2011-2012: Your Audiobook Year – Audiobook Week Discussion

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)68 Comments

Good afternoon!  I am coming in a bit late here having to make room for the Monday What Are You Reading Meme. 😀

Today is the Official kick off to Audio Book week!  I am thrilled to participate as I am a HUGE Audio Book fan, a 2 1/2 year addict and proud of it.  I can read one or two books a week with my crazy schedule, but I can double my read count by adding audio.

I am frequently asked how I can possibly read as much as I do and keep up with my job, my home, family, and busy lifestyle.  The answer is simple:

Audio.

Now believe me, I have heard from you naysayers…. (oh you know who you are! 😉 )  You have told me, “Sheila I could not possibly sit and focus on an audio book.. I would just fall asleep!”

Well, here’s the rub, so would I!

I don’t sit and listen to audio.  Instead I use audio for my active times.  Here is a sample of a normal day with audio:

1.  I get up in the morning and while I get ready for my day (pick out clothes, shower, make up, hair, make bed…) I have my IPOD sat up in the bathroom off of our bedroom so I can listen while I get ready.  Approx 30-40 minutes each morning.

 

2.  I go out to the kitchen and while I make coffee, pack a lunch, let the dogs out and straighten up the kitchen area, I listen to an audio in a cd player on the counter.  Approx 15 minutes a morning.

 

3.  I get in my car and drive to work, run errands, return home to a third audio book going in my car…. approx. 30+ minutes a day.

 

4.  In late afternoon while I prep dinner, put away groceries, do dishes, fold laundry, dust, clean up, I am back to the kitchen audio in the cd player.  Approx 30- 45 min more from afternoon listening.

 

5.  Any evening meetings, commitments, etc… car time = audio time.  Approx another hour throughout the week in evening commitments.

 

6.  On the days I ride bike alone, use the tread mill, or roller blade, I listen to audio on my IPOD – approx (depending on the week) and additional 2 hours of listening per week.

 

7.  When I mow the lawn I listen to my IPOD audio book, add on another 3 hours a week.

 

That is about 18.5 hours a week I listen to audio which may sound like a lot – but it is all ACTIVE listening.  I am getting other things done while I listen.

 

Throughout this week I will be talking about audio books and doing a giveaway with every audio review I do this week so watch for that!  I want to leave you today with a list of a few of my favorites over the past year (although I am currently listening to a couple amazing ones that may be added to this list soon)! 

For those who know and love audio – these are” must listens” if you have not as of yet.  AND if you are new to audio, or curious, as you will learn this week… not all audio is created equal and having some good audio book recommendations before you go it alone is the key.  Each of these I would say would make for wonderful first time audio listens and create fans.

My goal this week is hopefully to have at least one non audio book listener decide to give it a try this week.  If that is you, please let me know… and I would also love to know the result after your experience.  If you take this challenge and let me know – I will put you in a drawing for a little package from me to celebrate your audio conversion.  😀

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)65 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:

Laura Fabiani from Library Of Clean Reads!

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

I think this week was pretty good… here is what I posted:

Fairest by Gail Carson Levine (A YA book review by Camryn)

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

These Girls by Sarah Pekkanen

Long Gone by Alafair Burke

Wife 22 by Melanie Gideon

 

My “Summer Recommendation” guest post over at Ryan’s – Wordsmithonia while he is on vacation!

Literary Blog Hop – taking place through the 27th of June – answer my question and go into a drawing for a book of your choice valued up to $20.00

 

You may notice, lo and behold… no audio book reviews up this week!  WHAT?  😯  The reason is that starting on Monday, this is Audio Book Week and I am planning on reviewing only audio books this week!    I have a great line up that I think you will enjoy if you are an audio book person or not (Laurel…. I still am working on you!).  I will also have many giveaways and I am working on a few surprises as well.  😀   

Here is what I plan on reading or listening to this upcoming week:

 

Two sisters and the cousin they grew up with after a tragedy are summoned home to their family matriarch’s inn on the coast of Maine for a shocking announcement. Suddenly, Isabel, June, and Kat are sharing the attic bedroom–and barely speaking. But when innkeeper Lolly asks them to join her and the guests in the parlor for weekly Movie Night–it’s Meryl Streep month–they find themselves sharing secrets, talking long into the night–and questioning everything they thought they knew about life, love, and one another.
 
Each woman sees her complicated life reflected through the magic of cinema: Isabel’s husband is having an affair, and an old pact may keep her from what she wants most . . . June has promised her seven-year-old son that she’ll somehow find his father, who he’s never known . . . and Kat is ambivalent about accepting her lifelong best friend’s marriage proposal. Through everything, Lolly has always been there for them, and now Isabel, June, Kat–and Meryl–must be there for her. Finding themselves. Finding each other. Finding a happy ending.

