Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl
Today’s Prompt: Fall TBR!
I have way way too many books I want to read this fall. It’s ridiculous. So, I tried to pick which ones I really want to read the very most. I am putting this list out in the world knowing that it is probably subject to change at any time. I have also been posting a lot of fall reading suggestion posts lately, so you may have seen me mention a few of these before!
And I apologize, I am still trying to catch up on comments and comment on blogs from last week!
This post does contain Amazon Affiliate links. I would make a small commission at no extra cost to you if you were to purchase something using a link.
Hello everyone! Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I buddy read The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder last week and while neither of us were over the moon about the book, we really enjoyed being able to chat each other about the book while reading it.
First though, the summary:
In this “irresistible, immersive, and completely unputdownable” (Ellery Lloyd, New York Times bestselling author) debut novel, a former antique hunter investigates a suspicious death at an isolated English manor, embroiling her in the high-stakes world of tracking stolen artifacts.
What antique would you kill for?
Freya Lockwood is shocked when she learns that Arthur Crockleford, antiques dealer and her estranged mentor, has died under mysterious circumstances. She has spent the last twenty years avoiding her quaint English hometown, but when she receives a letter from Arthur asking her to investigate—sent just days before his death—Freya has no choice but to return to a life she had sworn to leave behind.
Now, me:
One of the first things I chatted Lisa while reading was “Lisa! Do you think that antiques hunting is really this dangerous and cloak and dagger?!” because this book made all antique hunting sound like Indiana Jones, with danger around every corner, sneaking into buildings and maybe countries, being all incognito, and having the skills of a criminal. And I think that is one of my biggest issues with this book. It was very over the top dramatic feeling to me.
Freya is a “retired” antiques hunter, having lived the normal life an English mum, married to a not-so-great man, but her past is apparently murky, and they hint a lot about who she “used to be” and how she was starting to become herself again as the story goes on. Like I get it, she was Lara Croft before an incident drove her from the business for twenty years, and now she was free to pursue that career again – and is pushed into it by her former mentor Arthur, with whom she had a huge falling out with and never spoke to again before he .. died mysteriously. He has left a game/hunt/clues behind for her to figure out that will lead her to the answers behind his death and behind the reason she left the field.
I have to admit I kept picturing Geena Davis in The Long Kiss Goodnight, where she plays a teacher who has amnesia who all of a sudden gets her memory back and finds out she was an assassin.
The book was wandering and I think it just suffered from not knowing what it wanted to be. Did it want to be a cozy mystery, or a thriller, or a murder mystery? Or a character driven book filled with drama and revelations, about a woman starting over again after her child is grown? There was a lot of emphasis on the backstory that led up to Freya’s leaving her old job, which was not being an antique picker, but someone who searched for stolen antiques. (I think?) I was slightly confused. I was also confused as to why Arthur had money issues. I would think selling expensive antiques to rich people would provide a good living.
Anyway, this book is about Freya and her coming into her own again and having a life that she picks, and is also about solving Arthur’s murder. She is accompanied by her aunt, Carol, who is a boisterous, outgoing character, and sort of pushes Freya along when she hesitates.
Overall, I felt lukewarm about this book. There was just a lot going on and it was hard to connect to any of the characters. However, I do think that the author had some very good ideas, and might have things all out in the open now, so that a second book will be tighter and more focused.
I also had a great time chatting Lisa while reading. I have to admit, some it was more along the lines of “This book makes me want to buy red shoes” or “I am distracted by looking up all of these antiques they are talking about that I don’t know what they are” but some of it was more about who we thought did it, who was red herring, who was going to be the love interest, if there was one.
Some of the best writing was in the very beginning of the book, with the descriptions of the village and of Freya’s relationship with Carol when growing up. I particularly liked this line.
“..I’ve always loved the hush of dusk as it settles over the village – its orange glow lighting the medieval wooden shop fronts and Victorian or Edwardian brick houses, interspersed with tea shops and hairdressers.” I also love dusk, it is one of my favorite times of day.
