Little Princes by Conor Grennan

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)40 Comments

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

Amazon rating

The 2011 WHERE Are You Reading Map has been updated to include Little Princes


I received this book for review from FSB Associates

(I have to say I was beyond excited when they offered this book to me!)

Morning Meanderings… In the same hotel as Rick Springfield – fact or fiction?

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)8 Comments

Good morning…. 😀

Note to self – Cameron’s brand Hazelnut Vanilla coffee – YUM!

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 🙂

Have an awesome Saturday!

Sundays At Tiffany’s by James Patterson and Bookies Review

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)32 Comments

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.

The 2011 WHERE Are You Reading Map has been update to include Sundays At Tiffany’s


Bookies Review

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….)

Morning Meanderings…. A Visit to Middle Earth

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)27 Comments

Good Morning!

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? 

Hope everyone’s weekend is awesome!

Morning Meanderings…. Weekend Plans

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)43 Comments

 

Good morning…. *rubs eye*

*sips coffee*

Ok… ready.  😀

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?)  😛

The Sandalwood Tree by Elle Newmark

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)29 Comments

In 1947, American historian and veteran of WWII, Martin Mitchell, wins a Fulbright Fellowship to document the end of British rule in India. His wife, Evie, convinces him to take her and their young son along, hoping a shared adventure will mend their marriage, which has been strained by war.

But other places, other wars. Martin and Evie find themselves stranded in a colonial bungalow in the Himalayas due to violence surrounding the partition of India between Hindus and Muslims. In that house, hidden behind a brick wall, Evie discovers a packet of old letters, which tell a strange and compelling story of love and war involving two young Englishwomen who lived in the same house in 1857.

Drawn to their story, Evie embarks on a mission to piece together her Victorian mystery. Her search leads her through the bazaars and temples of India as well as the dying society of the British Raj. Along the way, Martin’s dark secret is exposed, unleashing a new wedge between Evie and him. As India struggles toward Independence, Evie struggles to save her marriage, pursuing her Victorian ghosts for answers.


You have to wonder if a book that is so incredible looking on the outside could possibly deliver on the inside.  Wonder no more.  Elle Newmark brought me into her journey

I admit I was a little cautious about reading yet another book that was war related… I feel as of late I have over dosed a bit on this topic, yet The Sandalwood Tree provided more than a compelling cover, on the inside the words fell right into place along side my heart.

I love the idea behind the hidden letters and the flash forwards and backs are done flawlessly so I easily was able to follow along with the time changes and the story lines and they mixed and mingled to weave this much desirable story.

The characters were well written and I found myself drawn to Evie and then again to her son Billy.  Honestly there is so much more I would like to say in this review but am censoring myself not to give any bit of the adventure away.   I hope you too will experience this book and go on this adventure.


Heart Of Deception by M.L. Malcolm

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)13 Comments

After the death of Maddy’s mother, Martha, during the Japanese attack on Shanghai in 1937, Leo married a hard-hearted woman he entrusted to take Maddy to safety in the U.S. By 1942, 12-year-old Maddy has come to live with her aunt, Martha’s sister, Bernice Mason, in posh Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Bernice hopes to protect her from Leo, a mysterious man she doesn’t trust, who by now has reached North Africa. Leo’s encounters with such real-life American intelligence figures as Col. William Eddy and Carlton Coon lend verisimilitude to his WWII exploits. Maddy’s later romantic travails with Bradley Harrington Gordon IV and New York mobster Gene Mandretti yield unexpected conflicts.


This is the sequel to Heart Of Lies which sadly, I have not read. After dipping into this novel, I really wish I had.  This is a literary treat for the historical fiction lovers.  Leo Hoffman is a character that will keep you reading.  You will want to know more about him and I know I missed out by missing part of this incredible characters story in the first book….

however…

Heart Of Deception still brings much to the table.  The book starts with a bit of background story to Heart Of Lies so you can get a bit of what has been happening before you move on.  As you follow Leos journey trying to work his way back to his daughter by gaining citizenship.  With twists and turns that occasionally lost me on the way to their destination, but I plugged on trapped in this intriguing stary and having to know how it ended.

I met M.L. Malcolm in New York during BEA last year and what an incredible fun woman!  Always wearing a hat in what I would say is a signature style for her, Malcolm was a delight to talk to.


 

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for inviting me to be a part of the tour,

HarperCollins for providing me with a courtesy copy

Morning Meanderings: The Books The Books… The Books Are In T-R-O-U-B-L-E!

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)43 Comments

 

Good morning.  MMMMMM Coffee is tasting good this morning!  I had a busy day yesterday and today, tomorrow – and through the weekend is looking about the same.  I enjoy my 30 minutes in the morning writing these posts and “chilling” before I rev up and fly out the door like the late rabbit in Alice in Wonderland….


I love my Shelf Awareness email I receive each weekday morning.  It is filled with bookish news on book stores, books, trends, etc….  yesterday it gave the top 10 BANNED books of 2010.

And the banned books are:

  1. And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson Reasons

  2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

  3. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

  4. Crank by Ellen Hopkins

  5. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

  6. Lush by Natasha Friend

  7. What My Mother Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones

  8. Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

  9. Revolutionary Voices, edited by Amy Sonnie

  10. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Have you read any of these?  I have read #2, #5, and #10.  Last year I participated in banned books week – this year it is September 24 – October 1, by reading banned books all week-long.  Yes it is true I read Dr. Suess’ The Lorax (shudder!), The Absolute True Diary Of A Part Time Indian – see it up there on the list *waves*, SPEAK (oh wow this one was good!), The Bell Jar, Farenheit 451, Harry Potter and The Order Of The Phoenix, Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret – yes, that is Judy Blume, Freedom Writers, The Face On The Milk Carton.

It was…. an awesome week and I plan to do it again this year.  Banned Books are not what you may think they are…. they are books that have been challenged and asked to be removed…. in the case of the Lorax, people complained that it was bad for the forestry because the book is about removing trees.  Yes…. I kid you not.  😉


 

On the flip of that, the books that are up for an award are as follows and SSSQQQUUUUUU for ROOM making that list.  My book club voted for ROOM to be our May read.  I am excited as I think it will make for awesome discussion!

 

Finalists for the Orange Prize for fiction are:

Room by Emma Donoghue
The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna
Grace Williams Says it Loud by Emma Henderson
Great House by Nicole Krauss
The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht
Annabel by Kathleen Winter

 

Have you read any of these?  Other than ROOM I have not but have been interested in Great House for some time now.

Ok… got to run…. work… work out, kick boxing… home….

This weekend I am going on a Girls Weekend – and I will give more details on that…. on another morning 😀

The Priest’s Graveyard by Ted Dekker

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)24 Comments

Two abandoned souls are on the hunt for one powerful man. Soon, their paths will cross and lead to one twisted fate.

Danny Hansen is a Bosnian immigrant who came to America with hopes of escaping haunted memories of a tragic war that took his mother’s life. Now he’s a priest who lives by a law of love and compassion. It is powerful men and hypocrites who abide by legal law but eschew the law of love that most incense Danny. As an avenging angel, he believes it is his duty to show them the error of their ways, at any cost.

Renee Gilmore is the frail and helpless victim of one such powerful man. Having escaped his clutches, she now lives only to satisfy justice by destroying him, regardless of whom she must become in that pursuit.

But when Danny and Renee’s paths become inexorably entangled things go very, very badly and neither of them may make it out of this hunt alive.

Judge not, or you too will be judged.

 

 

Cue the scary background music right?  And really… you should as Dekker opens his new book with a 10 page written confession written by Danny about what he has done and why he did it.

