Woo hoo!!!!I have officially hit the year three mark, as of June 9th I have been book blogging/reviewing/chatting/gushing for three years! THREE YEARS!!!
When I started blogging I had no idea it would one day lead me to:
Not one, not two, but three trips (so far!) to New York to the Book Expo!
I would not only make great friends who love books as much as I do – but in some cases I was able to meet them!
Writing reviews for a local magazine
Connecting with our local library
and stretch my reading palate to try books I never thought I would enjoy and found out in many cases I did! 😛
I can hardly remember what life was like before I started writing posts (this one by the way is number 2,192!)
For those of you who have come to my party last year or the year before, the basics are pretty much the same… to be entered for the great giveaways (pictured below), simply leave me a comment here telling me how you traveled to the party, and what virtual gift or food item you brought with you: For example, you may have rode a pogo stick to the party and brought with you jalapeno poppers laced with jumping beans… (really be as crazy as you want… I love the fun imaginative comments!) For a little bonus if you would like to share how long we have known each other (blog or otherwise) and if you are brand new to the house of Book Journey – feel free to share that too! I love new friends! 😀
My party will go for 24 hours so this post will go up at 12:01 am on June 15th (central time) and stay up until midnight. Every comment will be entered into the random drawings and winners (using random.org)will be announced here on Saturday morning.
Here is what I will draw winners for:
*Personal thank you to publishers who gave me copies of these books to give away for this event.
One more “bonus” side giveaway – you will see on my right sidebar that I have a Book Journey survey going on. This is a quick survey to help me analyze what you like or what brings you to Book Journey. If you would be so kind as to take a couple of minutes and fill out the survey for me, it will assist me to be a better blogger. 😀 This survey will be up for one week and then I will draw from the participants a winner for an Amazon gift card.
Thank you readers of Book Journey – You make me smile with your comments, nod in understanding, and occasionally I laugh (snort) out loud. I am so appreciative of all of you!!!
Let’s get this party started!!!! I hear knocking at the door… who could it be….
Jill Farrow is thrilled to find some sort of normalcy returning after her divorce. For her and her daughter Megan, things are looking up. Jill loves her job as a Physician, spending time with her active daughter Megan, and the new man in her life Sam.
Then one evening Jill’s world turns upside down when the daughter of her ex, shows up on her doorstep, with news that Jill’s ex is dead, even presumed murdered. Jill promises a very scared Abby that she will do everything she can to help find out what happened to Abby’s dad. What she starts to uncover just doesn’t add up.
Jill’s obsession with the mystery starts to take a toll on her relationship with her own daughter Megan, as well as Sam, but Jill can’t quit now…. and some people feel she is getting just a little too close to the truth for comfort…
This is my first Lisa Scottoline and I have to come out and say that it was not what I had hoped for. I liked Jill, but this was one of those reads where all the supporting characters never felt fully there to me. Her two ex step daughters Abby and the extremely ornery Victoria were just different and I never fully pictured what the looked like in my mind.
Sam was a back seat participant in the whole read and when he did have an opinion, it was small and did not matter to me one way or another. In the end, I truly did not feel like I connected with any part of the book. 12 CDS long it also felt just a little too drawn out.
I really wish I could say more positive things about this one but in the end I felt empty.
Anybody else wondering if I write reviews any more?
