Book Journey

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. 🙂

Labor Day by Joyce Maynard

Published on February 4, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)20 Comments

As Labor Day approaches in Holton Mills, New Hampshire, 13-year-old Henry and his mother Adele head into town to pick up some groceries and supplies for their home. This is a rare trip to town as single emotionally damaged mom Adele does not like being around people and mainly sticks to home where she lives her quiet small life. Henry, a product of his environment is much a loner himself with no real close friends and no one he really hangs out with except his dads new wife’s kids. Henry spends much of his time playing with his hamster, trying to make his mom feel better, and thinking of girls.

At the grocery store a limping man, named Frank, approaches Henry asking for help. Henry sees that Frank is bleeding and takes him to his mother who in turn takes Frank home with her and Henry. This is when Frank shares his story that he has escaped and is a wanted man (not in a sexy way…. but in a “my face is going to be on tv” way).

Over the next five days surrounding the Labor Day Holiday Henry will learn a lot about his mom, he will learn to bake with Frank’s expertise, and how to correctly throw a ball. And Henry will come out of the weekend a changed boy – with more knowledge about love, betrayal, and letting go… even when it is the last thing we want to do.

Uhhhhhh.

I am having a hard time spilling out my feelings regarding Labor Day. On one hand, I want to say that Adele’s inability to use her backbone brings the”strong female characters preferred” gene in me screaming through the book like fingernails on a chalk board.

But that is harsh.

And probably not fair.

Isn’t it funny how my own preferences of how women need to be strong and able to take care of themselves rears up out of nowhere?

I have a hard time wrapping my head around a single woman with a young son to look after, taking home a strange man that she knows nothing about and then under the strangest conditions keeping him there.

On the other hand, I do not know the depths of Adele’s depression, or the amount of frailness she withholds from past hurts. It is not fair of me to judge what I do not understand.

Labor Day is told from Henry’s point of view so we (I) must be reminded that what is happening is how he see’s things with his 13-year-old mind. (Although… I can not see how else he could have seen it) Doh! I did it again.

I think I am in the minority as I glanced at overall reviews of this book on Amazon they rate fairly high. I struggled personally with the probability of such a thing happening – but… we do live in a strange world.

Here are some different thoughts on this book from Bloggers I trust:

Bermuda Onion

Alison’s Book Marks

Red Headed Book Child

I clearly did not love the book, but I did not hate it either. It is a book that still has me thinking about it. The fact that it creates such strong emotion in me must say something 🙂

My book club received copies of this book to read as a group in anticipation of the movie. Tonight we are going to the movie as a group and I am hopeful that my opinion of the storyline will change after the movie. No matter what, I still get to hang out with a great group of girls 😀

Morning Meanderings… My Blind Date and a winner!

Published on February 4, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)36 Comments

Good morning! I feel rather wiped out today. It was a busy day yesterday and perhaps the emotional pull this introvert has while engaging with two fairly large groups all afternoon and evening is taking its energy pull.

Zapped is a good way to describe me right now. 😀

Anyhoo…

the date.

A couple of weeks ago you the awesome readers of Book Journey helped me with “singles ads” for the Blind Date event we were planning. The ideas flew in and it was so much fun to read them and laugh at how witty you all are! 😀

Yesterday we kicked off the Blind Date event at the library. 52 books were put under pretty wraps and given a little singles ad blurb to possibly entice a reader to choose them.

I was in the library during the later afternoon assisting in planning for our Annual Meeting for the Friends group so I was able to witness the activity around the display. I enjoyed going and talking with people who were looking over the books explaining that they checked out a book that appealed to them, read it, fill out the “Rate Your Date” card that is tucked inside and return both. While I was watching about 8 f these books checked out.

