Book Journey

Water For Elephants DVD Release Soon!

Published on October 25, 2011October 25, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)12 Comments

As the story opens, Jacob is living out his days in a nursing home and hating every second of it. Now in the last stages of his life, he recalls a happier, carefree time, when he literally had run away from it all and joined the circus.

It had not started as a happy journey however. Jacobs parents are killed in an auto accident week before he is about to complete his college medical exams to become a veterinary. Once he has buried his parents, Jacob learns that the home he live sin was mortgaged for his schooling and he is about to lose it all. With nothing left but the shirt on his back, he takes off and jumps a train, soon to be discovered as a Benzini Brothers (second-rate at best) Circus Train.

Water For Elephants is the story of Jacobs time with the circus, starting from the bottom of the bottom and working his way up not only in stature, but also in the eyes of Marlena, the wife of the jealous and abusive animal trainer, August.

In 2009, my book club, The Bookies, read Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen. In a phrase, we loved it from “I am ninety. Or ninety-three. One or the other.” Our group loved this book and it led us to such a great discussion of the realities and harshness of the inner workings of the circus. Later, when it came to out year in review awards that we do every year, Jacob won for our favorite male character in a book club read for 2009, and Sara Gruen took our best newly read author award.

On November 1, the DVD release of Water For Elephants will hit the stores. (SSQQUUEE!!!!) I was offered a pre screening of this movie to post my thoughts on and having loved (LOVED!) the book so much I jumped at the chance to see the DVD.

I did not have time to get the Bookies together for a screening, but still plan to do so…. instead, I treated myself to the viewing of this movie one evening and was as giddy as a school girl to experience it. Robert Patterson (Jacob) and Reese Witherspoon (Marlena) are cast well. I was very impressed with how they handled both the parts.

Although it has been two years since I have read the book, it easily came back to me through the movie. Charlie, Camel, Kinko… there are some colorful characters in both book and movie!

I would have liked to have seen more of the flash backs we see in the book of older Jacob to young Jacob, but honestly, I feel the movie works and is a beautiful compliment to the book.

If you have not read the book I highly encourage you to do so, and certainly make sure you get a chance to see this movie as well. For those of you who have, or will be, experiencing both book and movie, I am attaching a page of questions for you to review with your book group or friends.

Book to Movie Study Guide

Morning Meanderings… A Little Heavy Hearted

Published on October 25, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)29 Comments

Good morning.

A little heavy hearted this morning as I write this.

Our dog (companion, friend…) of 15 year has been struggling lately with his breathing off and on. I think he has tumors in his throat, I feel little marble size lumps. Yesterday afternoon when it was dinner time he would not eat which forced me to do the thing I have been dreading… call our vet.

We have an appointment for this afternoon at 4:40 and I am trying to be optimistic…. knowing very well the odds are against me. I have pretty much turned into a teary eyed weepy version of myself. I have never had to do this before, we live near a busy highway and all of our dogs from me growing up here to moving here with my husband, have met their demise on that highway….

Not Elmo. Although he too has been on that road, all 8 pounds of him survived. He is our miracle dog.

SO … that is current. Moving on to something lighter, I worked out at Group Power yesterday morning and feel really good. I can not wait to get back into a routine- NEED to get back into a routine.

Today I have a busy day at work, we are cleaning a large storage area so I will be busy and keeping my mind off later today and that will be a good thing. Bookish wise… I have not made a dent…. but audio has been flowing as I am almost done with my two current audio, Snow Flower and The Secret Fan and We The Animals.

I hope everyone has a great day 🙂

Sleepers Run by Henry Mosquera

Published on October 24, 2011October 25, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)4 Comments

Eric Caine, a War On Terrorism veteran, finds himself in a hospital with no recollection of the car crash that put him there. A missing persons report has been filed on him and that was 8 days ago!

Eric is feeling lost, confused, and alone when a chance encounter at a bar helps Eric gain a little perspective. He relocates to Venezuela where he had spent his childhood and then things take a turn again as a catastrophic event threatens the stability of the country. Eric now finds himself running for his life from a team of CIA assassins as he works to uncover a conspiracy that is nothings as it seems.

I am not much of a terrorist/war/CIA/assassin/politics type reader. Admittedly this book wasa bit of a genre stretch for me, yet I wanted to read and review it anyway.

Why?

Genre stretching is a good thing and I have found that sometimes a book out of my genre zone will grab me and if not for my willingness to stretch myself, I may have missed it.

