Book Journey

Morning Meanderings… Live From Mankato!

Published on October 9, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)2 Comments

Good morning! No coffee yet but I can see a Starbucks down the block so that will be my stop on my way back to the Minnesota Library Association Annual Conference. It will be a whirlwind day of sessions, I speak at the 11:15 session about Friends Of The Library Projects and then lunch and another session and …

well… I will save the details for Saturday Snapshot. 😉

Here is my hotel table this morning.

I started Delancey last night and it sucked me right in. Molly’s writing is very good and I hope to read her other books as well. This is the true telling of how her and her husband started a restaurant, Delancey’s. BUT it is more than about the restaurant… it is about the people who surround them, the recipes they survived on, and their marriage.

I am going to go get ready – pack up my car… see what the breakfast area has and then head over to find parking which as I found out last night is not easy. It is either tow zone areas if you park there or it is two-hour parking. I obviously need a better space. 🙂

Have a super day all!

A Good Marriage by Stephen King

Published on October 8, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)31 Comments

Just when I think I can not be surprised… I read A Good Marriage by Stephen King. A chiller that will go right through to the bones. ~ Sheila

While Darcy’s husband Bob is away on a business trip, Darcy comes across a well hidden box under a work table in their garage. When she opens the box she is stunned by what she finds and believes that there must be some sort of mistake. Bob,her husband and father to their now adult children has never been nothing but kind and loving… but this… this finding opens up a Pandora’s box on Darcy’s entire life. Now Darcy needs to make some pretty heavy decisions before Bob gets home.

I have not read a King book in years. In fact, the last King book I read was 11-22-63, which if you have read, you know that while it is an excellent read, it does not really feel like a King book. When I was offered this book on audio for review and seen that creepy cool cover *pause here so you can look at it again*….

I though this would be a great time to spend with King. And it was. I have to say this book was darker than I had anticipated. It is hard to find a book that can spook you without gore, and A Good Marriage succeeded in giving me chills, but not grossing me out.

A Good Marriage is twisted good. A review I had read on this recently on another blog (I apologize for not remembering where I read it) said this would be a good audio for someone new to audio as it is only 3 cds (3 hours) long. I would agree with that statement. It is not a huge commitment and wow… you will find yourself having trouble not finishing it right away so you know.

“Oh my Lord! What is going to happen!?”

My only personal grumble is the narration of Jessica Hecht bothered me when she was reading Darcy’s part. I found Darcy to sound too frail and too soft for what I guessing her age to be around 50. In Darcy and Jessica’s defense, I like strong female character so this may just be something that grated on me. 😉

Creepy good.

**Important note – I am seeing on-line that this read has been released in a different King book called: Full Dark No Stars. This has caused some dispute to those who had read Full Dark No Stars (which has three short stories by King in it) and did not realize that A Good Marriage was one of these stories which they had already read.

Listening Length: 3 hours and 33 minutes
Program Type: Audiobook
Version: Unabridged
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Audible.com Release Date: September 30, 2014

Morning Meanderings… Off To The Minnesota Library Association Conference

Published on October 8, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)11 Comments

Good morning! I am sitting here in my pj’s having coffee and… honestly…

procrastinating.

I should leave the house in the next hour and I have not packed, showered, or planned my “what will I wear” outfit for tomorrow. If you know me, you can imagine I will leave on time and it will go something like this:

Refill cup of coffee (actually I just did that!)

Take a phone call (ok… that was not on the schedule!)

Turn on audio book and jump in shower – hair is short now so whole process should be 15 minutes.

Try on outfits as I pack.

Berate myself for not doing this part earlier in the week

Take ANOTHER phone call (also not planned – it was the March Of Dimes, I have been turned in to go to “jail” for their fundraiser)… again. 😉

Put books, notebook, clothes, make up, phone charger, all in suitcase. Oh yeah and shoes. Shoes are great.

Love on dogs.

Leave house for bank and then the library to pick up supplies for my talk….

Officially leave town by 10:30 am.

Listen to a great audio as it is a 3 and a half hour drive one way.

I will be in touch, laptop is going with 🙂

Cemetary John by Robert Zorn

Published on October 7, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)Leave a comment

On March 1st, 1932, the infant son of Charles Lindbergh, was kidnapped from his home in New Jersey. Left behind on the window sill was an envelope which contained a ransom note for $50,000 for Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr.’s safe return. Charles and his wife Anne were devastated.

