This weekend I am right on top of some great picture happenings (I hope!). Later today I think I am going to a friends property to help her when the BEES come in. Yes, she is a new Beekeeper! I didn’t know that Bee Keeper outfit was on my bucket list… until I seen her in, and now I must got here. SO… she is supposed to call me if that is going to work out for later today.
Then tonight, me friend Amy and I will take off for the first bike ride in Minnesota that starts tomorrow morning. It is called the Ironman, mainly because it goes no matter what the weather and not once, has the weather been nice in my five years of this ride:
2008: storming and lightning: 30 degrees out
2009: Rain and snow flakes
2010: Light rain (the best we ever had for conditions)
2011: Hail and storms – my friend Wendy and I skipped the ride went shopping and to a movie instead.
Now, tomorrow calls for isolated thunderstorms, 80% chance of rain. 100% annoying…
Just once… if it could be nice.
The ride is a 30, 45, 60, or 100. My goal is always the 100, but the weather messes that up. I will leave it up to Amy what we do.
In the meantime, for Saturday snapshots I thought I would post a few pics from last years rides to hopefully get me ready to RIDE!
Brainerd Ride
Hard boiled egg… on a stickMS150…. a two day ride where we call this the Bike Cemetery.
..ummm… later that same day of the MS150… mile 71 to be exact.
Me and my cousins wife Rhonda
My bike!
Stop by At Home With Books and see what else is being discussed at Saturday Snapshots. As for me, I will be back in a nit, helping with a seminar this morning… need to write a couple posts and pack! 😀
What is it about running? It can relieve a days stress, it can clear your head…. shoot it can ease a lifetime of sorrows, and for Cassidy Christensen, it can help her escape.
Cassidy is haunted with memories of the senseless murder of her parents, and now running has taken her to a new level of “escape” that she did not realize she needed, or wanted until she started to run.
RUN.
When Cassidy starts training for a Marathon (which she didn’t want) and captures the attention of two very interesting and good-looking men (which she did want), things become interesting. Add in a couple of dangerous guys on the side that are not exactly looking out for Cassidy’s best interest, instead they are tied into her parents murder and still look at Cassidy as a pawn they can use…. Things, as Cassidy is about to find out, are not as she had been lead to believe…
RUN.
My blurb about the book is on the back cover….SSSQQUUUEEE!!!!
Dead Running starts out at a warm up pace. As I dipped into those first pages I met Cassidy, her sister-in-law, her brother, a Nana, a great friend, a petite weird red-headed girl here forward known as “Hot Redhead” and a couple good-looking guys. While my mind wrapped around who was who and what was what….
I started to warm up to a slow jog…
Entering Cassidy’s world was fun. As a protagonist, I liked her. I liked her a lot. She was smart, but not fake, and funny…. a moment when she screams out “Pelican Poop!” when confronted with a mystery man at the front door caused me to laugh out loud, and I would soon find out that would not be the only time laughter would escape me during this read. Her training for that marathon was inspirational, I wish I had her determination! When she later gags while trying to swallow a Vanilla Flavored Gu, I laughed again.. this was a girl after my own heart… I have had the same reaction.
…and then I am running…
page by page I found myself flying through this book. The characters are real, interesting and engaging. Yes I too want to meet Damon and Jesse… I am just saying… 😀 Tie in a big mystery and a lot of danger and I was sold. Cassidy’s sister-in-law Rachael “El” would be the sister-in-law I had always dreamed of, a friend and confident… and her BFF Tasha cracks me up.
Bottom line is – this book gave me all the good vibes of an early Stephanie Plum (Evanovich) novel without the ditsy main character, but with the hot guys, a meatier read, and just a lot cleaner all the way around. I really loved it.
Not many books will keep me in the house on my day off in my pajamas past noon just because I can not put it down long enough to take a shower and get ready for the day. This one did exactly that. Do yourself a favor and give Cami Checketts a try, I adored her touching book Sister Pact, and really think she has grown even more as an author in Dead Running.
** A few days ago I posted a wonderful fitness giveaway Cami Checketts is having in honor of this books release! Please check it out… signing up is as easy as a comment. 😀
A portion of the proceeds from Cami’s books will be donated to The Child & Family Support Center. For more information on this worthy cause, please go to www.cachecfsc.org
Thank you Cami for the advanced opportunity to read and review this book!
