Book Journey

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on July 29, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)26 Comments

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. While I am no longer offering up the giveaway incentive, I do hope you will still see the value of visiting other participants and seeing what they are reading- be warned though… this meme tends to add to your reading lists

I know I am putting this post up really late. I usually have it up on Sunday evenings but after a trip to the North shore with my son from Thursday Morning until Saturday, then shopping for a picnic for 300 people and then on Sunday putting together the picnic for 300 people together along with an awesome team and then finally getting home at 3 pm and then falling asleep from 4 pm – 5:30, then dinner, then mowing the lawn…

let’s just say writing this post last night was not in the cards.

Yes… I have been absent a lot this summer, more than I ever have been. The addition of the half marathon training on top of my Library duties, job, weekend events, camp prep… all of this has really made my blog window tiny. I do believe this is only for a season so please hang with me… 😀

My reading (books) is almost at a standstill. I have been reading the same book for the last three weeks. The book is good, but I am just busy and sitting and reading is something I long to d0 – but can not find the time. My audio book listening is still strong. I haven’t started anything new this week but am still enjoying: The White Princess by Philippa Gregory, The Twelve by Justin Cronin, and Dad Is Fat by Jim Gaffigan.

I am hoping this afternoon to get in some reading time. *fingers crossed*

What are you reading this week? I am excited to see what books you are accomplishing this time of year! Please add your link below.

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Morning Meandering…. Check in and out for a couple days

Published on July 25, 2013July 25, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)9 Comments

Hi all! Super quick here as I am heading out the door to go to the cabin with my son for a couple days. I have had a fun week – on Tuesday I had my House Party for the Big Girl Panties Book. We had a lot of fun chatting up the book. 11 people at my house and a great time! Here are a couple pics:

As you can see… I could not resist hanging panties on the deck 🙂

Ahhhh….. what a blast!

I will be back later this weekend – in the meantime – have a great couple of days 😀

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on July 21, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)29 Comments

Another busy week here, typical summer…. here is what I posted this past week:

Restrike by Reba White William

Pics from last weekends Go Commando Race

Looking For Me by Beth Hoffman

Here is what I am listening to this week (and I say listening because reading has been slow going…)

In the present day, as the man-made apocalypse unfolds, three strangers navigate the chaos. Lila, a doctor and an expectant mother, is so shattered by the spread of violence and infection that she continues to plan for her child’s arrival even as society dissolves around her. Kittridge, known to the world as “Last Stand in Denver,” has been forced to flee his stronghold and is now on the road, dodging the infected, armed but alone and well aware that a tank of gas will get him only so far. April is a teenager fighting to guide her little brother safely through a landscape of death and ruin. These three will learn that they have not been fully abandoned—and that in connection lies hope, even on the darkest of nights.

One hundred years in the future, Amy and the others fight on for humankind’s salvation . . . unaware that the rules have changed. The enemy has evolved, and a dark new order has arisen with a vision of the future infinitely more horrifying than man’s extinction. If the Twelve are to fall, one of those united to vanquish them will have to pay the ultimate price.

In Dad is Fat, stand-up comedian Jim Gaffigan, who’s best known for his legendary riffs on Hot Pockets, bacon, manatees, and McDonald’s, expresses all the joys and horrors of life with five young children—everything from cousins (“celebrities for little kids”) to toddlers’ communication skills (“they always sound like they have traveled by horseback for hours to deliver important news”), to the eating habits of four year olds (“there is no difference between a four year old eating a taco and throwing a taco on the floor”). Reminiscent of Bill Cosby’s Fatherhood, Dad is Fat is sharply observed, explosively funny, and a cry for help from a man who has realized he and his wife are outnumbered in their own home.

When Henry Tudor picks up the crown of England from the mud of Bosworth field, he knows he must marry the princess of the enemy house—Elizabeth of York—to unify a country divided by war for nearly two decades.

But his bride is still in love with his slain enemy, Richard III—and her mother and half of England dream of a missing heir, sent into the unknown by the White Queen. While the new monarchy can win power, it cannot win hearts in an England that plots for the triumphant return of the House of York.

Henry’s greatest fear is that somewhere a prince is waiting to invade and reclaim the throne. When a young man who would be king leads his army and invades England, Elizabeth has to choose between the new husband she is coming to love and the boy who claims to be her beloved lost brother: the rose of York come home at last.

I have had some great audio experiences lately and much to catch up on reviewing. In the mean time, what are you reading? I would love to know! Add your link below where it says click here.

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And for those of you who read mainly YA or Middle grade books, feel free to also link up the younger version of # IMWAYR as well

Morning Meanderings… A Few Books and A Few Blabbers

Published on July 21, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)9 Comments

Good morning! I hope this sunny Sunday finds you well. 😀 I have had a fairly productive weekend – there are still things to do but I have been moving forward on the big MASTER LIST I made on Friday morning. YEE HAW. Yes, I just said that. Well… I typed it so I thought it so it is like saying it.

I think.

Maybe.

