Delicious Reads Best Books from 2014: Golden Book Award Nominees

We are pleased to announce the formation of the Delicious Reads Golden Book Award!

We've polled our Delicious Reads members and asked all of our fans what their favorite book was from 2014.

And the NOMINEES for the Delicious Reads Golden Book Award are . . .

Guest Blogger: Carissa Miss and FREE PRINTABLE!

Delicious Reads Readers! Hi! So happy to be guest posting sharing some of what I'm looking forward to for 2015. I blog at Carissa Miss where I share how to get great design without spending a lot of money. You'll get great sewing/painting/design tips and tutorials as well as some fun free printables.

DIY Holiday Craft Ideas Using Books

(Photo by Kellie)

I love Books! So I love to see pages and books reused into beautiful creations. What a wonderful time of year to be creative and make decorations to use during the holidays with fun creations we make from books.

We had our annual Christmas Book Club and I thought I would try a few things this year to give to the members of our book club who moderated each month. So I decided upon a Christmas Ornament and a Garland. At the end of the night I gave these things I made to the wonderful and talented women who helped out so much this year to make the year so fun. There is a picture of one of the ornaments I made in the picture above and the garland pictured below.

(Photo by Kellie)

The Ornament Tutorial

Step 1: Buy Supplies

First I bought some plastic ornaments from Hobby Lobby (and I went with plastic because I thought that way I won't have to worry about them breaking). I decided to get the larger globes and they looked like this:

Here are the supplies you will need: ribbon (which I buy at Costco because it's such a great deal and you can choose from so many beautiful selections they have), Jumbo Glitter, Green crafting wire and double sided tape, also you need a little bit of fishing line which I found in my garage.

(Photo by Kellie)

 Step 2: The Picture

You can put anything inside these ornaments if you can get them through the tiny hole. I wanted to highlight the books we read each month but you could also put your favorite book you read this year etc. I printed two copies of each book about the size of 3" x 2" to fit nicely inside the globe without it feeling like it didn't fit right. I wanted it to loosely fit inside so that it could move freely and spin if needed. I printed these out and cut them and then used the double sided tape to match them up exactly. Before I put them together I cut a 5 inch piece of fishing line to hang the picture inside the globe without seeing the line that it is attached to. I put the fishing line in between the two pictures then sealed them together with the tape. I was able to fit two books on one 4x6 picture as you can see in the picture.

Step 3: Assemble

1. Next you want to put the glitter in the globe. I poured a generous amount that sits at the bottom. I didn't do this but if you want to try spraying glue inside the globe the glitter will stick to the inside and stay on the sides of the ornament. I didn't think of this till it was too late but doing it again I would most likely do that.

2. Next you will want to quickly roll the picture as loosely as possible to fit inside the globe. When it is inside and you have the fishing line to hold on to it use your finger to straighten out the picture to lay as flat as possible.

3. Then put the top back on and tape the fishing line to the top so that the picture is at a good position inside the ornament and doesn't fall down.

4. Now I cut a piece of the green crafting wire about 6 inches enough to hook it onto my tree later and looped it through the silver circle on the top.

5. Finally, I cut a long length of ribbon to tie a bow on the top of the ornament, then I cut the ends to look the same.





(Photo by Kellie)


The Books Garland Tutorial

Step 1: Get Your Supplies

You don't need too many things to put this together just an old book, rubber cement, a glue stick, gold jumbo glitter, hemp chord, baby wooden clothes clips, ribbon, cardstock paper and a paper cutter.



(Photo by Kellie)

Step 2: Assemble

1. I cut the cardstock in half so that I had two papers 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches.

2. Now I cut pages out of the used book I had. I just used scissors to score the edge as close to the binding as I could get. I used 4 pages for every piece of cardstock I had cut out.

3. I folded the pages at angles to cover the paper. Then I took the rubber cement and glued each one down until it was fully covered. On the back of the paper I glued one whole sheet so that it looked clean and nice.

4. Next I used the glue stick to go along the edges of the front of the glued down pages. Then I sprinkled the jumbo gold glitter on the edges. See below.



(Photo by Kellie)

(Photo by Kellie)

5. Next I rubber cemented the picture of the book on the front of the paper.

(Photo by Kellie)

(Photo by Kellie)

6. Then I strung up the length of hemp chord that I wanted and used the baby wooden clothes pins to clip them on the chord. Lastly I put bows of ribbons on the ends of the garland.

(Photo by Kellie)

These are some DIYs I found on Pinterest.

Follow Kellie's board DIY Holiday Ideas with Books on Pinterest.

