Giveaway: Off Season by Anne Rivers Siddons

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)26 Comments

I am delighted to not only be receiving this book from Hachette Book Group and Valerie Russo, but off seasonalso to be able to offer 5 copies of this book to lucky readers of this blog!

Acclaimed novelist Anne Rivers Siddons’s new novel is a stunning tale of love and loss.

For as long as she can remember, they were Cam and Lilly–happily married, totally in love with each other, parents of a beautiful family, and partners in life. Then, after decades of marriage, it ended as every great love story does…in loss. After Cam’s death, Lilly takes a lone road trip to her and Cam’s favorite spot on the remote coast of Maine, the place where they fell in love over and over again, where their ghosts still dance. There, she looks hard to her past–to a first love that ended in tragedy; to falling in love with Cam; to a marriage filled with exuberance, sheer life, and safety– to try to figure out her future.

It is a journey begun with tender memories and culminating in a revelation that will make Lilly re-evaluate everything she thought was true about her husband and her marriage.

Here is what you can do to receive  chances to win this book:

1.  Post here with your favorite “road trip” destination.  (Be sure you leave me a way to connect with you in the event you are one of the winners!)

2.  For a second chance to win, please post this contest to your blog and post a link to it for me to see.

3.  For a third chance to win, Follow me on Twitter!

Contest will run through July 13th.  The winners are chosen by using random.com.  I will post the 5 winners here as well as email you for your mailing information.  The books will come from the publisher.  Please US entries only and no po boxes.

Anne Rivers Siddons website

Interview with Anne Rivers Siddons

Giveaway! Amy Minute by Joyce Meyer (audio)

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)20 Comments

any minuteThank you to Anna Balasi with Hachette Audio Books for allowing me not only to to review this audio book but offer a giveaway to three lucky winners to receive a copy of this as well sent directly from them!

Sarah Harper is driven, pursuing happiness in all the wrong places. It’s not until she faces a chance encounter with heaven and spends time with the grandmother who prayed for her every day when she was a little girl that she begins to see how her own mother’s bitterness created a hole in Sarah’s life. For the first time, Sarah sees that God created her for a special purpose. When Sarah returns to her own life, she is a woman with a mission. And the unsuspecting world around her will never be the same again.


While I anxiously await my review copy – we can still get the contest started here!  Here is how to get chances to win:

1.  comment here with your name and tell me where you listen to audio books

2.  Earn two extra chances to win if you connect this contest to your blog (send me the link when this is done)

3.  Follow me on Twitter for a bonus chance!

Contest will end on July 12.  US entries only and no PO boxes.  At the end of this contest I will announce the winners here as well as email you for your shipping information.  Good luck to all!

Listen to an excerpt.

The Necklace by cheryl jarvis

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)2 Comments

the necklace

I heard about this book through my book club and was interested right from the start when I heard what it was about:

One day in Ventura, California, Jonell McLain saw a beautiful diamond necklace in a jewelry store window and wondered: Why are personal luxuries so plentiful yet accessible to so few? What if we shared what we desired? Several weeks, dozens of phone calls, and one great leap of faith later, Jonell and twelve other women bought the necklace together–to be passed along among them all.

The dazzling treasure weaves in and out of each woman’s life, reflecting her past, defining her present, making promises for her future. Lending sparkle in surprising and unexpected ways, the necklace comes to mean something dramatically different to each of the thirteen women. With vastly dissimilar histories and lives, they transcend their individual personalities and politics to join together in an uncommon journey–and what started as a quirky social experiment becomes something far richer and deeper.

For one, I love books about strong women.   Secondly – this is a true story of 13 women who bonded a friendship over this necklace.  I like friendships….

The stories within this book – tales from a necklace…. in some cases remarkable (like the money raised for charities), yet in many other cases – confusing.  The book is written giving each chapter a story about one of the women who wore it, but I did not feel the friendship between the women I was hoping for.  There was a lot of negotiating and bickering about the necklace, who could wear, in one case saying public promotion was taboo yet two chapters later it is exactly what they are doing.  We are talking about a $34,000 piece of jewelry that I would thing most of us (certainly myself) would not even consider at $1,000.

I am not a big jewelery fan, I could never see myself even considering to be part of something so costly.  Even though I love the whole concept about sharing an item that bonds you closer together… for me, this book was never about the necklace.  It was always about wanting to read how this group bonded, yet I close the book wondering if they ever really did.

