It’s that time of year, even though Minnesota is just starting to get t the snow part which as much as I hate snow, it does make it feel more like the season. SO looking out the window at the lawn, it makes it a little hard to believe that in about two weeks it will be Christmas.
I think it is always funny when friends/family say “I know you love to read but you have so many books that I would never get you a book.”
What they are missing is I love getting books for any occasion.
A book from a friend to me means it is something they think I will enjoy. I love the meaning behind that. They are sharing an adventure within the pages and if they have already read it and want to share that adventure with me, even better. How many gifts out there really come in a nice square (EASY to wrap!) package that is not only lovely to hold… but to go inside, and meet …
people!
places!
things!
That is so exciting to me!
To let me friends and family know the books I hope to experience, I keep an Amazon wish list. I find it easy to use, quick to add new books to, and it makes an easy way for others to pick out something they know I would love.
My questions to you is that as fellow book lovers (HIGH FIVE!) Are books on your wish list? Do you receive books from friends and family as gifts? How do you communicate to them what you would enjoy reading?
Good morning! Wow, I have been up since 6:30, filled the stove, completed some laundry, cleaned the kitchen and have listened to some audio. Later I have some more house cleaning to do, a few errands to run and then later afternoon I am looking forward to a little quiet reading time.
Tomorrow… is another story. I am signed up for the Permit To Carry Class. This is a gun training class that has been on my bucket list for a few years now. As much as I do not want to spend 8 hours in a class on a Saturday (my FAVORITE day of the week!), this is something I want to complete…. so there it is.
A friend of mine is coming over later today to let me use her gun for practice today and for the class tomorrow. All of this cracks me up a bit because it even seems funny to me that I am doing this, but the bottom line is I want to know how to handle a gun, and the best way to do that is to go through the proper training.
Anyhoo…. that’s whats happening here. 😀 I have a post or two I want to write and am going to work on that now before I get busy on this house.
Hope your weekend is going to be AWESOME. What are your plans?
Good morning! Thursday already…. honestly I don’t know where the week went. I have had something going on every night this week and it seems like I have run from the house in the morning, to home in the late afternoon, to errands, to evening commitments, to home in the later evening….
only to do it all again the next day.
Tonight though is a free space and I am looking forward to it! I am once again in need of an unwind day and this should be it. 😀
On Monday I went in for a little trim on my hair. It was a little longer than shoulder length and I told my stylist who has cut my hair forever (seriously…. I think it has been like 14 years!) that I was feeling radical and I needed a change. I gave her free rein to do as she will…
and she did:
Mmmmm hmmmmm. When she took that first cut of more than the “radical” one inch I was thinking, I thought… “Ok, let’s do this.” So yes, currently my hair is a bit shorter than I wanted but my hair grows fast and in about 5 weeks I should be happy. 😀
I don’t hate it. It’s just really REALLY short.
Really short.
Really.
Around here in books I am making progress on Forgotten Road. In audio One Second After has made me cry twice and really think about how much we (yes, you too!) rely on electricity to do life. In my car I am listening to Mad River by John Sanford and holy smokes Kathy, you were right.. good… but wow.
So that’s my update. What are you reading/listening to today?
The New 2013 WHERE Are You Reading Challenge Sign up has begun! It’s a lot of fun and I hope you will join me in the around the world in books adventure! Simply click on the widget to the left to go to the sign up page.
Note: This is a sticky post, all new posts are below.
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.
Congratulations! Please choose a book or bookish item from the Reading Cafe!
I just came back home this afternoon from a WONDERFUL weekend at the cabin. My friend Laura and I went and crafted the weekend away. I made a new project that I LOVED (more on that later). We watched movies, crafted and are delicious food…. it was a lot of fun.
This past week here is what went on here at Book Journey:
Once Grace and Sam have found each other, they know they must fight to stay together. For Sam, this means a reckoning with his werewolf past. For Grace, it means facing a future that is less and less certain.
the loss. Into their world comes a new wolf named Cole, whose past is full of hurt and danger. He is wrestling with his own demons, embracing the life of a wolf while denying the ties of a human.
the linger. For Grace, Sam, and Cole, life is a constant struggle between two forces–wolf and human–with love baring its two sides as well. It is harrowing and euphoric, freeing and entrapping, enticing and alarming. As their world falls apart, love is what lingers. But will it be enough?
Yes – I read this one a couple years ago – but I just found it on audio for a very good price so here we go again 😀 And its set in Minnesota which I need on my map 😀
On the day her daughter leaves for college, Anne Colwater’s husband of twenty years announces he wants a divorce. Her roles of wife and mother suddenly gone, Annie retreats to her childhood home of Mystic, Washington, to heal. There she finds her old friend Nick, suddenly widowed and unable to cope with his emotionally scarred young daughter, Izzie. Annie agrees to look after Izzie, and soon finds herself caring for both father and daughter with a joy and passion she never expected – and she finds her love returned with a fervor she had never even hoped for. But love is never simple, and it is not until Annie learns a hard lesson from her own grown daughter that she finds the strength to claim the happiness she has earned.
