Morning Meanderings… Sunday Salon Style

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)35 Comments

Good morning and Happy Mother’s Day! 

It is a lovely day here today in Central Minnesota.  I have a few commitments this morning, think hubby and I are joining some friends later for a motorcycle ride, and later yet… a road trip to hopefully pick up the chair I posted earlier this week as my hopeful Mothers Day gift  (*fingers crossed!) 

I did have some books enter the house this past week:

Some great reading here!  AND on top are a couple of audio and I have already dug into Come Home. 

Then this past Friday I went to garage sales which I have not done in probably over  a year – mainly because I used to always look for books and I have no need of doing that anymore between the review books, books i purchase, and Library sales… HOWEVER, I have a friend who RAVES (” a brand new crock pot, still in the box $5!  One of those buffet things I have always wanted!  A set of dishes that int he store would go for hundreds of dollars, I got it for $15!) about her finds and so…. I caved… and then this happened:

This is why I can’t go to garage sales.  It was a large church sale.  I was minding my own business, wandering through nick nacks, shoes, blankets…. alas over to the books just to see if they had any treasures….

I love Claire Cook, had to grad that one.  I read Pamela Morsi a long time ago and found her hilarious, better grab that one, I have The Help in hard cover, but what if I want one to loan out so grabbed that one, I have a copy of Mrs. Kimble, but I think it will be good when I review it so I can do a giveaway now too, Small Island – new to me, Thirteenth tale I have in hard cover, and Bel Canto I have always wanted to read – I already have, but again… what if it would make a good giveaway.

See my problem?  😯

This week should be a nice one for me, not too heavily overloaded.  Now that the weather is getting nice I am getting selfish about evening meetings and commitments, I want to garden, I want to ride bike, I want to read on the deck in the new (ahem) chair, I want to be outside!!! 😀  Next weekend I will get to go to the cabin with College son.  I can not wait!

How about you?  Any plans for today?  For this week?

Lots Of Cake, Plenty Of Candles by Anna Quindlen

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)18 Comments

Bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner Anna Quindlen now takes a realistic look at her 60th year in this memoir.  Within, she talks of the past (growing up, parents, boys, dating, marriage, children..), the present (the importance of friends, not getting so worked up anymore, faith, loss) and the future (decluttering life, enjoying the moments…)

Anna talks to you in her memoir like she is talking to a friend hashing over the good, the bad, and the ugly while sitting in a sunny chair on her porch sitting ice-cold tea and the sampling of the occasional short bread.

 

 

I have not read a lot of Anna Quindlen.  In fact, off-hand, I think other than this one, I have only read Every Last One (which is freaking me out now, as I just tried to search my blog for this review and can not find it.   I know I listened to it on audio and now wonder if I forgot to review it last year. :shock:) However, I know Anna Quindlen can write, and I know her name as an author upon hearing it. 

While I am no where hear the 60th birthday mark, I was still intrigued by a life memoir by a woman who is known for writing about realistic life opportunities in ways that make you think and care.  I knew that writing a non fiction for Anna, would be an honest, even if it was brutally so, look at the life lessons she has carried. 

I for one felt I too would get something out of listening to this book.

I used to think that surrounding myself with trusting girlfriends was just my own personal way of dealing with so much loss in my life.  I like, and need “Go To Girls”.  Listening to Anna, I am realizing that my need to hang out with my friends is not a unique thing, but really – a girl thing.  As Anna points out, as we get older our girlfriends become all the more important to talk about everything, and to talk about nothing. I like that.

From dating to marrying to children of our own, Anna Quindlen covers all the topics with a matter of fact and confident tone.  I enjoyed listening to her life lessons, smiling and laughing at times. 

