Monday What Are You Reading? – Page 2

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on October 23, 2011October 23, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)66 Comments

Hello and welcome to another fun addition of It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

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. I offer a weekly contest for those who visit 10 or more of the Monday Meme participants and leave a comment telling me how many you visited. **You do not have to have a blog to participate! You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.

Last weeks winner:

Angie from By Book Or By Crook!

WOO HOO!!!! Please choose an item out of the Reading Cafe Grab Shelves and email me your choice with your mailing address as well! journeythroughbooks@gmail.com

So here we are heading towards the end of October at lighting speed. Can you even believe that? I always feel I should be getting more reading done but I have had some pretty active evenings lately involving friends and family and good events so I cant complain…. here is what I did accomplish this past week:

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (audio review!)

I am an INSPY award judge! (what that means and what books am I reading for this)

Don’t Blink by James Patterson (he finally puts out an audio that disappoints me….)

Read a Thon recap for me…. what I accomplished… what I didn’t…

Weekend Cooking – Quick Dump Chili and Apple Cinnamon Rolls

Book/audio completed during read-a-thon but not reviewed yet:

Shelter by Sarah Stonich

Sleeper’s Run by Henry Mosquera

Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian (audio)

Looking forward, this week I have Monday, Tuesday evenings as pretty low key, but Wednesday and Thursday plans both evenings and then Friday evening I leave for the cabin with a group of girls that I do the MS bike ride with for a weekend R & R. Then things will go a bit crazy as the following week on November 5, I leave for Honduras for 6 days.

OK…. one thing at a time…. 😛 This week I plan to read:

Lily at 80 reflects on her life, beginning with her daughter days in 19th-century rural China. Foot-binding was practiced by all but the poorest families, and the graphic descriptions of it are not for the fainthearted. Yet women had nu shu, their own secret language. At the instigation of a matchmaker, Lily and Snow Flower, a girl from a larger town and supposedly from a well-connected, wealthy family, become laotong, bound together for life. Even after Lily learns that Snow Flower is not from a better family, even when Lily marries above her and Snow Flower beneath her, they remain close, exchanging nu shu written on a fan. When war comes, Lily is separated from her husband and children. She survives the winter helped by Snow Flower’s husband, a lowly butcher, until she is reunited with her family. As the years pass, the women’s relationship changes; Lily grows more powerful in her community, bitter, and harder, until at last she breaks her bond with Snow Flower. They are not reunited until Lily tries to make the dying Snow Flower’s last days comfortable.

I started listening to this yesterday and wow… I am already immersed in China’s culture, foot binding, match makers, oh my! Enjoying it so far…

**I am thrilled to be participating in an event coming up called Laotong Nights where my friends and I will see an advanced copy of Snow Flower and The Secret Fan! (SQQUUEEEE!!!) We will also participate in the Laotong Night event which I post on later.

What is a a Laotong Night? Click here for some things you could do, trust me my mind is already flying through the ideas! …. and then watch for a future post in the next couple of weeks where not only will I review the movie but also have three copies of the book to give away! 😛

Narrated by the youngest son of a Puerto Rican father and white mother from Brooklyn raising their three young sons in upstate New York, the novel is comprised of vignettes detailing moments spent in the eye of the ferocious bubble of home. Torres paints a large picture through diminutive strokes, evoking envy for the couple’s passion and fear for just how easily that passion turns to rage. The brothers wrestle, fight, cry, and laugh as their family is torn and repaired over and over again.

This one came in the made from Blackstone audio and you know I was curious about it and hey, I don’t turn down audio 😀

Honestly, I am not going to start any new books this week… I have several not finished that I want to pay attention too like Monsters Of Men.

I have lots of reviews lined up for this week including a couple giveaways to go with the reviews…. as well as my review of the upcoming release of Water for Elephants on DVD, so really … stop by often this week 😀

Now I want to see what you are reading this week. Be sure to link your It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? to the linky below where it says “click here”

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on October 2, 2011October 2, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)60 Comments

Hello and welcome to another fun addition of It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

Last weeks winner:

Lori at Dollycas’s Thoughts

WOO HOO!!!! Please choose an item out of the Reading Cafe Grab Shelves and email me your choice with your mailing address as well! journeythroughbooks@gmail.com

Note: I am behind on a few weeks of books mailings and I apologize for that – everything is packages up and hitting the post office today. 😀

I had a very productive week for banned books week. I stuck to reading all books on the banned book list this past week, however my audio listening was my regular listens and I am thrilled to say I finished two audios, almost a third and fourth… and all those reviews will be up this week. As for what I did post this past week:

SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson (Banned Book)

Beloved by Toni Morrison (Banned Book)

A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving (Banned Book and my crazy attempt at a vlog)

A WHOLE lot of links to other banned book related posts for the big giveaway!

Also – winner of the Banned Book Week Giveaway package is:

Nise from Under The Boardwalk

YAY Nise!!! Shoot me your address and I will get that out to you!

