Harvest Full Moon

On September 13, 2019September 13, 2019 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn autumn, books and reading, family, family friendly, mom life, nature9 Comments

Tonight is the full harvest moon – and coincidentally, Friday the 13th!! OOoooooOOO…

The Harvest Moon is the moon that falls closest to the autumnal equinox which is coming up on the 23rd. This time, the moon is also a micromoon, meaning it will appear smaller in the sky, the opposite of a supermoon. So much happening in our skies right now! We are spending this harvest moon with my brother and his family, having a fire in the yard and eating cheesy corn chowder and apple bread made from the apples growing on our tree. The moon won’t rise in our area until after midnight, so it probably won’t be Friday the 13th anymore technically, and I kind of am ok with that.

I have been reading Harvest Moon books to Wyatt this week, in preparation for this moon that signifies harvest season and family. And because I am always curious and forever reading more on things, I also looked up books on superstitions for my own reading. Mine haven’t come in at the library yet, so I won’t get to read them until maybe next week, but I am looking forward to flipping through them.

These were all great reads, but our favorite is Possum’s Harvest Moon. This little possum just wants his friends to get together and celebrate before winter arrives, and meets with a little resistance at first! Eventually, all the friends have a great time together, hanging out at the Harvest Moon. Kind of like we are going to do with my brother and his family – although we will see him after winter arrives too. I am guessing though, historically, that for people in the “old days”, that once the snow fell you might not see your neighbors until spring, so maybe people back then had celebrations of their own, before snows kept them isolated.

I have to admit, the superstition of Friday the 13th does get to me… my family is very superstitious, I blame our Irish and Scottish ancestry! As I mentioned above, I went digging for some books on superstitions, as my curiosity usually does lead me to do. These were the few I found that looked really interesting!

We actually had the Encyclopedia of Superstitions in the library I used to work at, and the kids checked it out like crazy. I had to order a new one for the library eventually, it became so worn out. So, I figured that had to go on my list! I am sure I won’t read these cover to cover, all of them, but you never know I guess! What the Moon Said is a kids chapter book that drew my interest as well, it looks really interesting. They had me at Little House though…

How about you guys? Any plans for tonight? Any suggestions for a harvest moon play list?

A Few Mini-Reviews

On September 12, 2019September 12, 2019 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn book club, book review, books and reading4 Comments

It’s been a minute since I have posted any mini-reviews and I have been reading so many good mini reviews lately that I have decided to do a few of my own!

Stay Sexy and Don’t Get Murdered: I love this podcast and I was so excited to read this book, that I never even bothered to read what this book was about! I figured it was going to be more true crime, but it was more self-help than anything. I still really enjoyed it, and while I find Karen and Georgia fun on their podcast, it was nice to hear their voices describe their own lives and past mistakes and how they have moved on, without all the banter. Some good truths in this book! I found it so relatable, but maybe because I was a less than perfect teen and twenty year old, who made some crazy mistakes too. (If I’m being honest, I still do!)

Brazen: Rebel Ladies who Rocked the World: This book blew me away, honestly. I learned about women I had never heard of before, I read about women I had heard about, and it was all presented in graphic novel form. I picked it up on a whim, and loved the illustrations, the message, the facts. I even found some new role models! Amazing read, loved it and read it all in one afternoon! I plan on seeking out more of Bagieu’s work soon.

Leaving Time: Another one that really was amazing. This is my first Jodi Picoult book and if all of her writing is like this, no one wonder she is so loved. This was our book club pick for my neighborhood book club, and the woman who chose it told me she thought I would like it. And I did! Half of the book was about elephants, and if you are familiar with my blog, you will know that I love animals and learning about animals. And these elephants will break your heart; you will never look at an elephant the same way again. At it’s core this book is about loss and grief and mothers and healing, and is so beautifully written. And then the end, I just didn’t see it coming. Excellent book.

What Wyatt’s Reading – August

On August 20, 2019 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn book review, books and reading, mom life, Uncategorized13 Comments

We have been reading like crazy over here! I usually do this post at the end of the month or I try to, but we have been reading so much that I posted early. These are our favorites so far this month… some his, some mine lol.

