Book Journey

The Status Of All Things by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke Narrated by Amy McFadden

Published on March 25, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)6 Comments

Kate is 35 and is addicted to Social Media. It is no surprise then that when her fiance Max decides to break it off at their rehearsal dinner, Kate turns to Facebook to write all about how hurt she is and how she wishes she could do the last month over. Then something odd happens. It seems that whatever Kate posts on Facebook, comes true. When she wakes up the next morning, it is a month earlier and she and Max and still happily engaged. With her new-found power at her fingertips, Kate goes back in time to change a few things that will make Max hers again. When Kate lets her two best friends in on the secret and tries to improve their “statuses” as well… Kate finds out that things don’t always go as you hope, and perhaps it isn’t possible to really change fate.

What a fun idea for a book! In the day and age of social media I loved the idea of our Facebook Status being a way to represent the status we really wish for. With Amy McFadden as the narrator at the wheel – this was a great listen! The combination of the two authors is interesting but however they do it – it works! I thoroughly enjoyed this book on audio, it was interesting to see how Kate tried to make changes that would in the end be better for her, but some how the wording would miss its mark… a really fun listen!

Audible Audio Edition
Listening Length: 9 hours
Program Type: Audiobook
Version: Unabridged
Publisher: Dreamscape Media, LLC
Audible.com Release Date: July 13, 2015

We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach

Published on March 24, 2016March 23, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)2 Comments

Peter the star basketball player for his High School works hard to keep his grades up and keep his high maintenance girlfriend happy. He is not sure if it is love, but she is the cutest girl in the school and any guy would love to be in his shoes…. but is he doing what he wants, or what everyone expects of him?

Eliza just wants to graduate and escape. Her mom left a long time ago, her father is slowly dying and she is tired of it all. Escape is the answer. Escape this town, these people, and her reputation.

Anita is the perfectly put together straight-laced student. She doesn’t party and she is on the fast track to Princeton, She has dreams but her parents have done what they can to squash them.

Andy lives to skateboard, drink, and smoke it up. He doesn’t understand what all the fuss is about planning for the future by knowing what he wants to do with his life. He has years to decide.

Or does he?

A blue star seems to have ripped its way into the atmosphere. Experts say it is an asteroid on a collision course with the earth that will have the effect of a million nuclear bombs. As the time ticks down to the asteroids arrival, for these seniors as well as the rest of the world, suddenly everything that was once important… grades, futures, statistics, college…. none of it really means anything at all. So what, when it comes down to it is really important?

This book had me from the cover.

I was in a book store looking for a different title when this one called to me. I loved that mysterious cover. What are they looking at? And I loved the title. The synopsis, a “Breakfast Club” type grouping of misfits int here own way, and an end of the world scenario. SOLD.

There was much to love about We All Looked Up. I loved that Peter is a jock with a heart and a conscience, I loved Eliza’s black and white look at the world…. nothing gray. Anita with her hidden passion, Andy who goes along with the wrong crowd even when he knows he should choose better for himself. Underneath it all… these kids have heart.

As much as I want to gush over this book…. I admit I might have been a bit started for a good sort of YA potential dystopian read. AND there was much I did love about it. Unfortunately there was so much put into this book so much happening in such a short time frame that I have to admit I don’t think it was fully flushed out. This could easily have been broke down into a three book series and dealt with the many loose ends to keep the reader engaged all throughout the countdown.

I did pass this book on to a friend and I am curious as to what she will think. I still love the book…(there are great literary references!)I just feel there could have been more to it. In the end I had questions about many things unanswered in the book. The book was still a win for me, I am just a little disappointed that it had all the makings of a home run read and I feel left between second and third base.

Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (March 24, 2015)

Morning Meanderings… In The Lull

Published on March 24, 2016March 24, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)6 Comments

Mmmmmm COFFEE.

And… the sun is out.

Good start to the day.

It seems odd to be sitting here enjoying a cup of coffee, seeing the sun, and typing away on my laptop here. The past few weeks there was little to none of that. I feel as though I have hurtled through the Spring Book Sale, jumped through a flaming hoop to run the marathon to Gatsby, and sprinted to a board meeting in St Cloud on Saturday.

Now…

its quiet.

I like it.

Sure there are things still happening. I am sending out a letter to attendees of Gatsby about our Friends group. Hey, we are fun, they need to know it. 🙂 This afternoon I am helping clean up empty boxes from the book sale and bringing them back to the library to fill again for the next sale. This is all minimal though and I am truly thankful. This weekend will be Easter. My first “second” without Justin. It sort of snuck up on me. It is, as Easter tends to be, ahead of the one year anniversary. Last year, Easter was the day after the accident…. this year it is before and will be a sort of emotional kick off I think, to the actual date. That week, was full of Justin activity, because I was with him and those memories are flying at me in full color and I do not want to ever let them go. I think I need to write down what those days were like with him, those amazing days that turned out to be our final days….but they were so good and I am SO THANKFUL for them.

