Book Review: A Death Long Overdue by Eva Gates

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn book review6 Comments

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From the Publisher:

When her former director is found dead in the water, librarian Lucy Richardson will have to get to the bottom of the mystery before the killer ends her tale.

It’s summertime in the Outer Banks of North Carolina and Bertie James’s college class is having their 40th anniversary reunion. The opening night reception is held at the Lighthouse Library and Lucy and her colleagues have assembled an exhibit of library artifacts showing how libraries have changed over the years. After the reception, some of the women take a walk down the boardwalk to the pier, using flashlights to illuminate the dark path, but what’s scarier than the dark is finding the former director of the Lighthouse Library floating lifeless in the water.

Helena Sanchez, the former director, wasn’t much loved and spent the party being rude to almost everyone there. As a result, Lucy finds herself in deep water as she rocks the boat, questioning several suspects. But she’ll have to batten down the hatches and fast before she’s left high and dry…and right in the killer’s crosshairs.

My Thoughts:

I am so enjoying this series! I first began reading it last October, when The Spook in the Stacks was part of an autumn book display at my library. I picked it up, took it home, and haven’t looked back. The Lighthouse Library series is such an interesting and fun mystery series and I love the setting, an historic lighthouse on the Outer Banks!

Lucy Richardson has been living and working in the Lighthouse Library for a year now, and in that year, her coworkers, boyfriend Connor, and local police have all gotten used to her penchant for detective work. Maybe it is all the mysteries she has read, but Lucy has a knack for solving the crimes and unofficially helping the police. And the Lighthouse Library does seem to have some sort of unlucky star over it for some folks, as an unusual amount of people do seem to turn up dead near it.

This book is no different – following a class reunion at the Lighthouse Library, the former director, who was not beloved by her patrons or coworkers, was found dead in the water…and it was not an accident. Lucy’s irrepressible curiosity and clever mind lead her down many avenues of inquiry, some alongside Detective Sam Watson, others on her own. I particularly loved the ending of this book! Sometimes a series can grow stale, but this one just keeps getting better and better.

I loved this book, and found myself reading it whenever I found a few free seconds – not easy when I am also parenting a five year old during a shelter-in-place order! Despite that, I managed to read this book quickly – I had to find out the “whodunit”!  I think this book is perfect for summer reading at the beach, on a rainy day, or just whenever you need a great escape, and a mystery to solve. The literary references and adorable Himalayan Charles are perfect little added bonuses. I highly recommend this series to anyone who loves a cozy mystery!

 

Thank you to NetGalley for the chance to read and review this book!

 

Weekend Vibes..

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn environment, family, homeschooling, mom life, nature8 Comments

We had a fantastic long weekend together – it was a nice combo of lazy and active. Lots of reading, sitting around, playing games, but also exploring – and even some socially distanced social time!

On Saturday a few friends and I got together for some 6-8 feet away drinks and conversation. I put on a dress, my new necklace, slipped on sandals and off I went. We even all brought our own beverages and glasses so that we didn’t touch things others had touched – and so Kelly didn’t have to wash a glass. It was so nice to just see their faces – and I was so relaxed, watching the birds. And this was the very first time I had been away from Wyatt since March 12. I probably could have curled up on the outdoor couch and taken a nap, I became so comfy. I have taken to naming my friend’s homes lately (I blame all that British tv), and I have decided Kelly’s house should be called Refuge.

Then Sunday and Monday we spent pond dipping, as part of our homeschooling for the week! This week is all about ponds and frogs so we were hoping to catch some minibeasts in our catch and release beach aquarium. We only managed to find an aquatic snail in the water, but we did spot a Northern Water Snake, two turtles, a Great Blue Heron, a ton of Red-Winged Blackbirds, heard a bullfrog, and a little American toad! We brought the toad home as our guest for a few weeks, then we will let her go. Wyatt has named her Uh-Oh. the funny part is my brother found a toad yesterday and brought it in as a pet for my niece (who named hers Cupcake). But it all started with Kelly who found one last week and brought it in to avoid the cold snap. Her toad is a beast! They named her Theodora.