Good morning and happy Friday!!!! The weekend is upon us and not a moment too soon 😀
So I have to share a TRUE story of what happened here yesterday.
I got off work yesterday afternoon with every intention of going to Kick Boxing. I got home, wasn’t sure what time the class was, left a message with the teacher, got busy responding to comments, and then finding out the class was at 5:30 and I still needed to make dinner for Al and a lunch for him (he has been working overnight on a road project) I decided I could not be super woman, took off my cape and resigned myself to cooking.
When food was done I text Al, believing he was in the office behind our home, and told him dinner was done, his lunch was packed come and get it! He called me and said he had actually went to the job site (30 minutes away) early to get some prep work done and would be gone for the night. Our conversation then went something like this:
Me: Seriously? You couldn’t have sent me a quick text and let me know that you were leaving early?
Al: Sorry, didn’t think of it.
Me: I could have went to kick boxing, but I didn’t think I had enough time to make you dinner and do that. If I would have known, I could have went to the class.
Al: *silence* (He is good at that)
Me: Well, fine. Dinner is done I guess for whenever, see you in the morning then.
Then I decide, well I am home, and it is nice out and I should start mowing the lawn. It is a three hour project and I thought I could start it, do the front, and finish the back tomorrow. I go to the garage and our college sons car has been parked in such a way that I can not get the mower around it. I go back in the house and scrounge for keys… I find keys. I then spend the next ten minutes trying to start the car. It will not turn. It is a newer car (mistake purchase by our son but that is another story….) so I think maybe it has a button you need to push before the key will turn, I search around…. nothing.
I call Al.
Al: Hello?
Me: Is there a secret to starting Justins car?
Al: Not that I know of. Why?
Me: I need to move it to get the mower out… I cant turn it on.
Al: So you got the keys out of the shop.
Me: No, they were in the house.
Al: Those are to his old car.
Me: Fine… I got this….
I get the CORRECT keys, move the car get the mower out… FINALLY! Wasted time: 20 minutes, but we can still do this! I mow 1/4 the front yard and run out of gas. I go to the garage and thankfully find a container that has a little in, hopefully enough to finish the yard… and I put it in the mower and go to start it and….
break the key off in the ignition.
Yup.
Now I am sitting in the front yard on the mower staring at the key slot wondering if I am being PUNKED. I take the broken key and try to hold it to where it broke off inside and turn… after three attempts… it works.
I continue mowing now trying to think of how I will shut it off when I am done… I need not have worried, about 15 minutes later…. I ran out of gas. 😯
So now… what?
Frustrated, I am determined to finish the front lawn. I grab the empty container to put in the jeep to go get gas and I must have bumped my IPOD (which ear buds are still in my ears) and suddenly Adam Ant is playing You Dont Drink and Dont Smoke which is a great 80’s song… and I break out in dance in my garage.
Yes I did.
The.. whole… song.
The odd thing is I did not know I had any music on my IPOD… I only use my IPOD to download books. 😀
I did get gas, I did finish the front lawn with a broken off key, and I lived to tell the story. 😀
So the moral of this is, may your Friday put a little dance in your step. 😀
They were the best of friends. Gwen, Mickey (both girls) , Tim Jr, Sean, and Gordon (Go-Go), the latter three being brothers. They were then in their childhood, always together, always in the woods exploring and pushing the boundaries or their surroundings summer after summer. Until that one summer when tragedy strikes, a secret is kept, and the five are never quite the same, nor their friendship quite the same… ever again.
Fast forward 30 years and tragedy has struck again. This time it is with Go-Go, the youngest of the five, has died in what is still undecided… accident or suicide. After all, Go-Go carried with him, perhaps the deepest secret of them all.
The remaining four come together for the first time in many years, looking for answers, and wondering if that fateful day all those summers ago is not the answer to what haunts them still today.
Laura Lippman has written many amazing books. Of these.. I have read only three. I need to get going 😉
As anything that has the name Laura Lippman on it, I was excited to jump into this read. The synopsis… friends from childhood go through something BIG together, are bound to a secret and as with all of us, adulthood happens… we move on, we move apart… and those bounds that were once so tight, are now merely spider web strong. I do love books about friendships….