I am Not a Skunk is a super adorable book about a cat that was mistaken for a skunk – when the family realized it really was a cat, they gave him a home! We were graciously gifted this book by author Ellen Pilch, and Wyatt loves it! The cat in the book looks so much like our Maggie cat!

We read two Mermaid books too – Wyatt loved the story of Pearl, a mermaid whose job it was to raise the moon, and I loved Tallulah, and her petoskey stone. (plus, we are Michiganders!)

I have read Over in a River over and over and over…this was a favorite of Wyatt’s. It had a great map of some of the rivers of the United States and the animals that call those rivers home. Really cool.

Leo Lionni, Kevin Henkes, and Eric Carle are perennial favorites, am I right? I totally love Henkes books and was so excited to share them with Wyatt when he was born. He loves them too, and he is also a fan of Lionni, an author I never really was super drawn to but now see the appeal, thanks to the kiddo. And Eric Carle is just so talented! I do have to say the illustration in this book of the grouchy ladybug saying “Go away” kind of makes me giggle, which is wrong, I know. Something about it though…lol.

Finally our pal Crinkleroot! I love these books to teach Wyatt about nature. This one is a little advanced for him but was a good place to start. And I learned from it too!

Have you read any of these?

Book Review: Relative Fortunes by Marlowe Benn

On August 10, 2019August 9, 2019 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn book review, books and reading, Uncategorized10 Comments

Publisher Summary:

In 1920s New York, the price of a woman’s independence can be exorbitant—even fatal.

In 1924 Manhattan, women’s suffrage is old news. For sophisticated booklover Julia Kydd, life’s too short for politics. With her cropped hair and penchant for independent living, Julia wants only to launch her own new private press. But as a woman, Julia must fight for what’s hers—including the inheritance her estranged half brother, Philip, has challenged, putting her aspirations in jeopardy.

When her friend’s sister, Naomi Rankin, dies suddenly of an apparent suicide, Julia is shocked at the wealthy family’s indifference toward the ardent suffragist’s death. Naomi chose poverty and hardship over a submissive marriage and a husband’s control of her money. Now, her death suggests the struggle was more than she could bear.

Julia, however, is skeptical. Doubtful of her suspicions, Philip proposes a glib wager: if Julia can prove Naomi was in fact murdered, he’ll drop his claims to her wealth. Julia soon discovers Naomi’s life was as turbulent and enigmatic as her death. And as she gets closer to the truth, Julia sees there’s much more at stake than her inheritance…

My Thoughts:

This book was the bee’s knees!! It checked a lot of boxes for me, and so much more. I love mysteries, and the 20s, but this book took those ideas to the next level. At first, it seems like a simple murder mystery, where a high society woman who happens to also be clever mixes in attempting to solve it. Julia however is much more than just a clever rich lady looking for a distraction. She is self-possessed, has a lover, independent, intelligent – and currently waiting for her 25th birthday when she can take control of her own inheritance and not depend on her older brother to dole an allowance out to her.

Julia becomes embroiled in the mystery of Naomi Rankin’s death through the admission of her friend Glennis, who is shocked by her sister Naomi’s sudden death, which appears as a suicide. Yet neither woman is buying that. Julia is pulled further into the mystery when Glennis invites her to a private family meeting about Naomi’s passing, and is shocked by how the family is more anxious to sweep it all under the rug without a second look. That family is a piece of work, and negotiating their family politics and relationships was a bit confusing – there were so many! All of them with different motives and personal agendas too, it seems…

As she and her friend dig deeper into what really happened that night to Naomi, Julia is also facing a few challenges herself, most importantly the fact that her brother Phillip has challenged the will, stating that he is entitled to the family fortune, which would leave Julia with nothing. She imagines her own dreams going up in smoke, of being an independent woman, and of continuing on with her own private press of books, Capriole. When Phillip proposes a wager regarding the cause of Naomi’s death, Julia doesn’t hesitate to accept.

