Book Journey

Morning Meanderings… I was never a reluctant reader… but I was a non reader

Published on April 26, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)13 Comments

Good morning!

This morning while sipping on my coffee using THAT CUP you see above, I was reading Shelf Awareness and reading some of the stories that surround World Book Night. I enjoy reading about the reluctant readers who received a book this past week and who are curiously (hopefully excitedly) cracking open that book and falling into a story.

I love that imagery of “falling in” because that has happened to me so many times before. 😀

As I sit here this morning ignoring the clock and the fact that I still need to do my 4 minute express workout before prepping for my day (a promise I made to myself), I think back over my history with books.

Books have pretty much always been there for me although I do not come from a family of readers. Neither my mom or my dad were readers, I only had my sister for 5 years and during that time she was not a reader…. I wonder now if she would have loved books the way I did and the way I do….

As a child – I think life circumstances brought me to books. I was an only child until the age of 7 with two working parents. People didn’t travel then as much as they do now and I found my way around the world through books. As a kid it was Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, and The Little House On The Prairie Books. As middle grade it was more like Judy Blume (there was not a lot of great choices for middle grade and YA then like there is now).

I remember I fell away from books in High School when life was BUSY and homework, friends and boys called my name… when I had my first real job and driving was suddenly an option.

After High School when I was living on my own and holding down a job I went back to books and stayed there through my twenties finding Dean Koontz, and Stephen King to my liking for mysteries and crazy suspense…. I think I dropped off a bit as the boys became involved in sports and boy scouts … and then back again as they became involved in their own lives and branched out… by then I was in the Bookies and book doors had opened wider than I ever thought they would.

The cool thing about book clubs I think you will agree, is that you will read a book that you may never have chosen for yourself or by yourself. Book Clubs stretch our reading and boy… .mine did that for me! I love watching people come into our book club with a “I do not read this, and I won’t read that….” and months later they are reading this and that and enjoying it.

Books change people.

Well… the rest of my book life is history. Books led me to book club, book club led me to blogging, blogging led me to you fellow readers, and book expos and author events and well….

That’s my train of thought this morning. Books are amazing. Readers are amazing. It’s almost like we take on an extra dimension in our way of thinking in our way of relating….

ahhhhh….. books 😀

Morning Meandering…. The Day After WBN and the Virus Monster

Published on April 24, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)29 Comments

Good morning! Wednesday right? Its been a pretty sweet week so far. Last night, or yesterday I guess, was World Book Night… my second year participating, the second year in the United States.

My quest…..

to hand out 20 copies of John Green’s Looking for Alaska.

My day began like this…

I stopped at the gas station to get a cup of ice (mmmm hmmmmmm…. that’s what I do….). I was wearing the “I am a book giver” sticker and when I checked out the lady behind the counter said “Ok, I will ask, what is a book giver?”

Now… as much fun as it would have been right there to go all sci-fi YA dystopian on her, have my face fall off to reveal a creature that laughs high and shrill and screeches “It is a VIRUS! And you are now one of us!”….

Instead I (Sheila, me… not virus monster) responded “I am so glad you asked!” I explained what WBN was.

“Oh,” she said… “I am not much of a reader”.

Again… Virus monster wanted to jump up on the counter, green spittle flying everywhere and say in that same creepy shrill voice, “Oh…. but you are now my dear….. you are now!”

But alas, no, just Sheila said “That is perfect! That is what WGN is about, and you obviously have never read John Green!” I shared with her about the book I had, which was in my purse and handed her a copy.

“I suppose I could give it a try.” she said.

“Touchdown!” yelled Virus Monster raising his long finger nailed green hands high over his head in triumph.

“That’s great,” I said and went on my way to work.

😀

And so my day went like that. I found a young boy in the library with his mom – no no no…. she was the reader, not he… and no no no I was not handing out my books at the library (kind of a cheat don’t you think?) – I was stopping there to pick up books I had reserved…. but I knew the mom, and her son was just along because he had to be.

I talked to him about books and he received one from me too.

The rest was basic hand outs at Costco where I realized quickly my book choice of a YA read did not fit my clientele of 3:30 pm at Costco. These people were busy moms or dads or the older generation who looked at me cautiously like I was going to bring out the Virus Monster again….

I should have taken my chances at pick up time at the high school. 😀

Anyway – as always it was fun and I am so honored to have been a part of it two years in a row! Next year our library is hoping to have a bigger part in WBN and really make a presence in our community.

