Book Journey

Morning Meanderings…Through The Years and A Trip To OZ

Published on March 9, 2013March 9, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)28 Comments

Good morning! It’s Saturday and I am sooooooo excited. Today I have nothing concrete on the agenda. I LOVE days like this. I can hang out, blog, read, clean, nap, whatever – at my leisure. These days are too few and far between and other than a possible trip to the gym this afternoon (I am 7 days out from the 7K) and maybe a movie with hubby…. I am here for the day. 😀

Today I thought I would post a couple of pictures of my boys for Saturday Snapshot:

I love this picture. That is Brad left and Justin right. This picture graces my book room. This past winter, right after Christmas I was on Facebook one day and seen this picture on Justin’s page. He was having a voting contest to see who thought who was cuter, he or Brad. *Take note, Justin is 22 now and in College. Brad is 25 and in the Navy.

I was stunned, but it was pretty hilarious. Both boys were going back and forth trying to get their friends to comment on who was cuter. I popped in with a “Boys! What is going on here?” 😛

Then Brad made a comment that I had text him and told him that he was cuter but couldn’t put it on Facebook as I did not want to hurt Justin’s feelings. Justin commented back that he thought that was funny because I had text him and told him that same thing about him.

This thing went on for days and I don’t recall who won – or even if the votes were fair but they had over 100 comments and it was pretty funny.

This one I really like too. Justin looks like someone from a century ago. I remember doing Brad’s hair that day… he wanted it that way.

Currently, Justin is in Honduras on his 5th Mission trip to the country working with the kids who live on the street. Brad, as of last night was in Georgia sitting on his back deck with friends having a fire and conversation. He has 3 out of 4 weekends off in the Navy.

As you can imagine, I am so proud of both of them. 😀

These pictures were posted today for the Saturday Snapshot meme, check it out at At Home With Books.

Last night my friend Wendy and I went to OZ, The Great and Powerful. I thought it was done so well and it was impressive to watch the actors, they played some fun rolls. Mila Kunis was incredible, especially the later part of the movie. Rachel Weisz? Well first let me say wow does she look incredible. She easily passes as Mila’s sister. Michelle Williams… awesome. I think my favorite was the China Doll… really once she entered the picture I lost my heart to that little broken girl.

I am not sure what to think of James Franco… maybe he was perfect, what do I know. 😀 At times, he just seemed off and maybe that was intentional… I have no idea who could have done it better.

My thoughts… yes, see it. I loved the fact that some of the scenes and settings are more to the original book then the past movies. 😀

The Dogs Of Winter by Bobbie Pyron

Published on March 8, 2013March 8, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)3 Comments

Ivan’s world is quickly turned upside down when one day he is happily in the care of his mother and grandmother and it feels like almost the next he is alone… abandoned, on the streets of Moscow.

What happened?

When Ivan’s grandmother suddenly dies, his mother falls into a deep crushing depression and can not escape it. She leaves Ivan to the man she loved who wants nothing to do with him (after all… his relationship was never about Ivan) and puts him in an orphanage. When Ivan escapes, he finds help in the form of a pack of dogs who become his source of self-esteem and in a way his family.

Ivan soon finds himself living a life of a pack, roaming the countryside, searching for food and adventure, wild and free. His once gentle nature changes to a more cunning, street smart way of thinking. When eventually help is offered, Ivan must choose to go back to being in a secure home or remain with his new friends and understanding of the world.

The Dogs of Winter will blow you away. Not only is this a gorgeous middle grade (and up) style of read written in beautiful chapters, it is a knock your socks off in your face reality of how quickly our world, our security can change.

Uhhh…. did I mention this is based on a true story?

I am always careful when choosing books about animals – especially dogs as they are too near and dear to my heart. However this is not an “Old Yeller” read… it is more of an adventure, and a wild one at that. For every young boy or girl who ever dreamed of BIG adventure, this is an incredible story… but it is also a very real and at times painful story as well of loss and crushing loneliness. While I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I would think if middle grade students read it (ages 9- 12) they may want someone to talk to about it afterwards.