Ok… Just checking…
Seriously though, it feels like I have not written a book review in weeks. Probably – because that is true. I did not get any written during BEA and since I have been back I have been in a haze of keeping up on the house, the weather (oh rain… GO AWAY!) working, catching up with friends…
All good things, and I am reading – but I sit down at night to write a post and my eyes glaze over and I wind up playing a couple rounds of Scrabble on Facebook and going to bed. 😯
And now today – I am going to talk about the books from BEA because I should… and I want to. And tomorrow, if the big Blogiversary celebration here and seriously – come – you are invited and it really is a big deal. I have all sorts of giveaways (some will be BEA related!) and it is always a good time. Here is a link to last years party…. SO MUCH FUN! 😀 OH and bring a guest this year – for sure 😀 (More on that tomorrow morning)
Anyway – back to the books. Here is my BEA haul – thank you to my friend Heidi and her awesome daughter Camryn who came over and dug through boxes with me. 😀
There it is…. and I have some major organizing to do in the book room…. seriously. 😀 Hope your day is wonderful! And really hope to see you tomorrow…. it is going to be so MUCH FUN! 😀
On Tuesday we had our June Bookies book club meeting. Usually for July we have a “free read” month where we do not chose a book together but instead just read whatever and when we meet for our annual picnic/queen event in July just chat about whatever we read.
Amy P in out group heard of something a little different that we decided to try this year…
We were all to bring a wrapped up favorite book that we LOVED to let someone else experience. The only rules were that it needed to be a book each of us truly enjoyed, not a book that we had all read together, and we were to put a post it note on the book saying why we wanted someone else to experience it and if the person who picked it could keep the book, or if the owner would like it back.
After we completed our June book review (Look Again by Lisa Scottoline), we each drew a number and in that order opened our books one at a time and the giver had a chance to say out loud to all of us why they enjoyed that book so much.
I brought a long time favorite of mine and a book that holds a special place in my heart:
The exchange was a lot of fun and the cool thing was, no one picked a book they had already read.
We are asked to now read the book we chose and talk about it next month at the Queen event.
The books that people brought as the “best of the best” must read were (from top left and across)
The Host by Stephanie Meyer
Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
The Pilot’s Wife by Anita Shreve
The Shoemaker’s Wife by Adriana Trigiani
First Family by David Baldacci
The Mermaid’s Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
The Bonesetters Daughter by Amy Tan
Dance Upon The Air by Nora Roberts
The Crying Tree by Naseem Rahka
One Second After by William Forstchen
Wine And War by Donald Cladstrup
One of our Bookies who was unable to attend the meeting sent a book so she could be included in the drawing When it was picked and opened the book was a Baby Names book and inside it the post it note said:
“I do need this book back because we are expecting our first baby!” Kerri
How cool is that? Congratulations Kerri!!! A new Bookie Baby coming in 2013!!!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE my book club and can not wait to read the book I drew – The Crying Tree. And next months Queen event.… is the highlight of the year… and that is saying a lot!
Have you read any of the books that were chosen as favorites above? If so, which ones did you love?
Confession – Rebecca is a book I have never read, have wanted to for some time now and am going to do it in the next month.
If you are interested in doing this read a long with me it is open to those who have not read it before, and to those who feel they may be due for a re-read.
Then… on July 17 here, we are going to have a “Party with Rebecca party” ! You will have a chance to link your reviews and there will be an online book discussion here, as well as giveaways!
Want in?
Please grab the button above and either 1) write a post with the “woo hoo” I am going to do this read a long! or 2) add this button to your sidebar or 3) both!
Please fill out this form if you are planning on participating:
And link up your Participation post here (where you write a post saying you are going to do this readalong and invite others to pop in here and join as well 😀 :
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Today is my first day back to work in 9 days. I had all last week off for the Book Expo in New York (see my final post on that here) and then I took yesterday off to experience the Duluth Minnesota book sale – the coveted book sale for me of the past few years.
Why coveted? Word on the street was the Duluth Library sale was the best in Minnesota. Seems like I either missed the date each year, or had a conflict and could not go. This year I made it.
The outside of the Duluth Library
I had some things I liked and some things not so much… here is my pro/con list for this sale:
Pro:
When in line they give you numbers so once you have your number you can go do whatever (I went to Starbucks), come back before they open at 10 am and they let you in by number.
Con:
Many of the books were older titles (as in many years). I am usually looking for books I have heard about recently or a couple years old.
The cost for the large paperback I love was $1.00 each. At Brainerd sale, they are 25 cents each.