Take Sleepers Run for instance. I did enjoy the action packed read and if ACTION is what you enjoy, Sleepers Run has it in spades. There really is no release button as you follow Eric’s story from the beginning to the breathless end 345 pages later.

Eric himself is a bit over the top as characters go…. picture MacGyver, Superman, Jason Bourne, Jackie Chan, and maybe a little Indiana Jones… all rolled into one character. Yup. Eric has moves. While at times I found this almost humorous as I thought, “how will he get out of this one….”, it still kept me turning pages to see where it was all going.

Friend and foe alike are tossed in throughout this read and I honestly never felt connected to any of them, Eric included. The book to me became more about the action and page turning then getting to know and care about any of the characters…. in the end, as I reflected on the read… I was not even sure that this was necessarily important. Perhaps a different take than my normal reading style but not a bad one… just different.

Fans of espionage type reads will probably get into this more than I did, but for this being a stretch for me… I was held enough to read through the book and enjoy it.

Amazon Rating

I received a copy of this book from

Meryl L. Moss Media Relations, Inc.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on October 23, 2011October 23, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)66 Comments

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.

Last weeks winner:

Angie from By Book Or By Crook!

WOO HOO!!!! Please choose an item out of the Reading Cafe Grab Shelves and email me your choice with your mailing address as well! journeythroughbooks@gmail.com

So here we are heading towards the end of October at lighting speed. Can you even believe that? I always feel I should be getting more reading done but I have had some pretty active evenings lately involving friends and family and good events so I cant complain…. here is what I did accomplish this past week:

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (audio review!)

I am an INSPY award judge! (what that means and what books am I reading for this)

Don’t Blink by James Patterson (he finally puts out an audio that disappoints me….)

Read a Thon recap for me…. what I accomplished… what I didn’t…

Weekend Cooking – Quick Dump Chili and Apple Cinnamon Rolls

Book/audio completed during read-a-thon but not reviewed yet:

Shelter by Sarah Stonich

Sleeper’s Run by Henry Mosquera

Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian (audio)

Looking forward, this week I have Monday, Tuesday evenings as pretty low key, but Wednesday and Thursday plans both evenings and then Friday evening I leave for the cabin with a group of girls that I do the MS bike ride with for a weekend R & R. Then things will go a bit crazy as the following week on November 5, I leave for Honduras for 6 days.

OK…. one thing at a time…. 😛 This week I plan to read:

Lily at 80 reflects on her life, beginning with her daughter days in 19th-century rural China. Foot-binding was practiced by all but the poorest families, and the graphic descriptions of it are not for the fainthearted. Yet women had nu shu, their own secret language. At the instigation of a matchmaker, Lily and Snow Flower, a girl from a larger town and supposedly from a well-connected, wealthy family, become laotong, bound together for life. Even after Lily learns that Snow Flower is not from a better family, even when Lily marries above her and Snow Flower beneath her, they remain close, exchanging nu shu written on a fan. When war comes, Lily is separated from her husband and children. She survives the winter helped by Snow Flower’s husband, a lowly butcher, until she is reunited with her family. As the years pass, the women’s relationship changes; Lily grows more powerful in her community, bitter, and harder, until at last she breaks her bond with Snow Flower. They are not reunited until Lily tries to make the dying Snow Flower’s last days comfortable.

I started listening to this yesterday and wow… I am already immersed in China’s culture, foot binding, match makers, oh my! Enjoying it so far…

**I am thrilled to be participating in an event coming up called Laotong Nights where my friends and I will see an advanced copy of Snow Flower and The Secret Fan! (SQQUUEEEE!!!) We will also participate in the Laotong Night event which I post on later.

What is a a Laotong Night? Click here for some things you could do, trust me my mind is already flying through the ideas! …. and then watch for a future post in the next couple of weeks where not only will I review the movie but also have three copies of the book to give away! 😛

Narrated by the youngest son of a Puerto Rican father and white mother from Brooklyn raising their three young sons in upstate New York, the novel is comprised of vignettes detailing moments spent in the eye of the ferocious bubble of home. Torres paints a large picture through diminutive strokes, evoking envy for the couple’s passion and fear for just how easily that passion turns to rage. The brothers wrestle, fight, cry, and laugh as their family is torn and repaired over and over again.

