Happy Wednesday! This morning I am meeting our new office person in the office to get her started and then off to do my job at the church.
As I sit here drinking in my coffee this morning and trying to think of what is new and exciting over here – I was reminded that I really haven’t talked about the April 10th Readathon. That’s right, mark your calendars, grab your books, shut off your phones, and lock your doors!
I have experienced the last two readathons and really found them to be fun. If you have time stop over at the Dewey’s readathon site and nose around. You will see last falls challenges and get a good taste of what happens during the 24 hours.
Is it all reading? No- there are Mini Challenges throughout the day.
Whats a Mini Challenges? It is a small task that you pop over to a designated blog and perform if you want to.
The mini challenges could be a book trivia game, or name that cover, or tasking you to write a post on a book that really meant a lot to you and why, etc…
You choose the ones you wish to do, pass on those you do not. Every challenge has a winner! Woo hoo! Last year I won the new (at the time) Lost Symbol by Dan Brown.
Currently we are looking for challenge hosts. Stop over to the Dewey’s Readathon and see what we are looking for. If you have an idea, be sure to fill out the form.
Ok I am off to do what I do! Have a super great day! I would love to hear if yo have participated in a readathon before or are planning to do this one. If so – do you have any books in mind for the event?
A mother who cannot face her future.
A daughter who cannot escape her past.
Lady Elisabeth Kerr is a keeper of secrets. A Highlander by birth and a Lowlander by marriage, she turns to the auld ways, desperate to conceal a generations-old scandal that taints her family’s name.
Her husband, Lord Donald, has secrets of his own, well hidden from the household, yet whispered among the town gossips. Elisabeth cannot–must
His mother, the dowager Lady Marjory, hides gold beneath her floor and guilt inside her heart. Though her two abiding passions are maintaining her place in society and coddling her grown sons, Marjory’s many regrets, buried in Greyfriars Churchyard, continue to plague her.
One by one the Kerr family secrets begin to surface, even as bonny Prince Charlie and his rebel army ride into Edinburgh in September 1745, intent on capturing the crown. not–discover the truth, or all will be ruined.
There is nothing like the feeling of reading a book that makes you feel like you dropped into the pages to explore the world it proved for yourself. That is the best way I can describe the feeling of this book.
I do enjoy historical fiction and this read and this one hit home with me. I found that Liz Curtis Higgs has taken a page out of Francine Rivers book and wrote in the likes on Naomi and Ruth out of the Bible, making the story come to light in new ways. The Scottish setting was interesting, yet some of the language distracted me from the read.
While many characters are not appealing to me because it is too many story lines to keep track of, I appreciated that the book mainly focuses on two of the characters, Elizabeth and Marjory. While the book was a little long, I did enjoy it and was glad to welcome back author Liz Curtis Higgs to my reading room.
LIZ CURTIS HIGGS is the author of twenty-seven books with three million copies in print, including: her best-selling historical novels, Thorn in My Heart, Fair Is the Rose, Christy Award-winner Whence Came a Prince, and Grace in Thine Eyes, a Christy Award finalist; My Heart’s in the Lowlands: Ten Days in Bonny Scotland, an armchair travel guide to Galloway; and her contemporary novels, Mixed Signals, a Rita Award finalist, and Bookends, a Christy Award finalist. Visit the author’s extensive website at www.lizcurtishiggs.com
AND – there is a giveaway! To enter this giveaway leave a comment here telling me what book by Liz Curtis Higgs would you be interested in reading (besides this one) or what other book have you read by her.
For additional entries:
Be a subscriber of this blog and let me know in a separate comment here for 2 extra entries (subscribe in upper right sidebar)
Tweet or blog about this giveaway and let me know in a separate comment for another entry
Giveaway will end on April 6 – USA and Canada only please
LOL… If you seen my Saturday post you would have read that I picked up the Flip Video Recorder. Now you poor readers are subject to not only my sad attempts at video blog (VLOG) but also my odd sense of humor….
Today I am at work all afternoon and then tonight is “tantalizing Tuesday”. My hubby and I decided to give different days themes and Tuesdays are his one day a week that he gets to choose whats for dinner. I always pick the meals. This is kind of fun except me chose Tatar tot hot dish…. ok, that’s not hard….. when he added a spinach salad with a raspberry glaze and chocolate mousse with banana slices for dessert.
