Looking For Alaska by John Green

Published on July 21, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)12 Comments

When sixteen year old Miles Halter leaves his home to go to a boarding school in Birmingham, Alabama he had no idea how his life would change. He left a minor life in Florida, one that had little friends and little significance…. Miles own words. He first meets his roommate Chip who what he lacks in statute he makes up for in attitude. Instantly Miles is dubbed the nickname “Pudge” even though he is quite the opposite and Chip asks to be called The Colonel, . While things seem to be off to a good start in Miles, errr… Pudge’s new adventure, he was unprepared to meet Chips, best friend Alaska Young.

Alaska is a free spirit, she is smart, beautiful, witty and reckless. She has books everywhere called her life books, the books she hopes to read in her life time. She smokes on campus which is strictly taboo, and drinks in her room long after lights out. Miles is instantly infatuated with all that she is.

That was 136 days before….

Why I wanted to read/listen to this book: If you read me, you know I am on a John Green binge. After my heart exploded listening to The Fault In Our Stars, I joined a John Green “in my mind” fan club. I am so enjoying his writing and honestly, I am devouring his writing through audio because oh my gosh…. they are good. REALLY GOOD.

In Looking For Alaska, Miles is looking for something more. He is a huge fan of “famous last words” and wants to make sure his own life has some sort of significance worthy of his own last words.

I am stopping here to say, I really like Miles. He is just the level of geek that I can appreciate because I am one too. He is looking for the meaning of his life, in fact, due to an assignment he is given by a teacher regarding the after life, this is a small background theme in the book, so small and smoke screen like, you can easily miss that it is there at all.

Anyhoo…. as much as I enjoyed Miles/Pudge’s straight-laced life…. I just as much enjoyed Alaska’s free will “lets try anything” attitude. I think… some of both live in me.

As you may have picked up, our story starts out 136 days before. You may be wondering “before what?” and that… I can not share as that is really a huge part of the story… as the book counts down, you can have a sense of the foreboding… what are we counting down to. Is it good? Is it bad? What happens at day 0? Is there an after? That is the beauty of John Green.

I loved this book on audio. The narration by Jeff Woodman was good…. really good and captures the teen voices well.

I really enjoyed this book and had a hard time shutting it off as I wondered what would happen and where do they go from there? I highly count this read/audio as gush worthy and recommend if you have not yet experienced the greatness of John Green please do so soon so you can gush with me…. we will chat on-line, drink coffee or iced tea and gush Green! 😀

Amazon Rating

Goodreads review

Audible.com (listen to a sample here)

Morning Meanderings… A Week In Review

Published on July 21, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)55 Comments

Good morning! Another gorgeous day here in Minnesota and I am excited to get out in it! 😀 This past seven days have been a whirlwind of activity and if you have been around at all this past week you have heard some of this but I thought for Alyce’s Saturday Snapshot I would give you a peek into my “Seven Days Of Past” so you can see why I have not popped into blogs or had much of an online presence….

Last Thursday – Saturday evening I went to our cabin up North with my friend Heidi.

021 — **My first “really bad for me food but oh so good” after the 16 day cleanse**

**My first non water drink in 16 days after the cleanse….. Reward!!! 🙂**

043 — **The band we listened to Friday night… Psycho Jane…. and they were really good!**

Then I went to The Minnesota State Fair Grounds on Sunday and met my college son Justin and a few friends and we participated in the color run.

**Look how lovely we are…. all clean and white….**

Then I came home and we had a family get together to hang out with Brad, Navy son who was going back to the Navy.

**The fam: Left – Justin, Brad, Me, and Al.**

On Monday, we rescued and adopted an abused puppy…. meet Mater, 18 weeks old, part Basset Hound and part Beagle.

20120719_063935 — **Sam and Mater playing on both sides of the sliding glass door.**

Tuesday I was in an 12 hour meeting… no kidding, 9:30 am – 9:30 pm.

Wednesday I worked, had a meeting, and it was my anniversary!

Thursday – first day I have had nothing in the evening in over a week….. hung out at home with the pups. 😀

Friday garage sales, lawn mowing, an open house, and finally at 8 pm…. home.

Today – I need to do some shopping for tomorrows picnic for 300, help out at IHN tonight (working with the homeless)

Sunday – church picnic and tear down of IHN and move to the next church. I hope to be completely done with all tasks and commitments by 3 pm.

And that…. Sunday afternoon, will end my craziness for a while *whew* 😀

For other fun pictures and happenings, be sure to go check out Alyce’s Saturday Snapshots post. Always a good time!

