Book Journey

First up, Happy New Year.  Thank you to all of you who sent me a picture over the last few weeks of the book you are reading into the New Year.  It is, as I have said many times, a big harry deal to me.  So thank you for following me down the rabbit hole.

Below, you will see the pics of the books sent in.  In the mix, you will find Authors Brian Freeman, Kaira Rouda, Randy Susan Meyers and Nadia Hashimi with their first books.  LOVE THAT.  There are also friends and book acquaintances, leaders in the book industry, champions of the written word…  you get the drift.

I chose The Summerhouse by Jude Deveroux as my First Book of 2020 because this book has wonderful memories for me and has a storyline that left me thinking about it for weeks… well years really, afterward.

Summerhouse is about three girls who meet back in their school days, Leslie, Madison, and Ellie.  They become friends over the fact that they share the same birthday.  Well, life happens and they all go their separate ways and onward with their lives.  

Then, as they are about to turn forty, they all have different things going on in their lives that are not as they had hoped.  They decide to meet up at a Summerhouse in Maine and connect over a weekend of catching up.   The girls all spend the first evening opening up about what is going on in their lives and they talk long into the night.  In the morning, they decide to go out shopping for gifts for one another and go into town and split up with plans to meet up later.  When they do meet up, they all find out that somewhere along their shopping time, they all received a little card inviting them to Madam Zoya’s.  Thinking it would be a hoot, they decide to do it.  Once they arrive, they are offered a chance to go back in time to a time when they made a choice that really set their future path and have an opportunity to make a different decision…  thinking why not… its all just smoke and mirrors, they all decide to do it.

The result is a book that still holds a coveted spot on my bookshelves.  It is still a book I hand out to friends and is considered a “book rescue” meaning if I see a used copy somewhere I have to purchase it so someone else can take this magical journey.

I have been reflecting a lot lately.  Perhaps that why I chose this book for now.  I know the great discussion my book club had around it when we read it in 2003.  I know it will hold a different message for me now.

Happy reading all.  May 2020 lead you to books that you too will hold as treasures long after you have read them.
~Sheila

For those of you who have been around these last 10 years (EEP), you know I was once quite the blogger/book chatter/writer girl.  This site… if you dig through the glorious archives is not only an artifact of my love of books… within the posts, is also the story of me.

And…
If you have been with me all these years.  You know much of that story… much of my strong review years, what slowed me down to now (life, loss, change) to this, my eventual pop in once in a while.
Because of all of that I just said, I keep this site active as it does hold much of me… a bit of a Horcrux (but not the evil kind).

Ok – this is not meant to be about that.  I wanted to share a little history of First Book – the one consistent I have held on this site.

First Book started with me, long before I knew what a blog was.  I always made a big deal out of my first book of the year… making it a “no rules book” – just merely guilty pleasure – a book I was reading not because it was the next hot thing, not because it should be read next, not because it was for my book club – etc etc…. First Book to me was a book that I wanted to read for me.  It could be anything.  A re-read of a favorite.  One I had put off for a while (years even) due to time restraints etc…, one that was not in my normal genre circle but I longed to give it a try…

Seven years ago I brought First Book to Book Journey.  Opening up my silly tradition to the masses – anyone else who wanted an excuse to read something they really wanted to read for no reason at all then they wanted to read it.

It has been a lot of fun. as you can see by the posts and the pictures of those who shared their first book (some of you are represented year after year!)

2019 First Book

2018 First Book

2017 First Book

2016 First Book 

2015 First Book

2014 First Book

I keep it going for many reasons.  It connects me to the book lovers/reviewers that I have come to know through the years – heck, I even met quite a few of you that are not in my everyday world.  It is also fun to see if there is a book that is selected many times (last Year Crawdads and Michelle Obama’s book Becoming were featured frequently).  And if I am completely open and honest – I do it because it gives me a project to get through the New Year and focus on something positive instead of losing myself in loss.

That all said… I do hope you join in this year.  It’s easy – you just send in a picture of yourself with the first book you plan to be reading into the New Year.  You can email me at sdechantal@gmail.com or PM me on Facebook – or even add it to a Facebook post I wrote about First Book.

Thanks All!  Happy Holidays!

Sheila

Here we go – year 7.   I am THRILLED to continue this tradition, even when I don’t stay as well connected as I once did on this space. Thank you to those who have messaged me to ask if I will be doing it again.

The answer is…

Of course we are doing it.

My life has changed quite a bit.  Now working as a Full-Time Event/Promotions coordinator, and involved in a few non-profits, I don’t have the reading time or writing time that I used to.  I do write a bit at I Guess I Am Doing This (also a work in process… but I am not giving up.)

So what is First Book?  First Book to me, is that first book you plan on reading for the New Year.  It can be a long-coveted read you have not had time for, a guilty pleasure read like a re-read of a favorite…  really it can be anything – it is, after all, YOUR First Book.

Make it AWESOME.