Good grief….LOL
He says he has been thinking about it for two days so I guess that is cool and he works hard so I am going to create this. Just wait until bike ride Saturday which means we bike ride for as long as I choose 🙂
For now – off to the gym before work (have to squeeze that in when I can!)
Monday again? Yup…. I guess that’s right. Last week was a lot of fun getting around seeing what you were all reading. It is also fun to see you connect with the other Monday memers and leaving comments as most of really love comments!
And speaking of comments, as always I offer up again the book or item of choice out of the prize box to one commenter for commenting on the other Monday What Are You Reading posts and then letting me know here how many you have commented on, one entry per every ten comments.
So who was the comment this past week? Thanks for asking! 🙂 I cranked up random.org and we pulled out this winner:
Tammy Dahle
Woo Hoo Tammy! Please pick your item of choice out of the prize box and them email me your address at journeythroughbooks@gmail.com
(Note – that from last weeks plan I am finishing up The Power Of Half today and The Fiddler’s Gun is in the process of…. I am also still working my way through the Michael Sullivan trio and am excited to soon give you the full review, interview, and maybe even a giveaway!)
X2…. yes along with my review of this book I will be offering an additional copy to one lucky reader of my blog! I know right?
I have read and loved Adriana Triginai’s writing in the past…. I am hoping lightning will strike twice and this one will be wonderful too!
I have been a long time fan of all things Titanic. I have read several books both fiction and non fiction as well as seen many movies on the subject and toured the Titanic exhibit in Florida.
Please use the MckLinky below to add your Monday, What Are You Reading link so we can go and see what you have going on this week as well!
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Click here to enter your link and view the entire list of entered links…
Psychiatrist Andrew Marlowe, devoted to his profession and the painting hobby he loves, has a solitary but ordered life. When renowned painter Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery of Art and becomes his patient, Marlow finds that order destroyed. Desperate to understand the secret that torments the genius, he embarks on a journey that leads him into the lives of the women closest to Oliver and a tragedy at the heart of French Impressionism.
Kostova’s masterful new novel travels from American cities to the coast of Normandy, from the late 19th century to the late 20th, from young love to last love. THE SWAN THIEVES is a story of obsession, history’s losses, and the power of art to preserve human hope.
The Swan Thieves is a 17 CD set audio. Beautifully titled, elegantly covered, I was drawn to the sound and the look of this audio much as an artist is drawn to an art gallery.
The story of Robert Oliver, a man not handsome, but has a presence, a way that he carries himself that reeks of self-assurance and that is a powerful tool of attraction as you will find out within this work of words. As I began to listen, I was quickly brought into the heart of the story, this man, Robert, known for his talents and his teachings has done the unthinkable. Robert in a rage, has attacked a painting. A painting? And now, it is up to psychiatric doctor, Andrew Marlow, to attempt to see beyond the surface of anger and get to the canvas of the man who was, and is, Robert.
The reading of this audio is top-notch. The gentle almost rhythmic voice of Treat Williams is fitting for the role of a patient person such as Dr. Marlow. Anne Heche, who us the voice of Robert’s ex-wife Kate, is perfectly cautious yet strong, and Erin Cottrell who is Mary, Roberts one time lover and mistress, is the voice of young, prideful, and the self assured student to the great teacher.
There are other voices as well, Sarah Zimmerman and John Rafter Lee, who are the voices from the letters of the past… spoken in engaging strong accents that add to the timelessness of their story they tell through the writings. I found myself engaged in their story as it seemed unbeknown to the present day characters that history truly was repeating itself in small ways within Dr. Marlow and Mary.
Honestly, as engaging as this reading was, I am not sure if I had read the book if I would have made it all the way through. While extremely detailed, the audio is long and drawn out. Towards the end I have to admit I started to skim the last few CDs chapters of the accented voices and cling to the story of Marlow, Mary, and Robert. I think the book would have buried me in all of the words, and while I truly enjoyed the story, I think it could have been just as wonderful if not even more so if some of the great details had been taken out.
I have not read Elizabeth Kostova’s Historian. I would like too. However, I do hear that it is also long and that may require me to search out this book as well in audio format.
Thank you as always to the wonderful Kristi at Story Siren who hosts this weekly meme that I just adore! Kristi inspires me so much! 🙂
Yesterday my hubby and I went to Best Buy to pick up a computer for our front office. The store was extremely short-handed on help and while we knew what we wanted it took over an hour to get help with it. While we waited I was looking around at the Flip Video cameras. A couple friends of mine have them and I think they are super cool and I really wanted to have one before BEA this year.