As I mentioned above I also finished the two audio books but will post about them this week… I wanted to keep this past week all banned… all week.

That said, Banned book Week was fun but also a lot of work so I am glad to be free to read what I want to and need to read this week. I am keeping it simple….

Ok… ha ha… maybe this book does not qualify for”keeping it simple” but October is Classic Month for our book club and this is the classic for October 11th and from the groans I am hearing from the rest of the Bookies, I had better get on this… plus – we are dressing up for the review so I must get some insight! 😀

Ahhh…. but of course Pride and Prejudice is most likely not a sit down and read in one sitting style book so I am hoping to break it up with the final book in the trilogy I have been reading. SO EXCITED to get into this one!

AND – this is the week my review is due for the local Her Voice Magazine…. it is due in by the 5th on a Christmas/holiday read…. my choice…. curious what I picked? 😉

I have a pretty solid week, we are serving for IHN this week which I coordinate, and the reads I picked will keep me busy in between work and all of that. As for audio, I am hoping to finish The Night Circus this week so I am not adding any new audio to the week. 😀

SO there it is and I am so excited to see what you are doing for Fall reads…. please link up your Monday What Are You Reading post below where it says click here. 😀 Have a super week!!!

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on September 4, 2011September 4, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)92 Comments

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between! D This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

Last weeks winner:

Lori – Dollycas’ Thoughts

WOO HOO!!!! Please choose an item out of the Reading Cafe Grab Shelves and email me your choice with your mailing address as well! journeythroughbooks@gmail.com

In case you wonder why I offer a book giveaway for those who visit others who do this meme, it is because I LOVE community. This is not a Blog Hop – this is hopefully, you checking out what people are reading and maybe finding new blogs you would enjoy visiting. Book Blogging is all about sharing our love for books with one another. By visiting some of the other participants – you never know where you may find that next awesome read – or a blog that becomes one that you want to read more often.

What a fantastic weekend. I had such an insane week I can not even tell you… but the goal – was the weekend and I made it… and it was fab. I really wanted to spend some time reading and relaxing and that is exactly what I was able to do…. here is what was accomplished last week:

Tick Tock by James Patterson (the continuing series of Michael Bennett – audio LOVE!)

Winter Garden by Kristen Hannah (an audio that caused a meltdown in my kitchen!)

Escape by Barbara Delinsky (book review – good read but not a great read)

The Alchemist by Paul Coelho (audio review – and wow wow wow – I think audio made the difference…)

So I think another productive week! I have two more reviews to post from this past weeks reading a more to come this week! Here is what is on tap:

(click on picture to get book description)

I have been drooling over this one since the end of May at BEA – and I have had it for just as long but held out waiting… waiting for almost release time. Well – the time has come and this baby is on the reading shelf for this week! 😀

(click on picture to get book description)

… this past weekend I read the first book in this series, The Knife Of Never Letting Go and let me say… WOW. I am running full steam ahead in to this second book in the series.

(click on picture to get book description)

I have been wanting to read this book for a while now! I am hoping to get to it this week to review for next weekends Weekend Cooking.

(click on picture to get book description)

I started listening to this audio this weekend on my way tot he North Shore and back ( that’s about 7 hours of audio time!)

That’s what is new this week… I am finishing up a book from last week too so I should be plenty full 😀 I am excited to see what you are reading this week so please add your Monday What Are You Reading post to the link below where it says “click here” I hope to get around to all of you this week and see what you are reading! 😀

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Oh – It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? Is on the long list for best Book Blog Meme – dont forget to vote! 😀

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on August 28, 2011August 28, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)102 Comments

Last weeks winner:

Lydia – The Lost Entwife

WOO HOO!!!! Please choose an item out of the Reading Cafe Grab Shelves and email me your choice with your mailing address as well! journeythroughbooks@gmail.com

In case you wonder why I offer a book giveaway for those who visit others who do this meme, it is because I LOVE community. Book Blogging is all about sharing our love for books with one another. By visiting some of the other participants – you never know where you may find that next awesome read – or a blog that becomes one that you want to read more often.

What a week. I was at camp from Monday afternoon until Friday afternoon of this past week which was AWESOME and did not interfere with my reading whatsoever. In fact I posted quite a bit this past week:

After by Amy Efaw (audio review and giveaway!)

The Help by Kathryn Stockett (audio review – SO GOOD!!!)

Cut by Patricia McCormick (book review)

Recap of my Camp experience – where I was and what I did

Meet My New Laptop – Asus (Ah – uess)

Secrets Of Longevity by Dr. Moa Shing Ni (book review)

On top of all that I have two books almost completed and three audio that will end within the next day or two. It really was a productive book week! 😀

For this week I am super excited. I finally feel I am over that “book hump” where I just wasnt finding the time to read. In fact I am tackling a series this week…. check it out.