Then, once you have picked what it will be, email/ Facebook message me a picture of you with the book (send it to sdechantal@gmail.com).  This adds to the excitement of the First Book.  You have between now and December 31st to send in your choice.  On January 1st I will post all the pics in a collage format of all of you around the world that are doing First Book.  I do hope you will join me – friends, family, fellow book lovers, a friend of a friend of a friend… this event each year and your willingness to do this with me makes my heart smile.  🙂
Here is some (yes some)  of what came in last year:

Remember – this should be the first book you plan to be reading into the New Year.  Yes, you can start it New Year’s Eve. :p  You can send the picture (sdechantal@gmail.com) anytime between now and December 31st so I can prep the collage.  Thanks, everyone… having this project to work on makes the New Year fun.

 

A book about four siblings knowing the day they will die and what they do with that knowledge….  it really opens up the question, would you want to know?

~Sheila

 

It is the late 1960’s and four children (from 7 – 13) find themselves before a Traveling Physic who claims to be able to tell them the day they will die.  She does, privately with each one and go on their way believing and not believing…

The Immortalists then breaks into 4 parts and follows each sibling throughout their life to that day.  What choices they make, and where it all ends.  Do they live recklessly – or with abandon – or fully… as we, those who do not know, all should never knowing when that day or this day – will be your last.

What does the sibling do that has the least amount of time?  What about the one with the most?

 

I finished this book late yesterday afternoon.  I was listening to it on audio while channeling Marie Kondo and tackling my closet.  And to be honest, I am still tossing around in my head what I think of it.

I think I am struggling because it was not what I thought it was going to be.  I expected a more magical element to the book.  One portion of the book was also way more sexually detailed then for my taste in books and while that chapter is extremely powerful, admittedly I had a few moments where I considered giving up on the book.

Now – that I have completed the book and understand what the author was doing… I feel that overall the book is brilliantly written.  The diving of the chapters is a perfect telling for this style of read.

This book was up for vote by my book club on three separate occasions and won for our current read that we will be discussing tomorrow evening.  I am super curious where they landed on this one and I feel it is going to bring out good discussion.  I am looking forward to the big questions regarding dealing with grief, and the supernatural – and of course… if we could know when our last day would be…

would we want to know? 

 

NPR Review of The Immortalists

 

In my teens… I loved me some Stephen King… he was my go to for dark stories.  In my twenties, I discovered Dean Koontz (a little less wild than King) and read everything the man wrote… and then I found Harlan –  who has a a way of mixing great mystery with witty humor…  there’s a little something he adds to the genre that makes my heart leap when a new book is coming by him.

~Sheila

 

New jersey Detective Napoleon Dumas (yes… Dumas… not a typo) is still haunted by the freak accident that took the life of his twin brother Leo and Leo’s girlfriend Diana when they were all still in High School.  Both were found dead on the railroad tracks, the whole episode put in the books as teen partying.  That same night, Nap’s girlfriend Maura broke up with him and was never seen again… as years go on, it seems that other close friends of Leo’s are also dying in mysterious ways.  Is someone trying to keep something quiet?

15 years later… none of this still makes sense.

When Maura’s fingerprints show up in a rental car of a suspected murdered, Nap feels he may finally have a lead to answers.  His search becomes an obsession as he feels he is on the verge of knowing what really happened that night to his brother, Diane and what are these ripple effects that still seem to be happening….

 

I do love Coben’s mind.  Don’t Let Go, is a perfect title for this book and true to form… Harlan does not let me down with a protagonist with a last name of Dumas.

Classic Coben.

Don’t get me wrong –  Coben’s humor does not get in the way of a good mystery, in fact other than Dumas’s unfortunate name (which admittedly he was teased for throughout school) the book lends itself to a dark mystery of covered up events.  I found myself having a hard time putting the book down as I wanted to know what was going to happen.  The ending was a solid “Whoa!”  And that’s a good thing.

Readers who enjoy a good solid mystery that does not go too far or gory will enjoy Coben’s books.

 

Sheila DeChantal enjoys reviewing books here, and also writes on other subjects (as well as books) at IguessIamdoingthis.com

Sometimes you need just a good solid mystery to wrap your mind around….

~Sheila

 

Julia’s world fell apart when two years previously she lost bother her husband and daughter Lily in the same day.  Her daughters body never surfaced and Julia, trying to move on but not sure how, remains in the same home which she has now opened up as an Author’s Retreat Center.

Lucas, an author who writes Horror, has come to the retreat escaping his own demons.  When he hears about Lily’s disappearance, he becomes obsessed with finding out what really happened.

Surrounded by a town that believes deeply in old superstitions, quirky characters and deep secrets – what is about to come to the surface is not at all what anyone expects.

 

I dove into the retreat looking for a good mystery to release my mind from the non fiction I had been reading of late.  A book about an Authors Retreat and a solid disappearance was just the ticket.  I enjoyed the mix of Author attendees at the retreat and the mystery of Lily had just the right amount of spooky flavor to not be over the top.  I thoroughly enjoyed this read – surprised in the end.

 

This was my first time reading author Mark Edwards, and it will not be my last.

 

Sheila DeChantal writes book reviews at Book Journey as well as writes on other subjects including Life, Grief, Food and more at I Guess I Am Doing This.