Hey there! Welcome to It’s Monday, What Are You Reading!
I love being a part of this and I hope you do too! As part of this weekly meme I love to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme. Fair warning… this meme tends to add to your reading list! 😉
Hope you are having a SUPER week! I am, enjoying sunny Florida with my son. We are here until tomorrow afternoon then back to Minnesota we go! Only a day for me because I return to Florida on Tuesday in a different capacity – but that is another story.
Clearly I had all of the reviews written before the trip. I have hardly read at all while I have been in Florida this past 4 days. I read a little on the plane but have been running and exploring ever since then. I am not listing any new books this week as I have to really focus on my two book club reads – Aviator’s Wife and The Dark Road To Mercy… that will be hard enough to get done before next Bookies meeting, which I will not be at but want to be able to send in my thoughts 😉
SO…. the linky is all yours. What have you been reading this week? What are you planning on reading next week? Please add your link to your own It’s Monday What Are You Reading below where it says click here:
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For those of you who read mainly children and middle grade books, please also feel free to add your link here:
When a tragic accident happened in an elephant sanctuary, a whirlwind of activity all happened at once. One woman was dead. Another was seriously injured. A man loses his grip on reality… and a little girl is separated from her mother.
Jenna Metcalf was 3 years old when that night cost her both of her parents. Her father is taken to a mental facility, and her mother quietly slips out of a hospital ward never to be seen since. Now Jenna is 10 and living with her grandmother; but not a day goes by that she does not wonder what ever happened to her mother and why she never came back for her.
Jenna takes all the babysitting she money and tracks down a once famous-now washed up psychic names Serenity Jones to search for her mother through her talents, and Virgil Stanhope, the now retired police officer who was on the scene the night of the accident. For reasons beyond them, both Serenity and Virgil feel that they are meant to help this small girl who is just looking for answers.
Told in alternating voices of Jenna, Serenity, Virgil, and Alice (Jenna’s mom), the whole story comes together of what happened that night and why.
I feel like a kid when I try to describe how I felt about this book. Mainly because I want to say “Oh wowza!!!!” I have read and enjoyed Jodi Piccoult before, but kind of had her framed in a box of a female John Grisham who tells harder cases (like school shootings, autistic murderers, and suing your parents for rights to your own body…) but this THIS is not the Jodi Piccoult that I think any of us know. This is a brand new author… and she has created something amazing.
Leaving Time comes at you at such a wonderful pace. While you may think four different narrators is a bit much, it blends well and flows easily from one voice to another. While each persons perspective is entirely different, they all fit together so well. When Alice is the narrator you learn so many amazing facts about her time working with the elephants. I learned so much about these amazing creatures and how they care for their young, never forgetting a person no matter how much time has passed. The facts about the elephants added another layer to the book.
I loved this story. I listened to it on audio and it went with me from the car to the house. I could not get enough and I wanted to know how this would all come together… and when it does….
For those of you who enjoy Jodi Piccoult’s writing as well as for those who found her past story lines to be a bit of the same, you are in for a treat and I must tell you do not miss this book!!!
Good morning! Sunday already! I am sitting in the breakfast area of the hotel, drinking my coffee and enjoying a little people watching. This is the morning tradition. I get up, get ready for the day and wait downstairs until my son joins me. We then plan out our day.
Yesterday evening we went to the Capone’s Dinner and Show. It was a lot of fun! We arrived early, gave our secret password at the door, “two cherry cokes” and then proceeded to wait for our table. We sat with a fun group. Two couples from Wisconsin on one side of us, and an older group on the other side celebrating a 75th birthday. They were really fun to talk to!
The show was a lot of fun.
and then of course…
LOL! For $20 you could pick up this sweet newspaper of your arrest as a crime lord…. fantastic really and of course we had to have it.
Fun time, good food – recommended for those looking for a fun thing to do on an Orlando evening. Show started at 7:30, but you are welcome to show up anytime from 6 pm on for drinks and to get into character. It ended about 10:30 pm. Full buffet dinner was included: salad, pastas, pizza, lasagna, turkey, chicken, vegies, potatoes, pork, dessert and all of your drinks are included. The bummer was I was still full from lunch so ate two small squares of pizza, some salad, and sweet potato. 🙂
I have no books to show of what came in this week as I am not home until tomorrow afternoon from Florida. It has been a wonderful time to hang out with my son.
Early today I posted about Universal Studios Harry Potter World all all the amazing new items to see and do. The real big harry audacious idea behind Diagon Alley would be the addition of the new ride, Gringott’s Bank Ride.
Seriously… this is the MUST RIDE of the park. Harry Potter fans – do not miss this impressive addition!