Chased by a madman preacher and possibly the rest of his townsfolk as well, young Todd Hewitt flees his settlement on a planet where war with the natives has killed all the women and infected the men with a germ that broadcasts their thoughts aloud for all to hear. This cacophanous thought-cloud is known as Noise and is rendered with startling effectiveness on the page. The first of many secrets is revealed when Todd discovers an unsettling hole in the Noise, and quickly realizes that he lives in a much different world than the one he thought he did.

Sometimes….. sometimes, it takes a swift crack to the head to get my going…. 😛 This past week I seen the third book in this trilogy and read a review on it that knocked my socks off. Since then I have heard chatter about how awesome this series is and how you need all three and well – I bought all three. 😀

Todd Hewitt, 13, is locked in a tower in New Prentisstown, a space colony, and separated from Viola, after the dramatic cliff-hanger in The Knife of Never Letting Go (Candlewick, 2008). Tracked down by the manipulative mayor of the all-male community he escaped, he is unaware that Viola is also under guard and recouping nearby. The noise that clatters through men’s minds makes it difficult for Todd to keep any secrets about his intentions to find Viola and accompany her on a mission to contact her people, who are on their way to colonize this unsettled and fractured new world. The previous war, which killed most of the women and made slaves of the aboriginal alien Spackles, has pitted the survivors against one another. The “Answer,” composed of women and a few men who lost daughters and mothers in the war, come to blows with the “Ask,” the mayor’s group of fundamentalist men and their Spackle slaves.

Yup -book two… I hope I love these… I could use a real strong series…. 😀

The genocidal tyrant Mayor Prentiss leads an army on one side, the terrorist healer Mistress Coyle heads a band of revolutionaries on another, and a massive legion of native Spackle threatens from a third. All three sides see only the complete annihilation of the others as the sole option for victory and survival, and they might be right, no matter how Todd and Viola use their formidable wills to advance peace as an influx of new colonists nears. It’s a thick book, approaching Russian-novel territory, but it rarely feels bloated; and readers invested in the story will likely concede that Ness has earned the space. His rapid-fire litany of impossible choices makes for captivating thought fodder, and what has already been a potent display of the power of voice to drive, amplify, and transform a story gets a third, unexpected soloist. And in so doing he shows just how deep and complex, as well as how versatile, a symbolic narrative device like Noise can be.

so.. the plan is – I love this series so much that I fly through them one after another. At least… that s the plan. 😛

Many years have passed since civilization’s brush with apocalypse. The world’s greatest threats have all been silenced. There is no anger, no hatred, no war. There is only perfect peace… and fear. But a terrible secret has been closely guarded for centuries: Every single soul walking the earth, though in appearance totally normal, is actually dead, long ago genetically stripped of true humanity.

Fleeing pursuit, with only moments to live, a young man named Rom stumbles into possession of a vial of blood and a piece of cryptic writing. When consumed, the blood will bring him back to life. When decoded, the message will lead him on a perilous journey that will require him to abandon everything he has ever known and awaken humanity to the transforming power of true life and love.

But the blood will also resurrect hatred, ambition, and greed.

Yup – here I go, Dekker again. This is for the next Faith In Fiction read.

Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who one night dreams of a distant treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. And so he’s off: leaving Spain to literally follow his dream.

Along the way he meets many spiritual messengers, who come in unassuming forms such as a camel driver and a well-read Englishman. In one of the Englishman’s books, Santiago first learns about the alchemists–men who believed that if a metal were heated for many years, it would free itself of all its individual properties, and what was left would be the “Soul of the World.” Of course he does eventually meet an alchemist, and the ensuing student-teacher relationship clarifies much of the boy’s misguided agenda, while also emboldening him to stay true to his dreams. “My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer,” the boy confides to the alchemist one night as they look up at a moonless night.

“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself,” the alchemist replies. “And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity.”

I have never experienced this read – and have to admit… I didn’t even know what it was about. Already listening to it.

Thats my week – I think I will be plenty busy with these and thank goodness for the long weekend coming up 😀

Now its time to see what you are reading – join in by adding your link to where it says “click here” below.

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on August 21, 2011August 21, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)94 Comments

Last weeks winner:

Puss Reboots

WOO HOO!!!! Please choose an item out of the Reading Cafe Grab Shelves and email me your choice with your mailing address as well! journeythroughbooks@gmail.com

In case you wonder why I offer a book giveaway for those who visit others who do this meme, it is because I LOVE community. Book Blogging is all about sharing our love for books with one another. By visiting some of the other participants – you never know where you may find that next awesome read – or a blog that becomes one that you want to read more often.

Welcome to the 101st It’s Monday What Are You Reading post! Last week we celebrated the big 100 with a couple bonus giveaways…. here are the winners from that:

The $20 Amazon gift card goes to….

