Book Journey

Morning Meanderings… Christmas At The DeChantals -a lot of fun… a little sick

Published on December 26, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)27 Comments

Mmmmmm good morning all. I hope you all survived the holiday. We had the best one here, for the first time in 4 years both boys were home. We hung out all day yesterday, opened gifts in the morning, watched movies, ate ham and goodies, snowmobiled and enjoyed each others company. I have been looking forward to this for months.

And I was sick. 😦

Mmmm hmmmm. I felt myself getting a little tingly in the morning while we opened gifts. I only ate a little bit of the dinner hoping it would pass. When they went snowmobiling I caught a quick nap hoping it would pass. No such luck. I ached, I was cold, could not get comfortable. Our tradition is that Justin and I stay up late and watch Harry Potter movies. By 9:30 pm and after my third bought of throwing up – I had to give up. Justin went to hang out with friends and I went to bed.

Crap.

On the upside… I feel good today. I am drinking tea this morning, taking it easy and not rushing back into the straight coffee just yet. When Justin gets up we will resume out Harry Potter tradition, we are late but we are not defeated. I have today with him before he will leave to go back to Mankato tomorrow morning. 🙂

We did (sickness aside) have a beautiful Christmas. Justin is starting a fund for his move to Oregon after he graduates in May so we got him a piggy bank that keeps track of how much is in it and gave him a bit of a start to his savings. Brad received a nice gift card to Walmart and they both received the usual things we get them – socks, Axe kits (deodorant, shampoo, body wash, spray all in a kit), Brad received a t-shirt of Breaking Bad and Justin a book as he is my reader buddy. 🙂

Al received a nice hoodie, gloves, new jeans, t-shirt and Justin gave us a nice gift certificate to Olive Garden and Brad gave us surround sound for our TV and hooked it up for us.

I received an awesome candle, chocolates, a cool sign that spell out in large Scrabble letters R E A D and my hubby gave me a gift certificate to have an automatic starter put in my new vehicle so I can start it while I am still in my office at work on these cold winter days. And of course, The Monster Series runs which the first one is next Wednesday.

This morning the house is quiet. I am going to read a few blogs and listen to a little audio before things take off here. Enjoy your Thursday everyone. 🙂 Next up…. New Years!

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on December 23, 2013December 23, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)15 Comments

**Quick note: Oh my gosh! I wrote this Sunday evening after a long day and getting home late from hanging with friends. I wrote it, posted it (so I thought) and went to bed. I did not notice until I came home after my 12 hour shift today that it never posted. Good grief…. 🙂

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!

Quite the week here of last minute shopping, get togethers with friends, planning and yes.. even late card writing. Books have not been an option, thank you God so much for audio or I would really have nothing to say. Here is what I posted this week:

The Anti Prom by Andy McDonald

The KOBO has arrived!

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

Platform 21 by T R Patrick

Red Hill by Jamie McGuire (how do I keep missing out on these great authors?)

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes (oh my word me head is still reeling from this amazing book)

The Twelve by Justin Cronin (read many months ago, finally putting the post up!)

So it has been a good week. Not sure how this week will fare, I work two back to back 12 hour shifts the next two days but then have Wednesday – the weekend off. Maybe that will lead to reading time…. ooh I hope so!

SO for this week here is what is currently happening:

Does a respected adoption agency have a frightening secret? Tipped off by a determined ex-colleague on a desperate quest to find her birth mother, Boston newspaper reporter Jane Ryland begins to suspect that the agency is engaging in the ultimate betrayal—reuniting birth parents with the wrong children.

For detective Jake Brogan and his partner, a young woman’s brutal murder seems a sadly predictable case of domestic violence, one that results in two toddlers being shuttled into the foster care system. Then Jake finds an empty cradle at the murder scene. Where is the baby who should have been sleeping there?

Jane and Jake are soon on a trail full of twists and turns that takes them deep into the heart of a foster care system in crisis and threatens to blow the lid off an adoption agency scandal. When the threatening phone calls start, Jane knows she is on the right track…but with both a killer at large and an infant missing, time is running out….

EEP -right?

1987. There’s only one person who has ever truly understood fourteen-year-old June Elbus, and that’s her uncle, the renowned painter Finn Weiss. Shy at school and distant from her older sister, June can only be herself in Finn’s company; he is her godfather, confidant, and best friend. So when he dies, far too young, of a mysterious illness her mother can barely speak about, June’s world is turned upside down. But Finn’s death brings a surprise acquaintance into June’s life—someone who will help her to heal, and to question what she thinks she knows about Finn, her family, and even her own heart.

