Book Journey

Morning Meanderings… Ready For Take Off (almost)

Published on October 26, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)28 Comments

Happy Sunday! I am in go mode – so much to do to prepare to be gone much of November. If you missed my post earlier this week, I just found out this week that after I get back from my Florida trip with my College Son (Oct 30 – Nov 3), I will be leaving again on the 4th – 20th, back to Florida to work with the bees. I have much to prepare in my home and for the trip…. today, once back in Brainerd I will be focusing on prepping for the time away by preparing meals hubby can heat up.

On another more zen like note, I am hosting a Harry Potter Re-Read to get us through the winter months. Check out the post!

Here is what came in this week:

Choose Your Own Autobiography by Neil Patrick Harris (audio)

A Walk To Remember by Nicholas Sparks (audio)

Winter Street by Elin Hilderbrand (audio)

Confessions by James Patterson (audio)

Food, A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan (audio)

The After House by Michael Phillip Cash

Scorched Eggs by Laura Childs

Must run for now. Enjoy your Sunday!

Looking For Potter Heads! Winter Re-Read/Readalong

Published on October 24, 2014November 3, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)67 Comments

Are you a Potter Head? Do you….

Sometimes find yourself whispering a spell under your breath at a family member, co-worker, or friend?

Get excited every time you see one of the movies playing on TV?

Have now or ever in your past used a Harry Potter type of ring tone (this also counts if your phone case has now or ever been Harry Potter)?

Own(ed) any sort of Potter paraphernalia – IE. Article of clothing, movies, costumes, a wand, board game, posters, bookmarks, signs… ok – you know what I mean ;).

Ever went to Universal Studies in Orlando mainly because of Harry Potter World?

Recited movie lines or profound Dumbledore quotes with a sense of superiority?

Well… if you said yes to any of the above. YOU are a Potter Head. And this post is for you. AND if you are new to the whole Potter literacy PHENOMENA, well, first I take a moment of silence for you…. and then I offer you to read on as well, as an opportunity awaits you as well. (you will be known as First Years)

Starting in November I will be hosting a Harry Potter Re-Read that I am SUPER EXCITED about. Pull those books off the shelf, or pick them up at your local library, download on your e readers, or listen to on audio (also super fantastic with either narrator I am just saying!). However you decide to join in… all are welcome.

Throughout our 5 months allowed for the Re-Read there will be dates to discuss the book, add your posts, or add comments to the new tab I will have right below the Book Journey Header. You can pop in whenever you want to add your thoughts, look for new contests, etc… check back often – not everything will be posted and I want to keep this as lose as unstructured as possible as that is where I thrive best.

If you want in… and I hope you do… please grab one of the following memes from below for your own blog. If you do not blog, see below for further instructions.

Once you have chosen your House, please write a post about your involvement in this project as well as what year you are (see years below to help you). By writing a post you will be helping to pass the word about this Re-Read so more may hear about it and join in. You may also choose to leave a comment here about which House you are in and what year you are. *This will also be where those without blogs can can leave a comment of how they are participating.

So… here is how you decide on what year you are:

First Years: You have read The Sorcerer’s Stone or you have not read and Harry Potter books

Second Years: You have read Sorcerer’s Stone and The Chamber of Secrets

Third Years: You have read the two mentioned above as well as The Prisoner or Azkaban

Fourth Years: You have read the three above as well as The Goblet Of Fire

Fifth Years: You have read the four above and the Order Of The Phoenix

Sixth Years: You have read the five above and The Half Blood Prince

Seventh Years: You have read all of the Harry Potter books

Now, some of you may be unsure what house you may fall in. So we will pull out the sorting hat. Click below on the sorting hat to have the hat choose a house for you… but know this… what you desire is also considered, so you may choose your own house as well.

The “loosely applied” reading of each book will look like this:

Nov 1 – Nov. 16 – The Sorcerer’s Stone

Nov 17 – Dec. 6th – Chamber Of Secrets

Dec. 7 – Dec. 29th – The Prisoner Of Azkaban

Dec 30th – Jan 20th – The Goblet Of Fire

Jan. 21st – Feb 13th – Order Of The Phoenix

Feb. 14th – March 7th – The Half Blood Prince

March 8th – March 31st – The Deathly Hallows

There you have it! All communications will be under the tab under the Book Journey Header called “Harry Potter Re-Read”. As I mentioned check it often as surprise posts and giveaways will be added by sponsors as we go.

Special note: You will win “House Points” by participating in commenting, giveaways, and more (all of this will be revealed thought the Harry Potter Re-Read tab). Your house point totals will show under tabs as well. It s going to be good fun! Really!

To commit (and so I can communicate with you if you win anything) please sign up using the form below:

I will personally be kicking off with a trip to Harry Potter World in Orlando Florida. I will send some posts from there and give you a peek at some of the items that may be coming home with me for giveaways!

