Book Journey

The Unathorized Guide to BEA ;)

Published on May 19, 2013May 19, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)24 Comments

Their definition: BEA: Book Expo Of America – an event that takes place yearly for book sellers, media, and publishing houses and authors all to mingle together in promoting books that will be coming out yet this year and possibly next spring.

My definition: Heaven for Book Lovers. ♥

I remember that June day in 2009… I received my first comment on what I referred to at the time as my online book journal and I was stunned. How did they find me? Was it spam? It had to be spam! Yes I would click on the link in their name and I would certainly go to a site that would be horrifying inappropriate and probably virus my computer to a fast yet complete death.

I clicked the link anyway….

This moment in June turned my world around forever. I discovered there were others out there like me… book lovers who loved to write reviews, lots of them…. thousands of them…. how silly of me to think I was the only one. 😯

And that my friends is what led to going from online connections with book lovers, to four years ago taking a plane to New York to meet some of these amazing reviewers in person.

My life has never been the same.

If you are new to attending BEA, congratulations! You just found the ticket to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, the key to the Emerald City of Oz, the magic carpet of Aladdin, the platform 9 and 3/4 at Kings Crossing.

However – that first time can be nerve-racking. How do you get to the expo? When should you check in? What happens when you get there? Should I take every book offered me? What should I pack? How do I get the books home without breaking into my life savings? How do I find other book bloggers? What should I wear? Where should I eat? …

Today, I am going to share with you my years of trial and yeah… error. Yet thanks to book bloggers who helped me that first year with similar posts… my trip was a lot more organized and successful than it would have been if I had just gone all solo.

Shall we begin? Hop aboard!

So you are going to BEA…. What To Pack?

The expo is AWESOME! This is a chance to not only meet other book bloggers such as yourself, but its also a chance to meet the wonderful Publishing Houses who send you the books to review as well as some of the AMAZING authors who write those books. That said, you should pack and plan to wear to the expo business casual wear. Capri’s, nice shirts, lite skirts, and nice pants/ dressy jeans. Remember – you are representing your blog. You can plan on more casual wear for your afternoon exploring.

Of course… pack comfy shoes. That is one thing you will hear time and again. You may be used to walking in heals but this is a whole new level. You will literally walk for hours at the expo, stand in lines for book signings, stand while you grab a quick bite to eat (if you stay at the expo to eat seating is very limited – more on that later), you will walk to and from events and many times stand at that event. Trust me… you will be thankful you packed comfy shoes.

Sunglasses, a light jacket/sweater, CAMERA, charger, sunscreen….

Flat boxes and shipping tape. If you have room in your suitcase flatten out a box to haul books in. The box is optional – the shipping tape I would say is not. Toss in a roll or two… trust me – when we get to the book shipping section you will understand.

You are in New York and in your hotel. Now what?

Ha. I used this picture last year but it still reminds me of myself year one. You have made it to New York. Congratulations my friend – mental high-five! But now you need to know how to get to the expo.

Every year I have stayed in the vicinity on Times Square and every year I have walked to the Expo and back. I can experience and see so much more by walking then by whizzing by in a taxi. Of course that is my preference… and of course, I am close enough to do that.

SO for starters, find out where you are and where that is to the Expo. See if your hotel has a shuttle… or check out the subway schedules. Basically secure your plan for Expo days.

If you have arrived a day or two earlier than the expo… explore a little. New York has so much to see… there are wonderful shows playing, great places to eat (a fav of mine is Yum Yum… just a few blocks from my hotel and oh so good!), exhibits to see and over all just fun to explore!

Day 1…. The Expo!!!!

Mmmmm Hmmmmm. There it is. The Javits Center in all of its glory. I get up early. I walk a few blocks to a Dunkin Donut and get a BIG coffee. Yes they have a Starbucks in the Javits, however the line is like people have not had caffeine in a month. 😛

So first off…. you go in and get your badge. Go early – get in line… get the badge. The badge is the ticket to get you into the expo. You will need this every day… this is, your magic ticket to all things BEA. 😀

Next up… the waiting game. I personally like to go early – it’s a time to people watch. The first year I went I waited in a long line and when the doors opened (hours later….) I was shoved in with the crowd into a table and handed a book. It was… weird. Second year… I was smarter. I avoided that line like the plague. I hung out still… but talked with people, walked around and after that initial surge of people went in… I casually walked in, not pushed… just taking my own sweet time and seeing what I want to see.

