It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)32 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.

Since I was out of town last weekend I never got the previous winner posted so this is the two week ago winner and this past weeks winner using random.org (because that is how I roll!)

Last weeks winner: Joy from Joys Book Blog!!!

Congratulations!  Please choose a book or bookish item from the Reading Cafe!   :D

 

What a busy and great week!  I am sitting here EXHAUSTED but in a good way.  I just returned Sunday afternoon from a craft weekend on the North shore.  We crafted, we watched movies – it was a good time!  I did manage to read a bit too:

 

A Wilderness Of Error by Errol Morris (True Crime)

 

 

The Wizard Of Oz by Frank Baum – a Bookies review and some fun dress up pics!

 

Telestrations – a fun new board game!

 

 

Titanic’s Last Secret’s by Brad Matsen

 

You’ve Been Warned by James Patterson

 

 

Not too bad a week and here is what is happening this week:

 

“There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.”

It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.
Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them-not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.
His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.
But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all-family money, good looks, devoted friends-but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys.

 

 

 

Stalin’s Soviet Union strives to be a paradise for its workers, providing for all of their needs. One of its fundamental pillars is that its citizens live free from the fear of ordinary crime and criminals.

But in this society, millions do live in fear . . . of the State. Death is a whisper away. The mere suspicion of ideological disloyalty-owning a book from the decadent West, the wrong word at the wrong time-sends millions of innocents into the Gulags or to their executions. Defending the system from its citizens is the MGB, the State Security Force. And no MGB officer is more courageous, conscientious, or idealistic than Leo Demidov.

A war hero with a beautiful wife, Leo lives in relative luxury in Moscow, even providing a decent apartment for his parents. His only ambition has been to serve his country. For this greater good, he has arrested and interrogated.

Then the impossible happens. A different kind of criminal-a murderer-is on the loose, killing at will. At the same time, Leo finds himself demoted and denounced by his enemies, his world turned upside down, and every belief he’s ever held shattered. The only way to save his life and the lives of his family is to uncover this criminal. But in a society that is officially paradise, it’s a crime against the State to suggest that a murderer-much less a serial killer-is in their midst. Exiled from his home, with only his wife, Raisa, remaining at his side, Leo must confront the vast resources and reach of the MBG to find and stop a criminal that the State won’t admit even exists.

 

 

 

 

At first my eyes wouldn’t make sense of the letters. Finally, they unscrambled. Loving a Larger Woman, said the headline, by Bruce Guberman. Bruce Guberman had been my boyfriend for just over three years, until we’d decided to take a break three months ago. And the larger woman, I could only assume, was me.

Cannie Shapiro never wanted to be famous. The smart, sharp, plus-sized pop culture reporter was perfectly content writing about other people’s lives on the pages of the Philadelphia Examiner. But the day she opens up a national women’s magazine to find out that her ex-boyfriend has been chronicling their ex-sex life is the day her life changes forever.

Loving a larger woman is an act of courage in our world, Bruce has written. And Cannie — who never knew that Bruce saw her as a “larger woman,” or thought that loving her was an act of courage — is plunged into misery, and into the most amazing year of her life.

 

 

 

 

Meghan Chase has a secret destiny—one she could never have imagined…

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan’s life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school…or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she’s known is about to change.

But she could never have guessed the truth—that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she’ll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face…and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

 

 

 

Thats the week.  How about you?  Add you Its Monday What Are You Reading link to where it says click here below.

 

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You’ve Been Warned by James Patterson & Howard Roughan

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)13 Comments

 

Kristin Burns is working on her photography career and not doing too badly.  By day she is a nanny for two kids she adores, and working on getting the man she hopes to spend the rest of her life with… there are just a few kinks to work out.  Like… his wife.  But really, isn’t all fair in love and war and the wife, really is a piece of work…. really.

The Kristin starts having crazy nightmares every night.  They seem so real… and they involve 4 body bags coming out of a hotel.  As if the nightmare itself isn’t bad enough, Kristin starts seeing things throughout her daily life that make her think the nightmare may be coming true.  But who is going to believe that?  Is she going crazy?  Are the secrets within her reach, maybe through the lens of her camera?