I was initially very excited to review this book.  Yet, I actually had to rewrite this review because it still has left me a bit unsettled by the way it was written.  I seek comfort in the fact that while these women have many things going on in their lives that I find hard to relate too, the necklace did bring good to those whose lives it touched.

There were parts I loved and parts I just didnt feel made for the best reading.  This book rates a below average read from me.

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)3 Comments

I had a couple books that I had read a while ago that have recently become movies so I thought it would be fun to blogangels on them as I had read these books before I even knew what blogging was.  One of these books is My Sisters Keeper (see review below this post)…. the other, Angels and Demons.

I like to call my book club the Bookies – ahead of their time.  In 2005 we read this book and chose it as our best book we read that year.  Now in 2009, it is a movie.  Apparently we werent the only ones that thought it was pretty darn good.

Prior to my blogging debut, I wrote all the books I read into a three rng binder and kept reviews there.  No kidding.  I have wrote everything I have read and my thoughts (reviews) long before I ever knew that I would one day be doing it publically.  I have everything I have read since 2002.

Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is shocked to find proof that the legendary secret society, the Illuminati–dedicated since the time of Galileo to promoting the interests of science and condemning the blind faith of Catholicism–is alive, well, and murderously active. Brilliant physicist Leonardo Vetra has been murdered, his eyes plucked out, and the society’s ancient symbol branded upon his chest. His final discovery, antimatter, the most powerful and dangerous energy source known to man, has disappeared–only to be hidden somewhere beneath Vatican City on the eve of the election of a new pope. Langdon and Vittoria, Vetra’s daughter and colleague, embark on a frantic hunt through the streets, churches, and catacombs of Rome, following a 400-year-old trail to the lair of the Illuminati, to prevent the incineration of civilization.

Here are my original thoughts on this book:

January 22, 2005:  Once again I have experienced a great read by Dan Brown.  My first experience was last summer when I read The Davinchi Code which was a fantastic read.  Now reading Angels and Demons for our book club, I see similarities in his writing style.  Robert Langdon (same main character in both books), is called tot eh scene of a crime at the Vatican.  I really enjoy reading about the Vatican = what a beautiful and mysterious place.  Breda, in our book club has visited there and had pictures at the review.  BREATH TAKING!

I actually finished reading this book on the plane to Costa Rica on our family vacation.  I gave it to a person who I met onthe plane, a fellow reader and I have to share good reads!

(Update 6/23/2009)  Looking at my old review I see I left out my favorite part of the book, and that was the library.  I remember reading about the library of rare important books, air pressurized, temperature control and guarded in a locked glass room….  I thought if I could only have 10 minutes in that room to breathe in those books….  (much the same feeling I had when I watched the movie National Treasure with Nicholas Cage and they were in the rare library room…bookies awards

As for the movie, I found it a slight disappointment as I had with Davinchi Code as well.  Not really important to the book perspective, but I have to mention that Tom Hanks was not what I pictured of our character Robert Langdon.  Granted, he looked better in Angels and Demons.  I think what disappointed me the most is the fact of how easy it all comes together in the movie version.  In the book you go through a long interesting process of clues and codes… wrong turns and deep plot… in the movie its like they turn a corner and it is just magically there.

The book, then and now rated a great fiction read.  I would recommend not judging this book by the movie.  Read the book.

My Sisters Keeper by Jodi Picoult

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)4 Comments

My book club read this in 2006…. (pre blogging) I was still at that time journaling everything I read in sisters keppera large three ring binder.  The book turned out to be voted on as the book book we read of that year and I have that in my library on a plaque.  I love that three years ago that we had chosen a book to be the best book we had read that year as a group is now going to be a movie.  It’s not the first time we have done that…. but hey, thats a whole other blog post.

So – with the movie coming out soon, I thought I would dust off my notes on this book and blog review it at this time, using my thoughts from three years ago.  This was, at that time, the first Jodi Piccoult most of had ever read.