Another sale audio… a short one, a little over two hours.
Bonnie and Clyde, they thought. And what’s-his-name, the sidekick. Three teenagers with dead-end lives, and chips on their shoulders, and guns.
The first person they killed was a highway patrolman. The second was a woman during a robbery. Then, hell, why not keep on going? As their crime spree cuts a swath through rural Minnesota, some of it captured on the killers’ cell phones and sent to a local television station, Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Virgil Flowers joins the growing army of cops trying to run them down. But even he doesn’t realize what’s about to happen next.
Would you believe I have never read John Sanford? It’s true!
So that is what I will be working on this week between life and work. I am excited to see what you will be reading! 😀 Please add your what are you reading link below where it says click here:
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and those of you who read mainly children’s through YA reads – please also link your post here:
3rd year running and OH I love this challenge! As the host of the weekly What Are you reading meme, I find it awesome that I get to host the WHERE Are You Reading Challenge each year. What is the point of this challenge? It is to try to read in each of the 50 States between January 1 2013 – December 31, 2013.
How do you decide what state a book is categorized under?
1. In a fiction read it would be the State or Country that the book spends the most time in. (Ie. If your main character is from Wisconsin but the book is all about his/her time in college in California – the books should categorize under California….)
2. Non fiction reads categorize in whatever State or Country it is about (Ie…. a book about fly fishing in Colorado is a Colorado point, and a book about women in Afghanistan is an Afghanistan point.
3. If the book goes from one state to another… go with the state that most of the time is spent.
How to get started
Set up a map under Google Maps. It is easy to do! Every time you read a book in 2012, upload a cover picture to Picasa Web Albums (there may be other sites to use, feel free to use what works best for you).
Grab the challenge button here for your posts and sidebar:
Questions?
Do you have to have a blog to participate? No. You can do everything on the map above without linking the book to a review.
Do I have to have my post up by January 1st, 2012? No, but I would think you would want to get started right away at the beginning of the year. However, you will be able to sign up throughout January as well.
How will people see my map? There are a couple of possibilities. On your original challenge post you should have a link to your map. You could also put it on your side bar to draw interest to it (see mine on my left side bar) I will be linking my map to every review I will also set up a monthly link here to post updates if you wish.
I dont get it – I cant figure out how to use Google maps but I really want to participate! No worries! You are welcome to create a challenge post that lists the 50 states (as well as bonus out of USA spots) and then fill them in as you read in the areas.
Do audio books count? ABSOLUTELY!
Once you are ready and have your map set up please create a blog post (those who have blogs) using the Challenge picture of the map I provided above as well as link to this post so others may join in. Then come back and link that post here to Mr Linky (below) so I as well as other participants know that you are participating and we can pop in throughout the year to check out your map and how we are all doing. I will post a linky at the end of each month so participants can check in with their own post of how they are doing. I will offer a $10 amazon gift card to one lucky participant who does a check in post at the end of each month and links it.
This is actually a fun and easy challenge as all books you read qualify and it will be fun to see where you generally read books from as well as searching out books to fill in areas that you need.
For those who have covered the 50 states by the end of 2013, they will go into a drawing for a $25 gift card to Barnes and Noble or to Amazon. ** All other areas beyond the 50 states are bonus points and we will have a drawing using random.org for those who read 10 or more books throughout 2013 in that category.
You can see my map I worked on in 2011 here to see what the map looks like and how the pictures link to the reviews. (If you zoom in you will see the individual areas I read in and clicking on the blue pins will show you what book it was and clicking on the picture will take you to the post!
That’s it! Here is a link to tips on how to do it. Any other questions – please leave them in the comments section below.
I can’t wait to see WHERE You Are Reading!
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* Please enter the link to your post on your blog, not directly to your blog. Thank you
*If you do not have a blog but wish to participate by creating the map you can link to your map
Good morning and happy weekend! *doing a little dance with Coffee Cup*! I am doing a quick check in here as I am leaving for the cabin in about ummmm….. 20 minutes here for the weekend. My friend Laura and I will be working on some craft projects before Christmas and hopefully a little reading too. 😀
Have an awesome weekend, I am putting up the WHERE Are You Reading Challenge today, I hope you consider signing up – it really is a lot of fun.
Good morning! I am a little wired. (COFFEE!!!!) and a little tired… which in reality is probably stimulating the wired. Yesterday… two audio books came int o my home and I am so THRILLED! Mainly because my house was empty of all audio cds that I had not yet listened to. Sure, the IPOD is still full of good audio – but my kitchen cd player and my car… empty.
Trust me… that is so weird.
Yesterday arrived two audio books I had ordered from Amazons Black Friday sale, one of them was Linger by Maggie Stiefvater. I had read the books a few years ago and thought the audio might be fun. When I put it in the cd player yesterday I wondered if it was really wanted I wanted to listen to right now, a YA about wolves…. and then I heard the words that sold me.