Two months later, the remains of the infant would be found and confirmed to be the young Lindbergh. He was not quite two years old.

While a man Bruno Richard Hauptmann was tried and found guilty for the crime and in April of 1936 he was electrocuted for the crime, all the while stating he was innocent, right to the very end. The crime still remains to this day unsolved as evidence shows there is no way that Hauptmann could have acted alone… in fact some say he was not involved at all…

In Little Falls Minnesota there is a Charles Lindbergh Museum and State Park, about 30 miles from my home. With his Minnesota connections you think I would be on top of this subject and the controversial story around the kidnapping of his son, but sadly until now, I was pretty much unenlightened.

Cemetery John gives great insight to Charles Lindbergh life. You learn all about his famous flight, his meeting and eventual marriage to his wife Anne, and of course all about the Lindbergh household, the family friends, and baby Charles.

The story is well written and interesting. I always knew there was controversy around the kidnapping, but until the reading of this book, I was not sure of the details surrounding this controversy. This is the type of book that makes me want to know more.

Recommended for fans of historical reads.

Audible Audio Edition
Listening Length: 10 hours and 20 minutes
Program Type: Audiobook
Version: Unabridged
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Audible.com Release Date: July 30, 2012
Audie Award Nominee, Nonfiction, 2013

SPUN by Catherine McKenzie

Published on October 6, 2014October 6, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)4 Comments

Amber Sheppard, made famous for her role as The Girl Next Door, has been sober for two years now since her stint in rehab. You would never know it though by the gossip magazines. Every paparazzi picture of her wearing sun glasses means “hung over”, every shot of her looking too thin is “drug use”. If that is not enough, she is still trying to avoid her other addiction as well, the hot movie star Connor Parks, who has tried to win Amber back since she quit him like her other unhealthy addictions.

Yet now, a text from Conner brings Amber to him… as one if often drawn to things that are not good for us… and the decisions she makes during this crucial time, will change her life forever.

I have enjoyed Catherine McKenzie’s writing and believe I have now read everything she has published. When I read SPIN in 2012 I enjoyed it. It was a different type of read for me with a new subject line… rehab.

Now Catherine McKenzie has written SPUN, a follow-up to the people who graced the rehab two years prior. What I found interesting, was the main protagonist in SPIN was Kate, a tabloid reporter with a party-too-much-and-too-hard-problem, and Amber was someone she met in rehab. It was interesting to see Amber’s story take the lead in SPUN, and Kate is now a secondary character.

It was fun to revisit these characters. SPUN is written as a novella, 140 pages and worth your time. Do you need to have read SPIN to enjoy SPUN? No, but I would recommend SPIN as well as it is a fun read that leads right into SPUN.

Paperback: 140 pages
Publisher: Catherine McKenzie (May 16, 2014)
Language: English

Fun Fact: Catherine McKenzie was one of our authors for Wine and Words 2014. She was an awesome addition to our event and a lot of fun to talk to:

A few of our wine and words authors having fun at the photo booth! Left: Catherine McKenzie, Barbara Claypole White, Lorna Landvik, and Randy Susan Meyers

Some of the Friends group and the authors - far left - Catherine McKenzie — Some of the Friends group and the authors – 3rd from left – Catherine McKenzie

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on October 5, 2014October 5, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)24 Comments

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! 😉

October! Enough said! Seriously though… October? Here is what I posted this past week:

Hatching Twitter by Nick Bolton

Go Ask Alice by Anonymous

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

The Best Of Me Film Release Giveaway!

Ruin Falls by Jenny Milchman

This Is Where I Leave You Book VS. Movie

My Next Read Winner!

Hidden by Catherine McKenzie

This week is going to be bookish! Tomorrow we are having our first ever friends of the library recap and retreat. On Wednesday and Thursday I will be at the Minnesota Library Association meeting and then home on Friday. It is going to be fun! Here is what I have planned for the week:

For My Ears

When unlikely friends Madeline, Avery, and Nicole arrive in Miami’s South Beach neighborhood, they’re hoping for a do-over. Literally. They’ve been hired to bring a historic house back to its former glory on a new television show called Do Over. If they can just get this show off the ground, Nikki could fix her finances, Avery could restart her career, and Maddie would have a shot at keeping her family together.

