Book Journey

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce – Audio Review

Published on February 10, 2015March 30, 2015 by Sheila (Book Journey)53 Comments

Harold Fry now in his 60’s, retired and living with his wife in their English village home has come to expect…

nothing.

Life is quiet and unsurprising. Each day his mere existence and his wife’s avoidance makes the silence between them earth shattering loud. Retirement is not awesome.

Then one morning a letter comes in the mail. It is from a co-worker that Harold once had named Queenie Hennessy. She has terminal cancer and has written to say good-bye.

Harold is struck by this message with a deep sadness. He quickly writes a response to her, tells Maureen his wife that he is heading out to the mailbox and walks out of the house. As Harold passes his own mailbox, and heads into town where he passes two more, he has an encounter with a young girl at a restaurant who inspires him (unaware) to deliver Queenie’s letter in person. Harold believes that as long as he is walking to Queenie, she can not die. With only his boat shoes and a light jacket, Harold starts the 600 mile walk from Kingsbridge to the hospice in Berwick… meeting along the way kind people who take him in. As Harold’s pilgrimage continues he has a lot of time to think about his past, his wife, his son… losses and regrets… and of course, what he has never told Queenie.

You know those books you always mean to read but never seem to get around to doing it? That is what The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was to me. When recently it was on a sale at Audible.com, I snatched it up on audio.

Harold Fry was a likable protagonist who had carried a lot of memories both good and bad, throughout his 60+ years. As life tends to do, Harold stayed busy moving forward and never dealing with his past. His Pilgrimage gave him the time he needed, alone to sort through what his life has been… and what it could still be.

This book is brilliant. While on one hand you could say an elderly man trucking 600 miles with no plan is a bit ridiculous – it works. When you understand that Harold needs to have a mission in his life and this is the moment he chooses… it works. It really does.

Jim Broadbent was an amazing narrator, he handled the different characters in the book smoothly. His tone made for an excellent listen, very well paced and fit for what I would imagine Harold Fry sounding like.

Overall this book is surprisingly deep and one that really makes you think about your own life. Thoroughly enjoyed.

Update: I recently acquired an audio version of the follow up to this book, The Love Song Of Miss Queeny Henessy. I am so excited to get to this listen and am curious about the narration of Celia Imrie who I believe is a new narrator to me.

Audible Audio Edition
Listening Length: 9 hours and 57 minutes
Program Type: Audiobook
Version: Unabridged
Publisher: Random House Audio
Audible.com Release Date: July 24, 2012

Morning Meanderings… Birthday Weekend and Book Club Tonight!

Published on February 10, 2015 by Sheila (Book Journey)24 Comments

Good morning! I think I have a Birthday weekend hangover and not from drinking. 🙂 I just had a really busy weekend that was a lot of fun!

On Saturday my friend Amy and I went to the Gatsby Party in the cities. It was a late night as we drove home the 2+ hours after the event but worth it. I was inspired by what they accomplished.

On Sunday, hubby and I went to a movie, American Sniper. SO good. I will review it at some point this week.

Monday…. my actual birthday. I had coffee in the morning with my friend Gail. Then I went and treated myself to a manicure and pedicure. My son Justin who lives in St. Paul came to the house around 3 pm and we went out and bought snacks for the night, went to a movie ( Project Almanac), picked up pizza afterwards, and came back home and watched Harry Potter and the Goblet Of Fire and Gone Girl. (yes, again on both of them 😀 ).

Justin brought me this really cool wine glass:

The glass says,

Secretly we’re all a little more absurd than we make ourselves out to be. ~JK Rowling

Love it!

Tonight is book club and I am so excited! I missed last months as I was on vacation so it will be good to see everyone AND it is at my house. We have a couple of books to hand out tonight for our Harper Collins Book Club Girls event:

I have them all set up on the table:

It’s like out own mini BEA. 😀

As for today, Justin is still here. We will hang out this morning and early afternoon than he has plans with friends and I will put the finishing touches on book club. We are reviewing The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain, an author who I discovered this past fall and LOVED this book as well as a few others I have now read by her. I am excited to see what the Bookies think.

Now… what will I make for an appetizer? 😉

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on February 8, 2015February 8, 2015 by Sheila (Book Journey)38 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!

It has been a good week. A nice mix of work and fun. Here is what I posted about this week:

Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins (not the review you are expecting)

My Father’s Wife by Mike Greenberg

Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld

Girl Fight -why Amy (Gone Girl) kicks a** over Rachel (Girl On The Train)

This Is What You Just Put In Your Mouth by Patrick Di Justo

Great Gatsby Party in Roseville MN (soooo much fun!)