The hashtag for the read-a-long on twitter is #hpreadalong

Hope you will join me!

Morning Meanderings… The Last Friday I Will Be Home For Three Weeks

Published on October 24, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)6 Comments

Good morning! It is Friday and I am sooo excited about that. Today I have a no commitment day and I plan to take full advantage of it. These days, as you seen by the title of my post are going to be few over the next weeks so I am trying to prepare for them.

I leave next Wednesday afternoon for ST Paul to stay with College Son and then we leave on the 30th for Florida for our annual trip. I am so looking forward to this as I do every year. Yes yes, Universal Studios here we come!!! Then we come back home on Monday November 3rd…

and then I leave back to Florida to work with the bees on the 4th through the 20th.

Yup.

I will be helping to split hives which makes more hives, and well, you can bet there will be a whole post on this once we get going.

Yes it is definitely a long time away from home and I am honestly not thrilled about that. However, we have to have all splits done by November 15th and together we believe we can get ‘er done. 🙂 On the bright side, once I get through this crazy bump in activity, December should be extremely low-key and I will not be doing anything but focusing on writing and staying out of the cold 🙂

I also need to announce the winner of the bookmarks! Thank you to all who commented on the post and looked at the cool website for In My Book. What a fun gift idea! I will be mailing out a card to two different lucky winners! Using random.org. the winners are….

Kathy at Bermuda Onion!

Krystal at Books Are My Thing!

Woo hoo!!! I will email the winners for their addresses, however if they see this before I do so, they are welcome to email me the information at journeythroughbooks@gmail.com

That’s it! I have a friend coming over this morning to try on dresses for our Monster Dash in the cities tomorrow morning. I have been looking forward to this run for years!!! This is the first time I have been able to make this one work and it is supposed to be the biggest run in Minnesota! NICE!

She is going to be a princess and I am either doing the same or going with 50’s girl – which is a costume I already have on hand and it is fairly easy to run in.

So that’s it. Planning for a meeting on Monday, prepping all things I need to do before I leave next Wednesday and breaking up the anxiety with books and audio 🙂

Four Friends by Robin Carr

Published on October 23, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)22 Comments

Great neighborhoods are hard to find, but Gerri, Andi, and Sonja have one. These three ladies meet up every morning at 6 am to take their morning walk, catching up and starting their mornings right! It is good to have friends, and the morning that Andi kicks her cheating no good husband to the curb, Gerri and Sonja are there for support. Gerri with her steadfast ways, and Sonja with her perfect remedies like fen-shui and oil scents that can take away the negative feelings a bad marriage can leave behind.

But no one in this group of friends is safe from hard times.

Gerri has a wonderful marriage and partnership with her husband and father of their three children Phil. So when she learns of cracks in what she thought was an uncrackable union, she battles anger as she tries to repair the damage – unsure if she can.

Sonja’s constant pursuit of the balanced life between health, eating right, and keeping to a non bending schedule, is enough to drive her husband right out the door. This leaves Sonja feeling like she just blew a fuse because in her world, she should have known this was coming.

And Andi, now looking at the remains of failed marriage #2, wonders what about her attracts cheating losers. With an adult son who is battling his own issues, Andi is just not sure is she can let anyone in again.

And then there is BJ. The neighborhood runner. She keeps to herself; but when tragedy strikes in the neighborhood, she steps in to help – and the girls find that having a new voice in the group is refreshing, even though they can tell that BJ comes with her own mix of troubles as well.

First up, the title caught me right away (if I was British I would say straight away, but I am not and I don’t know why I mentioned that here…). I love books with strong female character friendships. I think it is because I value those strong friendships in my own life and I know how much they have helped me through hard times.

Four Friends is a great read for people like me who like friendship stories. This is not a wishy-washy lite chick lit book – the women in this book deal with very hard and very real issues. I thoroughly enjoyed the diversity of Gerri’s strong independent nature, Andi’s worries about trying to find real love, Sonja trying to overcome her perfectionism, and BJ’s dark past.

Robyn Carr writes a great friendship book. One I was engaged in right from the beginning. I would not mind at all if these women popped up in another of her books. If there was a home available on their street I would love to move in and hang out with them!

Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA (March 25, 2014)

Morning Meanderings… Winners! (And it smells like poo)

Published on October 23, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)18 Comments

Good morning! Holy smokes I slept! I was semi awake at 5 am and thought I would sleep one more hour after Al went to work.. next think I know it is 7:45 am! That’s crazy for me! SO briefly, I need to catch up on some winners, and remind you of one giveaway still going.

Ready?

For the Dewey Read A Thon that took place this past Saturday, I was offering a giveaway to a commenter…

And the winner is: Leslie from Under My Apple Tree! She receives choice of these books! Woo Hoo Leslie! For a closer look at the titles, see the original giveaway post.