The quantity to me felt less than Brainerd’s although Duluth’s sale is so much bigger.
To be a friend of the Duluth Library you have to pay $10, this gets you in the first day of the sale. Brainerd’s is $5 for the membership.
Overall it was a fun experience, I talked to some fun people in the line while I waited, but for a two hour drive one way, I don’t think I found enough to make it an annual thing. Here is what I left with:
My biggest thrill was the hard cover of The Passage. I have a paper back copy but that one will now go to our cabin for guest reading and the hard cover goes on my top shelf all time favs.
Curious – do you have library sales in your area? What do you look for?
I have been trying to give highlights but there are so many these posts…. uh…. are a bit longer than I had anticipated. I am hoping to wrap it up with this one, but we will see once I get going here. 😛
Tuesday June 4, was the actual first day of the Book Expo. This is the day that the doors open to Bookish types – Librarians, media, Book Sellers, Press, and yes, Book Bloggers. To my understanding, Book Bloggers have been included the past 4 years. I started attending three years ago.
How to explain what the book expo is like….
Ok… picture Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory. We (Book Bloggers) have a golden ticket. Except once we enter the Chocolate Factory…. errrr….. Javits Center, it is filled with books instead of candy – books beyond our wildest dreams.
Some of us just stand in awe of all the bookish things:
“OOH! Ahhhhhh!”
and some of us….. get a little carried away:
“COWABUNGA!!!!!!!”
I fall somewhere in between….. *sheepish grin*
The Javits is a huge conference center and all the publishing companies you can imagine, books and audio books alike have a space there. Once the doors open…. you explore the booths, connect with the companies you work and the ones you hope to (for me that was Brilliance Audio) and throughout the day(s) many of them offer up ARC (advanced reader copies) of books coming out this summer, fall, and winter. The books, are free to us – preferably we only take what we plan to read and review, and we have to ship them home (I highly recommend the Post office! Less cost and faster than UPS believe it or not) or put them in suit cases.
It is a bookextravaganza.
Ok… so hopefully that paints a picture.
Now for a quick back story. The first year I went to BEA I waited in the LONG line that forms before the doors open and then was pushed with the mob into the expo. Not cool… and a little frightening. 2nd year, Reagan (Miss Remmers Reviews) and I decided we would hang out and go in after the rush of people. I spotted seats behind an unattended info booth – tall cushioned chairs, perfect for people watching and sipping out coffee. Reagan was all “NO way – we could get in trouble.” I was all “What are they going to say? Please do not sit here? Then we will move.” We sat there and the funny thing is people came and asked us tons of questions that for the most part were east to answer:
When does the Expo open?
Where do I get my badge?
Where is Starbucks?
Where is the author breakfast?
Are tickets still available to the author breakfast?
Do I need my badge before I go to the breakfast?
Do you have a map of the expo layout? (We didnt, but I got us some)
It was actually a lot of, passed the time and to this day Reagan and I say it was one of best memory moments of BEA. This year, Reagan was unable to attend, but I went up to our booth day one…. spoke to the attendant, told her about last year – and she hooked me up for this year:
I sent this pic to Reagan via text and she was all “Shut Up! You did not! I am sooooo photo shopping myself in!” LOL
The expo – over the the three days was a lot of fun. I walked the booths, connected with the publishers I work with – and picked up a few coveted books and a few I did not know I coveted until I heard about them. Here are a few highlights:
This is a fun story. I went to Minnesota Press (HELLLLOOOOO! I am from Minnesota!) and was talking with the author of Frozen, Mary Casanova. This story is about a prostitute found frozen in a Minnesota lake int he early 1900’s. This part of her story is factual. From there she built a fictional story around this fact about a daughter who witnesses what happens and does not talk since.
I tell Mary I am from Brainerd Minnesota and she is all, “Really? My brother lives in Brainerd Minnesota, do you know Paul Gazelka?” I actually know Paul pretty well and his wife, so that was just a fun coincidence.