The Most Dangerous Thing is spilled out onto pages with multiple narrations, each of the five have an opportunity to tell a portion of the story. I personally enjoy multiple narration when it is done well, chapters changing narrator, you get to see different sides unfold. Lippman does a pretty good job of not confusing me in the “who is telling the story now?” I believe this is the first time I have read a book with this many narrators though.
So hmmm…. where do I begin?
I have said in the past that I prefer books with fewer characters and I think that is because I really like to get to know a character. In this read while the main five were doable, there are also the parents who are brought into the conversations and while that was done well, for me… it was a lot of voices in my head. I think perhaps that is what leaves me with a “hmmmmmm” feeling. I did not feel strongly for any one of them, while an interesting story – it branched out so much and switched narration to the point I never fully sunk into this read, and ooh, I do like to sink into a read.
Overall I think Lippman’s writing is something to experience, however if you are new to her books I would not start with this one, she does have more engaging reads. The Most Dangerous Thing is a book that was interesting and held my attention, but was not a “WOW” for me.
Her main character from her detective series, Tess Monaghan makes an appearance in this book and I thought that was kind of fun. I like it when authors do that.
Good morning! Happy Thursday. Even as I type this morning my wrists hurt. When I walk to get more coffee my calves hurt… I can’t tell you how happy that makes me 😀 I started Kick boxing again on Tuesday, plan to go again tonight, and yesterday did Group Power and later Rollerblade with my friend Wendy. *waves to Wendy who reads these posts from work* 😛
As for the titleof this mornings post…. a couple of books arrived earlier this week that have me SO EXCITED!!!!
Yup! Insurgent AND These Girls. I have been waiting for Insurgent and These Girls? Don’t even get me started on how much I enjoy Sarah Pekkenen’s writing! 😀
Remember that stray dog that wandered into out lives and into our heart right after Easter? Well Sam, as he is now named, is doing wonderfully. We now have a vet who guesses him to be between one and two. He has a lot of puppy in him. When I come home from work he is so excited that when he jumps on me to be petted his feet actually leave the floor. I call that “loving with your whole body.” Thank you Kerri for thinking of us when you found him… even when I told you “no” the first time. 😀
Sam and Bailey (out 13-year-old shih-tsu) get along great. It is good to see them together.
Hanging out together in the front room. Bailey (left) and Sam.This morning, while I am writing this post…. Good morning Sam, 🙂
Have a great day everyone, be sure to stop by later for my review of Laura Lippman’s the most dangerous thing.
Good morning! 😀 *lifts coffee cup to mouth “ow ow ow!!!”* *Puts coffee cup back on table “ow ow owww”*
Yup, I went back to kick boxing last night after ten months off and I feel AWESOME. Well and sore this morning, but in a good way. HOnestly there is something about putting gloves on and bashing a friend that well, brings peace to the world…. 😛
Ok, I didn’t bash her… but she did ask me not to hit so hard. 😯
I can’t explain it but it just felt good. It made me feel strong and I love that feeling. I am no good at this. I dont remember the moves and the long chains of commands from the teacher with the “do this, this this, then this this this, then that and this , with a double that and end with 14 this and 6 that with a double twist of that”… yeah…. I get lost.
BUT… I will get better. And I am determined.
So…. has anyone else besides me caved and joined Pinterest? I wasn’t going to you know… I wasn’t. I didnt need another time suck in my life and I knew from the little I had seen of it that it would be just that….. pretty shiny pictures drawing me in… craft projects I think look cool but really when would I fit that in….. but then during The Dewey Read A Thon it was brought to my FULL attention that Pinterest and book reviews do mix. Once I was told that when you pin your book covers to Pinterest it links back to the review (if you link it from the post), AND that people have been picking up significant visitors that way….
suddenly I was listening.
So yes, now the past few weeks I have been pinning not only books from the blog, but I also found fitness tips, recipes, things I want to look at more closely and things that I think are funny… and life has been blissful…. pin this, pin that….
now I can’t only pin it, but I also have to do something with it?
GAH….
But she is right… I have pinned and pinned but I have not cooked one thing, tried one project…. so anyhoo…. I am in on this. 😀 You can click the picture above and read her whole post.
In other news, yesterday I put up a read-a-long, check it out. 😀 Cami’s fitness giveaway is still going on… and if you want to be my friend on Pinterest (or whatever it is called there…. )I am Sheila DeChantal (and I think this is a link.)