Forever odd by Dean Koontz

The Undiluted Truth About Review Requests, Accepting Or Not and all the decisions in between 🙂

It has been a good reading and audio week. Here is what is on tap for this week:

For My Ears

The number-one international best seller reminiscent of After I’m Gone, Sister, Before I Go to Sleep and The Silent Wife–an intricately plotted, thoroughly addictive thriller that introduces a major new voice in suspense fiction; a mesmerizing and powerful novel that will keep you guessing to the very end.

No one has ever guessed Emily’s secret.

Will you?

A happy marriage. A beautiful family. A lovely home. So what makes Emily Coleman get up one morning and walk right out of her life, to start again as someone new?

Now Emily has become Cat, working at a hip advertising agency in London and living on the edge with her inseparable new friend, Angel. Cat’s buried any trace of her old self so well, no one knows how to find her. But she can’t bury the past or her own memories.

And soon she’ll have to face the truth of what she’s done–a shocking revelation that may push her one step too far…

The jury is out on books for this week… I need to look and see what that will be yet 🙂

Pleas 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:

The Undiluted Truth About Review Requests – Accepting and Not and All the Decisions In between

Published on February 8, 2015February 6, 2015 by Sheila (Book Journey)80 Comments

Book reviewers, bloggers… this one is for ~~you~~ us. This is something that has amazed me for years. All the wonderful review requests we receive by email (is it not a book lovers dream?). Yet – what emails sent for a potential review request really make it past the 10 to 30 seconds you give to them? I honestly feel bad but more than not – many hit the delete pile, and it may not even be because the book is not one I would read… in most cases it is that the pitch did not catch my attention in the amount of time I have for it. (Yes that is a huge run on sentence but who has time for periods? 😉 )

Sound cruel?

I hope not. I used to email back each person or company that sent me a review request to let them know if I was unable to accept at this time. Most times I would also let them know why… if it wasn’t a book I think I would enjoy, or if time limitations just did not allow me to agree to another book. I liked doing that… but now I just do not have the time to respond to each email.

Here is the honest truth and I have to believe I am not the only one. Time is precious. I have my personal email where I receive job requests for my writing as well as personal communications. I have a second email that is for Friends of the Library, and a third email for bookish stuff (where I direct all book related emails to go to). Being a busy active person with a life, I try to give each of these emails a look each day, but I do not have time to spend hours reading and responding to emails.

Who does?

So…. the point of this post was to share what does sell me on looking further into a review request… and what does not. Let’s start with the “does not” first…

What Does Not Work In a Review Request

The introduction. Dear sir or madam may pass if the rest of the email is good – but honestly – it is not 1902. If you are trying to catch my attention use my name, or just say hi or hello reviewer.

If you are going to use my name, make sure it is my name. I am not delusional… I do not think that I am the only person that you sent this email to and you covet my review thoughts and only my review thoughts. 🙂 However it starts the email off on a bad foot if you call me Jerry or Julie. Or really… any name that is not my own.

LONG over informative emails with no pictures. Chances are if I do not already work with your publishing company or with you, I am not going to invest time in a too wordy email about a book. Keep it short and sweet. Engage me in why I want to read this book.

No book cover. This is not always a big deal, but again, if you are a new to me publishing house, or author promoting your book… I like to see the cover. Honestly – I always like to see the cover. That is just me. Even with the companies I do work with I will look up the book if a cover is not in the email… that’s just me. I dont know why but I like to connect the cover to the story line. Covers for me are a plus.

Pitching a book to me that if you read my blog or even glanced at my review policy you would know the book wasn’t for me. Please do not tell me in one sentence that you enjoy my blog and in the next sentence pitch to me a romantic erotic western (*for the record – three types of books I clearly state I do not read… romances, westerns, or erotica). LOL. Ok that example is extreme… but it has come close to happening. 🙂

Not being clear on what you are offering (ie. book copy, Netgalley, …) I have at times said yes to a review and then received a PDF to read it on my computer. I dont read books on my computer.

What Does Work In a Review Request

Call me Sheila. Or even say “Hey bloggers” or “Hey book reviewers” or even “Dear Reviewer”. I am not picky, just start your email out right with a greeting. I dont mind being grouped in an email that I know has went out to many. We are all friend here. 🙂

Tell me in a short synopsis about the book or books you are pitching. If you are excited about a particular book, or know it is is being considered for a movie, or even that you expect big things out of the book.. tell me. That’s interesting stuff.

