It’s Monday! What Are you Reading? – May 29th

It’s Monday! What Are you Reading? is hosted by Shelia of Book Journey. It is a chance to share what you have read and what you plan on reading in the upcoming week. I enjoy seeing what everyone’s reading plans for the week. I always find some titles that I just *had to add to my TBR list.

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  Last week looked like this for me:

Finished the book:  A Secret Kept by Tatiana de Rosnay for May’s meeting of my book group, Books & Babble (audio format)

Started Night Road by Kristin Hannah and am almost finished with it. I am listening to the audiobook so I think I will get it finished tomorrow while I am planting my garden. (audio format)

Posted Reviews for the following books:

• Sing You Home – Jodi Picoult  (audio format)

Participated in the following blog events:

• Library Loot – hosted by The Adventures of a Intrepid Reader and Claire from The Captive Reader.

My Plans for this Week:

 

	The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond. The Pioneer Woman has been a part of our family conversations for years! I have been a long time follower of her blog, long before she started writing books.   Very excited to start this book!
	Come Sunday by Isla Morley is my random selection from my TBR list on Goodreads.com  (audio format)

Next Up??

 

	The Cross Gardner by Jason F. Wright (Book Group Selection – June 13th)
	Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (Book Group Selection – June 23rd) (audio format)
	Island of Lost Girls – Jennifer McMahon – next selection from my TBR list on Goodreads.com

This is my reading plan for the week. What are your reading plans???? Join in with Shelia at Book Journey and share what you reading plans are for the week!

Happy Reading!!

Review: Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult

Title:  Sing You Home
Author: Jodi Picoult
Publisher: Atria; Har/Com edition (March 1, 2011)
Web: http://www.jodipicoult.com/sing-you-home.html
ISBN-10: 1439102724
Pages: 480 pages
Format: Audio Books

About the Book: (from Goodreads.com) One miscarriage too many spelled the end of Max and Zoe Baxter's marriage. Though the former couple went quite separate ways, their fates remained entangled: After veering into alcoholism, Max is saved in multiple senses by his fundamentalist conversion; Zoe, for her part, finds healing relief in music therapy and the friendship, then romantic love with Vanessa, her counselor. After Zoe and Vanessa, now married, decide to have a baby, they realize that they must join battle with Max, who objects on both religious and financial grounds. Like her House Rules and several other previous Jodi Picoult novels, Sing You Home grapples with hot button issues.

Related Media:

Sing You Home Book Trailer

Ellen DeGeneres Chats with Jodi Picoult about Sing You Home

Jodi Picoult explains why she wrote Sing You Home

About the Author: http://www.jodipicoult.com/JodiPicoult.html

My Review:  Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult is written in typical Picoult format.  The story centers around some hot button topic, which is one of the reason I enjoy Jodi Picoult books.   What I like most about Jodi Picoult’s books are they challenge the reader’s beliefs.  I hope in the end her books educate our nation of the other sides of these hot topics.  Wouldn’t our world be a better place if we could just understand each other and not constantly judge each other. 

I love the character of Zoe.  I could feel her pain and desire to have a child of her own.  I could relate to this, having dealt with infertility myself for many years and the havoc it can cause in a marriage.  I loved that Zoe was a music therapist and found solace in music.  She had a kind, loving heart.   I listened to the audio of this book so the music was included between chapters.  I have to be honest in saying that I didn’t feel the music added anything additional to the story.  It was a bit corny.   I can’t wait to see who plays Zoe in the movie adaptation of Sing You Home.  I hope the casting goes with the image in my mind of Zoe.  I did not feel I could connect with the character of Vanessa.  She seemed a bit remote.  I understood Max and his troubles, but even being a Christian myself, could not relate to his fundamentalist beliefs. 

Themes in this book are very timely and controversial to many.  Sing you Home questions what constitutes a family, gay marriage, infertility and infidelity.  Many reviews I read of Sing You Home went into the reader’s beliefs regarding gay marriage.  I included reviews that did not necessary match my own beliefs in an attempt to provide a fair representation of other’s thoughts.    I personally chose to love others without judgment and live my life with an accepting and open heart/mind.  

Sing You Home flows nicely and has the famous Picoult twists, which I love.  I was satisfied with the ending of Sing You Home, but wanted to know what happened afterwards.    It felt like there was so much more to the story that I wanted to know!!