At Finn’s funeral, June notices a strange man lingering just beyond the crowd. A few days later, she receives a package in the mail. Inside is a beautiful teapot she recognizes from Finn’s apartment, and a note from Toby, the stranger, asking for an opportunity to meet. As the two begin to spend time together, June realizes she’s not the only one who misses Finn, and if she can bring herself to trust this unexpected friend, he just might be the one she needs the most.

Another one I dont know how it escaped me!

I think that is all I am going to put up here. I am not sure what (or if) I will be reading this week, it will be a surprise to me as well. 🙂

I am curious as to what you will be reading! Please add your link to where it says click here below and hopefully some of us will be over to check it out 🙂

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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!

The Twelve by Justin Cronin

Published on December 22, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)26 Comments

Continuing on from The Passage, the virus continues to spread and endanger all those in its path. Lila is a pregnant doctor who hopes the best for her child, Kitteridge has been forced out of his comfort zone and is now on the run… alone. April is running with her little brother trying to show him a calm that does not exist beyond her face. As they run – they towards each other and with connection comes hope.

In the future – Amy alongside the others fight in hopes of saving mankind. The virals are stronger somehow… they have evolved to even more of a force to reckon with and for the Twelve, the future and the past – is at hand.

Flyers. The Passage was a book that blew me away – unique in context (man I had a lot of fun writing that review), I hung on it line after line. Once completed it left me at such a place I wondered what would happen next. When The Twelve arrived I was thrilled to reenter this world of Amy and Virals and trying to make a new world that had passed away…

Flyers. Did I say that already? The Twelve is like The Passage on steroids. It is bigger. Stronger. More powerful. More political. And in that sense, I think I liked it a little less than The Passage, mainly because The Passage was a crisper read – more of an earth gone wrong feel to it, where The Twelve is way deep into a world that is no more. I hope that makes sense.

Still- this series is one I would recommend. In fact if you are looking for good books to hunker down with and go deep this winter, let me recommend these. Word is that The Passage will be a movie, possibly in 2015. I sure hope so.

Morning Meanderings…. Twas The Sunday Before Christmas…

Published on December 22, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)20 Comments

Sunday is here. How ya’ all doing?

Time: 8:15 am (funny that is exactly the same time I wrote this last week)

Place: The recliner again… its cozy.

Eating/Drinking: Just hazelnut coffee so far this morning

Reading: Pffff. Books? Haven’t really had time to pick up a book this week.

Listening to: Out of the three I had going last week, I am still listening to Parkland but will finish that one soon. I just finished up Me Before You yesterday and now need to download another audio today from audible…. suggestions?

Blogging – staying steady. I am catching up on the reviews I had not written, and have been consistent on the Morning Meanderings

Happenings…. I listed about ten items on a couple local Facebook “garage sale” type sites and caused a bit of a feeding frenzy over a couple of them last night…. now I have a bit of anxiety as I need to connect with people now to either have the items picked up or meet up with them somewhere to complete the transaction. A couple of them have questions on items that I need to answer this morning yet.

Anticipating: Christmas. I am really looking forward to the boys being here and just hanging out with them.

Hating: I feel behind and I don’t like that. Today I need to finish up shopping for Christmas (food included) because the next two days I am working pretty much 12 hour shifts to have the rest of the week off from Wednesday on (also causing me anxiety)

Loving: That I did make a dent yesterday – gifts are wrapped, tree is up. I am making progress. 🙂

Ok as I wrap up here after about 15 minutes of distractedness between Audible.com and Facebook I (its easy to get sucked into the time suck that is Facebook!)have downloaded Tell The Wolves I Am Home which I am pretty excited about. Let the Listening begin!

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes (one of BEST of 2013)

Published on December 21, 2013December 21, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)31 Comments

Louisa Clark has spent her life comfortably living at her home (even though she is in her later 20’s). She has a steady long term job that keeps her happy and a boyfriend of 7 years that is just as comfortable to her as the rest of her small life. When her job suddenly disappears when it is unexpectedly closed, Louisa applies for a well paid position that is completely out of her skill set – a temporary job of assisting a 35 year old man who is a quadriplegic, wheelchair bound and needs assistance and someone to watch over him while his mother and father are at work. Surprisingly, Louisa is offered the job.

Will Trainer used to be the guy who had everything. The looks, money, body, and ability to go anywhere and do anything. He loved to ski, and travel and explore the world and all that was taken away in the blink of an eye. An accident that left him unable to move his body on his own, except for his mouth to speak, and eyes.

Louisa quickly learns she will be earning her pay. Will is very angry with the loss of his previous life. He hates that he can do nothing for himself and hates that people make decisions for him instead of asking him his opinion. Yet Louisa is no pushover and Will learns to respect her as they spend day after day together. When Louisa overhears that Will has made a decision that is shocking and unthinkable, Louisa decides that her time with him must be used to do everything she can to change his mind before it it too late.