Also – The winners for the Best Of Me Movie Tie-In Book are….

Elaina!

Martha from Martha’s Book Shelf!

I also still have the Book Mark Giveaway from In My Book. Please check out the post about the book marks and see them – they are pretty sweet! Two winners will be drawn for those tomorrow!

And finally…

the poo.

When I got up this morning and opened the sliding glass door to the back deck as I do every morning to let the dogs out and to get a nice breeze in the house, I got a whiff of something not so pleasant. So unpleasant in fact, I looked under the table. When it did not go away I walked around the house… and eventually outside. I think the neighbors have fertilized their field. Egads… they must have upgraded to some premium stuff. 😉

Anyhoo… that’s whats in my head this morning 🙂

The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare

Published on October 22, 2014October 22, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)3 Comments

The hot combination of Holly Black (Spiderwick Chronicles and Coldest Girl In Cold Town) and Cassandra Clare *Mortal Instrument Series) … Magic is about to happen! ~Sheila

Most kids would do anything to be a part of the Iron Trials.

But not Callum Hunt. His father has warned him that magic is dangerous and the Professors at the Magisterium are not to be trusted. When Callum does his best to fail the tests to be chosen for the Trials he is chosen anyway from the many who tried to get in. Now Callum, with two other students to be taught the ways of the Iron Trial.

But what tests await these first year students… what triumphs and what tragedy’s will they face? While Callum tries to figure everything out, he starts to uncover deep truths about the Magisterium as well as himself.

As I started listening to The Iron Trials I sensed, as you may imagine by the synopsis above, that it carries essence of Harry Potter. As any book that tackles the magical platform of Potter, I am thrilled to think that some day that book may be created… one that as of yet, has not.

You will see the similarities in the two friends that Collum has in school, but the similarity ends there. This is no Ron and Hermione. Yes they are in a magical school. Yes while Harry has a scar, Collum has a bad leg.

I like the concept of the Iron Trials as (like the Potter books) each book will be a grade. The current year for beginning student is Iron Trial, followed by:

Copper Gauntlet

Cosmos Blade

The Golden Boy

The Enemy Of Death

While I enjoyed this Middle Grade story line, I am not sure that it grabbed enough to continue with the series. (Note that I said this same thing when Clare’s Mortal Instrument series came out and I read the first one thought I called it quits… and a year later devoured the whole series one after another).

Fans of such books as Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, and other series aimed towards kids with magical powers should find this series worth taking a closer look at. With two rock star authors leading the way of this series, I would not be surprised if a movie does follow.

Age Range: 10 and up
Grade Level: 5 and up
Series: The Magisterium
Audio CD
LIstening Length: 10 hours and 37 minutes
Publisher: Listening Library (Audio); Unabridged edition (September 23, 2014)

Morning Meanderings… Dead Poets Society

Published on October 22, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)19 Comments

Good morning 🙂 Coffee on? Me too!

Last night I watched one of my favorite all time movies, Dead Poets Society. I have wanted to rewatch this one since the sad passing of Robin Williams, however it was not on Netflix and I did not own it. Finally I broke down and bought it off Amazon and then last night I finally felt I was in the right frame of mind to watch it.

I debated if this was a separate post or a morning meandering, and due to the fact it is an older movie I went with meandering.

I hope you know the movie. If you do not know it, I hope after this post you will find it and watch it.

This is a 1989 movie starring Robin Williams as the new college English teacher, Mr. Keating, in an all boys school. Mr. Keating has a unique way of teaching that gets in the students heads and makes them thnk, yet hs unusual teaching is frowned on by the powers that be at the school.

One of Mr. Kreatings students, Neil, is particularly passionate but has an overly strict father who wants Neil to stick to the studies and nothing to do with fun or the things that interest Neil. When Neil and his friends find out that Mr. Keating was once in a group called the Dead’s Poet Society. When the boys question Keating, he tells them about the group he once was in and that they met in the caves beyond the school yard reading poetry from the greats. Of course the boys at first thought this was ridiculous but slowly they get behind the idea of this secret society.

The movie embraces individual thinking, the power of words (LOVE that!), and how both can open up people to be better and stronger individuals.

I can not tell you how much I love this movie. I even get emotional as I type. It is an excellent example of how constant conforming can kill the spirit. It was also a look back at a younger full of life Robin Williams, in his prime, and I enjoyed watching him so much. I wish Robin could have always seen himself as the person we seen him as. He will always be missed.

Today is a work day, tonight is the Library Board meeting. Tomorrow morning I will announce the winner of my Dewey read a thon giveaway…. I need to choose a winner!

