Tag: Giveaway

Welcome To The Secret Garden Party!!!

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)95 Comments

Welcome to the Secret Garden Party…. “SSSQQQQUUUEEE!”  Thank you to everyone who joined me on this adventure of reading The Secret Garden.  This was my first time through this book and I listened to it on audio. 

Here is how todays party will work:

For those of you who have signed on to do this read-a-long and are posting your reviews and thoughts today, the link to add your posts is below where it says click here.

Since this is a party… we have some fun giveaways – if you link your review that gives you one entry… for participating in the discussion questions you will get a second entry.


Whats up for the giveaway?

A new copy of The Secret Garden DVD

 

A new copy of Little Lord Faunterleroy (also written by Frances Hodgson Burnett)

 

Garden goodies!

 

 

Here are the questions for our discussion:

1.  When Mary loses both of her parents to the epidemic, why do you feel she expresses no grief for them but is more concerned with who will now take care of her?

2.  Mary and Colin are often described as being unpleasant and rude. Martha, in fact, says Mary is “as tyrannical as a pig” and that Colin is the “worst young newt as ever was.” Why are both of these children so ill-tempered? Whom does Burnett hold responsible for their behavior—themselves or their parents? How does this fit into one of the larger themes of the novel, that of the “fallen world of adults”?

3.  Upon Mary’s first encounter with Dickon, Burnett describes the boy in this way: “His speech was so quick and easy. It sounded as if he liked her and was not the least afraid she would not like him, though he was a common moor boy, in patched clothes and with a funny face and a rough, rusty-red head. As she came closer to him she noticed that there was a clean fresh scent of heather and grass and leaves about him, almost as if he were made of them.” What is significant about this passage? Are there any particular motifs that seem to be connected specifically to Dickon?

4.  Why do you feel Mr. Craven has avoided his son Colin so?  In the end, is Craven worthy of Colin’s forgiveness?

5.  What role does the robin play in the book?

6.  How does “Indian-ness” function in the novel?   How does class and status?

7.  Which characters are most strongly associated with the world of the manor house? Which characters are most strongly associated with the secret garden? What does this opposition suggest?

8.  Which narrative features were employed by the author to make The Secret Garden speak to children? Why do you think this novel appeals to an adult audience as well? What makes it a classic?

9.  Was the Secret Garden what you thought it would be?  What did you enjoy most about this read?  What do you think makes it a classic?


(in the comments – you may answer as many or as few as the questions you like as well as add your own questions to the discussion.)

*Note ever if you have not participated in this read a long please feel free to participate in the conversation and respond to the questions – one non read a long participant who joins in the discussion in the comments will receive a $5 Amazon gift card.

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All winners will be announced on Friday June 1st during the Morning Meanderings.

 

I would love your input on what our next party should be… please vote!

Morning Meanderings and A Giveaway you will not want to miss!!!

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)58 Comments

Good morning and happy Wednesday! 

Looks like it will be a rainy gloomy day here today – sky is hazy gray….

I wanted to announce that I have a new giveaway!  I reviewed The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty last week and so enjoyed it!  Now I have been told that I can offer a SIGNED copy here of The Chaperone – and that my friends is SSSQQQUUUEEEEE worthy!  😀

Here is what is being said about The Chaperone:

  • “It’s impossible not to be completely drawn in by The Chaperone. Laura Moriarty has delivered the richest and realest possible heroine in Cora Carlisle, a Wichita housewife who has her mind and heart blown wide open, and steps–with uncommon courage–into the fullness of her life. What a beautiful book. I loved every page.”–Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife

  • “What a charming, mesmerizing, transporting novel! The characters are so fully realized that I felt I was right there alongside them. A beautiful clarity marks both the style and structure of The Chaperone.”–Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Ahab’s Wife and Adam & Eve

  • “The Chaperone is the best kind of historical fiction, transporting you to another time and place, but even more importantly delivering a poignant story about people so real, you’ll miss and remember them long after you close the book.”–Jenna Blum, author of Those Who Save Us and The Stormchasers

  • “THE CHAPERONE is the enthralling story of two women… In this layered and inventive story, Moriarty raises profound questions about family, sexuality, history, and whether it is luck or will – or a combination of the two – that makes for a wonderful life.”  –O, the Oprah Magazine

  • “A fun romp” –Good Housekeeping

  • Laura’s fanpage

SO what to do to enter…..