This one came in the made from Blackstone audio and you know I was curious about it and hey, I don’t turn down audio 😀

Honestly, I am not going to start any new books this week… I have several not finished that I want to pay attention too like Monsters Of Men.

I have lots of reviews lined up for this week including a couple giveaways to go with the reviews…. as well as my review of the upcoming release of Water for Elephants on DVD, so really … stop by often this week 😀

Now I want to see what you are reading this week. Be sure to link your It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? to the linky below where it says “click here”

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Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list…

Weekend Cooking: Quick Fall Foods

Published on October 23, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)22 Comments

Happy weekend… or err…. whats left of it. I meant to post this earlier but yesterdays read a thon and todays… whatevers have prevented me from doing so until now. 😀

Last weekend I was crafting at our cabin with three good friends. When we go to the cabin we usually all contribute to the food bringing. This time my friend Cindy was in charge of one of the main dishes, and my friend Sara came up with a breakfast dish. (*Note that one of the mornings I made the french toast muffins that were featured on Weekend cooking a couple of weekends ago and they were “num”. 😀

Cindy came up with a chili recipe that impressed all of us…. no spices. No hauling of seasoning packs at all and it was delicious! Sara came up with a delicious twist on cinnamon rolls by adding apple that was also a great cold morning treat!

Cindy’s Dump Chili

You need:

2 pounds lean hamburger

1 onion

1 green pepper (optional but I added!)

2 cans chili beans

2 cans kidney beans

1 large jar of salsa

1 can Hunts Zesty spaghetti sauce or another spicy spaghetti sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Brown your hamburger in a fry pan adding the onion and optional green pepper (chopped up) to the hamburger while it is cooking.

In crock pot put in your chili beans, drained kidney beans, the salsa and spaghetti sauce. When hamburger is browned, drain and rinse and add to the crock pot. Cover and cook on low all day or high for 2 to 4 hours.

This was delicious and easy to do!

Sara’s Apple Surprise Cinnamon Rolls

You will need:

one twist tube of cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting

1/2 stick of butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

one large apple (we used Honey Crisp) peeled and chopped into small chunks

Use non stick spray in a regular size muffin tin. in the bottom of each tin place a few of the chunks of apple. Sprinkle a little brown sugar over the apple chunks and then place a small dab of butter over the brown sugar and apple.

Now place one of the cinnamon rolls from the tube over all the apple cinnamon stuff in the tin and bake according to directions on the tube. When done, pop out of the tin and drizzle a little of the cream cheese frosting over each. Delicious for fall with a great cup of coffee and a few friends. 😀

Weekend Cooking is a weekly meme at Beth Fish Reads…. follow the link and check out all the delicious recipes and food related reviews.

Morning Meanderings…. The Recap

Published on October 23, 2011October 23, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)36 Comments

Good morning! 😀
Yesterday was The Dewey Read A Thon... an event I have participated in since I found the book blogging world in early 2009. Twice a year the read a thon takes place and twice a year I try to set aside the day from commitments so I can actually make a successful attempt at reading and audio.

Well… ummm…. yeah… about that…

I thought that after the hectic weeks I have been having that a day of sitting in my favorite chair surrounded by my favorite surroundings (errr… books) would be a no brainer… “but alas, earwax!” (Harry Potter quote) I was wrong. During readathon time I:

played with the dogs * washed dishes * cleaned the shower * ran three loads of laundry * make breakfast * made lunch * cleaned my bedroom * considered cleaning a spare room* had dinner plans and was MIA from 5 – 8 pm * put away all lawn furniture for the winter * played quite a bit of online scrabble * participated in almost all mini challenges from 7 am – midnight.

I did try to listen to audio while I was up and about but I did not get a ton of reading done and now my proud pile “the chosen ones” from yesterdays event sit on the coffee table glaring accusingly at me saying “what about me?”

**gulp* Obviously I stayed up too long if the books are now talking to me….Ok enough self loathing.. on the positive side I did complete two books, Shelter by Sarah Stonich and Girls Like Us by Rachel Lloyd. I also completed the audio book Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian which will make a perfect review for Halloween week…. 😀

As for mini challenges (I do love them!) I posted on separate pages so as not to clutter up the blog or your readers for those who follow me, but here are some of the highlights:

We had to make book titles out of objects – here are two of mine:

Then we made word puzzles for books we are reading….

