I would like to say that it has been hard…. and that would be true… but I also have to admit that I am learning through this…. and growing through this… in positive ways.
One thing that has been made abundantly clear this past week is that I am not alone. People everywhere are dealing with pain and while it is not the same as mine – it is just as real and just as painful to each person.
On a lighter note… I am having a pretty low key weekend here and loving it. Yesterday, I didnt even leave the house. Cleaned a little, slept a little, and caught up on some much needed down time after a fairly busy week and returning from Honduras last weekend.
Today, for Saturday Snapshot I thought I would post a few more of the pics from my week in Honduras:
Steps up the side of a mountain
Bird of Paradise against a building
We seen this at a restaurant we stopped at
Alyce from At Home With Books hosts this meme. Stop over and see what others are posting for Saturday Snapshots!
I am a tad bit groggy this morning… but things are still doable. 😀 Last night I went with a couple good friends (*waves at Amy and Dee*) to go see the midnight showing of the Release of the Breaking Dawn movie.
So the question this morning (and the question earlier this morning as I drove home at 2:11 am…. ) was it worth it?
If I enjoy a book, I want to see the movie. I know that many people disagree with me here and think a movie can spoil a book. I don’t think so. A movie – rarely lives up to the emotions and visions a book produces…. however, I personally find it interesting to see how a movie director would see the same scenes I read….
I really like the diversity in visions…. and occasionally – the movie vision can be outstanding.
So back to the question… was it worth it. Yes, to the point that I would have wanted to see it anyway… no to the fact that while the movie was ok… it was not Harry Potter phenomenal (not that I thought it would be…) and in fact there are a couple of scenes that were down right cheesy. (Que the talking wolf scene….)
BUT – to go hang out with friends… leaving my house at 11:10 pm to sit in a theater waiting for a movie to start at midnight, with good friends….
priceless.
😛
Recommended? Sure… it tells a story and if you have read the books and followed the movies so far, why not?
Now, hopefully I can be somewhat productive today… I have books to mail, bills to pay, and a home that could use a little attention (this equals audio time!) 😀
Have you met Frank Abagnale…. err…. Frank Williams, Robert Conrad, Frank Adams, or Robert Mojo? They are all the same man. AND not a fictional man either… but a con man of epic intelligence and a “no fear” attitude that brought him far.
During Franks great conning years he sweet talked his way into a pilots uniform and co piloted a Pan Am jet… this “Pan Am” masquerade brought him money, fame, and women from all over the world. Frank also practiced law without a license and forged over $2.5 million dollars in checks – all before he was 21.
Abagnale lived a life of luxury and fantasy until the law caught up with him. Now recognized as the nations leading authority on foul-play, Abagnale shares his incredible, occasionally hilarious true story of being a man with a mission.
Truth really is stranger than fiction.
I seen the movie Catch Me If You Can many years ago, starring Tom Hanks and Leonardo DeCaprio (as Frank Abagnale). I really enjoyed the movie and knew it was based on a true story and that was that.
Then last month, Audible.com had one of their fabulous audio book sales I chose this one for $4.95. Turns out, that was a great $5 buy! As soon as I started listening, I knew I was in for a treat. Narrator Barrett Whitener tells it like it is and I was quick to realize that this audio was going to be better, MUCH better, than the movie.
Told in great detail, Catch Me If You Can is Frank’s true retelling of his start during his teenage years as he had bigger dreams and wants than he had money. His swindling career started with his own father (which he regrets to this day), and went as big as posing as a Pan Am Pilot and receiving all the perks that go with it.
When you listen to how Frank makes things happen for himself you will be astounded how simply he gets away with things. A few phone calls posing as reporters, students, and trainees, gets Frank the information he needs, a few questions to the right people finds him being fit for uniforms, receiving the tools to make forged licenses, and at one time – even flying on a fake passport.
