Book Journey

Morning Meanderings… YOGA. Ouch. Who Knew?

Published on February 20, 2015 by Sheila (Book Journey)24 Comments

Friday! Wow! I never lack of surprise how fast the days can go!

Yesterday afternoon my friend who shall not be named (*cough* GAIL! *cough*) thought it would be a good idea if I joined her for a Beginners Gentle Yoga Class. It’s yoga I thought, how tough could it be?

Make a note: I have never taken a yoga class.

Well for those of you in the know…. you know. 🙂 It wasn’t that it was hard, I like to stretch… but some of it for those of us… uh… who haven’t been doing a lot of strength training recently… it can really point out your weaknesses.

1a2 — Planking, as shown builds strength in your core. You are to hold this position.

The sad thing is, I used to be able to do this a lot better than what my performance yesterday.

I did enjoy the class, and know that this is something I would like to do again. Strength training and core building is always good.

I am a bit sore today through my back and arms. I like that feeling as it shows that I actually worked something. 🙂

Today I hope to get in a work out this morning, lunch with a friend, complete a Freelance project, and later it is a great day to curl up with a good book. My weekend is fairly quiet. There is soooo much I love about that.

Are there any work outs you enjoy or would like to try? I am always open to new ways to get in a work out and mixing it up works well for me.

American Sniper by Chris Kyle

Published on February 19, 2015February 19, 2015 by Sheila (Book Journey)17 Comments

Navy Seal Chris Kyle has recorded the most kills in US history during his time-serving 4 tours between 1999 and 2009. His job was to protect his fellow comrades as they traveled on the ground throughout war-torn areas, and Chris had a bird’s eye view from roof tops. While Americans nicknamed him “Legend”, the enemy called him al-Shaitan (“the devil”) and had a bounty out for his death.

In 2013, after Chris had served his country for tn years and had returned home to be a husband to his wife and a father to his two children, Chris was killed while working with war vets.

This book, written by Chris himself and includes chapters by his wife Taya is their story of a deep love and a war that never ended.

Note – this is not my genre at all. I avoid war books and anything political like the plague. (And the plague is something definitely to avoid!)

However –

If you know Chris’s story… you know there is more to this book than war. It is a passionate story of a man who wanted to protect his country. It is also about his meeting his wife, having children, and her fears every time Chris left to go back into the war. It is a first hand account from Chris himself of what it was like from the rooftops, working to save his team… it is about love and it is about loss.

My husband and I went to see the movie when it came out. Again, not something I would normally do, but I had heard amazing things from people whose opinions I trust – and many of these opinions were female friends of mine who also would not get into a war movie. We went… and it was powerful.

This is what led me to the audio version of this book. I wanted to know more of the story, and the book definitely does that. American Sniper is told mainly first hand by Chris with occasional thoughts and dialogue by his wife Taya. The book I found to be harsher than the movie. While interesting, Chris is very proud of his killings, even to the point of discussing using different ways to kill (rifles, etc…) to see what works best.

It is hard for me, for someone who has never experienced war and is a life long member of the “why can’t we all just get along” club, to understand taking pride and talking in detail of killings. I am not judging, just explaining a feeling.

The audio book is still an impressive take of what it would be like to be in the center of the war. Nearly killed many times during battle, it is a sad ending to know that Chris was killed while back in the states not far from his home, trying to help others. *Note – this is not covered in the book.

Narrated by Jim Defalice who was an excellent voice for Chris. I struggled when he narrated the chapters written by Taya as his voice did not change at all and sometimes it was hard to tell in the audio format when the narration had changed to her. The book would be talking about falling in love with him, and I would have to think, “Chris fell in love with a man? Oh no – this is Taya talking.”

Overall, I recommend this book or audio for anyone who would like to know more as I did. It is a piece of our American history that I like knowing a little more about. I recommend the movie as well.

