Hello everyone!! I decided that this year I am going to be doing book reviews in groups of three, and just little short mini reviews. And it is finally time for me to do three more!
First up is a cozy mystery in the Lighthouse Library series. I really enjoy this series, which I started reading a few years ago. I am pretty behind now so I need to catch up! I just finished book 9, Death by Beach Read.
As always, I love the parts with Charles, the library cat who has moved out of the lighthouse library with Lucy. He is even a hero cat this time around! Lucy and her fiancée, Connor have moved into a fixer upper house on the beach. It is a historical beauty part of the Unpainted Aristocracy of Nag’s Head, and like some old homes, it comes with a bit of drama and secrets. I love books with houses that contain all these old legends and family ghosts and secrets – I can’t help it. I am that person who wanders through old homes and buildings and thinks, “If only these walls could talk.” It’s the history lover in me, I can’t help but wonder what lives have been lived there, what beautiful moments passed there, and also, what sad and tragic ones. Lucy and Connor’s home has quite the legend too – one that scared the child of the former owners away from the home for forty years. It was a sad tale, in a way, but I felt like the mystery unraveled very organically, and the resolution was filled with hope. We also get bits and pieces of Lucy and Connor’s upcoming wedding, which I am looking forward to as well!
And since we are talking about houses with secrets… let’s talk about Home Before Dark.
I have not read all of Sager’s books, but of the three that I have read, this is my favorite so far. This book is about Baneberry Hall, and the secrets it holds…and from what people say, what it remembers as well. After Maggie’s father dies, she learns she has inherited the house that launched her family into infamy – Baneberry Hall. Her family lived there for a brief time, not even a month, when Maggie was five, but it was the single most influencing event in her life. Her family fled one night, saying they would never go back, that it was haunted and dangerous. And then her father wrote a book all about it which went, as kids would say now, viral. But what really happened in those two weeks? Maggie is not certain she believes the story she has been told her whole life, and intends to find out the answers, despite having been warned off by her dad before he passed away, and then later by her mother.
This book kept me reading until the wee hours of the night, and then made me want to sleep with all the lights in the house on. It gave me the super creeps, and I could not put it down. I can’t wait to read another of Sager’s books and be scared out of my mind again!
So, this book was a short little cozy at 164 pages. I enjoyed it, but I did feel like it needed a bit more, like it was bare bones. However, it was not a bad read – it just needed to be developed a bit more – the plot, the characters, the mystery. And now that I am finished, I can see why they are addicting because I am sort of wondering what happens in the next one. I also feel like the main character, Mae West, needs a pet of some sort. It just doesn’t feel right to read a cozy without a little animal sidekick! Maybe once she settles into her new of Happy Trails campground, she will adopt a little cat or dog.
The #20BooksofSummer2025 challenge runs from Sunday June 1st to Sunday August 31st
The first rule of 20 Books is that there are no real rules, other than signing up for 10, 15 or 20 books and trying to read from your TBR.
Pick your list in advance, or nominate a bookcase to read from, or pick at whim from your TBR.
If you do pick a list, you can change it at any time – swap books in/out.
Don’t get panicked at not reaching your target.
Just enjoy a summer of great reading and make a bit of space on your shelves!
I have been seeing this around in the blogging world and thought I would add a small list myself! I like the flexibility of this challenge, since I often make a list then change my mind halfway through.
Also, since my son is having a major surgery in July, I am not sure what to expect at all in terms of anything but taking care of him. I figured though I would aim small and see what happens! I will be reading him a few books while he is recovering, so I am including those as well on here.
First, my own reading choices. I am throwing a bunch out here to choose from.
And then for books I am thinking about reading to Wyatt – some are ones he has had on his shelf, a few are some books I am just throwing in there. I wanted to find some quiet gentle type books for when he is home and not feeling that great but not wanting to sleep either. He loves being read to so that is always a win to make him feel comforted and better.
I guess we will see where summer reading takes us this year!
This week, I decided to list all nonfiction books. Once upon a time, I used to read a lot more nonfiction, especially travel memoirs. I still enjoy them, I just haven’t read very many lately. Does anyone else go through different reading phases or binges?
Into the Wild || Wide-Open World || Dear Bob and Sue
The Lost City of Z || A Walk Across America || Notes from a Small Island
The Sharper Your Knife, the Less Your Cry || The Sweet Life in Paris || Sideways on a Scooter
The Oregon Trail by Rinker Buck: I think out of all of the books listed, this was my favorite. My husband and I read it together, and it was just a fun one to buddy read. I want us to read Life on the Mississippi together, but we just haven’t gotten around to it. There are just so many books out there to read!
And that is it from me today! I can’t wait to see what everyone else has listed!