I checked out one as well. Although I helped with the cards that went on the book packaging I could not recall but a few of what book they were… I chose one instead that I felt fit me…

Last night, after coming home and feeling wiped out, I left “my date” in the car overnight. 😛 This morning I allowed him/her into the house and opened up the packaging…

Here is my date! I have read Lisa Scottoline before, but not this one. The singles add promising me kooky and uplifting “chick wit” and a glass of wine sold me. We shall see how our date goes….

stay tuned.

When I wrote that original Blind Date post and asked you all to help me with the singles adds for books I also offered up a gift card to one awesome participant. That winner of the $10 Amazon Gift Card is bookebelle0819 – #80 in the comments using random.org. Congrats! I will send that out by email!

Tonight, many of the Bookies Book Club will meet up for appetizers and then off to see the movie Labor Day as a group from our win of books and tickets. We are excited! I love the little extras we are able to do together 😀

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on February 2, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)44 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!

Second day into February and I feel like I blinked and missed last week! I had big plans for kicking off my half marathon training starting February 1, but instead, I have hardly left the house this weekend other than the grocery store and church. On the bright side, just today I secured two of the four authors I am looking for to be a part of Wine and Words 2014 which feels good! 😀 I will announce them later this week, tomorrow evening I have our Annual Friends Of The Library board meeting and I need to announce to them first.

As far as what was posted… here is what I had:

The In-Between Hours by Barbara Claypole White

The Roses Underneath by C J Yetmen (seriously amazing)

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline…. yes again. Stop it. Its amazing. Read my review 😀

My dog sledding experience in Duluth Minnesota (with video of my ride!)

Runners World CookBook – it is not just for runners the food is healthy and tasty!

As for this week, I think I am going to stay low. I have several books (yup..several) going that I have changes up, read a little of something else and now I need to finish them. Yes, they are good… I am just kind of all over the board this past week. However… I will be needing me some audio this week and for that I choose:

Masters of Doom is the amazing true story of the Lennon and McCartney of video games: John Carmack and John Romero. Together, they ruled big business. They transformed popular culture. And they provoked a national controversy. More than anything, they lived a unique and rollicking American Dream, escaping the broken homes of their youth to produce the most notoriously successful game franchises in history – Doom and Quake – until the games they made tore them apart. This is a story of friendship and betrayal, commerce and artistry – a powerful and compassionate account of what it’s like to be young, driven, and wildly creative.

My love for Wil Wheaton’s narration continues….

Recently, The New Yorker published chef Anthony Bourdain’s shocking, “Don’t Eat Before Reading This.” Bourdain spared no one’s appetite in this tell-all about what happens behind the kitchen door.

Now, the author uses the same “take-no-prisoners” attitude in his deliciously funny and shockingly delectable audiobook, sure to delight gourmands and philistines alike. From his first oyster in the Gironde, to his lowly position as a dishwasher in a honky-tonk fish restaurant in Provincetown, from the kitchen of the Rainbow Room atop Rockefeller Center, to drug dealers in the East Village, from Tokyo to Paris and back to New York again, Bourdain’s tales of the kitchen are as passionate as they are unpredictable.

Kitchen Confidential will make your mouth water while your belly aches with laughter. You’ll beg the chef for more, please.

I have listened to him before and he is quick wit, dry, and funny…

That’s it audio goals and a book clean up so hopefully by this time next week I can start fresh 😀 What are you reading this week? What did you read last week? Book lovers want to know! Please add your link to your It’s Monday What Are You Reading 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… Imitation of Sleestak, The Books and Ask The Bloggers!

Published on February 2, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)23 Comments

Sunday already! I feel I have hardly accomplished a thing! I laid pretty low this weekend after such a busy week – staying home and catching up on things around here has been perfect. 🙂

Does anyone remember the old tv show Land Of The Lost? I used to watch it when I was a kid. If you remember the show, you remember Sleestak, creepy slow-moving “Jason Voorhees like” creatures that had webbed hands and feet. Every winter I have this weird thing I do in my house…. I wear socks with sandals (so embarrassing) and every time I think of the Sleestak.