What you are about to experience is amazing. I still struggle to put it into words. There are books – EVERYWHERE. And many are there for you to take…. which leads me to my next point… and this one is important…

Oh The Expo! Oh The Books! Book Blogger Etiquette!

Yes the Expo is fantastic for those of us who love love love books. Yes, I did refer to it as Heaven for book lovers. And yes, I too get excited about all the books, all the authors, all the opportunities to come home with enough reading to last you the year… and that is where I ask you to think before you take.

I know, this may go against your very nature of going to the expo. I know this might just have me knocked off your “bloggers I wish to follow list”…. but before you delete me…. hear me out. My second year at the expo I, as well as many of the book bloggers I admire, witnessed something ugly. There was a group of book bloggers – young book bloggers, who were pushing their way through lines, grabbing books, verbally angry if they did not get the book they wanted and all out behaving badly. We as book bloggers were embarrassed. Publishing houses were angry and a murmur started about book bloggers just grabbing books. It was bad bad bad.

My third year at the expo I overheard a girl with a bloggers badge talk about how she was going to recover her cost of the flight and hotel in books and what they were worth. I checked out what blog she was from (it will be on your name badge) and once home I checked out her blog. Sure enough she had the books she picked up and their value posted next to them. I was sick to my stomach.

All this said, please…. represent well. Take books you plan to read and say thank you don’t just grab. It is a privilege that we are able to attend this event, not a right. The publishing houses want the books out there to start a buzz about them as we read and review them. I know we will not get to all of them, but we should be selecting the books we take in the mindset that we will try to read and review it.

Thank you. 😀

How Do I Get The Books Home?

My first year at the expo was an eye opener. When it was time to get a box for my books I went to the conveniently located Fed Ex on the main floor of the expo. I boxed up my books (I can not recall if they charged me for the box or not), taped it shut, filled out the paperwork and $65 later I walked away stunned at the price. The next day I tried the UPS that was located in the downstairs area of the expo. The box was bigger, but it was about the same price to ship the books home. WOW. 😯

So while both of these are convenient, by the end of the expo I had a much better (and cost effective plan). At the end of the day I would take my books to the Post Office. There is one close to the Expo, and there is one up by the hotels by Times Square as well. For $30, and that was including insurance, I could send a LARGE box of books to my house.

Moral of this story, while Fed Ex and UPS are convenient and serve a purpose in a pinch, note they both have around a $20 handling fee tacked on for the convenience.

*Note this is where the box and packing tape come in. At the post office they will charge you for a box and they will charge you to but their shipping tape. I always bring my own tape and when I am done I give it away to another book blogger at the post office who would otherwise have to buy tape to package their books.

Stretching your Dollars!

My first time to New York friends had told me that it was very expensive there. They said that meals could cost in the $50 range and that had me a little nervous. I do not spend $50 on food. Well, as in anywhere you go, you certainly could spend $50 on a meal if you wanted to… but I also found that their pricing varied just as much as where I live in Minnesota…. you can find food at all prices.

I mentioned before that I love Yum Yum (Thai food). That is a must stop for me. For around $15 you get an appetizer, choice of soup or salad, a main course and a desert (the green tea ice cream is fantastic!) You can find pizza by the slice, salads, you name it… you can spend $5 on lunch easy.

The Expo offers food there but it does come with a price. I ate the Chinese food their last year for lunch one day and it was close to $15. I quickly found if you could find a buddy to go out to one of the restaurants in the area. Not only is it a break from the busy expo, but it is a chance to sit down and talk and eat something tasty for a fair price.

Networking People!