Julia is led up and down and all around trying to solve this mystery, and her discoveries shed light on what life really was like for a woman in the 20s, where their financial freedom and sexual freedoms were not necessarily their own, as Julia herself comes to realize. We think of the Roaring Twenties as good times, jazz, dancing until dawn, and drinking, but we forget about the women fighting in the trenches for women’s rights. Sadly, even now, not every state has ratified the Equal Rights Amendment which is a proposed amendment that will guarantee equal rights to every citizen regardless of gender, in regards to divorce, property, employment, and other matters. Still to the day. Almost a hundred years later and the fight still continues. Benn’s novel does a wonderful job of marrying the mystery to the early days of the women’s right movement, and it fit the story perfectly.

I loved this book! I love even more that this book is listed as number one in the Julia Kydd series, meaning there will be more! I can’t wait to read more about Julia and where her journey will take her.

Thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: The Little Bookshop on the Seine

On August 8, 2019August 9, 2019 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn book review, books and reading, Uncategorized9 Comments

Publisher Summary:

It’s The Holiday on the Champs-ƒlysées in a great big love letter to Paris, charming old bookstores and happily-ever-afters!

When bookshop owner Sarah Smith is offered the opportunity for a job exchange with her Parisian friend Sophie, saying yes is a no-brainer—after all, what kind of romantic would turn down six months in Paris? Sarah is sure she’s in for the experience of a lifetime—days spent surrounded by literature in a gorgeous bookshop, and the chance to watch the snow fall on the Eiffel Tower. Plus, now she can meet up with her journalist boyfriend, Ridge, when his job takes him around the globe.

But her expectations cool faster than her café au lait soon after she lands in the City of Light—she’s a fish out of water in Paris. The customers are rude, her new coworkers suspicious and her relationship with Ridge has been reduced to a long-distance game of phone tag, leaving Sarah to wonder if he’ll ever put her first over his busy career. As Christmas approaches, Sarah is determined to get the shop—and her life—back in order…and make her dreams of a Parisian happily-ever-after come true.

My Thoughts:

A bookstore, Paris – what more can you ask for? When Sarah Smith gets the call from her friend asking to trade their bookstores for a while, she very much of out character replies yes. Sarah lives life safely, and quaintly, in her small town. She has a slower pace of life, friends that she loves, a bookstore that she adores, and a hot boyfriend to boot. But the siren’s call from the City of Love beckons even to her, and she thinks the opportunity is a dream come true. And best of all, her boyfriend can join her there, as his job as a journalist takes him all over the world . The idea of spending time strolling the streets of Paris with Ridge is almost enough to get her there all by itself, and her romantic nature can’t resist. Heck, I wouldn’t be able to either!

But when she gets there, she finds it is not necessarily the dream come true that she imagined – it is a lot more work and unhappiness that she had expected. She barely sees any of Paris in her early time there, as she works from sun up to sun down, everyday. And Ridge can never seem to find the time to join her as he had promised, which adds to her misery. Here Sarah is, surrounded by the beauty and charm of Paris, close enough to touch but it is still just out of reach!

The bookstore itself sounds amazing, a store that any book lover would love to wander into; historic, lovely, with many rooms and floors of books – it even has a writer in residence and a piano room! It has a wonderful history from decades past, lending books to readers who can’t afford them. Sarah can appreciate the beauty and the history, although she also begins to feel chained to the place.

Sarah is not a quitter though, and as Christmas approaches, she puts plans into action to turn things around. And you will just have to read to find out if she does!

I enjoyed this sweet little book so much, although at times I was just frustrated as Sarah! I really loved it, and while the book does have some emphasis on the holiday season, it didn’t feel strictly like a Christmas book. If you like books and Paris, you will love this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin books for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

A Poem for Everyone

On April 16, 2019April 16, 2019 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn books and reading6 Comments

I fell in love with poetry on the laps of my mom and dad, snuggled up close, as they sang nursery rhymes to me, and then later on, Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutsky and yes, Dr. Seuss too. Poems like Ickle Me Pickle Me Tickle Me Too tripped across the room, enchanting me with their rhythms and of course humor; my dad read The Owl and the Pussycat to me every single night before bed. And who, old or young, doesn’t love Listen to the Musn’ts. Even after my parents stopped reading Silverstein to me, my cousin and I used to spend family holidays curled up in a corner, reading Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic together, and we still talk about these poems sometimes.