Later Monday evening my brother invited us, my mom, and my sister-in-law’s mother over for a socially distanced bonfire. It was so very nice to be near my family again, even though I itched to hug them all! Again, we all brought our own drinks and cups. What a strange new world we live in. Regardless, it was so fantastic to see their faces and talk to them, and not through a screen! Wyatt was so happy too, and just kept pointing to everyone and saying “Wow”. It was his first time seeing his family in months, and even though we were apart, it was wonderful to be sitting and talking together.

It was nice to be back exploring and seeing people again, no matter how we had to do it.

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized30 Comments

My Sunday Post is hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz

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

It was Billy’s first full week back at work in the office full time last week and I was a bundle of nerves between that and the hospital visit, so I had a hard time reading. I find when I am having some anxiety movement and physical activity really help me. I am thinking about joining a few Zoom Yoga classes- has anyone done one? The Sweetbriar Nature Center has quite a few days and times available and I like that the money goes to taking care of their animals. It’s on my radar for this week. Wyatt and I focused on his homeschooling this week, where our theme was plants and gardens! It was a pretty fun lesson that ended in strawberries.

Read Last Week:

I continued reading Watership Down, my favorite book of all time. Every time I read it I find something else in it that makes me think or resonates with how I am feeling at the time. You all should see my poor copy! It is very well read looking, with underlinings and notes. I should probably buy a “good copy” one day but this copy will always remain with me – it is my third or fourth copy by this time as well. Lol.

Reading This Week:

Sticking with what I know is working for me, and this cozy series is a winner right now. Although it makes me really want to visit marshes and beaches and lighthouses! And libraries, sadly. I miss our library and library staff!

Watching:

When Calls the Heart, although I think we have only one episode left! Noooooooo. We also started Rosemary and Thyme on Britbox and we are enjoying it. We had movie night on Friday and watched Knives Out which was amazing!!!! I loved it so much. Billy told me they are going to make a second one which I am very excited about. We are having another movie night tonight but are not sure what we are watching yet. I am also watching Sweet Magnolias in the afternoons and I am enjoying it – although it makes me want a margarita.

Posted Last Week:

Homeschooling: Plants Week!

Just Some Things Making Me Smile These Days

Random Daydream Wish List

Stay Safe!

Random Daydream Wish List

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized15 Comments

For some reason, being in shelter-in-place has made me an online window shopper. I am not really a big consumer, I don’t buy that much (except books now these days!) but maybe it is just being at home or something, but I have come up with the most random daydream wish list. My husband was laughing the other day at all the different things I have said I wanted to get. I haven’t bought these things, nor will I, I am sure. but it’s fun to daydream sometimes!

A rabbit! I love rabbits so much and I have wanted one since I was a little girl. I will probably get one, one day, but maybe when Wyatt is older.. I love these Holland Lops and Flemish Giants. One is tiny, the other huge! Maybe until then I will just get this art print from Etsy.

A blue velvet couch. Because that is so practical for my life. Lol. I don’t think five year olds and cats and velvet couches go together very well.

Every plate this artist creates to use as our everyday dishes.

A retro camper trailer. Because everyone should impulse internet buy a camper. We do want one, but it probably won’t be bought all willy nilly spur of the moment online.

Ducks. Which we aren’t even allowed to own in my city.

So yeah, this is something I actually did randomly do. I bought small shares of stocks. I know absolutely nothing about the stock market or investing or money anything. But hey, now I own a few stocks. Or small shares of some.

Anyone else at home considering making off the wall (for you) purchases? Or at least entertaining the idea? Have you bought anything? What is the weirdest thing you have bought?

Homeschooling: Plants Week!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn homeschooling9 Comments

This week our theme was plants and gardens! We needed a break from our insect friends, although we start again with them soon. We apparently like bugs in our family.

This was a fun week, and so seasonal to what we are doing around our house as well. Our seeds that we planted a few weeks ago are sprouting so this was good timing – hmm, almost like I planned it..

We learned about the parts of a plant, the life cycle of a plant, and then talked about what sorts of plants we can eat. We worked on numbers and math and the letter F, on sequencing and matching, and on writing and fine motor skills as well.