And then my favorite line, “It was like some houses stopped breathing the moment their owners died.” Isn’t that so true?
Although Lisa and I weren’t blown away by this book, I had a great time buddy reading with her and I hope to do another buddy read or group read again. And this book wasn’t terrible – I think it just suffered from wanting to do and be too much, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Better too many ideas than too few! It is probably a 3/5 star read for me.
And with that, I hope you check out Lisa’s review as well! You can find it here.
I hope that whatever you do today, that you do something that makes you smile!
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date
Hello everybody! I hope that you are having a good weekend. We had a pretty focused week, just working away at school and therapy, but our weekend has been full. Yesterday we went to the Magee Marsh and Ottawa National Wildlife Center in Ohio, which was a lot of fun, and today we have a Blackbirds outing at the Tigers game. It will be a good time, and I think Wyatt will enjoy being with all the kids out at the ball game.
Read Last Week:
Last week Lisa at Boondock Ramblings and I buddy read The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder. It was really fun to chit chat back and forth while reading it, and I think we need to do some sort of buddy read/group read again. I will have a review and some of our thoughts up tomorrow, and Lisa will be posting her account as well!
Reading This Week:
I am so excited to finally read this. I have had it on my list for awhile but I am finally getting to it. Lol. You guys know how it is! I started a little of it last night but conked out before I could get very far. I am looking forward to some good reading this morning, fingers crossed.
Billy and I are watching The Marlow Murder Club and old episodes of The Brokenwood Mysteries. We are getting excited to watch a few things though that we have been saving for Spooky Season.
On the Internets:
Right now Lisa and I are hosting Comfy Cozy Cinema for the … third? fourth? year in a row. This week’s movie is Benny & Joon, with our reviews going up on Thursday. Feel free to join in!
We are also hosting a Monthly Bookish Link up called a Good Book and a Cup of Tea, where you can post your bookish things all month long! You can always find the link at the top of my blog!
And finally, I have been compiling list after list of fall reading suggestions! I will have them all together in one list on my Ko-Fi so they can be downloaded if you want them all in one place. I hope to have that up on Friday.
And that is it from me today! I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!
** so this was supposed to.post this morning.. it did.not..lol.
Hello everyone!
We have been working hard over here, with school and physical therapy! We have been very productive – and I have been pretty tired by the time I get in bed at night. It’s a good tired though, the kind of tired that you feel when you know that you have worked hard and had a good day. Today though we are going to play, and go to a marsh in Ohio, and hopefully see some pretty leaves and enjoy some time in nature.
Let’s start with school. It is weird how we are running into a theme of people protesting, in so many of areas of Wyatt’s learning. We are reading Hoot for Language Arts, and although we have quite gotten into it yet, the burrowing owls living on a live construction site are going to cause protests although right now, it is just mild tampering on the site with stakes being taken out of there spots. In science, we are talking about swamps and marshes, and Wyatt just learned about Marjorie Stoneman Douglas and all she did to save part of the Everglades – and she continued to do it even into a very advanced age. She died at 108! And finally, in history we are right on the brink of the revolutionary war, and we just covered the Boston tea party and Paul Revere.
Yesterday we had a fun Friday for school – I used to save Fridays for field trips and errands only, but now with physical therapy two days a week, we need to use Friday as an instructional day. I figured we might as well make them fun if we are having school on them now. We did so many cool things yesterday!
First, we started with making a lantern, like the ones of “One if by land, two if by sea” fame. We only made one, so our British came by land unlike the real ones that Revere warned of. And he didn’t ride around yelling “The British are coming!” although that would have been cool. It was more of a quiet version, telling people that the Regulars were coming, and only people who needed to know, knocking on their doors and telling them.
I think this project turned out pretty cute. Wyatt’s Aunt Chrissy came in for the win with the milk carton, finishing up her oat milk so that we could use her container.