Part of the fun of the expo is meeting other bloggers! If you get the chance to connect with others at dinner, events, where ever, I recommend you do so. Introduce yourself and have a blast! One way to do that is fill out the form for the Blogger Connection list and recently I heard about a Blogger Picnic planned!

Have a way to keep track of where you are supposed to be and when!

For many of the Expo attendees invites to open houses and author events may sprinkle through your time in New York and more may pop up while you are there. Keep a small notebook handy to jot down information such as date time and address. This is also handy to capture someone elses information.

Branding…. and a picture please 😛 Do you know me?

If you read this blog you probably have a pretty good idea of what I look like. Why? Because my picture is on the right sidebar and used as part of my morning meandering post. Why do that? By putting my face on the blog, people who read me feel as though they know me. For me, I think it increases a comfort with the writer, a feeling you know them and that is why I do it. It also helps when you go to bookish events such as the expo for people to know you. When people approach me, they know me by my face. Many times, I have to read their Blog Name on their name badge (which inevitably is turned the other way… gah!) to know who I am speaking with.

Now I totally get that many of you do not want your face on your blog and I understand that. However…. consider, if you are looking to connect with other bloggers putting your picture up just for this week and the week of the expo. It will help people who read you, find you, otherwise you may pass a loyal reader 20 times at the expo and never realize that is who they are.

Just my thoughts on that.

Also, bring a business card. My first year I heard that and I thought why would you do that? But I made them and found out that many of the bloggers you connect with and even authors and publishers, are grateful to have a way to contact you . When I made the card below, that was my heard at the time and I felt that really identified me with my blog… after all, we do identify a blog layout to a person…. its true! When people chance up their blogs and I pop in to see what they are writing, I am suddenly disoriented and have to check that I am on the right blog. (I know… I am weird 😛 )

BEA attendees who have gone before please feel free to add to this list. Newbies, please feel free to ask anything I may have forgotten. 😀

Morning Meanderings…. Exciting Books And Judging Begins!

Published on May 19, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)6 Comments

Good morning! Happy Sunday! I was watching Harry Potter last night, Order Of The Phoenix and I love that when they take Christmas break he tells them all “Happy Christmas!” I love that! I am from the “Merry Christmas” part of the world but totally want to change it up! Perhaps I should say “Merry Sunday” to you!

Perhaps… I should quit rambling. 😛

I left the house on Friday early afternoon for a short trip to the cabin up North. Not short in driving… it was almost 4 hours (one way) with the road construction which is always a sign of spring in Minnesota, but short as in I only stayed overnight and returned later Saturday afternoon. I went to check on things as I have not been there since January and watched two movies, ‘Grown Ups’ and ‘Jump The Broom’, and then proceeded to get deep into the book Confessions Of A Prairie Bitch by Alison Arngrim (Nellie Olson). Possible review up later today.

For the last few weeks I have been planning a Sunday post with the books that have come in the house and week after week I seem like I never get the post up – SO…. here it is. The books that have arrived over the past three weeks:

A couple of the books, With A Name Like Love and Wreath are for the INSPY Award judging. I am a judge in the YA category. There are 5 books to read total for that. Houdini was a find I picked up at a sale on Friday. When I made my purchase the elderly man running the sale told me to “not try the stunts inside”…LOL How did he know?

So there we are. A little over a week out from BEA, I will be flying into New York next Tuesday morning. If you are also going to BEA please look me up and say hi! I will be watching my twitter @bookjourney for messages and the Blogger Connection list that people have signed up on will be going out later today or tomorrow.

The Kill Order by James Dashner

Published on May 18, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)1 Comment

Before anyone ever heard of the Glade, something was happening in our world…

creating The Kill Order.

~Sheila

Before the Glade and The Maze of Maze Runner ever existed… Thomas knew there was something else… he has seen the images of memory flicker across his mind; always fleeting, always unable to grasp….

what was the world like he has come from?

A disease has come into the world. It comes quickly as if from nowhere but the results are devastating. Those in contact with this virus feel as though there is something crawling within their mind… they become monstrous in action and no one is safe… possibly crippling out world as we knew it forever.