Show me the book cover! I love seeing covers. If I read a synopsis of a book I am interested in – I still want to see the cover.

2aa — Dear Sheila, How are you? We are super excited to offer you a review copy of a book that we feel is going to make a big splash not only in book format, but also as a movie! Please consider reading and reviewing The Hobbit, ….

If you are pitching several books, I dont even need the cover if there is a link where I can look at the book and see more about it.

Clear instructions of what you are offering (ie. a book for review, Netgalley, PDF) is awesome as well as how to respond to you.

That’s about it. I ♥love♥ receiving review requests and I wish I had the time to read and consider them all but as those of us who write review know – we cant say yes to them all which makes the email pitch all the more important.

I am curious, do the things I mention here in review requests cause you to consider or not consider a book? Do you have a criteria that you like to see in a review pitch? If so, please put in the comments your thoughts on book pitches.

Forever Odd by Dean Koontz

Published on February 8, 2015February 8, 2015 by Sheila (Book Journey)3 Comments

Odd Thomas is indeed properly named.

While having maintained a job as a fry cook in a desert town of Pico Mundo, Odd also communicates with the dead.

Seriously.

He sees dead people. In particular, he sees Elvis a lot, who for some reason hangs out in Odd’s apartment weeping and pacing. While Odd does see dead people, the dead can not speak back so he has no idea why Elvis is so upset. Sometimes he is not upset… sometimes Elvis is funny. He pretends to pick his nose and flick it at Odd. A ghost has no reason to pick its nose. The dead, often come to Odd. Especially after they have just died… sometimes looking for comfort, somehow they know that Odd is able to see them.

Such is this particular morning.

When the father of his childhood friend Danny appears before Odd, Odd knows something has gone wrong. He follows the man back to his home wondering what he will encounter, but knowing for sure he will find this man’s body. What he finds is the man has been murdered, and Odd’s handicapped friend Danny, has been taken. Odd never knows how he gets himself involved in these things, but he knows it is up to him to make things right if only he can.

A little note about me and Dean Koontz…. I adore his writing and have for years. Koontz writes like Stephen King, but at a lesser creep level. He is not as intense, and more so, something I appreciate, he has a great sense of humor that shows up in his books.

I have read a few of the Odd Thomas books along the way. Not consistently, but they are the type of books that you do not need to follow all along. What I like about them is that I imagine they are like desert to Dean Koontz. Odd is a different character than you will find in his other books. He not only sees dead people, but he has a dry sense of humor, as well as everyone else who pops up in the book. They are fun reads. They are funny reads.

I like that.

In Forever Odd, I just had to smile at the familiarity of the character, the unwilling passage to the dead. Odd didn’t ask for this gig… but it is his. The whole Elvis line (that follows through all of the Odd books) is a fun one. At the end of this book Odd explains why he feels Elvis will not continue his journey to the after world…

I think what he says is spot on.

If you have not experienced Odd Thomas, I suggest you give him a try. They are fun reads with a mystery mixed in.

The audio is narrated by David Aaron Baker. He was the right voice.

Audible Audio Edition
Listening Length: 8 hours and 37 minutes
Program Type: Audiobook
Version: Unabridged
Publisher: Random House Audio
Audible.com Release Date: November 28, 2005

Morning Meanderings… Books and Gatsby!

Published on February 8, 2015 by Sheila (Book Journey)25 Comments

Good morning! Happy Sunday! It is a coffee day for sure!

Last night was the Ramsey County Library Fundraiser for the Library, The Gatsby Party. Far be it from me to pass up an event where you get to dress up as well as drag along my partner in crime, Amy.

We had such a good time!

First off we stopped at where my son works as it was 5 miles from the party. We had a drink and an horduerve there.

Then we invaded their bathroom and changed for the party…

We had so much fun.

There will be more pictures coming from the event this week and I will probably post those next Saturday. Anyway, music, food, photo booth, auction.. fun. We drove back last night after the event which brought us home right about midnight. Thankfully today is a nice relaxing day so I can catch upon some things here but for the most part today will be books and movies. 🙂

Speaking of books…

Seeker by Arwen Elys Dayton (audio)

I Remember You by Cathleen Davit Bell (audio)

The Best Of Me (movie!)

The Precious One by Marisa De Los Santos (16 copies from Harper Collins for our book club)

The STRANGER by Harlan Coben

Fun line up of reads. Hope your Sunday is wonderfully low key 🙂

This Is What You Just Put In Your Mouth by Patrick Di Justo

Published on February 7, 2015February 7, 2015 by Sheila (Book Journey)11 Comments

At one time or another you have probably wondered what some of the ingredients listed on a package really are. And, if you are like me, you soon forgot you were curious because a) the item is tasty good, b) who has time to look that stuff up, or more than likely c) do you really want to know?

