Good morning! What a whirlwind week. I feel like I am home and not and home and not… probably because that is true and that will stay true for the next month. I like the excitement of the travel and the events and trying something new… but I like being home too.
Tonight, I have been invited to Opus and Olives. The premiere event in the cities that I modeled Wine and Words after, even though I have never attended. The tickets to this event are a whopping $150 each, but I am going as a guest (thus the Cinderella… although I am not sure if she was exactly a guest or a party crasher… perhaps the later…. hmmmmm….)
Anyhoo…. YAY! The 2014 Opus & Olives author lineup includes Julie Pandl, Louise Penny, Matt Richtel, Hampton Sides, Jane Smiley and Simon Winchester. This will be a fun evening of listening to authors speak, meeting up with other authors and publishers from the Minneapolis circle of influence and who knows. It is research, but it is also FUN! Their event reaches over 800 people! 800!!!
Of course the big question is… what to wear???
Here at home, I had two fun bookish items come in for review this week:
Madeline, Avery, and Nicole have not had the easiest road for the direction of their lives. When an offer comes up for the three women to restore a house off the Miami Beach that may turn into a new tv show called “Do-Over”, they can hardly believe their luck. This could be the chance that Madeleine needed to keep her family together, a kick in the career for Avery, and financial success for Nikki. The only thing that is odd is that their requests to see blueprints of the property or see pictures have been declined.
Upon arrival at the beach property they suddenly see what had been left out of the agreement. The show “Do-Over” will be a live cast reality show and the camera’s are rolling before they even have the shocked look off their faces. While uninterested in having their every move televised, the women do all need this job and are all looking forward to their own personal do-over.
What a fun read! I loved the storyline centered around a reality show. The female lead characters were interesting, although I did not have a strong sense of knowing any of them. They were likable enough, but more like the girls you see at an event from afar and you think, “they look fun,” but you never really know them. I think, as I later discovered, this may be because our protagonists are actually introduced in a previous book by Wendy Wax, Ten Beach Road, which I have not read. I am not sure how I missed that this was a follow-up book, but I did. Perhaps having read the other book first would have made up for the disconnected feeling I was having towards our leading ladies.
Ocean Beach is just the kind of fun lighter read I needed for this beautiful warm fall week. It made it feel like summer was hanging on just a while longer and I am always all for anything that can keep that feeling going.
I listened to this book on audio, narrator Amy Rubinate handled all the different voices very well, I believe this being my first time I have had her as a narrator.
Fun note: My first ever read by this author was for our book club and it was her book entitled Leave It To Cleavage. I had ordered the book through our local book store and was embarrassed when I went in to pick it up and say the title out loud and then the author’s name. At the time… it felt as though I was really requesting something dirty; which turned out to be just a fun crazy read by an author whose name would someday become recognizable. ~Sheila
This Past week I had the pleasure of attending the Minnesota Library Association Annual Conference in Mankato Minnesota. I went, representing the Friends Of The Brainerd Public Library, 4 Librarians from our Library attended as well.
I arrived on Wednesday afternoon and joined the rest of the Brainerd Group for what was called Parlor Games. A series of fun games from 6:30 – 9 pm. A mix of Balderdash, Apples to Apples, and a fun team game where we split the 90-some people in the room into two groups and we had to follow a series of clues to complete a task. It was fun!
Parlor Games!
On Thursday, along with hour-long sessions for the Librarians to choose from, there was an additional amount of sessions that were Friends Of The Library related. I had a list of choices for each hour, and spent my first hour of the day at the Library Friends Idea exchange. I picked up ideas there like a 5k, scholarship offering for seniors, character events for children, and more.
I spent the second hour of my day in the same room listening to the author of Beyond Book Sales, Susan Dowd, speak about the things the Friends groups can do to raise finds beyond the books. How to build membership, how to be listed in a will…
At 11:15 I went to a different room, a room where I would be speaking. Our local event that started in 2013 was up for an award for Best New Friends Event. This was exciting! I was up against a group who added on to their children’s area at their library and a Great Gatsby Event that raised $47,000. I was sure Gatsby had it. There would be two runner ups that would receive $250 each, and then the winner, who would receive the plaque and a thousand dollar check for their friends.
Each of us had ten minutes to talk about our project. In the end…
Friends Of The Brainerd Public Library took Best Project! I could not believe it!
Holy Smokes batman!!!!
The day then went to lunch where Tod Bol,the creator of Little Free Libraries spoke. It was really interesting to hear how this wave of little book exchanges have popped up all over the world! I did not realize Tod was from Wisconsin.