Recently in a post I mentioned that I was going to read The Secret Garden for the first time. The comments that followed, shocked me…. there are a lot of you out there that have not read this book! Suddenly I felt I was not alone on my little island of “Those Who Have Not Read The Secret Garden”…
and an idea was born.
Won’t you come and read with me?
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 May 31st here, we are going to have a garden party! You will have a chance to link your reviews and there will be an online book discussion here, as well as giveaways…. all garden themed!
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 20 add this button to your sidebar or 3) both!
Please fill out this form if you are planning on participating:
Please link up below if you write a post regarding your participation. I am excited to do this with you! 😀
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I am so looking forward to this read, Camryn does a wonderful
job making me want to read it now! 😀 ~Sheila
Unraveling
Unraveling is a book by Elizabeth Norris that is about high school junior Janelle Tenner. Janelle lives with her younger brother, Jared, her dad, James, and her bipolar mother. Janelle, while leaving the beach, gets hit by a truck. She could’ve sworn she died. She felt her heart stop. Before she knows it, she is looking into the eyes of Ben Michaels, a loner from her high school that she hasn’t spoken to before. She knows that Ben somehow saved her, and she is determined to find out how.
Janelle, after being let out of the hospital, goes home with her dad, just to find out he has a strange case about unidentified people dying of extremely severe radiation. Janelle’s dad works for the FBI. Ever the eavesdropper on her dad’s work, Janelle decides to dive deeper into the case. Dead ends and meaningless information push her towards Ben. She needs to find out how he saved her, but instead, she finds herself growing closer and more dependent on Ben. Can she find out Ben’s secret and solve the case without falling for Ben, or will she die trying?
The Unraveling - The Australian Cover - how awesome is that?
I loved this book. It made me cry. In my opinion, any book that makes you cry for at least two minutes is a good book, but any book that makes you cry for more than five is amazing. This book was amazing. It had detail, and was impossible to put down after I started. I am looking forward to more from this author. I would recommend this book to anyone who wanted a fast-moving novel, who wanted a great read, or wanted to read a story of true. The ending kind of made me sad though, it ended kind of abruptly. It was still amazing.
Camryn is 12 years old, soon to be thirteen and enjoys reading YA books of the fantasy and romance genre. A few of her favorite books are “Hourglass” by Myra McEntire, “The Other Countess” by Eve Edwards, “Hush, Hush” by Becca Fitzpatrick, “The Immortals” series, the “Marked” series and the “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” series. When she’s not reading she enjoys watching Gilmore Girls or going to book sales for more books to add to her ever-growing collection.
Good morning and Happy Tuesday! Today it is raining in central Minnesota. I am anxious to get on my bike (although it may not be in the plans for today now…) and it looks like I may be going back to Kick Boxing tonight with my friend Christy after 10 months off due to my injury last June. YES!!! *fist pump in the air*
Today is Tuesday, and that means, it is Tuesdays With Camryn, the new YA reviewer who has graciously agreed to join me here on Tuesdays to chat about YA reads. Today watch for her review of Unraveled by Elizabeth Norris. Lets just say I will be needing to read that one SOON.
Since it is looking to be a great YA day, I figured this is an excellent time to chat up the new exciting Harper Collins Teen Book Club. They launched a few weeks ago on Facebook with this awesome logo:
Awesome yes? YES! The current read is INCARNATE by Jodi Meadows, but soon… the May read will be Bumped by Megan McCafferty (as seen in the yellow bar at the top of the Facebook page.You have to check this page out! There is a place for book discussion as well as to win some prizes! If you are not a YA reader yourself, please pass this information on to anyone you know who is… what a smart way to interact with teen readers!
You have a month to join the active discussion around the month’s book, but the forums on Goodreads will live on forever, and people can look back through archives to participate for past books there!
I can’t say enough about this! Teen readers are so important and YA is an awesome genre to really generate readers in the 11-20 age group (and yes, I know… there are many of us, including me, who also enjoy YA reads too! 😀 )
If you have been thinking about reading Bumped, this would be a wonderful way to do so and connect with others reading it too!
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.