1.  Leave a comment here telling me when you were a teen, what your “Big Dream” was for your life.  If you are a teen, share what the dream is for your life.  😀

2.  Leave a comment on my review of The Chaperone, and if you already have just let me know here. 

That’s it.  I will draw a winner on the last day of May!

 

Have a super day – I am at work, and hopefully a workout and a meeting tonight….but this ends my evening commitments for the week and I am THRILLED about that.  😀

Dead Running By Cami Checketts – Celebration and HUGE GIVEAWAY!

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)27 Comments

Cassidy Christensen is running.
Running from the mercenaries who killed her parents.
Running from a scheming redhead intent on making her life miserable.
Running from painful memories that sabotage her dreams of happiness.
With two very tempting men competing for her attention, she hopes she’ll finally have someone to run to, but can she trust either of them? When secrets from her past threaten her family, Cassidy decides to stop running and fight for her future.

I first encountered Cami Checketts when she approached me just a few months after I had started blogging with an opportunity to read and review hew book The Sister Pact.  I was so impressed with her book that when I was done reading it I approaches her to see if I could interview her about the book, her writing life, and her life outside of books.  She said yes, and in fall of 2009, I learned a lot about Cami.

Even then she was a huge fitness enthusiast, and so it was so surprise to me when Cami approached me about her new book, Dead Running, that is was indeed centered around a character who works out.  I knew I wanted to read it and Cami not only rushed the books into my hands, she asked me if I would be one of the blurbs on the back on her book.  (oh yeah, insert SSSQQQUUUEEE here!) 

I couldn’t wait to get into this book, and expect a review this week, as it is currently out in E book format, the print version will hit the shelves in just a coupe days, on May 1st.

Today what I am here to chat about is the HUGE promotion that Cami has going along with the books release. 

Cami is working with the following companies to give away the following:

Experienced and beginner yoga packages from Hugger Mugger

Two MIO Global Active Watches

Three months online personal training from Fitcore Fitness

Three Lebert Stretch Straps

Fitness Apparel from Running Chics

One pair of running shoes from Altra Zero Drop

iFrogz Earbuds and Armbands

Six month adult membership: Smithfield Recreation Center

One month membership: Crossfit UAC

Autographed copy of Dead Running by Cami Checketts (SSQQUUEE!!!!)

To enter please leave a comment on this post as to what your exercise of choice is and why.  I want to know, what gets you moving?  It can be as extreme sport as you want, or it can even be a little dancing while cooking dinner…  😀

Your comment will enter you into a chance to win one of these amazing prizes.

If you have read this book, or you are planning to, a review of it on Amazon will earn you ten extra entries.

This giveaway will close on May 18th.

You can enter on all the blogs participating if you wish, they are listed below:

Dewey Read A Thon Bonus Giveaway Package

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)19 Comments

 

Ok ya’ all… if you have been read a thoning today, then you know we have recently passed hour 15 and fast approaching hour 16.  I am in this “I should be reading” mode, but instead I am fluttering around mini challenges, commenting… I need a pick me up – I need to FOCUS.

So… that all said, I want to offer a bonus giveaway here for those who are still trucking , still working the read a thon – you are troopers – and if you know me I think you need….

COFFEE and CHOCOLATE… and you probably dont need a book, but I have an extra of a great book so I am throwing in a BOOK too.  😀

LOVE this coffee

 

Arranged will be released on May 15th and somehow I would up with three copies. This author wrote SPIN which was really good!

This giveaway is open until the end of the readathon – my time, which will be 5 am central time.  To enter, share with me here your favorite part of the readathon… Is it the community?  Ir is setting aside time to read?  Is it the mini challenges?  Or do you love something completely different about this event?