Anyway – I have not been around to do a Sunday post on the books coming in for a few weeks so here is what has been waiting on the shelf to be Book Journey checked in:

Some fun looking reads in my future. 😀 They all speak to me for different reasons but from this group the ones that are really sticking out for me at this moment is Susan Wiggs The Apple Orchard, Barbara Delinsky’s Sweet Salt Air (I have not read her in years!), Frozen and The Forever Marriage was from Ann Bauer speaking at our Library a couple of weeks back and the book she described sounded harsh and painfully real and well… I must read it 😀

Currently I am listening to Dad Is Fat (hilarious!), The White Princess, and starting The Twelve all on audio. My book reading has suffered this month… I have been wanting to read Ordinary Grace, that book has traveled with me last weekend and from the living room to the bedroom to the car… and I have yet to get going on it. Maybe today….

I hope your day is wonderful – I am at Church this morning, perhaps a bike ride this afternoon, a little work on my list and then possibly a motorcycle ride with friends or a movie tonight. 😀

Do any of these books I posted call to you?

Looking For Me by Beth Hoffman

Published on July 20, 2013July 20, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)12 Comments

Where Cee Cee Honeycutt was sweet, Looking For Me is a direct hit to the heart.

So accurately imbedded are these characters that you will not soon

forget them… nor will you want to.

~Sheila

Teddy Overman found from a young age that she had a passion for taking the old and abandoned treasures she found in furniture and making them unique and new. It was always exciting to find something broken down along side a garbage dumpster or in a ditch like a chair or end table and work her magic into restoring it to something to be loved again. Teddy’s mother felt differently and encouraged her daughter to take up other interests like typing so she could be a secretary with a steady pay check, but Teddy’s love or restoring did not waver.

Teddy’s brother Josh had a heart for animals. He would go out of his way to rescue the abandoned and the abused… in a way, the siblings had similar hearts. As Teddy felt she could see into the heart of a piece of furniture and see what is could be, Josh felt he could hear the animals and nature call to him. That call was so strong that one day he left his home… and never returned again. As time goes by and days pass into years the family has no choice but to think that Josh has surely died out in the elements.

As Teddy grows to be an adult she finds she can full fill her passion for working with furniture in a shop that has a delightful cast of characters that not only work along side her, but frequent the shop. Each one as unique and beautiful as the furniture she loves. When tragedy strikes and Teddy finds herself driving that familiar road back to her childhood home signs lead to the fact that Josh may be alive.

Trapped between her past and her future, Teddy must decide what is true and to be held on to, and what must be let go.

**Beth Hoffman and I in New York (Book Expo) 2011**

Holy cheese on a cracker. Or something like that. Looking For Me spoke to my heart in so many ways I do not even know where to begin. I wanted to read this book because I enjoyed Beth Hoffman’s debut in Cee Cee Honeycutt, a sweet as sweet tea story that made me long to keep Cee Cee in my circle of fictitious friends. When Looking For Me was on its way into my hot little hands I am pretty sure I watched the mail box every day for a week.

Looking For Me was everything I had hoped it would be … every bit as strongly written as Cee Cee Honeycutt but also more. Looking For Me has a sharp edge to it, one that is tamed a bit by the southern feel and location of the book, but it is there all the same and it is a good thing. The book deals with family disappointments, loss, reaching for your dreams, taking the road less traveled, love, heartbreak, friendships, and letting go – in some cases; all of the above.

I laughed and cheered Teddy on – strong willed and self assured (even when she was faking it) I found a bit of me in her. I would also have to say I cried… at least twice while reading this book. There are subjects that always hit a bit close to home for me, and not in a bad way. I love a book that makes you feel.. that makes you want to pick it up again and again…

Looking For Me was that book. One of the most impactful books I have read this year. If you are looking for such a read to enjoy while spending time in the sun or curled up with a blanket in a cozy chair, please consider Looking For Me to be that book.

Morning Meanderings… One Fun Weekend

Published on July 20, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)24 Comments

Good morning! I am enjoying a seriously wonderful weekend and I hope you are too. This is the last of the quiet lay back weekends until the second weekend in September (and that is Al’s birthday so who knows). This next weekend I am at the cabin with my son, then the 1sr weekend of August is the Camp bike ride, then Wisconsin mud run weekend, then Library sale, camp week, Wine and Words and then camping the final weekend of August. The first weekend of September brings on another bike ride and a fall kick off party.

It’s all things I really enjoy… its just a bit overwhelming when you look at it as a whole.

Last weekend was a lot of fun and that is what I wanted to share with you today. My college son and I spent time in the cities together doing back to back 5k’s – both were messy… both were fun. For Saturday Snapshot I thought I would share some of the moments:

R1-07003-0000_0001 — **On Saturday July 13th we joined 1700 people for the Go Commando 5k**

R1-07003-0015 — **My son Justin going over the big spools**

R1-07003-0019 — **…Justins was better.**

R1-07003-0029 — **Moving on up in the world**

R1-07003-0012 — **The mud crawl to the finish…**

R1-07003-0016 — **My big splash – yes, that is me under the mud… somewhere**

Ok, as I posted these pictures I realized there are way to may fun pics for me to put the two events into this post. Next Saturday I will post the Color Run pics. Also fun… very colorful. 😀

Note: No books were harmed in the making of this event.