Good Luck with your DIY but you won't need it. It's easy.

xoxo, 

Kellie

"Walt Disney: An American Original" Part III Book Review {by Bob Thomas}

TITLE OF THE BOOK: Walt Disney: An American Original
AUTHOR: Bob Thomas
PUBLISHER: Disney Editions
NUMBER OF PAGES: 384
YEAR PUBLISHED: 1994
GENRE: Biography





BOOK SUMMARY: A biography of the American legend, Walt Disney, chronicling the failures, successes, relationships and experiences that shaped this fascinating man.

Star Review: 3.7 /5 Stars

Angie, who moderated this book club meeting, came up with a fun way to discuss this book. She divided up the group into 4 groups, by giving each book club member a pair of "Mickey ear" clips themed to a certain land in Disneyland - Adventureland, Fantasyland, Frontierland, or Tomorrowland.

Each group was given a time period of Walt's life, and were asked to come up with some discussion questions/topics for the whole group to discuss. Then we all got back together and went through the questions.

Photo Source

The first group was given the time period of Walt's childhood and earlier years. One thing that we discussed
was his relationship with his father, Elias Disney. His father was a very strict and stern man, who made his children work very hard, and did not shy away from corporal punishment. Was he abusive, or is part of our perception of him due to generational differences? What impact did his father have on how Walt would deal with things later in his life? They both had to deal with a large amount of failures, but they did so in different ways.



The second group was given "the war years" - what happened to Walt and his studio during WWII. In 1941 Walt received a call telling him that 500 army soldiers would be moving into his new studio building, and that they needed to remove the film equipment to make room to install gear for repairing trucks and anti-aircraft guns. They stored ammunition in the employee parking sheds. About 1/3 of Walt's artists were drafted into the war. The studio made many instructional cartoons for the government, as well as designing more than 1,400 military insignia.  The studio lost a lot of money on the government work that they did, and got even deeper into debt. The interesting thing to discuss was Walt's attitude toward all of this. He is quoted as saying "I had to do it. Those kids grew up on Mickey Mouse. I owed it to 'em." He had a surprisingly good attitude toward it, and wanted to do his part to help the country.

Photo Source

The third group was given Walt's adult years. We had an interesting discussion on the relationship between Walt and his brother Roy. They were very different - Walt was the creative dreamer, and Roy was often the one who dealt with the practical issues, and helped keep the company running. They often had disagreements about things, but were also quick to forgive, which is something we really admired about them. Some members said they wished that the book had been able to include more about Walt's family life.


The last group was given the topic of Walt's legacy. We discussed what we thought Walt would think of the company now - including the Disney Channel, the theme parks, cost of food at the parks, the direction of the animation department, Pixar, commercialization, straight to video sequels, etc. Of course it is a mixed bag, but we did think he would love the attention to detail and storytelling that Pixar brought back into the movies. We also went around the room, and everyone shared their favorite Disney movie, and told of a way that Disney impacted their childhood or adult life. It was really fun to hear about funny childhood memories, Disney park engagements, and to realize what a large impact Walt Disney has had on us all.

Photo Source

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
We were sad to learn that Bob Thomas died very recently, just in March of this year. He was an American Hollywood film industry reporter and biographer. He covered a record 66 Oscar ceremonies as a reporter, and interviewed many of the industry's biggest stars. He was the author of nearly 3 dozen books, including biographies of Walt Disney, Abbott and Costello, Marilyn Monroe, Katharine Hepburn, Joan Crawford, Marlon Brando and Liberace, among others.

Photo Source

*CONTENT CATEGORIES*
LANGUAGE/PROFANITY: Mild
SEXUALITY: N/A
VIOLENCE: N/A
DRUG/ALCOHOL USE: Mild

This review was written by Jenny

Spread the Reading Love: WORLD BOOK NIGHT is Tonight!

World Book Night. Hmmmmmm.

That's like a night where books rain from the sky and all us BOOK LOVERS get together and try to catch as many as our arms will carry. Right??

While I would love for the above statement to be true, that is not quite what UNESCO meant when they dubbed April 23rd as the international day of the book (I'll save you the time of a Google search, UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization). Though it started in the UK and Ireland in 2011, the US came up to speed in 2012 and now World Book Night US has made its presence here!

World Book Night is an annual celebration dedicated to spreading the love of reading, person to person. Each year on April 23--Shakespeare's birthday--tens of thousands of people in the U.S. go out into their communities and give a total of half of a million FREE World Book Night paperbacks to light and non-readers. So basically, World Book Night has the same mission as Delicious Reads: to get everyone to love reading as much as we do! Local volunteers take books to prisons, nursing homes and alternative high schools, among other places.