All in all, this book is not just for nearing or over that 60 years old mark.  It is a read for any woman who feels they have lived much, but have more left to do. 😀

Amazon Rating

Goodreads Review

Audible.com

Other thoughts on this one:

Lesa’s Book Critiques

Bibliophile By The Sea

Beth Fish Reads

Freedom Acres

 

 

I purchased this one from audible.com

Morning Meanderings… Spending Time With BEES

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)53 Comments

Good morning.  😀

By the time you read this I should be on my way to the cities to join my friends for a bike ride this morning for MS.  I left town at 5 am, and the ride starts at 8 am. 

Last Saturday I had the wonderful opportunity to go and hang out with my friend Amanda who has just started Bee Keeping with her husband.  I can not lie, once I seen her in that bee- outfit… I knew I had to go and check this out.  Lucky for me, she understood my crazy thirst for knowledge and invited me into the hive…

literally.  😛

The had just bought more bees and would be moving them into their new homes.  I came over to help. 

This is a picture of me (left) and Amanda (right).  There are the bees they had just purchased.  They had bought four of these boxes and we were going to place two of them in their new homes.  Amanda says each box contains around 10,000 bees.

SSSQQQUUUEEE!!!!

This is the boxes that the bees will be placed in. I am sure there is a better name than “boxes” I just do not know it… 😀  The smoker thing in the background helps to mellow the bees as soon we will be letting them out of the boxes you seen in the first picture and dumping them in their new homes. 

Inside the boxes are these slats where the bees will make the honey.  The section to the front with the two holes is for a liquid we pour in that the bees will drink and it keeps then from getting ill or infected by mites and dying.  (I hope I am remembering this right).  This is a new unused bee box, that is why it looks so clean.

 

In each of those boxes you seen in the first picture is a Queen in her own little box.  Crazy right?  She has to be protected at all cost.  Amanda here will now replace the wooden cork in the end of this little box with marshmallow.  Yup, you read that right.  Then, once placed in her new home… in about three days the worker bees will eat the marshmallow enough to set her free among them.  All hail the Queen!

 

After Amanda and I thoroughly spray the bee boxes with a sugar water that makes it hard for them to fly… we pour them into their new home. 

 

After the bees are in the box, Amanda carefully replaced the slots where they will go to work making the honey!

Just playing with the camera… I feel like an Oompa Loompa.  😀

 

Before the lid goes back on this big hunk of food goes on top and I can not remember what it is called.  😀  This will feed the worker bees, who in turn feed the Queen for the next several weeks.  When the weather warms up the bees will produce their own food.

 

This is one of the bee homes that they started several weeks ago… you can see on the central grids that work is being done. 

 

 

Amanda says that every few weeks you need to check these for a couple of things.  1.  You want to remove these little sacks you find on them which I am told is the worker bees making a new Queen.  Rude right?  Apparently if the bees feels that the hive is too full they will attempt to create another Queen and then take the existing Queen and leave the hive to make a new one.  By scraping off these sacks you are assisting in preventing that.

2.  She checks for the Queen.  You want to make sure she is within the box somewhere.  This is easier said than done.  As the bees fill up these grids, another box of grids is added to the existing one on top.  Amanda says by August (harvest time) the boxes should be stacked so tall she will need a step-ladder to get into them.  Currently these older homes have only two stacked so not too deep… still, we are looking for a single Queen bee among the 10,000.  😯

How do you pick out the Queen?  She is larger and longer than the others, has longer wings and is more of a buttercup coloring .

Looking for the Queen….

The experience was incredible.  I was not nervous at all.  When we started working with the older bee homes they were more aggressive, not liking to be disturbed.  Several went for my face mask, which was kid of like 3D as they hit the mask in “attack” mode.  Before we left the area we had to wipe each others outfits down, Amanda said I was covered with bees. 

That is my contribution to this weeks Saturday Snapshot.  Stop on over and see Alyce at At Home With Books to see what others are taking pictures of around the world. 😀

Winter Girls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)21 Comments

When Cassie called Lia, crying, begging for her to help… to talk to her, to be there for her…. Lia should have picked up the phone. 

But…

she didn’t.

And not Cassie is dead and Lia is left with the “should have” and the “could have” of a moment in time that may have changed everything.

