It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

 
It's Monday! What are you reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. For this meme, bloggers post what they finished last week, what they're currently reading, and what they plan to start this week. 
You might also like to check out my  Friday Finds highlighting new reads I discovered during last week that got added to my TBR (to be read) list over at Goodreads. 

I also posted about the Irish Book Awards shortlist and 2012 Book Pilgrimage a challenge is to read a book, or books, and then visit (make a pilgrimage!) to either the location where the book is set or to the author's home (or grave). 

I also bought a bunch of books for our vacation which I will post this Friday.

FINISHED THIS WEEK:
Nothing!! It's been a busy week with other stuff getting in the way!

Still reading:

Synopsis here.

2012 books read (33 to date):
The Coast Road - John Brady
Still Midnight - Denise Mina
The Bulgari Connection - Fay Weldon
Good Bait - John Harvey
The Heretic's Treasure - Scott Mariani
Dead I Well May Be - Adrian McKinty
The Devil's Elixir - Raymond Khoury
A Darker Domain - Val McDermid
The Impossible Dead - Ian Rankin
GB84 - David Peace
The Emperor's Tomb - Steve Berry
Stonehenge Legacy - Sam Christer
Inquisition - Alfredo Colitto ABANDONED!
The Troubled Man - Henning Mankell
Nineteen Seventy-Four - David Peace
Faithful Place - Tana French
Dead Like You - Peter James
Brother and Sister - Joanna Trollope
The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton ABANDONED!
A Beginner's Guide to Acting English -Shappi Khorsandi
The Snowman - Jo Nesbo
The Leopard - Jo Nesbo
The Stone Cutter - Camilla Lackberg
Miramar - Naguib Mahfouz
The Gallow's Bird - Camilla Lackberg
Nineteen Seventy- Seven - David Peace
Timeline - Michael Crichton
Millennium People - JG Ballard
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins 
Birdman - Mo Hayder
Clara Callan - Richard B. Wright

Flat Stanley

I had never heard of Flat Stanley (but then I don't have kids in elementary school!) until I was reading Cat Patches post Flat Stanley. BTW when you pop over there be sure to vote for her quilt.
As Cat Patches says Zachary, who claims to be a co-worker over at I Have a Notion, has requested help with a reading homework assignment. He's asked us to print out a picture of his friend, Flat Stanley, and take him some place interesting near by. Then we're supposed to take a picture of Flat Stanley and email it back to Zachary's mom along with a little narrative about Flat Stanley's travels. If you want to help Zachary out, you have until May 15th to do so.
After reading all this I had to google Flat Stanley and lo and behold he has his own website!
The site states "The basic principle of The Flat Stanley Project is to connect your child, student or classroom with other children or classrooms participating in the Project by sending out "flat" visitors, created by the children, through the mail (or digitally, with The Flat Stanley app). Kids then talk about, track, and write about their flat character's journey and adventures. Although similar to a pen-pal activity, Flat Stanley is actually much more enriching-students don't have to wonder where to begin or what to write about. The sender and the recipient already have a mutual friend, Flat Stanley. Writing and learning becomes easier, flows naturally, and tends to be more creative. This is what teachers call an "authentic" literacy project, in that kids are inspired to write of their own passion and excitement about the project, and given the freedom to write about many things through the rubric of the Flat Stanley character."

So I have printed Flat Stanley and he will be coming on our trip to Copenhagen and then on our Danube river cruise.

Macro Monday

Macro Monday is hosted by Lisa at Lisa's Chaos. I'm also posting today over at A Creative Harbor's blog hop.

Taken in Italy but I'm not sure where.

Mellow Yellow Monday

I'm posting over here today.

Taken in Manhattan last summer. Lots of yellow in this photo.

Blue Monday

I'm linking up at Blue Monday today.

This is a Noah's Ark my DH built as a request for a friend.

Irish Book Awards Shortlist 2012

The Irish Publishing News recently announced the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards Shortlist.

The Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year
Solace by Belinda McKeon (Picador)
On Canaan’s Side by Sebastian Barry (Faber) -a favourite writer of mine
The Cold Eye of Heaven by Christine Dwyer Hickey (Atlantic)
City of Bohane by Kevin Barry (Random House) - I just bought it
The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright (Random House) - read it, didn't care for it
Mistaken by Neil Jordan (John Murray)

RTÉ Radio 1’s The John Murray Show Listeners’ Choice Award:
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Corsair)
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt (Granta)
How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran (Ebury)
How the Light Gets in by Mary McEvoy (Hachette Ireland)
The Club by Christy O’Connor (Penguin Ireland)
My Dad was Nearly James Bond by Des Bishop (Penguin Ireland)