Publisher: Harper Collins Publishing

Length: 10 hours and 21 minutes

Morning Meanderings… Feeling Newsworthy

Published on February 19, 2015 by Sheila (Book Journey)29 Comments

Happy Thursday! Egads, another week flying by. I am feeling productive but by no means caught up… although I see the light at the end of the tunnel 🙂

I don’t know about you, but I do not watch the news. I know, I know, but honestly I can’t handle all the negativity and sadness. BLAH. Theft, shootings, murders, state budget worries… all of it bogs me down. Yet, like anyone else I want to be in the know when it comes to things I should know or find interesting.

I recently came across this website, Compressive News and I like it. Hot topics such as technology, our world, and business are all there in little headlines that you can look at and read on if you wish. I found the topics to be ones that I am actually interested in. The whole guard bot story? Creepy but cool. Apple offering up a new way to store your documents that works like Google Drive but with more storage space called IWorks? I want to know more about that!

Compressive News is a fairly new site. I like that is is more about condensing news than overpowering me with information I do not always have time to sift through. I already have too much on my plate. 😉

While nosing around I seen they had a tab that was called Request A Story. Hmmmm…. click on that…. and yes, you can submit a story you would like covered and they will look into possibly writing about it. I like that too.

So that is my news worthy (pun intended) take for this morning while I sip my coffee and dread the commitment I made to go to a YOGA class with a friend this afternoon. Seriously… YOGA? What was I thinking? 🙂

I leave you with this…

Where do you get your news from? Online sites? TV? Your local newspaper? What do you like to be kept current on?

An Appetite For Violets by Martine Bailey (*Best Of 2015)

Published on February 18, 2015February 21, 2015 by Sheila (Book Journey)43 Comments

It is the late 1700’s and Biddy Leigh, the under cook for Mawton Hall is ready to start her future. Soon her beau, Jem, will be announcing their plans to marry and their dream of opening up their own tavern will begin. Yet other plans are at stake that are out of Biddy’s control. When her master marries the much younger Lady Carinna, Biddy is unwillingly selected to go on a year-long journey to Italy as her new mistresses cook. A book called, The Cooks Jewel, handed down from generation of cooks, is given to Biddy to take on her adventures to document the recipes she learns along the way.

In London Biddy encounters the handsome Kit, her Mistresses brother. He is curious about his sisters travels and asks Biddy to find out more about Carinna’s reason to suddenly pack up for Italy leaving her new husband sickly at home. Charmed by Kit’s attention Biddy starts to pay more attention to what her mistress is up to.

As the secrets unravel, and the real reason that Biddy has been requested to come on this journey unfold, Biddy finds herself in a place that is both frightening and invigorating. As her desire to return back tot he home she once knew starts to fade, a new future appears to be on the horizon. If only Biddy has the courage to take the steps to make it happen.

An Unrivaled Chocolate Ice Cream

Take a pint of good cream, a heaped spoonful of best chocolate scraped, put it in when the cream boils and stir them well together, add the yolks of two eggs and sweeten it to your taste, let the eggs have a boil to thicken it. When cold put it in your freezing pot of pewter and plunge into a wooden pail. Pack about entirely with pounded ice and salt. When the mixture begins to firm about the sides stir it with the spaddle so that all may be equally thick and smooth and frozen.

As made for Biddy Leigh, by Signor Renzo Cellini, Easter 1773

I honestly am gushing over this surprise book. Gushing because it is brilliant and captured my attention from the start. Surprising because I chose to read this book for my interest in the recipes woven within it and was not expecting to find an excellent read as well.

The recipes were not as I expected. They are recipes for the times… the 1700’s and a cook who made do with what she had available to her, while interestingly enough, (a cure for illness is burning a piece of toast in the fire, then running hot water through the blackened toast into a cup for the person to drink. If that does not work, do it again.) I don’t see myself attempting to make any of these recipes soon.

An Appetite For Violets by debut author Martine Bailey is a book I am suggesting you do not miss out on. It is a fun historical read with snooty servants, and upper class people – but mostly… it is about Biddy and how she transforms throughout the book is delightful. As I finished I was still putting pieces together like, “Oh, that is why she ….”

Well written. Highly recommended. Biddy Leigh is a remarkably smart and witty protagonist that I found to be spot on. The author truly has her finger (or her wooden spoon) on the pulse of the 1700’s. I absolutely loved it.

Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; First Edition edition (January 13, 2015)

Note: I looked on Amazon thinking somehow I was not privy to this amazing book and clearly many others had to be. I was surprised to see it had only 38 reviews. I think this book is a diamond in the rough and honestly, need to read this book.

Adding this post to Weekend Cooking

Morning Meanderings… Huh. I Didn’t See That Coming.

Published on February 18, 2015 by Sheila (Book Journey)45 Comments

Good morning! Mighty chilly here in central Minnesota today. Currently we sit at 16 below zero. I for one am thrilled that I do not have to go out in the cold today… although I am considering a trip to the library.

In this mornings paper I learned that 50 Shades of Grey busted up box office records for the weekend with a whopping $94.4 million opening weekend. The 4th biggest rated R move opening in history!

I so did not see that coming…

While I have not read the book nor do I plan to, I admit I was curious about how it would do at the box office. From what my friends have told me about the book, they thought (as did I), it would be pretty hard to put that into a theater.

Yet.. they did.

So color that 50 Shades of “cha-ching”.

I am curious now,

Have you read the book, seen the movie, or both?

How did the movie compare to the book?

If you have not seen the movie do you plan to?

Does the huge success of the movie surprise you at all?

Last night I finished an excellent read, An Appetite for Violets, which I can not wait to rave about. Today I think I will be able to finish American Sniper on audio and tonight will be perfect for a blanket, hot tea, and a good read.

The Sorcery Code by Dima Zales

Published on February 17, 2015February 17, 2015 by Sheila (Book Journey)5 Comments

Blaise was once a powerful and respected member of the Sorcerer’s Council. Not agreeing with the council’s need to keep magic only to the select few, Blaise finds himself on his own. Secretly, Blaise has been working on a special project that could chance everything. The result of his hard work was not exactly what he expected…
He made Her.
Gala is amazing. Born of the Spell Realm, she is beautiful, graceful, and intelligent. Neither she nor Blaise know quite what she is capable of, Gala fully invested in learning about the world that Blaise wanting to know more about the Spell Realm.
Augusta, Blaise’s ex-fiancé is a powerful and gorgeous sorceress. When she learns what Blaise has done, what he has brought into their world; she is furious and will stop at nothing to destroy Gala.

I do enjoy a good fantasy style of read and The Sorcery Code was a nice take on fantasy with a new twist. I like a story line that moves along without too much foretelling that leaves me feeling the book is bogged down with TMI. Thankfully, this one moves quickly into the action and I enjoyed the ride.
I enjoyed the strong characters and found them engaging and well flushed out. The story brings with it a lot of action and as the book closes there is still a lot going on. I look forward to the next book in this series.
I listened to this on audio and narrator Emily Durante brought an excellent voice to this listen.

Audible Audio Edition
Listening Length: 7 hours and 32 minutes
Program Type: Audiobook
Version: Unabridged
Publisher: Mozaika Publications
Audible.com Release Date: March 13, 2014

Morning Meanderings… Confession, I Am On The Crack

Published on February 17, 2015 by Sheila (Book Journey)24 Comments

Good morning! Tuesday is here! I am checking off that to do list this week and making progress early on in the week already! YEAH!

SO today’s post is brought to you by…

Trivia Crack.

Have you heard of this?

It is a game app you can play on your phone or for those of us who grow up in the 80’s and think bigger is still better, you can play on Facebook on your lap top/IPAD/etc….

Basically the game has these cute icons (above) that represent categories: Entertainment, Sports, Geography, Art, and History. You spin a little wheel…

… and whatever subject it lands on you answer a question about. Three questions answered and you get to move on to the grown or you can land on the crown. The crown lets you choose a category question and if you answer it right you receive that Icon piece. The goal is to get all the icon pieces before your opponent.

Fun, addicting, and you learn along the way.

Sometimes the questions are pretty easy… .there are many Harry Potters questions that I rock at. 🙂 Some are harder (*cough cough sports*) and you think who would possibly know that answer… and then like yesterday, sometimes you get too excited and click on the wrong answer.