The book is set in Minnesota. I seriously smiled when I remembered that.
“Why is that a big deal Sheila? Why? Why?” (Told you I was wired!)
Well, it is a big deal because I have been working the last couple weeks on updating my WHERE Are You Reading Challenge and I was saddened to see that I had not read anything in my home state of Minnesota this year.
Now – I have fixed that. Let the wolves rule the woods of Minnesota! 😛
So I can not present to you my updated and current WHERE Are You Reading Challenge. I will be posting the new 2013 sign up hopefully yet this week as I LOVE this challenge! You can see here the books I have read and where, and you can see my map here (which is super cool!)
I have to get moving this morning but hope your day is FAB! If you have been working on the WHERE Are You Reading Challenge with me this past year, I would love to hear how you have done! (If you have or havent, I would love for you to consider signing up for 2013) 😛
Elizabeth Nelson had many a man turn his eyes towards her, but Elizabeth only had eyes for one man.
Henry. It had always been Henry.
When Henry finally proposes he offers Elizabeth a life in California where he has spent his life savings on a 120 acre ranch. Elizabeth packs up her belongings and her beautiful wedding quilts and the newlyweds are soon on their way to their dreams.
Upon arriving to the claim they are hit with some shocking news and instead of being land owners, they become hired hands on the very property they thought they would own with barely a penny to their name. Where Henry is ashamed of their misfortune, feisty and high-spirited Elizabeth does what she can to help out to get them back on their feet and on their way back to the home and family she loves.
Of course, more surprises and bumps in the road keep the plans of Henry and Elizabeth at bay, but along this journey they never intended to take they meet some interesting people – some shady, some meek, some bullies, and some kind… and some how this new reality, becomes a home.
A blending of the past and present brings the story of this place and this last together.
This picture is from the Elm Creek website where all the books are featured. Click to go to site
Normally this would not be my kind of read, or so I thought. Set in the 1920’s – I prefer more modern-day reads and like strong female characters, not the “Oh save me!” type. That is where the book caught hold of me. Elizabeth is not an “oh save me” girl. She is strong-willed, self-sufficient, and met my criteria of “no wimpy chicks”.
I really enjoyed the story of Elizabeth and Henry and was surprised to find out that this is actually book ten in the Elm Creek Quilts series. The book easily stood alone, but now I find myself wondering what happened in the 9 books before? Did I miss something good?
I really enjoyed the quilts as a back drop. After all every quilt tells a story and I found it smart of author Jennifer Chiaverini to set these books around quilts.
This book, and I suspect the others as well, make for a wonderful cold weather read, even reading about quilts makes you a little warmer on this inside. I think a quilters club will really enjoy this series.
If you are not familiar with the name Steve Jobs, you are familiar with the name brand Apple as in Apple Computers, or I Pod, Or I Phone, or I Tunes… all are associated with Steve Job. While Steve was not the lone creator, not even really the mastermind behind actually making these things work, he is indeed the mind that made them what they are today.
Steve dared to dream things that no one thought could be, or should be dreamed. He pushed the envelope as far as it would go, nay sayers be dammed, and in some cases friends and family too… nothing stood in his way.
No one ever would claim that Steve was a layed back easy-going guy. No. He was temper mental, known to cry when he did not get his way, insist that things did go his way including color of products, and how to advertise. While you can easily argue that he was an impossible man…
he was also a brilliant man.
In this audio of Steve’s life from adoption to billionaire, Dylan Baker narrates this audio to a perfection even Steve would have to approve of.
Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.
Although Jobs cooperated and encouraged this book, Jobs waved all rights to read or approve what people said of him in this book. A no holes barred telling of an incredible man who fought his own demons all his life, dying of cancer in October 2011.
Steve Jobs in the beginning with the apple, years later, the IPAD
When this book first came out I did not know if I wanted to read it. I had heard that Steve was not a very likeable man and I did not want to commit the time to read or to listen to his story. Yet, it was the story itself that drew me to the book. Steve, and people like him, fascinate me. The big dreamers. The ones who step out of the box no matter what people say – see the vision and make it happen. It’s the same reason I appreciate JK Rowling so much.
I finally downloaded the audio and once I turned it on I had a hard time shutting it off. From the beginning Jobs story grabbed me, while he was rough and cruel at times, It seemed he always felt he had something to prove. And brilliant? On my word!
I was particularly fascinated by the part where he introduced the 1984 ad. It was his vision, it was risky and it only aired one time on tv, at the 1984 Super Bowl and to this day is one of the most popular commercials of our time. The clip I have below is when Steve showed the video the one time before the Super Bowl and while it is a 6 minute clip I highly encourage you watch it. It is amazing to see a young and enthusiastic Steve. He sure could bring out confidence in himself and his products.
I loved this audio and am looking for the book now to have in my collection. Brilliant and informative, I learned a lot about how the I products came to be, the ideas behind them, the Pixar/Disney battle for the top and how Steve was involved, and more. I encourage you to check this one out.
Book Journey 