#16: Bluestocking

and the comment with someone you were introduced to through this meme goes to:

Joy’s Book Blog

(winners were chosen using Random.org)

Well another awesome week but really – not a lot of action here. This is what I posted over the last week:

Small Town Sinners by Melissa Walker

Pictures from this weekend bike ride in Itasca State Park

Born Round by Frank Bruni (audio review) **With giveaway!!!

Pretty pathetic week… I was reading, just not big chunks. Of course now, I have three reviews to write and two more about finished. That said – here is what I am treating myself to this week: (Click on the cover to see descriptions)

*I have listened to this entire series by Patterson on audio and love these books – this story line of Michael Bennett (cop) and his 10 (yup 10!) adopted children …. seriously – check these audio out!

* It pained me to read a book with the word “winter” in its title this time of year…. but I heard good things about this and the audio was on sale at Amazon.

As for books….I am still (still still still…. ) catching up on books from the past couple of weeks so I am going to stick with that. This week I am at a Camp for people with AIDS. If you are curious about what in the world is Sheila doing at an AIDS camp…. check out the story here. I will be at camp from Monday morning through Friday morning. I am taking along my IPOD with books on it, my NOOK, a book or two, and of course Laptop so I will be in communication all week and I will keep you updated.

Right now though I am so excited to see what you are reading! Connect to this meme by adding your It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? where it says click here. Have an awesome week!!! 😀

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? The 100th IMWAYR post with BONUS giveaway!

Published on August 14, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)136 Comments

Last weeks winner:

Jennifer at Rundipinne

WOO HOO!!!! Please choose an item out of the Reading Cafe Grab Shelves and email me your choice with your mailing address as well! journeythroughbooks@gmail.com

In case you wonder why I offer a book giveaway for those who visit others who do this meme, it is because I LOVE community. Book Blogging is all about sharing our love for books with one another. By visiting some of the other participants – you never know where you may find that next awesome read – or a blog that becomes one that you want to read more often.

As I said in the post title this is the 100th It’s Monday What Are You Reading post that I have done since I inherited this meme from J Kaye’s book blog in February of 2009. At that time I was about 8 months into book reviewing and blogging and when J Kaye asked me if I would take over this meme I was so shocked and honored! Certainly there had to be participants who had participated longer than me! I graciously accepted feeling it was a no brainer to accept… after all, this would bring new readers to Book Journey, and allow me to meet others as well. I had no idea if it would work but I jumped in. I was actually on vacation that first Monday What Are You Reading. I have left it almost exactly the same as J Kaye had done, except I added the incentive to look at other participants posts. I wanted people… to meet people. 😀

That all said – please see below for the additions I am making to this weeks post to celebrate. There is a chance at a Gift Card as well as an extra opportunity to grab a book out of the Reading Cafe. There are a couple new secret titles I added for this week only and they will be pulled once the winners have chosen what book they want. Winners will be announced Wednesday at the Morning Meandering right here.

Ok – as far as this past week.. what a bust. I feel like I hardly made a dent in any of my reading…. here is the little that was accomplished:

Working It Out by Abby Rike (book review – a non fiction story of triumph over unthinkable tragedy… you may recognize Abby from The Biggest Loser show)

The Devil In The White City by Eric Larson (Our August book club read that may very well have taken the best Book Club read so far this year spot. FANTASTIC!)

The Help movie review…. (Grab some popcorn and get to this movie!!! :razz:)

The Bookies Book Club celebrates 10 Years!!!! (walk down memory lane with me as I explain how Bookies came to be…. )

That’s it. That’s my week. I didn’t think it would be so busy but I guess between the bookies anniversary, a surprise party for Sharon (Bookie gal!), going opening night to The Help movie, working an additional shift this week at work, a baby shower, a house-warming, watching I Am Number 4 with hubby, and College Son stopping in to visit on Sunday…. yeah…. reading went to the way side. 😯

As for this week… I am hoping to do a little late summer-house keeping and catch up on some of the books I announced I was going to be reading here and have yet to do so…. those books would be: (click on any book cover to go to Amazon for a synopsis of the book).

and…. I think I should have two audio end this week (if not three) so next up for audio will be:

That’s the start tot he plan. I like it! 😀 Now I am really excited to see what you are reading! I did not make it around last week but this week I will!

The 100th post bonuses this week are: Every person that links a Its Monday What Are You Reading post to the linky below where it says “click here” will go into a drawing for a $20 amazon gift card that will be emailed to the winner this Wednesday morning.

Also – for those in a separate comment leave the name of a blog that they were introduced to through this meme and that they frequent now beyond the meme, will go in to a drawing for a chance to choose a book or bookish item from the Reading Cafe. (Check it out – there are some fun things I have added this week. 😀

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on August 7, 2011August 8, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)65 Comments

Last weeks winner:

Angelica at My Sassy Angel

WOO HOO!!!! Please choose an item out of the Reading Cafe Grab Shelves and email me your choice with your mailing address as well! journeythroughbooks@gmail.com

In case you wonder why I offer a book giveaway for those who visit others who do this meme, it is because I LOVE community. Book Blogging is all about sharing our love for books with one another. By visiting some of the other participants – you never know where you may find that next awesome read – or a blog that becomes one that you want to read more often.