Morning Meanderings… Winners Of The Read A Long Discussion

Published on July 20, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)13 Comments

Good morning! Popping in for a few minutes before I go garage saling this morning (which I LOVE!). I love to find a good deal. A couple of weeks ago I found covers for my deck chairs which was a huge score and I use them all the time. 😀

However before I plunge myself in to sale mode… we have a few winners from the Rebecca Read a Long. And seriously, how awesome was this book? I loved the discussion and think for the most part, we were all glad we read it. 😀 I still need to post my review….. behind, behind, behind….. 😛

The winner of the new copy of My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Mairer is….

Meg at A Bookish Affair

The copy of the DVD “Rebecca” is….

Words and Peace

and the $5 Amazon Gift Card goes to….

Christina from the Blue Bookcase

Thank you everyone for another great book discussion. I will post soon suggestions for our next read-a-long…. I am trying to keep the reads relevant to the time of year so I am thinking Summer….. 😀

will grayson, will grayson by John Green and David Levithan

Published on July 19, 2012July 19, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)22 Comments

Will Grayson has been best friends with “Tiny” Cooper since 5th grade. They make for an odd friendship. For one thing, Tiny is anything but Tiny. Tipping close to 300 pounds, he is quite the opposite of his thin friend, Will. Also, Tiny is gay. Scratch that, Tiny describes himself as really, really gay. And sings it out loud. Really, he does. Will, is not gay. Now in high school, Will enjoys life as it comes to him, not really pursuing a girlfriend, life, can be complicated enough at this point without adding relationships to the mix. That is… until recently… because now there is this girl, who he doesn’t want to like… doesn’t want to be in a relationship…but cant stop thinking about her.

Then, there is Will Grayson. Not the Will Grayson, mentioned above. This Will is also in high school. He has a harder personality and not a lot of close friends. He has a secret from everyone. He likes a guy he met on line, Isaac.

ISAAC ISAAC ISAAC ISAAC ISAAC ISAAC ISAAC ISAAC ISAAC ISAAC ISAAC ISAAC ISAAC ISAAC…

It really is all Will (hence forth known as the “OWG” , other Will Grayson, thinks about, waiting for him to be on line, waiting to read what he will say… and one day he says the magic words… “Let’s meet.”

A random change encounter puts both Will Grayson’s in the same place at the same time, and this encounter changes both of their lives forever.

Why did I want to read/listen to this book? I am having an author crush on John Green. After listening to The Fault In Our Stars ( SUPERB narration – highly recommended!) I had to listen to another audio by him, and this one sounded like a really interesting one.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson is told in alternating chapters by the two Will Grayson’s. At first, this confused me on the audio as chapter two opened it took me a minute or two to realize that this rougher, angrier Will Grayson was not the gentle fun Will I had just met in the previous chapter. After that, the book just flowed.

While I enjoyed the original Will, I think it is safe to say that Tiny is the adored character. Obviously he is a really big guy. And he is gay, so he is used to a little harder lifestyle, a little more jokes and cruelty than most. But Tiny …. shines. He doesn’t care what you think of him. He knows he is BIG. He knows he is gay. And… he is about to write a musical about his life.

Yup.

Another beauty of listening to this in audio is yes, it does involve a musical and I am not sure how that translates on paper, but on audio…. it is not only all sorts of awesome, it is hilarious. Narrated by Nick Podehl is a real treat to the ears. (Nick also narrates The Knife Of Never Letting Go series, Wonder, and several Harlan Coben books). I seriously not only fell in love with a sweet story, I laughed a lot, and received strange looks form my husband if he entered a room where my audio was cranking out a song about Tiny.

Note that if the sound of a musical makes you scrunch up your nose like you smelled something bad, don’t worry – the musical is not all through the story. It shows up towards the end and by that time you love these characters so much you want to see how they are going to pull this off.

I recommend Will Grayson, Will Grayson. It is a 9th grade and up read and I think that is appropriate. There is nothing in this book to cause a young reader alarm. If anything, it may help them understand others better, and perhaps… even themselves.

Purchased from audible.com

Morning Meanderings…. Remember Reading?

Published on July 19, 2012July 19, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)33 Comments

Good morning! Wow! Look at me, posting consistently four in a row…..LOL. Working on getting my mojo back or something like that. 😀

I am sitting here this morning and I was looking at my side bar longingly at Yes! Chef. I seriously thought I would have that book read and reviewed weeks ago. I love it, I really do but when was the last time I picked it up? Ummmm…. over last weekend while I was at the cabin. How many pages did I read then? Oh, about 3. 😯

But – that is what life has been like as of late – the cabin weekend was full of activity and we were on the road early, and back late…. exhausted but chatty… we could talk, but I could not read. And then the Color Run with College Son, and Brad (Navy Son) home for two weeks which meant family dinners, and friends, and company…. 😯

and then Monday we adopted Mater, who is adorable…. don’t get me wrong…. but a handful like I did not imagine. I have never owned a part beagle/ part basset hound before and he is high energy. And he is barky (my word). When he plays, he barks, and in the night-time I put him in a kennel in our entry way as that is what he is used to…. he barks. AND his teeth are sharp so playing with him is not like playing with Sam or Bailey. So…. anyhoo, I have work to do with the rescue puppy.