I really dig our Kandinsky Circles Flower art project! I have stumbled into finding different projects for our weeks that are based on famous artists. We have done a Matisse snail, now these.

Then today I decided to do a special mini-unit day about strawberries! It is the new moon for this lunar cycle, the Strawberry Moon, so I thought it fit very nicely! It dovetailed nicely into our lessons about plants, and strawberries are just sort of fun and cheery, which we needed on this gloomy rainy day.

I am in love with this art project too. We used his little hands and he dabbed on the yellow paint with his fingers. We also read Audrey Wood’s book The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear. Such a fun book! I also appreciate the fact that our strawberry plant cooperated and produced flowers for us today.

It was a fun week, but I have to say I liked our strawberry day the best.

Resource Round-Up:

Growing Plants by Mrs. Jones Creation Station

Strawberry Patch Printable Pack by Simple Living Creative Learning

Books:

(This section contains Amazon Affiliate links)

The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear || In the Vegetable Garden Sticker Book || The Tiny Seed || If You Plant a Seed || The Case of the Growing Bird Feeder

Art Projects:

Kandinsky Circle Flowers

Handprint Strawberry Craft

Extras:

(this section contains Amazon Affiliate links)

Garden Building Set (Wyatt loves this way more than I expected!)

Overall this was a fun week! Next week we move on to Ponds and Frogs!

Just some things making me smile these days

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized15 Comments

Some days, it seems like this new world will never change. That we will be isolated from our friends and family forever, that life will never go back to “normal”. Other days, I have more faith than that; that our smart science people will figure this out and we will no longer be as afraid to go grocery shopping or being closer than 8 feet apart.

And then, how much back to normal do we really want to be? I don’t want to go back to the crazy rush of life, where we miss things and take people and life itself for granted, ever again. To fully appreciate the little things, because life really is about these little moments.

So many moments still make me smile – sidewalk chalk in a colorful jumble on my walk, cats all snuggled up together in the sun, naps and a surprise gift in the mail, nature and gardens and butterflies and dandelions and my snail Sampson. My friends sending me photos of their gardens and toads and treasures they find throughout their days too. The other day my cousin orchestrated a family Zoom meeting where he played for us a DVD that he had made from old film footage from the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s that his parents had taken. It was bittersweet, to see loved ones who are no longer with us, vacations that we all took together, my mom as a young girl, my 2nd birthday. And these days that we are living in are becoming memories too – one day our children will remember this time and what we did, how we adapted and tried our best. Our masks will become heirlooms we pull from cedar chests, and remember how family and friends made them for us to keep safe, that is how much they loved us. But for now we keep on moving, one foot in front of the other, one moment at a time. Finding solace and smiles where we can.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized18 Comments

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

We had a crazy week last week. If you read my homeschooling post, then you already know that we had to spend an overnight in the hospital with Wyatt for an overnight EEG to see if he was having seizures. Which unfortunately he was, but he was able to get on meds right away so that is good. My husband also had a bike accident and hurt his elbow, so our week was all messed up. However up until then our week was actually going pretty well! Lol.

Anyway, I didn’t get much reading in at all, but I did read a little bit of Watership Down. It’s my favorite book and so I know it backwards and forwards.

Reading This Week:

I’m not sure where I will land with reading this week, but I will try these two and see if one works!

Posted Last Week:

Homeschooling: Interrupted

A Day of New Life

Little Wanderings

Watching:

We are just finishing up When Calls the Heart, only a few left! What will I do without my happy show? We are also watching Midsomer Murders…

Stay safe all!

Homeschooling: Interrupted

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn homeschooling26 Comments

Last week started off well – we kicked off butterfly week with some great activities and the emerging of our butterflies, which was exciting! Wyatt strung together this great looking banner (I glued them to heavy paper and cut them out first) then we hung it in his window.

Then we were derailed. We had a neurologist appointment for Wyatt on Wednesday (video) and we ended up getting an overnight EEG for him the next day. This kid is something else, he is so strong and brave and undergoes so many things with such a good disposition. He is pretty amazing.