I had a lovely and busy week and weekend. This past week between work and a couple of evening meetings my reading time was small, I managed to finish two of the audio books I was listening to, but not nearly the amount of reading time I had hoped. here is what I did accomplish:

Something Blue by Emily Giffin (audio book review that involves thoughts about choking the main character)

Between by Jessica Warman – book review

BBAW (Book Blogger Appreciation Week) is coming!!!! I posted the categories and how to get registered)

One Tuesday Morning by Karen Kingsbury (audio review with a WOW factor)

The Library Book sale and my haul of books 😛

Curse Of The Blue Tattoo by L A Meyer (audio review – the Bloody Jack series)

I was on a 150 mile bike ride this weekend that is possibly my favorite ride every year and for a great cause

I got into POTTERMORE!!!! (yes this a layer of geakiness that you may not even have realized I have 😛

I came home late afternoon on Sunday from a 150 mile bike ride. After being slightly idol the past 6 weeks from the arm cast the bike ride was harder than I had imagined. It rained hard most of the ride on Saturday and then as we were pulling into camp, it cleared and was nice out for the afternoon, overnight, and the 75 miles back on Sunday. As far as what my plan is for this week…. I have two longer audios going now that I do not think I will finish this week, so only slight planning on that end:

Hilly is the town’s white Queen Bee with an antebellum attitude towards race. She hopes to lead her minions into the latter part of the century with the “enlightened” view of making sure every home in Jackson, Mississippi, has a separate toilet for the help. Her crusade is, she says, based on clear hygienic criteria, which will save both blacks and whites from heinous diseases.

Despite the fact that the maids prepare the food, care for the children, and clean every part of every home, privy to every secret, many of the white women look at their black maids as an alien race. There are more enlightened views, especially those of Skeeter, a white, single woman with a college degree, who aspires to more than earning her MRS. Skeeter begins collecting the maids’ stories. And the maids themselves find the issue of race humiliating, infuriating, life-controlling. Race sows bitter seeds in the dignity of women who feel they have no choices except to follow their mamas into the white women’s kitchens and laundries. Aibilene says, “I just want things to be better for the kids.” Their hopes lie in education and improvement, change someday for their children.

There is real danger for the maids sharing their stories as well as danger for Skeeter herself. The death of Medgar Evers touches the women deeply, making them question their work and a decision to forge ahead, hoping their book can be published anonymously and yet not recognized by the very white women they know to the last deviled egg and crack in a dining room table.

I read this book a couple years back and LOVED it! Now as the movie is about to release this week (August 10th) I thought I would try the audio that I have heard raving about and rightfully so – it is incredible. (I will not even get started on the fact that it looks like my local theater as well as any theaters within an hour of me will have The Help movie showing.)

The incredible events surrounding the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair with such drama that readers may find themselves checking the book’s categorization to be sure that The Devil in the White City is not, in fact, a highly imaginative novel. Larson tells the stories of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the fair’s construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor. Burnham’s challenge was immense. In a short period of time, he was forced to overcome the death of his partner and numerous other obstacles to construct the famous “White City” around which the fair was built. His efforts to complete the project, and the fair’s incredible success, are skillfully related along with entertaining appearances by such notables as Buffalo Bill Cody, Susan B. Anthony, and Thomas Edison. The activities of the sinister Dr. Holmes, who is believed to be responsible for scores of murders around the time of the fair, are equally remarkable. He devised and erected the World’s Fair Hotel, complete with crematorium and gas chamber, near the fairgrounds and used the event as well as his own charismatic personality to lure victims.

This is my book club read for August. The fact that it is centered around Chicago fascinated me, and the World’s Fair was a plus as well. We review this yet this week so I need to get a movie on it. 😀

When ten-year-old Enaiatollah Akbari’s small village in Afghanistan falls prey to Taliban rule in early 2000, his mother shepherds the boy across the border into Pakistan but has to leave him there all alone to fend for himself. Thus begins Enaiat’s remarkable and often punishing five-year ordeal, which takes him through Iran, Turkey, and Greece before he seeks political asylum in Italy at the age of fifteen.

Along the way, Enaiat endures the crippling physical and emotional agony of dangerous border crossings, trekking across bitterly cold mountain pathways for days on end or being stuffed into the false bottom of a truck. But not everyone is as resourceful, resilient, or lucky as Enaiat, and there are many heart-wrenching casualties along the way.

Based on Enaiat’s close collaboration with Italian novelist Fabio Geda and expertly rendered in English by an award- winning translator, this novel reconstructs the young boy’s memories, perfectly preserving the childlike perspective and rhythms of an intimate oral history.