Author Patrick Di Justo wrote the articles called What’s Inside for the magazine Wired. He took his investigation of products to the CEO’s of companies (who may or may not get back to him with his questions). He also researched deep into the archives on Google and followed products back to their beginning.

The result? Patrick discovered some interesting things about the foods we put in our mouth. Some are interesting, some are disgusting, some are funny… and some… involved a call (or two or three) to the FDA.

So what really does make that Cheese Whiz can eject that line of cheese product? If I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter isn’t butter…. what is it? And do we want to know what is in a Slim Jim or would we rather just enjoy the spicy snappy flavor and not think about it?

Now before you decide this book if this book is for you, hear me out.

This Is What You Put In Your Mouth is actually an interesting read and not necessarily as disgusting as you may initially think. Sure there is talk about dies that are not good for us, and ingredients that are not only in chewing gum that can also inflate a tire…but for the most part you are not reading about to many gross and disgusting things.

The layout of the book is a product will be listed with its ingredients and a description laid out of what the ingredients are. Occasionally Patrick will add his own funny take on an ingredient. Then, there will be a “backstory”. This is where Patrick shares what steps he took on this product to track down the makers for more information. AT first they would be excited to hear that their product would be featured in a magazine. That is, until they read the magazine and seen what Patrick really wrote about. The cooperation of the company or not did not change the fact that Patrick would write about it.

Not everything in the book is for eating. Patrick also talks about cleaning products, fire starter logs and gasoline.

Here is a fun little video – see below to get what is going on here.

This video is actually about one of the products that Patrick had written about (and he talks about in the book about this product, and this video). What happened was PBS ran a segment called What’s Inside. Watch between 1:30 and 1:33 on the video. You will see there is a product on the table that Chris does not talk about. At the end of the video there are clearly 10 items on the table by Chris only talks about 9 of them. The item that was deleted off the video (cut during those three seconds) was sexual lubricant. PBS did not want this talked about on air so it was cut before the show aired.

While the book was interesting, it is more of a book you want to skim and look for items you are interested in knowing more about than trying to read like a regular book.

I will be adding this to Weekend Cooking as this post is about food. Sort of. 😉

Print Length: 272 pages
Publisher: Three Rivers Press (February 3, 2015)
Sold by: Random House LLC

Morning Meanderings… A Snapshot of Australia and a Bit Of Crazy

Published on February 7, 2015February 7, 2015 by Sheila (Book Journey)30 Comments

Good morning. It is Saturday. Coffee Cup and I are on round two. It looks as though it will be a nice day here in Central Minnesota, the sun is already shining…there really is no snow… so odd.

25a — This picture was taken from my back deck this morning. This is the way Central Minnesota has looked almost all winter. I personally love it. Now a snow fan.

For today’s Saturday Snapshot I thought I would pop out a few more pictures from Australia. We did spend three days in Sydney before we boarded the cruise ship. They were not snoozy days – we were up early and exploring. Here are some random shots of that time:

I can not recall if I posted about this lady before. I know I put her on Facebook and if I did already chat about her here, sorry about that but perhaps she is worth repeating. (Honestly I am too lazy to look back through my posts this morning). In Sydney on the pier we found this lovely lady all in white paint standing as still as a statue. However, if you were say a middle grade child… she would slowly move her hand and wave you over. If the child’s parent/guardian were to take a picture of the smiling child in front of her… she would bend over the child and show her fanged teeth. Yup. It was super cool and the smiling child would not suspect until he seen the picture. Awesome.

Two things about Australia…. Tim Tam – the cookie several of you told me I had to try so I diligently purchased a bag and shared them with the group. Mmmm… they are good. The coffee. EEP. When I would order coffee in the morning at the hotel (at about $4.00 a cup!) they make it one cup at a time. I would have been happy for a good old gas station coffee but instead it was this super strong foamy brew. Don’t get me wrong… I drank it. It is coffee after all. 😉

Hmmm…. flippy bad hair. We were on a boat and it was beautiful out. Behind me, of course is the famous Sydney Opera House. From reading Bill Bryson’s book, In A Sunburned Country I learned this… Sir Eugene Goossens, the man who had started the idea of the Opera house never seen it completed. In 1956 while passing through customs he was found to be carrying a large amount of pornographic materials. Australia security pretty much said “not in our country”, and he was asked to leave… permanently. That said, Goossen never did see the Opera House completed in all of its glory.