The Ireland AM Irish Crime Fiction Book of the Year:
A Death in Summer by Benjamin Black (Mantle)
The Bloody Meadow by William Ryan (Mantle)
Bloodland by Alan Glynn (Faber) -loved it
The Reckoning by Jane Casey (Ebury)
Taboo by Casey Hill (Simon & Schuster)
Absolute Zero Cool by Declan Burke (Liberties Press) - he has a great blog

Eason Irish Popular Fiction Book of the Year:

The Time of my Life by Cecilia Ahern (HarperCollins)
All For You by Sheila O’Flanagan (Headline) -a guilty favourite author of mine
Me and My Sisters by Sinead Moriarty (Penguin Ireland) -added to my TBR list
Love and Marriage by Patricia Scanlan (Transworld Ireland) - definitely on my TBR list
NAMA Mia! by Ross O’Carroll Kelly (Penguin Ireland)
The Pink Ladies Club by Emma Hannigan (Poolbeg Press)

All photography on this post at Junk Boat Travels are under copyright. If you would like to use any of my photographs please contact me first. 

Saturday Snapshot

Saturday Snapshots is hosted by Alyce at At Home With Books.
Irazú Volcano National Park in Costa Rica.
ara—peak of tzu—thunder

Costa Rica

The last time Volcán Irazú awoke was in the first half of the 1960's, when, for four years it showered the residents of Cartago and San José with ash, clogged the air with smoke, and sent glowing boulders rolling down its sides.

 The fog quickly rolled in quickly the day we visited.

All photography on Junk Boat Travels are under copyright. If you would like to use any of my photographs please contact me first. 

Pink Saturday

I'm linking up over here today. I bought these tulips for myself!

2012 Book Pilgrimage

This pilgrimage came just in time for our Danube River Cruise we are taking in May, and we have added a couple of days in Copenhagen because we meet the cruise in Budapest.
Libby's Book Blogis hosting this book pilgrimage challenge. Basically, the challenge is to read a book, or books, and then visit (make a pilgrimage!) to either the location where the book is set or to the author's home (or grave). Then, blog about the book and the book pilgrimage! There is a Mr. Linky at her site.


To help find a book set in a place you are going to visit there is a site called Biblio Travel. I didn't find it that helpful, but you might.

Libby found a book for me when we were "talking" about this challenge. It is The Danube Pilot.


I went searching for some more contemporary books and found these. I am already familiar with Steve Berry's books which feature his character, Cotton Malone who makes his home in Copenhagen.
I have listed the books in order of the cities we will be visiting. Even if I don't read all of these it was an interesting exercise researching books set in these cities.

COPENHAGEN

Synopsis here.


Synopsis here.

BUDAPEST

Based on the terrible reviews I am going to give this one a miss.


No, I didn't mean to put this under Prague. Despite its title this book is entirely set in Budapest.




BRATSLAVA SLOVAKIA

Synopsis here.

VIENNA AUSTRIA

Synopsis here.


Synopsis here. Another author I am familiar with.

SALZBURG
I haven't really found any, The Sound of Music is the first thing that comes to mind when you mention this town.

This sounds intriguing, however, it hasn't been translated into English as yet.

PASSAU GERMANY

Synopsis here.

REGENSBURG
the only two books I found were a World War II history of an invasion on the town and one written on  Pope Benedict XVI's September 12, 2006, University of Regensburg lecture. Neither of these interest me.

NUREMBERG

This is a play set in Nuremberg.

PRAGUE CZECHOSLOVAKIA

Synopsis here. This as been added to my TBR list on Goodreads.


Synopsis here.


Synopsis here.

Friday Finds - Books

WHAT GREAT BOOKS DID YOU HEAR ABOUT/DISCOVER THIS PAST WEEK? SHARE WITH US YOUR FRIDAY FINDS HOSTED BY MIZB OVER AT SHOULD BE READING.


Found over at Kittling:Books blog. Synopsis here.


Found over at Kittling:Books blog. Synopsis here.

Friday Favorite Finds - Recipes

Please link up to a post containing your list of recipes to try -- do not link up individual recipes please, save those for other linkys.  Be sure to leave a link back here to Finding Joy in my Kitchen.

Chocolate chai mini-loaves

Bubble and squeak rosti

Irish dark and white bread pudding

Source

Floral Friday Fotos

I'm posting over here today!

Our pond

Skywatch Friday

 

I'm linking up over here today! 

Taken looking towards Mt. Baker in Washington

New Golf Blog

For those interested in golf please pop over and visit my husband's foray into the blogging world og golf, his passion in life (after me and the cat, of golf course!

Alphabe-Thursday

I'm linking up at Alphabe-Thursday today.

Today's letter is V. This was the view from our office before we moved to another venue. The crane is in the shape of a V (or a checkmark!). The visage and vibe of our city is ever-changing.