Oh.

I just finished listening to Me Before You moments before I started writing this review. I wanted to get my thoughts down right away. Why why why did I wait to read or listen to this amazing book? I am overcome right now with emotions that are exhilarating and heart breaking and well… I am all over the board.

Louisa makes for a great protagonist in contrast to Will. She has lived life quite the opposite of Will, having enjoyed the regularity of her day to day. Will on the other hand, has been everywhere and done everything.. it is amazing to see how a man confined now to a smaller life, can broaden the horizons of a girl who could go and do things, but chooses not to.

Choices.

Really – Me Before You is about choices. The choices we make and how they affect not only us but those around us. Honestly I want to go on and on about this book, gushing out why you must read it, why you should request a copy now, and holy smokes seriously GET ON THIS LEVEL of book satisfaction with me and together we shall embrace the world with our new found wisdom….

If I was a “book rating” kind of gal I would give this 5 shiny stars and a snap.

I must bring out the spoiler page so those of you who have read this book can talk about it because I do want to talk about it. Please push that button below if you are in the “have read” on this one. Let’s do this.

Morning Meanderings… Sprint Apocalypse and Giving Back

Published on December 21, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)20 Comments

Happy Saturday! So many little things to do but this morning… I am chilling with my Coffee Cup, listening to Me Before You and trying not to think too hard about all I need to do this weekend. 🙂

Yesterday our local Sprint Towers were down (they still may be – I have not tried my phone yet today). You wouldn’t think not having a cell phone for a day would be a big deal… good grief, I grew up in the 80’s and we were thrown to the streets as teenagers… with no means of communication! *Gasp!* How did we survive???? But yesterday was a hot mess without the use of my phone and here is what happened:

We have no house phone
I had to get a hold of my husband and my calls and texts wouldn’t go through (I eventually drove to where he was at)
There was a brunch at my house with friends and when they called me I could not be heard by them on the phone
I was supposed to meet a friend up town and we were going to connect (by phone!) when we could meet and that did not happen
Another friend and I had a coffee date, when she called to cancel – I never got the message
I was expecting some important papers in the mail this week and when they fad not arrived by yesterday I could not call the company to inquire.

A day without my phone as active as this time of year was annoying. I had to drive into Sprint to find out what was going on.. they said, “we have had a lot of calls today” and I responded, “If only I could have called you…”

It really was like the Apocalypse.

For Saturday Snapshot I thought I would bring up some pics from this fall when we had a food drive for our local food shelf. It seems like an appropriate time of year to do a little post on giving. 🙂

They weighed the food and I can not remember the exact total but I believe it was over 1500 pound of food we donated that day to the Food Shelf to give out to those in need. We did this as a Church, but really any group (or family) could do this. I think I am going to bring this up to my book club, maybe next year we could pick a month where we each fill a bag to be donated. I love it when as a group we go beyond the books.

So that is my Saturday Snapshot today – hope your day is wonderfully stress free…. I have to ask… are you done Christmas shopping?

Morning Meanderings… It Is A Small World

Published on December 20, 2013December 20, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)17 Comments

Friday! There is a happy dance going on here! Almost like a starting line really as I have not even put our tree up yet. I know right? Life gets busy and I well.. yeah. Today’s the day. I am also not done Christmas shopping… but between today and tomorrow… I plan to be. 🙂

Recently (yesterday) I won a copy of the upcoming gorgeous looking book, Evertrue from Amber at Me, My Shelf, and I. When Amber emailed me for my address and I responded back, she emailed me this:

Shut up. I could drive this to you!

Turns out, Amber lives about two hours from me in Minnesota. 🙂 I love that!

I also recently had a win of a bookish ornament from Ashley at Papyrusaurus that arrived in the mail yesterday. How cute is this:

This morning I am having brunch here at the house with three great friends. We will do our little Christmas exchange and hang out over great coffee and conversation. Then this afternoon I have coffee with another friend, and then tonight we attend an annual Christmas party of friends. In between all of that, I will be trying out a couple of caramel variations off my recipe and maybe… maybe a little shopping.

Hope this start to your weekend is wonderful!

Oh – and I have two giveaways going on – dont miss out:

Platform 21 book

Percy Jackson Sea Of Monsters DVD

Red Hill by Jamie McGuire

Published on December 19, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)16 Comments

Scarlet raises her two young daughters alone while holding down a good job at the local hospital. When it is her ex- husbands weekend with the girls, Scarlet does not mind working an extra long shift to help out a co-worker. Then the woman comes into the ER with a mysterious story. She claims a few days ago while coming out of a bar with her boyfriend, she was bit by what seemed to be a deranged man. Since that time, this woman has lost around 20 pounds. 20 pounds!?! When examined the findings are bleak.