So.. the Sydney Harbor Bridge is the world’s largest bridge – but not the longest. Once again, in Bill Bryson’s book I learned that it was meant to be the longest as well, however the bridge took longer to build than anticipated. 10 years later when the bridge was complete, it was discovered that just shortly before, the New River Gorge Bridge in Virginia had opened up and it was 10 inches longer. “Doh!”

We purchased Ferry tickets one day in Australia and tooled around on the different Ferry’s going from here to there. One of the Ferry’s went to an area where people came into the main town by Ferry. It was a very ritzy area and this is one of the homes that we passed along the way.

Another view from the ferry.

I will leave it at that for today.. more to come… more sights to share. 🙂

This afternoon my friend Amy and I will leave for the cities, putt around, and wind up at the Great Gatsby Party this evening. I am soooo excited! This is part of my birthday weekend plans (my birthday is on Monday).

On another crazy note…. yesterday I was chatting about the Polar Plunge I participated in 4 years ago. My mouth got the best of me on Facebook as I teased my cousin’s wife about her saying she would never do it again… by the end of that conversation she and I had both signed up to participate in the Plunge on February 28th in Anoka Minnesota. 😯

Ahhh well…. it is for a good cause.

If you would like to sponsor me, the proceeds go to Special Olympics

Click here

Have a super Saturday!!!

Girl Fight! Why Amy (Gone Girl), Kick A** over Rachel (Girl On The Train)

Published on February 6, 2015February 4, 2015 by Sheila (Book Journey)33 Comments

** Warning this post will contain potential spoilers to both Gone Girl and Girl On The Train

Recently I finished the book, Girl On The Train. If you have been on the blogesphere lately you may have noticed this book. It is… EVERYWHERE. An EVERYWHERE book does not necessarily constitute a need for me to read it – however, my interest was piqued. Having seen it was being compared to Gone Girl increased that interest.

Now, having read both books, I have thoughts on why Amy from Gone Girl makes for an excellent protagonist and why Rachel from Girl On The Train does not. (Yes I know I am poking the bear)

Amy

Amy Dunne is brilliant. Scary brilliant. She can be the “everything woman”. When she meets Nick she is exactly who he wants her to be. She is sweet, beautiful, vulnerable. She makes Nick feel like a man and he falls in love with her. BUT (and it is a big but.. we are talking baby got back but!) we all know that Amy is flawed… more dangerously than Rachel because Amy can cover her flaws well. It is not until later in the book that we discover how flawed Amy really is…. twisted and damaged to the core she still ends up on top even in the end. Those who know her true colors are few and too afraid of her to do anything about it.

Rachel

Rachel comes with a lot of baggage. Most prominent is her trouble with alcohol. Her inability to stop drinking puts her immediately at a disadvantage. She is a burden on those around her. She can not hold down a job. As a witness, because of her drinking she is unreliable. Those who try to like her find her to be too much work and they quickly move on. Rachel has dug herself into a deep hole. In the end, she pulls herself together and is working towards being a person who will probably trump Amy in genuine niceness and togetherness.. but for me, it was too little too late.

Unreliable narration is the hook to both of these books. Can we trust what the narrator is telling us? Narration to narration I still give Gone Girl the win as when the book turned and twisted to what was really going on I was BLOWN AWAY. When Girl On The Train twisted I was surprised, but not over the top. I think by that time I had spent so much time struggling with Rachel that I was not engaged enough to appreciate what was indeed, an excellent twist of events.

Disclaimer: This post is all in fun. Based on my thoughts, solely my opinion, on both books and their protagonists. I actually enjoyed reading both books, just had a protagonist issue with Girl On The Train (my issue.). Let’s discuss! Did you like one protagonist over the other? Is it even about the protagonist or is more about the narration that makes the books? Do you agree or disagree with what I have said here? Is it even a fair fight?

Morning Meanderings… Feeling SPUNKY. Polar Plunge Anyone?

Published on February 6, 2015 by Sheila (Book Journey)8 Comments

Good morning! Friday! Egads, it is Friday! I feel good though. I have a good work day planned, prep for tomorrows Gatsby Event and plan dinner and a workout (not in that order). Should be a nice “little bit of everything” day.

When I woke up this morning I seen on Facebook that our 2011 Polar Plunge pictures are circulating again. I love looking at crazy pictures and have to laugh as pretty much everyone I did the plunge with said they would never do it again.