Book Journey

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on May 15, 2011May 15, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)110 Comments

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between! D 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:

Joanne’s best

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

**Updates have been made to the Reading Cafe Grab shelves!

Here is what I was doing this past week:

“Potato Marley” (When good vegetables… go bad)

Cloaked by Alex Flinn ( a modern fairy tale…)

ROOM by Emma Donoghue – revisted by my book club The Bookies (with fun food to go with the review!)

The Island Of Lost Girls by Jennifer McMahon (mmm hmmmm… same author as I read last week….)

The Painted Veil – Movie VS. Book (You will never guess who wins! :razz:)

Not My Daughter by Barbara Delinsky (I liked it… and I didn’t…)

How Do You Choose What To Read Next? (The question that haunts me…..) 😛

As for this next week… I am going to take it easy as there are a few books I would love to clean up on this week before I leave on Sunday for BEA.

The true story of how the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo saved hundreds of people from Nazi hands. When Germany invaded Poland, Stuka bombers devastated Warsaw, and the city’s zoo along with it. With most of their animals dead, zookeepers Antonina and Jan Żabiński began smuggling Jews into empty cages. Another dozen “guests” hid inside the Żabińskis’ villa, emerging after dark for dinner, socializing, and, during rare moments of calm, piano concerts. Jan, active in the Polish resistance, kept ammunition buried in the elephant enclosure and stashed explosives in the animal hospital. Meanwhile, Antonina kept her unusual household afloat, caring for both its human and its animal inhabitants —otters, a badger, hyena pups, lynxes— and keeping alive an atmosphere of play and innocence even as Europe crumbled around her.

I know…. I said I was tired of war stories… and I am… but somehow I keep finding my way back to them. My friend Heidi recommended this one a while ago and when I recently found it at my library on audio I thought I would give it a try.

Margaret and Patrick have been married just a few months when they set off on what they hope will be a great adventure-a year living in Kenya. Margaret quickly realizes there is a great deal she doesn’t know about the complex mores of her new home, and about her own husband.

A British couple invites the newlyweds to join on a climbing expedition to Mount Kenya, and they eagerly agree. But during their harrowing ascent, a horrific accident occurs. In the aftermath of the tragedy, Margaret struggles to understand what happened on the mountain and how these events have transformed her and her marriage, perhaps forever.

This one has been on my shelf for far too long… I have started it and it does seem to take forever to get to the heart of the story but it seems to be picking up a bit now…

A Canticle for Leibowitz opens with the accidental excavation of a holy artifact: a creased, brittle memo scrawled by the hand of the blessed Saint Leibowitz, that reads: “Pound pastrami, can kraut, six bagels–bring home for Emma.” To the Brothers of Saint Leibowitz, this sacred shopping list penned by an obscure, 20th-century engineer is a symbol of hope from the distant past, from before the Simplification, the fiery atomic holocaust that plunged the earth into darkness and ignorance. As 1984 cautioned against Stalinism, so 1959’s A Canticle for Leibowitz warns of the threat and implications of nuclear annihilation. Following a cloister of monks in their Utah abbey over some six or seven hundred years, the funny but bleak Canticle tackles the sociological and religious implications of the cyclical rise and fall of civilization, questioning whether humanity can hope for more than repeating its own history.

This is our Faith N Fiction group read and I am just getting into it… it’s different from what I would choose for myself to read but think it will make for good discussion.

Adam March is a married father and successful businessman poised to become a CEO—that is, until the day his troubled past catches up with him. Soon Adam has lost his job, his family, and his house and is living in a lonely apartment working off his community-service sentence in a local men’s shelter. Adam’s story alternates with that of Chance, a former fighting pit bull who has escaped, lived on the streets, and is now back at the animal shelter. When circumstances require Adam to adopt and care for Chance, he comes to realize the joy and comfort of animal companionship.

Ok… this is the audio that is going on after I finish Their Eyes Were Watching God which should be yet this week. When I chose this, I wanted something lighter after I looked at what I am currently putting my brain through from the looks of the books above. I hope and pray that this dog does not die at the end…. Hey, it was either this or Bossy Pants by Tina Fey.