 

 

 

I have enjoyed some of Patterson’s work in the past.  He has a couple of series that I follow and this one sounded like it could be good.  Kristin’s story I felt was a bit hard to follow.  Choppy at best.  First her morals are obviously a little off base as she justifies the affair she is having.  The random nightmares connecting with her day-to-day life are interesting enough to hold me to the read, wanting to know what is happening and why. 

Mostly – I enjoyed the story line of her life with friends and even the kids and yes, even the guy…. but the nightmare twists felt forced and odd and when it was all over I was not left with a big “AHA” moment but a “Wha?”

So in the end I would rate this one an “Eh”

 

 

Morning Meanderings… A Recap Of Last Weekends Bike Ride

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)20 Comments

 

Happy Saturday ya all – 😀  I am currently up North – yes further north than my home in central Minnesota at our cabin for a girls crafting weekend.  Lap top – has stayed home this time as I do not have internet there anyway so this is a pre-scheduled post that I am hoping (fingers crossed!) will appear magically on my blog on Saturday morning. 😀

 

For today’s Saturday Snapshop over at Alyce’s At Home With Books, I thought I would share some pics and thoughts from the Mankato Ramble from last weekend. 

I drove to Mankato Minnesota on Saturday late afternoon as the drive is almost 4 hours.  Hello audio books!  😀  I stayed the first night at my friend Diane’s house as my College Son was out-of-town.  Can you believe it – I come to his town and he is not home?  LOL  He was actually in Duluth and was getting back early Sunday. 

On Sunday morning in 25 degree weather (uh… yeah) we went to the bike ride.  I rode with my friends Diane, Sheila, Belinda, and Jason – and a new friend, Josh.

The ride was good but cold – really cold for the first couple of hours.  I was almost caving to do the shorter 36 mile ride instead of the 44 mile ride.  Thankfully my friends stayed strong and we completed the ride as planned.  Here are some pics from that event:

Jason and I, pre-ride

 

One of the pit stops

 

Guess I should have posted this one first 🙂

I am not usually a big cookie fan but something about the cookies on this ride…. oatmeal chocolate chip…. MMMMMMMM

 

Diane and Josh took the shorter ride so at the end, this is who I finished with: L: Belinda, Sheila, Me, and Jason

 

We had a great time.  I then spend Sunday with College son Justin.  We went out to dinner and then to the movie Pitch Perfect which was funny and good!  I stayed over night with Justin and then drove home Monday morning.  A great weekend! 

Check out more pictures of what people are up to at Alyce’s Saturday Snapshots!

Titanics Last Secret’s by Brad Matsen

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)7 Comments

In August of 2005, 93 years after Titanic had sunk and become the worlds biggest ship disaster – a discovery about the ship is revealed.  A team that had been diving found previously undiscovered wreckage of the ship that led to the conclusion that Titanic’s bow had not rose up in the air as the famous movie scene dictated – but instead had broken in half while the ship was horizontal. 

How is it that all these years later that this could be true?  With all the eye witnesses from the life boats, how was this one fact told incorrectly or pushed so far from what really happened?

I have always been fascinated with all things Titanic.  The tragedy is monumental and to this day I struggle wrapping my heard around the sheer magnetism of the senseless loss of life.  I have read many books on the subject feeling almost as though I had put myself on the ship, trying to escape Titanic and hoping for another outcome….  when I seen this audio I knew I had to listen to it.

What Brad Matsens research for this book covers is why the Titanic sunk so quickly, when in all rights it should have been fine to float until the rescue boats came… instead, the time between the iceberg hitting the boat and the sinking of this great ship was two hours and forty minutes.  That’s enough to give my chills.  What is pointed out in this telling is that the Titanic and in fact other large ships like her, were not built sound enough – too large for the building skills of the time.

The book while  starting out in modern-day, travels back to the original building of the ship from the three famous men who were the creation and ultimately the fate of Titanic, Lord Pirrie, Bruce Ismay, and Thomas Andrews, all through the discussion of the lifeboats and how ugly they were on the ship so really why not cut them to the bare minimum?