For me, I am so impressed by this book, the incredible story of the human spirit and the amazing connections we can have between dog and man.

Morning Meanderings… Funny Facebook Happenings

Published on March 8, 2013March 8, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)5 Comments

Good Morning Friends of Book Journey! Do not be afraid! I come in peace and with coffee. 😛

What a great week I have been having. I am accomplishing much, feeling good, working out, and digging my way through preparations for the Spring book sale at the Library, camp registrations for Camp Benedict, organizing paperwork, using Luminosity to keep sharp….

about the only thing that is lacking, is my reading. Hopefully I can get that back in the mix too… Book club is next Tuesday – I need to read that book this weekend 😀

So, for fun I thought I would share with a friend of mines post on Facebook last night:

Just for fun I thought I’d try to walk with a swagger. Dang. Blew out a knee. (Guess it’s a lot harder than ‘they’ make it look!)

Thats true! She did! 😛 I laughed…then I felt bad. But she is ok, and laughing at herself as well. She posted this morning the link to the commercial she was watching that made her try it:

Hee hee. SO my suggestion was that no one should swagger unless taking swagger lessons at their local gym and of course… stretching first. 😀

I’m off. I have a fun and busy morning and early afternoon. Lots of good things going on. Hope your Friday is wonderful 😀

Morning Meanderings… Happy Birthday Mater!

Published on March 6, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)21 Comments

Good morning! Today is all about Mater! Recently when looking at his papers he came with from the vet, I noted that he was born on March 6. I made a note not to forget that. 😀

Mater came on our radar last July when my Navy son was home and had a friend who worked at a Vet near by and told him the story of Mater. Mater was an abused puppy part beagle part basset hound who had a serious surgery at 10 weeks old because his owners were giving him alcohol. After the surgery, Mater was placed in a foster home where he fell out of the back of a movie truck and broke his shoulder and had another surgery.

Hearing his story my heart went out to this little dog. They were looking to find him a good home and were interviewing people. I was told that many people had tried to get him and were denied. They wanted to make sure whoever adopted him would provide him a “forever home”.

That third week on July, after an hour interview with the vet and three hours of waiting by the phone, we were told he was ours.

**He fit right in…. played until he would fall asleep with bones still in his mouth.**

**He grew fast – but made best friends with Sammy.**

Happy Birthday Mater!

Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner

Published on March 5, 2013March 5, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)4 Comments

13 years after Cannie’s debut in Good In Bed, she is back in full size humor and still working on her weight, her Physician husband Peter’s sudden desire to have another baby, and planning her daughter Joy’s bar Mitzvah (without the spaghetti strapped “way too adult” looking dress Joy has chosen for herself.) Oh yes, there is also that writing career she is supposed to be working on…. well, lets put a pin in that….

When Joy discovers her mothers highly verbal and descriptive novel she wrote years before, Joy feels she has stumbled on all her mothers secrets, including the grandfather Joy feels she has never had the opportunity to get to know and blames her mother for the distance between them. Joy now 13, and self-conscious and rebellious all rolled into one, makes her mother’s life more interesting by her sneaking off to see her biological father, skipping school, and reconnecting with her grandfather.

For both Cannie and Joy, this is a season of growing up and learning truths.

I am still a little confused about why this book was called Certain Girls. I must have missed something. Entirely possible. 😀 Jennifer Weiner is often a hit or a miss for me, yet I enjoy reading her characters and her wit so I keep coming back.

In Certain Girls I was able to revisit Cannie Shapiro and see where her life has gone since the ending of Good In Bed left her with a premature baby. If you read my review of Good In Bed you will realize that I did not love the book, but I did like it. Obviously enough to see where Cannie’s life has gone, a rare treat that we as readers do not always get, to see where the characters we have come to know are in their fiction lives years later. Kind of a “where are they now?” look into their life, fictitious as it is.

I liked Cannie better in this book. She seemed more sure of herself. I think the real win for this one was the voice of Joy… typical teenager, self-conscious about her hearing aids (due to her premature birth), feeling that her mom still treats her like a baby, and wanting to know more about the missing people connected to her through family blood.