When Justin (my son) and I went on the ride it was over an hour wait to get on. Long yes? Worth it? YES.
The bank line area is impressive. If I was that old dude from Jurassic Park I would say, “No expense was spared!” Beautifully lines walls, realistic looks bank desks, offices, and more. The line up of animated goblins was really cool!
Beautiful decorations…
The ride is a car with four seats across, three rows per car. Its one small drop in the beginning but the rest is mainly simulated with excellent graphics and effects. Of course riders, we are trying to avoid that pesky dragon.
Happy Kick-Off to the Re-Read Readathon for Harry Potter! This Re-Read happened to coincide with my son and my annual Florida trip to Universal Studios… more importantly Harry Potter World. If you are a Potter Head, such as myself, you are probably aware – or at least heard Muggle mumblings of additions being made to the park…. most specific – A Hogwart’s Express that you can actually ride from one park to another. There was also mention of additional shops, Diagon Alley, and a Gringott’s Bank ride. All of this…
definitely worth checking out.
Join me now… for my thoughts on the additions to the park and what you should know before you go.
For the whole “Look I have been accepted to Hogwart’s and am going to the school on a train!” experience, it is important (vital really) that you enter from the Universal Studios side of the park. *Note – it is two parks adjoined together, you can pay for the Adventure Island park pass and be able to walk into Harry Potter World but for the full experience with the train ride and Diagon Alley you will need to buy the park pass for both parks…expensive – yes. Worth it? You bet.
Once you enter the King’s Cross Area you will have your ticket checked by a Train Conductor (I like to use the word Keeper) but my son says that is not correct… sheesh… like he is Magic born or something…)
While on your way to the train you get to experience some super cool effects. Do not miss out on going through the wall to get to platform 9 3/4 (it is easy to miss – you have to watch your friends go through to see it.. if you see other people stopped and looking at a wall – you should too!) I have a cool video of this on my Facebook page (Sheila McKinney DeChantal). Here is a sort of picture of it:
Once you get to the train area (oh yeah it is awesome!), you will wait to be seated and you will go in a very authentic looking version of the Hogwarts train – even the fun little compartments to sit in with your Hogwart friends.
Justin at 9 3/4
Then you are off – it is actually a smooth ride and you may not even think the train is actually moving – but it is because the doors open up and you are in the other park (Island Of Adventures) and you are at the entrance of Hogsmeade, the town near the Hogwarts School. This is all the original Harry Potter World park so if you are new, be sure to check out all the amazing detail in the shops, listen for the show on the stage, and perhaps grab a bite to eat in Three Broomsticks, a beer in Hogshead (very cool and authentic) or – for the whole family… you must try the Butter Beer – either on ice or frozen:
If you are new to the Harry Potter Wold or a repeat offender such as Justin and I, you must go on The Forbidden Journey ride. Walking through the Hogwarts building is a treat in itself with amazing detail, talking pictures, the whole works. Even if you opt out of the ride, you are able to walk through this part and check it out. However – do not opt out of the ride! It is mainly simulated, you are in a seat and get the feeling of flying through the air. There are no sudden drops and you are not really shook up as in some rides. I personally LOVE IT.
But now… where is the new stuff? Well, we were not sure either but we looked at the awesome sauce park map and discovered it was back in the other park…
Nicely played Universal, nicely played…. utilizing both parks so well.
Note – this is perfect. YOU want to ride the train into Hogsmeade and go to Hogwarts BEFORE you go back to Diagon as the train experience is a bit different. When you get off the train back in the Universal Park Diagon Alley is not obvious where it is. Come off the train and go to the left… you will receive a few hints… for instance, the Knight Bus is there along with the Shrunken Head (be sure to check out the back of the bus, you can step into it.)
If you look across the road from the Knight Bus you will see a large brick wall and you can see an area to go in. It looks as though it may be a way to bathrooms… there is nothing identifying it… but step in and around the corner…
AHHHHH AHHHHHHHH! It is DIAGON ALLEY! Sweet Mother! It is a while new world hidden behind a wall! Seriously, this finding… took almost the rest of our day! There is so much to see!
Many of the shops you could walk into… of course they are selling everything from chocolate frogs to Quidditch gear. Scarves, gloves, hats, t-shirts, gowns, Weasley sweaters, key chains, Christmas ornaments… you name it.. they probably have it.
The Leaky Cauldren is a restaurant but they told us it had a different menu than the Three Broomsticks which is found at Hogsmeade. Florrish and Blotts had notebooks, diaries, pens, note pads… there was so much to see and do! Justin even was chosen to be tried for a wand…
Yes, we got our geek on.
Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes was a cool shop of candy and gags, great looking building inside and out.
Kids… ok people, can purchase wands and in certain places in Diagon Alley you can stand on these cool areas that tell you what spell to use and how to swish your wand and things will move. It was brilliant and the kids… err…. people, loved it.
Of course… the real highlight of the new Diagon Alley area is the Gringott’s Bank ride. This ride will be discussed in a separate post so not to make an already long gushing post longer. 🙂 Hopefully I will get that post up today.
My overall rating on a scale of 1 – 10, a 10+. For all Potter fans this is a must do trip. It was absolutely awesome to see all the people wearing Harry Potter gear, ties and gowns were everywhere.. this is truly a franchise that is not going anywhere soon and kudos plus to the amazing J K Rowling for creating such a phenomenon that captures the imaginations of children of all ages.
This is as I mentioned the kick off date the The Harry Potter Re-Read Readathon. Check out the details… there are giveaways and house points and all sorts of fun for those who decide to join in. 🙂
In San Antonio Texas, life and all it entails, goes on for Detective Lily Harris, even in the midst of a horrifying flu outbreak that is killing people. Living inside the quarantine walls to hopefully contain the virus, Lily and her two children try to have a somewhat normal life with the addition of face masks and protective clothing on at all times. Food and supplies are hard to come by unless you use the black markets. Even in these hard times, Lily must continue to work to provide for her family.
While working her shift, Lily discovers a female murder victim among those who died from the flu virus. As Lily investigates the murder, another strain of the flu virus surfaces, and Lily finds herself in the middle of a government conspiracy that if leaked tot he public would cause an all out war.
Now Lily, with limited time, must find a way to get herself and her children through the heavily guarded quarantine walls and bring what she has found out to light in order to save them all.
Outbreak stories can be some scary stuff. When I downloaded this audiobook, it was before the Ebola virus was hitting the news. Listening to it now knowing about the dangerous virus, put another level of fear to this book.
The book is dark and gives you the feeling of being on the inside of a quarantined wall. You do not hear much about what is going on beyond the wall with the rest of the world. Food is dropped in, but as the story goes on, supplies become low. As if that is not frightening enough, finding bodies from the flu is an every chapter occurrence.
What was unique about this read was that Lily tries to maintain a somewhat normal life for kids throughout it all. I enjoyed reading about her trying to find certain ingredients to make a cake, and planning a birthday party for her daughter even in the middle of chaos. It was refreshing to know that as humans, we try through it all to maintain some sense of a life.
Unique read. I listened to this one on audio, narrator Therese Plummer (I interviewed her earlier this year) does an excellent job.
We landed in Orlando yesterday afternoon, had lunch at a wonderful spot, went to Walmart for some supplies for the hotel and found our hotel. Our plan was to book the same hotel we did the first year we came, two years ago. It was a great room with a kitchen, a living room with couch and a chair and table, and a separate bedroom. It was great if one of us was tired and one was not so we did not disturb each other. I thought that was what I had booked again… but alas …. no.
The hotel we are at is fine… but has a SUPER clean smell. An overly clean smell… to the point that it gives me a headache. And it is just a standard room, also fine as we are hardly ever there, but not what we had hoped for.
We drove around looking for our original hotel. We walked the area we did that year to go to the restaurant Fridays, and he other little shops we had walked that year… we still could not find our hotel. Later at our current hotel I started Googling all hotels on that road and looking at pics… I think I finally found it but it has a new name and look. We may go check it out today for future bookings.
BUT FIRST….
Today we will be at Universal Studios. More importantly….
Harry Potter World.
I am so excited! We will be there by 9 am when it opens and I hope to go on the train first. Yes yes… I will totally have my geek on. 🙂 I am so looking forward to this!
Later tonight, we want to go to the movie Nightcrawler. It looks good!
SO that will be our second day in Florida! Remember the kick off to the Harry Potter Reread/Readathon starts tomorrow. Still time to join in! I started reading book one on the plane. Still, it amazes me how much is said in each book that leads to things to come.
Julie Bishop’s life has fallen apart. Her husband’s sneaky dealings becoming public, then his sudden death, have left Julie torn apart and bankrupt. When a stranger arrives at her doorstep and offers her a job taking care of his mother who is thought to be dead, and offers Julie an escape from her worries and the public, Julie agrees. What does she have to lose?
When Julie arrives at the beautiful mansion on Lake Superior she can not began to believe her luck. House maids prepare all the meals and make her whatever she wishes, she has her own private room, a beautiful in-house library, and as it turns out, the lady she is looking after, Mrs. Sinclair, was once a famous author and a delight to keep company with.