For more Saturday Snapshots, pop in at West Metro Mommy to see what others are taking pictures of and add your own if you wish 😀

Today… I have this master to do list that has been accumulating and multiplying for weeks. I wrote it all out yesterday and started chipping away at it then and will continue to do so through Monday. I plan on working on that until about noon, possibly taking a bike ride and then later reading Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger.

What’s your Saturday looking like?

Restrike by Reba White William

Published on July 18, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)7 Comments

Cousins from North Carolina, Coleman and Dinah know how to find trouble.

When the cousins move to New York to follow their love for art, Coleman finds herself in the position of editor of a sweet and popular arts magazine, while Dinah becomes owner of a Gallery in Greenwich Village. The jobs are of course exciting and cause the girls to feel on top of their game until trouble brews within the integrity of an employee at the magazine and due to a poor location, sales are floundering at the art gallery.

Enter Hayward Baine, a millionaire in the art field and possibly (hopefully) the answer to the cousins prayers. Yet once again trouble strikes as an art dealer turns up dead and Baine suddenly is posing questions as to him possible involvement…

Life…

is never dull.

Restrike was brought to my attention by its fun cover and quirky synopsis. Easily labeled a cozy mystery, Restrike poses an occasional “snort out loud” fun humor with an engagingly light story line. Being from a small town and having had the opportunity to see New York as well, the story was interesting to see this huge change in zip code play out.

Coleman and Dinah are fun characters and Restrike is their debut…. from what I hear, there is more to come and for that I am glad.

Restrike makes for a good summer read that is not overpowering, but light and enjoyable as a beach read or one to definitely toss in with the luggage for vacation. Versatile as it is – enjoy it curled up on a stormy night as well with a really good bowl of popcorn.

Thank you to TLC book tours who brought me to a world

that was fun to walk through with the cousins.

Morning Meanderings… It’s Me… Not You.

Published on July 18, 2013July 18, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)14 Comments

Good morning! Yes I am alive.. no broken bones, no disappearance in the Bermuda Triangle…. none of that. I have just been busy. (Not a shocker if you know me 😀 ).

Between bike rides, mud runs, work, volunteering, Library, Wine and Words, time with family, commitments to my home(like mowing the lawn and laundry…) , running in the mornings (yes week 3 and still on track!), and this week helping out with an evening kids camp, I find little time to blog.

I do not think there is any fear of me leaving the blogesphere – I am still reading and listening to audio and have reviews to write… it’s just when I finally stop moving at night around (9:30 or 10 pm) I find I can not wrap my mind around writing intelligent and interesting reviews. For that I am sorry as I have read some GOOD books!

In August I have something every weekend. A big bike ride, the fall library sale, a mud run in Wisconsin, a week-long camp, Wine and Words, and ending with our annual trip to the cabin with friends. Life will slow down again friends…

This morning this happened:

Nothing like replacing the coffee grounds with flax-seed….. mmm hmmmm… bags look a little alike and they are in the same cupboard. Thankfully I seen this before I went to brew… 😉

I miss commenting, I miss blog time, I miss gushing about the hot books you must read…. and I am coming back. Thanks for hanging with me. 😀

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on July 14, 2013July 14, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)23 Comments

I have been absent this week – I have been gone all weekend running 5k’s with my college son, here’s a picture of the one we finished today – the Color Run.

I just came back into town after 8:00 p.m. tonight so I am going to just let you know I have reviews to write, I hardly read a thing this week and that’s about it. 😀 Please share what are you are reading by using the link below:

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Have a great week! 🙂

Morning Meanderings…A Dress Made Out Of A Book and The Bookies Have A New Queen!

Published on July 11, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)14 Comments

Good morning! I didn’t meant to drop off the face of the blog there!

Tuesday was our Book Club coronation of the new Queen and I have been so busy this week – home late Tuesday, home late yesterday…. I just didn’t get back here. Now however, late but here… I can give you a bit of low down on the event… As always…. we had to prepare speeches of why we should be Queen… I prepped a power point… here are a couple of samples of that:

**I had a little flashback to our first meeting in August 2001.. the sign I wrote to start a book club and the first book we read.**

**Then I ended with some strange power rapper move….**

Anyhoo… it was fun…

**Brenda’s dress top was made out of BOOK. Yes book. It was awesome!**

Above is a little sample…. and below another sample of the night…

in the end… we had a new Queen

z32 — **Our new Queen – Angie!!!! (Her speech was reading a story she wrote about bookish fairies – and it was soooooo good! (She should publish it!)**

and we are all set for another year…

z40 — **Who’s the dude? Well that is Sharon’s husband and he has been our annual chef – grilling for us each year!**

It was a great night with a great group of girls who I adore. I love this event. I wish I could tell you all the fun speeches of singing, stories, speeches, games, audio, and more. I can’t express how utterly cool I think it is that we all do get into this the way we do – dressing up, planning what we will say….

so wonderful! 😀

Ok work today, maybe a movie later, somewhere in between we are serving the homeless in our community the next few days and with me out of town this weekend I am working to make sure that is all secured into place with volunteers and back up 😀