The difficult choices a family must make when a child is diagnosed with a serious disease are explored with pathos and understanding in this 11th novel by Picoult (Second Glance, etc.). The author, who has taken on such controversial subjects as euthanasia (Mercy), teen suicide (The Pact) and sterilization laws (Second Glance), turns her gaze on genetic planning, the prospect of creating babies for health purposes and the ethical and moral fallout that results. Kate Fitzgerald has a rare form of leukemia. Her sister, Anna, was conceived to provide a donor match for procedures that become increasingly invasive. At 13, Anna hires a lawyer so that she can sue her parents for the right to make her own decisions about how her body is used when a kidney transplant is planned. Meanwhile, Jesse, the neglected oldest child of the family, is out setting fires, which his firefighter father, Brian, inevitably puts out. Picoult uses multiple viewpoints to reveal each character’s intentions and observations, but she doesn’t manage her transitions as gracefully as usual; a series of flashbacks are abrupt. Nor is Sara, the children’s mother, as well developed and three-dimensional as previous Picoult protagonists. Her devotion to Kate is understandable, but her complete lack of sympathy for Anna’s predicament until the trial does not ring true, nor can we buy that Sara would dust off her law degree and represent herself in such a complicated case. Nevertheless, Picoult ably explores a complex subject with bravado and clarity, and comes up with a heart-wrenching, unexpected plot twist at the book’s conclusion.

(as written on 9/8/2006) This book?  Fantastic!  Jodi Picoult has an incredible gift with words.  Her writing keeps you on the edge of your seat, the court case felt so real I may as well have been juror #1, hanging on every word.   This book gives a different twist to sisters Kate and Anna.  Kate has leukemia and Anna, her younger sister is born to supply Kate with the much needed bone marrow and blood cells that Kate needs.  When Anna turns 13… she hires a lawyer for rights to her own body.  This book makes you love, and it makes you hate.  It deals with moral issues and matetrs of the heart.  On a 1 to 5 rating I give it a 7+!  READ IT.  YOU WILL LOVE IT.

(Today – 6/23/3009)  As we all know by now, Jodi Picoult is not a one hit wonder author.  Her name is well known for her incredible writing skills and her way of taking a hot topic and putting a twist on it so you see the whole thing from a different view point.  In my book, she is a must read.

I will add an update to this post after I have seen the movie.  I have seen the previews, which brought it all back, and they made me cry…. can’t wait to see what the movie does to me.

Monday Mind Game…. Be Honest… Do You Judge a Book by Its Cover

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)8 Comments

question-marks1Seriously….  It is an age old statement… a sort of urban legend if you will…  “You can not judge a book by its cover.”

Uhhhhh….. Who said that?  Certainly not the “they say” we hear so much about.  You know the ones.  “They say” it can’t be done.  “They say” that milk is bad for you and eating fish causes you to get webbed toes….  Ok, not to get side tracked here.

I admit when browsing my favorite book stores looking for that next hidden treasure, that diamond among the coal… I do notice the cover.  The cover, much like meeting a person for the first time, is the initial introduction.  While the cover is not the sale, it is what causes me to stop – look at the title and flip to the back to see what it is about.  The cover… is art.  It is what I hope to showcase in my own library… big beautiful books.

The cover makes me wonder what it holds inside… where will it take me?  Is it a scene of a far away land?  An eerie looking building?  It it footprints in the sand and you have to wonder who’s they are and where did they go?

I have on occasion even purchased a book at a sale because of the beauty of its cover.  (I know, I know… insert gasp here.)  Merely eye candy.

This is just me talking about book browsing.  If someone suggests a book to me or I read a good review about a book – the cover doesn’t mean a thing.  I go out and find a book based on that review, and think highly of the reviewer who found a book that didn’t necessarily shout “Pick me!”

The questions I present today is – do you (and be honest) ever judge a book by its cover?

From Pain To Peace by Pat Bluth (a review…)

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)6 Comments

pain to peaceAs I had mentioned in an earlier post, my friend Adrienne and I biked to Nisswa last week to hear Pat Bluth speak about her book, from Pain to Peace.

Anger will eat away at your soul. It can turn to deep depression and can be emotionally debilitating. Bitterness and unforgiveness are emotional suicides that inflict constant pain and steal joy. When you reach this depth of despair—when life seems like it will never be good again—how do you go on? How do you overcome a rage that burns like a volcano?

Pat Bluth was that volcano. After the death of her teenage daughter by a drunk driver, Pat Bluth wanted revenge when he was let off with a mere slap on the wrist. From Pain to Peace is her compelling story, tracing her journey from rage to forgiveness and healing.