 

The Descendants (Movie Review)

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)34 Comments

 

Matt King is a lawyer based in Honolulu and the sole trustee of a family trust of 25,000 acres of pristine land on island of Kauai that has been handed down from generation to generation.  The trust will expire in seven years so the KIng family has been taking offers in from developers.  Just before the family is about to endorse the deal, Matt’s wife, Elizabeth, is in a jet ski accident that leaves her in a coma.

Matt and Elizabeth have two daughters, 10-year-old Scottie and the rebellious 17-year-old Alex.  Matt has been a “back up” parent throughout the girls lives and now he is thrust into the driver’s seat as things are not looking good for Elizabeth. 

When Matt is told that Elizabeth will not be waking up from her coma he has to tell his daughters, and an angry Alex blurts out that Elizabeth has been having an affair.  Matt confronts close family friends who confirm this.

As Matt tries to make sense of all that is happening he is left to deal with his daughters who are hurt and feel betrayed, his own family that is waiting for Matt to get the papers in order to sell the land, his wife’s family who think if Matt had been a better husband Elizabeth would not have been such a  thrill seeker and of course, now this mystery man who has been seeing his wife.

 

I received a preview screening of this movie from Fox and after seeing it was up for awards this year, I was curious about it. 

Starring George Clooney as Matt, there is a lot going on in this movie.  With beautiful scenes of Hawaii, this is a story of love, and family, and hard decisions.  While on the outside Matt’s life looks like the life to have, this whole movie is about a closer look… a painfully close look into a family’s life.

One of my favorite quotes comes from Matt King:

My friends on the mainland think just because I leave in Hawaii, I live in paradise, like a permanent vacation. We’re all just out here, sipping Mai Tais, shaking our hips, catching waves. Are they insane? Do they think we are immune to life? How can they possibly think our families are less screwed up, our cancers less fatal, our heartache less painful?

 

In the end, The Descendants is not a high action movie like I am normally drawn to, instead this is an emotional drama that will leave you once again in wonder of what the human heart can withstand.

 

It is Bloggiesta weekend and as promised…. I was going to have giveaways!  I have a bonus copy of this screening to give away (full movie!) Just leave a comment here and I will enter you into the drawing.  Using random.org I will choose a winner on Tuesday morning.

Morning Meanderings… My VERY OWN Book Fairy!!!! + Giveaway!

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)58 Comments

Good morning!  *yawn*  How we all doing today?  I missed the afternoon and evening of Bloggiesta yesterday as I was trying to get some errands done, then came home, changed and we had dinner with friends and then Hunger Games (yes, a second time!) and home around 11 pm.  Then…. I slept a little later than usual but I am here now and I have exciting things happening here.  😀

About a month ago I was contacted about the book club I am in by a publishing company.  They had read my Making Of A Book Club post and were bouncing ideas off me for a YA on line book club.  I was happy to help as Sheila + talking books = Happy Sheila.  😀

We had some conversations back and forth where we discussed ideas, promoting, etc… and in the end she offered me some books as a thank you.  I chose three from her list but she added to it and my very first mystery box of books arrived yesterday on my door step:

 

and in this group would be the very first April on Line Book Club pick:

Are you just LOVING that cover?  I am!!!  SO more on this hopefully going into this next week… I will give you info on the book club, the who, the what, the when…. I am just waiting on an email first to make sure they are ready to launch!

 

 

AND in honor of Bloggiesta happening right now this weekend (info below) I would love you to tell me which of these gorgeous books to read first and then I will read it and send it to one lucky random.org winner.  Yes, you pick the book for the picture above, I read, then send to you. 

 

This year Bloggiesta is being hosted by It’s All About Books and There’s A Book, and you can see all the mini challenges here – and there are giveaways!  :D

Here is my “work in progress tasks for the weekend” :  (which I will cross off when I complete them):

1.  A new blog header

2.  New blog widget

3.  prep posts for upcoming reviews

4.  Write posts for movie/book reviews that I have completed  (five written and drafted!)

5.  Participate in mini challenges  (three done!)

6.  Clean up/update side bars

7.  Send out author chat questions to 3 authors

8.  Prep a blog survey to use in April

9.  Draft some fun discussion posts (one drafted… two more ideas formed….)

Happy Bloggiesta!!!  Don’t forget my mini challenge this weekend with gift card giveaways 😀 

Choose The book I Read and Win It For Yourself

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)131 Comments

In library sale tradition, I am posting the books I picked up from our spring Library Sale.  To help ensure that I actually get to these books and do not shelf them for life…. I have come up with a fun way to make sure they not only get read, but you have a chance to read them too. 