How about you – did you participate in WBN? If so how did it go? If not, did you see or know any givers in your area?

Morning Meanderings… It is World Book Night!

Published on April 23, 2013April 23, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)21 Comments

Good morning! Would you believe that yesterday I drove home from St Cloud in a snow storm? Well… I did. This is truly the winter that will not quit. Although… we are supposed to be in the 70’s this weekend so who knows. 😯

I was in St Cloud yesterday visiting the ~~Mother Ship~~ Barnes and Noble to pick up my World Book Night books. As today is world book day I know I was pushing the deadline but last week was a whirlwind of activity and St Cloud is an hour away and I did not have those couple of hours that I needed to make the round trip.

And now today… April 23rd, is World Book Night. According to the statistics I read this morning on Shelf Awareness, more than 25,000 givers (like me!) will be out and about today handing out 500,000 free books to lite and non readers. We had 30 titles to choose from. This year was a harder pick for me because I am not choosing the book that I most enjoyed out of this group (although I did enjoy my pick very much!) I was looking for the book that would pull in a non reader. Last years choice was easier as Hunger Games was in the mix and with the movie having recently been released it was a book that had piqued people’s interest.

So…. what did I go with?

John Green’s looking for alaska. Not my favorite by John Green, but still… it is John Green. If given the choice, The Fault In Our Stars would have been the book I would have liked to have given out by him because John Green writes as awesome YA! (Finished that one on audio last year on the 4th of July on the back of a motor cycle, tears running down my face….. yes… it was that awesome!)

So later today after work, I need to go to Costco, and then will be at the gym for Group Power so will work on giving books out in both places. I may move on to the grocery store after that if I have any left.

Oh, and to the Lady I met last year at the bank who I tried to give a copy of Hunger Games and instead wanted to know if I had any copies of 50 Shades Of Gray…. even if that would have been a choice out of the 30, I still would not be handing that one out. 😀 You would have to find a different giver. 😛

Hope you all have a wonderful World Book Day and Night. What a wonderful event and I am sooooo excited to be a part of it.

Dewey Read-A-Thon is coming!!!

Published on April 22, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)9 Comments

The read-a-thon is coming!!! The read-a-thon is coming!!! April 27th is the read-a-thon!!! This is my FAVORITE read-a-thon each year and I am always thrilled if I can participate! Originally it looked like I would not be doing much of the read a thon as I was leaving town Saturday and doing a bike ride on the 28th. Well… life stuff has happened and now I will be in town and unfortunately skipping out on the bike ride due to other commitments, BUT that also means I will be around Saturday for the read-a-thon!!!

So what is the Dewey Read-A-Thon?

Well the event has a wonderful history, while by the time I became involved in this crazy world of book reviews, Dewey was gone, but I absolutely love the tradition that long-term book bloggers have kept going… passing the torch so to speak and keeping the candle over the memory of Dewey and this event eternally lit.

SO….. I am sharing ALL of this with you because it is not too late to join! It doesn’t matter if you can not do all 24 hours. Do what you can – and believe me, setting aside a day to enjoy books is wonderful! AND bloggers offer mini breaks where you can go and do challenges to take a little break and have a chance to win a prize! (I LOVE) the mini breaks 😀

Join me, and many (currently over 300) other book bloggers and book lovers for this event! Check out details and sign up here!

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on April 21, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)29 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:

Joy from Joy’s Book Blog!

(Congratulations! I will email you the gift card)

I have been fairly absent this week. I have an uncle who has been very sick with cancer for over the past year. It has been a long battle for him and I spent time with him and my aunt this past Wednesday when I heard that things were not looking good. I am so glad I did as he passed away on Thursday evening. On Thursday, I was working 13 hours on the Camp Benedict benefit dinner which happened to be in the middle of a snow storm and we still had a wonderful turn out! On Friday morning I had two meetings, and then my friend Amy picked me up and I went with 8 of my girl friends to Breezy Point Minnesota for a fun relaxing girls weekend. The break was needed, and as you can imagine, this week will be busy again.

With all that going on my reading was non-existent but I did get a little audio time in.

Here is what was posted this past week:

Book Expo planning and roommate update

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan (seriously, if you have not read this book I think you must!)