As I got older, I didn’t read as much poetry anymore. Then my senior year of high school I took an Advanced English class where we spent a whole semester on poetry, and I fell in love all over again. I was introduced to Emily Dickinson, Edward Arlington Robinson, T.S. Eliot, Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, and Dorothy Parker, who I discovered on my own that year. I wanted to be Dorothy Parker, with her sharp. clever wit. I wanted to be a big time journalist, and sit at the Algonquin Round Table. (Ok, I still want to do that) I started smoking – yeah, I started smoking not due to peer pressure or anything, but because all my favorite writers and authors did it- and she even influences me a bit now. A craft cocktail bar opened up in Detroit about 8 or so years ago, and what did I order? A whiskey sour, like my old idol Dorothy Parker. I no longer smoke, but I do still enjoy a whiskey sour every now and again.

Last Friday my husband, Wyatt, and I stumbled into an art show celebrating the beauty of the spoken and written word, titled Pose and Poetry. For the entire month of April, works of art inspired by poems are on display, as well as a night of open mic spoken word. We had attended a Free Spirit Fair in the same building, and saw the exhibit going on, and decided to check it out too. I am so glad that we did. I loved it. There was this beautiful, delicate piece of artwork, a sculpture of glass shaped into a little nest, with strips of Dickinson poems tucked throughout. It was exquisite and lovely and I adored it. I can’t stop thinking about it really. Dickinson is a favorite of mine, and this piece was really a gorgeous tribute to her work.

Patrons were encouraged to participate as well, by writing a line from a favorite poem and sticking it to the window. I of course had to do this too. The problem was, which of my favorites would I leave a line from? Degrees of Grey in Phillipsburg flitted through my mind, and I considered Hope is the thing with feathers by Dickinson but she was already so beautifully represented. But in the end there was no other poem I could have chosen besides The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, my very favorite of them all.

These days I read a lot of Mary Oliver and Wendell Berry; different poets affect us at different points in our lives, and right now, Oliver and Berry hit me where I am. I think there is a poet or two out there for all of us, even in some of us. Or maybe just a singular poem that calls to us, even just a line that sings to our soul. What do you think? Is there a poet or poem that you love? Feel free to drop a line in the comments! I would love to read who or what speaks to you.

My Sunday-Monday Post

On March 31, 2019April 1, 2019 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn books and reading, Uncategorized29 Comments

My Sunday Post is hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date

This past week was a bit blah. I never seemed to have enough time to get stuff done – it was one of those weeks. Too much to do, not enough time! My husband and I did manage to get a few hours at Ikea together, when we left the boyo with his grandparents for a visit. It was nice, although we did spend a bit more than we wanted! And darn it, right on the heels of a Target shopping trip for essentials that should have cost around forty bucks, but ended up being a *little* more. I am also spring cleaning – I am on a purge and splurge I guess! LOL.

We also splurged and bought tickets with my brother and his family to see the Jurassic World Live Tour in November! Wyatt will not like it yet, really loud noises and things jumping out at him startle him too much, so he will be hanging out with a grandma, but it will still be fun – and we will get to hang out with my niece Bean, who loves loves all things dinosaur, especially Blue from Jurassic Park. So it will still be super fun – in November! Lol. We jumped on an email I got for pre-sale tickets so we have some time to wait.

As for our experiments in cooking this week, we made a fantastic spring minestrone soup!

Read Last Week:

Girl Most Likely was a review read from NetGalley that started off promising, but by the end, I was less than enthused. I won’t say I didn’t like it, but I definitely put it in the “It’s ok” category on Goodreads.