Look through the two pictures of books and leave me a comment on what you suggest I read.  In a few days I will choose 3 winners using random.org and then I will add those three books to my near future reading list – once I read that book, I will then pass it on to the winner who chose the book.  Win -win.  😀

 

Thank you for your assistance!  Good luck!  😀

Morning Meanderings… A Library Sale, The Police, and Hunger Games

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)42 Comments

 

Good morning!

As days tend to go, yesterday was a FULL one.  I woke up at 5:30 am and set a little Rocky Theme in my head while I prepped to go to the annual Spring Library Sale.   It has become this fun and ridiculous thing for me and a few friends to arrive SUPER early like we are waiting outside for tickets to an amazing concert. 

Except this year – I did it alone.  People had to work, plus a few of them that would normally sit by my side drinking coffee and laughing in the early morning light were also part of the crew that was getting together at midnight to see the opening night of Hunger Games, myself included.  But I could not choose one or the other of the great events.  Stubborn me… wanted to do both.

After arriving at 6:30 am and setting up my lawn chair, blanket, cell phone, and book… I promptly popped on to Facebook to let people know I was at the library 2 1/2 hours before it opened and to feel free to drive by, point, and laugh.  😀

By 6:45 am… a police car slowly drove by the library parking lot…. hesitated, then pulled in.  I think, he may have thought I was loitering, or some hopped up on I don’t know…. adrenaline (?) book junky ready to vandalize… either way, I stood up and plastered a smile on my face as he got out of the car.

“So what is going on here this morning?”

I explained the sale, my tradition, the craziness of me and my awesome friends… errrr… minus the companions this morning.  His face broke into a smile, “I think,” he said, “My wife comes to this every year too – but at a later time.”

Other than that – the other highlight was Mark (*waves!) friend/ employer/Pastor, called me at 6:50 am after seeing my Facebook status and offered to bring me coffee.  Of course, I accepted, 😀 

By 7:30, person #2 arrived (later I would find out his name is Tom), and slowly they trickled into the line on a lightly rainy morning at the Brainerd Library. 

I think… I enjoy the pre- sale comradery often even more than the sale itself.  😀

ANd then… at 9 am the doors opened and I was in.

The Line prior to the doors opening

 

Just a small SMALL section of the books at the sale...

 

They said they had record amount of books this spring.  At 50 cents a book – I left spending $29.00.  😯

I think… I may be a book hoarder. 

HIghlights of the sale:

There were a few specialty books for $1.00 I could not resist.  This lovely copy of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane caught my eye.  To the right, someone had donated some lovely old copies of Fairy tales and A Tale Of Two Cities dating back into the early 1900’s.  The covers were gorgeous!

I will post the books this afternoon so be sure to stop back as in tradition of my library sale postings.. there is a little fun in it for both of us!  😀

 

At noon yesterday I had lunch with three amazing friends, after work I came home and tried to rest but it did not happen, at 10 pm I went to the movie theater and waited in line for two hours (it was a line waiting day!) for Hunger Games…. which was amazing – and more on that later.  😀

 

I also need to announce the winners of the Finn book from a couple of days ago!  Using random.org, congratulations to:

Justin (#4)

Laurel  (#2)

Congrats to you both!  Please email me your address to journeythroughbooks@gmail.com and I will pass the information on to have this book sent to you right away!

I need to get ready for work, I have dinner with friends here this afternoon and then I think I may just crash for a bit.  😀

Morning Meanderings… Being Flynn giveaway!!!!!

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)25 Comments

Good morning.  😀

Happy Wednesday and all that.  I don’t know if I am excited about Wednesday because we are now officially half way through the week or if I have a little anxiety as each day brings me closer to next week which is FULL FULL FULL and I don’t like my weeks that full….

HOWEVER.. there is some great things happening yet this week that I do not want to miss so I think I should just chill… and enjoy.