After making the lantern and watching a reading of Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride by Longfellow, we moved on to our artist of the month, Salvador Dali. We talked a little about surrealism, and looked at Dali’s most famous painting, The Persistence of Memory. Then we started making clay versions of the watches from the painting, which were inspired by melting cheese, of all things. Since we had to wait for the clay to dry (and we are still waiting) we just cut the circles out and moved on for now. When they are dry, Wyatt will paint them.
Next, we made a wetland! We have been talking about the importance of wetlands, swamps and marshes and mangrove swamps, and how they protect the land from flooding and also filter the water, and I thought it would be neat if we could test it out. So, using the directions from a book that I got from the library, we made a wetland out of a paint tray, sponges, and clay. However, we made the unfortunate decision to use a red soap dye to color the water… it looks a little like a crime scene, sorry.
It didn’t filter everything but it did some which was cool!
We also played a reading game but I didn’t get any pictures of that. It was a fun way to learn on a Friday!
I mentioned that Wyatt is doing awesome in physical therapy last week, and he continued working hard this week as well. His therapist was happy with the range of flexibility he is getting, but we need to keep working on strength, so that is what we focus on both at therapy at the center and at his home therapy. Our list of therapy activities for everyday is very long, and I have to be inventive sometimes to work it all in, and combine it with school when I can.
My mom is also starting physical therapy! She got her staples taken out from her cut, and she is getting a physical therapy eval today so that she can start next week. They are coming right to her apartment so that is awesome. I talked to the therapist on the phone, since I am not able to stay, and I discussed her mobility limitations, and what we are hoping for. I would like for them to focus right now on weight bearing on her right leg, and building strength, same as Wyatt. I would also like them to work on getting up off of the floor, and standing easier. I also found a few items online that I want to purchase for her to make things a little more functional for all of us. She has severe osteoarthritis in her hip, which we learned from scans she got last weekend, and that unfortunately, we can’t do much about. So we need to work with it the best that we can. Any suggestions are welcome!
And with that I am off! I hope you guys all have a great day!
I have so many fall lists of books! And really, too many books to list here on the blog. I am going to have a full list available next Friday on my Ko-Fi for anyone who will want to see alllll the books I have researched and compiled. Until then, please take this humble offering.
Love’s a Witch || Uncharmed || Rewitched
Love’s a Witch: Witchy cozy romance, set in Scotland. Enemies to lovers.
Ghost Business: I can’t wait to read this one! The second in the Boneyard Key series and the main FMC runs a ghost tour business.
Crazy Spooky Love: Cozy little ghost hunting romance. Also high on my own list to read this fall!
Potions and Prejudice || The Lone Wolf Cafe || Cat Dragon
Potions and Prejudice: Cozy witchy romance, enemies to lovers. And this cover is gorgeous!
Lone Wolf Cafe: Spooky sapphic cozy, with a witch and a werewolf. Also, baked goods!
Cat Dragon: Another that is on my own list. I just don’t have enough time to read all the books that I want to! I have to admit I just want to read this because of the idea of cat dragons. How cute would that be?
I can’t wait to get started with the spooky or spooky adjacent reads!
I usually group my book reviews, but today I wanted to add some additional information in with my book review, so Cat’s People gets its very own post.
First, the summary from the publisher.
Núria, a single-by-choice barista with a little resentment for the “crazy cat lady” label, is a member of The Meow-Yorkers, a group in Brooklyn who takes care of the neighborhood’s stray cats. On her volunteering days, she starts finding Post-it notes left by a secret admirer in an area where her feeds her favorite stray—a black cat named Cat. Like most felines, he is both curious and observant, so of course he knows who the notes are from. Núria, however, is clueless.
Are the notes from Collin, a bestselling author and self-professed hermit with a weakness for good coffee? Are they from Lily, a fresh-out-of-high school Georgia native searching for her long-lost half sister? Are they from Omar, the beloved neighborhood mailman going through an early midlife crisis? Or are they from Bong, the grieving widower who owns Núria’s favorite bodega?