This reminds me of another book I recently read and I can not put my finger on the title now… Soldier Boy maybe…

Mark your calendars as next Monday August 15th will be the 100th Its Monday What Are You Reading that I have hosted. There will be a couple bonus giveaways next week for participants so encourage your readers to join in the fun 😀

I am leaving it there for this week. I am hopeful to get in more reading this week then I did last week. I am now excited to see what you are reading – please add your What Are You reading to the linky below where it says click here. 😀

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on July 31, 2011July 31, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)92 Comments

Last weeks winner:

Joy from Joy’s Book Blog

WOO HOO!!!! Please choose an item out of the Reading Cafe Grab Shelves and email me your choice with your mailing address as well! journeythroughbooks@gmail.com

In case you wonder why I offer a book giveaway for those who visit others who do this meme, it is because I LOVE community. Book Blogging is all about sharing our love for books with one another. By visiting some of the other participants – you never know where you may find that next awesome read – or a blog that becomes one that you want to read more often.

This past week was a short week as I took off Thursday to go to the North Shore with a couple of friends. I took a book along but have very little reading time and left Lap Top at home, which is unheard of… but I needed a break from the internet :D. Here is what I accomplished this past week:

Good Bye Happy Potter song and VLOG winner (SO FUNNY AND SO GOOD!!!)

Fire Monks by Colleen Morton Busch

Heaven Is For Real by Todd Burpo (audio review)

The Best Book Club Picks Mid Way Through The Year

What Can I Bring? Cookbook by Anne Byrn and a chance to win a copy!

That was the week. Now this week I am looking forward to the following:

Elizabeth Valchar-pretty, popular, and perfect-wakes up the morning after her eighteenth birthday party on her family’s yacht, where she’d been celebrating with her six closest friends. A persistent thumping noise has roused her. When she goes to investigate, what she finds will change everything she thought she knew about her life, her friends, and everything in between. As Liz begins to unravel the circumstances surrounding her birthday night, she will find that no one around her, least of all Liz herself, was perfect-or innocent. Critically acclaimed author Jessica Warman brings readers along on a roller-coaster ride of a mystery, one that is also a heartbreaking character study, a touching romance, and ultimately a hopeful tale of redemption, love, and letting go.

First of all… what is the thumping noise? I really want to know! This book releases to the public on Tuesday! Diving in today!

15-year-old Devon has been a good student and an outstanding soccer player, and her life is all about control and not messing up. But as the story (Viking, 2009) by Amy Efaw opens, Devon is found by the police lying on her family sofa, bloody after giving birth to a baby which was found in the dumpster by a passerby. The story moves through Devon’s arrest, her confusion about what is happening to her, and the preliminary court proceedings to determine whether she will be tried as an adult for attempted murder or in juvenile court. Rebecca Soler does a fine job of varying her voice to reflect Devon’s various states of consciousness and conscience. Most prominent is the flatness of Devon’s voice as she responds to the demands and interactions of those around her, such as her lawyer, who loses patience at Devon’s resistance to assist in her defense.

I have heard good things about this one! I am really looking forward to starting it.

More the gourmand than the gourmet, former New York Times food critic Bruni takes us through his love/hate relationship with food and catalogues everyone who ever fed him and what they served, every diet he went on and his fraught—even dangerous—relationship with food in this excellent memoir. Bruni is a talented reader with an intelligent voice, a perfect pace, impish humor and a contagious passion for his topic. Dieters may crumble under the weight of so many lavish descriptions of luscious treats, but Bruni’s frank depiction of his eating disorders and his charismatic delivery make for memorable listening.

This is another memoir that sounds fun and interesting.

I think that is where I will leave it for this week as my weekend is really full next weekend with a 150 mile bike ride and reading during that time will be slim.

Now I want to know what you are reading! Please leave your link to your “What Are You Reading” below where it says “click here”.

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Oh and one more thing…. this is my 98th Monday What Are You Reading so in two weeks for the 100th we are going to up the fun…. mark your calendar 😀

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on July 24, 2011July 24, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)101 Comments

Last weeks winner:

Shirley at My Book Shelf

WOO HOO!!!! Please choose an item out of the Reading Cafe Grab Shelves and email me your choice with your mailing address as well! journeythroughbooks@gmail.com

In case you wonder why I offer a book giveaway for those who visit others who do this meme, it is because I LOVE community. Book Blogging is all about sharing our love for books with one another. By visiting some of the other participants – you never know where you may find that next awesome read – or a blog that becomes one that you want to read more often. 😀

So a pretty crazy week here. I received some news that bummed me out… and I participated in an event that made me feel better. 😛 You can find out about both here within the happenings of this past week:

Brown Bag Book Event with Laurie Hertzel (my library hosted Laurie and it was totally SSSQQUUUEEEE worthy) 😀

hello goodbye by Emily Chenoweth (book tour and review)