Yet things, sadly are not all as they appear. For one, there is a photo of a woman who looks shockingly like Julie. And there are strange sighting, glimpses really of movement, and a lot of hush-hush when Julie tries to address what she is seeing to Mrs. Sinclair’s son. Then there is the phone call… an impossible phone call from someone Julie knows for certain is dead.
What exactly has Julie signed up for?
Wendy Webb writes crazy good spooky reads from Minnesota. The Vanishing is just the type of book you want to curl up with on a cool dark evening. I absolutely enjoyed this book with its gorgeous but eerie settings. There is also something about tying books and authors within stories that fully grabs on to me. Throw in a few ghosts, a good-looking guy, and you have yourself the makings of something awesome.
This is not my first experience with Wendy Webb. I enjoyed The Fate Of Mercy Alban a couple of years back. I listened to this one on audio and narrator Xe Sands had just the right smooth tones to add a bonus level to this experience.
Charlie has had a fear of the large mansion like home down the road from his own. His mother a long time ago told him to never go near the old house, and Charlie had ridden his bike by the home, but never approached it. After his mother died, he still stayed away even thought he lady who had owned the home was also gone.
Until one day…
One day Charlie seen a car at the old house and a woman with flaming red hair and a cackle for a laugh moves into the home. She is Charlotte Dechant, the daughter of the spooky old woman who had passed away, and as time goes on, Charlotte has her eyes on Charlies dad.
As if this was not enough… Charlie has incredible Nightmares, nightmares that feel all too real, and have to do often with the old house… and with Charlotte. When Charlie tries to talk to his dad, his dad feels Charlie is just having bad dreams, or making stuff up to keep him dad from Charlotte…
and then his nightmares start to slip into the waking world, and Charlie has to do something and soon.
I was impressed with Jason Segel’s first book. Obviously I am not the attended audience, but that said… I really enjoyed it and found I wanted to know what would happen next. Well written, and as I can imagine, all very real to Charlie our protagonist. Nightmares! is about a young boy learning to conquer his fears. But it is also more than that. It is about grief, and about loss, and learning to move on. This was the surprise I took away from this book.
This is more than a children’s book. In fact some of the things in the book I would imagine would be down right scary to a very young child (this too surprised me as I imagined this would be a fun lite read). I would say if you are considering this for your child, know that there are monsters in the book, and witches, and clowns (something that personally freaks me out). Use discretion knowing what your child(ren) can handle without finding the book too scary.
I listened to this on audio as Jason Segel narrates. It was a wonderful narration and I enjoyed the listen.
*This book is set up to be a series. I can see that it is open-ended enough where more stories could come from this.
Age Range: 8 – 12 years
Grade Level: 3 – 7
Series: Nightmares!
Hardcover: 368 pages
Listening Length: 7 hours and 33 minutes
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (September 9, 2014)
Ba ha ha! Yes you have to put up with two more days of this photo… 🙂 Then… I will go back to the regularly scheduled photo for this meme… but maybe not – as I will be in Florida then! WOO HOO!!!
I actually leave later today for my son’s house in St Paul. He now lives close to the airport so I will stay there tonight and we will taxi to the plane in the morning. By noon… we should be in Orlando.
Pause for sunshine….
So… what am I taking in my carry on? This is always a big deal as my carry on is usually strictly for the purpose of books to read on the plane, the safety of my laptop, and perhaps a snack. I am prepped with:
Ok… so what do we have here? Far left is Kinderella and on that is The Banks Of Certain Rivers. Then we have my beautiful 20th Anniversary edition of the Sorcerer’s Stone for kick off to the Harry Potter Re-read/Readathon, This Dark Road To Mercy by Wiley Cash (book club bonus read for Harper Collins), Meritropolis by Joel Ohman (because dang it looks good and if I don’t get to it my son might), and The After House by Michael Phillip Cash (because it looks like the right read for the season and no relation to Wiley Cash that I know of 😉 )
As usual… I over book my carry on… but at least I have variety which will keep me soothed for the ride there and back.
Today I am working on wrapping up some bee appointments, cooking meals for Al, sending in new passport info (that is another story…), folding laundry, dropping off supplies for phase two of my Florida time, pre-paying upcoming bills… odds and ends trying to tie everything up to be gone.
Lots of posts prepped for here so stay tune! I do not plan on going “dark” while I am away.
A quick shameless plug for the Harry Potter Reread/Readathonstarting on Nov. 1. Check out the post… you have lots of time to read, fun House memes to put on your blog (but you do not need a blog to participate!), prizes and surprises, and we are going to have a lot of fun! 21 signed up so far!
Book Journey 