I am taking a little more time to READ these days, while I am listening to audio throughout my day, at night I have been opening up a book, finding solace in the pages of someone elses story. I recently flew through We All Looked Up (review later today), and The Total Package ( book tour later this month). Currently I am reading Lucky Me by Aba Kapur for another book release. I am also LISTENING….. I just finished Shopaholic To The Rescue, and am currently listening to NURSE by Lee Gutkind and narrated by Tavia Gilbert on my phone, and listening to A Touch Of Stardust by Kate Alcott and narrated by Cassandra Campbell.

The Dorito Effect by Mark Schatzker and Narrated by Chris Patton

Published on March 23, 2016March 23, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)4 Comments

In a world of fad diets, carb and calorie counting, and food programs like Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig… we still seem to be heading the wrong direction. Record numbers of obesity and diabetes pop up every year.

So what are we doing wrong?

Author Mark Schatzker tells us how since the 1940’s we have slowly been losing the flavor in our foods. Through faster growing procedures, making our fruits, vegetables, and meat larger faster, we have taken away the main thing that makes food satisfying…

Flavor.

Foods that once were considered healthy are now more like junk food having been zapped of the needed nutrition built into the growth process that causes foods to contain what our bodies need to feel full, healthy, and satisfied.

Chris Patton’s narration in The Dorito Effect was engaging and thought provoking. He held a tone that kept me fully engaged in this book.

I found this book to be filled with interesting facts that I had not really thought of. Being a consumer, not a grower, I had not given much thought to the taste of the large visually appealing tomatoes I find in my local super market, or the lack of taste in the grilled chicken breasts I prepare for dinner after I marinate them or cover them in herbs and spices to make them into a tasty meal. When presented with the facts in this book, it was an eye opener when they spoke of chicken that our grandparents would prepare with the yellow fat…

I had forgotten all about the yellow fat.

And as I listened to this book on audio with the well spoken narrator Chris Patton, I became more and more aware of what they were saying was true. Food has lost its flavor. That tomato I buy at the store does not have that delicious taste of the ones I grew up with. While our produce may look larger and more colorful than any in history, they have lost what is important…. the flavor and the nutrients that make us feel full and satisfied. As our food has become blander, flavor technology has stepped up to replace the natural flavor with artificial ones.

I found the Dorito Effect to be very interesting. I had thought for a while now about having a garden like the one I grew up with and after listening to this book, I am even more sure that this spring I want to do just that. As a reader or a listener, I think you will find The Dorito Effect to give you your own “aha” moment when it comes to our food choices and why. I enjoyed the narration of Chris Patton very much, he had an engaging tone that made this an easy listen.

Narrator Chris Patton has been nominated by the APA for the 2016 Audie Awards for this non fiction book.

Audible Audio Edition
Listening Length: 8 hours and 17 minutes
Program Type: Audiobook
Version: Unabridged
Publisher: Dreamscape Media, LLC
Audible.com Release Date: May 5, 2015

My Advice…. Dream and go BIG

Published on March 22, 2016March 26, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)16 Comments

Over the past few weeks (ok months really) I have been chatting here or there about the idea of a Gatsby event in our home town. It stuck in my head a couple of years back when I heard that the Roseville Library in the Cities had such an event. To quote Harry Potter just because I want to I thought the idea was brilliant.

The author of The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a Minnesota author. Gatsby, set in the 20’s has a lot of appeal right now with swing dance lessons being popular, the clothing styles, and just the ability to dress up in fun and gorgeous costumes.

When our Friends board decided to give it a go our main draw was to attract a new group of people beyond those that come to our Wine and Words event. We knew there would be some overlap of attendees to both events, but felt this might appeal to the 20’s to 40’s age group (which it did…. and then some!)

In a book I recently read… the question was presented…

Do you think it is better to fail at something worthwhile, or succeed at something meaningless?

I dreamed for Gatsby to be worthwhile.

From the start, I had a vision in mind of a jazz band, dancers, a photographer, awards, and 20’s style drinks to try. It slowly came together. The Brainerd High School jazz band said yes to using volunteer community hours to play for us. My good friend and photographer Joey Halverson offered to be our event photographer, a local lady who knew my mom made our trophies and donated the printing which brought our cost way down, and the venue we used, Arrowwood Lodge was willing to work with us on providing a drink option called The Bee’s Knees and a Mary Pickford.