A Musical Tribute To Harry Potter (the things do in my down time…. :razz:)

News To Me by Laurie Hertzel (book review and best of the week)

First Drop Of Crimson by Jeaniene Frost (Book review)

Cast Removal? DENIED

Weekend Cooking = Seafood Pitas

Busy People Of Summer! I share with you a great way to get your “reading on” 😛

Click on the pic to find out what I have been up

So that’s the week. For some reason I did not get everything read that I had hoped to last week. I can’t really put my finger on why as I was reading… but just could not do everything I had hoped to. That said – I am going to keep it a bit lighter over here this week so I can work on the ones from last week as well. This weeks hot list is:

“Do you remember the hospital, Colton?” Sonja said. “Yes, mommy, I remember,” he said. “That’s where the angels sang to me.” When Colton Burpo made it through an emergency appendectomy, his family was overjoyed at his miraculous survival. What they weren’t expecting, though, was the story that emerged in the months that followed—a story as beautiful as it was extraordinary, detailing their little boy’s trip to heaven and back. Colton, not yet four years old, told his parents he left his body during the surgery–and authenticated that claim by describing exactly what his parents were doing in another part of the hospital while he was being operated on. He talked of visiting heaven and relayed stories told to him by people he met there whom he had never met in life, sharing events that happened even before he was born. He also astonished his parents with descriptions and obscure details about heaven that matched the Bible exactly, though he had not yet learned to read. With disarming innocence and the plainspoken boldness of a child, Colton tells of meeting long-departed family members. He describes Jesus, the angels, how “really, really big” God is, and how much God loves us. Retold by his father, but using Colton’s uniquely simple words, Heaven is for Real offers a glimpse of the world that awaits us, where as Colton says, “Nobody is old and nobody wears glasses.”

My book club has been talking about this one for the last couple months. On audio – it is 4 cds and I am already starting the third CD.

Selfish but beautiful Darcy is reeling from the betrayal of her best friend, Rachel, and her fiance, Dex, even though she cheated on Dex with his friend Marcus. Darcy is carrying Marcus’ child, so she assumes he’ll take care of her. After all, she’s always gotten everything she’s ever wanted. But when Marcus dumps her, she finds herself pregnant and alone. Always the opportunist, Darcy contacts her childhood friend Ethan, now a writer living in London, and gets him to agree to let her visit for a while. She jets off to the UK envisioning a charmed life where a handsome, rich Englishman will sweep her off her feet.

Probably a little light and a little cheesy but hey…. it’s summer… and it was on sale. 😛

When a massive wildfire surrounded Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, five monks risked their lives to save it. A gripping narrative as well as a portrait of the Zen path and the ways of wildfire, Fire Monks reveals what it means to meet a crisis with full presence of mind.

Zen master and author of the classic Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi established a monastery at Tassajara Hot Springs in 1967, drawn to the location’s beauty, peace, and seclusion. Deep in the wilderness east of Big Sur, the center is connected to the outside world by a single unpaved road. The remoteness that makes it an oasis also makes it particularly vulnerable when disaster strikes. If fire entered the canyon, there would be no escape.

More than two thousand wildfires, all started by a single lightning storm, blazed across the state of California in June 2008. With resources stretched thin, firefighters advised residents at Tassajara to evacuate early. Most did. A small crew stayed behind, preparing to protect the monastery when the fire arrived.

But nothing could have prepared them for what came next. A treacherous shift in weather conditions prompted a final order to evacuate everyone, including all firefighters. As they caravanned up the road, five senior monks made the risky decision to turn back. Relying on their Zen training, they were able to remain in the moment and do the seemingly impossible-to greet the fire not as an enemy to defeat, but as a friend to guide.

An upcoming book tour that kind of fascinates me…. I hope it is awesome.

And that’s it – the other two audio’s I have going, Bloody Jack book 2, and One Tuesday Morning I think are going to take me the better part of the week as they are both longer audio.

So – that leaves you. What did you read last week? What are you planning to read this week? Please add your link to your post below where it says “click here” .

Happy reading 😀

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Published on July 17, 2011July 17, 2011 by Sheila (Book Journey)80 Comments

Last weeks winner:

Lori from Dollycas’s Thoughts

WOO HOO!!!! Please choose an item out of the Reading Cafe Grab Shelves and email me your choice with your mailing address as well! journeythroughbooks@gmail.com

**New books added today to the Reading Cafe giveaway!

This past week this is what has happened here:

Beastly by Alex Flinn ( book and movie review)

Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain (audio review)

Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone by J K Rowling (10th anniversary book review)

Harry Potter And Te Deathly Hallows Movie – Part 2

South Of Superior by Ellen Airgood (review and tour)

Bookies Book Club picks a New Queen

Once Upon A Time There Was You by Elizabeth Berg

It was a pretty good week and I am looking forward to some good ones this week as well:

Elliott Hansen and his wife, Helen, are celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary with a party at a luxury hotel in New Hampshire, where they lived ten years earlier before moving to Ohio. Elliott has planned well, inviting their New England friends and neighbors and keeping the truth from Helen that her inoperable brain cancer is fatal. Their 18-year-old daughter, Abby, is also in the dark, which is why she is feeling resentful and solitary among these old friends and anxious to discover her worth, even if it’s with a preppie hotel waiter. The guests dance around the inevitable, perhaps because facing reality has been something they have avoided for as long as they have known one another. This richly textured, multilayered treatise on learning to give up hope while still grasping at straws is searing in its approach to losing those we hold dear.