The women quickly realize that having their work broadcast is one thing, but having their personal lives play out on TV is another. Soon they’re struggling to hold themselves, and the project, together. With a decades-old mystery—and hurricane season—looming, the women are forced to figure out just how they’ll weather life’s storms . . .

It was just another ordinary day at McKinley High–until a massive explosion devastated the school. When loner David Thorpe tried to help his English teacher to safety, the teacher convulsed and died right in front of him. And that was just the beginning.

A year later, McKinley has descended into chaos. All the students are infected with a virus that makes them deadly to adults. The school is under military quarantine. The teachers are gone. Violent gangs have formed based on high school social cliques. Without a gang, you’re as good as dead. And David has no gang. It’s just him and his little brother, Will, against the whole school.

For my Eyes

Tender at the Bone is the story of a life determined, enhanced, and defined in equal measure by unforgettable people, the love of tales well told, and a passion for food. In other words, the stuff of the best literature. The journey begins with Reichl’s mother, the notorious food-poisoner known for-evermore as the Queen of Mold, and moves on to the fabled Mrs. Peavey, onetime Baltimore socialite millionaress, who, for a brief but poignant moment, was retained as the Reichls’ maid. Then we are introduced to Monsieur du Croix, the gourmand, who so understood and yet was awed by this prodigious child at his dinner table that when he introduced Ruth to the soufflé, he could only exclaim, “What a pleasure to watch a child eat her first soufflé!” Then, fast-forward to the politically correct table set in Berkeley in the 1970s, and the food revolution that Ruth watched and participated in as organic became the norm. But this sampling doesn’t do this character-rich book justice. After all, this is just a taste.

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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:

HIDDEN by Catherine McKenzie

Published on October 5, 2014October 5, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)11 Comments

Jeff Manning just fired a man who at one time, was the man who hired him. Life… is odd Jeff contemplated as he walked home from work, and while closing his eyes to relax from the tension of the day, he is hit by a car and killed.

Shortly after, Claire, Jeff’s wife melts to the floor as the police deliver the news. His son, Seth runs to his room crying… their family home now broken with grief.

At a meeting at Jeff’s office, the news is somberly delivered of Jeff’s accident and another woman screams “No!” in disbelief as the truth sinks in. Tish, who met Jeff at a company party, has to now decide how to best move forward drawing as little attention to herself as possible. She goes to Jeff’s funeral as the company representative.

Told in the alternating voices of Jeff, Claire, and Tish, HIDDEN reveals what was …. what is… and what will be.

So…. funny thing. I had just finished reading SPUN by this author and in the back of that books was the first chapter of this one, HIDDEN. I read that chapter and was engaged enough to go and grab HIDDEN that has been unread on my shelf and not only start it; but finish it in one reading. If you have ever wondered if those little chapters at the end of a book about another book by the same author work, the answer is apparently a clear and resounding YES.

HIDDEN is an intriguing read. You are quickly hit with the plot and the rest of the book is explaining how things came to be in flashes back for all three – Jeff, Claire, and Tish. Chapters will be in present time and then a comment or a happening will lead to a chapter that takes you back so you can fully understand how things came to be. It is actually an interesting way to write, especially since one of the narrators, who we never get a real chance to know in present time, is dead.

My only struggle with this read was that sometimes I did not know right away who the narrator of a chapter was. I would have to skim ahead on the page to get to the “Oh, this is Jeff speaking”, or “Oh this is Claire.” In the end, the story is not all wrapped up with all things tidy. As I finished the book I was a little bummed about this, yet as it begin to sink in, I started to appreciate the ending more knowing that all things in life do not have the opportunity to be neatly categorized, labeled and put into a cute box.

HIDDEN is a book that will make you think about relationships and what truly can never 100% be known.

Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: New Harvest (April 1, 2014)

Morning Meanderings… A Fun Week Ahead!

Published on October 5, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)8 Comments

Good morning! Happy Sunday! Today I will spend a lot of time prepping our agenda for our first ever Friends Of The Library Fall Retreat. This will be a recap of 2014 and planning dates for 2015. We have had many exciting things happen this year and I am looking forward to this event!