And wow… that was it. That was all I posted. 😯 This week I am pretty much continuing what I already has going but this is my current audio listening…

They’ve spent years at the same high school without speaking a word to one another, but that’s all about to change. Popular Bliss was having the perfect prom until she found her BFF and boyfriend making out in the back of a limo. Bad girl Jolene wouldn’t be caught dead at the prom, yet here she is, trussed up in pink ruffles, risking her reputation for some guy – some guy who is forty minutes late. And shy, studious, über-planner Meg never counted on her date’s standing her up and leaving her idling in the parking lot outside the prom. Get ready for The Anti-Prom, Abby McDonald’s hilarious, heart-tugging tale about three girls and one unforgettable prom night.

A trip to the library in search of audio brought me home with this.

The prequel to the New York Times bestselling Maze Runner series—The Kill Order is a modern classic for fans of The Hunger Games and Divergent. It can be read alone or as a companion to the action-packed series.

Before WICKED was formed, before the Glade was built, before Thomas entered the Maze, sun flares hit the earth and mankind fell to disease.

Mark and Trina were there when it happened, and they survived. But surviving the sun flares was easy compared to what came next.

Now a disease of rage and lunacy races across the eastern United States, and there’s something suspicious about its origin. Worse yet, it’s mutating, and all evidence suggests that it will bring humanity to its knees.

Mark and Trina are convinced there’s a way to save those left living from descending into madness. And they’re determined to find it—if they can stay alive. Because in this new, devastated world, every life has a price. And to some, you’re worth more dead than alive.

James Dashner (my author crush) comes through again with an engaging tale….

So what have you been reading? What will you be reading? I want to know! 😀 Please ass your Its Monday What Are You Reading post to the linky below! Oh and remember, our hashtag is #IMWAYR

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Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

Published on April 20, 2013April 20, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)16 Comments

I have been standing on the side of life, watching it float by. I want to swim in the river. I want to feel the current.

So writes Mamah Borthwick Cheney in her diary as she struggles to justify her clandestine love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright. Four years earlier, in 1903, Mamah and her husband, Edwin, had commissioned the renowned architect to design a new home for them. During the construction of the house, a powerful attraction developed between Mamah and Frank, and in time the lovers, each married with children, embarked on a course that would shock Chicago society and forever change their lives.

~As seen on Amazon

A couple years ago a good friend of mine brought me this book. Her book club had just finished reviewing it and she said it was a “must read!”

The book went to the shelf and although I totally planned on reading it, there is always more books then there is time and two years later that book still is say on my shelf. Recently, I found ‘Loving Frank’ on audio and thought that this may be the way to go on this one.. and I am so glad I did.

Joyce Bean narrates and does a masterful job with the different voices on Mamah (pronounced May – mah), Frank, and the others who gather around their lives.

Frank’s story of his life and his long affair I am ashamed to admit, was all news to me. I had no idea of the mans life beyond his name and the architecture he is known for. I admit, I found his life to be quite interesting. Although he fathered six children with his wife, Frank did not seem to have a paternal bone in his body. Yet more interesting than even Frank, was Mamah. Having left her own husband and children for Frank I think has to be extremely had in that day and age, (not that it would not be now as well.) Beyond that Mamah believes a woman has a right to her own life and not just as a wife and mother. She is years ahead of her time in the feminist movement and something about her odd convictions made me want to know more about her.

Loving Frank is engaging and the best of historical fiction when it is done right. I enjoyed the book and was blown away with the ending which has my Googling like crazy to find out more.

Morning Meanderings… Going to BEA and Roomies in Da House…. errr… Hotel!

Published on April 16, 2013April 16, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)28 Comments

As you may remember, the last few weeks I have been looking for a roommate for BEA (Book Expo America). This year none of my roomies of the past years are attending, and I think the roommate piece can be one of the hardest parts of going to BEA.

Why?

First I have to put out there on-line that I am looking for a roommate…. (muy awkward!) Maybe it’s because I am from central Minnesota, but it always takes me some time to put out on twitter and on the blog that I am looking for a roommate. I remember the first year I went to BEA and I was telling my friend about my three roommates, none of who I had ever met. She looked at me like I was a little crazy…. our conversation went something like this…

Friend: SO…. you don’t know any of these book bloggers you are staying with in New York.

Me: Well, I read their blogs…. and I have seen their pictures. And we have emailed back and forth.

Friend: Uh… huh. SO….. how do you know they are who they say they are?

Me: What do you mean?

Friend: Well… what if one of them is a dude?

Me: WHAT? That won’t happen. Seriously these are long time bloggers.