Here is my Facebook post from last night:

I dont know if I can keep playing Trivia Crack…. it makes me swear. Latest question, animal best known in Edgar Allen Poe’s poem…. I quickly and confidently clicked on….
crow. *doh!*

LOL. The crack got me.

Today I am working out and working on a project for Camp. I am debating on an author event for this evening in the cities but think I am going to pass as it is 2 hours away and will involve driving in the dark tonight.

Are you playing Trivia Crack? Do you have a “fun” question that you missed?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on February 15, 2015February 15, 2015 by Sheila (Book Journey)73 Comments

Hello! Welcome to It’s Monday What Are You Reading? The meme that we use to share what we read this past week and what our plans are for the upcoming week. It’s a great way to see what others are reading and add to your own To Be Read list. 😀 You never know where that next great read may come from!

What a week! You ever have those times when you are reading and or listening to audio and everything is just about finished but not quite? That’s the week I had. I two audio books I am finishing and two books I am finishing. I hoped to have one more complete today but after staying up too late watching True Blood (I just started watching the series last night and the jury is still out on how I feel about it),I fell asleep in the chair this afternoon while reading.

Here is what was posted this week:

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

Bookies Book Club Thoughts on Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain (w/ discussion questions for your groups!)

American Sniper – The Movie

One Step Too Far by Tina Seskis

I Was Here by Gayle Forman

E Readers and Books… What Will Make It To The Next Level? (weigh in on this one!)

Ok, I guess I read more than I thought I had. Not bad for it being my birthday this week, my son was in town for two days, and I had book club on Tuesday!

This week should be a good one. My week is quiet, I have some writing to do, but not a lot of running around to do. I plan on:

For My Eyes

Irrepressible Biddy Leigh, under-cook at forbidding Mawton Hall, only wants to marry her childhood sweetheart and set up her own tavern. But when her elderly master marries young Lady Carinna, Biddy is unwittingly swept up in a world of scheming, secrets, and lies. Forced to accompany her new mistress to Italy, she documents her adventures and culinary discoveries in an old household book of recipes, The Cook’s Jewel. Biddy grows intrigued by her fellow travelers, but her secretive and unconventional mistress is the most intriguing of all.

In London, Biddy finds herself attracted to her mistress’s younger brother. In France, she discovers her mistress’s dark secret. At last in Italy, Biddy becomes embroiled in a murderous conspiracy, knowing the secrets she holds could be a key to a better life, or her downfall.

Inspired by eighteenth-century household books of recipes and set at the time of the invention of the first restaurants, An Appetite for Violets is a literary feast for lovers of historical fiction. Martine Bailey’s novel opens a window into the fascinating lives of servants, while also delivering a suspenseful tale of obsession and betrayal.

Strong-minded and ambitious, Madeleine Karno is eager to shatter the constraints of her provincial French upbringing. She wants to become a pathologist like her father, whose assistant she is, but this is 1894, and autopsies are considered unseemly and ungodly, even when performed by a man—hence his odious nickname, Doctor Death. That a young woman should wish to spend her time dissecting corpses is too scandalous for words.

Thus, when seventeen-year-old Cecile Montaine is found dead in the snowy streets of Varbourg, her family will not permit a full post-mortem autopsy, and Madeleine and her father are left with a single mysterious clue: in the dead girl’s nostrils they find a type of parasite normally seen only in dogs. Soon after, the priest who held vigil by the dead girl’s corpse is brutally murdered. The thread that connects these two events is a tangled one, and as the death toll mounts, Madeleine must seek knowledge in odd places: behind convent walls, in secret diaries, and in the yellow stare of an aging wolf.

For the readalong 😉 Dark times have come to Hogwarts. After the Dementors’ attack on his cousin Dudley, Harry Potter knows that Voldemort will stop at nothing to find him. There are many who deny the Dark Lord’s return, but Harry is not alone: a secret order gathers at Grimmauld Place to fight against the Dark forces. Harry must allow Professor Snape to teach him how to protect himself from Voldemort’s savage assaults on his mind. But they are growing stronger by the day and Harry is running out of time. These new editions of the classic and internationally bestselling, multi-award-winning series feature instantly pick-up-able new jackets by Jonny Duddle, with huge child appeal, to bring Harry Potter to the next generation of readers. It’s time to PASS THE MAGIC ON .