Over all, this one was just ok. The ending was…. anger enducing. I can’t explain it. It just felt… disappointing. Frustrating. Like I had traveled far and then was thrown over a cliff. I expected something more, and that again, could be just me.

Morning Meanderings… Ahhhh… March In Minnesota

Published on March 5, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)12 Comments

Good morning! Less than two weeks out from my first 7K of the year and I wake to this:

Two days ago it was melting like the wicked witch of the west, now it is back in full force. It started snowing yesterday afternoon just lightly, by the time I got out of the gym at 6:30 pm it had a good two inches on the ground and now…

well..

now I wait for the sun. 😀

I have no big book news to report as I ran around all day yesterday and by the time I stopped moving it was 8 pm and after trying to do a little blogging and a little tv watching, I gave up and was in bed by 10:30. Hopefully today I will get a little time to dig into beautiful Creatures, and a little audio too.

I am curious, friends in other places – how is your spring coming along?

It;’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on March 3, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)37 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:

Escape With Dollycas!!!

Not a bad week here. Thanks to last weekends “audi-thon” while I painted, I feel a little ahead an still have three books to review. Here is what happened here last week:

The Sky Is Everywhere b Jandy Nelson Oh LOVED THIS!

The Shining By Stephen King (Its worth it to see the picture of me in the big glasses!)

The BIG Painting Project – check out what I did last weekend

A Grown Up Kind Of Pretty by Joshilyn Jackson (Sooooo good!)

February Recap

Crazy Book Pitches! (Oh yeah there are some doosys out there!)

For this week I have planned:

A small boy, a cruel city, and the incredible dogs who save him.

Based on a true story!

When Ivan’s mother disappears, he’s abandoned on the streets of Moscow, with little chance to make it through the harsh winter. But help comes in an unexpected form: Ivan is adopted by a pack of dogs, and the dogs quickly become more than just his street companions: They become his family. Soon Ivan, who used to love reading fairytales, is practically living in one, as he and his pack roam the city and countryside, using their wits to find food and shelter, dodging danger, begging for coins. But Ivan can’t stay hidden from the world of people forever. When help is finally offered to him, will he be able to accept it? Will he even want to?

A heart-pounding tale of survival and a moving look at what makes us human.

Sage Singer is a baker. She works through the night, preparing the day’s breads and pastries, trying to escape a reality of loneliness, bad memories, and the shadow of her mother’s death. When Josef Weber, an elderly man in Sage’s grief support group, begins stopping by the bakery, they strike up an unlikely friendship. Despite their differences, they see in each other the hidden scars that others can’t, and they become companions.

Everything changes on the day that Josef confesses a long-buried and shameful secret—one that nobody else in town would ever suspect—and asks Sage for an extraordinary favor. If she says yes, she faces not only moral repercussions, but potentially legal ones as well. With her own identity suddenly challenged, and the integrity of the closest friend she’s ever had clouded, Sage begins to question the assumptions and expectations she’s made about her life and her family. When does a moral choice become a moral imperative? And where does one draw the line between punishment and justice, forgiveness and mercy?

I am listening to something in my jeep too but cant think of the title and really don’t want to go out there right now so ummm… yeah. 😀 What are you reading this week? Please add you link below where it says click here. I would love to see your posts!

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For those of you who review mainly Middle Grade (MG) and/or Young Adult (YA) reads, please also add your link to this meme as well:

Is It Just Me or Are Some Book Pitches Getting a Little Crazy?

Published on March 3, 2013March 3, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)36 Comments

As book bloggers, book reviewers, book chatters… whatever you want to call us, it seems if you do this any amount of time you will get book pitches. A book pitch is when an author or publisher or book tour company emails you and gives you the synopsis of the book hoping that you will like what you see and agree to read and review it.

Oh…. if only it were that easy! I have a separate email for all my book related email due to the fact that at times it can really be overwhelming when you are receiving many pitches in a day and you are trying to pick out what you would like to read and then review.

