just the right tone and pause in his voice that makes it all the better.

1aa — David lived in England so this one will be credited there

Morning Meanderings… The Trials and Triumphs of Owning Three Dogs

Published on February 7, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)15 Comments

Good morning! Friday! Lots of good adventures coming today and throughout the weekend and I am sitting here with COFFEE CUP on the cusp of my day but instead… doing nothing. 🙂

It will get busy soon. 😉

My regular readers know we have three dogs. I did not mean to have three dogs. Two years ago we were down to just Bailey, our now 16-year-old shih tzu. Then Sammy (estimated at the time to be a year and a half) came along in April 2012… a stray, abandoned, unwanted cute as a button and homeless and we took him in. Three months later we rescued Mater, an abused Beagle/Basset hound, about 4 months old and in need of a “forever home”.

20130928_132001 — **Left: Sammy, then Mater**

It’s funny because while they can be really fun they are also a real handful. For instance, there is no such thing as giving one of them a taste of whatever you are eating… IE a burger or popcorn. Nope, that is three faces looking up at you so everything is three tastes. On the bright side… I think I may eat less 😀

Just this week I was going to give them a bone. I buy these real meat bones from the meat department at our grocery store. They like them a lot and the vet says it is good for their teeth. I realized I only had two bones left in the package I had bought. Two bones… three dogs. I had some rawhide bones too so I gave Sammy and Mater the real bones, and gave Bailey, who doesn’t have as many teeth as the younger ones, a rawhide bone.

I am not proud of what I did. 😯

Well, it was like having three children and one received something different. Bailey looked at the other bones… then at his. Then…

at me.

I felt like poo.

Thankfully I dug around in the refrigerator and did find another lone bone from another package that I was saving because I did not have enough to give all of them. Lesson learned. I need three of everything. 😀

In about 45 minutes I have coffee with a friend, then a meeting at the library, followed by a few errands to run and ending up at the gym by early afternoon. Book review up later and later yet… a fun kickoff tot he weekend post you will not want to miss. 😀

How is your weekend shaping up? Any plans?

Labor Day Movie Review

Published on February 6, 2014February 6, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)7 Comments

Earlier today I posted about the Bookies getting together this week and going to see the Labor Day movie together. It really was a lot of fun. Thirteen of us who had read the book gathered for a chance to see the movie. This review is my thoughts on the movie.

Kate Winslet is wonderful in the role of Adele, a single mom who has been scarred deeply by love. When she meets Frank, an escaped convict, while making a rare trip to the store for supplies, he leaves her little choice but to take him with her.

Frank (Josh Brolin), is just looking for an escape from a crime that he says was an accident. While he comes off as frightening at times, he is really just looking to start living again, and soon it is apparent that this life may be with Adele and her 13-year-old son Henry.

What starts out as what appears to be a hostile take over of Adele’s home, turns out into something very different indeed as both Frank and Adele find comfort in each others inability to be a part of the bigger world outside the front door.

I am pleased to say I really enjoyed Labor Day. I was a little uncertain as I struggled with Adele’s passiveness in the book – but found her to be a stronger woman in the movie and a little more protective of her son. Both book and movie (IMO) move along a little quickly for a 5 day storyline. I would also say that some of the flashbacks in the movie are a bit confusing, even though I had read the book and knew what they were about. I imagine it would be even harder to follow if you had not read the book.

Labor Day is still a movie I would recommend. There is some inner depth and hurt in both the main characters that is revealed in such a way that you suddenly understand that this is not a scary movie, but a love story unfolding. There are some wonderful elements to the movie and it is a story line I have not seen done before which is almost always refreshing.

Both book and movie were very close and I liked that. As I had just recently finished the book, it was still fresh in my mind to pick up on any differences, the differences I noticed were few and in some cases added to my enjoyment of the movie.

What I liked:

Adele comes off as stronger in the movie than in the book. Not too strong but enough to know that if she had to she would do what she could to defend her son. I preferred movie Adele.

Henry, as I shared in my book review has a bit of a teenage boy obsession with girls and sex. I just didn’t want to read all those details. I was happy to see that in the movie while they do show he thinks about girls…we did not have to see anything beyond his thinking about them.

What I didn’t like

Frank has more of a frightening presence in the movie at times. It almost made me wonder if in the end…how innocent was he?

Missing character. There is a grandmother in the book that plays a short but significant role. She is not in the movie.

There are subtle differences in the end results, nothing big… nothing disappointing, but tiny tweaks.

My Labor Day Book Review

Morning Meanderings… Bookies To The Labor Day Movie

Published on February 6, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)10 Comments

Good morning! On Tuesday evening of this week the Bookies who read the book Labor Day by Joyce Maynard gathered for a pre-movie gathering at a local Mexican restaurant for appetizers. 13 of us attended and that was a lot of fun!

We called ourselves (ok..ok, I named them) the Labor Day Thirteen. We were sent 10 tickets to go and celebrate the movie and we all pitched in a couple of dollars to include to buy the three additional tickets.

It was so much fun to hang out as a group! We practically owned the theater when we arrived, so we thought we were rock stars! Then a couple came in…. they must have wondered what such a big group was doing.

We had a blast and really enjoyed the movie. As we left the theater we excitedly chatted about book vs. movie, what we liked better in the book, what we liked better in the movie… what shocked us (of yeah – there was a shocker in the movie that left us as one voice gasping). No spoiler. 😉

Later I will put up my movie review.

Thank you so much to Harper Collins for this amazing opportunity to read the book as a group, grab some snacks, and see the movie together. 🙂

On another note…. our Libraries Blind Date event is going well. One of the ladies who works there sent me an email last night asking what I thought about adding the book “The Girl You Left Behind” by Jojo Moyes. She asked for my help writing the singles ad (see what I mean here). I have not read this book yet so am asking if any of you have and if you could comment with an idea of what the ad could say. 🙂