You also get a retelling of what happened that night and perhaps most interesting for me, what happened in the days and weeks after the ship sank as far as the trials and the holding of the ships crewman who survived for questioning. 

Those of you who are interested in Titanic like me will find this an informative and thought-provoking read – a definite addition to my Titanic resources.

Morning Meanderings… Banned Book Week Winners and a fun box of formal dresses!!!

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)15 Comments

 

Good morning and I mean good morning as I am writing this at 3:30 am.  This was not the plan but I woke up at 2:50 am when hubby went to go move equipment and now I am WIDE AWAKE.  😛 
Last week was the fantastic Banned Book Week event and I am still excited from all the participants.  I have BUNCHES of winners to announce and here they are:

 

The winner of the PREP post $10 Amazon gift card is….  Belle from Book Belle!

 

The winner of the copy of The Giver is Shannon from I Run Teach Read!

 

The Chocolate Wars post CHOCOLATE giveaway (which was comments on my post and on Florinda’s  goes to Jennifer from The Relentless Reader!

 

The Blog Participant drawing of a $20 Amazon gift card that was for everyone who signed up and offered a post during banned book week goes to…. Gina from Book Dragon’s Lair!

 

And finally – I had mentioned that all comments go into a LARGE Banned Book drawing for my banned book week posts as well as commenting on the other posts I linked for banned book week.  That prize package looks like this:

And the winner is:

Crys from Book Em!!!!

 

*All winners were chosen using random.org

 

And one more fun thing. 

 

Gina from Book Dragon’s Lair sent me a little package last week… she knows that every July my book club dresses in formal wear for our annual “Queen Event”.  She sent me two gorgeous dresses for any of the eighteen girls in book club to choose to wear if they would like.  How cool is that!  Here are the dresses:

Just another thing I love about the book blogging community!  Thank you Gina they are beautiful!

So this morning I leave for our cabin for a crafting weekend.  I am really looking forward to a couple of days of chilling out.  Next week we serve for IHN (homeless in our community) so it will be a bit of a busy week and a little down time is just what I am looking forward to.  Posts and reviews are prepped to go up while I am away so continue to stop in and see whats happening and what I have been reading 😀

Telestrations~ A Fun Board Game!

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)13 Comments

When I was offered to review the game Telestrations I was THRILLED…. if you don’t know this about me – you are about to, I am a HUGE GAMER!  I LOVE board games and have a whole huge closet dedicated to just board games! 

I took Telestrations with me last weekend to Mankato where I was staying with friends and I was hoping they would want to play so I could write my review of the game – and of course see if we enjoyed it. 

You can have up to eight players, we had four.  We were each given a little booklet that uses a dry erase marker, a marker, and a card.  Someone rolls the dice and you all look at that number on your card and write that word as your secret word on page one.  Lets say, as in the example I am going to show you here, your word was “Scuba Diver”.

So on page two you would draw a picture of your word:

Now you flip to the next page and pass the whole booklet to the person to your left.  They turn back one page so they can see what you drew and then on page three they write the word of what they think you drew.  Lets say in this case after looking at the above picture they wrote down:

“Deep Sea Diver”

Now that person flips to the next page and then passes it to the left.  That person turns back one page, looks at the word that was written – in this case, “Deep Sea Diver”, they flip back to the blank page and draw what they think would be a deep sea

My friend Diane

diver picture.  Flip to the next page, pass to your left again.. and so on until you get your own book back.

*Note – in our case, since there were 4 of us, we ran the books around twice through as there are enough pages to go 8 times and it was so funny to see where the word starts and ends.

When you get your own book back you share in turn what your secret word was and flip through the book to see if that word makes it to the end.  The game is like the old school telephone game with paper. 

There is a points system but we just had a good time flipping through the results and laughing at people pictures.  BELIEVE me, they were not all as easy to guess as the one I show you above, for instance – there are some words that it asks you to pick.  I drew one that said your favorite author.  Like I can pick that!  But I did pick one that is near and dear to my heart, so I drew this:

Now remember, that poor unsuspecting person to the left of me doesn’t even know that the topic is an author.  So…. I don’t even remember what they wrote on the next page but it was nowhere near the true answer which was J K Rowling.  See it? 