I have reviewed a few Ted Dekker books here over the years. I have a couple of friends who are HUGE fans so when I seen Ted at the expo I could not pass up a chance to hop in the autograph line and get a pic as well while he signed a book to my friend.
Oh yeah… if I left with only one book at BEA it was going to hopefully be The Twelve. I loved The Passage.
And…. I got the book! 😛
This was a drive by shooting (with my camera!) I did not wait in the LONG line for a signed book, but still…. picture worthy.
After a fun event at Penguin (Wednesday Night Penguin Bird Bash) I made a commitment to be sure and get my pic taken in the Reached book cover bubble at the expo. Thursday morning I fulfilled that commitment which was actually a lot of fun!
Meeting the people you share bookish chats with on line is a lot of fun and a big part of the BEA experience. I did not do a good job of catching pics this time of all my great blogger friends. A few I have posted int he previous BEA posts, but this one was of me and Cindy from Cindy’s love of books who I kept running into all week. She was so much fun to talk to!
Beyond the expo – on Tuesday afternoon a few of us went to Harper Collins and learned how E Books are made. This was really fascinating and I had no idea how much work went into an e-book. Later Tuesday, Alison from Alisons Book Marks and I went out to an incredible dinner. On Wednesday we had a power readers breakfast at Random House (no pics… forgot!). Later Wednesday I went to an authors reception for Laura Moriarty, and after that the Penguin Bird Bash. There were two more invites for later that night but I was tired and chose to call it a night.
Thursday evening after the final day at the expo I went to dinner with Gail (roomy) two other new bloggers to me, and John from Brilliance Audio. John is the guy who decides what books are made into audio books. He gave me some great ideas for audio listening.
Friday morning I flew back to Minnesota… thus ending BEA 12, but I am already looking forward to BEA 13.
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 email me your book choice out of the recently cleaned up and LOVELY Reading Cafe at journeythroughbooks@gmail.com.
What a week. I spent Sunday through Friday in New York at BEA (Book Expo of America) which is a book bloggers heaven – seriously…. books, author, Publishers, and blogger friends. I have attended the last three years and I HIGHLY recommend it. What a rush!!!
So… that said… I did not have a lot of posts this past week as by day I was at the Expo and by evening I was at Publishing house and author events and as much as I had good intentions of posting… I was really just too tired. Here is what I managed to put up last week:
Yup… thats it. Needless to say, I am behind on book reviews… I think I have 4 books to review and 3 audio books to review yet. I have some writing to do, as well as more BEA recaps, and my Blogiversary party which will be here this Friday and you do not want to miss out as we have a lot of fun! (If you have come the past two years you know this is a great time!!!)
For my plan for this week:
Like everyone else, precocious high school senior Quentin Coldwater assumes that magic isn’t real, until he finds himself admitted to a very secretive and exclusive college of magic in upstate New York. There he indulges in joys of college-friendship, love, sex, and booze- and receives a rigorous education in modern sorcery. But magic doesn’t bring the happiness and adventure Quentin thought it would. After graduation, he and his friends stumble upon a secret that sets them on a remarkable journey that may just fulfill Quentin’s yearning. But their journey turns out to be darker and more dangerous than they’d imagined. Psychologically piercing and dazzlingly inventive, The Magicians is an enthralling coming-of-age tale about magic practiced in the real world-where good and evil aren’t black and white, and power comes at a terrible price.
Its Like Harry Potter in College! Thank you John from Brilliance audio for the recommendation! I am three hours in and really enjoying it!
How much change can one summer bring?
If you’re Caddie Winger — thirty-two years old, still living with her grandmother and giving piano lessons to neighborhood children — one summer can make the whole world look different. Caddie’s mother died when she was nine, and her grandmother raised her. Now their roles are reversed, and it’s Caddie who takes care of Nana. When her grandmother breaks a leg and insists on going into a convalescent home, Caddie finds herself being pulled out of her comfy, self-made nest. Living alone for the first time since college, she uncovers some startling truths from her past.