(Please Stop Laughing At Me)

(Sleepers Run by Henry Mosquera)

And this one was fun too…. 5 books we are looking forward to:

Since I was reading for charity, here are my totals:

120 minutes of audio

338 book pages

= 45.80 to Camp Benedict

Not too bad I guess…. 😀

I really did have a lot of fun, had HUGE plans to stay up late and read and read but perhaps a big steak dinner was not the best “stay alert” food choice for dinner and I promptly fell asleep book in hand a little after midnight. 😀

Did you do the read a thon? If so how did you do? If not, what fun things did you do with your Saturday?

Dewey’s Read-A-Thon!!!

Published on October 22, 2011October 22, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)50 Comments

(mini challenge participations are at the bottom of this post)

Good morning! Welcome to the kick off for the Dewey Read-A-Thon. I am totally unprepared! I thought I was going to road trip to St Cloud today and look at cricut machines. I signed up for the read-a-thon a while ago and then wasnt sure if I was going to be able to do it, but as of last night knew I could just use a break from the hustle and bustle… and what a better way to enjoy a foggy fall day than surrounded by books.

I am reading for charity again, like I did in the spring… I am reading for Camp Benedict, the camp for people who have AIDS. (You can read more about my heart for this camp here. I will give 10 cents per page I read and 10 cents per minute I listen to audio to the camp.

If anyone wishes to donate to this wonderful camp you may do so here by leaving me a comment about sponsoring me (a set amount or so many cents per page/ audio minute) or by donating directly through this link.

To kick off this morning with hour one…. we were asked to give out a little info:

1)Where are you reading from today?
2)Three random facts about me…
3)How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours?
4)Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)?
5)If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, any advice for people doing this for the first time?

1. I am reading from Brainerd Minnesota

2. hmmmm…… I have been to Honduras 9 times (10th in a few weeks here), I love adventures and have biked over 600 miles this year – 50 miles of that was in an arm cast from a previous bike ride,I have two shih-tsu dogs that are ages 15 and 13 and both driving me nuts right now. (Lets just say I don’t have kids at home… but with these two I feel like I have kids at home) 😛

3. I have a stack of 13 books and a couple of audio but mainly for variety… I know I wont make it through them all

4. To clean up some of the books I have started and have not finished due to other commitments.

5. Have fun! Be sure and check out the mini challenges, take breaks…. walk around with audio (I count that!)

Mini Challenge Participation:

Character Photo Mini Challenge (hilarious and fun!)

Book Puzzle Mini Challenge (guess what I am reading!)

6 Hour mini challenge and five books I am looking forward to!

Mid Event survey challenge

I will check in throughout the day by updating this post.

9:00 a.m.: 20 minutes of audio (We The Animals) so far while I made breakfast and cleaned up kitchen

noon: One book complete, 130 pages read this morning between – mini challenges, letting dogs out and in and out and in, e one hour getting dressed, cleaned up, making lunch… but listening to Night Strangers on audio (30 minutes)

9:00 pm (not so good at checking in am I? 😛 ) finished one audio (add another hour to my totals) while putting away our lawn furniture for the winter…. not a whole lot of reading done since last check in but hoping now to crack down….

Morning Meanderings… Meet Morning Rituals

Published on October 21, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)11 Comments

Good Morning!

I seem to have put myself into a habit of sleeping a little later and then bustling around getting ready for work…. GAH. I don’t like that. The craziness of life, scheduling, etc has come to a point where I feel I am in overdrive for 15+ hours a day…. crash and do it again.

What is suffering?

sleep patterns

work out priorities

probably me 😛

I am working on this… and this morning felt a little more to the norm than it has in a while. I actually got up with time to spare. It went like this:

Up, let dogs out, get ready while listening to The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian on my IPOD.
COFFEE is ready and I sit at my Laptop (Asus) and pop up my emails. FAVORITE morning email has clearly become the Shelf Awareness newsletter that pops into my email box each weekday morning at 7 am. Seriously, if you are a book lover and are not subscribed to this newsletter; do so now (there is a link to it on my right side bar). Not only does it has info on hot books, but also authors (not all hot but authors just the same…. ha ha), giveaways, bookstores, and more. I love reading it!
Second cup of COFFEE (hello caffeine my constant friend!) while listening to the audio in my CD player in the kitchen. Just started We The Animals by Justin Torres this morning.
Now – out the door with COFFEE Cup (also my traveling friend), a can of soup for lunch, and now in my jeep listening to Snow Flower And The Secret Fan by Lisa See.