Franks story is one that is both frightening (at how simple his forgeries are!) and astoundingly laughable (Franks escape off a plane through the toilet is certainly one I will not soon forget!).
If you are looking for an interesting and well narrated audio, look no further than Catch Me If You Can. I find myself still talking to friends about this one!
Recently I posted about my book clubs last read, Cleopatra. Lets just say it did not qualify for our best book of the year. Lets say…. not even close.
It has been fun these last few days as I have heard from the girls in the Bookies either call me, text, or Facebook comments about the book and how much they did not like it.
That makes me happy. 😀
Don’t get me wrong, we all know when we are believing a book will be awesome it is a let down when it is not… BUT… some of our best discussions over the past years have come out of bad books. Its true…
Wuthering Heights. Out first ever classic read received a scorching review. I for one liked it… I think because I was so thrilled I had read a classic… but also.. it was fun to diagnose Kathryn in modern terms…. bipolar comes to mind… that woman was either way up… or way down. No middle for Kathryn. 😀
And this morning I see that Angie from By Book and By Crook has posted her review of Cleopatra. Angie is an original Bookie, has been on our book group with me since day one. I think she rocks at choosing books… but we all have our moments… as I reminded her in a comment this morning…
I once chose The Fourth Hand by John Irving for our book club to read…. MANY MANY years ago. I thought it would be funny… instead it was creepy. I think one may still rate as worst book we ever tried to read as a group…. HOWEVER…. while I can not tell you what we actually did in that review as that has to go down in the Bookies vault…. I can say…
It was memorable. 😛
On another random bookish (sort of) note, I have my ticket for tonight’s midnight showing of Breaking Dawn. Yes… I am that crazy. A couple of my friends are going and asked if I would like to come too…. it really is more about the hour and the friends than it is about the movie. 😀 (Ok… I am a little curious what they did with this one…
In this third and final books of the Chaos Walking Series Todd and Viola are coming into the biggest war of their lives. This is not one of those series where you can pick up any book and start it… and get it. No, you must know where Todd came from in The Knife Of Never Letting Go and how Viola came into the picture. You must understand the level of sacrifice already given before you enter this world again in The Ask And The Answer…
The Spackle are more… more than one could have imagined and The Mayor…. well, will one ever fully figure him out?
Viola is working with The Answer, and Todd is working with … well, with The Mayor. And The Spackle (wondering what a Spackle is… well, its not something you do to the walls…) are coming in as the third part to a war that we thought was two-part… but no, Ness would not make things as simple as that.
What do you do to save the place you have come to know as home? What do you do to save the one you love?
And how do you look at all that is happening and not take it personally?
Yes.... you must read all three
Lets just put it out there. I ♥ Patrick Ness. It’s ok…. I told my husband too. 😀 I mean you know its bad when I get excited about the font in a book. I do. I did. I still think it is brilliant and if you have read none of these books then you have no idea what I am ranting about but that…. needs to be corrected.
I am always shocked, appalled, and even thrilled by the courage of an author to do away with key characters. In this way, Patrick Ness did not let me down in any of the three books. My advice to new readers – don’t get attached to anybody.
Knowing that… imagine my fear page after page…. never knowing who was going to be wiped off the planet at a moments notice…. this sort of dystopia novel really can bring out the tingly feelings of anticipation, of fear, of the big…. WHAT JUST HAPPENED? (And of course what I fondly refer to as “back turning”… when something happens that you are all like (NO WAY!) and you have to turn back a few pages to read that again and go there again…. only… to be shocked again. (Mmmmm hmmmm…. it’s that good.)
I wish I could avoid this rambling and choppy review but I finished this book over a week ago as we landed in Honduras and without taking down a few notes on my thoughts (my bad…. my bad indeed) I left here a week and a half later hanging on to remnants of excitement but not sure where I felt them or how to share them with you.