When Cat suddenly falls ill, these five strangers find themselves bonding together in their desire to care for him, and discover that chance encounters can lead to the meaningful connections they’ve all been searching for.
My thoughts:
I wanted to hug this book. This book is so heartwarming, wholesome, pure, and I absolutely loved it to pieces. The story is simple, but with so much emotion and complexity hidden within. So much love. So much kindness. Found family, both human and feline. It is definitely a five star read for me.
Every character had their own challenge that they were going through. Social awkwardness, grieving, doubting life choices, just the self-doubts that creep up on us late at night. This book is told from all of their viewpoints, and one additional point of view – Cat’s.
One thing that you may not know about me, unless you read my former blogs Cinnamon Owl and Quixotic Magpie, is that before Wyatt was born I was very active in animal rescue. I helped start an animal rescue organization, I served on the board as an officer, I volunteered at the animal shelter at least twice a week, and spent countless hours doing what I could for the animals. I never fostered because every time I did, I was a foster failure, meaning I adopted every one. All three of my cats and my dog Penny were all fosters that I ended up keeping. So when I say this book touched my heart, it really did. I was not surprised to see that the author, Tanya Guerrero is in animal rescue because every detail, every bit of advice, every aspect pertaining to cats and stray cats was on point, and it reminded me so much of all the animals lives that I have known. The happy stories, and the sad too sometimes.
And spoiler here:
And if you are worried about reading this book, don’t be.
If after reading this book, you find you have a heart for rescue, start with your local animal shelter. They can help you find the right places to volunteer and get your started. Or google local animal rescues and send an email. It can be very rewarding but also very emotional. And you may end up with an extra animal or two or three.
Here are my rescue babies. Maggie, Marlow, and Penny have crossed the rainbow bridge and I am so thankful I had them while I did.
Marlow || Miso || Maggie || Penny
I loved this book so much, and in this world we are in right now, it was so just nice to read a book that was so full of kindness and love. This is definitely one of my favorites reads of the year.
This week’s topic: Literary/Bookish Candles I’d Make (Pick a book and assign it a fragrance or fragrance combo that would make a nice candle.) (Submitted by Heather @ The Frozen Library)
Ok, this sounds super cool but also like really hard. I am hoping I can do this! I will light one of my candles (Mythologie, Alchemist because I LOVE it) as inspiration, and settle in with it and my tea. I am also going to use the website Bramble Berry to help me with scent profiles. I love to make soap and they have an awesome selection of scents and molds and whatever for making soap and candles. My combos might make for wild and weird candles, I have no idea. It would be sort of neat to try them out though!
The Honey Witch: Honey, marigold, and rose, with maybe a touch of vanilla. Light scents, reminiscent of the florals used in the book, and of course honey.
Wormwood Abbey: This one feels very earthy to me, which are my own favorite scents to wear and use. Amber, sandalwood, and a little bit of bonfire would be perfect.
Of Salt and Shore: Obviously this one is of the sea. Sea salt, sea moss, with a drop of thyme to make it a bit more earthy.
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries: I think of cold freezing weather and breads and stews and food when I try to capture this book into scents. So maybe Silver Fir, rosemary, and almond.
The Spellshop: Again, more baking and of course fruity jam! Let’s say raspberry jam and cinnamon, a touch of citrus?
Other Birds: This book is set on Mallow Island, where it is said it smells of its history and sugar and confectionaries. So a candle would need to embody this as well. So sugar and marshmallow of course!
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking: Gingerbread obviously. And cinnamon and a bit of cranberry as well? Nah. Let’s leave it at the gingerbread smells, the ginger and vanilla and cinnamon and cloves. Yum. I want this candle! Maybe I will try to make it. Or try to make it into soap. Or just make gingerbread and eat it.
Hello everyone! I think we can all agree that last week was a long week, and I hope that you are all taking care of yourselves and guarding your peace.