AND we are serving with IHN this week (the homeless) so I am juggling volunteers and “opportunities” that tend to arise… AND this coming Sunday is our annual church picnic which falls quite a bit on me.

So by now, you may be seeing why I have not had time to pick up a book, or chat away with all of you on-line (which I LOVE to do!)

I do see a light (I think) at the end of the tunnel. I took Monday and Tuesday off next week to recoup. That should give me time to rest up, play with the dog and oh…. READ. Books…. how I miss you! 😀

Whats happening in your July? Plenty of reading being done or is summer a distraction for you as well? 😀

Rebecca Read-A-Long (Party With Rebecca Party!!!)

Published on July 18, 2012July 18, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)106 Comments

Welcome to the “Party With Rebecca” Party…. “SSSQQQQUUUEEE!” Thank you to everyone who joined me on this adventure of reading Rebecca. This was my first time through this book!

Here is how todays party will work:

For those of you who link your reviews and thoughts today and tomorrow you will receive one entry to win, the link to add your posts is below where it says click here. Participating in the discussion (if you read and reviewed the book or not)will earn you one extra entry per relevant comment.

Since this is a party… we have some fun party gifts– if you link your review that gives you one entry… for participating in the discussion questions you will get a second entry.

Whats up for the giveaway?

2aaa — **Written by the author of Rebecca**

Here are some bookish thoughts to get our discussion rolling…

1. Du Maurier admitted that her heroine has no name because she could never think of an appropriate one—which in itself is a telling comment. What effect does it have on the novel that the new Mrs. De Winters has no first name?

2. What kind of character is our heroine—as she presents herself at the beginning of her flashback? Describe her and her companion, Mrs. Hopper.

3. What kind of character is Maxim de Winter, and why does a man of his stature fall in love with the young heroine? What draws him to her?

4. The heroine describes Maxim thus: “His face…was arresting, sensitive, medieval in some strange inexplicable way…rob him of his English tweeds, and put him in black, with lace at his throat and wrists, he would stare down at us in our new world from a long distant past—a past where men walked cloaked at night, and stood in the shadow of old doorways, a past of narrow stairways and dim dungeons, a past of whispers in the dark, of shimmering rapier blades, of silent, exquisite courtesy.” Why is this an apt description? In other words, how does it set the tone and foretell the events of the novel?

5. In what way does the relationship between the young heroine and Maxim change during the months after their arrival to Manderley?

6. What role does Mrs. Danvers play in this story—in her relationships to the characters (dead and alive) and also in relation to the suspense within the novel?

7. What is the heroine led to believe about Rebecca? In what way does the dead woman exert power over Manderley? At this point, what are your feelings about the new Ms. de Winter? Are you sympathetic toward her plight…or impatient with her lack of assertion? Or are you confused and frightened along with her?

8. What is the heroine’s relationship with Maxim’s sister Beatrice and her husband Giles? What about the advice Beatrice offers the heroine? ?

9. Both Beatrice and Frank Crawley talk to the heroine about Rebecca. Beatrice tells the heroine, “you are so very different from Rebecca.” Frank Crawley says that “kindliness, and sincerity, and…modesty…are worth far more to a man, to a husband, than all the wit and beatufy in the world.” What are both characters trying to convey to the heroine…and how does she interpret their words?

10. What are some of the other clues about Rebecca’s true nature that the author carefully plants along the way?

11. How might the costume ball—and the heroine’s appearance in Rebecca’s gown—stand as a symbol for young Mrs. de Winter’s situation at Manderley?

12. Were you suprised by the twist the plot takes when Rebecca’s body is found…and when Maxim finally tells the truth about his and Rebecca’s marriage? Did the strange details of plot fall into place for you?

13. How, if at all, do Maxim’s revelations change your attitude toward him? Did you feel relief upon first reading his confessions? Can you sympathize with his predicament, or do you censure his actions? What do you think of the heroine’s reaction? In her place, how might you have reacted?

14. How does this new knowledge alter the heroine’s behavior and her sense of herself?

15. After Favell threatens to blackmail him, Maxim calls on Colonel Julyan. Why? Why does Maxim act in a way that seems opposed to his own best interests?

16. In the end, what really happened to Rebecca? What is the full story of her death? Is it right that Maxim is absolved of any crime? Was he caught in an untenable position? Was Rebecca simply too evil—did she end up getting what she deserved?

17. How do you view the destruction of Manderley? Is it horrific…or freeing…or justified vengeance on Rebecca’s part? Would the De Winters have had a fulfilling life at Manderley had it not burned?