That’s my week – it is mostly audio as that I can listen to while doing other things (like packing!) I hope to get around to all of you this week and see what you are reading so please be sure to link up your Monday What Are You Reading here below where it says “click here”. And yes, there will be a post next week as well… I am not leaving for the cities until Sunday evening and will be available throughout the plane rides to catch up on what you are all reading 😀

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How Do You Choose What To Read Next?

Published on May 15, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)81 Comments

Out of the TBR’s (To Be Read) in your home…. what is the method to your madness? (Well… maybe your is not madness… but oofta (yes I said oofta – and yes I put parentheses inside parentheses) mine sure is).

I am curious as to how you choose that next read –

Are you:

AIO – All In Order – as they come in they are read – check off the list go the next… check check check (If so YOU are SO ORGANIZED! WOW!)

TBR and LL – Library Loot – a bit of the TBR mixed in for variety

ATSL – As The Spirit Leads (and honestly this is my personal favorite… I read what I want to read when I want to read it, with the exception of Book Tours)

I have heard some of you talk about your systems of organization when it comes to the TBR and seriously that impresses me… I wish I could stick to that but I tend to read as I am called to a book (at least as much as possible, unless it is a tour book or a book club read with a commitment date)

For those of you who are book reviewers, do you think we easily over commit ourselves to read books offered to us as books are so much our passion it is hard to say no?

Thank you in advance for your insight. Every Sunday I go through this…. choosing what I plan to read for the It’s Monday, What Are You Reading meme. I take into account book tours and audio choices and then try to mix in one that I have no commitment to other than the fact I want to read it. I am curious how you choose your books. 😀

Morning Meanderings… Countdown to BEA

Published on May 15, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)21 Comments

Good Morning! Happy Sunday!

The sun is out and shining bright. I am so thrilled to not see clouds or rain and the rest of the week is looking the same! Finally! 😀

We are now 8 days out from BEA (Book Expo America). It’s funny, Reagan and I signed up to go in December… 5 months ago, so now that it is here it is like…. Oh yeah!

I have much to do between now and next Sunday afternoon when I leave to meet Reagan in Minneapolis and then fly out early Monday morning. I do not even know yet what the weather has been like in New York. Last year it was warm and I wore Capri’s and nice shirts, or light weight pants… I do hope that part is the same. 😀

Later this week I will post a list of some of the commitments I have while I am there. Gah…. commitments sounds awful. Commitments are things that I have to do, when honestly – these are things I want to do. Can’t wait to do! One of the best things about going to BEA – besides the super cool books, is the people you meet and the plans you make.

I need to organize where I am and when for my sake as I want to do everything I have been invited to and not miss out on anything as well… so much to do yet! 😛

On a different… more home in Minnesota note, hubby and I had a wonderful dinner with friends last night at their home. Andy and Laura invited us and three other couples over to their home last night for conversation and a wonderful tortellini dinner. As we sat around the table laughing and sharing I had to wonder why we don’t do things like this more often. It was just fun to be together. I hope to correct that this year and do a little more hanging out this summer and fall with couples and do dinner parties… it sounds so…

grown up. 😛

Have an awesome Sunday – I absolutely will be on my bike today! 😀

Not My Daughter by Barbara Delinsky

Published on May 14, 2011May 14, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)27 Comments

Susan, Kate, and Sunny has been best friends for years. It is fun that their three daughters (Lilly, Mary Kate, and Jess), all the same age, are also best friends. Lilly, Mary Kate, and Jess are popular, college bound Seniors, from good families.

They are also all three….

pregnant.

The girls had made a pact – a pregnancy pact. All feeling ready for motherhood they decide to do what it takes to get pregnant and have their babies all grow up together.

Susan, Lilly’s mother is also principle of the school. As word gets out the pressures are heavy on Susan to make good decisions for all involved as the Super Attendant worries about copy cats, and the schools reputation. The girls do not fit the type of student that would do something like this, blowing statistics of what teens to watch for such behavior in. It doesn’t help that Susan herself was seventeen when she became pregnant with Lilly, and Susan’s own mother and father had pushed her away, leaving her quite literally alone.

As the three mothers put their heads together on how to move forward – most of the attention stays on Susan. Being in a small town in Maine makes this sort of scandal very news worthy, and after an editorial in the local paper, the news vans are knocking on Susan’s door. Lilly had no idea that the decision she made with her friends to become pregnant would snowball into the attacks on her own mother.

All three women, Susan, Kate, and Sunny must come to grips with where they failed as mothers, how the dreams they had for their daughters are disappearing, and scathing small town judgment.

I had high hopes for this read. The synopsis, was interesting. How do mothers handle daughters who would make such an outrageous pack? The fact that Susan was also principal of the school was also interesting… how do you make a fair and smart assessment of what is happening when it involves your own daughter?

On the pro – I liked the characters. Susan is a strong intelligent woman. She had raised Lilly on her own, made a career for herself and a home. Lilly is sweet and likable, strong personality and supportive of her mom and her dad, who does remain in the picture as a supportive parent and friend to Susan.

The story line rocks…

BUT

On the con – I wanted to kick Lilly in the pants. Lilly had clearly not thought out the big picture here and still believed that she would have her baby just before graduation, take the summer to “play mom” and be in college yet in the fall. She is shocked when her mom is not thrilled for her. She refers to the baby as “our baby” referring to her mom and herself and maybe I am being harsh – but Susan accepts that immediately, where I am thinking… ummmm…. you made the decision to get pregnant, this was not “our” decision, it was yours.

I found Susan way to easy on Lilly and there is no lesson here. I am not saying you don’t stand by your children no matter what, of course you do, but you also talk to them about consequences…

All three girls were extremely immature in such a decision for three girls that were suppose to be on their way and intelligent. They were doing this on their own with no intentions of telling the “dads” that they were going to be dads, as they really planned on doing this on their own. This just did not ring true for me.

Gah. I don’t know…. maybe I am reading too much into this. In the end it is a book about friendship through thick and thin, healing and family ties that bind. I did like the ending very much.

I have enjoyed Barbara Delinsky’s writing in the past and I am sure I will enjoy it again in the future. It is so hard to know what to say about this book as I did keep reading – wanting to know how it was all going to end.

My 2011 WHERE Are You Reading Map has been updated to include Not My Daughter

I borrowed this audio from my local library

Morning Meanderings… Snapshot Sat. and Books I Am CRAVING

Published on May 14, 2011May 14, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)37 Comments

Good morning and Happy Saturday! Cloudy and dreary here in Central Minnesota today… I am a little bummed as I was hoping to get on my bike today and put in some miles. Instead I think I will be visiting the library, maybe start planning my “what to bring” for next Sunday when I leave for BEA (SSQQUUEEEE!!!)

Every Saturday Alyce from At Home With Books puts up a meme called Snapshot Saturday. It’s a time when we can post a picture we have taken (or a friend or someone we know). Maplewood Minnesota:

1bbb — Part of our MS Team completing the smaller MS ride - 30 to 60 miles. In June we will do a 150 mile ride with the entire team.

That’s me – far right. Last Saturday was gorgeous in the cities and by mile two I took off the jacket as it was too warm already. I can use a lot more days like that. 😀

As for the book cravings… I have a little collection from around the blogs over the past couple of weeks.

East Of Eden by John Steinbeck (Found at Lydia’s The Lost Entwife) *Yes, an older title but one I have yet to read.

Primitive by Mark Nykanen (found at Sherrie’s Just Books)

The Midwife’s Confession by Diane Chamberlain (Found at Jennifer from Rundpinne)

The Bitter End by Jennifer Brown (Found at Nancy from A Musing Reviews)

Just blogging about these books this morning makes me excited to get my hands on them. How about you, any books you found out there lately that just make you want to drop everything and READ? 😛

The Painted Veil (Movie Vs. Book)

Published on May 13, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)38 Comments

As the story goes… Kitty (Naomi Watts) has found herself to be quite choosy on who she will choose as a husband. It certainly it is not from lack of effort on the men’s part, yet Kitty knows she is beautiful and really feels that a woman does not need to have a man in her life to feel complete. Her parents disagree.

One day, after a particular awkward argument at home when her mother flat-out asks Kitty how much longer she plans to count on her father to support her – Kitty takes a walk and finds herself in the company of a fairly new acquaintance, Walter (Edward Norton). When out of the blue, Walter proposes, Kitty is taken aback and laughs telling him that she hardly knows him and surely he does not expect an answer. Upon returning home, she overheard her mother on the phone gushing over Kitty’s sister new proposal and saying that of course Kitty will probably never get married. Kitty quickly returns to Walter with a “yes, she will marry him.”