Our goal was 100 guests. We closed out 2 days prior to the event at 191. If we would have been able to keep selling tickets we would have been over 200. Most amazingly, almost everyone of those people dressed up. I would say close to 98%. People really got into it. But you don’t have to take my word for it…

Besides the great 20’s look, amazing photos, excellent jazz music, food, drinks, and dancing – the local newspaper also came and took a ton of pictures for the paper as well as made an amazing video of the event. Not only did we attract a younger age group, we had an amazing diverse mix of ages which was an awesome bonus. We would call this a wonderful success.

You can see all the pictures on our website page. You can see the fun short video here.

I will add this to Saturday Snapshot this week…. a walk back in the 20’s that is what I have been up to.

Next up… Wine and Words.

Morning Meanderings… The Gatsby Connection

Published on March 19, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)13 Comments

We did it.

Month s of planning, little details to put together, A WHOLE LOT OF amazing people stepping up and in to places from check in, to champagne and fascinator sales, to set up, to taking it all down…

Gatsby in Brainerd Minnesota was a HUGE SUCCESS.

Our goal for this event was 100 people. I think for first year events that 100 people is enough to show there is an interest. We closed up ticket sales at 191. If we had not had to stop selling tickets a couple of days out, we would have easily cleared 200.

See, I am not the only one that likes to dress up. 😉

For today’s Saturday Snapshot, here are a few pictures from last nights Friends Of The Library Fund Raiser. There are mostly from my phone so they are not awesome, but by next week I should have better pictures from our photographer to show.

My camera for the most part took blurry pics so I can not wait to see everyone elses! For the full effect watch this great short video that our local paper took of the event. I seen this today and it made me cry. We did it. Oh my gosh, we did it. Link to video

Today I have a board meeting in St. Cloud and then I am unplugging from much of the outside world for the next month. We are so close to a year since Justin’s accident here and I need time just to be and work my way through that. This Gatsby event was something he and I had talked about and I know if he could have been, he would have been here right beside cheering me on as he always did. Perhaps, in a way, he was.

Nightfall by Jake Halpern and Peter Kujawinski and Read by Nicholas Guy Smith

Published on March 16, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)5 Comments

Bliss Island is a place where daylight lasts for fourteen years, followed by fourteen years of darkness. As the years of darkness approach, the inhabitants of Marin’s Island work diligently to make everything spotless and then leave the island on awaiting ships that will sail south with the tide and they will not return until daylight comes again.

For Marin, her twin brother Kana and their friend Line, this will be the first time they will be leaving the island and they are curious about what strange things will happen while they are away. Their parents seen usually frantic, scrubbing all surfaces, taking locks off the doors, setting tables and arranging furniture. When the teenagers ask about this bizarre preparation they are met with looks but no answers.

On the day the boats are set to launch, Line goes missing. The twins set out to find him knowing they have to get to the boats before they leave the island. Yet night, is upon them…. and the island…. is changing.

Cover, synopsis, what is not to love? This creepy tale caught me up from the start. I had to know more about a place that stays light for 14 years! Nightfall is just as creepy as described in a good spine tingling YA way. Suspending any hopes of realism is a must, this is a read you need to let sink into your bones and marinate. There’s something about things in the woods that always gets my heart beating a little faster.

While I personally found the story line to be good, the best part of this book was the narration. Nicholas Guy Smith has this gravely accented voice that was perfect for this book. Like someone telling a tale of old… I loved it. I wish I could find a way to describe the narration better…. perfect. Delectable.

Overall, I think older MG (Middle Grade) and Younger YA (Young Adults) would find this an enjoyable listen or read.

Listening Length: 10 hours and 15 minutes
Program Type: Audiobook
Version: Unabridged
Publisher: Listening Library
Audible.com Release Date: September 22, 2015

Morning Meanderings… The Gatsby Trials

Published on March 15, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)4 Comments

Talk about hitting the ground running…

Over this past weekend we completed the Spring Friends of the Library book sale. Yesterday I jumped into full Gatsby mode – picking up the materials we need to make the fascinators, a planning meeting, trivia questions prepped, promoting, props for the photo station, and then last night a few of us met at the library to sew and put together the fascinators.

When I call this the Gatsby trials… I do not mean “a formal examination of evidence before a judge, and typically before a jury, in order to decide guilt in a case of criminal or civil proceedings”. What I mean is: test (something, especially a new product) to assess its suitability or performance. We are seeing if this event is a good fit for our community and worth our time and efforts as a non profit. Our goal is to reach out beyond our current influence and I think by the names I have seen on the guest list…. we are doing just that!

This week… is all detail work. Finalizing volunteers, talking with all of those involved, and making sure we are ready to roll….or I guess swing, would be the more appropriate word. We need to be ready to swing. 🙂

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading/Listening To?

