Book Journey

Morning Meanderings…. Don’t Ever Tell Me That Real Books Are A Thing Of The Past

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

Oh Sunday! It was so nice to get up this morning and not have to run out the door. This past week has been crazy busy with the spring book sale for the library. We moved it to a local mall this time that had a large unrented space that used to be a book store. It was perfect! We get so many book donations that our room at the library just gets too crowded.

On day one I arrived at 6:30 am with lawn chairs, per tradition. The sale opens at 9 am however years a go a friend and I thought it would be funny to show up hours early like book groupies. It became a trend. Now at the sale at the library I need to show up around 4:30 am to be first in line. Its a ~~little~~ lot crazy, but a lot of fun too.

Amy and I took our traditional picture.

By the time the sale opened at 9 am we had an incredible amount of people waiting to get in. I recorded the line on my phone, and spent a lot of time yesterday trying to put that video here on the blog with no luck. It is on Facebook and its only 40 seconds so please check it out if you have not seen it yet. Here it is.

Usually I shop the sale with everyone else but this year I was so emotional seeing all of these book lovers rushing in to pick up second hand books for 50 cents that I started to cry. Instead I took a few pictures and then went right to work helping people check out.

We had a record setting day. Usually our first day sales are around $1700.00. On Thursday, the first day of the sale we made $4200.00. That is a lot of 50 cent books!

Due to my not shopping, by the time I did get a chance to look at books I walked away with my smallest pile ever from the sale:

As for books that made their way into my home this week (not by book sale):

Some pretty exciting titles there!

Today other than a quick commitment to go pick up around the sale area for an hour or so, I am laying low. Listening to a little audio ( The Dorito Effect) and maybe I will read a bit too. Friday is our Gatsby event and it will be a busy week of preparing for that so today – I am slowing it down to a crawl.

Just for today.

Morning Meanderings….. OH! What A Night!

Published on March 9, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)22 Comments

Good Morning!

I feel tired and energized all at the same time. What is that??? 😛

Yesterday I helped to continue setting up the book sale. It is looking so good. Today will be detail work…. hanging signs, prepping the Friends Of The Library table… I am excited for the sale to start tomorrow morning.

Yesterday evening, we had book club at my house. We had decided to do soups and I was running around straightening the living room, chilling the wine, vacuuming the carpet, mopping the kitchen, and setting up chairs and little tables to set soup bowls on. I made two soups – Chicken wild Rice to go with the book…. ha ha and a Squash soup because it looked YUMMY. Lori in our group brought Chicken Tortilla soup. mmmmmmm

It was a fun night. While the book was not what we expected (more on that later) we always have such a good time together. This next month we are reading A Man Called Ove and I am excited for this one. We used the book in the bag program from the library but I am thinking I may go audio…. I listened to a sample and I liked it! It is also always fun to give an audio report on a book at the discussions.

Speaking of Audio, I signed up for the Audio Book Blogger of The Year which the winner will be able to attend the 2016 Audie Awards Gala in Chicago on May 11th. I will be there for the Book Expo this year so thought I would throw my hat (ear?) into the ring. I think it would be a BLAST!

So today, off to the book sale set up again, but should be home early today which makes me sooooo happy as I work the sale the next 4 days from open to close. I may rent ROOM to watch tonight…. I have been excited to see how it is.

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer Narrated by Philip Franklin

Published on March 8, 2016March 9, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)15 Comments

In 1996, Jon Krakauer along with a team of climbers including two company climbing leaders and their team, set out to climb Mount Everest. For Jon, this was going to be a first hand story of the appeal to climb for the magazine he worked for at the time, Outside Magazine. Rob Hall was the Guide for Krakauer’s group and knew what a positive story about the climb would do for his business.

On average, from 1920 when groups started climbing Everest, one climber would die for every four who gave the mountain a try. There were no promises made of your success to the top, or even coming back. At the time of Krakauer’s climb, the cost for this experience was a whopping $65,000 per person.

Unfortunately, this climb would become the deadliest in history. After a storm hits on May 10th, 8 of this groups will die on the mountain….

Into Thin Air, is the story of this fateful trip.