Friend: But what if say “Bookalicious Blogger” (fictional blog name I think – if not I apologize) is really a big guy named Mack?

Me: …………….. I know, I know… if things were reversed and if you told me that you were going to a state you had never been to before to room with people for a week that you have never met I would think you were nuts.

Anyhoo….. my roommates were AWESOME and there is one thing I have noticed every time I have gone to BEA (this is my 4th year), Book Bloggers are real. I have never met a book blogger yet that I have walked away thinking, “wow… they are so different on-line….” Nope. Everyone has been just like they write – if they are funny on the blog – they are funny in person. They are the most amazing group of people…

So enough on BEA past…. let’s go to BEA present…

After my final looking for a roommate post last week, stating my credentials (I am easy-going, house broken, do not shed, and promise not to take up a lot of space….) I received an email from Stacy from The Novel Life. She was also looking for a roommate and we had met each other in 2011 at a blogger dinner about 20 of us went to one night after an event.

“whew” I thought, I know her! That makes it so much easier.

About an hour later I received an email from Cindy from Cindy’s Love Of Books. She too was looking at the possibility of a roommate.

“Awesome” I thought, last year we were in the same hotel and we had laughed about how we kept running into each other. On our final evening in New York last year my roomies and Cindy’s roomies got together for dinner and hung out.

Then – as Cindy is going into New York earlier than Stacy and I, Cindy took the reins and went to planning. I won’t lay out all the details and the emails back and forth while we tried to decide on a place but I will say that Cindy put a lot of work looking into hotel rates vs. renting an apartment and finally we wound up right back where we were last year. It’s perfect. We know the hotel, we like the continental breakfast choices and it is close to the Javits Center.

Now that the hard part is over (I always get nervous about the booking, signing up for BEA registration (always afraid I am going to do it wrong and get there and I don’t have what I thought I did…, the hotel planning…. and then the flight). NOW I get to think of the fun part, seeing fellow bloggers that I enjoy getting together with, seeing the books, seeing authors I adore, publishing houses I work with, and new people I will meet. AND it is New York and Alison (Alison’s Book Marks) and I are already talking about taking in a show.

Can not wait!!!

Now….

what to wear.

😯

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on April 14, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)42 Comments

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

Lori from Escape with Dollycas!

(Congratulations! I will email you the gift card)

It was a busy week but with Book Club and a snow storm… I did get some reading in 😀 Here is what I posted this week:

The Best Of Us by Sarah Pekkanan (SSQQQUUUEEE!!!)

The Storyteller by Jodi Piccoult ( her latest – and this one is different!)

Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl (Bookies review – and yes, we dressed up as food critics in disguise!)

Minnesota Book Awards... I went and I had a blast!

This week I am hoping to get some good reading in. I am finally finishing up the three audio books I feel like I have been listening to FOREVER! So… I will be able to move on to some new things: 😀

When the concierge of The Alexander, a historic Atlanta apartment building, invites his fellow residents to join him for weekly screenings of Downton Abbey, four very different people find themselves connecting with the addictive drama, and—even more unexpectedly—with each other…

Samantha Davis married young and for the wrong reason: the security of old Atlanta money—for herself and for her orphaned brother and sister. She never expected her marriage to be complicated by love and compromised by a shattering family betrayal.

Claire Walker is now an empty nester and struggling author who left her home in the suburbs for the old world charm of The Alexander, and for a new and productive life. But she soon wonders if clinging to old dreams can be more destructive than having no dreams at all.

And then there’s Brooke MacKenzie, a woman in constant battle with her faithless ex-husband. She’s just starting to realize that it’s time to take a deep breath and come to terms with the fact that her life is not the fairy tale she thought it would be.

For Samantha, Claire, Brooke—and Edward, who arranges the weekly gatherings—it will be a season of surprises as they forge a bond that will sustain them through some of life’s hardest moments—all of it reflected in the unfolding drama, comedy, and convergent lives of Downton Abbey.

Now an active member of the resistance, Lena has transformed. The nascent rebellion that was underway in Pandemonium has ignited into an all-out revolution in Requiem, and Lena is at the center of the fight.

After rescuing Julian from a death sentence, Lena and her friends fled to the Wilds. But the Wilds are no longer a safe haven. Pockets of rebellion have opened throughout the country, and the government cannot deny the existence of Invalids. Regulators infiltrate the borderlands to stamp out the rebels.

As Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous terrain of the Wilds, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland as the fiancée of the young mayor. Requiem is told from both Lena and Hana’s points of view. They live side by side in a world that divides them until, at last, their stories converge.

Hildy Good is a townie. A lifelong resident of an historic community on the rocky coast of Boston’s North Shore, she knows pretty much everything about everyone. Hildy is a descendant of one of the witches hung in nearby Salem, and is believed, by some, to have inherited psychic gifts. Not true, of course; she’s just good at reading people. Hildy is good at lots of things. A successful real-estate broker, mother and grandmother, her days are full. But her nights have become lonely ever since her daughters, convinced their mother was drinking too much, staged an intervention and sent her off to rehab. Now she’s in recovery—more or less.

Alone and feeling unjustly persecuted, Hildy needs a friend. She finds one in Rebecca McCallister, a beautiful young mother and one of the town’s wealthy newcomers. Rebecca feels out-of-step in her new surroundings and is grateful for the friendship. And Hildy feels like a person of the world again, as she and Rebecca escape their worries with some harmless gossip, and a bottle of wine by the fire—just one of their secrets.

But not everyone takes to Rebecca, who is herself the subject of town gossip. When Frank Getchell, an eccentric local who shares a complicated history with Hildy, tries to warn her away from Rebecca, Hildy attempts to protect her friend from a potential scandal. Soon, however, Hildy is busy trying to cover her own tracks and protect her reputation. When a cluster of secrets become dangerously entwined, the reckless behavior of one threatens to expose the other, and this darkly comic novel takes a chilling turn.

YAY for new audio! I am now wondering what you are reading this week. Please add your link to your What Are You Reading post below…

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Minnesota Book Awards

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

Last night my friend Gail and I drove the 2 1/5 hours to the Minneapolis Hilton Hotel where we were attending the Minnesota Book awards. The carefully planned spring dress with swirls of rose and powder blue was cast out of my mind once we were 6 inches deep in snow again and the warning that we were in for up to 10 inches more in the next 4 days.

*sigh*

Instead I wore black dress pants and a fun flowy shirt. Gail and I both smartly brought along our winter boots…. no questions asked as being smart Minnesota girls – you want to be prepared for anything and walking through snow in the 2″ heals I had on did not sound appealing at all.

We arrived early as planned so we could park, know where we needed to be, and then go and find something to eat. We found a Hell’s Kitchen close by and laughed that neither of us had ever eaten there so why not give it a try. As we entered we discovered that we had to (appropriately) go downstairs to enter… errr…. Hell.

We shared pulled beef nachos which sounded interesting and had pickles on it. (Don’t judge…. 😛 ) Neither of us were very hungry but we did not know what the gala would have so thought we should eat something.

We then went to the Gala at around 10 to 7 for the 7:00 pm start of the gala…

and we waited until 8 am before they opened the doors.

It wasn’t a bad wait, there was plenty to do out in the open area outside the event. Books, of course of the authors who were up for awards were available.

Coffee and drinks were available as well so Gail and I sat and chatted (seems like we never run out of things to talk about) until they opened the doors.

We walked into a beautifully set area. As a waitress walked back we asked her how many people were there tonight and she promptly told us 800. We had little plates at out place settings of cheese and grapes and crackers. I can not believe I forgot to take a picture of the lovely plate – but I did.

I did however get a picture of the event before they got started:

The emcee was Lorna Landvik and she was a delight. She had party poppers for all the winners and instantly decided that what would make the evening even more fun event would be if we all took a drink of our champagne whenever someone said the word, “book.”

The categories are as follows and the winners were….

**Novel and Short Story: The Round House by Louise Eldrich. (* fun note, Last night Louise became the first ever Minnesota author to win a Minnesota book award 5 times)**

Award For Books About Minnesota: Mni Sota Makoce: The Land Of The Dakota by Gwen Westerman and Bruce White

Award For Young People’s Literature: Nothing Special by Geoff Herbach

Award For Poetry: Odessa by Patricia Kirkpatrick

Award For Children’s Literature: It’s a Tiger! by David LaRochelle

Award for general non fiction: Rez Life: An Indian’s Journey Through Reservation Life by David Treuer

Award For Memoir and Creative Non Fiction: Turn Here Sweet Corn by Atina Diffley

Award for general fiction: Curse Of The Jade Lilly by David Housewright

One of the fun things I learned last night was that Minnesota is the 8th largest book buying state. We also seem to churn out some pretty amazing authors who support one another through workshops at The Loft and The Anderson Center.