My friend Sheila

Thats Harry and Ron and Hermoine standing in front of Hogwarts….  see it?  No?  LOL

Anyhoo – the game rated high for all of us – we had a lot of fun and a couple of times the word that was started was the word that ended as well.  In case I didn’t explain the game well, here is a video to help out with that:

 

This is a great get together game.  I would recommend it for your next gathering or I think it would make a great gift for that gamer in your life. 

Morning Meanderings….

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)7 Comments

Good morning!  First off Banned Book Winners – I will post tomorrow morning.  I am sorry about this delay – if you read my post yesterday I had pulled winners yesterday morning and was typing them in and linking them as I wrote my morning post.  When I hit publish there was an error and wordpress logged me out.  I logged back in and most of my post was not saved and none of the winner info or links.

GAH.

My plan was to post then this morning but I am finally sitting down with coffee to type and see that I have 40 minutes to write the post shower, get ready, and get to work.  Tomorrow then.  Truly.

This week has been a BUSY one.  Monday I came home from Mankato and worked at the Library on the window.  Tuesday was book club, last night was my serving night with the teens and tonight – tonight I was supposed to leave for the cabin for a craft weekend.  I was not packed, not sure what I have for craft supplies and just overly not ready.  😀  I posted out book club review on The Wizard Of Oz (and food and dressed up members) last night.

Thankfully my wonderful friend Amy called last night and suggested we go Friday morning and come back on Sunday rather than go tonight and come back on Saturday evening.  That works so much better 😀

SOOOOO – that said, I will be packing tonight and probably running to a couple of stores to see what cool things I can work on.  It will be a good weekend.

Ok and just for fun… it is October and all… here is a book trailer (best book trailer of 2009 bt the way) Of Sense and Sensibility… and ummm…. Sea Monsters.  Have a great day!

 

The Wizard Of Oz by Frank Baum (Bookies Book Club done BOOKIES STYLE!)

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)26 Comments

 


You probably know the story… (I hope you know the story!)  There’s this chick named Dorothy who is kind of ungrateful living on a farm with her aunt and uncle with her dog Toto.  Then one day a tornado hits (in my book it was a cyclone) and Dorothy winds up flying in her home to another place called – yup you guessed it … Oz, where she works hard (and this is the big plot line) to find her way home AND in the mean time makes some friends with a Tin Man, a Scarecrow and a Lion – but not a scary lion because he really is rather skid-dish. 

Toss in a spooky green witch who wants Dorothy and her little dog too… a crazy Oz man who liked to refer to himself as the “Great and Powerful Oz” (I know like mid life crisis or what?  Why doesn’t he just get a sports car?) and you have quite a little story going here….

 

Yeah… a few of us dressed up. Can you guess which one is me?

So… this was out October Classic read for Bookies book club.  When we chose it back in July we thought we were brilliant because although we knew about the Wizard Of Oz from the movie… none of us had read the book.  Well, seriously – what a blast we had… the food the awesome and the discussion was fun. 

There are so many differences between the book and the movie it was kind of fun because of course – the book was more detailed.  For instance, did you know that in the book Dorothy’s shoes are silver and not red?  They were made red for the movie because red stood out more.  AND originally the yellow brick road was supposed to be red? 

SO many more details!  The book has a chapter where there are people made of China – yes, china like the plates!  It was interesting to think that this book was so forward thinking for a book written in 1900. 

Oh, and another fun fact – Judy Garland was originally supposed to be in the movie Gone With The Wind but bowed out of that role to play Dorothy!  At the time the movies were made, there was no way of knowing the hits they both would come to be!

Our book review consisted of a little trivia and a lot of good food… just see for yourself:

An Oz review would not be complete without witches brew…

 

Oh we had good food!

 

Its hard to see but my cupcakes have red Dorothy shoe book marks in them 🙂

 

 

And I am guessing that you guessed that I was Elphiba (as named in the book Wicked) The Wicked Witch Of The West. 🙂

 

Over all our group rating was 3.8 out of a 5 possibility.  A few preferred the movie, I as well as a few others enjoyed the book more because it introduced things that were not in the movie.  I highly recommend the Wizard of Oz for a fun book discussion.  We really had a great time! 