In the midst of all this upheaval going on around us, I had a mixed bag of a week myself. I will get the yucky over with first here, because I do have lots of good stuff to share as well. So my mom. I had just finally sighed a breath of relief that she was safe and taken care of – but, I guess I exhaled too soon. On Thursday my brother went over to visit our mom and found blood in her apartment and on her pillow. After searching for the source, and asking my mom what the heck, he discovered the source, which was a small cut on the back of her head. It was small but persistent with bleeding, so the two of us whisked her off to the ER for scans and probably a stitch. We were there only about two hours which is record time around here, and her scans came back good and they put two staples in her head. She is doing well but dang, mom! Lol.
Ok now on to the good stuff!!
It’s been a hot minute I think since I updated here like this. Since then, Wyatt has been seriously kicking butt. He has started back to therapy, and this kid is such a hard worker. It blows my mind sometimes how tough he is. At home, he is a little more… wanting me and Billy to do more for him, but now that I have seen what he is capable of, and getting the all clear from the PT, he will not be getting the kid gloves any longer.
We are also all the way back to school and that is going really well too. We were exhausted from a full week of school, two days of PT, a huge list of home therapy activities to do everyday, and then just everyday things (and some emergencies), but we managed. We also had our first Blackbirds meeting on Thursday! We had such a good time, and the kids were all so happy to be back together. We started the meeting explaining the name change from Cub Scouts to Blackbirds, as we decided to just have our own club, and talked about our new mission statement, motto, and learned the sign for Blackbirds from one of our kids. We passed out the new shirts which my MIL and I had made, and had the kids make a banner for us to hang every meeting. It was a great first meeting back. And for me, the icing on the cake was Wyatt saying “Bye Zane!” to his friend. This is huge. Wyatt doesn’t say hi or bye generally, or any names. However, since this one surprise, he has gone on to say the name of one of his cousins, little wild child, and his uncle Devin. It was an amazing moment for Billy and I.
Yesterday we had a great day of time with family. My dad came to visit and we went out for dinner, and after that I had my two little nieces over for a short time while Devin and Chrissy went out for a quick drink to celebrate Chrissy’s birthday. We had a good time with the girls. We painted nails, played with tons of toys, and played a board game all within an hour and some change.
We also did a little shopping at our city wide garage sale yesterday. One of the animal rescues in our city has a mammoth sale and we headed up there to shop their sale. Wyatt got a book, I got a book, and then I also picked up two mugs as well, because they were so cute! They were also apparently made in Spain. I love them but now I really really do need to go through my mug collection and pick some to have in the cupboard and some to put away for a minute.
And that is it from me!!
Let’s move through this week with grace and peace, for ourselves and for others. Be less quick to reply in anger, to be helpers when we can be. And take of your own self as well. As I say, try to do one thing today that makes you smile.
Hello everybody!! Does anyone else like to watch YouTube? I feel like I can find anything on there. I do have favorites though, that I like to watch, especially in that calm down zone that we have with Wyatt. Usually Billy will be in the shower, and Wyatt and I watch half an hour of YouTube together. He has his favorites of our nighttime ‘Tubers as well, which I think is so cute. After that, we read a bit of his book and he goes to bed. It’s a nice way to wind down. I also like to put them on as background when I am doing things around the house as well. These YouTube people are all pretty different, from all walks of life, and different lifestyles and beliefs.
Anyway, here are some of my favorites lately! I’m also linking recent videos that I enjoyed.
First, in no particular order besides the order they were in as I scrolled through my subscriptions, is Harm’s Honey. Her full name is Harmony but I guess her shortened name people call her is Harm. I just love her vibe and style and energy, although I don’t always agree with some of the things she says or her exact views.
Next, Real Vintage Dollhouse! I love her vintage style from the 1940s, and her channel always includes detailed historical videos of different aspects of life in Britain in the 40s. I feel like her channel gave me the courage to embrace bold color lipstick! Plus, she is awesome because she rescued a pigeon! It is a crazy story, the pigeon actually came up to her at a pub and just wanted to stay with her. So she kept her. The pigeon was injured and had been kicked around at the pub and it was all very sad for a minute. But that pigeon went to the right woman!
