Morning Meanderings – Page 30

Morning Meanderings… What’s Up and What’s New

Published on October 17, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)6 Comments

Good morning! 🙂 I have been looking forward to today all week-long! This is my “Low Key Weekend” and lets just add some hashtags as I think they are fun: #awesomehangingout #deweyreadathon #dontwanttoanswermyphone.

After a full couple of weeks of great fun, working weekends, and large commitments… I am trying hard to hold on to the sanctuary of this weekend by not over booking myself and refreshing and renewing to be ready to rock and roll again next week. 🙂

So what is on the weekend agenda?

Today -write a couple of reviews, go to the bank, the Library, the grocery store…. meet a friend for lunch, pick up some boxes of goodies at Connie’s home, clean out the downstairs storage and listen to audio. 🙂 (Ok, that may not sound very low-key – but it is)

Saturday – Dewey Read A Thon. If I plan this right, I want to be home reading for the entire day. I will read for charity – I usually do, and hope to not leave the house at all. (Mmmm hmmmm…. there it , low-key day!)

Sunday – church, and home to do a little cleaning, a little audio, maybe going to a friends home to interview her for an upcoming magazine story… but may just put that off. Al and I may be heading to the cabin to meet up with the guy working on our roof to run by him plans for a front deck (YAY!!!! I have waited so long for this! And a possible garage.) If we do go, we will be gone until Tuesday and if he can not go… then I need to go alone. Either way, it’s not a bad thing, I was hoping to get to the cabin this month and it just had not worked out.

Something new…. last night I created a Twitter account for our Friends Of The Brainerd Public Library. After last weeks conference for the Minnesota Library Association I sat in on a session on social media. While it was aimed more at what Libraries can do to connect… I nabbed a couple ideas for the Friends… Twitter was one, as I can attach the feed to our website and I find that super cool. Yes, I said it… super cool. And secondly – mail chimp… which I did not know much about but after seeing what a nice email it sends, it will be something I will be looking into for future friends emails.

Oh… and that Twitter account, in case you want to follow… @BrdFriends

I plan to use it to let people know of upcoming Friends events, happenings, etc… that may not be of interest to you… however if you are a library fan, or a Friend of your local library, you may want to see what we are doing… after all, I look at other Friends and Library sites to pick up ideas for our own 🙂

Ok enough of the chatter… you have things to do, I have things to do. Hope your day is super fab!

Morning Meanderings… Literally Literary Fumes

Published on October 15, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)20 Comments

I feel as though I have run a literary marathon. Things, have been quite bookish around here lately, Library conference, Author event, Teen Library meeting, first annual Friends Of The Library retreat and last nights Bookies Book Club. All this happened within the last week. It has been fun, do not get me wrong, but I feel a little wrung out, looking forward to a non eventful rest of the week. My agenda is fairly open the next week out.

YAY!

Last night the Bookies had a great time meeting up and discussing In Cold Blood. We also handed out our books that we will be reading as well this month for the new Harper Collins Program “Book Club Girls”, this will be books chosen by my group and read in addition to our regular scheduled read. Our first book through Harper is:

Super excited about this book! There is also a box of swag coming that I am excited to see what it is! 🙂

Our book clubs pick for November will be :

Looks like a good one and the perfect time of year for some Historical Fiction!

Well, off to get ready for my day. Hope your warm and enjoying fall colors wherever you are!

Morning Meanderings… Prelude To A Murder

Published on October 14, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)4 Comments

Good morning fellow readers, adventure seekers, and of course coffee drinkers. How are you this fine chilly morning? Perhaps where you live it is not chilly… or perhaps you will not venture out into the chill. I will be doing both I believe… Minnesota can be a fickle state to live in. 🙂

Last week I made two trips into the Minneapolis area. Once for the Minnesota Library Association Conference, and then again for Opus and Olives, the premiere author event of the state. Both were excellent times but happy to say that this week I will be hovering around home base. YAY!!!

Tonight… The Bookies Book Club will be discussing for our annual October Classic read, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. The chilling true story of a murdered family and why. This should make for an interesting discussion as true crime does not usually fall into our groups genre’s to read. I am deciding on my appetizer to bring and think I am going with cucumber sandwiches. Love hanging out with this group so looking forward to the bookish discussion and good food!

One more quick note, I finally made it to Gone Girl last night. My thoughts on the movie will be up later today.

Morning Meanderings…. Cinderella Cinderella, Going To The Ball!!!

Published on October 12, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)19 Comments

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:

Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer (audio)

By The Book by Pamela Paul

That’s it. Hope your Sunday is filled with good things!

Saturday Snapshot: Minnesota Library Association Conference

Published on October 11, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)16 Comments

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!

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 😉

Morning Meanderings… Far Out Statistics

Published on October 10, 2014October 10, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)10 Comments

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:

Title		Views
SPOILER PAGE For Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn		20,476
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn		2,606
Home page / Archives		247
This Is Where I Leave You….Book VS. Movie		43
Morning Meanderings… Much Ado About September		35
Spoiler Page for Me Before You by Jojo Moyes		25
Requiem by Lauren Oliver – SPOILER Page		25
For Book Clubs Only		15
Lightning Thief Book Vs. Lightning Thief Movie by Rick Riordan		14
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins – Spoiler Page		12

Search Engine Terms

These are terms people used to find your site.

2014-10-03

Search	Views
gone girl spoiler	338
gone girl ending	194
gone girl book	122
gone girl synopsis	99
gone girl ending spoiler	85
gone girl spoiler ending	76
how does gone girl end	62
gone girl book ending	52
gone girl spoilers	48
gone girl plot	46
gone girl book ending spoiler	41
gone girl ending explained	37
what happens at the end of gone girl	28
what happens in gone girl	27
gone girl summary	24
ending of gone girl	22
gone girl synopsis spoiler	21
gone girl summary spoiler	20
how does the book gone girl end	18
gone girl plot spoiler	18
spoiler gone girl	15
synopsis of gone girl	14
gone girl book spoiler	14

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?

Morning Meanderings… Live From Mankato!

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

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

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

Here is my hotel table this morning.

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

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

Have a super day all!

Morning Meanderings… Off To The Minnesota Library Association Conference

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

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

procrastinating.

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

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

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

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

Try on outfits as I pack.

Berate myself for not doing this part earlier in the week

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

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

Love on dogs.

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

Officially leave town by 10:30 am.

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

I will be in touch, laptop is going with 🙂

Morning Meanderings… A Fun Week Ahead!

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

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

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

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

How We Learn by Benedict Carey (audiobook)

Be The Message by Kerry and Chris Shook (audiobook)

Dataclysm by Christian Rudder (audiobook)

The Moonlight Palace by Liz Rosenberg

Naked and Marooned by Ed Stafford

Crooked River by Valerie Geary

Desert God by Wilbur Smith

Bohemians, Bootleggers, Flappers, and Swells by Graydon Carter

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

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

Morning Meanderings… Guess Who Chose My Next Read?

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

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

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

Elizabeth of Silver’s Reviews!

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

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