I also finally finished Little Dribbling! I loved it. I want to move to England now. Lol. Bill Bryson is hilarious. And Bill Bryson, if you are reading this blog by some bizarre chance and randomness, I would make a great research assistant! And we wouldn’t have to trade houses! (not being strange – he writes about weird fans in his book, and one asked him to trade houses lol)

Reading This Week:

This week we are working on some big stuff with Wyatt, and it is also his spring break, so I won’t have a lot of time to read or blog very much. (I don’t think – who knows!) Fingers crossed I find the time, I am super excited to read the newest book in the Caraval series, Finale! SO excited, that I am changing my plan for the week to read it. This post originally had a different book listed- but I was too excited when I saw I got this book on NetGalley (or NutGalley as it is today..lol)

I am also reading Cozy. At heart in my soul I am a cozy seeking person. Like all the time. This book is perfect for describing me. Lol. My only complaint so far is the overuse of the word “cozy”. I understand that is the whole premise of the book but it seems to be used in ways I would never use it. Maybe by the end of the book, it will all make sense!

Watching:

The Order – we binged this show all week. It was pretty much all we watched until there were no more left! 😦 We also watched a lot of Winnie the Pooh, Wyatt’s current favorite. He loves “Tiggaahh”

Posted Last Week:

I posted about our most recent but short hikes! Bird’s Eye View

How about you all? What is going on in your world?

This journey began with a bear..

On January 23, 2019 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn books and reading, environment, nature, nature8 Comments

A Pooh Bear, to be specific.

My first introduction to the hills and dales and woods of England had to be Winnie the Pooh and his gang of friends. I read books, listened to records, watched the show, as they cavorted around the 100 Acre Woods, getting into scrapes, helping each other out, teaching me about friendship. I soaked it up, every bit, like Pooh and his precious honey.

Later, my mom gave me a set of James Herriot books one Christmas. This was probably the time I fell in love with the natural world of England. I read this series cover to cover, and although I did not always understand everything that was happening as I was kind of young still, I knew that there was something special happening. My suburban eyes were opened to another time, another world. a completely different way of life, that of a large animal country vet. I always loved animals, and these books made me laugh, but they also made me cry. Herriot’s love for his Yorkshire Dales made me love them too. These became books that I reread still to this day. Incidentally, my grandfather was born almost exactly to the day, one year before James Herriot, in the very same town of Sunderland, England. I like to think about them possibly being strolled about on the same sidewalks and into the same shops.

Later, I found Watership Down, not quite a book about the English countryside or woods, but nevertheless, these rabbits braved their way across many a hill and forest until they reached Watership Down. And is still my very favorite book today.

Somewhere in all this, I gave my heart to British nature writing – something I didn’t even realize I was completely avid about until a year or so ago, when I stumbled upon Meadowland by John Lewis-Stempel. His poetic observations captured my imaginings, and my love of nature. Like Herriot, his love of his homeland and surroundings is quite evident in his descriptions, the beautiful imagery and words. Stempel describes himself in The Wood as a country writer, writing what he says he knows best. In Meadowland, the Private Life of an English Field, Stempel shares his field study in diary form of the life and death happenings that occur there, the flora, the fauna- the wildflowers, the foxes who seem to recognize him from his rambles, the hedgehogs and birds, to the smallest little insects.

Since then I have read The Glorious Life of the Oak, which is about exactly what you would think, the Oak, its significance to England’s history, folklore and poetry. I learned more than I thought I could ever learn about the Oak tree, which is quite alright, as our family holds acorns and oaks symbolically, as symbols of hope and strength. This Christmas, my husband gifted me The Wood: The Life and Times of Cockshutt Wood, and I have been savoring it, reading it slowly, but still I am almost done with this foray into an English wood.

As a nature lover, I was stunned to learn that the new edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary decided to drop about forty words, all pertaining to nature. They deemed these words not essential, not used enough by children to warrant their place in the dictionary, and were replaced by tech words like blog, cut and paste, voicemail. The list of lost words included so many of my favorites things! Dandelion, acorn, bluebell, fern, magpie, otter, willow- all gone from the dictionary, but hopefully not from the minds of the people who use it. Author Robert MacFarlane and illustrator Jackie Morris have created their own book, a place for these words to live on, called The Lost Words. This book is amazingly beautiful, with gorgeous full page artwork illustrations, and poems designed to capture the readers mind and imagination, to keep the words and what they represent alive. It is one of my favorite books, and I love getting it out and looking through it with my son.