Jolted, she looks at the world with new eyes and begins to take charge of her future. As she makes a new best friend, takes risks she never dreamed she could, and navigates the depths and shallows of true love and devastating heartbreak, Caddie learns how to trust other people and, ultimately, how to trust herself.
Amanda McCready was four years old when she vanished from a Boston neighborhood twelve years ago. Kenzie and Gennaro risked everything to find the young girl—only to orchestrate her return to a neglectful mother and a broken home.
Now Amanda is sixteen—and gone again. Haunted by their consciences, Kenzie and Gennaro revisit the case that troubled them the most. Their search leads them into a world of identity thieves, methamphetamine dealers, a mentally unstable crime boss and his equally demented wife, a priceless, thousand-year-old cross, and a happily homicidal Russian gangster. It’s a world in which motives and allegiances constantly shift and mistakes are fatal.
In their desperate fight to confront the past and find Amanda McCready, Kenzie and Gennaro will be forced to question if it’s possible to do the wrong thing and still be right or to do the right thing and still be wrong. As they face an evil that goes beyond broken families and broken dreams, they discover that the sins of yesterday don’t always stay buried and the crimes of today could end their lives.
I have some books to finish up on so I think I will leave this as it is here. Monday, if the weather is cooperating, I am going to Duluth for their annual Library Sale. I know, I know…. I just got back from a book event – but this is one I have always wanted to go to and it has never worked out before. I plan on leaving early in the morning to get a good spot in line (I will share details in my Tuesday morning meanderings.)
In the mean time, I am super curious as to what you are reading! Please link up below and I will try to stop by and see your books/audio and whatever else you have going on 😀
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and those of you who read mainly children’s through YA reads – please also link your post here:
Friday afternoon, I posted my first BEA recap which pretty much covered Sunday when I first arrived in New York and the Simon Schuster YA event. Today I want to share about Monday, June 3.
Monday was the Book Blogger Conference at the Javits. Gail (A Ticket to Anywhere) who was my roommate, and I, walked the 5 blocks to the Javits from our hotel. Once inside, we got in line for our badges for the week. And from there, in line to go into the breakfast that was the kickoff to our day and a “speed dating” event with authors. You chose a table that the author you wanted to chat with would be at – and then three authors rotated through your table while you ate. I have to break here and share my favorite in line to breakfast comment I heard from the blogger standing in front of me and Gail.
Blogger girl (chatting to friends): SO have you read Insurgent yet?
Blogger girls friends/minions (Gail’s fun word of the week): (a mix of yes and no’s and “huh?”)
Blogger girl: I thought it was good but I am so in love with _________________ (no spoilers for those who have not read it yet) and hope that is who she chooses. *sigh*
Blogger girls friends: * a mixture of head nods and mumblings of agreement
Blogger Girl: I really liked Divergent, but loved Insurgent… I can’t wait for the next book, what do you think they will call it? Detergent?
😯
😆
Ok – so anyway, I sat at Table 7 which was going to have Justin Cronin, author of The Passage and the author of the highly coveted by me, The Twelve. If I left BEA with one book, that needed to be the one. And so yeah, I hung out with Justin Cronin.
Yup, me and Justin. Justin and me. 😀
After the breakfast portion of the day, Jennifer Weiner spoke about books and bloggers and life stuff. She was pretty funny. At lunch we had the authors at the tables again and looking over my itinerary I seen that at my table 7 was going to be a Craft author. Crafts are so not my thing so I checked the schedule and moved to table 12 with Alison from Alison’s Book Marks where Erica Robuck would be the author. I read Erica’s book, Receive Me Falling back in 2009 and loved it. She said I was one of the first bloggers to read and review her book. What is cool about Erica’s story is that her first book was self published, and now this second book, Hemingway’s Girl, was purchased and published by NAL Trade. NICE!