This is a TLC Tour for later this week.

Lacey Anne Byer is a perennial good girl and lifelong member of the House of Enlightenment, the Evangelical church in her small town. With her driver’s license in hand and the chance to try out for a lead role in Hell House, her church’s annual haunted house of sin, Lacey’s junior year is looking promising. But when a cute new stranger comes to town, something begins to stir inside her. Ty Davis doesn’t know the sweet, shy Lacey Anne Byer everyone else does. With Ty, Lacey could reinvent herself. As her feelings for Ty make Lacey test her boundaries, events surrounding Hell House make her question her religion.

This is our current Faith N Fiction read and I am pretty excited about it!

Set against the backdrop of the late ’60s and early ’70s, Nancy Mehagian’s delicious memoir tells the tale of a young woman who heeded the siren’s call to a life of freedom and romance. A first-generation Armenian American whose family narrowly escaped genocide, the rebellious daughter left behind the safety and security of suburban life for an unforgettable adventure that would find her establishing the first vegetarian restaurant on the Spanish island of Ibiza, having an affair with a Bedouin gypsy during a stint as a cabaret dancer in Syria, and through a series of mishaps, incarcerated for 16 months in a London prison (along with her newborn baby) where she managed, even there, to pioneer a healthy way of eating. A breathtaking, sensual and page-turning chronicle that whisks you along the author’s lifelong path to spiritual enrichment, Siren’s Feast, An Edible Odyssey, is a story that captures a colorful era and features over 40 recipes as delectable as the journey itself.

I am so attracted to food related books… I love the stories and the recipes!

A devoted fireman and a driven businessman: strangers with the same face. Only one will leave the Twin Towers alive, but will he ever find his way home?

On the morning of September 11, 2001, two men meet in a smoky stairwell of the World Trade Center. One is Eric Michaels, a driven financial manager from Los Angeles who has been busy climbing the corporate ladder, often at the expense of his wife and young son. The other is Jake Bryan, a New York City fireman devoted to his wife and daughter. In the midst of the crisis, Eric falls on the stairs and Jake stops to help him up. The two men freeze momentarily, stunned by the uncanny resemblance between them.

Later, after the building has crumbled to the ground, Eric awakes beneath a fire truck. He is burned and bloody and most of his clothes have been blown off. A fire captain rushes to his side, thinking he recognizes his friend Jake. By the time Jake’s wife arrives at the hospital, Eric’s face is bandaged and his memory gone.

In the months that follow, Eric struggles to relate to a wife and daughter he doesn’t remember, while on the opposite coast Eric’s real wife grieves and finds comfort from Eric’s brother, a single man who has always adored her. The emotional suspense builds as Eric begins to have disturbing dreams and flashbacks, and questions grow in Jake’s wife’s mind.

The only way for Eric to find his way is by following the love of a special woman, and the footsteps of a man who no longer exists.

I have wanted to read this for a long time and never got to it. Now finally I am getting to it on audio!

Binyavanga Wainaina tumbled through his middle-class Kenyan childhood out of kilter with the world around him. This world came to him as a chaos of loud and colorful sounds: the hair dryers at his mother’s beauty parlor, black mamba bicycle bells, mechanics in Nairobi, the music of Michael Jackson—all punctuated by the infectious laughter of his brother and sister, Jimmy and Ciru. He could fall in with their patterns, but it would take him a while to carve out his own.

In this vivid and compelling debut memoir, Wainaina takes us through his school days, his mother’s religious period, his failed attempt to study in South Africa as a computer programmer, a moving family reunion in Uganda, and his travels around Kenya. The landscape in front of him always claims his main attention, but he also evokes the shifting political scene that unsettles his views on family, tribe, and nationhood.

Throughout, reading is his refuge and his solace. And when, in 2002, a writing prize comes through, the door is opened for him to pursue the career that perhaps had been beckoning all along. A series of fascinating international reporting assignments follow. Finally he circles back to a Kenya in the throes of post election violence and finds he is not the only one questioning the old certainties.

This is a BEA read that will be released this week. I am curious about this one!

I have a big week in reading planned but for the most part… a low key week so this should be doable. Now I want to know what you are reading – add your post to the linky space below where it says “Click Here”

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