Published on March 13, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)28 Comments

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organize yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment, and er… add to that ever-growing TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started with J Kaye’s Blog from 2006 -2009 and then was taken up by me here at Book Journey from Feb 2009 – Fall 2015 and then I passed it to Kathryn at the Book Date. We have worked to keep the torch of It’s Monday burning! 🙂

As it tends to be in my life, I have to say “Thank God For Audio!” or I would not be reading much. I have been bouncing around the book sale this week for the Friends Of The Library, and now I am heading into the Gatsby event…. there is little time to sit down and enjoy a book but I have been able to put on an audio as I drive around or work on things in the house.

This week I posted:

Level Up. Beyond The Turning Of A Page.

The Opposite of Everyone by Joshilyn Jackson (AUDIO!)

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (AUDIO!)

The EX by Alafair Burke (this is a great example of my reading time, I have been reading this one for three weeks!)

For this week I have planned:

For My Ears

Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon – the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him “the bitter neighbor from hell”. But behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents’ association to their very foundations.

I just started this one this morning and really enjoying it to far! Narrated by George Newbern

Becky is on a major rescue mission! Her father has vanished from Los Angeles on a mysterious quest with her best friend’s husband. Becky’s mum is hysterical; her best friend, Suze, is desperate. Worse, Becky must tolerate an enemy along for the ride, who she’s convinced is up to no good.

Determined to get to the bottom of why her dad has disappeared, help Suze, contain Alicia, and reunite her fractured family, Becky knows she must marshal all her trademark ingenuity. The result: her most outrageous and daring plan yet!

But just when her family needs her more than ever, can Becky pull it off?

I started this one in the car a couple of days ago and the narration by Clare Corbett is excellent!

I Wasn’t Strong Like This When I Started Out, a collection of true narratives, reflects the dynamism and diversity of nurses who provide the first vital line of patient care. Here, nurses remember their first “sticks”, first births, and first deaths and reflect on what gets them though long, demanding shifts and keeps them in the profession.

The stories reveal many voices from nurses at different stages of their careers: One nurse-in-training longs to be trusted with more “important” procedures while another questions her ability to care for nursing home residents. An efficient young emergency room nurse finds his life and career irrevocably changed by a car accident. A nurse practitioner wonders whether she has violated professional boundaries in her care for a homeless man with AIDS. And a home-care case manager is the sole attendee at a funeral for one of her patients.

Looking forward to starting this one later this week!

For My Eyes

They always say that high school is the best time of your life.

Peter, the star basketball player at his school, is worried “they” might actually be right. Meanwhile Eliza can’t wait to escape Seattle—and her reputation—and perfect-on-paper Anita wonders if admission to Princeton is worth the price of abandoning her real dreams. Andy, for his part, doesn’t understand all the fuss about college and career—the future can wait.

Or can it? Because it turns out the future is hurtling through space with the potential to wipe out life on Earth. As these four seniors—along with the rest of the planet—wait to see what damage an asteroid will cause, they must abandon all thoughts of the future and decide how they’re going to spend what remains of the present.

Hmmmmm? Sounds good right? Found this recently at a book store!

That’s it for me. Hope everyone has a great week!

The EX by Alafair Burke

Published on March 13, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)11 Comments

Jack Harris has avoided even thinking about dating ever since his wife Molly was shot and killed by a teenage boy three years ago. Yet, one early morning while jogging he comes across a bare foot beautiful woman wearing a party dress sitting in the grass drinking champagne right out of the bottle and reading a book. She holds the bottle up in a cheers motion, as he jogs by. Unable to get the image out of his head, Jack shares this experience with his best friend who posts about it on-line hoping someone would be able to know who this woman is and connect her to Jack. Days later, the mysterious woman responds to the on-line post, and a meet up with Jack is planned.

Olivia Randall is a Defense Lawyer. When she hears that her former fiance Jack Harris has been arrested for triple murder she knows there is no way that Jack could be guilty of such a crime. Clearly Jack has been set up. But by who? And why?

Olivia chooses to represent Jack to make up for the way things had ended between them so many years ago. Yet as the evidence comes out, there is more and more that looks like Jack may have committed this crime. Is Olivia able to defend Jack if she is starting to have her doubts? And if he did do it, did she ever really know him at all?

The EX was full of surprises for me. I liked the synopsis and the set up of the mystery woman in a party dress in the early morning hours. The book held my interest as it reveals the history between him and Olivia and what had happened three years before when his wife was killed. For myself, I honestly did not have a clue how it was going to end or who was the murderer. The story line was fast paced and for me, time well spent.

I recommend The EX. It was a good book to sink into. An excellent legal thriller.