Lately, I have seen a new type of book coming through my email and I curious about what you think about these. What I am referring to is a book that starts out sounding interesting, say the book is about a college graduate, (ok, so far so good) and she is on her way to intern as an assassin under her uncles care (ummm… ok, different but I am still reading)… she is taking with her the household pet, a duck named Killer, and hopefully leaving behind the guy who makes her heart skip a beat, Jamal the tap dancing Eskimo who only speaks in haiku (and… I’m out.)

It is like they start out sounding like they have potential and by the time I am done reading the synopsis my eyes are wide in disbelief and I can not believe how far-fetched the book being pitched has become. I mean, seriously??? Does this sell? Is it just me who can’t stretch that far? I mean, I don’t know maybe I am missing out, these are not all coming from self published authors either but Publishing houses.

I wouldn’t even bring this up if it was a one time email but I have had a few of these recently… good start to the book synopsis and then it is like they went all Jerry Springer on me and I am wondering if there is a “baby daddy” involved and looking over my shoulder for tattooed tutu wearing midget’s playing banjo’s.

My point here…. is it me? Are you receiving these as well?

Thoughts? Please share. 😛

February Recap

Published on March 3, 2013March 3, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)22 Comments

February to me felt a little quick and not as awesome as my January was. It seemed between the back to back retreats in the beginning of the month, my new re-dedication to the gym, taking care of college son and his broken foot for a long weekend and handling all household things while Al (hubby) was gone for three weeks… took a toll on my reading.

Still… thankfully to the awesomeness of audio books, I can report something fairly decent:

Eat and Run by Scott Jurek

Peaches for Father Francis by Joanne Harris

Love Is The Cure by Elton John

Killing Kennedy by Bill O’Reilly

The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly O’Conner McNees

A Grown Up Kind Of Pretty by Joshilyn Jackson

The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

Devastation On The Delaware by Mary Shafer

The Story Of Edgar Sawtelle by Davis Wroblewski

On Mystic Lake by Kristin Hannah

That’s my month of reading. I think March will be better, it already feels like it is. 😀 Maybe it is the sunlight and melting snow that is making me optimistic. 😀

Here is the link to my Where I Have Been Reading Progress page and here is the link to my reading map… both fun ways to track books. 😀

SO how are you doing so far this year? Are you ahead of last year? Behind? Do you feel your reading style has changed over the past year?

Morning Meanderings… Check Out These New Books (SSSQQQUUUEEEEE!!!!!)

Published on March 3, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)14 Comments

Good morning! *Big sip of COFFEE*

I would have posted a little earlier but I got into the time suck of Facebook Home Page. You know the one, where all your friends post and you can just scroll down and see what is happening in the lives of those you know…. in recap here is what I learned:

Grade schooler suspended from school for having a pop tart shaped like a gun

My friend’s daughter started her first job

Reagan (Miss Remmers Reviews) posted a picture of how much sugar is in the different beverages we drink (Hello water!)

Our friends and a co-worker are currently in Hawaii with family (*jealous!*)

A friends mom is at an Autism Walk at Ridgedale Mall today

Coffee is on at my church! 😛

A guy I graduated with just was hired by Prince! Yes, Prince the musician!

Alyce (At home with books) is packed to move and celebrating her birthday by flashlight… no idea where the matches are 😀

Trish Collins is jonesing for Girl Scout Cookies

Hunger Games asks what talent do we have to become a victor…. ummmm…

A girl I graduated with is going off… about something I have no idea really…

My friend Lori once again posted pictures about abused pets … so sad.

My friend Belinda posted about how it is ok to be who you are. YES! 😀

My friend Ryan looks like he had a fun time bowling with friends last night.

Anyhoo… you get it… Facebook is fascinating but wow can you blow a lot of time hanging out there 😀

Back on track, here are the books that came into the house this week (a lot more than last week!)

The top two books Milkweed (for Book Club) and Confessions Of A Prairie Bitch (for giggles) are purchased by me. The rest are for review and there are some exciting titles here! Can’t wait to dig in!

My Sunday will consist of church, the working out at the YMCA with my cousin, working on writing up a story about my aunt for a magazine, and later a movie with my hubby – his pick this time. It is going to be a good day. 😀