Work today, which I am normally off on Fridays but our office manager is on vacation this week and I offered to cover her Friday shift since I took a bonus day off last week for the girls weekend. 😀 Should be a quiet day in the office and then…. after three….

the weekend…

is mine. 😛

Don’t Blink by James Patterson

Published on October 20, 2011October 20, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)5 Comments

Who doesn’t like a big juicy steak from a world-famous restaurant such as New York’s Lombardo Steak House. The place is famous for their menu, the clientele…. and now the gruesome murder of a mob lawyer.

In the restaurant at the time of the murder is reporter Nick Daniels, conducting the interview of a lifetime with a legendary bad boy of baseball. Nick is shocked and shaken as the hit-man slips through all the activity without a hint of who he may be. When Nick realizes he actually has a key piece of evidence on his recorder, he proceeds to investigate the case himself despite dangerous warnings for him to back off.

New York’s Lombardo’s Steak House is famous for three reasons–the menu, the clientele, and now, the gruesome murder of an infamous mob lawyer. Effortlessly, the assassin slips through the police’s fingers, and his absence sparks a blaze of accusations about who ordered the hit.

As Nick continues to get closer to the truth… the truth becomes closer to him as well… first with his friends… and then even closer when they go after his family.

Chapter 2,489 ….. ha ha…. a little inside Patterson humor…. 😉

It is nothing new to hear me rave about a James Patterson audio. I have enjoyed many of his audio books immensely, especially the Mike Bennett Series he writes with Michael Ledwidge: Step On A Crack, Run For Your Life, Worst Case,and most recently Tick Tock. These books are filled with action, amazing narration, and honestly not gruesome as some of writing can be.

For all of the above reasons… I was excited to get my hands on Don’t Blink. And then…. I dont know what happened. I must have blinked.

The story line was kind of all over. I never felt I knew enough about Nick Daniels to care about him. He may as well have been named Joe Blow. He goes after a case that causes many (MANY) people to get killed. Friends, people trying to help him… suddenly it feels as though I am just read leaping from one attack to another… he barely gets out of one jam and then there is another and then anaother… and then when you think “whew… it’s over!”…

there is another.

In the end for me it was all a little too much…. enough plot here for two books. I didn’t really feel any connections to anyone and it actually became work to follow what was going on and who was after him now…

maybe I did blink and somehow missed the point, but that is my take on this one. Not a hate… just not a love. 😀

Amazon Rating

Goodreads Review

The 2011 WHERE Are You Reading map has been updated to include Dont Blink

I won this from Nise’s Under The Boardwalk blog

Morning Meanderings… INSPY Awards

Published on October 20, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)18 Comments

Good morning.:D
Sorry about the lack of “me” yesterday. I just did not have any time whatsoever. Tuesday night I wound up going to a Women’s charity event that I had forgotten I had agreed to go to months ago… while I went grumbling all the way and felt it went on later than I had hoped… I really did have a good time.

Between that event and the fact that our 15-year-old shih-tsu has been having some heart wrenching breathing troubles at night… my sleep has been odd and sporadic. I woke up yesterday morning after a pretty much sleepless night worrying about our dog, on ly to discover it was 7:30 am and I work at 8:00 am…

Uhhh yeah… no morning post. When I came home in the after noon from work and had a book review post to write I instead fell asleep in the recliner. GAH.

A couple of weeks ago I was selected to be a judge in the Inspy Awards under the mystery/thriller genre. I am so excited to be a part of this! The five books I need to read and review are:

Back on Murder by J. Mark Bertrand, Bethany House, July, 2010

Darkness Follows by Mike Dellosso, Realms, May, 2011

Digitalis by Ronie Kendig, Barbour, January, 2011

Over the Edge by Brandilyn Collins, B&H Publishing, May, 2011

The Bishop by Steven James, Revell, August, 2010

I am pretty excited (oops I said that already!) and hope that if you enjoy faith driven reads you will check out the entire list of books up for nomination at the Inspy site. You can also see the other judges there .

In one more crazy thought for the day… remember when I lost Monsters Of Men? Then I blogged about where I found Monsters Of Men? Well…. when I blogged about it, I put the book back where I had found it so I could take the picture for the post. THEN… I spent yesterday looking for the book AGAIN. Guess where it was? Yes – back on the shelf where I put it for the picture.

Seriously…. who does this? 😛