For instance… tomorrow morning is the Spring Library sale which means… I will be there über early because that is just fun.  They open the doors at 9, I plan to be there around 6 am.  😀  Then I work, and I have a lunch date with friends, then back to work and then home and a nap…. because…. midnight is the showing of Hunger Games and yes, myself and a few crazy friends will be there.  Yes, because it is fun.

AND then… Friday opens up the movie Being Flynn, based off the Memoir by Nick Flynn, and I am giving away 2 copies of Nick Flynn’s book!   For my readers in the Twin Cities area, please note that the film will be showing at the Uptown Lagoon Theater in Minneapolis.

Ok… about the book.  Ummm… yeah, how about that title?  Did not see that coming.. but here is what it is about (and that I do like!)

Flynn’s wayward father, a self-styled writer and ex-con, describes his life on Boston’s streets as “another bullshit night in Suck City”: he hangs out in ATM lobbies, stuffs his coat with newspaper and is often “still drunk from the night before.” This biting memoir describes the years poet Flynn (Some Ether; Blind Huber) spent, in his late 20s, working at one of the city’s homeless shelters, where his path crisscrossed with his down-and-out father’s. In examining their troublesome relationship, Flynn admits to feeling lost, as he turned to alcohol and came close to being on the other side of the shelter admissions booth himself. Punchy language and short chapters make what could otherwise be excessively painful more palatable (e.g., “Fact: In 1839 Dostoyevsky witnessed a mob of peasants attacking his father…. they poured vodka down his throat until he died. Fact: I can watch my father pouring vodka down his own throat any day of the week. My role is to play the son, though I often feel like a mob of peasants”).

 The movie…

Being Flynn is the new dramatic feature from Academy Award-nominated writer/director Paul Weitz (About a Boy). Adapted from Nick Flynn’s 2004 memoir Another Bulls—t Night in Suck City, the movie explores bonds both unbreakable and fragile between parent and child.

Nick Flynn (portrayed in the film by Paul Dano of Little Miss Sunshine and There Will Be Blood) is a young writer seeking to define himself. He misses his late mother, Jody (four-time Academy Award nominee Julianne Moore), and her loving nature. But his father, Jonathan, is not even a memory, as Nick has not seen the man in 18 years.

Jonathan Flynn (two-time Academy Award winner Robert De Niro) has long defined himself as a great writer, “a master storyteller.” After abandoning his wife and child, Jonathan scrapes through life on his own terms, and ends up serving time in prison for cashing forged checks. After prison, he drives a cab for a number of years, but with his drinking and eccentricities now accelerating, he loses his job. Despite the occasional grandiose letter to his son, he has remained absent from Nick’s life.

Suddenly facing eviction from his apartment, Jonathan impulsively reaches out to Nick and the two come face-to-face. The older man is eloquent and formidable; overwhelmed, Nick nonetheless prepares to integrate his father into his own life. But, as quickly as he materialized, Jonathan flits away again.

Moving on, Nick takes a job at a homeless shelter, where he learns from Captain (Wes Studi) and Joy (Lili Taylor) how to relate to the guests who arrive night after night. Seeing the homeless – some permanently, some temporarily so – and hearing their stories, Nick finds purpose in his own life and work. He also sustains a romance with a co-worker, Denise (Olivia Thirlby). Then one night, Jonathan arrives, seeking a bed, and Nick’s senses of self and compassion falter. To give the two of them a shot at a real future, Nick will have to decide whom to seek redemption for first.

Evocatively told, ruefully funny, and moving in its depiction of the ties that bind, Being Flynn tells a story that reveals universal truths.

SO in recap, two copies of this book are being given away here and I will announce the winners here (using random.org) on Friday morning, in honor of the movie release. 

How to enter?  Leave me a comment here giving the book a different title from reading the synopsis… 😀

Have a great day!

No Comment. YES!!! COMMENT!!!

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)66 Comments

Have you met my dear friend Reagan of Miss Remmers Reviews?  She is a teacher, a hockey coach, a book blogger, and a fun to hang with gal.  She was also my roommate at BEA the last two years ans to prove it… here we are:

Good times... good times....