Then again…

maybe not.

After all, Cassie and Lia were once very close…. each of them part of the “Winter Girls”, each competing to be the thinnest… the smallest girl in school… in their town… everywhere.  And really, would picking up the phone that night have helped Cassie?  Or for that matter, have helped Lia?

Now Lia finds herself in a world where her parents watch her like a hawk… trying to get her to eat, trying to help her… but when Lia looks in the mirror she sees only the yellowness of oozy fat beneath her skin….

UGLY.  FAT.  HORRIBLE.  DISGUSTING.

And so, Lia watched everything she eats….

6 almonds….. 42 calories

toast with no butter…. 120 calories

half an apple… 50 calories…

The goal… 500 calories a day… Or…. is that too much? 

FAT. STUPID. LAZY. UGLY.

Her family begs her to gain weight…. but at 18 years old, Lia cant stand how being 97 pounds feels…. why do they continue to try to make her fat?  Trying to make her eat like the gluttons they are?  Do they not know that she will run on the treadmill for fours hours later, getting rid of it… all of it until that scale creeps down…. triumphantly to 90, then 87, then 85, then 83…. and then….

“The number doesn’t matter. If I got down to 070.00, I’d want to be 065.00. If I weight 010.00, I wouldn’t be happy until I got down to 005.00. The only number that would ever be enough is 0. Zero pounds, zero life, size zero, double-zero, zero point. Zero in tennis is love. I finally get it.”
― Laurie Halse Anderson, Wintergirls

Laurie Halse Anderson has done it again.  Seriously!  When I read SPEAK (a banned book by the way!) I was blown away by the powerful and brave topic of a teenager being raped at a party, and afraid to talk about it.  Now, in Wintergirls, Laurie Halse Anderson tackles another tough and heartbreaking topic, Anorexia.

Told in the voice of Lia, we are taken completely inside the mind of a young girl who feels she in always fat, even though everyone, EVERYONE (parents, doctors, counselors….)are telling her differently.  As Lia fights to stay thinner and thinner, you experience with her hallucinations, lack of energy, the inability to get warm, and embarrassment from her siblings at her thinness. 

I highly recommend you listen to this one on audio (yes, even those of you new to audio) – do yourself a favor as Jeannie Stith does an emotionally charged narration of this book… from the voices within Lia’s own mind, to the people that surround Lia’s small world.  Listening to this one was a real treat.

Amazon Rating

Goodreads Review

Audible.com

Other thoughts on Wintergirls:

Beth Fish Reads

Hey Lady!  Watcha Reading?

Word Bird

GReads

I borrowed this audio from my local library

Morning Meanderings… The Last World Book Day Book

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)9 Comments

Good morning! 

It’s Friday!  *insert dance here*

In the office I work in, downstairs there is a business called Shining Light Studio.  Greg Rosenberg works with stained glass and if you check out the link to his site, you will see that amazing things he creates. 

A few weeks ago he and I were discussing the Hunger Games Movie.  Greg wanted to know what the movie was about having heard a few rumbles about it and I of course, was all too ready and eager to gush about The Hunger Games.

Flash forward to World Book Day and my book I was handing out was indeed Hunger Games.  I was thrilled of course to give out this great read but knew I wanted to get one in Greg’s hands and get him reading this book…

I had a request though…. 😀

This week, I finally had time to connect with Greg again and brought him the book.  My request had been that he wear the mask that he does when he is working with the glass and chemicals because for some reason I find that to be very, “Hunger Gamesish”

He obliged. 


Thanks Greg!  Enjoy the book!