From Pain to Peace is for everyone who has known pain or experienced loss. It will be welcomed by anyone who is looking for an example to follow, a proven path to find spiritual healing. It is a story of tragedy, but it is also a story of great joy. Pat discovered a joy and an intimacy with God she never knew possible. She came to experience his love and peace beyond measure.

I went to school with Pat’s daughter Tammy who had been killed by the drunk driver in 1985.  I was there the night of the accident and was one of the many teenagers who witnessed what happened.  Due to all this, I was anxious to hear Pat’s take on the book and her feelings after all these years.

Having been through my own tragedy of losing my mom and step dad in a head on collision in 1996 due to another driver crossing into their lane – this review takes on a bit of a personal feel for me.

I found From Pain to Peace to be brutally honest.  Pat pours out her heart in this book from the immense despair, to the extreme anger and hate that can fill your heart.  Having felt many of the emotions that Pat did, I could relate well with this book.  What Pat says through the healing process is all the things I wish I could have expressed.

Pats journey through the tough times into God’s grace and healing is reflected well in this book.  At times, her grief caught in my own throat as I remembered all to well what it felt like to be on that treadmill….constantly having to move forward, feeling if you stopped to breathe…. to think even…. you would slip off the end into a dark abyss.

Pat’s words in her chapter on mourning I found also to be right on.  The constantly being asked, “How are you?” Turns into a response that is automatic as we guard our heart against the real truth of how we are…. as if speaking it out loud would cause us to shatter into a million tiny pieces.  Pat’s response was, “Fine.”  I remember mine was, “I am o.k.”

Pat Bluth’s book is an incredible testimony of God’s healing.  I would recommend this book to anyone who has had a tragic loss of someone close to them.  I think you will find comfort in these pages.  Thank you Pat for sharing this healing book.

1 O LORD, You have searched me and known me.
2 You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.
3 You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
4 For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O LORD, You know it altogether.
5 You have hedged me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it.

7 Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.

Bloggiesta Finish Line!!!

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)11 Comments

“Whew!”  What a great weekend and what a great challenge!  I finished!  I feel a little giddy as I look at blogiestaall that I accomplished during this 48 hour challenge and I an THRILLED with the results!   (Link to the original post)

Here are a few highlights:

  • Totally restyled my entire blog layout
  • Visited many of the other bloggers who were involved in this challenge as well to see their blogs and layouts, how they review, style, etc…. I learned so much!
  • Read all of the Blogging Tips page on Book Blogs and picked up many great ideas – some that I have already applied, some I hope to.
  • Completed all the Mini Challenges!!!  (What an awesome addition to the challenge!)
  • Created several new pages to my blog and learned how to add pages within the pages (very very cool!)
  • Completed my first two Guest Blogger reviews and LOVE the result!
  • Cleaned up my dining room table work space by drafting posts for all the books I am reviewing so I am able to just pop in my review when the book is read.  All the links, hosts, pictures, etc are done!
  • I completed a couple random draft posts to publish whenever
  • I sent interview questions to two different authors I know and hope to have their information back soon so I can get the authors interview page looking super fine!
  • My son took a few pictures of me “in book review” mode for my blog to update the outdated ones.
  • I read a ton of info on blogging thanks to the advice of many of the mini challenge sites, and learned a lot
  • My blog score from the one challenge was 71… I changed some things and did the review again and it went to 77!
  • My side bar has been cleaned up and I am still looking at other things to do by watching what some of the great bloggers out there are doing and what looks good.
  • I went to an authors event Friday evening and purchased her book and sent a letter this weekend to her thanking her and giving her my blog info.  I also sent out 10 other letters to area authors.
  • Caught up on reviews I had not posted yet.
  • I created a business card that I really really like and will use when in book related events.
  • I think I left at least 20 comments on different sites and I am continuing to do “visitations” yet this afternoon
  • Total hours invested in the challenge:  a little over 18 hours
  • *** Update as of 1:01 am on June 22….. I have linked on and left a comment on all the Bloggiesta participants that have logged in as having posted their final Bloggiesta words…. (with the exception of one that would not load even after three attempts…)

Final results:  A great looking blog (I think so anyway), new relationships started with other book bloggers, a better understanding of widgets (although I am still trying to grasp how delicious and mebo work…).

Thoughts for the next Bloggiesta… well I thought this was pretty great.  I don’t really know what I would improve on.  The mini challenges were really fun and I would definitely do that again and wouldn’t mind being considered as one of the host spots for a mini challenge.