Anyhoo…. Reagan is hosting a Book Blogger Reader Appreciation Week and I love the idea!  She is planning a whole week of appreciation posts and I want to participate where I can.  Today, (actually yesterday) we were asked to share out book blogger history and how we feel about comments. 

I started blogging in early 2009, but did not let my blog go public until June 2009.  At the time, I did not even know what book blogging was, I was just writing reviews for my own records and pretty much using wordpress as an online book journal. 

My first comment came on June 9, 2009…. the day I refer to as my blogiversary date as that is when book blogging came alive for me.  I even remember where that first comment came from, it was Bookin’ With Bingo and it scared me.  😯  I had received an email notification that someone had commented on one of my review posts.  Wha?  😯  I checked it out and there was this stranger telling me they liked my thoughts on the book.  Wha?  😯  I cautiously clicked their link afraid I was going to be whooshed to some dirty site that would eat my computers brain….. but no… what did I find…..

(cue the music)

Yup… a whole new world.  I was shocked.  There was someone out there like me!  Someone else that talked books!  Two of us!  Together we could conquer the book world!!!   (I truly had no idea ….) 

And so it began… from that book site, I found others, and found publishers and authors, and people willing to send you a book to review (WHAT????) 

Now fast forward to current time… 2 3/4 years in.  Yes, the books are awesome – but I buy my own books all the time as well as use my library to read books I wish too, but really… the heart of book blogging for me – is sharing my thoughts with you and hearing your thoughts on what I say.  Yes, I am talking comments.  I LOVE to sit down with a cup of coffee and my laptop and carry on conversations with you through my posts.  And by doing this, I get to know my frequent commenters, and I love that! 

I like knowing that Kathy and her hubby like to go visit their son Vance, and that in the 1990’s they lived in France (and no, that wasn’t suppose to rhyme….. 😉 )

Esme constantly makes me jealous with her worldy travels and fantastic food experiences.  She still teases me that I used to visit her blog in 2009 and tell her that I could not stop at her blog any more because I always left hungry!  Who knew in 2010 I would be sharing a room with her in New York for BEA?

Laurel would be a book blogger I would introduce myself to on a book site (how sad I can not recall the name) in June 2009 and then all this time later she is still one of my top commenters!

Care not only would become another roommate at BEA 2010 (we really had the rotating roommates that year LOL) but she would go on to remember my birthday every year AND send me a birthday card in the mail!

Alison has very similar book tastes to mine and when I read a review on her site, I know I will probably like the book as well.  We have run into each other the last two years at BEA and went to the same author events.  I look forward to seeing her again this year and hanging out!

Kim would turn me to non fiction books more than I ever was and I would never look back.  She also was not only a BEA roommate of 2010, but got together with me and a handful of other bloggers for a Twin Cities book event in the fall of 2010.

Ryan is this amazing single dad who loves his son, and loves to talk books, favorite characters, and movies. 

Lori and I email back and forth about books and occasionally life. 

Reagan of course would not only be my roommate twice for BEA but also my roommate at the Twin Cities Book event and calls me to talk books and blogging and life!

(and of course there are so many more I could go on and on….)

My point of saying this is that to me, there is a person behind the comment and I love that!  I love being able to welcome someone back from a vacation, or telling them to get well soon because I know they are sick. And I know each of these people because they commented and I did back and by reading each others posts, you learn a little something. 😀

Someone once said that comments are the bread and butter of a book blogger and I would tend to agree with that.  I love to unwind from my day with all of you. 

My goal is 2012 is to get back into a rhythm of commenting.  I used to be a great commenter, and commented on every comment and visited their blog if they had one as well and commented their.  Well of course life happens, but I do still get around as I can and try to stop in and say hi (bug me if I havent done that lately…. 😀 )

To wrap up this LONG post I want to do a giveaway today in honor of Reagan’s BBRAW.  Leave a comment (yup that’s it!) here today sharing with me your thoughts on comments and I will enter you into a drawing for a $10 gift card to Amazon.  Winner drawn using random.org on Friday the 17th. 

Oh!  And its not too late to sign up for BBRAW!  Go here!