As expected, Kitty soon finds that her lack on knowing Walter is a problem. He in quite introverted, used to accompanying himself only and honestly she finds him boring. When they attend a party together and she is introduced to Charles Townsend, Kitty finds herself drawn to this man who is exciting, adventurous,outgoing, and really everything that Walter is not.

An affair is soon taking place between Kitty and Charles, never mind that Charles too is married and Kitty is sure that if they could only dump their current spouses that life would be a fairy tale of happily ever after.

When Walter inevitably finds out, he offers Kitty a divorce if only Charles will marry her. Kitty soon finds herself in a rude awakening that carries her sullen and broken to where Walter is taking her, to a small Chinese village where Walter is to help with the cholera outbreak that is taking the lives of everyone in contact with it. Kitty is sure that Walter is trying to kill her… but soon finds herself taken in with her surroundings of the poor and the abandoned, and grows into someone she never knew was in her.

I recently read and reviewed The Painted Veil by W Somerset Maugham and I was surprised how much I fell in love with this story. As mentioned in my review, Kitty annoyed me to no end. She was selfish and stuck on herself. Even in the end when I thought there may be a turning point in the story – Kitty again let me down. I can say by the end of the read, I understood Kitty and her weaknesses, but I sure did not need to accept them or like them.

As per my habit, I have found that I enjoy reading books and then if movies are available to actively search them out. That is what I did in this case, and added to my Netflix Que this movie.

Having now seen the movie I have to say, no matter what you thought of the book, the movie is worth seeing. First of all, you never have to twist my arm too bad to have me watch anything with Edward Norton in it. I think he is a brilliant actor and he came through again in Painted Veil.

Book and movie are not the same. I wish, the book would have been written as the movie was. Yes, I just said that. I found the story more heart wrenching the way the movie came together – and I found that in the end, Kitty was someone who truly had grown and became a woman I was impressed with. She truly found herself literally and figuratively in a monastery for orphans. And to see how both she and Walter deal with the affair is very realistic. Truly, Walter is a more likable character too – as the movie gives him more heart and depth than the book did.

I was touched deeply by this movie and encourage you if you have not seen it to really treat yourself to an amazing story.

Morning Meanderings: No Commitment Friday

Published on May 13, 2011May 13, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)13 Comments

Good Morning. 😀

I am posting a bit later than usual today but I have been enjoying the start to my day off with a little coffee, a little scrambled egg whites, read my emails…. just taking my own sweet time. 😀

I absolutely love no commitment days. Days, when I wake up and there really is no set plan….

What I would like to do today is –

Catch up on a bit of blog reading this morning

write a couple of reviews – a movie one and a book one

either go to Group Power class this afternoon or take a bike ride (weather depending)

stop at the library – I have books to return

laundry (even with only two people in the house still seems like I am doing laundry at least twice a week :D)

Read a little – I am into an amazing book I can not wait to chat about

post office – I have books to mail

Kickboxing Class tonight

Dinner and maybe a movie with hubby….

That’s the “non plan”… nothing is set in stone but that is what I am thinking as on now would be awesome. I have seen a few books around the blogs too that I have been keeping a list of…. maybe I will chat about them tomorrow…

I did not go biking at all this week like I had hoped. I had a pretty busy week with commitments every evening except Wednesday which I used to mow the lawn that needed to be finished… the clouds are currently looking like they could go either way – rain or pass over… not really sure.

Hope your Friday is awesome! Any big weekend plans?

The Island Of Lost Girls by Jennifer Mcmahon

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

When a person dressed up in a rabbit costume coaxed a little girl out of her car and into his, the lone witness, Rhonda, who is on her way to a job interview, is too stunned to act. As the small rural town mobilizes a search for the missing child, Rhonda, reeling with guilt from her inaction, is reminded of another girl who went missing—her closest friend from childhood, Lizzy. Joyful memories of their youth spent putting on plays and exploring the woods alternate with darker moments: losing the love of her life, Lizzy’s brother, Peter, and the year an increasingly disheveled and moody Lizzy stopped talking to her or anyone else. Past and present merge as Rhonda closes in on the costumed abductor and also on the dark family secrets that tore their perfect childhood apart.