My Rating: 4/5  - I didn’t lose sleep wanting to finish this book, but was compelled to sneak extra minutes of reading where ever I could!  I enjoyed this book on a long drive to and from Duluth, MN.  Sing You Home made for an enjoyable drive. 

Other Bloggers Reviews:
Book Love

Bookwork1858

Proud Book Nerd

Reclusive Bibliophile

Happy Reading!

My Rating Scale: 1 – didn’t like it; 2 – it was ok; 3 – liked it; 4 – really liked it; 5 – it was amazing

Library Loot: May 28th

The Adventures of a Intrepid Reader and Claire from The Captive Reader. This weekly event encourages bloggers to share the books they have checked out from the library. I always find many new books to add to my reserve list!

If you’d like to participate, just write up your post and link up. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

Library Loot: May 25th –31st

This last week I finished the following books:

	Finished A Secret Kept by Tatiana de Rosnay for May’s meeting of my book group, Books & Babble. I was unable to attend due to a music concert at my son’s school, but I wanted to make sure I finished the book. I hope to get time this weekend to complete my review.
	I started Night Road by Kristin Hannah and am almost finished with it. I am listening to the audiobook so I think I will get it finished tomorrow while I am planting my garden. I love audio books! Listening to an enjoyable book sure makes chores more enjoyable!

  
My Library Loot for this week:

	I read a blog post about Island of Lost Girls by Jennifer McMahon at Bloggin’ ‘bout Books and had to reserve a copy to read! I am really looking forward to reading it! From Goodreads:  While parked at a gas station, Rhonda sees something so incongruously surreal that at first she hardly recognizes it as a crime in progress. She watches, unmoving, as someone dressed in a rabbit costume kidnaps a young girl. Devastated over having done nothing, Rhonda joins the investigation. But the closer she comes to identifying the abductor, the nearer she gets to the troubling truth about another missing child: her best friend, Lizzy, who vanished years before. From the author of the acclaimed Promise Not to Tell comes a chilling and mesmerizing tale of shattered innocence, guilt, and ultimate redemption.
	I discovered Lipstick in Afghanistan by Roberts Gatley while browse new titles at our library.  Looked interesting to me. From Goodreads:  Roberta Gately’s lyrical and authentic debut novel—inspired by her own experiences as a nurse in third world war zones—is one woman’s moving story of offering help and finding hope in the last place she expected. Gripped by haunting magazine images of starving refugees, Elsa has dreamed of becoming a nurse since she was a teenager. Of leaving her humble working-class Boston neighborhood to help people whose lives are far more difficult than her own. No one in her family has ever escaped poverty, but Elsa has a secret weapon: a tube of lipstick she found in her older sister’s bureau. Wearing it never fails to raise her spirits and cement her determination. With lipstick on, she can do anything—even travel alone to war-torn Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11. But violent nights as an ER nurse in South Boston could not prepare Elsa for the devastation she witnesses at the small medical clinic she runs in Bamiyan. As she struggles to prove herself to the Afghan doctors and local villagers, she begins a forbidden romance with her only confidant, a charming Special Forces soldier. Then, a tube of lipstick she finds in the aftermath of a tragic bus bombing leads her to another life-changing friendship. In her neighbor Parween, Elsa finds a kindred spirit, fiery and generous. Together, the two women risk their lives to save friends and family from the worst excesses of the Taliban. But when the war waging around them threatens their own survival, Elsa discovers her only hope is to unveil the warrior within. Roberta Gately’s raw, intimate novel is an unforgettable tribute to the power of friendship and a poignant reminder of the tragic cost of war.
	The Cross Gardner by Jason F Wright is the June selection for my book group, Wine, Women and Words.  We have previously read The Wednesday Letters also by this author.  I hope we enjoy this one as well.  From Goodreads:  Married and the father of a young daughter, John Bevan had finally found the traditional family he lacked as an orphaned child. But all that disappears when a fatal car accident steals away his wife-and the unborn child she carried. Filled with sorrow, John withdraws from life and love. He erects a small cross at the scene of his wife's accident and visits daily, grieving. Then one morning he encounters a young man kneeling before the cross, touching it up with white paint. John's conversations and travels with this mysterious man-known to him only as the Cross Gardener-will forever change his world. From Jason F. Wright comes a timeless tale that explores the questions we ask when our lives are touched by loss: How do we carry on? And who will show us the way? The answers John Bevan finds illuminate the hope that even in our darkest hours we are not alone.
	The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond.   The Pioneer Woman has been a part of our family conversations for years!  I have been a long time follower of her blog, long before she started writing books.  If I tell the family supper is a Pioneer Woman recipe, that are always excited.  We love her chicken strips and Marlboro Man Sandwich to name a few.   I can’t wait to dig into this book!!!  I started it already and it feels like listening to with an old friend tell you a story.  From Goodreads: I'll never forget that night. It was like a romance novel, an old Broadway musical, and a John Wayne western rolled into one. Out for a quick drink with friends, I wasn't looking to meet anyone, let alone a tall, rugged cowboy who lived on a cattle ranch miles away from my cultured, corporate hometown. But before I knew it, I'd been struck with a lightning bolt . . . and I was completely powerless to stop it. Read along as I recount the rip-roaring details of my unlikely romance with a chaps-wearing cowboy, from the early days of our courtship (complete with cows, horses, prairie fire, and passion) all the way through the first year of our marriage, which would be filled with more challenge and strife—and manure—than I ever could have expected. This isn't just my love story; it's a universal tale of passion, romance, and all-encompassing love that sweeps us off our feet. It's the story of a cowboy. And Wranglers. And chaps. And the girl who fell in love with them.