And this is just the start of the strange happenings…

Soon the reports are coming over the news and radio stations. There seems to be some kind of outbreak happening. People are being bitten and dieing at alarming rates but then, coming back to some sort of “zombie like life” where they are up and walking but what used to be the person inside is gone….

Suddenly all Scarlet wants to do is to get to where her children are if she possibly can. It seems that the Apocalypse is at hand.

Yowza. After reading a couple incredible gushing reviews of this book, I decided to give it a try on audio. Having recently becoming obsessed with the Walking Dead series (another story for another day….) I was curious how this would compare. While some things were a bit too spot on to Walking Dead ( they bite you or eat you and you too become one of them only to be put down by a shot through the head…), the rest was intriguing and fast paced…. and creepy real feeling.

This is my first book by Jamie McGuire and pretty sure it will not be my last. Red Hill took me through a fast paced different world than I am used to. One of fear and survival, but also of connecting with people and creating a sense of family.

Morning Meanderings… An Old Post Keeps Picking Up Traffic (ooh – and a giveaway!)

Published on December 19, 2013December 19, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)21 Comments

Good Morning! How ya all doing this morning? I am just back from the gym and that makes me happy. I feel as though I have accomplished something positive when I start my day out that way. 🙂

For those of us who have been blogging books for a while, do you ever see a post you wrote a long time continue to get hits? Not only hits, but discussion? That’s the may my Lightning Thief Movie Spoiler Page has been.

At first when I seen in my email that post was receiving traffic I figures it was spam. After all, I wrote this post in early 2010. However, upon closer look – no, they are still commenting – still fired up by the differences of the book to the movie. Isn’t is funny how us book lovers get all worked up about movies changing our books? 🙂

Lightning Thief as a book was really good. Way to go Rick Riordan! *knuckle bump* And Lightning Thief the movie was really good. If you read the book AND seen the movie..well, thus the spoiler post.

I have been curious for some time now if they were going to do another movie. There are after all, there are after all 5 books in this series (my College son loved them!). So super funny and coincidental that I was contemplating this post, when yesterday I was offered by Think Jam Digital to have a giveaway here for a Blue Ray bundle of The Sea Of Monsters DVD (2nd book in the series). This DVD has just been released to the public for sale – but here, you can sign up to win the movie as a well as a companion comic book. Kind of a sweet deal, and I admit – I am curious about this movie.

Enter for a chance to win the Percy Jackson Sea Of Monsters Blu-ray Combo Pack and exclusive Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Sea Of Monsters comic book!

Synopsis

The magical, mythical adventures of teenager Percy Jackson — son of the Greek god Poseidon — continue in this heroic, action-packed thrill ride! Out to prove he’s not just a “one-quest wonder,” Percy and his demigod friends embark on an epic, cross-country journey into the treacherous Sea of Monsters, where they battle terrifying creatures, an army of zombies, and the ultimate evil. With time running out, Percy must find and bring home the fabled Golden Fleece, which has the power to save his world…and save us all!

Percy Jackson Sea of Monsters 3D Blu-ray Deluxe Edition,

available on Blu-ray and DVD December 17

For a chance to win your copy of the Blu-ray, just answer the question below:

Percy Jackson is the son of which of the Greek Gods?

Poseidon

Zeus

Hades

I will post a winner on Sunday morning – December 22nd.

Be sure to follow Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment on Twitter @FoxHomeEnt for the latest Blu-ray & DVD releases

I am curious, have you read any of the Rick Riordan books? I admit, I have only read the first one as of this time.

Platform 21 by T. R. Patrick

Published on December 18, 2013December 18, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)8 Comments

It is 2052. Luke Gibson, his sister Laura, and his parents are excited to be at the first ever World Evergy Initiative Conference. This conference is a celebration of energy and thousands of people fill the stadium to be a part of this monumental event.

Suddenly the earth rumbles and a massive earthquake takes place. As Luke struggles to understand what is happening as he sees people dieing all around him and his own life is ebbing away, he sees a gurl reaching for him.

And then all is black.

Death… as it turns out is not the end. Luke awakens to a world that is not the one he knew… as life (is that what this is?) plays out Luke is left to try to figure out what sort of conspiracy is going on and what can he do to stop it before it is too late.

Ok. Seriously. If that synopsis did not give you chills you need to go back and read it again. I will wait. ……

🙂

Platform 21 sold me on the description of a teenage boy in a futuristic world that takes on a twist that is new to me – and if you know me… that is always a draw.

It is shocking, fast paced, adrenaline creating and once into it…. I had to know how this was all going to go. I enjoyed Luke, love that he is a writer and a protagonist that I could cheer on. In this style of book… you need someone to cling to…. Luke was that guy.

I really enjoyed this and look forward to see where this new series will go.