Recently, my husband and I rented and watched the movie Everest. It was, fantastic. While watching the details of this event, the name Jon Krakauer kept ringing a bell. I told my husband, I think he is an author. Crazily enough, I had forgotten that Jon Krakauer was not only an author, but the author of Into Thin Air, the book about this event and this movie we were currently watching. I had completely forgotten that this author was actually on this guided climb that took the lives of many.

I know at some point I had read Into Thin Air. Looking through this site, I discovered it was prior to my blogging days. Suddenly I wanted to listen to it on audio, knowing the first time around I had read the book. I am so glad I did.

Obviously the whole story in remarkable and sad. Narrated by Philip Franklin, he was as impressive as a narrator as those I find my favorites for non fiction listens. Fully engrossing, his voice steadily unfolded the story.

While the movie Everest is the loosely inspired by this book, it has its differences and a few that have upset author Jon Krakauer. I wont give anything away, I encourage you to see the movie and of course read or listen to this amazing book.

What drives a person to spend that amount of money? What is within some that makes a goal of reaching the top of a mountain known to take the lives of many so appealing?

Highly recommended – the audio is fantastic and so is the book.

Listening Length: 9 hours and 8 minutes
Program Type: Audiobook
Version: Unabridged
Publisher: Books on Tape
Audible.com Release Date: December 15, 1999

The Opposite Of Everyone by Joshilyn Jackson

Published on March 7, 2016March 8, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)13 Comments

Paula Voss was born in Alabama to a free-spirited woman, Kai, who had a love for Hindu Mythology to point of extreme. Paula’s birth name, Kali Jai had deep meaning in Hindu legend, but this was a name that Paula gave up when she put her mother in jail. A move that put Paula in foster care.

Now, years later, with a messy trail of life wrongs behind her, Paula is a divorce Lawyer to be reckoned with. What she lacks in size, she makes up for in ingenuity and on again off again help from an easy on the eyes man called Birdwine. Paula has not seen or heard from her mother in 15 years and in many ways, Paula thinks that is for the best.

Until one day a letter comes…

“I am going on a journey, Kali. I am going back to my beginning; death is not the end. You will be the end. We will meet again, and there will be new stories. You know how Karma works.”

Shortly after the letter, another surprise shows up at Paula’s door. Perhaps, Kai’s largest secret of all and all that Paula thought she knew, thought was true, starts to crumble away.

Paula’s past of dealing with wrecked families has helped her become who she is today, but now – with new information, she steps back to where it all began to figure out what brought her to here and not that she was here, what to do about it.

Note: While I was sent the book for review, due to time restraints I finished this book on audio. This review reflects both book and audio

Joshilyn Jackson pulls another one out the park. Wow. I have enjoyed her southern fiction with a twist in the past, but Joshilyn pulls out a little something extra here. The mix of Hindu mythology was a unique way to go and one that at first puzzled me and then I got into.

The story line of Paula’s past is deeply real feeling, a look into the foster care system and what it takes for someone to hold their own, especially when you do not look like everyone else.

I did listen to part of this book on audio which is narrated by Joshilyn Jackson impressively. Who better to capture the quirky characters of such a read than the author herself? My only teeny bump in the road with her narration was the voive of Paula’s brother who was 23. The voice came off much younger to me, sounding more like a curious 15-16 year old. Having boys in their 20’s, this didn’t come off as sounding right to me. The narration in all other instances of its southern glory is spot on. Kudos multi-talented Joshilyn Jackson!

I enjoyed this book so much. Joshilyn has a way of bringing a story to life that leaves you in the end, wanting more.

Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: William Morrow (February 16, 2016)
Listening Length: 11 hours and 34 minutes
Program Type: Audiobook
Version: Unabridged
Publisher: HarperAudio
Audible.com Release Date: February 16, 2016

Thank you to TLC for allowing me to spend a little time with Paula (and Birdwine!) in Alabama.

Morning Meanderings…. The beginning of a CrAzY Two Weeks

Published on March 7, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)11 Comments

Monday.

And here we go.

Today we start setting up for the spring book sale. Today as in ummmm…. in about an hour. We are excited to be moving it to the local mall which has a large open space for us use for the sale so our books and our patrons will not be crowded. It is exciting but also a lot of work. 🙂 We will continue to set up through Wednesday and official sale dates are Thursday – Saturday…. Sunday we will offer a free day but “shhhhh” we are keeping that under wraps. 😉 I literally laid in bed last night and thought of signs that I need to make, how to set up our Friends Of The Library info board, the best way to move the books…..