Then, on Wednesday I leave for Mankato Minnesota (yes yes, Mankato like the Ingall’s did in Little House on The Prairie) for the Minnesota Library Association Annual meeting where I will be speaking on Thursday about Wine and Words and this even is up for an award along with two other groups in Minnesota for Best New Event for a Minnesota Friends Group. I am sooooo looking forward to this! I also want to hear the other ideas that groups are doing.

Here are the books and audio that came into the house this week:

How We Learn by Benedict Carey (audiobook)

Be The Message by Kerry and Chris Shook (audiobook)

Dataclysm by Christian Rudder (audiobook)

The Moonlight Palace by Liz Rosenberg

Naked and Marooned by Ed Stafford

Crooked River by Valerie Geary

Desert God by Wilbur Smith

Bohemians, Bootleggers, Flappers, and Swells by Graydon Carter

Lats night I read Spun by Catherine McKenzie…. and then I followed that up by reading Hidden by Catherine McKenzie… more on that later 🙂

Off to working on tomorrows agenda! Have a super day!

Morning Meanderings… Guess Who Chose My Next Read?

Published on October 4, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)7 Comments

Good morning. Another super windy day here today… cold and wet… ugh. I am helping to haul bees back to Brainerd today to be prepped to go to Florida so I anticipate a wet cold day.

Earlier this week I posted my book sale findings and offered you to choose which book you would love to read. I will read that book and then send it to you. SO using random.org, the winner is:

Elizabeth of Silver’s Reviews!

Congratulations Elizabeth! I too enjoy Ruth Reichl and I believe this is the only one of hers I have not read yet. Looking forward to digging in. Watch again for another posting of Choose My Next Read… I have two books to add to the picture that missed out on the first round as they had fallen out of the bag and were still in my car.

Have a super Saturday everyone! Hope you are reading or listening to something awesome. I am listening to Cemetery John, The Story Of The Lindbergh kidnapping, something I know little about and the Lindbergh childhood home is about 30 minutes from me in Little Falls Minnesota. Something I fully plan to tour when it is open again next year.

This Is Where I Leave You….Book VS. Movie

Published on October 3, 2014October 3, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)30 Comments

By now you have probably heard the hype…Jonathan Tropper’s book This Is Where I Leave You was made into a movie!

I love it when books are made into movies! I love to see the director’s vision of the story compared to mine… honestly, I think in recent years the movies made from books are pretty good. So lets begin with looking at my thoughts on this book… and then the movie.

Recently I read and reviewed This Is Where I Leave You. When I heard the movie was coming out, I knew I had to read the book first. (1 point for movie, as that is why I read the book). I really enjoyed the book. It was witty and laugh out loud funny at times. The opening scene of Judd finding his wife on her birthday…. seriously, horribly funny… I could not wait to see that scene in the movie, I knew it was just going to be fantastic!

Book received 5 shiny points for being a page turning-laugh out loud-tell your friends about it-kind of read. That’s right, a page turning-laugh out loud-tell your friends about it-kind of read. I loved it, I gushed about it, I passed it to a friend and she gushed too.

Then, me and my gushing invited girls from my book club to go and see the movie… and…

The movie starring the funny Jason Bateman as Judd, and also funny Tina Fey as Wendy his sister AND Jane Fonda as the mom looked to be a great line up. I had my popcorn and I was ready to laugh and laugh…

and I really didn’t laugh too much at all.

That opening scene I could not wait for, was there and it wasn’t. The funniest part of that whole scene was not in the movie. Then, the movie felt forced. I found myself thinking how the acting did not seem natural, it felt like they were acting – which I know, I know, they are… but usually you can fall right into the movie and feel like it happened. This one – not so much. (I take away 1 shiny point from the movie for not keeping to the opening scene).

Overall, the movie was ok, but not great. The book club gals that were with me all agreed. The movie fell flat. I may have been a bit critical because I had just finished reading the book, but I think it is more than that. Watching it kind of felt like this:

and afterwards I felt like this:

The winner of this battle is….

The Book.

Read the book. If you want to see the movie, wait until you can pick it up at Redbox. You will thank me for saving you the box office price, the annoying person talking on their phone in the row behind you and the popcorn kernel that will no doubt get stuck to the roof of your mouth and distract you from really paying attention anyway.