Word Shakers Read A Long February Pick

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)34 Comments

It’s has been since last fall that we have a group book discussion through Word Shakers On Line Book Club.  Finally after the business of the holidays and the recovery time, I am ready to dust off this read a long and hope that many of you will decide to join me.

This year I have taken an interest in Elizabeth Berg’s writing.  This is an author that has surprised and delighted me with her style and I am thinking if I had been missing out of this amazing author, how many of you have not had the opportunity to read her either?  The book for this read a long will be Elizabeth Berg’s most recent release:

As onetime classmates meet up over the course of a weekend for their fortieth high school reunion, they discover things that will irrevocably affect the rest of their lives. For newly divorced Dorothy, the reunion brings with it the possibility of finally attracting the attention of the class heart-throb. For the ever self-reliant, ever left-out Mary Alice, it’s a chance to reexamine a painful past. For Lester, a veterinarian and widower, it is the hope of talking shop with a fellow vet—or at least that’s what he tells himself. For Candy, the class beauty, it’s the hope of finding friendship before it’s too late. As these and other classmates converge for the reunion dinner, four decades melt away: desires and personalities from their youth reemerge, and new discoveries are made. For so much has happened to them all. And so much can still happen.

This book will be a new one for me as well as I have been reading many of Elizabeth Berg’s books, but have yet to read this one.  On another note – joining in for the read-a-long will fit in nicely with another event I will be posting later this week.

Here is how Word Shakers works:

Fill out the form below with your interest in participating.  Read the book between now and March 15th.   On March 6th an email will be sent to all participants with questions on what you thought of the book.  Participants will fill out the form that will automatically come back to me.  I will compile the results in a review that will be posted here on March 22.  A linky will be available on that post for you to attach your reviews of this book as well.    *You do not have to have a blog  to participate in Word Shakers book club.

If you have already read the book you are still welcome to join in.  If you would like to be included in a mailing group that will be notified each time a new read is announced, leave me a comment below saying so and I will add you to the group.  (*You do not need to post your email, I receive it with every comment)


Fill Out This Form to Join

Morning Meanderings… Super Bowl… (wait for it….) COMMERCIALS!!!

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)56 Comments

Good morning!

Fingers are flying across the keyboard this morning…. must be the coffee.

Today is a day that many people wait all year for.  The super bowl.  You here the excitement build up in those last games of the season… some teams drop off the chart, others hang in there and finally (FINALLY) it is down to two teams… and if your team is not one of them… you usually go into this BIG GAME tonight still rooting for one over the other.

My friend Wendy (Hi Wendy!) is a HUGE Packer fan.  Even though she lives here in Minnesota, she is originally from Wisconsin and she is Packer all the way.  I can imagine that she probably does have the face paint, jersey, and the foam finger…. even if she will not admit it.  😉

I however – have never been interested in football.  Yet every year we will go over to friends over large quantities of appetizers and watch the big screen.  I go… to hang out with the girls and catch up…. and for the commercials.  My super bowl goes like this:

*The game is on the TV*

Girls:  Talk, talk, talk, giggle, talk, talk, NO WAY!, laugh, talk talk

*Commercials come on*

Me:  “Quiet everyone – it’s the commercials!”

Yup.  It’s true.  I do like a well written commercial and that is the highlight of the game for me.  (Please do not hit me with your foam finger.)  😀

What is not to love?

DO you watch the game?  Any game plans?

The First Timers Cook Book by Chef Shawn Bucher

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)36 Comments

This cook book is the book that will take you through all the basics to cooking up a delicious meal – even if you are new to the kitchen and cooking scene.  I am reviewing this today as part of the Weekend Cooking meme at Beth Fish Reads

Confession:  I did not inherit the cooking gene.

My mom could pull random items out of the refrigerator and mix up a dinner that was delicious in mere minutes.  I on the other hand seem to find myself at the grocery store every few days needing ingredients to make something… for some reason my kitchen has never flowed with all the necessities to make meals for more than 4 days at a time and I seem to never have the basics, or if I do – I don’t know how to combine them into something….

edible.

It’s true.  The kitchen in our home is probably the room I spend the least amount of time in.

Books like this – are a gift even to a person like me who has been married with children for a long time.


In Shawn Bucher’s cookbook, he takes you from how to select meat at a store and the steps to preparing it – all your basics of beef, chicken, and fish are covered in techniques such as baking, broiling, grilling, and frying.

In the vegetable section which takes us from how to select them to how to cut and cook with them.  I even picked up a couple of  tips here.

The book goes on to explain cooking great pasta, making soup stock, choosing fruits and how to prepare them, and basic cookware needed to get a jump-start on your kitchen menu planning.

When I look at cook books, I want to make something in them.  Tonight’s dinner thanks to The First Timers Cook Book will be roasted chicken, with carrots, celery, and onion in the bottom of the pan and baked potatoes.  (My family will not know what hit them!)  😀

This book would make a lovely gift for newly weds or a new college student.  I am already picturing gift baskets in the future for upcoming events such as these that will include copies of this book, a couple of dish towels, measuring spoons, a bowl, spatula, and a whisk.


Amazon Rating

The 2011 Reading Map has been updated to include The First Timers Cook Book


I received this book for review through Media Guests

You can find Author Shawn Bucher’s website here

Morning Meanderings… SATURDAY and a reading avalanche!

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)50 Comments

Good Morning!!!  SATURDAY!!!

Saturdays are my favorite day of the week!  I do not work on Saturdays and if I am careful – I can keep them open to no commitments, much like today.  I do like that.

It seems like all week I have been reading as I have had time and that has not been much.  I have been listening to audio in my car, in the kitchen and in my IPOD.  Today – both the IPOD book and the kitchen audio will complete as well as two books I am reading that are both very close to the end.  Now I feel like a complete wealth of book reviews that I want to share with you about – but have to space them out.

I also have a couple exciting events coming up.  The Berg Fest will be announced within the next few days as well as the book choice for Word Shakers (hopefully I can post that tomorrow).  How funny it is that all this week I have stumbled for posts and now I can’t seem to fit them all in fast enough.

COFFEE CUP and I are  going to read this morning and write a couple of reviews. This week is going to be a full one, there will be lots of excitement around here.  It is my birthday week and I will be having giveaways along with fun posts!

Alyce from At Home With Books has a fun meme called Snapshot Saturday where we are asked to post a picture.  So here is mine for this week:

This picture is from a girls weekend in Fargo in 2009.  We went to a nice restaurant for dinner and there was this huge monkey statue which the girls ( L: Deb, Paula, and Amy) all sat in front of and imitated.  I love good times with good friends!

One more thing – keep a reminder that this Monday, What Are You Reading will be celebrating its one year anniversary here and things are going to be exciting!  If you participate in this meme plan for some fun and if you have not participated in this meme, this may be your week to give it a try!  😀

The Secret Life Of Emily Dickinson by Jerome Charyn

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)30 Comments

Witty Emily harbors conflicted feelings toward her female status: her esteemed father, the town’s preeminent lawyer, adores Emily at home for her intellectual companionship, but also dismisses her formal education as a waste of money & a waste of time, and it’s easy to see how Emily’s poetic instincts are born from the shifting sensations of comfort and resentment brought by a childhood spent serenading Father with my tiny Tambourine. Emily’s growth is brightly drawn as she progresses from petulant child to a passionate woman with a ferocious will and finally to that notorious recluse.

 


I have never been someone who could sit and read poetry.  I find this interesting since as a teenager I loved to write it and still have books in my cedar chest filled with my writing from those years.  Still – I find myself fascinated with certain writers of the past and Emily Dickinson would be one that I would like to know more about.  A chance to read about her – fiction or not, was appealing.

The first thing that I noticed was the beautiful writing style. The author’s note in the front of the book was one that explained that Jerome Charyn wanted to write about the fictional Emily – or perhaps the Emily no one really got to know, as she eventually became somewhat of a recluse and towards the end of her days rarely left her room. I suspect there is a lot to Emily Dickinson that we can only guess.

While I mention my fascination in this woman and her prolific writing style (most of her poems had no titles, were unconventional in capitalization and punctuation, and mostly dealt with these of death and immortality) Charyn’s book has little poetry in it.  Instead I found it filled with stories of an Emily Dickinson, who I did not know anything about

While in reality Emily Dickinson never married, and was referred to as an old maid, Charyn writes a very different side to Emily – one where she admires many men and receives many marriage proposals – all of which… she turns down.

At times the book buried me in the words – deep, pungent words…. all written as the author becomes the voice of Emily Dickinson.  I did indeed learn more about Dickinson through this writing, mainly because the book caused me to research Emily further to see what I could sort out as fact or fiction.  In the end while I did find parts of the book interesting, I did find it a bit unsettling with what is referred to as Emily Dickinson’s “secret life”.

This is probably a book that will captivate many readers with its rich Dickinson style writing, it just was not the book for me.