Well….. I guess I spent too much time looking at the Flip Video Cam because today I went back in their and purchased their package deal which was the camcorder, tripod, a carrying case and a cord that I have no idea what it does yet. 🙂
AND I am telling you all of this because what I am offering up for my mailbox post tonight, my debut video on the flip video cam. It’s pretty amateur as I do not know how to use my I Tunes music for background music choices so had to use what came with the cam. (I had a much better song in mind….). Hopefully as time goes by I will become better at this – but for now I present to you, My Mailbox:
Ok…..LOL.. It is pretty cheesy but I decided to leave it so when I improve (ha ha) I will be able to look at this original one and laugh until pop comes out my nose. Seriously. 🙂
Here is what you seen in the above video:
From Ye Ol’ Library
I have really learned to appreciate my library these past few months!
Thank you to Hachette Book Group for three copies of this wonderful book for giveaway!
This giveaway is closed
When Regina Brett turned 50, she wrote a column on the 50 lessons life had taught her. She reflected on all she had learned through becoming a single parent, looking for love in all the wrong places, working on her relationship with God, battling cancer and making peace with a difficult childhood. It became one of the most popular columns ever published in the newspaper, and since then the 50 lessons have been emailed to hundreds of thousands of people.
Brett now takes the 50 lessons and expounds on them in essays that are deeply personal. From “Don’t take yourself too seriously-Nobody else does” to “Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift,” these lessons will strike a chord with anyone who has ever gone through tough times–and haven’t we all?
How To win?
To be entered in this giveaway leave a comment here telling me what appeals to you about this book.
Bonus Entries? Always!
For two additional entries, be a subscriber of this blog (upper right sidebar) and let me know that you are in a separate comment.
For another entry, tweet or blog about this giveaway and let me know in a separate comment.
And for yet one more additional entry, be a follower of this blog and let me know in a separate comment.
(The separate comments help me in adding up your correct entries)
This giveaway is open to USA and Canada. Giveaway will end April 4.
At the start of Doetsch’s tricky thriller, an innocent man, Nicholas Quinn, is in police custody, suspected of murdering his wife, Julia, at their house in upscale Byram Hills, N.Y. Then a stranger gives Nick a watchlike device that allows him to change the past by sending him back, one hour at a time, for half a day. When Nick goes back in time, he discovers single events are the result of a complex web of causes. Saving his wife means untangling a plot that includes a robbery committed by corrupt cops, a horrendous plane crash and a mysterious family secret. Julia’s fate seems to be inevitable, one way or another, and Nick’s tampering brings death to friends and allies along the way. At times Doetsch (The Thieves of Faith) oversells Nick’s anguish with breathless prose, and no character emerges as more than a cardboard cutout, but readers will enjoy the clever razzle-dazzle of a story whose parts fit together like clockwork.
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
I wish I could remember the blog I first seen this book on. I know I left a comment about how thrilling the book looked and I apologize for not remembering where I first picked up on this book. When I first layed hands on my copy and opened it up to the authors note, I knew I was in for a treat:
YOU ARE NOT MISTAKEN as you turn the next page and find Chapter 12.
The chapters of this book are in reverse order and are to be read that way for reasons that will become evident upon your journey.
Pretty sweet right? I love an unusual book and Richard Doetsch comes through in flying colors!
As the book opens we are brought into the wonderful relationship of Nick and his wife Julia. Still madly in love after many years, even despite their morning quarrel it is clear they are very much still in love. In a matter of pages…. their love is snubbed out by an unknown killer who takes Julia’s life and Nick is soon in custody for her murder.
As the above synopsis describes, Nick is offered a chance to go back in time to change the past and save Julia. Who wouldn’t jump at a chance like this? What follows in a whirlwind read as Nick goes back only one hour at a time, the first leap to right before he is arrested (but still after the murder) and then with each leap back he goes to an hour previous to the one he just completed.
In a style of writing I found fascinating much to the likes of the popular shows LOST and Flash Forward, I found myself engrossed in a read that gave Nick only an hour at a time to make changes to the future that he soon discovers not only can alter the outcome of Julia’s brutal murder, but can also change how things go down affecting other lives as well – and not necessarily for the better.
With each backwards turn of the clock, Nick tries to improve what he is doing, leaving clues behind to help others help him and perfect the task at hand before he and Julia run out of time.