Mark and Trina feel there is a way to save those yet infected… and as they are about to find out – they will give it all to succeed.

The Kill Order is the new(ish) prequel to Maze Runner. Having recently listened to Maze Runner on audio and loving it… I went this direction and listened to this one next – not following up (yet) with the two remaining books.

Coming fresh off Maze Runner, it was interesting to read about what those in the Maze Runner kept eluding too… a world they longed for but at the same time had memories that things were not so great of where they came from. James Dashner writes a brilliant prequel that I felt filled in the mysterious gaps left in Maze Runner.

Well written, fast paced, and wonderfully narrated by Mark Deakins again.

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

Published on May 15, 2013May 15, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)17 Comments

An ocean cannot separate the love of a mother to a child…

~Sheila

Tom Sherbourne carries with him many ghosts of his past but his current life and future looks bright. Tom meets the lovely Isabel and upon their marriage they move out to Janus Rock where they live an isolated life and Tom works as the Lighthouse keeper. Visitors are few and a supply boat comes once every few months.

As the years go on, Isabel suffers through a series of miscarriages, each one leaving her a little more fragile. Then, shortly after Isabel’s third miscarriage, a cry is heard in the wind.

A babies cry.

What Tom and Isabel discover is that a boat has washed upon shore and in it a dead man and a crying baby girl. Tom wishes to report this right away, but Isabel suddenly snaps out of her depression state and feels that the baby must be a gift from God and despite Tom’s uncertainty, Isabel names the child Lucy and for the next three years they raise her as their own. As Isabel grows more and more happy, Tom starts to think that perhaps she was right and he too loves Lucy and takes her in his heart as his own.

When they do make the trip into shore on that third year, they discover the whole story of the man they found in the boat that day… and somewhere close, a woman… a mother… grieves for the disappearance of her husband and baby daughter. Torn between what is right and what feels right… Tom feels they must do the right thing, while Isabel feels that she is the child’s mother and that is the right thing.

There is so many levels of depth to this book that it is hard to know where to begin. Obviously, the heart of the story lies within baby Lucy, a child found at an infant age and knows no one else but Tom and Isabel. Tie the isolation of where they live in with that scene and you have a trio of people who rely literally on one another for safety, comfort, companionship, and of course… family.

This is of course what makes M.L. Stedman’s book stand out. When you enter in the real mother to Lucy… a grieving mother whose heart is broken over the loss of her daughter, the lines between right and wrong get a little blurry…. AND reader, before you say “Oh, there is no blurry line for me, I know exactly what I would do!”, you would need to read this book first and then tell me again… what would you do?

The levels of depth I mention in The Light Between Oceans is exactly what sets it apart from perhaps other books of its kind. By the time M. L. Stedman is done tugging at your heart in one way and then another… you, like me, may find what you thought you would do… not what you are hoping and praying for as you turn each page.

Filled with moral, legal, painful, heart impacted decisions – The Light Between Oceans makes for a great book to discuss with friends and still rethink it on your own.

Bookies Thoughts…

My book club read this as our May read and we came up with as a whole that the book does indeed leave a mark. While some found it predictable and pretty non eventful until the end, others found it to be an interesting take on the situation. Of course, the moral discussion was a big topic and as a group we created our own loop hope of how we would handle it which of course, would not have been as interesting to read about… but certainly easier on the heart. 😀

Morning Meanderings… The Bookies In The Pink

Published on May 15, 2013May 15, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)4 Comments

Good morning! Happy Wednesday… yes my friends, we are at the half way mark for the week! 😀

Last night was our May book club meeting. We were meeting at a restaurant and we had a plan. One of our lovely members had just shared with us a couple weeks ago that she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Last Wednesday she underwent surgery… last night… we all went Pink for her.

Mmmm hmmmm… love these gals! 😀

The book we reviewed? The Light Between Oceans was a “wow oh wow” discussion. That review will be up later today.