Tomorrow is book club, here at my house. We are reading All The Birds In The Sky by Charlie Jane Anders. As yesterday was beautiful here in Central Minnesota, 50 degrees, I switched to audio on this one so I could listen while I cleaned the garage and the back deck. More on that later this week.

Coming out of the book sale will have me running right towards the Gatsby Gala which is a week from this Friday on the 18th. That too is coming together well and I am hopeful that this weeks sale will assist in promoting the Gala. This event is an idea two years in the making and seeing it come to reality really means more than I can say here. Later today I will look at 20’s style costumes for the event.

In other news, I signed up to take part in the Armchair Audies this year and I am super excited about the audio books I will listening to. I will be judging in the Non-Fiction and in the Humor categories. Check out the website and you too can be a judge if you would like!

Is Spring coming your way? Is this a season that you read more or less? Do you turn to audio more during busy times?

Level Up. Beyond The Turning Of The Page

Published on March 5, 2016March 6, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)43 Comments

About once a year, I get on my audio soap box. If you read me here, you already know I LOVE audio books. When I discovered audio books in 2010, I was amazed that I had found a way to enjoy books beyond the turning of the page. If you are into real books or your E-Reader, what I want to share here is that this is another way to EXPERIENCE books that will (I promise) take you to the next level.

One thing we can agree on before we get started….. we all love to read. We enjoy engaging in a well written story. We can close our eyes and picture our favorite reading spot…. a cozy chair, on the porch in the sun, in the evening curled up on the couch, outside on a swing, a park bench, leaning against a tree….

I get that. I am that. Often… I love to be on the back deck in the summer with ice tea and a great read. But for me.. life does not stop so I can read a book. Lets try this visual:

So many books…. so little time right?

So let’s get started.

We just covered the WHY and WHEN you should listen to audio….

HOW To Listen To Audio.

Audio books may give you a visual of old school audio tapes….. and uhhh….. no. Fast forward to something a little more current. Hip and happening…..

Audio books come in CD format. Perfect for your car and in your home. They also can be downloaded off your computer to ITUNES or even directly to your phone (my personal favorite). With an auxiliary cord, you can easily hook your phone up to your vehicles radio and listen to it within your car.

My personal favorite is on my phone because my phone is usually everywhere I am. I picked up an external speaker at Wal-Mart (found at most stores that has electronics). This allows your phone to connect with the speaker and amplify the sound. This way I can set the speaker and phone on my kitchen counter and work my way around the area without having to carry my phone with me to hear it. External speakers range any where from $9.99 to $89.99. I paid $14.98 for mine three years ago and it still works wonderfully. No need to go fancy. 🙂

For traveling purposes, such as walking the dog, traveling on a plane or mowing the lawn, ear buds come into play. These too can be picked up at most stores that carry electronics for fairly reasonable.

WHERE To Find Great Audio Books.

Audiobooks can be purchased in CD format at most stores that carry books. You can also pick them up on line off Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc… For downloading audio to your device of choice, there are several options.

Audible.com: This is the one I use and have used for 5 years. Audible lets you choose up to two audio books a month at a greatly reduced price from what you would purchase audio in the stores. I am on the two credits per month program and pay $22.95 per month. Many audio books, especially new and popular titles go for anywhere between $25 and $50 an audio book so this is a great reduction. As a new customer, you receive your first audio book free – just go on and pick one. Another thing I love about Audible is that if you are listening to a book that you do not find to your liking, go into your account and ask to return it. No questions asked they will give you your credit back! They also have wonderful sales where you can pick titles up for $4.95 each, as well a daily special where one audio book will be $2.95. No contract, quit any time.

Downpour.com is another site much like Audible, however they do not have DRM (which honestly I knew little about until I read the linked article. I have not spent a lot of time on this site yet, but I will. Definitely one worth checking out.

WHAT To Listen To

Ahhhh….. one of my favorite topics…. what to listen to on audio? Most sites will allow you to listen to a sample of the audio book. I highly recommend you do this. Not all audio is treated alike. Narration is so important and while you can read here or on other sites about favorite narrators…. you really need to hear for yourself and choose what you like. A good narration (IMO) lets you lose yourself in the book. You don’t hear someone reading, instead you become part of the story. You don’t hear a change in character voices, instead you hear a discussion. And when you are really really lucky – you fall in love with the narration and…. you stalk the narrator. You look for books that this narrator has narrated. That’s when you know you have it bad. I have done it.