 

As for today – I am actually going garage sailing.  I know… freaks me out a bit too!  I have not gone in over a year, but a friend has been gushing about her finds lately and this used to be something I loved to do so thought I would hit a few this morning.  😀

I will be back here later to put up my book review and work on a couple of things for tomorrow.  😀

 

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)29 Comments

Alice Howland has a wonderful life.  She has three grown children, a loving hard-working husband, and she herself is a well established Professor at Harvard.  At age fifty, she is not really too surprised when she starts to forget where she left things like her keys and her Blackberry.  She is a little more concerned when she gets lost on the Harvard campus that she has always known very well, but a brief Google check regarding menopause brings up forgetfulness as one of the symptoms.  Still… it doesn’t hurt to see a doctor…

Alice is stunned when she is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s.  Certainly an active woman like herself, can beat this.  Yet what follows is a struggle of losing ones memories…. a family in despair and crisis, and a woman who is fighting the biggest battle of her life, just to be…

still Alice.

Lisa Genova has also written Left Neglected about a brain injury and Love Anthony will be out in 2013, about a boy with autism.

I didn’t want to read this book.

When my book club voted this as our May book club read, I was not thrilled.  There are few things that truly frighten me, but the thought of not knowing who you are, or fearing people you have known all your life as they have become strangers in your mind – truly frightens me.

When I posted I was reading this on my sidebar under the Bookies tab, many readers shared what an amazing read it was, and honestly – that helped me dip cautiously into this book.

I read it… in one sitting.

Author Lisa Genova wrote something wonderful here.  Brilliantly, the story is told from Alice’s perspective.  Seeing Alzheimer’s through her eyes was both frightening and informing.  I cringed when she introduces herself to the same woman twice, having forgotten she already had done so.  When she is lost inside her own home desperately looking for the bathroom, my heart breaks for her. 

Page by page as a reader, you are right there with Alice through good days and bad.  This fictional story flowed so well from the very start – moments of laughter and yes, moments of tears…. this book is a MUST READ.  If you are in a book club, it is an incredible discussion book as well, with questions in the back of the book.

I knew when I had read this book that our book club discussion was going to be deep and it was going to be good.  There was so much to talk about!  This week when we met and I started asking the questions from the book, I hardly needed to say a word… the conversation flowed.  The ladies in our group has much to say about Alice’s journey, her family, and their own personal connection to Alzheimer’s as well.

This is one of those reviews where we didn’t even really need the questions.  The book brought memories of people to our review that I had never met but wish I had.  Grandparents were discussed, some still living with the disease, and some who have passed on.  How Alzheimer’s affects each person differently was amazing.  Some reverted to a much younger time in their life, believing they lived somewhere else.  Others who had English as a second language – reverted to their first language.  Some remembered a spouse, but could not recall anyone else. 

And as in most Bookies events there was food.

Alice mentions enchilada’s early in the book so chicken enchiladas were a must!
Fresh salads and toppings!
Risotto with spinach for memory!
Blueberries and dark chocolate are mentioned in the book as brain and memory enhancers

Some interesting facts about Still Alice:  Still Alice was initially a self published book, and approved by the Alzheimer’s Society.  STILL ALICE debuted at #5 on the New York Times Bestseller list and has spent 40 weeks on that list. It won the 2008 Bronte Prize and the 2011 Bexley Book of the Year, and it was nominated for the 2010 Indies Choice Debut Book of the Year by the American Booksellers Association. It was the #6 Top Book Group Favorite of 2009 by Reading Group Choices, a 2009 Barnes & Noble Discover Pick, a 2009 Indie Next pick, a 2009 Borders Book Club Pick, and a 2009 Target Book Club pick. There are over a million copies in print, and it has been translated into 25 languages.  (as seen and noted on the authors website)

A few other thoughts on this book:

Musings Of A Bookish Kitty

A Novel Menagerie

Always With A Book

Care’s Online Book Club

Thank you to our local Library and their “Book Club In A Bag” program!

Amazon Rating

Goodreads Review

Want to listen to it on audio?

Morning Meanderings… Mother’s Day Wishes

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)13 Comments

Good morning!  Barreling towards the end of the week already!  WOW!  Today is my last day of work for the week and it is going to be a fun one.  Myself, and two co workers are going out to lunch for a late Administration Week celebration, then a little shopping.