OOH – can not wait!!!

 

 

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.

 

 

One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, Will Grayson crosses paths with . . . Will Grayson. Two teens with the same name, running in two very different circles, suddenly find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, and culminating in epic turns-of-heart and the most fabulous musical ever to grace the high school stage. Told in alternating voices from two YA superstars, this collaborative novel features a double helping of the heart and humor that have won them both legions of fans.

 

 

I have other books I will be working on if I get through what I have here.  NOW I am curious what you will be reading this week!  Is it a new release?  Is it an oldy but a goody?  Is it a random find?  Please link below where it says click here so we can all come and check out what you are reading.  😀

 

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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 Bookish Weekend

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)18 Comments

Good morning!  😀

The sun is out (*fingers crossed) and hopefully we can stay dry and start soaking up this rain!  My yard is good, but I went on two bike rides in the past few days  with my friend Kate, and then Amy, and we seen flooded yards and streams about to spill over.  It is eerie…. but not as crazy as Duluth.

My weekend has been fairly low-key, I have read a bit both Friday and Saturday.  I listened to audio while weeding my garden, cleaning out a spare room, boxing up books I am shipping out tomorrow afternoon, and mowing.  Today I will have a little more of the same while I complete laundry, the lawn… and perhaps this afternoon sit in my swing for a while with a book 😀

I really love weekends like this.

This past week I received a video in my email that just this morning I finally watched.  It’s a recap of world book night, something many of us book lovers were involved in (I handed out Hunger Games) and I have a feeling next year it will be even bigger.  Watch this short 90 second video and then know at the end, I call dibs on making those cupcakes… I have an idea for that 😀 

Have a SUPER Sunday everyone!  My blog hop giveaway is still going on for a book of choice valued up to $20 at Amazon or Book Depository. 

Oh and I am a super goob (yes I said goob!) I totally forgot that my guest post was going up at Ryan’s(Wordsmithonia) yesterday, while he is on vacation, I am taking all of you to Maine!  Stop by and read all about it! 😀

Any fun things happening for you today? 

Wife 22 by Melanie Gideon

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)20 Comments

It started with a droopy eyelid.

Or did it?

Alice Buckle is 44 and for the most part, she has never felt or looked her age.  But this morning is different.  It could be because Alice is about to turn the same age that her mother was when she died.  It could be that after twenty years of marriage there just wasn’t a lot of excitement anymore.  She is constantly analyzing her two children, Peter and Zoe…

was she bored?

Then Alice receives an email offering her to be part of a n online Marriage study.  Alice fills out the basic information and within a few days discovers she has been excepted into the study, and for the purposes of anonymity, she will now be known as Wife 22 for all correspondence.  She is assigned a case worker (Researcher 101) who will coach her through and question she has.  And the questions start coming in.

It’s almost like a double life.  While Alice on the outside appears to be still Alice, she is also Wife 22. As the questions continue Alice strikes up a side conversation with Researcher 101.  Before she knows it, Alice has questions of her own.  Questions that could change her family dynamics forever. 

 

 

Why did I want to read this book?  Curiosity.  By the synopsis, I knew I wanted to know more about this woman who is my age, and suddenly questioning her purpose. It sounded smart and it sounded funny.

Wife 22 is written much like the Bridget Jones books were, except instead of Bridget writing to her diary, Alice is answering questions about her marriage and chatting with Researcher 101.  the book created some realistic scenarios.  Job trouble. worrying about your kids, using the internet, in this case Facebook for escapes… 

When the questions are presented, all we as the reader see are the answers to the questions, not the questions themselves.  Some, by the way they are answered, you can guess what the question probably was… others I had no idea… and some just cracked me up by Alice’s response.  What I didn’t know until the end, was that the actual questions are listed in the back of the book which made it fun to peek through the book again, and think how I would answer them. 

Written mainly in the conversations between Researcher 101 and answers to questions, the book moves fairly quickly.  If you are looking for a book to take to the beach or for sitting with on your deck as I did, summer is a perfect time to sit back and enjoy Wife 22. 

 

 

Amazon Rating

Goodreads Review

 

This book was sent to me for review by Big Honcho Media

Morning Meanderings… Hopping Saturday

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)30 Comments

 

Good Morning!  I feel like I woke up fuzzy… and that’s not a good way to start the day.  ANOTHER gloomy day here in central Minnesota, yesterday was gorgeous and I read a little outside and went on a bike ride, but today calls for rain… again. 