The King's English Bookshop, is an official pick up location for Book Givers.

How can you get involved? If you live in Utah, you can participate by joining volunteers at the SLC Main Library at 210 E. 400 S. at 10 am on April 23rd. Check online for events throughout all the U.S. You can also plan on getting involved by signing up for the official organization's newsletter and becoming an official Book Giver next year.

Involvement doesn't stop there! An independent panel of librarians and booksellers chose the titles of the books given away for 2014 (shown below). Support the authors who wave their royalty payments and the publishers who donate these special paper back copies made just for World Book Night.

One of the titles chosen for this year, Bridge to Terabithia, was one of the first books that made me love reading. I still remember how Mrs. Deerfield read that book to us in 5th grade, making even some of the boys cry. Check out the complete list of titles to see what books you can add to your reading list for 2014.

In our own backyard, The Salt Lake City Police Department (SLPD), Salt Lake Fire Department, mayor's office and SLC Library, along with The King's English and Sam Weller Book Works have helped get this event off the ground in Utah.

Betsy Burton, owner of The King's English and big supporter of World Book Night, said, "When you can get people who don't have easy access to books reading those books and having conversations about them, then you're really changing the world."

Let's change the world together!

Your Delicious Reads Contributor,

Robin

2014 Book Sign Ups!

 

 Y'all better be mentally present today because it's time for 2014 book club sign ups to begin!
(Cue fireworks, jazz band and full chorus line)
 

I'm going to have a little book club cheerleading moment right now and tell you all to get involved and help make Delicious Reads the best it's ever been in 2014!  Expand your comfort zones, stretch your limits, try something new (you get the point) and sign up to MODERATE &  BLOG for our 2014 book club books!
"Gooooooooo book club!"

Don't be shy!

 

 

3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

1. SIGNING UP: Leave a comment on this post letting me know which book(s) you would like to moderate and/or blog for (please specify.) I'll be updating this post with everyone's requests as I log in periodically through out the day. 

     2. REMEMBER: Please remember to check your calendars before you sign up for a specific month. Think about school, holidays, vacations etc. as your deciding which month to sign up for, to make sure you can commit to the evening of that book club. Obviously you can't know your entire schedule a year in advance and I don't expect you to and that's why are member's are so great about helping to fill in or switch when needed!

 

     3. HOSTESS OPTIONS: When you sign up to moderate a book, you can choose to either:

A.) Host the discussion at my house as usual

OR

B.) You can host the discussion in your home or location of your choice.

*Please specify in your comments where you would like to host the meeting.
**It was very helpful this year to have a few months off of hosting but you know I love having y'all!

 



 Take a break from that good book your reading and let's do this!

 

 

 

January: "The Monuments Men"             

(Meet on Feb. 4th to discuss)

 

Moderator: Brittanie B.

Blogger: Jenny G.

February: "The Snow Child"             

(Meet on March 4th to discuss)

 

Moderator: Jenny G.

Blogger: Lisa T.





March: "Carter Beats the Devil"             

(Meet on April 1st to discuss)

 

Moderator: Kitch J.

Blogger: Summer B.

April: "Walt Disney: An American Original" 

(Meet on May 6th to discuss)

 

Moderator: Angie T.

Blogger: Jenny G.

May: "The Husband's Secret"             

(Meet on June 3rd to discuss)

 

Moderator: Kellie H. (at her house)

Blogger: Karen R.

June: "The Goldfinch"             

(Meet on July 1st to discuss)

 

Moderator: Brooke H.

Blogger: Elizabeth W.

July: "The Golem and the Jinni"             

(Meet on Aug. 5th to discuss)

 

Moderator: Robin K. (at her house)

Blogger: Shalease B.

August: "Ruin and Rising" (Releases in June) 

(Meet on Sep. 2nd to discuss)

 

Moderator: Jen C. (at her house)

Blogger: Robin K.

September: "The Haunting of Hill House"             

(Meet on Oct 7th to discuss)

 

Moderator: Bethany M.

Blogger: Angie T.



 

October: "Black Moon"             

(Meet on Nov. 7th to discuss)

 

Moderator: Kelly D.

Blogger: Brooke H.

November: "The Shadow on the Crown"             

(Meet on Dec 2nd to discuss)

 

Moderator: Brooke H. (at Kellie T's house)

Blogger: Brittanie B.

December: "The Eye of Minds"             

(Meet on Jan. 6th, 2015 to discuss)

 

Moderator: Shalease B.

Blogger: Robin K.