So… I am out of town all day today, meeting at 7:30 am and car pooling to another get together and will be back tonight around 10 pm. L O N G D A Y. I need to take a book…. 😀

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on May 12, 2013May 12, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)31 Comments

Welcome to It’s Monday! What Are You Reading! This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

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. I offer a weekly contest for those who visit 10 or more of the Monday Meme participants and leave a comment telling me how many you visited. **You do not have to have a blog to participate! You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.

Under the new and hopefully improved 2013 guidelines, the winner each week will receive a $5 Amazon gift card. This past weeks winner is:

*no winner… no one signed up for it 😛

What a fun week! I had a library Friends board meeting, a fund raiser for the Library that raised $850.00, College son came to town and we had lunch and went rollerblading, a board meeting for Camp, and the BIG Survivor Finale tonight so a pretty good week! 😀 As far as the blog, well this is what happened here:

Return To Sullivan Island by Dorothy Benton Frank

While We Were Watching Downton Abbey by Wendy Wax (So much fun!)

For fishing opener a Fish Story

More to The Harry Potter story… it may be fan fiction.., but it’s also a Potter hit!

The Maze Runner by James Dashner (oooh its about time I read this one!)

It was a pretty good week… I actually posted, that was fun 😀 . AND I am actually reading and moving forward on audio which feels like it has been a long time coming. So here is what I am reading/listening to:

At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over working in teams. It is to introverts—Rosa Parks, Chopin, Dr. Seuss, Steve Wozniak– that we owe many of the great contributions to society.

In Quiet, Susan Cain argues that we dramatically undervalue introverts and shows how much we lose in doing so. She charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal throughout the twentieth century and explores how deeply it has come to permeate our culture. She also introduces us to successful introverts–from a witty, high-octane public speaker who recharges in solitude after his talks, to a record-breaking salesman who quietly taps into the power of questions. Passionately argued, superbly researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people, Quiet has the power to permanently change how we see introverts and, equally important, how they see themselves.

This is so me… I started this one a while ago and I am getting back to it now. It really in interesting and accurate.

American life can be excessive, to say the least. That’s what Jen Hatmaker had to admit after taking in hurricane victims who commented on the extravagance of her family’s upper middle class home. She once considered herself unmotivated by the lure of prosperity, but upon being called “rich” by an undeniably poor child, evidence to the contrary mounted, and a social experiment turned spiritual was born.

7 is the true story of how Jen (along with her husband and her children to varying degrees) took seven months, identified seven areas of excess, and made seven simple choices to fight back against the modern-day diseases of greed, materialism, and overindulgence.

Food. Clothes. Spending. Media. Possessions. Waste. Stress. They would spend thirty days on each topic, boiling it down to the number seven. Only eat seven foods, wear seven articles of clothing, and spend money in seven places. Eliminate use of seven media types, give away seven things each day for one month, adopt seven green habits, and observe “seven sacred pauses.” So, what’s the payoff from living a deeply reduced life? It’s the discovery of a greatly increased God—a call toward Christ-like simplicity and generosity that transcends social experiment to become a radically better existence.

I have been fascinated about this book since I heard or if… now its time to read it!

How about you? What are you reading this week? Add you link below!

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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

Maze Runner by James Dashner

Published on May 12, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)10 Comments

While Suzanne Collins had kids fighting kids to the death in The Hunger Games, James Dashner had kids fighting for their lives in a world they did not understand in Maze Runner.

~Sheila

Thomas has no idea how he got here… or where he came from. When he awakens in the lift he is surrounded by other kids about his early-teen age all curious about him and welcoming him to the Glade.

The Glade?

As Thomas tried to make sense of things he realizes about all he does recall is his name. The Glade, he learns, is a protective area that surrounds the Maze… and the Maze is dangerous. The Glade is surrounded by a protective stone wall that opens on its own accord during the day and closes at dusk. You do not want to be outside the Glade and caught in the Maze when the doors close.

Just as Thomas is trying to process the details of this new and scary home that apparently delivers a new boy (only boys) every 30 days by the same life that Thomas arrives in…. things change.

The next day the lift delivers another person – 29 days earlier then it ever has before and this time…

it is a girl.