It really was a fun evening of seeing authors and afterwards they had a reception where outside the large room we were in had now transformed to coffees and basil lemonade (which I had to try) and tiny desserts while you mingled with the authors and scoped out the books. We didn’t stay long as we still were heading back to Brainerd and arrived back home around 1:00 am. Both of us still excited about the evening and already talking about plans for next year.

For more information on the Minnesota Book Awards, you can check it out here.

Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl

Published on April 13, 2013August 16, 2024 by Sheila (Book Journey)17 Comments

Ruth Reichl was happy with her job at the Los Angeles Times as Food Critic. Yet when an opening came at the New York Times for a food critic the buzz was that it was going to be her they would pursue… while Ruth was thinking, “No… I don’t want to move to New York”, her husband, television producer Michael Singer was putting in for a transfer figuring the move was inevitable.

Michael, as it turns out was right.

After an interview with The New York Times that Ruth did not try very hard at, she started to allow herself to say dream a bit of what it would be like to take the position id offered…. then she became a little unsettled when they did not call…. had she blown it? When the call did finally come Ruth said “Yes” and she, her husband and young son made the move to New York.

What Ruth did not realize was that the restaurants were waiting for her. Her picture hung in ever highly notable kitchen so the staff would know when she came to their resistant and they could be sure to give her the best service so they would get the best reviews.

What they didn’t know was that Ruth was not about to let it play out that way. She wondered how she could give people honest reviews of the restaurants if they were catering to her because of who she was. The answer, as it turned out, came in the form of a petite friend of her mothers who was a make up artist… Ruth would go these restaurants in disguise.

Garlic and Sapphires is the true memoir of a critic in disguise who took on the personalities of who she dressed as and learned all too quickly which restaurants only cared about who were you were and what you could do for them. Her reviews were cut throat and made a lot of people angry, but they were honest… and the average person who made a reservation (or not…) would know exactly what to expect.

I read Garlic and Sapphires once before a few years back. At the time of this typing, I believe I reviewed it here at Book Journey but I am not sure and I refuse to look until I have finished writing this review so one opinion does not affect the other. Does that make sense? When my book club chose it last month to be our April read with the idea that is we read it we would all dress in disguise for the review I was in… all in. I love it when we go the extra mile. 😀

SO this second reading of Garlic and Sapphires went something like this… I really enjoyed it. I loved Ruth’s disguises and how each one transformed her. She became the character and no one was the wiser. She could walk by people she knew and they would not even do a double take. No one knew who she was and with that she could walk into any restaurant and see how the “unfamous”, unadorned, were treated. But that wasn’t all… Ruth would dress older, she would dress poorer, and on some occasions she would dress as more confident and sexier…. and of course, she would also show up as herself – actually visiting a restaurant many times before writing her review.

I enjoyed the story behind the review, and then reading her review. I loved the description of the foods she ate as my mouth watered in anticipation… could I taste it simply through her words?

I enjoy reading foodie books. I don’t know why I am so fascinated by them, by the life of a critic amazes me – at first thought I think, what a great job… tasting the best foods, in the best restaurants, but when I really think about being a critic must really be hard work. You feel with the pressures of getting it right and the backlash of those who disagree….

If you are a foodie reader as well, I think you will really enjoy this fun twist on food critiquing.

The Bookies….

Oh…. how I love my book club…..♥

When this book came up in the vote last month, Kaydi who nominated it added in that it would be fun to dress up as Ruth does in the book. YAY!!! I love bonus book club events! 😀

7 of us the 12 of us who were there the review did dress up. Brenda (back row – hot blond) said her husband told her as she left her house, “I think you really enjoy these dress up events…”

Truth is, I think we do 😀

I think personally what I love about the dressing p is you really get see some fun personalities come out and I have to smile thinking these are memories in the making. 🙂

The Bookies over all rated the book an average read, while everyone seemed to enjoy it, a few brought up that it seemed to get tedious after a while. We had a fun discussion of who we thought was Ruth’s best dress up and we mostly agreed that Brenda was her best as it really seemed to bring out the best in Ruth – and in others. A line from the book was…

Is it possible to be jealous of yourself?

Delicious food… fun conversation and then, Angie pulled out a chocolate tasting board… asn we all were able to try our own hand at being critiques:

I think this was a fun book to review as a book club and would recommend it for other book clubs as well.

I am adding this to Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth Fish Reads