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! 😀
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.
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.
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:
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:
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! 😀
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.
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!
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.
(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. 😛
Recently I have noticed when I comment on certain blogs my fabulous Gravatar has taken a hike….. gone … vamoose…. in its place… is…
well….
its pretty shameful but it is….
this:
I Know right?
Blank face.
Blank face? Where did you come from? What have you done with that wonderful little Gravatar?
I have only a few clues and I am asking for the expertise of all of you to maybe help me solve this mystery and return me to my original Gravatar state…
here is what I know…
It is happens on both WordPress.org and on Blogger – but not all….
I have went into the Gravatar sight and I pop up just fine under the correct email and everything so there is nothing to change there.
Now…
and this may have nothing to do with nothing but as I am clueless right now I will grasp at anything….
I am a contributor on the Banned Books Blog and noticed today that when I am on a Blogger blog and click on me and it takes me to the cute Blogger profile page – this blog, Book Journey does not show up. The Banned Books Blog does instead and that is not my blog…. I am a team member of it, that is all.
The only place Book Journey shows up is on the webpage link which brings you here.
So – like I said – this may have nothing to do with anything, but I can not find a way to add my WordPress blog to the Blogger profile… and maybe… it doesn’t work like that…
and maybe…
this has nothing to do with my missing Gravatar.
SO – people of the blogesphere, I bow low before you and request any help, advice, and chocolate (oh come on – that’s a good thing!) that you are able to share with me. I would love to fix this annoying little glitch but have no idea where to begin…. 😀
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading, is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.
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. You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.
Congratulations! Please choose an item out of the PRIZE BOX (♥selections updated!♥) and email me your choice with your mailing address as well! journeythroughbooks@gmail.com
I feel really good about this past week. I dont know what really changed but I feel like I put in some good reading time in the quiet evenings after everyone was asleep. I also had a couple books that I could hardly put donw, so that often helps too!
Here is the week in review:
Bloggiesta Finish Line (last weekend completed the first Bloggiesta of the year and I accomplished a few things)
The LOST Encyclopedia (yes friends – I have finally completed the LOST seasons and my reward was to read through this book I purchased weeks ago!)
January Recap with WHERE Are You Reading map update too!
If I Stay by Gayle Forman – read and reviewed but review help until the Bookies Book Club meeting on February 8
This Book Is Overdue! by Marilyn Johnson – 3/4 of the way complete
Certain Women – just getting started
as well as a few others with a bookmark stuck in them….
Anyway…. the week felt GOOD and I am hoping to keep up the momentum I had in January as I just hummed along many good books and audios! Here is what is on for this week:
Fifty-four-year-old Laura Bartone, the happily married mother of two, is looking forward to her annual family reunion in Minnesota. But her vacation plans are marred when her father is felled by a stroke, and her sister, Caroline, at the urging of a therapist, confronts Laura and her brother with disturbing information about her relationship with their mother. As she details the verbal and physical abuse she was subjected to, Laura and her brother are tempted to write Caroline’s confidences off as just another example of her histrionics. Because if what she says is true, what would that mean about their complicity in the family dynamics?
Yes… my Berg fest continues and you just watch – if this one is as awesome as I think it will be -I am having a Berg Fest…. you just wait and see!
Chris Astor is a man in his early forties who is going through the toughest stretch of his life. Not long before, Chris’ world sparkled – he was doing significant work, he had a good home, and his young daughter brought him more joy than he ever could have imagined. Now, divorce and estrangement have left him confused and all too often alone.
Becky is Chris’ fourteen-year-old daughter, a girl who overcame enormous challenges in her early years to become a vibrant, vital young woman. Her parents’ divorce has left its mark, though, most significantly in her relationship with her father. Once, they told remarkable stories together. Now, they barely speak. Emotional detachment from Chris is not Becky’s biggest concern, though.
Miea is the young queen of a fantasy land that Becky and Chris created when Becky was little – a fantasy land that has developed a life of its own. Miea knows nothing of Becky and Chris. She only knows that her beautiful kingdom – a place of remarkably varied flora, dignified and distinctive fauna, and an ecology that works in symphonic majesty – is in terrible, maybe fatal trouble.
At the most challenging junctures of their lives, Becky and Miea discover each other and Miea shares this discovery with Chris. For Becky, it is nearly inconceivable that a place she created has come into existence. For Miea, it is nearly inconceivable that a child created her land. For Chris, it is beyond inconceivable that he is again sharing something important in his daughter’s life. For all of them, it as though a world of opportunity has opened up before them.
But time is not on their side. In fact, time might be running out.
Together, they need to uncover a secret. The secret to why these worlds have joined at this moment. The secret to their purpose. The secret to the future. It is a secret that, when discovered, will redefine imagination for all of them.
I am reviewing this book for the publisher and am curious as to what I will think of it.
Would you risk everything for someone you just met?
What if he had a secret worth killing for?
Welcome to a future where water is more precious than oil or gold…
Hundreds of millions of people have already died, and millions more will soon fall-victims of disease, hunger, and dehydration. It is a time of drought and war. The rivers have dried up, the polar caps have melted, and drinkable water is now in the hands of the powerful few. There are fines for wasting it and prison sentences for exceeding the quotas.
But Kai didn’t seem to care about any of this. He stood in the open road drinking water from a plastic cup, then spilled the remaining drops into the dirt. He didn’t go to school, and he traveled with armed guards. Kai claimed he knew a secret-something the government is keeping from us…
And then he was gone. Vanished in the middle of the night. Was he kidnapped? Did he flee? Is he alive or dead? There are no clues, only questions. And no one can guess the lengths to which they will go to keep him silent. We have to find him-and the truth-before it is too late for all of us.
This one is for a book tour in February and I admit I started it and have been enjoying it so far.
Since novelist Helen’s husband, Dan, died a year ago, she’s been unable to write, and though her publisher and agent aren’t worried, she is, particularly after a disastrous performance at a public speaking engagement leaves her wondering if her writing career will be another permanent loss. Meanwhile, daughter Tessa is getting impatient as Helen smothers her with awkward motherly affection. Tessa longs for distance and some independence, but Helen is unable to run her suburban Chicago home without continually calling on Tessa to perform the handyman chores that once belonged to Dan. And then Helen discovers Dan had withdrawn a huge chunk of their retirement money, and Helen’s quest to find out what happened turns into a journey of self-discovery and hard-won healing.
Yes, yes… Berg alert. I hope to be starting this audio by the mid to end of this week as I finish up Testimony.
That’s my plan! I don’t think it is too large as two of them are audios coming in to replace the audios that are finishing up I suspect soon. Cleaning my bedroom (bedroom audio) and working in the kitchen (kitchen audio) really moved two of my current audios forward considerably.
And with that – my report has come to an end and now it is your turn! I am super pumped to see what you have been reading! Please add your post to the linky area below where it says click here. I look forward to stopping by and seeing what you have been reading! 😛
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If you have read my blog or followed me on Twitter (@bookjourney) for any amount of time you probably know that I have spent my last two months of evenings watching all the seasons of LOST.
When LOST was on TV I found that I was missing episodes here and there due to life and commitments and then I would sit down to watch a new episode and I felt…. well..
lost.
At that point I let the show go planning to purchase the seasons and watch it that way and even then I had trouble staying caught up. It was not until this past November that I said ok, here is the winter plan. I am going to get through these episodes one after another and I am going to finish them all. And that is what I did.
For those of you who are fans of LOST you know where I am going to go with this. It was BRILLIANT. AMAZING. FULLFILLING. and left me with a sense of wonder. Most likely, I will watch them all again just to pick at the things I did not catch the first time and open up yet an even deeper level of appreciation.
This review though is about a book, not really about the show – although I guess that is not exactly true as they work together. I found this treasure in early January at Barnes and Noble. I had inquired if they had any books about LOST. I was taken to a small section of movie related books and seen this beautifully large book on the shelf. I pulled it towards me and loving glanced through the pages but catching the price out of the corner of my eye, I put it back on the shelf finding it too pricey to justify.
“But…. uh, Sheila.” *waving hand crazily high in the air*, “you have the book right?”
Right.
I then walked around browsing the shelves and found a large 50% off section in the center of the store and yes, there it was – this same book – but at half the price. I snatched it up lovingly and made my purchase.
Once home – the book was tabu until I finished watching all the episodes as I did not wish to view anything that I did not already know about. Chance whined to look at it – I said no. Al inquired…. still the answer was no.
And then on Friday evening, I watched with Chance the final three episodes and as the closing credits ran and I sat with a sort of numbness of not believing it was over but knowing it was… Chance ran upstairs and came back with this book.
And so…. finally (FINALLY) I get to my point.
The LOST Encyclopedia is an absolute must have for any LOST super fan. For this review I will clarify the difference between Fan and Super Fan.
Fan: Really found the show enjoyable, but sees no reason to revisit or explore further. See Exhibit A
Exhibit A: Chance
Super Fan: Border line obsession with all things LOST. More than likely has Googled Dharma and wonders if you can find coffee cups and Dharma apparel (for the record the answer is yes to both). Super Fans will watch all the episodes again as well as all the bonus disc’s looking for clues they have missed the first, second, or third time around. See Exhibit B
Exhibit B: Me
Moving on.
As this large fabulous book opens up in the opening letter addressed to all Losties, there is an important paragraph:
This text will not confirm nor deny your theories about the show. It will provide clarity, and it’s a great reference guide, but what it does NOT provide are answers to the great unknown. It was incredibly important to us to maintain the purposeful interpretive quality of the show. And although it is frustrating at times to puzzle things out for yourself, the show was called LOST for a reason.
The bars were manufactured by the Apollo Candy Company and sold around the world. Their history dates back to 1962. Due to the companies rapid success they ran into financial problems. Alvar Hanso of the Hanso Foundation stepped in and saved the company. Hanso’s connections to the DHARMA Initiative included the bard in the regular island provisions
It will be hard to tell you all the wonderfulness of this book but I will try to give you all the things that I know appeal to me and I think would appeal to other Super Fans as well.
The LOST Encyclopedia is alphabetized. Looking for that crazy candy bar and the story behind it? It’s in there. A list of all the books mentioned and read on the Island? Yup. The meaning behind all the alcohol seen from the Dharma beer to the Scotch Whiskey that was used to humiliate Desmond, Daniel’s journal, the flashback/ flash forwards/ flash sideways, animals of the Island, and even the Fish Biscuits have their own page. The numbers the plane, even a list of the survivors of 815 that were never really acknowledged, but at my home when they showed up on scream were fondly known as the “Randoms”.
There is detailed layouts and explanation of the uses of each Dharma station. If you missed something during the tv show or had a question left unanswered, chances are you will find it here.
Oh and of course this book would not be complete without a detailed list referred to as the “Nickname hall Of Fame”, yes, a list of all the nicknames sawyer used! Partially listed below:
Cowboy, Slim, Sundance, Jackass (Jack)
Mohammad, Chief, Damn Arab Genious, Omar (Sayid)
Freckles, Shortcake, Puddin’, Thelma (Kate)
Oliver Twist, Tattoo, VH1 Has-Beens (Charlie)
Hidden Dragon, Chewie, Daddy-O (Jin)
Yoda, Captain Bunny Killer, Gizmo (Ben)
Crouching Tiger, Betty, Sunshine (Sun)
Jabba, Jumbotron, Pork Pie, Three Men and a baby (Hugo)
Mr. Clean, John Boy, Gimpy (Locke)
Barbie, Sweetheart, Pregnant Girl (Claire)
Short Round, Taller Ghost Walt (Walt)
Each character is broken down into pages of information: Facts and figures, time on the island, likes and dislikes, skills, as well as any connections to the numbers or how the numbers were used in their scenes. I also really enjoyed that they include lines that were priceless for each character!
…”You’ve no idea how hard it is for me to sit back and listen to other people tell me what I should do. But maybe that’s the point. Maybe I am suppose to let go.”
Jack
I can go on and on about this book but I am betting you get what I am saying. If you love LOST or if you know someone who does, I would highly recommend this book.
Book Journey 