Delancey by Molly Wizenberg

Published on October 21, 2014October 21, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)27 Comments

I just LOVE foodie stories! I don’t know what it is about them but I love to read about the food, the people, the recipes, the tastes, and how it all combines into something wonderful! ~Sheila

Molly Wizenberg loved that her husband Brandon Pettit was passionate about so much. A composer, Brandon also was fascinated by espresso machines, boats, building violins and learning to make ice cream. Molly loved how Brandon wold go after a project and soon, as the pattern seemed to be, Brandon would move on to something else.

When Brandon purchased a large mixer for mixing dough for a potential pizza restaurant Molly was not too worried thinking this too would pass. But pass…

it did not.

Brandon went on to search out buildings and signed a lease. Like it or not, Molly was about to have her world enter the pizza business. And their lives as they knew it were about to change.

Before Molly knew it they were renting cleaners, building an oven, cleaning floors, painting, watching thrift stores for tables and chairs, planning menus, and passing inspections.

Like it or not, Delancey was going to happen.

I absolutely loved this book! Author Molly Wizenberg shares with us the story of how the now popular Delanceys Restaurant in California rose out of the dust of an old building to the place it is today. From their early marriage days as Molly wrote her first book and Brandon spent night and day working on the restaurant that was to be. When they first opened, money was so tight they bought the ingredients they would need daily and hoped to make enough money that day to buy the next days!

Delancey’s if filled with delicious recipes of the food that Molly and Brandon ate during the lean years of little time and little money. The recipes look delicious and fairly quick and easy which is always a plus for me.

Molly is the creator of the blog Orangette, but fair warning.. its easy to spend a lot of time there! Also check out the website for Delancey. Molly is also the author of A homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from my Kitchen Table. Another book I need to read!

Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (May 6, 2014)

Morning Meanderings… In My Book Bookmarks and Other Fun Things

Published on October 21, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)44 Comments

Good morning! Tuesday! The weather is chilly this morning, a little frost on the window and makes me want to just stay inside with a blanket, coffee, and a good book. There are a TON of great reads out there and every time I pass by my library it seems like my hand grazes another one and I whisper “your next”… but alas, the same thing will happen later int he day and I will tell another one the same thing. #notcommitted

I do have something fun to share, and even better, to give away! Robin, from In My Book sent me these three super cool book marks that are also greeting cards!

These book marks are actually cards, they open up and are blank inside for your message. They come with the red envelope you see in the picture.

IN MY BOOK® is a unique combination of greeting card and bookmark in one. These literary-oriented cards feature greetings beginning with “In my book…” and conclude with such book-related sentiments as. “you’re a mystery”, “you’re an adventure”, “you’re rare”; the cards are available in eighteen styles each with pen & ink illustrations by illustrator Meredith Hamilton. The die-cut cards are made of sturdy ivory cardstock and are sold with a red envelope; they start out as a greeting card, then perforate to become bookmarks (they’re recyclable!).

and… as you can see they look pretty awesome in a book! (Which may or may not be my next book… but you know.. we discussed that already. 😉 )

Robin has sent me three of these amazing cards and I am going to give away two to the readers here that comment on this post between now and Friday morning (when I announce the winners). I will choose two winners and mail you the cards (no, no, no… I will not use the sweet red envelope – that is for you as well!

To enter – leave a comment here telling me:

What is your ideal reading setting like? (ie. in a comfy chair, feet up, hot cup of tea and chocolate mint Milano cookies… laying in bed with fluffy pillos propped at your back and soft music in back ground)

* To earn an extra chance, please come back and comment on my review that will be going up today on Delancey. I loved this book and I am hoping many of you will give this interesting foodie book a try!

Cheese Deluxe by Greg Palmer

Published on October 20, 2014October 20, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)4 Comments

In the mid 60’s in a small town in Washington a group of teenagers have too much time on their hands. Between the friendships and the cars, and the hang out at the Samoa Drive In; home of one of the worlds best burgers; this memoir covers short tales of a group of friends from their high school years to just beyond graduation.

With stories from a mission to teach an uncoordinated friend how to drive, parents stalking their teenager while he is on a date, flipping burgers with the fish guy, meeting famous people, saying good-bye to a beloved pet, a group hunting trip with Janelle trying to be one of the guys, broken down cars and more… you are bound to get a thrill of cruising back to the 60’s!

I was not really sure what I had signed up for when I decided I would listen to this book. I was pleasantly surprised to find that while this was not my era, it was my father’s. The stories of a simpler time when people hung out with each other instead of their phones, and took time to frequent a favorite restaurant and take a lot of pride in their cars. I certainly could imagine the cool burger hang out and even almost smell the food cooking… amazing burgers and delicious fries.

I imagine this book would be enjoyed by those who grew up in the era of cars and burger joint hang outs, but also to those of us who connect through our relatives. The book almost made me wish I had been a teenager in these simpler times.

Jeff Steitzer made an excellent narrator of this book as he retells author Greg Palmer’s recollections of being a teenager flipping burgers and dealing with the trials of the 60’s.