ON happier notes, I am participating in Judith from Leeswammes’ Literary Blog Hop from today through the 23rd.  I am giving away a book of choice valued up to $20, so please check it out!  😀

On Monday I will be participating in Jen from Devourer of Books Audio Book Week and I am super excited for that too… I have many audio reviews and giveaways so make a note… it is going to be a good week 😀

Ok and finally – because of the grog fog… (I need coffee…), I will end this morning with my typical Saturday Snapshot hosted by Alyce from At Home With Books. 

 

 

Every year when I go to Honduras, in front of this one store I see these two gentleman playing their music.  I am pretty sure the man on the left is the same every year. 

They really are something to watch.

I have a little snippet of video so you can hear them too:

That’s my morning post.  I am continuing to read Wife 22 today and will be starting Prophesy Of The Sisters on audio as well.

Literary Blog Hop June 23-27

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)151 Comments

Welcome to The Literary Blog Hop hosted by Judith of Leeswammes Blog!  Not really sure what is considered a Literary read, Wikepedia defines it as well written, critically acclaimed and usually serious in nature.  Still not sure?  Goodreads has compiled a list of over 500 titles of literary fiction.

My giveaway will be for a literary book of your choice of $20 or less from either Amazon or the Book Depository.  To enter I have one question you need to answer.  I would like to know what is the best book you have read (or listened to if it was on audio) so far in 2012.

I will draw a winner the morning of the 28th and announce it here.

For the list of the other participants to hop your way too – click here

Long Gone By Alafair Burke

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)12 Comments

Alice Humphrey really could have it all.  After all her father was the famous award winning director, Frank Humphrey.  Alice knew that life wasn’t for her and had insisted that she make it on her own.  After months of struggling financially she can not believe her luck when while visiting an art gallery, she meets Drew Campbell who offers her a job as a new gallery manager.  The owner who chooses to remain anonymous, will leave the details up to Alice, and it will be as though Alice owns the gallery herself!

There is one tiny catch….

At the opening of this new gallery this mysterious owner wants only one artist to be featured and promoted.  Once this artists run is up, Alice is open to choose any other artists to feature in the gallery.  The artist Alice must represent has some pretty far our unpleasant art pieces.  Alice just continues to remind herself that this is only for a time and then she can make the gallery more to her liking… and hey, the paychecks are coming in!

But a group of protesters against the art set Alice’s nerves on edge, and then finding the gallery emptied to the bare bones and Drew’s body in the gallery the morning after the protesters is impossible to wrap her mind around.  Who would do such a thing? 

When the police are involved, Alice soon discovers that Drew is not who he says he was.  And now the art that was displayed and the gallery itself seem to be tied to a missing girl.  When pictures turn up of a woman who looks like Alice in compromising acts, Alice knows she has been set up.  To save herself from being put behind bars she has to get to the bottom of this twisted area of her life.  Who is this girl and how is she tied to the gallery?  As she works to find answers Alice begins to discover long hidden secrets within her own family – secrets that could get her killed.

Why did I want to read this?  The synopsis is fascinating… a mysterious job offer, a murder centered around an art gallery and a protagonist who comes from a life of plenty but chooses to make her own way.  It is funny how those family ties no matter how hard we try to distance ourselves in some cases, can come back when we least expect it.

Long Gone is definitely a page turner.  There is no long drawn out front story to this book – instead we jump into the gallery job offer and things spiral into action from there, which I like it when a book gets to the point.  I liked Alice, she felt real.  I was surprised that the missing girl was not a bigger part of the story.  While that story line hovers around the edges of the book, a small part about it in the beginning and then a few sprinkles throughout the read, it is really more about Alice. 

As you get to the end it all starts coming together and meshes into a fantastic climax.  As I think about the lack of information about the missing girl I can not help but wonder if that was not the author being strategic… after all the girl is missing… it could make sense that she does hover – almost ghost like and not quite there, throughout the read.

Lovers of great suspense and good fast action should definitely check this book out.

Amazon Rating

Goodreads Review

Thank you to TLC book tours for letting me solve the crime with Alice!

Morning Meanderings… A little Bookish Travels

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)23 Comments

Good morning!  It is Friday and I can not tell you how happy that makes me!  FRIDAY!  It is my day off and it is a real day off!!!  By that I mean I am not buried in “to do’s”.  Laundry is caught up, the lawn (yes… my ever dreaded lawn) does not need to be mowed for a few more days… and the sun… dare I say it… is shining!

This morning I read a post over at Hurtled To 60 and Now Beyond about the real inspiration behind the book, The Secret Garden.  It really is a beautiful place And Frances Hodgson Burnet was actually a tenant there.  I encourage you to stop over and read the post – it really is fascinating and the author of the post (I could not find her name) was just there on Wednesday so this is what it truly looks like today!  Errr, well what it truly looked like two days ago!  😀

On Shelf Awareness this morning there was a lovely video called “How does a New Book Make You Feel?” 