Morning Meanderings… It Ain’t Easy Being Green… and Banned Book Week Winners

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)14 Comments

Good morning!  😀

Hope everyone had a wonderful Tuesday and now working their way to a great Wednesday.  Last nights book club was WONDERFUL!  We reviewed The Wizard Of Oz and in typical Bookie style, the food was AMAZING and a few of us…

dressed up.

 

I need to also post the winners from the Banned Books week event!  I have not forgotten!  SO here they are from all the giveaways I held last week during banned book week:

 

Ok – I had just finished this post with all my winners and post links and hit submit – it logged me out and when I came back in my post ended here.  *sigh*  I do not have time to re do it this morning as I have used up all my time and must get ready for work.  Ugh.  We will try this again tomorrow morning – so sorry for the delay.
Have a great day!!!!  😀

A Wilderness of Error by Errol Morris

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)14 Comments

 

WARNING:  This book is based on a true crime and the details in this synopsis may be a bit graphic and disturbing. 

 

It was February 17th, 1970 in North Carolina.  Jeffrey MacDonald, a Green Beret Doctor had discovered his two-year old daughter Kristen had wet his side of their bed, so after cleaning her up and putting her to sleep in her own bed, Jeffrey decided to sleep on the couch and deal with the clean up in his own bed in the morning.  It was late, and he was tired.  Hours later, he was startled awake by a noise, screaming actually, and seen several people in his home.  When he got up, startled, he was hit by an object and knocked out.

When Jeffrey regained consciousness he called the police for help.  It was 3:42 am and his life had just changed forever.

What the police found, was the beginning of a nightmare for all involved.  MacDonald’s pregnant wife and two daughters had all been brutally murdered.  The word “PIG” was written in blood on the master bedroom wall. 

Jeffrey MacDonald told the story of what he had seen when he woke up, four young people, one being a woman, chanting and holding candles. He believed drugs were involved.  The police felt that MacDonald’s story didn’t fit with the evidence they seen.   In 1979, MacDonald was convicted of killing his entire family and remains in prison to this day.
But…

Was clear evidence in this crime ignored?  Were there people who were possibly connected to this crime that were never investigated?  Is Jeffery MacDonald an innocent man who was wrongly imprisoned? 

 

Jeffrey then and now

 

Why did I want to read this book?  I admit I have always been drawn to true crime.  That sounds terrible.  Ugh.  I think I am curious about what would make people act that way.  What would bring one human to the brink of harming another – killing another in love or hate or whatever…. 

 

Author Errol Morris writes a story that definitely falls under reasonable doubt in this case.  The book is filled with police reports, and interviews that definitely bring the results of this case into question for this reader.  I found myself turning page after page, gathering my own evidence – even looking back through what I had already read, checking my own “facts” again and again.  I even found myself looking up things about the case on line, to get another perspective to go by.

I like books that make me think and Errol Morris covered that with A Wilderness Of Error.  I felt I came into this case cold, as honestly, prior to this reading I had never heard of Jeffrey MacDonald or this crime that took place right along the time of the Manson murders. 

The book’s title comes from a poem by Edgar Allen Poe:

 

What chance—what one event brought this evil thing to pass, bear with me while I relate… I would fain have them believe that I have been, in some measure, the slave of circumstances beyond human control. I would wish them to seek out for me, in the details I am about to give, some little oasis of fatality amid a wilderness of error.

 

I was bewildered by how this case was handled – granted these were the days before CSI and all the things we have in today’s world to track evidence but if you go by Errol Morris’ account, this case was truly misguided.  There is even a woman, Helena Stoeckley, who admitted time and again that she committed these murders, but was written off as being an unreliable drug addict.

I found the book to be very interesting and well written.

In the end – I personally can’t say if MacDonald did it or not.  MacDonald himself, now 68 years old, still claims he is innocent.

 

For more information about the evidence surrounding this crime and how Errol Morris came up with is facts, see this interesting site.

 

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for allowing me to be a part of a jury by reading this amazing book.