18. Now return to the beginning of the book. How would you put into words, or explain, the sense of loss and exile that permeates tone of the opening? (You might think about a spiritual as well as physical exile.)

(in the comments – you may answer as many or as few as the questions you like as well as add your own questions to the discussion.)

Here is where you can link up your Rebecca Reviews:

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Morning Meanderings…. On The Cup and Rebecca Update

Published on July 18, 2012July 18, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)8 Comments

Good Morning! It’s so nice to be back to my regular routine, sitting here in the morning with you, coffee cup to my right…. yes, that’s right… the CUP is back.

Many of you know I took that 16 day cleanse and gave up coffee during that time as well as many other things, but COFFEE would be a big one for me. It actually wasn’t that bad and I am not back on it like I once was, but a cup or two a day seems to work out just fine. Some days, it is still none. 😀

AND this morning…. I did need some coffee. Yesterday really was a 12 hour meeting day and I drove home about 9:55 pm. This morning… I look and feel a little like a warmed over bagel. With hair. A bagel with hair. Yup… that describes me. I cant see it here in the dining room… but I can feel that my hair is everywhere.

Now…. about Rebecca. Yesterday many of us were on schedule to have our “Party with Rebecca” here at Book Journey. Now… as much as I would like to blame Rebecca and say that she did not show up to her own party…. that responsibility would be solely on me. I am the one who dropped that ball.

Since my post was not 100% ready to go yesterday when I left the house at 6:30 am, I knew I would have a little time between my check in with our IHN team, and my 9:30 meeting so I took Laptop with me to Starbucks at 8:30, fully ready to finish my post and schedule it. Except…. I had no internet at Starbucks. 😯

I tried for 40 minutes to get on-line, talked to the people who worked there, they didn’t know what was going on either. AND since like I said earlier, my meeting was 12 hours…. Rebecca’s party was postponed and I could not even let you all know. SO…. that all said, Rebecca will party with us today so if you were part of the read-a-long, please join me in a discussion of the book, and whatever we want to discuss about Rebecca. 😀

Today should be my first not too over the top day in almost a week. While I do have a meeting tonight, it should not be super long and I should get home at a decent hour, which will be nice. Thursday and Friday will be better yet, no evening meetings and Friday I do not even have to work….. WOO HOO!!!!! I can see the light!

Morning Meanderings… Welcome to my own personal OZ

Published on July 17, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)25 Comments

Good morning! It has been one crazy weekend and my online presence has been minimal. Having a laptop would have been…..

awkward. 😀

From Thursday to Sunday afternoon I put 800 miles on my Jeep between the North Shore and the Gunflint Trail…

009 — **This is my first non water drink in 16 days!!!! (I was doing the cleanse)**

047 — **And… the results of the Silver Bay book sale 🙂**

Then on Sunday I took off the other direction from my home and went to The Cities to the Minnesota State Fairgrounds where I participated with friends and my son, in the Color Run…

And shortly after…

In other news, our book club last week chose out October Classic to be The Wizard Of Oz, so I was uber thrilled to find out that they are making a prequel to The Wizard Of Oz. Have you heard this? I am soooo excited. Here is the trailer:

I have to go get ready, I have some finishing touches to put on a post for later today and I have a 12 hour meeting today – I kid you not. 12 hours. 😯 I will be home around 9 pm tonight.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on July 15, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)36 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.

This past weeks winner:

Quixotic Magpie!!!

Congratulations! Please email me your book choice out of the Reading Cafe at journeythroughbooks@gmail.com.

HI everyone! I am going to lay this out a bit differently this week. I have been out of town since Thursday at our cabin up North, returned yesterday early evening and left again this morning for a 5K with my son, came home later afternoon and spent the late afternoon and evening with both sons in town before Brad leaved back for the Navy tomorrow.

That said, this is the quick version today – I am not going to post my usual I have read last week and what I plan to read this week. Next week I will return to full post mode, but this week – lest see what you are reading 😀 Please link up below.

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and those of you who read mainly children’s through YA reads – please also link your post here:

Morning Meanderings…. A Quick Check In!

Published on July 15, 2012July 15, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)8 Comments

Hi! I have been missing in action this weekend and am home for the night, on my laptop for the first time in days and thought I would say “Heeeey-eyyyy” while I could. 😀

I went to our cabin this weekend with my friend Heidi and we had a blast hanging out on the Gunflint Trail and seeing a band called Psycho Jane, which has AWESOME. Saturday morning we went to the Silver Bay Book sale, and then came home. Now I leave this morning (EARLY) to drive to the cities to hang out with my son and friends at the Color Run. Yes, I can not wait to participate in this event.

So…. before I head out the door… here is a sample of the color run: