32 degrees here this morning in Minnesota…… thirty-two….
They are talking snow and rain for the rest of this week. Uggghhhhh… it is snowing right now….
Oh come on Spring!!!
*my heart sinks with the weight of waiting for weather I can bike in*
So…. change of subject – lets talk books. 😀
I visited the Monday What Are You reading Monday between time I had on Monday and then finished yesterday evening. Wow…. there are good books out there.
At Serendipity, Vivienne wrote a review on an interesting looking book called A Year Without Autumn by Liz Kessler.
At The Eclectic Reader, Sheree read and reviewed Stay by Deb Caletti that seems so SSQQUUUEEEE worthy I am looking for that one now!
At “And Anything Bookish“. Kim had a post up about Sarah Dessen’s book What Happens To Good Bye. I have only experienced Dessen once but liked it very much and this one sounds as though it may be my next Dessen stop.
At Kristen’s Book Nook, she had a review of Bossy Pants by Tina Fey. I have watched and wondered about this book from afar. I find Tina Fey to be really fun and have enjoyed movies she is in.
Library says YES to all 😛 except a Year Without Autumn…. 😦 they do not have that one.
Oh and finally I heard about this in my travels too…. there is a website called Magic Is Mite, News From The Ministry Of Magic. This site has updated posts regarding the search for well….. undesirable #1….. (the site is hilarious) and a must view for all you Potter heads out there. (Uhhhh…. not me of course….. I am posting this for you…. :razz:)
Ok – I have to get ready for work. I have a pinched nerve in my back which is ridiculously annoying and makes me walk a bit like the hunchback of Notre Dame. Well then….life – is never dull 😛
When we hear the date of 9-11 or September 11th, we have memories of a horrific event in our history. What you may not know, is that this was not the first September 11th on record for being a horrific event.
On September 11, 1857, more than 120 men, women, and children who were traveling by wagon train from Arkansas to California were murdered by Mormon militiamen and Paiute Indians at Mountain Meadows in southern Utah (35 miles south-west of Cedar City).
At the time, the massacre lasted five days, ending on September 11th when John Lee entered the meadows with a white flag and convinced those of the wagon train to surrender peacefully. Once he escorted the men, women, and children out of the safety of their wagons, he gave a signal and they were attached by the militia and indians and killed. (*Note – John Lee was the only man tried, convicted, and executed for his role in the massacre).
Following the massacre the perpetrators hastily buried the victims, leaving their bodies vulnerable to wild animals and the climate. Local families took in the surviving children, and many of the victims’ possessions were auctioned off. Investigations, temporarily interrupted by the American Civil War, resulted in nine indictments during 1874. Of the men indicted, only John D. Lee was tried in a court of law. After two trials Lee was convicted and executed.
How could basically good people commit such an act?
Four of the nine Utah Territorial militiamen of the Tenth Regiment
“Iron Brigade” who were indicted in 1874 for murder or conspiracy
(Not shown: William H. Dame • William C. Stewart • Ellott Willden • Samuel Jukes • George Adair, Jr.)
Maj. John H. Higbee, said to have shouted the command to begin the killings. He claimed that he reluctantly participated in the massacre and only to bury the dead who he thought were victims of an “Indian attack.”
Maj. John D. Lee, constable, judge, and Indian Agent. Having conspired in advance with his immediate commander, Isaac C. Haight, Lee led the initial assault, and falsely offered emigrants safe passage prior to their mile-long march to the field where they were ultimately massacred. He was the only participant convicted.
Philip Klingensmith, a Bishop in the church and a private in the militia. He participated in the killings, and later turned state’s evidence against his fellows, after leaving the church.
I had never heard of this until I found this book in audio format at audible.com. I was interested in knowing more about this event in our history that I knew literally nothing about.
What I found within this ten and half hour audio was a lot of history prior to the massacre. While the audio starts with a graphic description of what was found at Mountain Meadows even years after the event, it quickly backtracks years before the event and perhaps covering what is believed to have caused the massacre to happen.
At the time, the massacre lasted five days, ending on September 11th when John Lee entered the meadows with a white flag and convinced those of the wagon train to surrender peacefully. Once he escorted the men, women, and children out of the safety of their wagons, he gave a signal and they were attached by the militia and indians and killed. (*Note – John Lee was the only man tried, convicted, and executed for his role in the massacre).
As I listened to this audio it seems so many things played a part in this tragedy. Politics, war hysteria, misinformation, misunderstandings, personal vendettas, and Mormons themselves were being heavily persecuted and attached in these times. Many had moved from state to state trying to stay alive.
All in all this is a heartbreaking, awful event, where so many people of all faith and all race suffered – even beyond the event itself. No one can possibly know all what drove what happened that day to happen. I appreciated that all three of the authors on this book are Mormon and told as accurate account of what happened that day as they could. Much research was done to tell this historic event. As hard as it is to listen to, I think it is an important part of our history and I am glad I took the time to learn about this.
Good morning early. I am off today to the cities – meeting Dawn at 6:30 in the morning to drive three hours for training all day and then home probably about 8 or 9 pm tonight….
welcome to Tuesday 😛
Yesterday I just felt a little queasy…. actually noticed it Sunday evening after floor hockey and it lingered into Monday…. I went to work hoping it would pass but did not so canceled my evening “to do’s” and stayed home and breathed instead. Guess what? Breathing is GOOD.
However when I made dinner for Al and I, I was making grilled chicken with carrots and broccoli and cauliflower, and then I made a pan of noodles to put the chicken goodness on top – and wound up eating just a plate of noodles and butter. SO BAD. I don’t think I have done that since I was a kid. 😉
I have much to share this week but will not get to it today…. I have a recap coming up on the Girls Weekend/Rick Springfield concert and books I have found in my blog visit adventures…. but that… will wait until later this week.
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.
I felt like I had a pretty good week this past week… had some wonderful audio times periods and even a couple good reading evenings. It felt good to have some time to actually get into a book!
Yeah… it was a book tour heavy week but for the most part I had the tour books read before this week. I also had book club this week which was FUN and this weekend seen Rick Springfield in concert… but more on that later this week 😀
This week is a meeting heavy week early on but Thursday and Friday are looking good and then being Easter weekend the only big thing on my agenda is the big “YAY” Justin is coming home for Easter!That said here is what I plan to read this week:
In the three years since the tragic accident Mia barely survived in If I Stay, she and high school ex-boyfriend Adam have lived separate lives on opposite coasts. But then Adam, now the dissatisfied front man of popular LA-based band Collateral Damage, stops over in New York City for one night before kicking off the European leg of his tour. It happens to be the same evening that Mia, now well on her way to becoming a renowned cellist, is performing at Carnegie Hall. Adam buys a ticket, planning to slip in and out, but Mia spots him and for the first time in years they’re face-to-face with each other and their shared past. Over the course of one evening, as Adam and Mia traverse the city’s streets, they relive the four days Mia spent in the intensive care unit as well as her departure to Juilliard and from the life she knew.
Yeah – like I need another New York read but after having read If I Stay for book club I have to admit I am curious as to where she went. 😉
Shallow, poorly educated Kitty marries the passionate and intellectual Walter Fane and has an affair with a career politician, Charles Townsend, assistant colonial secretary of Hong Kong. When Walter discovers the relationship, he compels Kitty to accompany him to a cholera-infested region of mainland China, where she finds limited happiness working with children at a convent. But when Walter dies, she is forced to leave China and return to England. Generally abandoned, she grasps desperately for the affection of her one remaining relative, her long-ignored father. In the end, in sharp, unexamined contrast to her own behavior patterns, she asserts that her unborn daughter will grow up to be an independent woman.
I suspect I will finish the Meadow Massacre this week so this is what is going on my IPOD next. I picked this one up on sale at audible.com, hoping it is a good one!
During the last days of the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic, three young women, members of a conservative, pious Catholic family, who had become committed to the revolutionary overthrow of the regime, were ambushed and assassinated as they drove back from visiting their jailed husbands. Thus martyred, the Mirabal sisters have become mythical figures in their country, where they are known as las mariposas (the butterflies), from their underground code names. Herself a native of the Dominican Republic, Alvarez ( How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents ) has fictionalized their story in a narrative that starts slowly but builds to a gripping intensity. Each of the girls–Patria, Minerva and Maria Terese (Mate) Mirabal–speaks in her own voice, beginning in their girlhood in the 1940s; their surviving sister, Dede, frames the narrative with her own tale of suffering and dedication to their memory. To differentiate their personalities and the ways they came to acquire revolutionary fervor, Alvarez takes the risk of describing their early lives in leisurely detail, somewhat slowing the narrative momentum. In particular, the giddy, childish diary entries of Mate, the youngest, may seem irritatingly mundane at first, but in time Mate’s heroism becomes the most moving of all, as the sisters endure the arrests of their husbands, their own imprisonment and the inexorable progress of Trujillo’s revenge. Alvarez captures the terrorized atmosphere of a police state, in which people live under the sword of terrible fear and atrocities cannot be acknowledged. As the sisters’ energetic fervor turns to anguish, Alvarez conveys their courage and their desperation, and the full import of their tragedy.
Wow right? I think this one will take some concentration!
Mickey Haller is a Lincoln Lawyer, a criminal defense attorney who operates out of the backseat of his Lincoln Town Car, traveling between the far-flung courthouses of Los Angeles to defend clients of every kind. Bikers, con artists, drunk drivers, drug dealers – they’re all on Mickey Haller’s client list. For him, the law is rarely about guilt or innocence, it’s about negotiation and manipulation. Sometimes it’s even about justice.
A Beverly Hills playboy arrested for attacking a woman he picked up in a bar chooses Haller to defend him, and Mickey has his first high-paying client in years. It is a defense attorney’s dream, what they call a franchise case. And as the evidence stacks up, Haller comes to believe this may be the easiest case of his career. Then someone close to him is murdered and Haller discovers that his search for innocence has brought him face-to-face with evil as pure as a flame. To escape without being burned, he must deploy every tactic, feint, and instinct in his arsenal – this time to save his own life.
I seen this movie a few weeks back and yeah.. this is a little backwards but I was so enthralled by the movie…. I am interested in seeing what I really missed.
I am thinking this is more than enough to keep me busy and out of trouble! I am excited to see what you have been reading! be sure to add your link to your What Are You Reading post below and I will do my best to stop by and see you. 😀
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Divorce is a series of internal earthquakes…. “one after the other”. Samantha ought to know. At the age of 42, Samantha’s husband Dave decides that he needs to move on leaving Samantha shocked. Sure they had their arguments, but didn’t everyone?
Finding herself left with a home, a mortgage, and their 11 year-old-son and learning in short time David has had no problem moving on not only to another woman, but also a cute apartment – AND the white couch that she had wanted for years but he told her was impractical…. “Sam” knows she has to pull it together.
When a decision is made to take in boarders to help with the house payment, a host of colorful characters come into play. And ultimately a decision that has a life long impact on Sam and those in her life.
There are many layers to Elizabeth Berg and I have enjoyed experiencing her many ways of writing characters who come to life on the pages of her books. Samantha was one of those characters I came to know and enjoy.
Samantha, “Sam” was not wishy-washy and I liked that. Although she grieved for the loss of her husband in her life, she did not lay down and die.. she seen what she needed to do and she did it. Samantha’s pain of losing David, and the emotions and decisions that followed felt real to me and I appreciated that Samantha was written as a strong female character, but was not too strong too hurt and to make poor decisions along the way to finding herself again.
Something about this particular Berg book appealed to me… I liked the way Samantha opened up the house to boarders and imagine that had to be both an important and hard thing to do as you let strangers into the home where you lived a marriage and raised a son. I laughed at times, and felt the tinge of pain at others as I can imagine Samantha did as well.
Perhaps this one notches it way up towards the top of the Elizabeth Berg books I have read, not taking hold of the number one position, but floating around the top there as a well written story on a topic that unfortunately many women know all too well.
I applaud Elizabeth Berg’s ability to take a character like Sam and build her into someone stronger than even she had realized. While not a perfect read, one that left me thinking long after the final page was turned.
In search of adventure, 29-year-old Conor Grennan traded his day job for a year-long trip around the globe, a journey that began with a three-month stint volunteering at the Little Princes Children’s Home, an orphanage in war-torn Nepal.
Conor was initially reluctant to volunteer, unsure whether he had the proper skill, or enough passion, to get involved in a developing country in the middle of a civil war. After one day with the children he had no idea how he would be able to stay there for the next few weeks. But he was soon overcome by the herd of rambunctious, resilient children who would challenge and reward him in a way that he had never imagined. When Conor learned the unthinkable truth about their situation, he was stunned: The children were not orphans at all. Child traffickers were promising families in remote villages to protect their children from the civil war—for a huge fee—by taking them to safety. They would then abandon the children far from home, in the chaos of Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu.
For Conor, what began as a footloose adventure becomes a commitment to reunite the children he had grown to love with their families, but this would be no small task. He would risk his life on a journey through the legendary mountains of Nepal, facing the dangers of a bloody civil war and a debilitating injury. Waiting for Conor back in Kathmandu, and hopeful he would make it out before being trapped in by snow, was the woman who would eventually become his wife and share his life’s work.
Little Princes is a true story of families and children, and what one person is capable of when faced with seemingly insurmountable odds. At turns tragic, joyful, and hilarious, Little Princes is a testament to the power of faith and the ability of love to carry us beyond our wildest expectations.
Ok. Seriously. Can you love a book? Of course you can… can you LOVE LOVE a book?
You bet.
Conor’s story touched my heart. When he speaks of his first experience in Nepal of just going for “the adventure” I could relate with that. When I first went to Honduras, I can not honestly say I went for the children…. much like Conor, I wanted the adventure. AND much like Conor, when I first walked into the children’s home in Honduras, the kids ran up to me hugging me like we were life long friends…. how was I to know we would be? I too thought that my time in Honduras would be a one time deal…. now I have been there nine times.
While Conor’s story seemed to collide with my own…. I think anyone would be touched by the experience of Nepal that Conor relays in these pages. I appreciated his sense of humor and his honesty. In the end, I felt I was right there with him.
I found it wonderful that Conor not only worked with these kids, helping them find food, a safe home, and be surrounded by people who loved them – but he also ventured out on foot, sometimes gone for weeks…. searching for these childrens parents trying to reunite families. In many cases, the parents thought their child was dead and they never expected to be reunited.
I am always amazed at people’s stories and the strength they find in themselves that they never knew was there. Conor never planned to spend years of his life in Nepal. he never dreamed that we would work hard between Nepal and the United States raising funds and jumping through hoops to get a school opened for trafficked children…. but that is what he did, and this has forever changed who he was.
I hope in the future Conor writes another book about the little Princes and the school as I would for one would love to know “the rest of the story”.
To learn more about Nepal and the work being done to reconnect children with families, please check out Next Generation Nepal
First off let me say…. I have to move. Yesterday as we were driving for our girl’s weekend…. it snowed. SNOWED. April 15th…. SNOW. GAHHHHHHH…..
Ok enough of that. We are at Chase On The Lake and let me tell you it is GORGEOUS here. There are 9 of us and we are in two condos and wow…. did I say that already?
There were rumors floating around that Rick (did I just call him Rick?) was in the hotel but we had no “sightings”. There are some HUGE fans here…. we seen posters and a couple girls in the elevator who were super excited to find him in the hotel….. In a word…. WOW.
We stayed in last night, brought our own food – yum to Amy’s chicken enchilada’s! Today – who knows… right now I am waiting for my roommates to be ready to go have breakfast 🙂
Jane Margaux is a girl who lives in a fairy tale world. Her mother is the head of a powerful New York Theater and their home is filled with riches.
Yet Jane is a very lonely little girl… her mother, the powerful and feared Vivian, makes time for her daughter once a week where on Sundays they go and admire the jewelery at Tiffany’s.
Jane has one friend who she can confide in and that would be Michael. Michael listens to everything Jane says. He hears and encourages her dreams and he shares with her the sorrows. Michael is everything you would want in a best friend.
Except…
Michael isn’t real.
And then on her 9th birthday, which is an epic disaster of its own, Michael tells Jane that he has to leave her. He tells her while it hurts this day, when she wakes in the morning she will have forgotten him…. that’s the way it works…. that’s the way it has always worked.
But for Jane it doesn’t work that way… she misses her friend every day of her childhood and even into adult life. Now producing her own play, a play about a young girl and her imaginary friend….. she is still under her mother’s thumb. And then one day out of the corner of her eye she sees him….
could it be….
“Michael?”
Did you know Sundays At Tiffanys is also a Lifetime movie? I would like to see it.
My book club chose this book for our April read. As you know from a recent post, I take no issue with Patterson and have found many of his books to be well written. I have read him before when he wrote in this style and was impressed, his book Suzanne’s Diary For Nicholas was read in one sitting and left me in tears of joy and sorrow – all rolled into one.
This was the first time I listened to a book club book rather than read it. I was going to purchase the book but Kerri in our book club has picked up the audio at the library and was done listening to it and offered it to me. I thought, why not? What was funny was with the female narrator (who was very good!) I forgot who the author of the book was. And it read on and the chapters flew by I remember thinking one day while I was driving through town, “wow this author has short chapters just like Patterson does.” Then had to laugh – as I remembered, “Oh yeah… .this is Patterson.”
For most of the audio/book I adored the story. I liked Jane, she starts out a little weak, but she is meant too – after all growing up in a household where you are constantly badgered by your mother on how to look, what to wear, what to eat…. yeah, that is going to leave a mark. BUT – Jane is not all weak and you can see a flicker of her own personality start to slowly flicker and then burn brighter within her as the book goes on.
I even really liked Michael – he is just a sweet guy and when the impossible happens, they find each other again, there is a sweet tone to the storyline – and I was still fine with the book…
Then somewhere along the line it hit me… when Jane was 9…. Michael wasn’t…. he was 32. In fact he is 32 throughout the whole book being whatever he is (my book club tried to figure it out – an angel? A spirit? ) and never ages. Now when they get back together Jane is very close to his age and its all cool – but I could not let go of the 32-year-old imaginary friend when Jane was a little girl. I guess I just believed that when she was 9 so was he and that he just aged along with the rest of the world until they met again with adults.
Ok…. that whole scenario – put a creepy factor in my had on a scale of 1 – 10…. at about a 7.
Overall – the book is a good read. I did like the characters and I thought while the ending was all too neat and tied with a bow, it was still a respectable ending for a Patterson book that gave off a Nicholas Sparks vibe.
My book club met on Tuesday of this week to have dinner together and discuss this book. I love it when we theme the foods to the book and Sundays at Tiffany’s is a dangerous book to do that with as the book is fulled with delights from Jane (and Michael’s) sweet tooth. Thank you to Amy M’s hubby Paul for the delicious chocolate cake (this man can bake!) topped with truffles! AND Laura brought an oreo ice cream cake as Jane’s favorite food is Oreos. We also had a delicious chicken dish served on noodles or rice and Thai Chicken, a salad, and another chicken hot dish. Amy served wine and lemonade, I brought cheese to go with the wine.
I wanted to start out our discussion with everyone sharing if they had an imaginary friend when they were little… turns out, out of our group – I was the only one. I was really surprised and through we would have a big discussion over this but it was just me. her name was Julie…. I guess I was probably around that 8 or 9 age. I remember walking with her at my grandmothers home in town, and I remember her in our home when I would talk to her about everything. The group thought that maybe because I was an only child until I was 7 that may be why I had a “Julie” where they were all surrounded by siblings or other kids. I found that very interesting as I had never thought about who has imaginary friends and who does not and why….