And she comes with a message “this is the last one.”

As everyone scrambles to figure out what all this means, Thomas has this eerie feeling that he knows this girl from somewhere in his past. He also gets the feeling that id he shared this information with the boys he has met so far in the Glade it would not serve him well.

As days progress ans things continue to change in the Glade everyone starts looking at Thomas as for two years things have been exactly the same and now, with his arrival things have become different. For starters – no one goes out in the Maze overnight and lives to tell the story, but one night, Thomas finds himself outside the stones walls, no way to get back in until morning…

and Thomas learns quickly why no one goes into the Maze overnight as there are creatures that want nothing more than to end his life and everyone else inside The Glade.

James Dashner and me (SSSQQQUUUEEE!) Book Expo 2012

Ever since I went to the Book Expo last year and met James Dashner I knew I wanted to read him. When an author comes across as witty and funny as he does, you want to know if they write in the same manner.

For the record… he does.

Maze Runner evoked images of Hunger Games. While Maze Runner is not kids fighting each other for survival it is kids fighting an unknown force, and I felt that same sense of awe and anticipation as I wondered what would happen next and who would be the victor.

While I really enjoyed the story line and how right from the start you are filled with questions… “How did Thomas get the Glade? Where was he before he arrived? Why are everyone’s memories wiped when they arrive? Are people families looking for these boys? What really is the Maze?” I have to say that the characters were not as developed as I typically like. I like to get a real feeling for who they are and while Thomas did come close, the rest felt more gingerbread man flat and I could not work up and extended emotions for them as I would have liked.

While the book has been on my shelf for years, shortness of time pushed me forward into listening to this one on audio. Mark Deakin did an excellent job with narration.

I can not say I absolutely loved the book, I did however like it very much and think it would make an interesting movie. Set to be a movie in 2014, this is one I would want to see.

Highly engaging (and addicting) I am looking forward to the second book in the trilogy, The Scorch Trials.

Morning Meanderings… What Rock Is This Thy Crawled Out From Underneath?

Published on May 12, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)11 Comments

Good morning!

Last night I was reading the blog of a new follower and was reading a list of books she was looking into when she had made a comment about one that caught my attention. She was speaking on Cassandra Clare (Mortal Instrument series) and she was saying that she liked her even though she did not approve of the whole fanlore things and Harry Potter.

Well… if you know me at all, you know the words that stuck out for me were Hatty Potter. I knew nothing of this so started my internet snooping late last night and found information on the Fanlore site (who knew?) regarding her trilogy she wrote called The Draco Trilogy.

Well seriously! Where have I been – calling myself this big Potter head – movies, books, tours, board games…. and not ever having heard of this? Why do I not own a time turner to go back in time and find these books and read them… and if you are wondering why I dont read them now…

they appear to have been deleted off the site.

As the site says:

Author’s summary: “When Hermione is kidnapped, Harry and Draco must team up to rescue her from a thousand-year-old evil that threatens the entire wizarding world. Cursed demon swords, love potions, time travel, dementors, flying dragons, Draco wears leather, and everybody dies at least once. Except when they don’t.”

It also says the trilogy only appeared on line for about two weeks before the author pulled them to start her own writing career. SO….. riddle me this:

Did you know of these books?

Did you read these books?

And most importantly… do you know anyone who downloaded the books? 😛

Morning Meanderings… A Fish Story

Published on May 11, 2013May 11, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)36 Comments

Good morning. It’s Saturday in Minnesota! From what I seen on Facebook this morning it was also snowing earlier. SNOWING. 😯 I think I may have slept through it. After two incredibly busy days – work, library fund-raiser, work again, Mankato son hang out lunch and rollerblading and a board meeting for camp last night… I just wanted to stay still for a while. SO I did. 😀

Today in Minnesota is also fishing opener which is the oddest opener ever as our lakes are still icy. Al (hubby) and I are not fisher people so it doesn’t really affect us but the weird weather is still annoying.

In honor of fishing opener and Alyce’s Saturday Snapshots. I thought I would give you an honest to goodness Fish Story…

and here it is.