I can give you a short list here of some of my favorites…. but definitely look around and see what other reviewers are talking about in audio books. I have picked many audio books on my own, but I have picked just as many or perhaps even more on someone elses raving.

A few of my top picks

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline Narrated by Wil Wheaton (soon to be a movie!)

11-22-63 by Stephen King Narrated by Craig Wasson (do not write this off because it is a King book. It is, and it isn’t!)

The Residence by Kate Anderson Brower Narrated by Karen White (This is such a great listen and so informative)

The Martian by Andy Weir Narrated by R.C. Bray (From the very first sentence I was all….. oh yeah. This is going to be fun)

YOU by Caroline Kepnes narrated by Santino Fontana (oh my word! The narration and Joe….. WOW!)

Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain Narrated by Susan Bennett

The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty Narrated by Caroline Lee (Oh I fell in love with this story and this narrator! I also enjoyed Big Little lies with the same narrator! It’s like narrator crack!)

United For Libraries – Literary Landmarks

Published on March 5, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)8 Comments

I am part of a committee that meets to place a Literary Landmark once a year somewhere in Minnesota. Literary Landmarks are a part of ALA (American Library Association). The purpose of Literary Landmarks is to recognize an author who is from the area. The author needs to no longer be living for at least 5 years. In past years Minnesota has recognized:

Jon Hassler

Sinclair Lewis

Maud Hart Lovelace (Betsy Tacy!)

Scott Fitzgerald (Gatsby!)

Our committee started meeting last fall to discuss who our next author should be. As the last couple of years had been in the Brainerd lakes area and in Ely, we felt it was time to come back toward the Twin Cities. Once we have chosen our author, we need to find a place to put the plaque. It is a beautiful large plaque and it can go indoors or outdoors; on the side of a building, in a library, in a park, a museum, wherever. We then plan a ceremony around the dedication.

After narrowing down our list, we were excited to choose Gordon Parks as our Literary Landmark for 2016.

Gordon Parks was not only an author. He was also a photographer and became the first African American to write and direct a Hollywood feature film based on his bestselling novel The Learning Tree. In 1971, his book Shaft became a hugely successful motion picture. He had a deep commitment to social justice and died in 2006.

Yesterday, I drove to St. Paul Minnesota to meet not only with our committee, but we were also lucky enough to have two of Gordon’s relatives present as well. Russell Balenger is Gordon’s nephew and Robin Hickman his grand niece. It was so exciting to meet them and see that they both are involved in social justice themselves, carrying on in Gordon’s footsteps.

gordon parks, book journey, ALA< Literary landmark — L: Russel, Robin, Joe (from our committee)

gordon parks, literary landmark, book journey minnesota — L: Barbi and Isabel from our committee

I am enjoying being a part of this group. It is wonderful to be able to recognize authors who have made a difference. I am submitting this post to Saturday Snapshots.

Morning Meanderings… A Mix of Grief and A Smile

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

I have a picture file in my computer named “Justin”. It is all the pictures that I have from friends postings on-line that I have copied and saved in my file. There are over 500 pictures.

I am Gollum.

Everything…. is my precious.

It has been a while since I have added anything to this file. While friends are still posting pictures and talking about him (thank you thank you thank you) they are mostly pictures I already have.

Until yesterday.

The Honduras Team is back in Honduras. This is a trip that Justin would have been on and he would have been so excited to return to Honduras and those kids. He had just returned last March for his 5th time going and we had a long talk on how much this trip had impacted him. He was already talking about this years trip.

Yesterday this was posted on-line:

This is the plaque that is on the building that was dedicated in Justin’s memory. It is so beautiful. He would have loved this connection to the kids.

It is 11 months today. I can hardly believe that. This picture of the plaque somehow seems like wonderful timing.