I can however say that this is the best trilogy I have read this year and I do not take series lightly. If you are looking to end the year on a high reading note – I highly recommend you start on this series and then…. feel free to rant and rave here with me…. 😀
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 1 edition (November 1, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0316001929
ISBN-13: 978-0316001922
Though her life spanned fewer than forty years, it reshaped the contours of the ancient world. She was married twice, each time to a brother. She waged a brutal civil war against the first when both were teenagers. She poisoned the second. Ultimately she dispensed with an ambitious sister as well; assassination was a family specialty. Cleopatra appears to have had been with only two men. They happen, however, to have been Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, among the most prominent Romans of the day. Both were married to other women. Cleopatra had a child with Caesar and–after his murder–three more with his protégé. Already she was the wealthiest ruler in the Mediterranean; the relationship with Antony confirmed her status as the most influential woman of the age. The two would together attempt to forge a new empire, in an alliance that spelled their ends.
This was our book club read while I was in Honduras. I had the best of intentions to read it before I left, but life happenings, a very sick dog, and hard decisions made that… ummm… not happen. Upon my return from Honduras I connected with a couple of the girls in the group and they shared not only their thoughts… but also pictures!!!
We were all surprised by the role of women in Egypt during this time. They had so many rights and were held in such high esteem. They were able to own land and many riches and sometimes the husbands were the ones left at home weaving by the loom. We wondered what created the shift in our culture to relegate women as so far beneath men that we had to struggle in the last century to get some of our rights back. One of the questions in the discussion guide asked if women could ever go backward in rights again and all of us believed it would not happen to us again.
While we still do not know a lot about Cleopatra even after reading the book, what we did learn was fascinating. She was very rich and slightly manipulative. She was charming and even (look at the pictures in the book) kind of ugly.
The Bookies advice to me.. dont bother reading it. Most of the girls did not finish it, finding it hard to get into. However I was also told it is not as long as it looks.. the last 60 pages are pictures.
Overall with 8 Bookies in attendance, the book rating was way below average.
The food however – was fun:
A sampling of appetizers!Fig Newtons because Cleopatra called for sweet figs on the day she committed suicide and also Greek yogurt because that is just fun. 🙂
and finally – Amy was our very own Cleopatra:
Amy - really gets into the book club book
Which leads me to burst with pride for our AWESOME book club! As I sit here and write this review I am prompted to jot down a few (ok maybe more than a few) reasons I enjoy the Bookies so much:
1. We go the extra mile to make the reviews interesting
2. Special event months like our Summer Queen event, Classic Hat and Read month, and Christmas party
3. Digging deep for bonus info on books and authors
4. We value each others opinions
5. We agree to occasionally disagree 😛
6. Food that is prompted by the books we read
7. An amazing and passionate group of girls that have turned from a group of book lovers to friends
8. Stretched to read books and genres I may not have chosen but found out I enjoyed
9. It’s ok to not read the book. 😯
10. 10+ years of Bookies, started in August 2001 with 3 girls and now 10 years later we have 14.
I returned home from Honduras in the early hours of Saturday morning this past weekend. A few things I have noted over the past several days that have taken place while I was away….
1. My Chocolate Caramel Creamer.
Yes, I will admit it is not good for me but oh…. have you tried it? On Saturday evening I was craving a large cup of coffee and thought…. ooh, the creamer would be good. But – I could not find it in the refrigerator. Al (Hubby) does not usually drink coffee at home…. he leaves for work around 5 am and catches it at a coffee shop and he only drinks coffee in the morning… unlike me…. 😛
When I inquired about the missing creamer he responded, “Oh, that was really good.” When I mentioned he never drinks coffee at home, he responded, “Oh, I didnt drink coffee. It was like chocolate milk, I drank a little glass full of the creamer each night.
😯
2. My office.
Oh ha ha co-workers and evil minded boss! 😛 They cobwebbed my desk….
Hello and welcome to another fun addition of 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.