I hope everyone is enjoying a wonderful holiday weekend.  We finally have some nice days here in Minnesota.  The rain and severe weather have been limited so far this weekend. 

On May 22nd, a tornado touched down in our sister city, Minneapolis, MN.  Luckily, over in White Bear Lake we only had some rain and wind, but we did heed the warnings/sirens and headed to the basement.   The damage in Minnesota is nothing compare to Joplin, Missouri.  Our hearts go out to the victims of the tornado in Joplin.  It is a reminder to us in the Midwest to not take severe weather lightly.  

Saturday after our trip to the library my brother and his family came to visit before catching a flight to Florida.  Today, we had good intentions of getting the garden planted, but looks like we will be doing that tomorrow.  I am very thankful for the extra day off this weekend.   I always have more to do than the weekend allows.  I should be able to listen to a lot of my audio book tomorrow while planting our garden. 

Maybe I will even get caught up on book reviews…..

Happy Reading!

 

It’s Monday! What are you reading?? 5/23/11

It’s Monday! What Are you Reading? is hosted by Shelia of Book Journey.  It is a chance to share what you have read and what you plan on reading in the upcoming week. I enjoy seeing everyone’s reading plans for the week. I always find some new titles that I just *had to add to my ever growing TBR list.

Last week looked like this for me:

Finished the Book:  “The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet” by Jamie Ford – 3/5 (audio format).  

Started the book:    “Secret Kept” by Tatiana de Rosnay. (audio format)

I am doing better in my Physical Therapy/Rehab program and am now able to sit at the computer to type for a little bit  without neck pain.  May continues to be very busy and rainy here in Minnesota.  

Posted Reviews for the following books:

None posted, but need to complete my review of “Sing you Home” by Jodi Picoult and “The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet” by Jamie Ford. 

Participated in the following blog events:

• Library Loot – hosted by Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader.
• Book Blogger Hop – hosted by Jennifer at Crazy for Books.

My Plans for this week:

	Start and hopefully finish reading “A Secret Kept” by Tatiana de Rosnay. (currently on page 86 of 303 – library due date: 6/4/11)
	Start reading “Lost Boy” by Brent W. Jeffs I don’t remember where I read about this book, but it is about a young man who was forced out of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a polygamous sect. Every since reading, “Nineteenth Wife”, I am interested in reading about LDS. (Library due date: 6/11/11)
Next Up??	Book Group Selections for June include the following:
	The Cross Gardner by Jason F. Wright (Book Group Selection  – June 13th)
	Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (Book Group Selection  – June 23rd)

These are my reading plans for the week. What are you reading plans for the week??? Join in with Shelia at Book Journey and share your reading plans for the week!!

Wishing you all a very productive week!

Happy Reading!!