* I am late on this book… fell behind on my own read along! Sheesh! 🙂 Here is the link to link up your posts on this book. I will be there soon!

For My Ears

Once a respected member of the Sorcerer Council and now an outcast, Blaise has spent the last year of his life working on a special magical object. The goal is to allow anyone to do magic, not just the sorcerer elite. The outcome of his quest is unlike anything he could’ve ever imagined – because, instead of an object, he creates Her.

She is Gala, and she is anything but inanimate. Born in the Spell Realm, she is beautiful and highly intelligent – and nobody knows what she’s capable of. She will do anything to experience the world…even leave the man she is beginning to fall for.

Augusta, a powerful sorceress and Blaise’s former fiance, sees Blaise’s deed as the ultimate hubris and Gala as an abomination that must be destroyed. In her quest to save the human race, Augusta will forge new alliances, becoming tangled in a web of intrigue that stretches further than any of them suspect. She may even have to turn to her new lover Barson, a ruthless warrior who might have an agenda of his own…

He is the deadliest American sniper ever, called “the devil” by the enemies he hunted and “the legend” by his Navy SEAL brothers.

From 1999 to 2009, U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle recorded the most career sniper kills in United States military history. The Pentagon has officially confirmed more than 150 of Kyles kills (the previous American record was 109), but it has declined to verify the astonishing total number for this book. Iraqi insurgents feared Kyle so much they named him al-Shaitan (“the devil”) and placed a bounty on his head. Kyle earned legendary status among his fellow SEALs, Marines, and U.S. Army soldiers, whom he protected with deadly accuracy from rooftops and stealth positions. Gripping and unforgettable, Kyle’s masterful account of his extraordinary battlefield experiences ranks as one of the great war memoirs of all time.

A native Texan who learned to shoot on childhood hunting trips with his father, Kyle was a champion saddle-bronc rider prior to joining the Navy. After 9/11, he was thrust onto the front lines of the War on Terror, and soon found his calling as a world-class sniper who performed best under fire. He recorded a personal-record 2,100-yard kill shot outside Baghdad; in Fallujah, Kyle braved heavy fire to rescue a group of Marines trapped on a street; in Ramadi, he stared down insurgents with his pistol in close combat. Kyle talks honestly about the pain of war – of twice being shot and experiencing the tragic deaths of two close friends.

I think it should be a good reading week! How about you? Big reading plans this week? One in particular? Please share! Add your Its Monday What Are You Reading to the link below.

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For those who read mainly children and middle grade books please add your link here as well:

E Readers and Books… What Makes It To The Next Level

Published on February 15, 2015February 15, 2015 by Sheila (Book Journey)63 Comments

First up. This post is Meg’s fault. 🙂 Write Meg wrote earlier this week about her Kindle Vs. the paperbacks. It is a good post. Read it.

I know the discussion is not a new one, in fact I am pretty sure somewhere in my archives among the cobwebs deep within this blog shoved in a corner box marked Old Posts, I have talked about this as well…. however… I think my opinion has slightly changed.

In response to Meg’s post I wrote:

I am with you. I “kindled up” a couple years ago myself and I go in spurts of using it and then not… now it sits on my end table in the living so it at least has been upgraded out of a corner in the book room wondering where its charger is. 🙂 Like you, I enjoy the look and feel of a real book. Like you, I also find myself appreciating the Kindle more than I used to…. I can accept a Netgalley read right away as opposed to waiting for it to be sent to me. It obviously takes up less space…
One fun fact I learned from our library board is that e book check outs have plateaued. Interesting. I wonder what that means?

SO what has changed for me… and for possibly you… and maybe the world as opinions on e readers?