I was a mess honestly. Having to go to a last minute emergency overnight EEG during a pandemic was the last thing I wanted to do obviously. But the EEG did show that Wyatt has seizure activity occurring in his brain, and we were able to start him on medication immediately.

So our week took a different route than we had originally planned, but we are home now and together and have some answers on something that had been worrying us for months. He was originally supposed to get this EEG during the peak here in Michigan and it was obviously postponed, until it couldn’t be.

Anyway! For those interested, I did download many resources for butterfly week.

Resources:

Butterflies – Little Pine Learners

All About Butterflies – Science for Little Learners

Butterfly Math – Linda’s Loft for Little Learners

Painted Lady Butterfly Unit – Stephanie Hathaway

Twig and Moth

Twig and Moth Butterflies and Moths

Books We Read:

Extras:

Wild Republic Butterfly Nature Tube

Insect Lore Life Cycle Toy

A Day of New Life!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn garden, nature6 Comments

Yesterday was a big day around here! We had 6 of our 9 butterflies emerge from their chrysalis – and they couldn’t have had better timing.

It is butterfly week here this week, and Wyatt and I had just settled in to do some work after reading the book Butterfly Birthday. Butterfly Birthday celebrates the beginning of spring and also the birthday of all the butterflies that eclose in the book during the party. So, we read our book, got situated on Wyatt’s lesson, and I glanced down to see a butterfly! Our first butterfly made its appearance minutes after reading our book. Lol. We had to take a break to celebrate – with cake!

We just happened to have some left from Mother’s Day – strawberry with vanilla frosting and sprinkles. Yum!

It’s so cool to us that you can see them as fully formed butterflies within the chrysalis before they emerge. Nature is so amazing! This was the first one born – the one in the chrysalis was the third.

It was a day for new life all around – my seeds are starting to sprout, also something to be excited about! I am most excited about my pumpkins today – I have always wanted to grow our own mini-pumpkin patch. I hope they make it!

My little sprouts! Pumpkins, watermelon, squash, lettuce, and basil all have made their appearances. Outside, the radishes are doing well! We are still waiting on some but this is a great start!

Spring was certainly making itself felt around here yesterday, and with it, a happy hopeful feeling as well.

Little Wanderings

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn day in the life, nature12 Comments

It’s been some time since our family wandered around outside. We have been taking neighborhood walks but we haven’t been out in the world in two months. Our favorite places are sort of crowded these days with everyone else attempting to get out of the house too, so we have been avoiding our usual stomping grounds. Then this weekend, we remembered a few places that we thought might be less busy – and our hunches paid off!

So Sunday after a bellyful of chocolate chip pancakes and a virtual chat over tea with my mom, we pulled on our boots and headed out in search of whatever adventures we could find. Our first stop was a centennial farm and nursery. It was too cold for them to have many flowers out so we made plans to go back in warmer weather (hopefully this upcoming weekend!) and wandered about their beautiful grounds. We spotted fiddlehead ferns, a favorite of mine, so many birds including a cardinal that followed us around, and beautiful trees and plants. It was a brisk morning, cool and overcast and it even rained on us a few times, but that was ok. We don’t mind a little rain.

We also used the opportunity to practice mask wearing with Wyatt. We figured it was good to practice somewhere it wasn’t crowded or imperative to wear one for safety reasons – and where better but in the outdoors. We did encounter employees and the people that lived there, but we maintained social distancing and had masks on, so it was sort of a dress rehearsal for the weeks ahead. Wyatt did ok…. his face is so small though that it easily slips down off of his nose, so we need a plan for that. He likes to fiddle with it too, pulling it down – or up too high! He will get the hang of of it.

The grounds were beautiful but not big enough to satisfy our urge to be outside – so we decided to try a place nearby that we got to sometimes. We spent the short drive there crossing our fingers that it was not overcrowded and we were in luck! We had the place almost to ourselves, and there was more than enough trail for everyone.

It was so wonderful, and it was so good for me, for all of us, to be back outside again, and in nature. It is such a part of our family that we were really missing it. We headed home feeling refreshed, like someone had opened the windows to our souls and aired them out. Now that we know we can do this, we will be venturing out again, hopefully soon!