Today I drive to St Paul. I am on the Minnesota Literary Landmark committee and we are discussing this years placement over lunch. As much as I would love to stay home curled up in my own grief, going is probably the better choice. It is hard to keep going with such a large piece of your life missing, but I continue to do it because I know he would want me to. ♥

Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes

Published on March 3, 2016 by Sheila (Book Journey)8 Comments

Joe Goldberg is no stranger to the sacrifices one has to make for love. In fact, within the past ten years, he has four bodies that he has buried to prove just how much he is willing to sacrifice. Once a book store manager, Joe thought he had met the love of his life but that turned out to be wrong.

Very wrong.

And now once again, Joe finds himself in love with someone new, someone better… and also someone who hurts him very badly. Joe makes the decision to move and start fresh, perhaps a different view will give him just what he needs to leading a much simpler life. Yet the past has a way of creeping back up and Joe has to wonder how many more bodies is he going to have to hide to keep his secrets safe?

Oh wow oh wow. You know the books that you hate to finish because you don’t want them to end? This would be one of those books. I, sickeningly enough, adore Joe. Like YOU (the first book that brings this creepy funny witty protagonist to life) I listened to Hidden Bodies on audio. Let me say this. If you enjoy audio, I absolutely insist that you listen to both of these books. If you are new to audio, this would be a great way to start. Narrator Santino Fontana literally embodies Joe. This narration is so good, you forget that you are listening to a book. I had moments where I laughed out loud, and believe me, I do not laugh our loud often.

I also absolutely need to give a hats off to author Caroline Kepnes. I am so impressed that this book is written by a female author. She has captured Joe, the essence of GUY in these books. She is an amazing writer, and I love her dry humor. I can not wait to read (or hopefully listen to!) more from her.

As you can probably tell, I find this book gush worthy. I don’t think I loved it as much as YOU, but it was pretty close. YOU is somewhat lighter if I dare say that, and while I believe YOU was more sexually graphic; the book references, the movie references, really made it wonderful. If it wrong to fall in love with a killer I don’t want to be right. If you can handle a book that is a little vulgar at times, I have to tell you this one is so worth it. If you read my reviews, you know I don’t say that lightly. While this book does have sexual content, I would say it is never over the top and never gory. I would say I think the difference is Joe. You have to experience Joe.

Hidden Bodies starts off right where YOU leaves off. While you do not have to read/listen (oh my gosh listen to this one!!!) to You before you move into Hidden Bodies, I highly recommend that you do. YOU really lets you get to know Joe in a way that is not as fully developed in Hidden Bodies. There are also many references (some really funny) that you will miss if you have not experienced YOU first.

Please look at other reviews of this book as well. There are quite a few bloggers out there that I enjoy that are gushing about these two reads as well.

Audible Audio Edition
Listening Length: 13 hours and 3 minutes
Program Type: Audiobook
Version: Unabridged
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Audible.com Release Date: February 23, 2016

Morning Meanderings….. Top Books…. I Wonder How They Are On Audio?

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

Good morning. MMMMMM….. Coffee. Hang on.

Had to get a refill.

That’s better.

I seen a link on Facebook yesterday afternoon about the 20 best books we should be reading this spring. Did you see it?

There are some good looking books in this group! The post was originally made by Redbook. I have to admit however, I instantly wondered how they are on audio. 😛

It is getting to be that time of year for me. Our Spring Library Book Sale is this next week. The week after is our Great Gatsby event. We are putting together a benefit event for my son at the end of April….

life gets BUSY.

I have said it many times, but I will say it again, I probably listen to audio 4 to one over books. At least. I can listen to audio in the morning while I get ready, in my car while I travel, at home while I cook and clean, and while I work on a project like painting or picture albums. I love it and I am always looking for great audio.

Yesterday I finished listening to Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes and narrated by the oh-so-amazing-I-want-him-to-read-the-newspaper-to-me the #isitwrongtoloveakiller #Iamsoamazedbycreepyjoe #Carolinekepnesbooksrockedmyworld #cansantinofortananarratemylife…. basically I am jonesing for more great audio.

Ok you get the drift. I can not be the only person who has actually stocked narrators to find out what else they have narrated so I can listen to them again. IE. Wil Wheaton. *sigh*

Ok… I digress. What I am super interested in is knowing if any of the “Must Read This Spring” list has been listened to on audio. Is there another hot audio book I need to listen to? I need to download an audio for my phone today and I have been spoiled by what I have just listened to. Watch for my review of Hidden Bodies later today.

Off to the library and a coffee date (yes more coffee!).