Over all the Bookies found the book to be a slightly higher than average read. Only one other girl in our group found the Michael (32) and Jane (9) friendship to be creepy. They looked at is as Jane’s replacement for the absence of her father in her life. I can see that…. (ahhh the beauty of a book club discussion – you can things differently through others opinions!) 😀
We really did have fun discussing the book and that is one great thing about the Bookies, no matter what the book is like – we just enjoy getting together and always find a way to discuss the book and have fun. We finished up our review with what our “can not pass up” foods are and they were all over the board: Chocolate cake, popcorn with cinnamon sugar and real butter on it, dill pickle sun flower seeds, toast with cinnamon and sugar and butter on it, cheese, anything chocolate….)
I swear a week ago I was almost caught up with writing reviews yet this morning I sit here making a list of the reviews I need to write on the books I have read since the readathon to present. The week lets just say – got away from me.
I did announce last Sunday that I was going to tackle The Hobbit on audio. I have no idea where that came from, add it to a list of random thoughts that plow through my head daily… I have started The Hobbit and have to smile as I am slowly taken back to Middle Earth, a place of many creatures and of course the Hobbits who are short and their feet are so big they are unable to wear shoes….
What I do not remember is all the singing and in the beginning of this audio – there is a LOT of singing. Take this scene from when Bilbo lets the dwarves, and Gandalf into his home the night before they leave on their adventure:
“Chip the glasses and crack the plates! Blunt the knives and bend the forks! That’s what Bilbo Baggins hates- Smash the bottles and burn the corks! Cut the cloth and tread on the fat! Pour the milk on the pantry floor! Leave the bones on the bedroom mat! Splash the wine on every door! Dump the crocks in a boiling bawl; Pound them up with a thumping pole; And when you’ve finished, if any are whole, Send them down the hall to roll ! That’s what Bilbo Baggins hates! So, carefully! carefully with the plates!”
Anyway – when I opened my emails this morning I was pleased to see that I had a link to The Hobbit Video set for the upcoming movie. It was almost spooky to see the set that was used in some of the other movies being revived in anticipation of The Hobbit:
Ok so sitting here Friday morning I can tell you I am totally unprepared for this weekend. We are leaving town at 1:30 and I have to pick up food, pack, grab a couple of board games, movies, finish laundry, and I want to stop at one of the stores in town to see if I can find a super cute shirt to wear out tomorrow night. If you read yesterday mornings post you will see my weekend away plans).
SO – I can say I plan to be still around with the morning meanderings and if I can get it together here before I leave there will be the reviews too – I have not even reviewed and shared about our book club meeting this past Tuesday yet! Anyway – I am pulling out of Middle Earth for a while…. I have a few things to get done in regular Earth. 😉
Any other Hobbit/Lord Of The Rings/ Tolkien fans out there?
What a week and it is only Thursday morning but it has been jam packed with self inflicted things to do…. 😀 Today I work until 2 and then I am going to get my hair cut. At 4:30 I have a charity wine tasting at a local restaurant for an area Elderly care home. This is kind of a neat thing this restaurant does – each month on the second Thursday they allow a charity to be sponsored and you pay $15 for wine tasting and horduerves. My aunt is going to be there, some cousins and my friend Wendy has been roped asked to come along as well. 🙂
Then…. after I have spent a little time there I need to drive a mile up the road to another restaurant where my friends Heidi, Cindy, and Sara are meeting for our monthly dinner. We are discussing a road trip in June so I need to see where we are at in that discussion.
Oh yes…. and then tomorrow…
Tomorrow – a group of my friends are going to leave Brainerd around 1:30 in the afternoon and we are having a girls weekend. We are only going about an hour away but we are staying in condos and Friday night we are staying in – watching movies, playing games, and hanging out. Saturday we are going to shop in the area and then Saturday night…
The Rick Springfield concert. (Reagan from Miss Remmer’s reviews sent me a text message and said “who’s that?”) LOL
Rick in the 80's
Rick now
Anyway – it should be fun just getting away and hanging out for the weekend. And to help those of you who are scratching your head saying…. “who is that dude?” Here is one of his hits (yes…. I said hits….. how 80’s am I?) 😛
Book Journey 