In 1979 while my dad was in Alaska visiting relatives he caught a King Chinook Salmon. The salmon weighed 62 pounds and 4 oz and 52 1/2 inches. When he returned to Minnesota he left the fish there to be stuffed and mounted to be sent home at a later time.

In January of 1980 my family went through a house fire that took the lives of my father and 5-year-old sister, Tara. I lost my dad and sister and our entire home and everything in it in one swoop. My mom and I were the only ones who made it out.

Now – I don’t tell you this to make you feel bad, I tell you, because it is a part of this story…

When my uncle Dallas came to the funeral, he brought the fish with him. Dad had never seen it after it was mounted but it was in our new home from that day forward, hanging on the wall. When I was married, mom passed the fish on to me and to this day it hangs on one of my walls. It fits no decor in my home but it is not coming down and as you can imagine it is quite the conversation piece as no one believes that it is real. 😀 It makes me smile as I have hardly anything that belonged to my dad, it was all lost in the fire…

When people come over, they think it is fake.

but I have this humongous fish…. and the story. And that works for me.

This post was made for Saturday Snapshot and is hosted by Alyce and At Home With Books.

*pictures of dad with the fish are saved from a partial album that was in the house during the fire. Several photos survived and while they are burned on many of the edges, we still transferred them to another album that I have to this day.

Today I am hoping to get in some reading time – I have the weekend to read the book club book, The Light Between Oceans by M L Stedman.

While We Were Watching Downton Abbey by Wendy Wax

Published on May 8, 2013May 8, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)16 Comments

You have to love it when you wish the characters in a book were your friends and when that final page is turned.. you know you will miss them.

~Sheila

Samantha Davis has always and will always be forever grateful to her husband Johnathan who pulled her and her siblings up and out of the way of sure destruction. Johnathan has such a kind heart and deep pockets and does it really matter that when Samantha married him it wasn’t love but appreciation? Now, years later, with her two siblings still trying to find ways to keep sucking money out of Johnathan, Samantha is starting to see things a lot more clearly – including her own marriage.

Claire Walker, author of two books and newly empty nester as her daughter moves on thinks she is ready to write her third book and how easy it will be now with no one in her new apartment to disturb her… but oddly, words have never been harder to put on paper….

Brooke Mackenzie could use a break. After her plastic surgeon husband moved the two of them and their two children and dog into their new place, he shortly there after took up with a woman who would let him use his skills with a knife. Brooke had always refused, feeling she should be loved for who she was… not who he could make her. Now Brooke battles her ex husbands lack of commitment to his children. Will she ever find happiness and her own self-worth?

So what do these three women of varied backgrounds have in common? They all live in the historic Atlanta apartment building known as The Alexander… and while they only have seen each other in passing in the hallways… things are about to change.

When Edward Parker, concierge of The Alexander decides to put together a little weekly gathering of the tenants of the building for screenings of the hit show Downton Abbey, Samantha, Claire, and Brooke, all find themselves seated together. Through refreshments and finger foods, the shows “aha” and laugh out loud moments; these women find out what true friendship can be like..

all while they were watching Downton Abbey.

I admit it. The title drew me. After having watched the first three seasons of Downton Abbey and LOVING it… finding a book that would keep my Abbey loving heart-moving forward was a plus.

While We Were Watching Downton Abbey was truly a fun book to read. I loved the diversity of the three main female characters and I loved seeing the different lives play out chapter by chapter of the women and of Edward as well. It was easy to follow and unlike many books with multiple lead characters, I felt as though I knew each one, from Samantha’s need to feel like the perfect wife, to Claire’s inability to function with a hovering deadline for her book, to Brooke’s unruly red hair, to Edwards pride in his company and what it stood for.

In the end, I wished I lived in The Alexander and that I too could meet up with Samantha, Claire, and Brooke over cocktails and laughter and of course… Downton Abbey.

A fun, engaging read.

*If you have not watched the first two seasons of Downton Abbey, you are going to want to do so before reading this book. The book does talk a little of the show and some of it could be considered spoilers.