Last week I reviewed Promise Not To Tell, also by this author. I found The Island Of Lost Girls to have many similarities, both books are around a childhood crime and flashbacks to that time of childhood – to the present situation.

Jennifer Mcmahon builds a strong story that much like Promise Not To Tell… kept me guessing. I found the story line good and the whole dude in a rabbit costume creepy. There are a few times that the rabbit speaks his thoughts and that was chilling…. I think that really held me as I wanted to know who the rabbit was…. really bad.

I liked Rhonda, she was a well-developed character and I liked that she helped the investigation after being the sole witness to the crime. I also enjoyed the unveiling of the two crimes.

All said and done, it was a delicious (if not a wee bit creepy) mystery which really, between the two books in a week, fed that mystery craving I have been having lately.

Love a good mystery? Jennifer Mcmahon is an author to watch.

I received this book for review from TLC Book Tours

Morning Meanderings… sunny days

Published on May 12, 2011May 12, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)4 Comments

Good morning! OOH I feel good!

The sun is shining (although it calls for rain) and I am itching to get on my bike again and may do that after work if the weather hold. Tonight I have a 5 pm dinner with my girlfriends I used to work with. I am so looking forward to that. This is the group that I meet with once a month to catch up on life and happenings. Next month we are planning a 4 days road trip together and that is going to be so exciting – I will probably get more details on that tonight.

I don’t have anything super exciting this morning – in fact as I sip at COFFEE CUP I am pretty much coming up blank for anything fun to share…

I have not worked out much this week due to evening commitments and last night…. honestly – I just skipped out. Between running and cleaning… I didn’t really want to do anything but finish the lawn and that is what I did. Now I can move forward from here without “lawn guilt:. Nobody wants to carry that. 😛

I hope everyone is finally experieincing spring… I feel as though we are and it makes my heart sore… its like the dust came off of me and I am filled with energy. After tonight my weekend is pretty clear and I am going to work hard on keeping it that way. I must get some writing done and prepare for New York which is….. 11 days away….

wow.

Bike Miles: Currently 66 for the year but hope to add to that later today.

ROOM by Emma Donoghue (Revisited by the Bookies Book Club)

Published on May 11, 2011May 11, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)26 Comments

Five-year-old Jack and his Ma live and eat and play and sleep in one room–an 11×11-foot space that is Jack’s world… and Ma’s prison. Ma was abducted at the age of 19 by Old Nick 7 years ago. 5 years ago, Jack was born. All Jack knows of the world is in ROOM. He has never seen sky, grass, a dog, a store…. he knows TABLE, BED, SPOON, RUG, WARDROBE, TV… and everything that has been in the room since he was born. Jack is very satisfied with what he believes to be a normal life…. but each day brings Ma to another level of how is she going to get free and save her son who does not know he needs saving?

Last September I read and reviewed ROOM. At the time of that reading I was really impressed with this book. As time went on, I found the book really stuck with me and that …. made it all the more impressive.

Last month, my book club the AWESOME Bookies, chose ROOM to be our book club read for May, and last night we had our potluck around the book and discussion.

Much of what we discussed in the book could be considered spoilerish to someone who has not read the book so I am going to make a spoiler page (my second one for ROOM) to allow those who have read the book to go to and see what was discussed.

Now – for those of you who have not read the book, this is my advice for you. Read it. I recommend it. I have heard many of you say that you don’t think you could handle the book, but seriously – the book is pretty tame. Yes Ma was abducted. Yes Jack is a result of that abduction. BUT note this – all that is pre-ROOM. When ROOM opens, Jack is five and ROOM is told entirely from Jack’s perspective. Things are not going to get too crazy when a five-year old is telling the story. And that too is brilliant of Emma Donoghue…. what could have been a harsh hard book is told by hmmm…. let’s say, Ma, is mellowed and innocent as told by Jack.

The Bookies overall ratings were mixed. We are on a scale of 1 – 5 (5 the best) and most came in around 4 and 4.5… a few around 3. Angie and I, who had both read this book before encouraged them to sit on their thoughts of the book for a while. We both agreed that after reading, we found we even liked it more.

Oh…. and anytime we have a home meeting for Bookies, there is food. I LOVE planning food around our book reviews… our group is so creative, and here is what we had last night in celebration of ROOM: