It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)71 Comments

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.

Last weeks winner:

Samita from Book Purring


Congratulations!  Please choose an item out of the PRIZE BOX and email me your choice with your mailing address as well!   journeythroughbooks@gmail.com

What a great week!  It was busy but so good and I am excited to share my highlights with you:


Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater (Finally!  Finally I read this book and well, what was I waiting for?)


Guess What I Got For Christmas!!! SSSQQQQUUUEEEEEE!!!


The Secret Society Of The Pink Crystal Ball by Risa Green (Super YA read!)

Relentless by Dean Koontz – audio review (I love Koontz…. but this one was an EPIC FAIL)


WHERE Are You Reading Challenge 2011 (it’s not to late to join in the fun!)

I did not get the reviews written that I wanted to but have high hopes that I will get caught up this week.  With the holidays over my spare time is once again returning to a normal level.  (Fingers crossed on that anyway!)  My reading plan for this week is as follows:

“Even now, after all these years, I can hardly bear to look in a mirror,” is the opening line of this dark, atmospheric, densely patterned novel. Ghanaian pre-teenager Ajuba is sent to boarding school in Devon. A lonely, confused child, she befriends the charismatic Polly Venus, who talks entirely in transatlantic clichés (“Hallo?”, “That totally sucks!”, “You just don’t get it, do you?”). Exploring the attic of Polly’s house they find a bundle of what they take to be kitten bones. But they’re not. They are the bones of babies.

Inspired by their reading of the magazine True Murder, the pair form “Crimebusters” to solve the mystery; but the past tragedy which they make a game of investigating is an ironic foreshadowing of the tragedies looming over them and their families.


Fallen angels sure seem poised to become the new vampires, with a similarly ideal blend of brooding mystery and sexy rebellion. After a fiery accident kills a boy she is crushing on, Luce gets sent to a reform school populated, most notably, by two gorgeous fellas, Daniel and Cam. Cam is safe and charming and eager to win Luce’s affections, while Daniel operates somewhere between aloof and downright hostile toward her. Readers will figure out Luce and Daniel’s star-crossed-lovers angle early on, making the hints dropped throughout about past lives and dangerous fates more obvious than compelling.

This book was a Christmas present to me last year.  Yes… last year.  About time I read it right?

This sequel to Fallen (Delacorte, 2009) continues they complex tale as Luce tries to uncover the truth and break the cycle of falling in love, dying young, and being reincarnated. Daniel, her lover through the ages and a fallen angel, institutes a truce with Demons to protect her from the Outcasts, who would do her harm. For her safety, Daniel hides her at a boarding school for the Nephilim, children of human and fallen angels, and cautions her to remain on campus and learn all she can. Unfortunately a little knowledge can be dangerous and Luce’s naive attempts to manipulate her powers constantly put her and others in danger. Some of the rescues employ a deus ex machina as is the case when Arriane inexplicably arrives in Vegas and saves the day. At times the story plods along, with a full chapter devoted to a fencing lesson. Daniel regularly returns to check on Luce and there’s lots of swooning, passionate kissing, and playing at being in love, though it often ends with bickering. Interest is piqued with the hint of a love triangle, and the suspense is ratcheted up in the heart-pounding final battle scene.

I usually have a good reading week during New Years Week.  We are not big New Years people so that usually gives me a bonus weekend of reading and I look forward to it.

I am excited to see what bookish things you have all been up too and what you are reading.  Please add you post link to the “Click Here” Linky.  I will be around to visit your post and see what i will add to my own reading agenda for 2011.  😀

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Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)21 Comments

At the age of nine, Grace is torn away from a swing she is playing by a pack of wolves that come into her yard.  Surely she should have been killed, but one wolf – one with particular captivating eyes appears to save her.  Since that day Grace feels a connection with the wolves and sees the wolf with the eyes many times throughout the years around her home, almost as if he is watching her.  In an odd way, Grace is comforted by the wolf’s presence.

Then, when Grace is seventeen, a boy she attends school with is killed in a wolf attack and the hunters take to the woods.  Grace finds a boy on her doorstep with a gun shot wound… oddly, the boy has very familiar eyes… almost like her wolf…

Yes, I did it.  After Shiver has sat on my book shelf for a long long time, I finally took the time to read it.  I had heard the comparisons to the Twilight series, and before you groan about me comparing books… there is a method to my madness….

First of all… my only real dive into the paranormal as far as vampires, and wolves go is the Twilight books (other than The Passage, but that is really not a comparable book as that is so much a deeper/ complicated read).  And I have to admit after hearing buzz about Sam (Shiver) being a much more likable that Edward (Twilight), I had to bite…  (no pun intended.)

Ok…maybe a little bit of a pun….

In the early pages of this read as I was introduced to Grace and Sam, I started making a mental list of what I thought so far of the Sam/Edward comparisons:

1.  I like that in Twilight we get to know Edward and meet Edward before we are introduced to the vampire side of him.  I found it harder to connect with Sam in the beginning and I feel that is due to me first knowing him as a wolf.  I felt I had to work harder to think of him as human.

2.  I didn’t find the love connection of Sam and Grace as totally captivating as Edward and Bella.  Edward’s love for Bella made you have to book crush on his character as he is so emotionally there for her.  I didn’t feel it as strong with Same and Grace although I found Grace a much more likable character than Bella.  No where near as ditzy.

My initial plan as I read this book was to come up with a whole pile of comparisons for this review… I was actually excited about it and even thought about a separate post on Sam VS Edward, which maybe… as I read through this series may still happen – but not now and here is why:

As I read on and shook off my prejudices, I really started to get into the story line and found it less easy to put the book down and leave it as I had in the early pages.  By the middle of the book I had driven to my local book store only to find out they did not have Linger and not wishing to wait, I ordered it immediately on-line.  I enjoyed the alternating  chapters told in each of the main characters voice.

Today, I took the liberty of the holiday weekend to SHIVER under a new blanket from my hubby until I got warm and could LINGER through the end of this book.  I loved that it is set in my home state of Minnesota and I imagine as I am in central Minnesota that I am about two to three hours from Mercy Falls, where Sam and Grace are.

In the book we are introduced to a rich snooty girl named Isabel who goes to school with Grace.  This character is not easy to get along with.  She is sarcastic and unfriendly and only gets involved with others when it is to her benefit.  The more her character come up, the more she formed in my head of what she would look like.  If Shiver ever becomes a movie (and I hope it does!) the perfect character to play Isabel would be Maggie Grace who plays Shannon on LOST.

Isabel?

In the end, I was really surprised and impressed on how much I enjoyed this read.  I  am looking forward to the arrival of Linger!

Amazon Rating

I received this book as a win from a past Read-A-Thon

Morning Meanderings… Basking In The Glow… Of What?

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)51 Comments

Good Morning!

Have you noticed this past week my Morning Meanderings have been a bit later than the norm?  This is a good thing!  It means in the morning I am RELAXING a bit!  😀

Granted I will get back to the early posts again in the next couple of days here (in fact I have many big plans moving forward that I will be sharing over the next week….) but for now…. I am hoping you were able to sleep in a bit this morning as well, or at least settle down with family, friends, or a great books (which to me… can be a lot like family and/or friends).

Quick Christmas recap:

  • We had both sons:  Brad (Navy Son) and Justin (College Son) home for Christmas.  SSSQQQUUUEEEEE!!!!  (First time we were all home together in 13 months!!!)
  • Brad’s friend (and honorary son) also from the Navy joined us for Christmas dinner.
  • Chance went home to be with his family for Christmas morning and dinner than came back for movies and games here.
  • Justin’s friend Branden (another honorary son) joined us after dinner for board games.

I love that we are THAT house. ♥

 

We laughed a lot… opened gifts together….

Guess what I got!!!

SSSQQQQQQUUUUUUUEEEEEE!!!

That’s right!  I got this really cool t – shirt.  Ok, ok, that is true…. but obviously I am all SSSQQQQUUUEEEEE like because my hubby bought me the NOOK.  YES!  My first e -reader.  EVER.  I have never even used one before and I am so super-uber pumped!!!

Hubby got golf clubs, hoping he takes the hint to take a little more time for himself in 2011, boys received gift cards and goodies.

We ented our very late evening…. actually early early this morning like uhhh….. 1:30 am after playing many rounds of Sequence.  If you have not played this game I HIGHLY recommend it…. it is addicting.


So that explains the late post.  I am drinking my coffee this morning… already basking in the memories of a wonderful Christmas.  I am off now to finish reading a book and to start on my first book on the Nook (from this day forward fondly named “SNookie”).

What book did I choose you ask?

You have no idea what a pain staking task that was!  I mean the first book (much like my first DVD ever) is a big deal to me.  It will be the remembered one and it took me over an hour of book browsing to choose what should hold the honor.

Finally…

This is a book I read a review of recently and I wanted to read it and my library did not have it.

Ok… now I am just rambling with random excitement so I am going to close this post with these pics of my sons.  My SNookie is calling me.  😀

Happy After Christmas glow to all of you!

 

Morning Meanderings…. and so this is Christmas…

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)51 Comments

There are certain times of year that make me a bit melancholy and for me and for many others, today is one of those times.

This morning I sit at my kitchen table in the stillness of the morning and close my eyes and remember.

I remember teasing with my mom that last year over silly putty she bought the boys… I remember riding snowmobile with my dad, and I remember… oh how I remember and miss my sister Tara.

The people of my heart may no longer be with me on earth…

but the memories remain…

forever and ever

and no one can change that.

My wish for all of you today is that your heart memories remain as fresh and real as the day they were made.  That you know that you are never alone and that many people care about you – some you may not even realize….

Today is Christmas.  May yours be filled with love, happiness, and joy.

Merry Christmas!

Sheila ♥

Morning Meanderings… A Happy Christmas Eve To You!!!

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)24 Comments

Good morning!!!!

 

I had a wonderful nights sleep and am reading to put the finishing touches on Christmas planning and Christmas weekend.

This morning I sit at my kitchen table watching Al and Chance play cribbage.  This is my version if a modern-day Normal Rockwell.  Of course…. to the left of them you can add me to the picture with my oversized COFFEE CUP tapping away at my laptop and now the picture is complete….

I spoke to college Son already this morning and he is at the airport in Florida flying into Minnesota this afternoon and should be home around 5:30 pm.  NICE.

Tomorrow both boys will be home, College Son and Navy Son and we will all spend the day together.  I just have to figure out what I want to make for Christmas dinner and snackies….    🙂

On Sunday morning College Son has to go back to Mankato for work and Myself, Navy Son, Chance and AL are heading to our cabin up North for the day to snowmobile and spend the night – we will be back on Monday.

I do have posts yet throughout this weekend and I pretty much have a SSSQQQUUUUEEEE idea of what may be under the tree for me so you can bet there will be pictures….  😀

If I do not get a chance to chat with you over the weekend know that I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

What are your plans for this Christmas Weekend?

The Secret Society Of The Pink Crystal Ball by Risa Green

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)16 Comments

 

Erin Channing is working hard to keep her GPA high so she can earn a trip to Italy.  To be considered for this, she needs to write an essay that will blow the committee away, yet Erin fears she will not be chosen to win the trip because her life is the definition of boring.  What could she possibly write about that would be interesting?  How can she possibly win this honor?

When a distant Aunt suddenly dies unexpectedly and leaves Erin a pink crystal ball with instructions of how to use it Erin finds that the small requests she makes of the crystal ball seem to be coming true.  With her best friends Lindsay and Samantha at her side, Erin uses the crystal ball without fully understanding all of its powers and at first finds it fascinating (asking the ball is she is “smexy” (smart + sexy = smexy).  Then later finds herself making a mess of her relationships.

As Erin tried to figure out the true powers of the crystal ball she grows in her friendships and in herself.

 

I was really excited to write this review because I am a sucker for good books on friendships.  I really love that and some of my favorite books have to do with strong female friendships.  In my own life I know how important my girlfriends are to me.

I really enjoyed Erin for all she is worth.  She is fantastic – an overachiever that looks at her own life and says seriously, what am I doing?  And her two friends Samantha and Lindsey were well-developed characters that  wanted to go hang out at the mall with, and I don’t even really like shopping!

All in all the book was a delight to read and a fresh breath into the YA genre that I so appreciated.  I think YA’s will enjoy this read and I look forward in seeing what author Risa Green offers up next!

Amazon Rating

I received this book from review from:

Danielle DeLuca

Assistant to the Publicity Team

Planned Television Arts/ Ruder Finn Inc.

Morning Meanderings…

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)16 Comments

Good morning!

Do you ever have those nights where you just toss and turn and feel like you never really slept?

I just had one of those.  Until about 3:30  a.m. I am rolling around the bed, this way and that… my mind on some sort of mental caffeine rush.  I am processing Christmas, the gifts, what is left to do, plans for the weekend, my kids, my life, work out schedules, eating habits…

(I really should have just got up and done something really productive like clean a closet or crochet a quilt)

ANYWAY… the inevitable thing with nights like this is that I usually crash in the deep sleep around 4 a.m. only to awaken 2 hours later knowing that I have to get up.

GAH.

All that said, I do feel pretty good and I am ready to rush off to work and have an awesome day as tomorrow – Friday, I am off.

WOO HOO!!!  Perfect timing to prep for Saturday and the weekend… which I will talk more about tomorrow.

 

Relentless by Dean Koontz (audio review and epic FAIL)

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)17 Comments

Bestselling author Cullen Cubby Greenwich is mortified when Shearman Waxx, the nation’s premier literary critic, savages his work. Cubby manages to find the syphilitic swine at Roxie’s Bistro in Newport Beach, Calif., where the author’s six-year-old prodigy son nearly pees by accident on Waxx in the restaurant’s men’s room. In retaliation, Waxx threatens Cubby with doom and gets things started nicely by blowing up his house. With almost superhuman ease, the book critic keeps track of Cubby and his family as they flee for their lives.

 

 

Let me share a little background info about me and Dean.  No, we didn’t know each other back in school, or ever really crossed paths – except of course within the pages of his books that i could not read fast enough…. and in my opinion he could not write fast enough.

Yes it is true…. back when I was 20, Dean Koontz was one of a very elite group of my favorite authors.  I read and loved:

Whispers

Phantoms

Twilight Eyes

Strangers

Watchers

Lightening (Oh Yeah!)

Midnight

Cold Fire

Hideaway

The Key To Midnight

Door To December

The Funhouse (first book I ever read of his)

Breathless

Brother Odd

Odd Thomas

Eyes Of Darkness

False Memory

Fear Nothing

Tick Tock

One Door Away From Heaven

Winter Moon

 

yes…. I think it is safe to say I have been a fan.

 

And now this is where it gets….

awkward.

I was so excited to listen to this audio and I LOVED the idea of the main character being an author who gets a bad review….  (I know a bit ironic right now…..).  A fun fact about Dean’s books is that he almost always includes some sort of “bookish” theme in his writing – either his character is a reader, or a writer or there are mentions of books shelves…

BUT.

This time I just could not pick up what Dean was putting down.  The storyline was so outrageously over the top – the strange killings in the book beyond gruesome and a bit wacky and well…

I finally gave up as I was so confused and surprised by the book that it didn’t even have the regular “Dean Koontz” feel to it that I have come to know and love through the years.  It felt a little more like James Patterson when he goes a direction that I do not like.

Will I read Dean Koontz again?  I am sure I will.  I have found him to be not as dark as Stephen King, and not as light and funny as Harlan Coben.  He is a great middle of the road.

 

I received this audio from my library

Morning Meanderings…. Baking Hangover

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)24 Comments

G’ Morning.

It is true that I am over the worst of being sick.  All that is really left is the cough which is annoying but doesn’t feel like I am on death watch like I felt a couple of days ago.

With the post I put up yesterday about all the Biscotti that I was cranking out in my new-found health… I have to add that the insanity continued into last night as well.

I believe I am pretty much “biscottied” out.  Ten batches and way too much sampling has put me in a biscotti like coma…. seriously, I think you could dip me in a cup of coffee and I would hardly crumble at all.  I even smell like a cookie and that is after my shower…. it must be in my pores.  How festive of me.  😎


I am going to seriously need to hit the gym and hit it hard after the holiday weekend.

 


Any other baking comas out there?

Morning Meanderings… Up To My ………… in Biscotti

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)39 Comments

Good morning.

Lets recap yesterday to relive how I made it to this post title…

Morning…. blah’s  still sick, skip the gym.  have a 10 a.m. meeting to attend but go home from work afterward.  Fall asleep in recliner until 4:15 pm.

Afternoon:  Wake up when Chance gets home off of bus.  The plan is to crawl from my recliner position to my bedroom and go back to sleep, but oddly I have a burst of energy.


Late afternoon:  I start making Biscotti for my co workers.  I had bought the ingredients over the weekend but have not felt well enough to do anything with that.  I start by making a double batch of Chocolate Dipped Orange and then a double batch of Chocolate-Chocolate.  I complete both of these and then proceed to make Pickle Butts (hey – I don’t make the names for these things!) for an appetizer potluck and White Elephant Christmas party we are invited to.


Chocolate-Chocolate Biscotti
Pickle Butts

6:30 pm:  Arrive at White Elephant party, eat real home-made connoles made in front of us by a guy who is 100% Sicilian.  Uhhh… yum.

8:30 pm:  back home and crank out a double batch of Cinnamon hazelnut biscotti to finish off my gift bags for tomorrow at work.  Finish cooking at 10 pm.

Cinnamon hazelnut Biscotti (I added chocolate Hershey bar to this recipe)

6 batches of biscotti – thus the post title.

As of this morning I am feeling good and am optimistic that my 4 days of being bogged down with this horrible sinus/cold/headache/achy bone thing is over.

*Happy dance.*