I just returned from Honduras after 7 days in the wee hours of Saturday morning. It was a good trip but a full one and most of my reading happened on the plane. That said, I did finish two books and an audio and felt accomplished with that. While I was away a group of fabulous book bloggy friends covered the blog here keeping my virtual plants watered and greeting visitors with fun posts. Here is what did get posted since last Monday:
Danielle from There’s A Book gives us some of the best Children and Middle Grade books she has experienced this year
Here you can catch some pics of me eating and drinking some authentic Honduran food (the pics are fun because the food didn’t go down so well 😉 )
The Team that I went to Honduras with: Back Left: Boris, Jay Haugh, Dima, Eric Crabtree, (Front: Left) Mark Bjorlo, Me, Al Steiff, and Julie Steiff
Thank you to everyone who shared a post here while I was away and thank you to those who visited and gave them some comment love… 😀I still have reviews to write for books I finished in Honduras.
Now for this week…
At twenty-two, just out of college, Molly Birnbaum spent her nights reading cookbooks and her days working at a Boston bistro, preparing to start training at the prestigious Culinary Institute of America. She knew exactly where she wanted the life ahead to lead: She wanted to be a chef. But shortly before she was due to matriculate, she was hit by a car while out for a run in Boston. The accident fractured her skull, broke her pelvis, tore her knee to shreds—and destroyed her sense of smell. The flesh and bones would heal…but her sense of smell?And not being able to smell meant not being able to cook. She dropped her cooking school plans, quit her restaurant job, and sank into a depression.
Season to Taste is the story of what came next: how she picked herself up and set off on a grand, entertaining quest in the hopes of learning to smell again.
This one has been on the dock before but was set aside for life stuff…. and now is back again. I started it yesterday.
At once wildly original and stuffed with irresistible nostalgia, READY PLAYER ONE is a spectacularly genre-busting, ambitious, and charming debut—part quest novel, part love story, and part virtual space opera set in a universe where spell-slinging mages battle giant Japanese robots, entire planets are inspired by Blade Runner, and flying DeLoreans achieve light speed.
It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.
Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets
First of all… SSSQQUUUEEEEE to the 80’s flashbacks!!!! SO AWESOME! I can not wait to start this!
Sam Travers is an ordinary guy desperately trying to preserve his sense of purpose in the months following an accident at work that has left him disabled. Still his life is good with a loving wife and young daughter who adores him like only a little girl can. But one morning, an unexplained gun shot that leaves no physical evidence sets into motion a series of events that puts Sam on a collision course with a darkness that has been brooding in the quiet rural hills for at least 150 years.
This one I am reading as an INSPY Award judge.
A Captain’s Journal is a personal account of events from Balad Air Force Base Hospital in Iraq during a six month period from 2006 – 2007. The stories are told from the personal perspective of Eric Charles, an Anesthesiologist. Eric recounts his patient encounters that range from pleasant to gut-wrenching and from laughable to tear-jerking. The descriptions of the events are occasionally graphic, but strike a realistic chord. Eric also weaves into the narrative many personal and philospohical interactions from the every day events of living in the midst of the Iraq War.
The cool thing about this one is Eric “Charles” is Eric Crabtree, who is pictured above and was on the Honduras Mission Trip I just returned from. He gave me this copy of his book this morning. 😀
So that is what is on the plate 😉 It feels like it has been forever since I have been able to get around and chat with all of you and see what you are reading. Please add your What Are You Reading link below where it says “click here” and I am planning to get around to all of you and I am excited to do so! 😀
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It was a morning to remember. On July 24th, 1915 in downtown Chicago, over 2,000 Western Electric Employees and their families, dressed in their best and went to board the Eastland for the annual company picnic. The Eastland was a breathtaking steamship and many came to watch as the ship loaded the excited and happy employees and families.
Then… the unthinkable happened.
The Eastland (as you will find out within the book, was never a very stable feeling ship) rolled over in the Chicago river, trapping many of those on board within its body. The woman, who were dressed in high boots, jewelery, large skirts, and over coats, became human anchors. Men were said to have trampled children, and shoved aside women in the panic to escape.