The books! Oh yeah! The books! Now remember, I did not post last Sunday as I was out-of-town – AND I have been at two author events in the past two weeks so some of these I purchased to feed my addiction. 😉

I bought The Vanishing, The Crane Wife, More Than This, Red Moon, The Lace Reader (because Wendy Webb recommended it as it inspired her) and 400 Meals.

If you take those out – the books that came in the house are much more manageable. 😀

And finally, (and this I am pretty excited about!), my friend Stacy who writes over at The Novel Life, started a weekly meme called Ask The Bloggers. Her first one went up today and I was thrilled to be a part of it. She started by asking us “If you go back to just before you started your blog, what advice would you give to your former self?”

Please pop over there today and check it out and give her some comment love! After all, I think we all have thoughts on that question. 😀 I also believe you will recognize some of the other bloggers involved. *waves to Kathy!*

So there is my morning post. I need to get ready for church and this afternoon I have some house keeping to do, gym work, and prep for a couple really fun things coming up tomorrow. 1. Tomorrow I am part of an every other week Movie Night for women at our church where we will watch a movie and then discuss it. Our first one will be The Bucket List. 2.Tomorrow (also as luck would have it) is our Friends Of The Library Annual Meeting where we will go over the roles of the board, give an update on Wine and Words 2014, and announce dates of what is coming up as well as reveal our new logo.

Life….

is never dull. 😀

The Runners World Cookbook edited by Joanna Sayago Golub

Published on February 1, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)34 Comments

If you have followed my journey, you know that the past year I have “dabbled” in running. I still don’t think I qualify as a runner, but my cousin says that if I am not laying on the couch and I am out moving my body, I am a runner.

Ok… I guess that makes me a runner.

Right before Christmas I treated myself to a purchase just for me. I bought this book. Runner or not, I am always interested in working with whole foods and breaking the habit of the “fast food fix” that tends to occasionally plague my busy lifestyle.

The Runners World Cookbook promotes eating well if you run 10 miles a week or one hundred. (A hundred!) It also encourages “eating the rainbow” a colorful array of fruits and vegetables every day. Mmmmmm

The book starts out with explaining healthy antioxidants, carbs, grains, proteins and fats. Then the book breaks down into chapters:

Breakfast
Snacks and Smoothies
Salads and Dressings
Soups and Stews
Sandwiches, Pizzas, Burgers
Sauces and Pasta
Meat and Poultry
Fish and Seafood
Vegetables
Desserts

The recipes look delicious! They are submitted from runners, marathon winners, Olympians, doctors, test kitchens and more. At the top of each recipe is a little paragraph of when is a good time to eat this (pre – run, after run, recovery…. daily….). It also shares how long to prep, how many servings, and of course nutrition values. I also like that each recipe is labeled : V: Vegetarian, VE: Vegan, GF: Gluten Free, Many of the recipes are also accompanied by a photo which I love to drool over!

I admit, I have not had a chance to cook out of this book yet although I have spent time over several days paging through and making note of the ones I want to try. A few that caught my eye are: Egg and bean burritos with avocado and yogurt lime sauce, banana oat energy bars, spinach bacon sweet potato salad, Asian Noodle Salad with eggs and peanut dressing, Thai Avocado soup, Smoked Salmon and Vegie Wraps, Jerk Shrimp with sweet potato and black beans… I could go on forever 🙂

Tonight, I think we are going to try the Chicken Mango fajita. Seriously, look at that tasty picture. It is labeled as Fast, Recovery and Low Calorie. Since I am planning on running a 5k today to keep up my motivation for the half marathon I signed up for at the end of this month as well as a walk with my dogs in snow shoes- it sounds perfect. 🙂 I think you may see recipes coming out of this book frequently this year 🙂

I am submitting this post as part of Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking. It is true, I always have more time to make good tasty and healthy dishes on the weekends. 🙂