Amazon Rating

The 2011 WHERE Are You Reading map has been updated to include The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson

 

I received this book for review for the Tribute Books Tour

Morning Meanderings… Oh NOW I Have Something To Say

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)31 Comments

Yes… for two days I have got up every morning and had an experience of bloggers block.  I would stare at the empty post space that awaited something witty out of me…

and nothing witty comes.

Then…. last night while I was cooking dinner…. a literal breakthrough of topics hit the surface of my brain.

FINALLY.

Thats the good news.  The bad news is that now that I have all these things to say…. I want to say them today.  SO… you may want to go fill up your coffee cup before you read on.

I will wait here.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Back?  Ok – sweet!

First off – I have neglected to announce a few winners of late and that is soooooooooo 2010 me, and not 2011 me at all.  I must correct this and pronto.  First of all – YAY to all the awesome commenters of January.  The monthly winner for the random “thank you” drawing is none other than:


Kathleen of Boarding In My Forties

Kathleen please choose a book from the prize box and I will mail it to you (email me at journeythroughbooks@gmail.com)

 

and the winner of the most comments here in January 2011:

Laurel of Laurel Rain Snow Creations

Laurel wins a $20 Amazon gift card – I will send that your way today.  😀

 

WOO HOO to you both and thank you thank you thank you for coming and chatting here at Book Journey.  This comment contest is monthly and is going on right now for February!  Here are the details.

 

AND then…. The winner of the bag of Coffee from Honduras (from my trip in December is:

Sharon at Sharon’s Garden Of Books

And then there is the John Betcher SIGNED book giveaway, The Nineteenth Element….

Lori of She Treads Softly

Congratulations winners!!!!

 

In other news. for the audio book lovers who read these posts – Audible.com is having an amazing sale.  They have a sale on “First Of The Series audio – and over 50 titles $4.99 or less.   I picked up:

Wondrous Strange for $4.31

 

30 Clues for $3.91

 

k

1st To Die $4.79

 

There are plenty of good “first in the series” to choose from but these are three that I have always wanted to try and now I will!

 

And finally – all week-long I have been meaning to mention this but life and stuff got in the way, and yes, I forgot for a while too….  BUT- This coming Monday will be the one year anniversary for my hosting of It’s Monday!  What Are You reading?  This has been an exciting year of meeting many new bloggers and blogs thanks to connections through this meme.  I want to celebrate with a special Amazon gift card giveaway drawing for those who participate this coming Monday and I also have a bonus book that I just discovered in my book stash that I will give away as well to one random participant.  I love reasons to celebrate and this seems like a good excuse!  😀


Ok – that is it – and that is probably enough.  I have a review coming up yet later this morning and it is my day off (*happy dance happy dance*) so I will get a little reading done this afternoon!  😀

 

Morning Meanderings… Change Up Your Play Lists

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)21 Comments

Ok – hello…

😀

I have been working out at the YMCA with my friend Heidi this week.  Yesterday we decided to exchange IPOD Shuffles to listen to each others play list.  Oddly – that was kind of cool.  She had upbeat jamming music that I did not have on mine – and I had songs on mine that she did not have.  It was fun to hang out on the tread mills and jam out to each others music.

Like a moment – in each others work out brain.

😛

What was funny for two girls close in age – we only had three songs that were a match that we both had on out IPOD’s.

Now we are going to find a way to capture out ITunes list to email to each other so we can fill in songs that we would like to have.  She had a few that were remixes that I didn’t even know had been remixed.

My number one song on my IPOD the one I listen to the most when working out is still Jai Ho (theme song from Slumdog Millionnaire)

That beat just gets my moving… on the treadmill, on the elliptical, on my bike:



Ok – I am out…. weigh in day and then work but then…… NOTHING.  Yes NOTHING.  I have no meetings tonight and I could do flips all through my house jamming out to Jai Ho because of this fact!  😀

Thanks to Alison, at Alison’s Book Marks for sharing in yesterdays comments on my morning post about a Seinfeld episode about “Nothing”.  I included it today.


Have a super awesome fantastic day!

Morning Meanderings… ………………………………………

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)29 Comments

Good morning.  😀
Really….

I got nothing.

I got up this morning, started the coffee and went to start this post and…

nothing.

Left the laptop open, went to get ready for my day hoping something would break lose from my mind, some little fun tidbit of life, a book thought, a memory, something coming up….

really…

I got nothing.


Yesterday was good.  Busy but good.  I was not around here at all until late last night when I caught up on your comments.  I went to dinner with friends last night and had a good time.

Chance and I have started doing Wii Fit at night…. 30 minutes… let me tell you the hula hoop test – is brutal… I don’t think I have every swung around in a circle sp many times trying to keep my mii (Wii’s version of ourselves) in action.  There has to be You Tube videos of people doing these moves because really –

they are HILARIOUS.

I am off…. work today…. work out this afternoon (Group Power and a little tread mill time), a 6:00 meeting to plan the Missions Banquet in March, and a 7:00 pm class.

Weekdays are never-never dull around here.  😀  I am hoping tonight to get in a little reading time as that part this week has suffered with a full schedule and exhausted evenings…. thank goodness for audio!

Hope you all have a wonderful day!  Thursday will be better – no evening plans and I am THRILLED to have a night at home!

This Book Is Overdue by Marilyn Johnson

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)48 Comments

In today’s world where we can Google any subject, download oodles of information, and basically get anything we want to know about errrr…. anything we want to know…. the librarian may seem like an outdated concept.   After all, who really needs to talk to a person when we can just find it out ourselves if we just invest enough time in researching and fact-finding and….

Let me share a story.  Up until about a year ago I did not use my library.  Sure, I have been a book lover since I was 5, but if a book was out there I wanted to read, I bought it.  It was my love of books that eventually drew my back to the library but even then I had a vision of walking into a building that would be outdated and not appeal to me.  What I walked out of the library with was a new way to find books I love…

and a library card.

Within the brick walls of our library I found librarians that were quick to help me… no longer was I digging through a card file to find a book… now there are computers that will not only give me the book information, but tell me if it is currently in house.  If I had a question, the reference desk had people willing to help me that could talk books with me…. one of my favorite subjects!


Through wit and facts, Marilyn Johnson takes us the reader through the value of our Librarians chapter by chapter.  In this quick and information bursting book I find it bursting with what it takes to a librarian – then and now.. and how these amazing people work hard to stay on the cutting edge.  And lets not forget the libraries themselves… these buildings scream – or in this case whisper, “community”.

I used this book as a reference guide and enjoyed the different chapters. I found myself laughing out loud in the section on The Blog People.  Librarian bloggers – now why had I not considered that before?  I don’t want to give too much away but the content in this particular section was delightful and hilarious…. Librarians venting about their jobs in some cases…   and you know (oh you know!) I have to look them up on-line for myself.

Chapter by chapter I became more aware of the incredible service our librarians provide.  While this book wasn’t a quick read, some of the chapters felt a bit wordy, I did find the book as a whole to be interesting.

If you are a library frequenter… or have considered becoming one but think the whole concept is outdated, you will want to be giving this book a try.  There is a whole lot more going on within the wall s of your library than you may think – and chances are like me – you may be pleasantly surprised.


“Remember,” the representative from the Library Association reminded the sea of librarians as they prepared to meet the politicians, “we aren’t asking on our behalf.  We are asking on behalf of of those thousands behind us.  We’re asking on behalf of the children, on behalf of the tens and hundreds of millions of people who use libraries to develop their skills and to find jobs…”

~page 261

For those of you who are in an area that has a library, I highly encourage you to support it.  Walk in those doors, get a library card – and prepare yourself to be amazed.

Amazon Rating

The 2011 WHERE Are You Reading map has been updated to include This Books Is Overdue

I received this book as part of TLC Book Tours

Morning Meanderings…. Feeling Whelmed…

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)27 Comments

Good morning.

Did 6:30 am come early for anyone else today?

(I am not going to mention that I was up until almost 1 a.m. with my nose in a good book.)

I heard my cell phone text tone and it popped me out of a bed.  In a groggy shuffle I made my way to the kitchen and with one eye (I could only spare one, the other was still asleep) I checked the message.

*work out at 3:30 today*

Ok…

This is good.  I am a little ( A LOT!) sore from yesterdays adventures back into Group Power and it would be easy for me to skip the workout today so I could recover chill a bit after work.

However…. this little text…

puts my day into overdrive.

I work at 8 am…. I need to get moving on that.

I work until 3 pm and then will hit the gym from 3:30 – 4:30 and then drive home by 4:45.

I have a fifteen minute window to prep dinner for Chance and Al.

At 5 pm two of my friends who I have not hung out with in a long while, Ruth and Colleen are coming over to pick me up so we can go and hang out and catch up over dinner.

While I am thrilled to see them, my day has become so full I am exhausted before I even begin.

How do you juggle it when it is all good things like this?

I am not whining….

I don’t really know what I am doing besides chilling with COFFEE CUP and thinking…. really, I need to get moving.

So – verdict?  Whelmed.  Yes, I feel whelmed.  Not over whelmed…. but right on the edge.  😛

Anyone else need coffee?  I am up.