I just keep opening up my blog and looking at it!  Pretty cheesy of me…. but I am just loving it!  Thank you again to everyone involved!  Standing ovation and a mental high five to each of you.

Today I am going to try to stop in throughout the day at all Bloggiesta participants blogs to see how they did and what they changed on their blogs.  I really learn a lot just by getting off my own page and going out and visiting!  🙂

Here are some challenge pictures:  Enjoy!

P.S.  as for the book shelf that was on my challenge to do list…. uhhhhh… yeah….. it is still in the box, laying in the library…. guess that will wait for a rainy day…. 😉


Size 2 For Life by Ashley Marriott and Marc L Paulsen, MD

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)3 Comments

size 2Size 2 For Life:

Product Description
We didn’t start life as a size 8, 12, 16 or more. So how did we get here? Well, the simple truth is we ate, and we ate, and we ate! So how do we turn things around and get back to the way we deserve? Size 2 for Life shows us how. Presented in clear and easily understood language this amazingly simple new diet and fitness program can make and keep almost any woman a size 2. Included are simple tests to gauge ones current status, a complete diet and exercise program as well as the 21-Day, 2 for Life, quick-start plan for rapid results. Renowned fitness expert, Ashley Marriott and Stanford trained, Dr. Marc Paulsen are on a mission to get people fit and look the way they truly can.

I am always reading something on nutrition or exercise.  It’s just the way I am wired.  I work hard to keep my weight down, but I am human and I struggle like most people to come up with a happy medium.

1.  Eat a well balanced diet.

2.  Exercise

3.  Avoid late night eating.

While this is the backbone of all diet/fitness books, our authors take it a step further and actually give you the tools you need to  break the habits of over eating and poor choice eating.

I did enjoy some of the encouragement given throughout the book, such as how to handle the relative or friend that says, “Oh come on, look at you!  You can have a piece of cake!” There are also pages of charts that show you for your age and height where you should be at physically.

The book takes you through a 21 day menu plan as well as exercise ideas.  I do like that it encourages you to take it slow… this is not a quick fix, this is a life time change of how you look at food and how you do life.

I would say a good read.  There are several articles that are well written for anyone who is serious about making a change.


BLOGGIESTA!!!!!!

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)4 Comments

blogiestaOk…. so I joined a challenge for this weekend called BLOGGIESTA.  Thanks to Maw Books Blog, she is hosting a clean up, add some fun stuff, get ‘er done weekend challenge that started this morning.  Basically – between 8 am this morning…. and 8 am this Sunday,a group of many book bloggers are taking time to do the little tasks that we tend to put off.

So here is my list of to do’s for the challenge and I will cross them off as I complete them, and Sunday afternoon I will post my overall thought of the challenge and what I hopefully will be able to accomplish.  I am actually a little excited as this is my first group challenge!

So here’s the to do list:

  • Write the reviews I still need to write for the books I have completed
  • Write back up post ideas
  • Add new pages to my blog for a user friendly feel (I added the Guest Blogger page, and a Children’s review page and have a plan to add a couple more later tonight!
  • Write Guest Posts
  • Interview an author friend (or two) for a new Authors interview area
  • Put out some invites for Guest Bloggers
  • Make a business card
  • Create the draft posts for all my To Be Read Pile with the links to the hosts, book synapsus, and picture, so all I have to do when it is read is write the actual review
  • Assemble and set up the book shelf I bought a month ago to hold all of the To Be Read pile so it will come off my dining room table
  • Add fun new pictures to my new blog pages
  • Add a favicon or a gravitar of both to my blog
  • Find out what a favicon and gravitar are (already had a gravitar!)
  • Edit my about me page
  • Add a review policy
  • Research area book events to add a possible page on this info to blog
  • Read the Blogging Tips area
  • Clean up side bar
  • Mail out letters to local authors with a business card included
  • email Sarah (author) interview questions for new Author Interview page

Mini-challenges!

There are mini-challenges!  Twelve hosts have generously offered to host mini-challenges.  Each mini-challenge is geared to help you improve your blog, so they are well worth checking out.

All the challenges will be up for the duration of the Bloggiesta, so you have the entire 48 hours to peruse and complete them.  You don’t have to do them all, but for each one that you do complete with a comment on their post, your name will be entered for a giveaway.