Book Blogger Hop: May 22nd

Friday’s Book Blogger Hop is hosted by Jennifer at Crazy-For-Books. It is a weekend long event giving bloggers a chance to discover other book bloggers!   Every week there is a new question posted……this weeks question is…..

"If you were given the chance to spend one day in a fictional world (from a book), which book would it be from and what would that place be?"

This is a very hard question to answer for my first time participating in the Book Blogger Hop.  One of the first books I remember reading and thinking to myself, I want to go there some day was “Shell Seekers” by Rosamunde Pilcher.  I dream of going to the beautiful beaches of Cornwall and the English countryside.  I read this book as a teenage and still to this day can remember how much I wanted to visit there, though I barely remember the storyline of the book. 

Happy Reading!!

LIBRARY LOOT: May 21, 2011

 

The Adventures of a Intrepid Reader and Claire from The Captive Reader. This weekly event encourages bloggers to share the books they have checked out from the library. I always find many new books to add to my reserve list!  If you’d like to participate, just write up your post and link up. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

Library Loot: May 18th –24th

This last week I finished the following books:

	The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford – 3/5
My Library Loot for this week:

As you can see I restrained myself greatly at the library.  I am trying to implement a new system for tracking the books I want to read and selecting the next book.  I read an interesting post on Shelia’s blog, Book Journey about this and have new ideas to organize my reading.   I will share about it in a future blog post. 

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.  Our weekend started off very rainy so we did not go to the Medtronic Kids Marathon our son runs in each year.  It was rainy all morning ,but now the sun has come out just in time for us to go over to our nephew’s to celebrate his birthday with him.

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend.

Happy Reading!

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

It’s Monday! What Are you Reading? is hosted by Shelia of Book Journey.  (Yes, I know it is Tuesday!) It is a chance to share what you have read and what you plan on reading in the upcoming week. I enjoy seeing what everyone’s reading plans for the week. I always find some titles that I just *had to add to my ever growing TBR list.

Last week looked like this for me:

I had a very unproductive week in regards to reading.   I did not finish reading any books.   I am about 1/2 way through the audiobook “The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet”.  I started a new Physical Therapy/Rehab program that is taking up some of my time.   My headaches related to my neck and back injury have gotten worse so that discourages me from reading.   Also, the month of May is very busy with lots of events as the end of the school year approaches for our son. 

Posted Reviews for the following books: 

None posted, but need to complete my review of “Sing you Home” by Jodi Picoult. 

Participated in the following blog events:

• Beyond Words – a new weekly feature on Reading in WBL
• Library Loot – hosted this week by Claire from The Captive Reader

My Plans This Week:   Get some reading done!!!

	I am going to finish listening to “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet” by Jamie Ford.
	Start and hopefully finish reading “A Secret Kept” by Tatiana de Rosnay.
Next Up??	Book Group Selections for June include the following:
	Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
	The Cross Gardner by Jason F. Wright

These are my reading plans for the week.  What are you reading plans for the week???  Join in with Shelia at Book Journey and share your reading plans for the week!!

Wishing you all a very productive week!

Happy Reading!!

LIBRARY LOOT: May 14th, 2011

The Adventures of a Intrepid Reader and Claire from The Captive Reader. This weekly event encourages bloggers to share the books they have checked out from the library. I always find many new books to add to my reserve list!  If you’d like to participate, just write up your post and link up. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

Library Loot: May 11th –17th

This last week I finished the following books:

NOTHING!!! I am struggling to find time to read. May is very busy with commitments at Tommy’s school and getting ready for summer. Hopefully, June will be less busy for us so I can find more time to read!    I am currently listening to “the Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford.   I am about 1/2 done with this audiobook, so should complete it this week.

My Library Loot for this week:

Fictional Finds……

   

I am reading “A Secret Kept” as my book group selection for the month of May.   “Lost Boy”, I don’t remember where I read about it, but it is about a young man who was forced out of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a polygamous sect.   Every since reading, “Nineteenth Wife”, I am interested in reading about LDS.  I can’t remember how “The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet” found it’s way on to my reserve list, but it did!   I am always pleasantly surprised when I pick up my reserves at the library each week!

Much Needed Information………….

 

I have been struggling greatly with neck and back pain from a car accident 7 years ago.   Hoping to find some insight by reading to explore options for pain relief.  