For me…

E Reader +

Honestly…. the e reader, a Kindle in my instance, is convenient. It is small, I can slip it in my purse and take it with me. For traveling it is wonderful… I can take with me a mystery, a non fiction, a literary, classic, best seller, and a Chunkster *cough cough Harry Potter*, all in the space of smaller than a paperback.

I like highlighting passages I plan to go back to for quoting purposes to friends, or at book club. I like to put my finger on a word and have a dictionary pop up and tell me what it means.

E Reader –

Sometimes my e reader does not hold my page. I may go out of that book to start another one on the e reader and when I come back, it has started over. Flip flip flip through the screen trying to find where I was…. annoying.

Charge it! Not always convenient. Granted the battery lasts for quite a while, but thinking ahead to having a full battery before I take off is not always on the agenda. Nothing worse than you are in a good part of a book and suddenly you can not read it.

Books +

Lets be honest…. I LOVE books. I love the look, the smell, the weight. I love the covers. I love it when the covers have a texture to them, I love the pages when they are beveled, or off white, or white, or have words on them.

I love the look of books in a home… they tell me something about the person.

I love being able to see what people are reading when I pass them in waiting rooms, on a plane, in a library, anywhere…

Books are conversation starters.

I love book rooms and book shelves. I love books in piles… on tables, end tables, coffee tables, counter tops, in rooms… on beds…. wherever.

A book does not need to be plugged in. In a power outage, I can still read by candle light. In a dystopian world of no electricity, my book still works… and if the new world is bad enough, it is also a weapon. 😉

Book –

It is hard to travel with books. If you are like me, you never know what you are going to want to read. That means when I traveled, I would take about 4 or 5 books of different genres. Notoriously, I would purchase book(s!) wherever I traveled to and add them to the 4 or 5. Basically – I take a carry on a plane for my books. It is a bit ridiculous. (I have since went to using my Kindle for travel and perhaps one real paper book).

They do take up A LOT of space. I have a room in my house for my books. I LOVE that room. I love the look and feel of it but quite honestly… it is a lot of books. It is like a page out of hoarders, except in my defense they are in alphabetical order by author and I think my case will stand up in court. 😀

I think what I am getting at here is there is a place in my world for both the paper book and the e reader. They can work together harmoniously.

What are your thoughts on books and e readers? Do you favor one over the other?

Morning Meanderings… Technology Fail… But There Are Books!

Published on February 15, 2015February 15, 2015 by Sheila (Book Journey)29 Comments

Good morning! YAY! Sunday!

Yesterday I mentioned I was having trouble uploading pictures from my phone. When taking pictures for Book Journey I usually take them on my phone and then email them to myself to nab off my laptop. Yesterday morning I took several pics for the morning post but could not get them to upload.

This morning I tried again, rebooting my phone and everything. Still didn’t work. Then I went to the magic of all things Google and Googled my problem. All sorts of things came up about MMS… blah blah blah, stuff over my head.

I stared at my phone filled will reminders that the message had failed…

and then I knew what had happened.

I never use my phone to check email. I receive too much email on three different accounts and it is a huge battery suck. Only if I am super desperate to check for an email will I use it and then it usually needs about 5 minutes to sync as the last time I checked it was months prior…

Well…

on Tuesday I needed to print an email for book club and I do not have a printer hooked to this laptop. I do however have one hooked to my office laptop. When I went to retrieve the email downstairs somehow I had been logged out on my main email. AND… I could not for the life of me recall the password. In order to retrieve the email I needed to print, I had to…

you guessed it…

CHANGE THE PASSWORD.

Bingo.

My phone could not send to the email as it no longer had the correct password.

GAH.

A quick fix and I received my photos no problem. 🙂

And just in time too as here are the books that came in this week:

The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins (audio)

Molly’s Game by Molly Bloom

Night Is The Hunter by Steven Gore

The Forgetting Place by John Burley

The Boy Who Loved Rain by Gerald Kelly

Two Moons by Thomas Mallon

The Snow Globe by Judith Kinghorn

Splinters Of Light by Rachael Herron

I am pretty caught up around here, house cleaning is done, errands complete… I have been working freelance projects for the past 4 days and think today is an official reading day. I look forward to a comfy chair and a good book or two.