Later tonight, I have a dinner/birthday gathering for a friend I used to work with.  😀

Then – this coming Sunday is already Mother’s Day.  Normally we just go out to lunch and maybe a few starter plants for the yard… but this year I have my eye on something…

I already have this and love it:

(If you are an audio lover, I highly recommend this – I use my credit every month AND they often have some great sales for members with $4.95 titles…. I really load up them 😀 )

For me though…. I seen something when I was in the Cities last week at Fleet Farm that caught my eye.  I stopped at out local Fleet Farm last night to see if we had it too…. and

we do:

It is up on a display stand, so I am hoping you (and my hubby) can see it well.  But once I seen it….. OOH!  I am thinking new reading area on the deck?  😛  I don’t know if it “Will Be Mine”… but a girl can always dream  😀

Anything you are planning on doing or hoping you will be getting for Mother’s Day?  Guy’s who read this, are you thinking about mom’s, wives, or even sisters with kids? 

Later today my review is going up for Still Alice, the one I just read with the Bookies.  This was an exciting review to write!

In The Bag by Kate Klise

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)19 Comments

Daisy is traveling with her teenage daughter Coco to Paris.  When they arrive and Coco goes through her bag excited to take out the carefully picked out skirts, peasant tops, and super cure shoes, instead she find wadded up t-shirts and dirty pants.  Ugh.  Who packs dirty pants???

WRONG bag.

Andrew is traveling with his teenage son Webb.  Andrew had noticed the very attractive  woman sitting in 6-B, with her younger sister.  Ummm… too cheesy?  Ok her daughter, but she doesn’t look like she could have a teenage daughter!  He decided to slip a note in her purse when she is not looking.  When they arrive Web finds that he has the wrong bag…. filled with expensive shirts and clothing items he can not even identify.

While Andrew and Daisy try to figure out how to get the bag mix up settled, they are unaware that Webb and Coco are also working on their own “reunion”.

Kate Klise was the fourth of six children born to educational film producer Thomas and Marjorie Klise. Raised in Peoria, Illinois, she attended Marquette University and spent fifteen years working as a correspondent for People magazine.[2] She currently resides on a farm with a pond near Norwood, Missouri , where she has many friends who she describes as kind, generous, and always thoughtful. “My nicest characters always resemble them,” said Kate Klise. She is a vegetarian, who loves tomato sandwiches. ~Wikepedia
I knew when I chose this book it sounded like fun.  Visions of light summer reading, smiles and the occasional giggle escaping me while I sat on the deck slathered in tanning lotion drinking ice tea…

well that was the plan.

The book delivered, the weather did not.

Either way, In The Bag was as I had expected.  Reading the synopsis I knew this one was just going to be candy for my brain. I liked the alternation chapters between our four protagonists, Daisy, Coco, Andrew, and Web.  The note that Andrew stuck in Daisy’s purse cracked me up… totally GUY.  😛  The email exchanges are light and fun. 

In the end, a quick, fun, read.  That if you are going to the beach, this one need to be, in the bag.  😉

Thank you TLC book tours for a fun summery type book that made me crave beaches and warm sand.

 

 

Tuesday, May 1st: Seaside Book Nook
Wednesday, May 2nd: A Bookworm’s World
Thursday, May 3rd: 2 Kids and Tired Book Reviews
Monday, May 7th: Walking With Nora
Tuesday, May 8th: Book Hooked Blog
Wednesday, May 9th: Book Journey
Thursday, May 10th: A Musing Reviews
Monday, May 14th: A Cozy Reader’s Corner
Tuesday, May 15th: Life In Review
Wednesday, May 16th: Book Reviews by Molly
Thursday, May 17th: Good Girl Gone Redneck

Morning Meanderings… Book Club Of Laughter and Tears

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)16 Comments

Good morning!  Happy Wednesday! 

I am about to gush about my book club again.  😯

I can’t help it. 