*gulp*

And just like that I am back in the dark world that surrounds a Dekker book.  If you have read Dekker before this book will not take you by surprise.  Dekker tends to write Dark, and in my opinion, as of late – his books are even darker.  As a Christian author I respect his unique take on putting faith messages into his writing although truth be told – many can read his books and not know they are reading a faith based book.

The Priest’s Graveyard is intense and does speak to the dark mystery lover in me as well as the long buried version of me who in high school loved all things Steven King and then eventually on to Dean Koontz.  The two main characters Renee who is from California, has had her share and then some of drug use and knows what rock bottom looks like.  Danny on the other hand is from Bosnia and has carried with him a long time agenda and now is a Priest in California with an unusual hobby.  😉  – Think Dexter.  😉

At Dekker’s usual fast pace you will find this book at times gorey, haunting – and much like a roller coaster it will get your heart pumping a little faster as the plot thickens and you go – up – up – up…. before you come crashing and screaming down to the conclusion.

I have read many of Ted Dekker’s books and can say I enjoyed this one more than some of his recent ones.


Amazon Rating

I have updated the 2011 WHERE Are You Reading Map to Include The Priests Graveyard


This book was sent to me for review for part of a blog tour


Morning Meanderings… A Book Lover Participates In A Readathon, A Meme, And A Sport

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)23 Comments

 

Good morning!  Did everyone survive the weekend?  I hope wherever you are at you were able to experience a bit of nice weather, a little reading, and a lot of fun….

I think I did…. Friday was almost 60 degrees for the first time in Minnesota this year.  I actually got on my bike.  It’s true!

Saturday – well Saturday was the Dewey Read-A-Thon and despite the Camp Benedict Silent Auction being on the same day (I ran to it twice!) and dinner out…. I still did ok for a chick on the fly!

Here is what I accomplished:

Hate List by Jennifer Brown- start to finish 432 pages … sadly, this is the only book I finished

Open House by Elizabeth berg (car audio) 30 minutes

Dreamland by Sarah Dessen (kitchen/living room audio) 1 hour 10 minutes

Massacre at Mountain Meadows (bathroom/bedroom audio) 30 minutes

I was reading (listening) for charity, for Camp Benedict the camp for children with AIDS and their families.  I pledged $1.00 for every 10 pages I read or 10 minutes I listened to audio.  I also opened it up to others to sponsor me if they chose or make a donation…. here are the results:

My reading:  $43.00

My Audio:      $13.00

Millie:  $3.00

Key from Random Acts Of Reading donated .5 cents a page:  $21.60

Don Saxum $25.00

For a total of:  $105.60!

 

Yesterday I skipped my morning gym weight lifting class knowing I was going to be there in the afternoon and instead visited the Monday What Are You Reading participants.  I really enjoy seeing what everyone is reading and many times I can get through the list without adding a book to my tbr…. yesterday that was not true.

At There’s A Book, I found Danielle’s review for The Kitchen Daughter by Jael Mchenry

Also, Danielle caught me again with her review of The Fourth Stall by Chris Rylander

At Helen’s Book  Blog, her review of A Thousand Sisters by Lisa Shannon grabbed me right away!

At Not Just Reading I was interested in a book called Half The Church by Carolyn Curtis James (unfortunately, this is the only one my library did not have.)

The top three have been reserved at my library.  I usually visit the other blogs with my library reserve on-line page open…. just in case 😀

FINALLY – update to Kickboxing.  Yesterday evening I took my third class and enjoyed it very much.  They put me with a girl who was there for the first time and while we are both beginners, it was fun to talk to her and when we were given instructions I could whisper, “don’t worry…. I am still learning that too!”

It was fun – quite the work out and I am LOVING it!  My friend Heidi is coming with when I go Wednesday evening, and I am working on my friend Wendy!  (Come on Wendy – everyone is doing it!  😛 )

 

Ok – off – busy day…. book club meets tonight to discuss Sunday’s At Tiffanys by James Patterson