Erica and I
After lunch I took a break from the afternoon sessions as out evening was packed, so I went back to the hotel – chilled for about an hour, changed into my clothes for the evening and came back for the closing talk with Jenny Lawson, The Bloggess, whose book is Let’s Pretend This Never Happened. (Listened to on audio and reviewed last month).
** Later I talked with fellow awesome Minnesotan Kim from Sophisticated Dorkiness about the afternoon break out sessions and here are two things I can take away from that I will apply:
1. Do not put your full reviews on Good Reads…. put a part of the review and then link it back to your blog for people to read the rest. Huh. I hadn’t thought of that before, but it makes sense. Until now, I have posted my full reviews on Good Reads.
2. Twitter is pretty much the best way for bookish communications/ linking posts/ and connecting with authors, publishers, fellow bloggers…. I needed to hear this. It is hard for me to do Twitter because I just dont take the time for it. I am trying now to be more open to Twitter and the possibilities of blog building it has.
So… Monday evening. Alison from Alison’s Book Marks and I made our way to Scholastic’s invite. I was uber excited as I had never been to Scholastic before. Alison graciously walked me through the Scholastic store which was truly drool worthy with all the great books I either have read or want to read…..
Their party was…. AWESOME. I am not just saying that either. They had popcorn and a cotton candy machine. Horduerves and lemonade, ice tea, or cola. It was a wonderful Middle Grade/YA get together! Once there we sat with Kathy from Burmuda Onion and Julie from Booking Mama.
And more was yet to come.
Scholastic had their authors each take a turn talking about their newest book. Then they read from the book, each author taking a character part. The result? HILARIOUS. James Dashner (author of Maze Runner, Scorch Trials…) was a hoot. He was so funny and always seemed to be given the funny parts such as “cranky grandmother” or “angry aunt”. And he played his parts well, even once saying he channeled Mrs. Doubtfire. His newest book Infinity Ring sounds fantastic!
James Dashner and I
Maggie Steifvater (author of Linger, Shiver, and Forever, just to name a few) is not only talented beyond belief, she is cut and funny and someone I think would be a blast to hang out with. Raven Boys is much coveted!
The one that surprised me the most was Eliot Schrefer, who’s book Endangered will be released this November. The book is about the Congo and a girl who is trying to save the endangered bonobos. I knew I did not want to read this book. I have such a soft heart for animals and animals hurting really breaks me up. As Elliot talked about his research with the bonobos, and then read an exert from his book… leaving us with a cliff hanger…
my heart stopped and my eyes welled up.
Then… they showed a picture of the cover:
Damn. Now I have to read this book, and did get an advanced reader copy at BEA.
Next stop (and yes, this is still Monday) was the Harper Collins party. As always, a blast. It was so fun to connect with blogger friends, authors, and Harper Collins peeps. I so enjoy this event every year! AND – it was time for my annual pic with Alison from Alison’s Book Marks. We have a funny tradition now of having a picture together at this event. We met at BEA in 2010 and connected over books and then in 2011, chatted again at the Harper Collins Party and this year, we hung out quite a bit which was a lot of fun.
and here we are in 2011…
and again in 2010…
Alison’s hair stays the same… I am always changing it up…LOL… now seeing these pics, I want to go short hair again. 😛 Its also funny, now that I look at these that we are always on the same side.
Later that evening, roomy Gail (Ticket To Anywhere), two other gals (forgive me… I have lost names and blogs in my head somewhere) went to an Irish pub for dinner. Gail and I are both Irish so this was so much fun and our waiter, Pearce (like Bronson) has such a thick great accent that I wanted to miniaturize him and keep him in my purse to take out for later get togethers. 😀
I was so tired in this pic with Gail. It had been a LONG Monday but filled with such great events!
Book Journey 