If you get breathless watching this as you see the titles and the emotions… then… you feel like I do.  I swear, this is such a  great time in the history of our world to be a reader.

Ok – I do have one small errand this morning… Sam (our dog) is about to get his first haircut.  I am going to drop him off now and will not pick him up until this afternoon.  As for myself, I suspect if this afternoon I am not on my bike – I am for sure on the deck.  😀

It is also the last day to take my Blog Survey -which I will either pull later today or tomorrow early morning.  I will post results.

Bookish Friday – what bookish thing are you or can you add to your day?

These Girls by Sarah Pekkanen

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)16 Comments

Welcome to New York.  It’s busy and fast paced and feels as though you are surrounded by a constant buzz of electricity that feels the air. 

For Cate, New York has brought her the sought after title of feature editor for the magazine Gloss.  It is everything that Cate had hoped for in a career, and everything she has dreaded as well.

Renee, is in the running for the coveted position of Beauty editor of Gloss.  She suffers from low self-esteem to her constant battle with her weight and her two components for the position seem to have it far more together than she does.  However, the diet pills she has started taking seem to be giving her energy and curbing her appetite and she is learning that if she takes more pills, she has more energy…. and maybe the weight will drop faster.

Abby, had her life together.  She was happy and in a dream job where she was able to go to school in the evenings and by day live with a young family and take care of their darling little girl.  But the man of the house, Bob, is pretty good-looking, and oh so kind, and the wife just works all the time late into the evenings…. leaving Abby alone with Bob…

As these three women connect and eventually become roommates, the secrets that can busy us… perhaps friendship can save us?

Sarah Pekkanen and I in 2011, BEA week, New York

Why did I want to read this book?  Helloooooo… it’s Sarah Pekkanen!  I loved Sarah’s book The Opposite of Me which I read in 2010, and then I loved Skipping A Beat her book of 2011.  You can bet I was super excited to read this one!

Women friendships.  Why do they have to be so complicated?  Cate has the job that she loves and is getting her feet wet into this new career with a flourish.  Yet her friend and roommate Renee struggles through life with weight issues that seem to shadow over everything she does.  If a date does not go well, it is due to her weight, if she doesn’t get the position she wants.. no doubt it is contributed to her weight… and the mean comments that show up on her beauty tips blog just seal the deal that she has to do something about her weight.  They Abby enters the picture and by the time Cate and Renee meet her she is a fragile broken girl with a story that they know nothing about.  Abby’s career as a nanny is now over – and as the pages turn we get a glimpse into what was true then….

Now every author can pull off the multiple protagonists, Sarah Pekkanen does it with a flourish.  Not once did I get confused over whose story line was taking the wheel for a part of the book.  And each of these women – Cate, Renee, and Abby felt like real women to me.  What each woman was going through was so different from the others, yet I could relate to each.  Cate had a drive which I loved, but she also had to balance that out with friendships, and family issues.  Renee’s battle to look good believing it would lead her to feeling good… is a topic I think many of us struggle with, and Abby just fell into the wrong situation which never felt pre meditated… it just… happened.

Reading a Sarah Pekkanen book is like spending time with friends.  I enjoyed spending times within its pages.

I bought this book from Amazon

Amazon Rating

Goodreads review

Morning Meanderings… Sun? Then lets have a giveaway!

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)52 Comments

Good morning!  I mentioned yesterdays storms here in central Minnesota.  At that time, and now until later in the day at work did I hear about Duluth Minnesota and the animals in the zoo (a polar bear and a seal escaped when the water rose high enough they could swim out of their cages! And unfortunately, in some cases a few animals drowned).

Ok… that is a downer way to start a post.

In better news, today, if I dare say it out loud looks as though it could be….

sunny.

I hate to even say it out loud as yesterday was off and on too.  I would look out the window at work and see the sun come out and think yes!  Deck time!  Then ten minutes later it would be gray again.. than later sunny… then, well, the gray won out.

And looking at today’s forecast is calls for storms… again.

Ok.. that’s a downer post isn’t it?

Well – for now there is sun so that is what I am going with and maybe this song is premature… but I need it so here we go:

Ok – as part of my book room lets get out act together project 2012 (you will see more on this in the coming weeks…) I have a book giveaway today:

Gorgeous cover yes?  This is a duplicate for me so leave me a comment today about your EXTREME weather memories (or maybe they are current…) and I will enter you into a chance to win this book.  I will keep this open until next Tuesday.

Have a super day!