Another week has gone by already! A little fun fact, this is the 136th week that I have hosted It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? That kind of blows me away. That’s over two years.. and as I think about it, I have not missed a week. It’s Monday has come to you from Florida when we were on vacation that very first week I did this in February of 2010, and a couple of times it has come to you from Honduras, when I was on mission trips. That kind of makes me smile…
Ok enough with the memories…. 😀 This past week, once again audio dominated my book time. Seems like my sitting and reading time has become a bit rare lately but my on the move and listening to audio has prevailed and saved me. Here is what happened on the blog this past week:
Not a bad week (it always surprises me when I get to the end of the week and realize, oh yeah, I did read something! 😀 I feel I have a good week coming up as audio is coming to an end all over the place leaving me open to new audio which is always exciting, plus for the first time in two weeks, I am adding books to the reading mix:
Still Aliceis a compelling debut novel about a 50-year-old woman’s sudden descent into early onset Alzheimer’s disease, written by first-time author Lisa Genova, who holds a Ph. D in neuroscience from Harvard University.
Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children and a house on the Cape, is a celebrated Harvard professor at the height of her career when she notices a forgetfulness creeping into her life. As confusion starts to cloud her thinking and her memory begins to fail her, she receives a devastating diagnosis: early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Fiercely independent, Alice struggles to maintain her lifestyle and live in the moment, even as her sense of self is being stripped away. In turns heartbreaking, inspiring and terrifying, Still Alice captures in remarkable detail what’s it’s like to literally lose your mind…
This is out book club read for May. I am a bit nervous as I find this to be such a heartbreaking topic…
In this irresistible memoir, the New York Times bestselling author and winner of the Pulitzer Prize Anna Quindlen writes about looking back and ahead—and celebrating it all—as she considers marriage, girlfriends, our mothers, faith, loss, all the stuff in our closets, and more. As she did in her beloved New York Times columns, and in A Short Guide to a Happy Life, Quindlen says for us here what we may wish we could have said ourselves. Using her past, present, and future to explore what matters most to women at different ages.
I have read very little of Anna Quindlen through the years, but from what I have heard from this audio so far… I need to read more. She is really incredible and she reads this audio herself.
Mary Lennox, grew up in India, and had everything she ever wanted as long as she stayed out of the way of her parents. Upon her parents death, Mary was sent to live with her widowed uncle who also had no time for her. Mary took to exploring the gardens and found way more than she had bargained for in a very pleasant way.
True. I have never read this, and thanks tot he heads up from April from Good Books and Good Wine who gave me a twitter heads up on the $4.95 sale on audible.com, I grabbed this one up for listening hopefully this week!
Years ago, they were all the best of friends. But as time passed and circumstances changed, they grew apart, became adults with families of their own, and began to forget about the past—and the terrible lie they all shared. But now Gordon (“Go-Go”), the youngest and wildest of the five, has died unexpectedly and the other four have come together for the first time in years. Suddenly each of these old friends has to wonder if the dark secret they’ve shared for so long is the reason for their troubles today . . . and if someone within the circle is trying to destroy them all.
Whoa right? I mean really… I cant wait!
Some bonds can never be broken…
Addie Downs and Valerie Adler will be best friends forever. That’s what Addie believes after Valerie moves across the street when they’re both nine years old. But in the wake of betrayal during their teenage years, Val is swept into the popular crowd, while mousy, sullen Addie becomes her school’s scapegoat.
Flash-forward fifteen years. Valerie Adler has found a measure of fame and fortune working as the weathergirl at the local TV station. Addie Downs lives alone in her parents’ house in their small hometown of La Prairie, Illinois, caring for a troubled brother and trying to meet Prince Charming on the Internet. She’s just returned from Bad Date #6, when she opens her door to find her long-gone best friend standing there, with a terrified look on her face and blood on the sleeve of her coat. “Something horrible has happened,” Val tells Addie, “and you’re the only one who can help.”
Best Friends Forever is a grand, hilarious, edge-of-your-seat adventure; a story about betrayal and loyalty, family history and small-town secrets. It’s about living through tragedy, finding love where you least expect it, and the ties that keep best friends together.
OOH this could be an awesome week in books!
So thats the BIG plan but a lot is audio so I think I will at least get started on them. Now I am hoping to see what you are all reading this week! There are a lot of good books out there and I love seeing what treasures you have found! Please link up below where it says click here:
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and those of you who read mainly children’s through YA reads – please also link your post here:
Book Journey 