In the end, after three days of rescue attempts… 844 men, women, and children died.
The interior of the Eastland changed suddenly, as if by the dark magic of a fun house mirror. Floors became walls, port holes became skylights, and the gigantic influx of water turned the mahogany trimmed rooms into sealed chambers worthy of Harry Houdini’s worst nightmares.
Page 72
The entire Sinclair family - all eight of them perished on the Eastland
So Sheila, why the morbid fascination with tragedy?
Well… I don’t really know – but morbid fascination seems harsh… I would say more an interest in history, and what seems to me to be important history.
I am always surprised when I find out about something like this and realize if not for certain circumstances, I may have never heard of the Eastland and its tragic demise.
Readers of Book Journey may remember that in June of this year I went with three of my good friends to Chicago for a long girls exploratory weekend. The plan was… there was no plan. We would land where we landed, stay where we stay – but our destination was Chicago.
On our second day there we hopped on a double-decker tour bus and enjoyed the sights of Chicago…. at one point our tour guide stopped and showed up where this large steamliner, The Eastland, had overturned in 1915 killing 844 people.
I was stunned. As I looked at the spot being pointed to, I did not understand. The ship was docked – not moving. In still waters. Near the bridge where many people were watching. How did they all die? Why were they not saved? How does something like this happen?
I had to know more.
Upon returning home to Brainerd I was sharing my trip experience with Lloyd Anderson. He was familiar with the sinking of the Eastland and I mentioned to him I had to know more about this tragedy. A couple of weeks ago, Lloyd came into my office with this book that he had checked out of the library for me. Life had moved on for me and I had forgotten my desire to research this ship…. Lloyd had not.
The Sinking Of The Eastland traveled with me to Honduras and back. (Yes, Brainerd Library, the book is fine). I devoured the information inside.
Well written, and powerfully intense, I read about entire families being taken by this disaster, I learned of the divers who sent rescue teams at first into the chilly waters… that later became recovery teams instead. I read of every day public hero’s who dove in time and again to save people (and succeeded!) and I read of scoundrels who picked the pockets of the 800+ bodies lined up on the streets waiting to be identified.
For most of the book, I wept.
Jay Bonansinga writes a story that is at once heart wrenching and painful – he reveals mistakes that could have been avoided, and a captain that abandoned his ship. And while all this may be perceived as a hard HARD read… it is an important one. And you know what? Life is hard. All stories can not end sugary sweet and leaving you with a warm fuzzy feeling inside.
I for one am glad I spent time this past week with The Eastlander and its occupants. I now have a new mark on my heart… it is ship shaped.
I am sitting here… still coffee free (but not for long) wondering what happened to my yesterday. I had plans… not big ones… but baby steps back into my life routine. I was going to unpack (did not happen), I was going to do laundry (it made it to the washer)…
I was going to write reviews for the two books and one audio I finished while I was away this last week (instead I fell asleep in the chair).
At 3 pm yesterday Hubby Al came in the house and wanted to go out for supper…. right then as he had not eaten yet. At 3 pm. Supper. I told him we were not 80 and he could wait at least until 4:30. Then our friends Dan and Key called and they asked us to meet up with them so by 4:15, e were out of the house anyway. It was a good night, had dinner with them and then went back to their house for a while to chat.
We came home, watched the Survivor episode I missed while I was away and then bed.
Today – my agenda is wide open again and I am glad…. Monday will come soon enough. 😀
WINNERS!
Yesterday I announced a one day comment for a bag of Honduras Coffee that I brought back with me. This morning using random.org I chose the winner and that was:
The winners of the signed hard copy Laura Childs Skeleton Letters are:
Mary Preston
Carol Wong
Thanks everyone for entering. I need to go get ready now… but I will be back later with a review, and tonight of course with Monday What Are You Reading.
Book Journey 