Towards the end of the read so many characters had been introduced I had a bit of a struggle keeping them all straight, and the flashbacks of going back and repeating mistakes he made the previous hour to change the outcome towards the end became a bit tedious….. as a reader, I became frustrated. Yet as I thought about the book, I found the frustration brilliant as if I was frustrated with the repeat of activities, and the tweaking of details, how must Nick feel having to do this time and again only to be snapped backward to do it again, but earlier and hopefully – better.
And what is in the box? The box everyone is after – the secrets of a family handed down generation after generation….. more valuable than the original paintings that line their walls or the diamonds in the safe…..
And because of this unusual style of book, I know it will be one that will stick with me for many years to come and not blend into my mind in a mix of copycat books that are all pretty much centered around the same theme, and the same outcome.
I should have had this post up closer to the beginning of the month, but here I am, over half way through March (can you believe that?) and I am just now getting to it.
Domestic Violence and Child Abuse are subjects that tear me to my very core. I have been a Kinship Partner for 7 years now. The Kinship program is a lot like a big brother, big sister program. You become a mentor to a child and spend time with them weekly doing whatever – watching a movie, going to the park, working on a project, whatever….. you are just to bring the child into your life. If you follow this blog,, you have probably heard me talk about Chance. Chance has been our families Kinship Partner since he was 7 years old. At the end of May he will be 15.
I mention Kinship Partners not because it has to do with the Social Topic for March, but because as a Kinship Partner you are a Mandatory Reporter. Basically that means that if I see or hear anything unusual – I have to report it to the proper authorities here in my county. Learning to do this, and learning what it is about, has really opened my eyes to things I do see not only in my own community, but so much of it in Honduras when we are working with kids there.
I find this to be such an important topic that I went a bit wild with the books that were listed at The Social Justice Challenge Website and checked out several that I hope to be able to read and review yet this month:
I never once made it back on-line yesterday after I took off for St. Cloud. I didn’t anticipate it taking the whole day, but it did! Productive though because Colleen and I had a lot of fun chatting the hour drive there and back, we purchased all our needs for the home show this upcoming weekend and had lunch at Red Lobster. Fabulously yummy.
Once home, late afternoon, AL and I went to Best Buy to pick out a computer for our new Office Assistant that starts this Monday. We were there over 2 hours and when I got home I was so tired I didn’t even check my lap top…. instead I read and finished the delightful, 13 Hours. (Review will be up today)
Today’s Morning Meandering is going to cover three winners. First up is yesterdays review and giveaway of My Shoes And I. I had so much reading this book and am excited that the author has graciously offered a signed copy of the book to one lucky commenter from yesterdays post. Coffee Cup and I pulled our Random.Org…. fired it up and it picked commenter #4:
ellie
YAY ellie! Woo hoo! I have emailed her this morning and once I have her address I will connect with the author to have the book mailed to her. 🙂
Next I have three sets of The Swan Thieves on Audio by Elizabeth Kostova to give to three lucky commenters. I have been listening to these CD’s in my vehicle every time I drive anywhere. I just started the last CD yesterday so I will soon have a review on this.
Woo Hoo Winners! I have emailed you all this morning (well, Coffee Cup and I), and once I hear back from you with addresses and shouts of joy I will forward your info on to the publisher to have these moving towards you! 🙂
And finally, I have had so much fun with the “Oh Snap! Guess What I Got? post. That was the post with all my treasures (my precious!) from the library sale I attended a week ago. I had a giveaway idea to have all of you tell me which book you would love to own and that would be the one I would read first and once read I would pass on to the person who had asked me for it on the comment list.
This is exciting because this will actually motivate me to read these books! 🙂 So using Random.org this morning, the person whose comment won is:
Congratulations Ryan! I am a huge Titanic nerd – love all things Titanic, have several movies and books on the topic and even a newspaper replica of the front page of the sinking of the Titanic. I know I know, could I scream dork any louder? LOL
I will read this one as soon as I can and pass it on to Ryan. This idea was so fun I think I will use it again after I complete this book to have you all choose my next read out of the sale box as well. 🙂
This morning I am hanging our right here for a while with Coffee Cup. I have a review to write, blogs to visit, a challenge to work on…. I ran so hard this week I have decided to hit the brakes this morning. And then kick it in gear again this afternoon.
Book Journey 