Liv’s Library is our favorite book channel. Wyatt loves watching her and calls her the book lady, Liv. When he was in the hospital after surgery in a lot of pain, I put her channel on for him and he was able to relax a bit. I actually sent her an email thanking her for her work and told her about Wyatt and she wrote us back. She was so gracious and sincere! She also reads a lot of fantasy and cozy books, which I also like to read, which is of course why we first started watching her.
I also really like A Moment of Wonder. These are captioned, with music playing, and they are so relaxing and mesmerizing a bit. It is all book talk paired with a delicious looking food dish, usually dessert and a special drink. She acts like the viewer has just come in off the street into her bakery/cafe and they are just so atmospheric.
The Plant Based Bride is next up. I feel like her channel makes me smarter, in that it has challenged me to read my books a bit closer, and to investigate the themes and subtext and remember my Lit Minor roots from college.
We all love Alexis Dahl! This is one we watch with Billy too. Alexis shares history and science pertaining to Michigan, and it is always educational and interesting!
The Wild Pencil is a channel that doesn’t have a ton of video but the videos that are there, are quality.
With Love, Kristina is a vlogger I have shared before. I just really appreciate her honesty, and the realness of her life. It is not all an aesthetic for show and views. She is a real mom, who lives a real life, with ups and downs and struggles and happiness. She also just wrote a book, The Devil and the Midwife.
Finally, I want to mention Drew Binsky. This is another channel we watch with Billy too. Drew travels the world, reporting on “inspiring people, hidden cultures, and wild adventures in faraway places”. It is pretty fascinating!
Do you watch any of these channels? Who do you like? I would love to hear!
Ooo villains! We all love to hate them. Or love to love them. It all depends on the villain, right? This is my list of villains I both love and hate.
Dead Witch Walking || Small Spaces || Harry Potter
The first villain to pop into my head was Algaliarept, from The Hollows series by Kim Harrison. I have met this author many times at book signings, as her hometown is near my own, and I once told her how much that I loved Al. He is just a loveable bad guy, and I always picture him like Gary Oldman in Dracula, this version of course.
Next was the Smiling Man from the Small Spaces series by Katherine Arden. This is a more recent villain in my reading which is one reason I thought of him so quickly. He is also super creepy and if I were a kid I would be pretty terrified. He scared me enough as an adult!
And of course Professor Umbridge. What a jerk! She was just awful. I guess I could have said Voldemort but, naw, I am going with Umbridge.
Now let’s talk Stephen King. Because he is the master.
Misery || It || Apt Pupil
Annie Wilkes is crazy pants. Like literally. She has hidden depths of scary!
This list wouldn’t be complete without Pennywise, one of the worst villains ever, in my opinion. He absolutely freaked me out when I was a kid, when I first read it.
Apt Pupil is one of those stories that have stuck with me. Todd Bowden and Dussander are the most bone chilling duo. I still think about this story, and it still scares me, just the evilness of these characters.
Sharp Objects || The Hundred and One Dalmations || We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Sharp Objects had a few villains that were frightening. And if you haven’t read this one, and don’t want a spoiler, then stop reading here. Lol. But both Adora and Amma are just the stuff of nightmares.
One of the earliest villains in my memory is Cruella De Ville! I read this book as a child, I distinctly remember my copy was yellow, and I was horrified that this woman wanted to make a coat out of puppies!
So. Let’s talk We Have Always Lived in the Castle. I would like to nominate the town as the villain, and I think Shirley Jackson would agree.
And finally, General Woundwort from Watership Down. I love a rabbit, I love hares, but not General Woundwort. He has no redeeming qualities and is terrifying.
And that is my ten! I am looking forward to reading everyone else’s list!
Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.. 