I imagine I will keep this up, reading more of Lewis-Stempel and MacFarlane and whoever else I run into on the way. They are amazing tributes to our natural world and inspirational, encouraging me in their way to get outside sometimes and enjoy the wonders of nature, away from my phone and my computer and television. To look and listen and watch and be a part of that world too. And maybe one day I’ll even get to England!

My Favorite Reads of 2018

On December 27, 2018January 19, 2019 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn books and reading9 Comments

Hey all! I hope you had a wonderful holiday season, if you celebrate! We were so busy – a very fun busy, but busy! Wyatt had a blast this year, which means that we did too.

As the year draws to a close, I thought back to all the books I read this year. It was definitely a year of Jenny Colgan and Karen White – I found their backlists and just went crazy. Also this year I really found a love of reading nature books. I am really enjoying the different persepectives it has given me, and how they have started shaping my family’s life in a different way, one that has more of an emphasis on the outdoors and nature. We always loved nature and being outside, but I am learning how to incorporate that more – sometimes by letting some other things go. But before I get too philosophical here, that is all talk for another post, let’s take a peek at my favorite books that I read this year, in no particular order.

Christmas on the Island – I wanted to pick just one Colgan book, and this one was the winner. I simply loved it.

Virgil Wander – This might be my very favorite of them all.

The Impossible Girl – Lydia Kang never fails to disappoint me. She writes such unique stories that I can’t stop reading.

I read quite a few YA books too – I usually do. These three really stuck out for me.

All the Little Lights – Holy crap, this book blew me away! I wish I could read it all over again without knowing the end just so I can feel that same way.

Truly, Devious – I finished this and it ends on a cliffhanger!! Is the next one out yet?? I need to read it!

Nevernight – My husband wanted me to read this and I fell in love with this crazy world. For me it was like Harry Potter for assassins…

This Fallen Prey – I love this series so much. I love the whole premise of a place where people can go to disappear. I can’t wait for the next installment!

Flight Patterns – Again, hard to choose a favorite but this was the chosen one. Just so much love and tears in this book. I got my mom hooked on reading White too!

The Girl in the Tower – The very first book I read this year, and it was beautiful. I love the beauty and the fairy tale of it all.

And finally, The Nature Fix. This book was kind of life changing, actually. I had my husband read it too, and it shifted our perspective on what is important and how we really want to live our lives. A really cool book, full of so much information. Loved it.

And there you have it!! What books did you read that you loved this year?

Our Favorite Halloween Reads

On October 17, 2018October 17, 2018 By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn books and reading, Uncategorized9 Comments

I love Halloween! One thing I love doing is hitting the library for Halloween books for the boy. Some of the ones we get are new, some of them you need a wayback machine for. These are the ones that I have made sure to grab, because they were my favorites growing up, and while they may not look as sleek and shiny and flashy, they are still great stories!

Samurai Scarecrow was a new addition to our holiday reading this year, as was Duck and Goose. I loved both, although they were very different. Samurai Scarecrow had great illustrations, while Duck and Goose was a Wyatt pick – he loves Duck and Goose. A lot. It was a long book so be warned. Lol.

Gus was a Friendly Ghost and Georgie’s Halloween are my two old favorites. I simply adore these sweet little ghosts. I also love the other Georgie books too. I know Gus has other books but I haven’t read them. I probably should!

Happy Halloween Witch’s Cat is super cool!! It is well loved here, both for the story and for the art, which is three dimensional and multi-media (I think this is the right way to describe it!) The author, Muncaster, is a miniaturist, who made tiny miniatures and then photographed them as the accompanying illustrations.

Room on the Broom and Click Clack Boo are just great reads. Simply put, Wyatt just loves sitting in my lap listening to them. Finally, A Dark, Dark Tale I picked up at a garage sale for its kind of creepy art. It doesn’t disappoint!

As for me, around Halloween I usually turn to books about witches and ghosts. These are a few of my top favorite witchy witch books and series. I am always looking for more, so please hit me with your recommendations!