After lunch, Laurel from our Library spoke on Social Media and her talk was very interesting! After listening to her, I have some work to do. 🙂
All in all, a great couple of days hanging out in a Bookish World, just the way I like it 😉
I am adding this to Saturday Snapshot. Please check out what others are posting in pictures this Saturday. I am off to work with bees this morning and then home to work on my house… tomorrow, starts another adventure 😉
Recently I had felt nostalgic for making apple butter. We have many apple trees in our yard and usually each fall I post pictures on Facebook for people to come and get them and they come in droves to get buckets of apples. I used to make apple butter with my mom and she had learned from my great-grandmother. I have all of grandmothers original tools she used to do this. This year, after a big storm took out most of the apples – I decided I was going to make the butter again…
but this post is not about that. 😉
WHILE looking on-line for a refresher course on how to make the apple butter… I came across Pumpkin Butter. I mean seriously could that sound more delicious of more Fall? I did make the apple butter….and it is fantastic…
and then I bought a pumpkin…
Here is what you need:
One Pumpkin (you can use pumpkin puree from the store but I wanted to go completely from scratch)
sugar
ginger
cinnamon
nutmeg
Tools:
Crock Pot
A food mill (I use my grandma’s)
Take your pumpkin and cut up into chucks with the hard outside shell taken off.
Place in a large pot covered in water and cook on high until the pumpkin is soft. I used my Grandmothers food mill to puree it went in to the crock pot but I bet you could use a potato masher as well.
Once your pumpkin is in the crock pot I added the spices to taste. I have no exact measurements as it depends on your pumpkin size. I added cinnamon, and about a half cup of sugar, nutmeg and ginger. With crock pot on low, let it cook 8 to 10 hours, or to desired thickness. Add more spice if needed according to your taste as it cooks.
Pour into jars or gift containers.
The Butters… left: pumpkin butter, right: Apple Butter
***Note: Pumpkin Butter is not recommended to hot water seal your jars. The acids in the pumpkin do not allow for safe sealing (I know right? This was news to me too!) You can keep it safely in your refrigerator up to three weeks, or you can freeze it and take it out as you need it.
Final thoughts: I loved the taste and texture. While the canning note was a surprise (I did not know you could not seal it until I had made it) I put in refrigerator and gave away to friends over the next few days. When I do it again – and I will, I will put the jars back in the box they came in and freeze. If you leave an inch head room in the jar for expansion as it freezes, the jars are ok to freeze in.
Pumpkin butter is delicious on toast, but it is also good in yogurt, and on pancakes.
I will be linking this one up to Weekend Cooking at Beth Fish Reads. Go and see what others are cooking this weekend 🙂
What am I listening to while cooking this weekend? Ocean Beach by Wendy Wax... a fun womens literature style listen. 🙂
Good morning! And yes…. I did just say “far out” in the title of this post. It seemed appropriate.
If you kept up with me this week you know I was in Mankato the past couple of days for the Minnesota Library Annual Conference. There were sessions aimed towards Librarians and staff, and also Friends Of The Library (fundraising ideas, grant writing, 501c3 uses, membership building, etc…) it was a lot of fun and I came home with a few ideas. More on that tomorrow 🙂
Today I wanted to share with you the funny phenomenon of Gone Girl. Those of you who have read me for some time are probably familiar with my spoiler page. This is an additional page I write on books that I want to talk about in more detail because they totally blew me away, or made me angry, or… whatever. I do not use the spoiler page often. If you look at my link (also found in the tabs under my header) you will see the books I have used it on. Occasionally, when a book becomes a movie or there is some hype surrounding the book, I will notice an increase on hits on a particular spoiler post.
But not like Gone Girl.
If you are familiar with the book Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, then you probably know the movie released on the 3rd of this month. In September, the views of my spoiler page for Gone Girl started climbing… not just by 100’s… but by thousands of view a day. It was odd. In face here is what my top post views looked like on October 3rd:
Is that not just crazy? The post had been receiving hits around 15,000 – 19,000 per day for weeks, but opening day was the largest.
What is the big interest in knowing what people are saying about the book?
What do you think the draw is?
The words they are looking up to find this post are:
Search Engine Terms
These are terms people used to find your site.
2014-10-03
Search
Views
gone girl spoiler
338
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194
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122
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99
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85
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76
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62
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52
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48
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41
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37
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28
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What are your thoughts on this? Is it just that people are looking to reach out to others that have read the book? Are they looking for confirmation on their feelings regarding the story line?
I have an author crush on Liane Moriarty. Her protagonists are strong three-dimensional women who are funny, witty, and I usually want to be their friend. ~Sheila
Lyn, Cat, and Gemma are thirty-three year old triplets. Alone, each is stunning, together, they turn heads constantly. While they are a force to be reckoned with, each carries her own burden…
Lyn views life as a check list as she marks things off her to do list day by day
Cat is dealing with painful facts about her marriage
Gemma is finally considering staying in a relationship longer than 6 months.
When all else seems to be falling apart…they can always count on each other.
Three Wishes is an older title for Moriarty and I felt the difference in her character development. While the three sisters were witty and funny and all that I enjoy about her books, the story line left me drifting a bit and honestly I can not even tell you what the big plot moment was.
While the book is fine, I think I am so used to the power packed punch reads that Moriarty has been cranking out the past couple of years that I set the bar too high on this one and to me…
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. 🙂
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.
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.
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.
Book Journey 