Last night we met to review Still Alice by Lisa Genova.  It is a book about a women with Alzheimer’s, and it was a book I absolutely did not want to read.  I did of course, read it, and I am so glad I did. 

I knew our discussion was going to be good no matter what each of the eighteen Bookies thought of this book.  Love it or hate it, this book was going to hit a nerve or a heart string in each and every one of us….

and so it did.

I spent 2 1/2 hours with these amazing women discussing the book, the characters, and people in our own lives that have experienced this disease that honestly, scares the nutter butters out of me.  We ate food centered around the book, and we ate food mentioned that is supposed to be good for brain power and memory (dark chocolate and blueberries).  We laughed, and we cried.

Driving home after 9 pm, I had to once again think how lucky I am to be part of such an amazing group of women.  The topic was not an easy one.  One of our members found that it hit so close to home that she could not come and discuss it with us, but instead sent a letter along with another member saying what a painful topic it was, her thoughts on the book, how it touches her personally, and she would see us next month.

And that is what I LOVE about us.  We keep it real.  A book can generate raves, or it can cause pain and anger, yet we stick together, appreciate each others opinions, even when they differ from our own.  I can not even begin to tell you how that makes me feel, what a level of security and trust we bring to each meeting. 

Our review will go up on Thursday (I can’t wait!!!)  .  Today I have a book tour review for In The Bag.

As I head out to work, I will leave you with this, have you hugged a book club member today?  😀

May BAND Discussion: Non Fiction…. The Topics You Hate To Admit You Enjoy

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)31 Comments

BAND — Bloggers’ Alliance of Nonfiction Devotees — is a group organized to promote the joy of reading nonfiction. We are “advocates for nonfiction as a non-chore,” and we want you to join us. Each month, a member of BAND hosts a discussion on their blog related to nonfiction.


I was so excited when I was offered to host the May BAND topic.  I started dabbling a bit more consistently into non-fiction in early 2010 and discovered I really enjoyed it.  It seems as I get older (*insert GROAN here*)the more I find myself fascinated with true stories.

Non-fiction covers everything from memoirs, to facts about anything…bugs, wood, planes, homes, historical truths, you name it… you can read about it…

HOWEVER…

what I would like to offer up as the topic this month is what are those topics in non fiction reading, that you almost hate to say out loud that you enjoy reading about.

I have two that come to mind, one I don’t mind saying out loud… the other even disturbs me a bit.  😛 

The first is, I am fascinated with everything to do with the Titanic.  Not just now that we are on the 100th anniversary of the tragedy… but I always have been.  In a way, I feel bad about this because it is about a tragedy… but I am drawn to it… the ship, the facts, the people on board… I can not get enough about reading non fiction about this…

A Night To Remember

Titanic Survivor by Violet Jessop (on my wish list!)

The Story Of Titanic as told by Its Survivors

Voyagers Of The Titanic

 

The second non fiction topic that I hate to admit I like to read is true crime.  Yup.  There was a time when an Ann Rule book was the first book I read each year.  I admit, I haven’t read one in a few years now, but I am still drawn to the topic for some reason even I can’t explain.  I am oddly interested and baffled by what causes people to act in such ways.  Some of the true crime I have read in the past:

Heart Full Of Lies

The Stranger Beside Me (Ann Rule’s recap of her friendship with Ted Bundy when he worked the Crisis Hot Line with her, before he was discovered to be a serial killer)

Green River Running Red

Every Breath You Take (the first Ann Rule I ever read, about a woman whose husband would not let her go – an obsession that was so frightening that she (Sheila Blackthorn Bellush) knew he would eventually kill her and had told a friend to have Ann Rule  write her story if he did succeed in killing her).  He succeeded.

 

Thanks for letting me play in the BAND!  😀

Do you have any non fiction topics that you are a little reluctant to admit you enjoy reading?  It can be anything… books about ants, the human brain, bed bugs, Salem Witch Trials, Undertakers, fashion, rock star memoirs…you name it! Spill it!  😀  Feel free to write your own BAND post and link it back here. 


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