Starting my 2nd week in a Physical Therapy/Rehab program.

This weekend I actually was able to go to the library with hubby and my little guy.   I feels great to get back into our normal routine.  I hope we can stick with it again for a while. 

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  

                                         Happy Reading!!

Beyond Words: May 11th, 2011

Beyond Words

Beyond Words is a weekly feature at Reading in White Bear Lake, in which readers share the unfamiliar words they have encountered in their reading over the past week. This is a great way to build your vocabulary from what you are reading as well as from what others are reading.

Remember…..you are never to old to learn!! I love learning and reading, what better combination could there be.

The gift of using words best comes from knowing words
as intimately as you know your own family.
-Lloyd Edwin Smith-

New words to me this week:
Epaulets – (noun) : an ornamental strip or loop sewn across the shoulder of a dress or coat Listen to the audio pronunciation.
page 70, Purge by Sofi Oksanen
“In the car, Pasha ad taken off his shirt and lifted his shoulders like he was adjusting his tattooed epaulets.”

Kefir– (noun) : a beverage of fermented cow's milk
Listen to the audio pronunciation.
page 78, Purge by Sofi Oksanen
“She washed her hands thoroughly and started to change the milk in the kefir, tried to act natural, picked up the can from the floor,opened the lid, strained the liquid into the cup,and rinsed off the culture, trying again with wild boars, stray dogs and cats, although even she thought her explanations sounded stupid.”

I love being a part of this and I hope you will too! If you’d like to participate, just write up your post and link up. I hope you will participate!

Happy Reading!

It’s Monday! What are you reading? - May 9th, 2011

“It’s Monday! What Are you Reading? is hosted by Shelia of Book Journey.  It is a chance to share what you have read and what you plan on reading in the upcoming week.  I enjoy seeing what everyone’s reading plans for the week.  I always find some titles that I just *had to add to my TBR list. 

Last week looked like this for me:

Finished the book: Sing you Home by Jodi Picoult – really enjoyed this audiobook – 4/5

Posted Reviews for the following books:

• Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman
• Whistling in the Dark by Lesley Kagen

Participated in the following blog events:

• Beyond Words – a new weekly feature on Reading in WBL – I would greatly appreciate your support and participation to get this meme rolling. 
• Library Loot – hosted by Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader.

My Plans for this week:

Old Aliide Truu lives alone in a cottage in the woods, pestered by flies she wishes would leave her in peace. Her isolation is interrupted when she spies a young woman under a tree in her garden. The girl is strange; arriving in the dead of night, bruised, dirty and shoeless - why is she at Aliide's door? Overcome by curiosity the old woman decides, warily, to take her in. Zara is on the run from men who tortured, raped, and sold her into slavery. Her only possession is a tattered photograph of her grandmother and another woman; in which Aliide recognizes herself and her sister. Horrified, she begins to realize that the past she has long tried to forget has finally caught up with her - Purge is a hauntingly intimate portrait of one family's shame against a backdrop of European war. (from Goodreads.com )

Library Reserve - discovered on some book blog.  - started this book, but am only on page 67 of 388

Ford's strained debut concerns Henry Lee, a Chinese-American in Seattle who, in 1986, has just lost his wife to cancer. After Henry hears that the belongings of Japanese immigrants interned during WWII have been found in the basement of the Panama Hotel, the narrative shuttles between 1986 and the 1940s in a predictable story that chronicles the losses of old age and the bewilderment of youth. Henry recalls the difficulties of life in America during WWII, when he and his Japanese-American school friend, Keiko, wandered through wartime Seattle. Keiko and her family are later interned in a camp, and Henry, horrified by America's anti-Japanese hysteria, is further conflicted because of his Chinese father's anti-Japanese sentiment. Henry's adult life in 1986 is rather mechanically rendered, and Ford clumsily contrasts Henry's difficulty in communicating with his college-age son, Marty, with Henry's own alienation from his father, who was determined to Americanize him. (from Amazon.com)

Book Club Selections for May – need to have read by Thursday – very glad book group was rescheduled as I have barely started this audiobook.  I was really enjoying listening to Sing You Home and just had to finish it before starting this one!

Those are my reading plans for the week. What are your reading plans???? Join in with Shelia at Book Journey and share what you reading plans are for the week!

Happy Reading!!