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date
Hello everyone! I hope you all had a good week. Our week was very quietly busy, if that makes sense. Lots of appointments, lots of being at home. We did have a scare on Friday night. My dad was struck on the head by a baseball at a game and knocked unconscious! They transported him to the hospital by ambulance, where thankfully all his tests came back good!
What I have been reading:
Home Before Dark by Riley Sager. I was late to the party on this author, which I am thankful for on some level because now there are a ton of books I still haven’t read. Every time I pick up one of his books, I end up reading it compulsively until I finish. I can’t put them down! This one is maybe my favorite of the books I have read by him so far.
Death by Beach Read was also a very good read, but not as riveting as Home Before Dark. However, I don’t read them for that same thrill; I read them because they are just more relaxing and chill.
What I am reading this week:
Beaches, Bungalows, and Burglaries is a book I started on audiobook and decided I wanted to finish reading with my actual eyeballs. And Anywhere You Go sounds pretty cute so I am giving it a whirl.
Billy and I have been watching a mix of things lately. Brokenwood, Beyond Paradise, Wheel of Time, and last night we started The Essex Serpent, which was excellent!
We finished up our Springtime in Paris, and I miss it! It is fun to have a “Movie of the Week”. Lisa and I love doing our movie themed watches, but with our families dealing with some different things, we probably won’t do another one together here on the blog until fall.
Tonight, I think Billy and I might watch the movie Holland starring Nicole Kidman. It takes place in Western Michigan, and while her accent sounds all off in previews, I am curious about it. I love that area of Michigan. It is one of our favorite areas to visit! And now I need to know if that is how I sound to people?
And that is it from around here today! I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!
When I put this together, I tried to keep in mind all of the different fathers that I know. Billy, my own dad, my brother, my friends, my cousin. This was a fun little post to plan!
Note: I am an Etsy affiliate, and if you purchase something from a link I will make a small commission at no extra cost to you.
I sort of divided it into different personas.
For the Adventure Dad, the one who likes long drives, points out different landmarks, and stops for weird roadside attractions and ice cream.
That Cryptid National Park Passport book is in my wish list. I might just buy it for a certain dad. I also love that tee shirt and can see so many of the guys I know wearing it! And the kuksa… I added that because I bought one for Billy years ago and he uses it all the time. He told me the other day that it is one of the best things I ever gave him. I figured that was quite the endorsement!
The Gamer and Movie Dad, who can be heard late at night shouting intermittently at the screen, is quick to pick up the controller, and teaches your kids the ins and outs of gaming.
A subtle nod with this gamer sweatshirt, making them noticeable to the other gamers around but confusing those who may not have ever picked up a controller. And speaking of not picking up controllers, this organization stand will keep everything together and neat and tidy. Like a little gaming butler.
And of course, a mug. Because mugs and Father’s Day go together.
For the Dad who is a Fan, who knows all the movie trivia, loves the little small details of their favorite shows, who is tuned in every game day. Show him you are his fan with these gifts!
This Football dad tee, makes a statement without overstating it. Then a series of beverage containers – a Severance mug of Petey’s secret map, a Darth Vader whiskey glass, and my favorite, this wooden Prancing Pony tankard.
I love all of these. I guess I would be a quirky dad, if I were a dad. Does that make me a quirky mom? I will answer that – yes.
I love the Beside a Dying Fire candle, perfect for any dad, but especially that one who likes to sit in his chair and read or write long letters to his farflung friends, via chat. Two vintage posters; one my friend Kelly sent me when I asked her what she would buy her husband from Etsy, and one that I picked out for Billy’s woodworking area. And speaking of woodworking, this personal woodworking brand is actually perfect for your woodworker husband, whether he is a hobbyist or not. Finally, this awesome sweatshirt that says Old Sport. I seriously love it and have included it in my gift guides before. Who doesn’t want a shirt that reminds them of Gatsby?
And if none of these are quite right, Etsy has so much more to choose from. Check out their ideas list here!
So, in my mind I view these updates as different from my Coffee Catch Ups. I feel like in my coffee catch up posts, I focus on the big events. In these, which are more rare, I feel like I share more about the smaller, more everyday, the little things in our lives. What we are doing for joy, the small things, our hobbies. I don’t know if that is what actually happens in these posts, but that is what I aim for.
One thing I have been doing is baking more. With prices at the grocery store getting higher, I have been trying to figure out ways to change our eating habits, by making more and buying less processed versions. I obviously don’t have time to make scratch versions of everything we eat- that would be a fulltime job all on its own, I think. But I have started with some easy, quick things. For one, I “make” my own granola to put on yogurt. That is super simple! Just some oats, maple syrup, honey, cinnamon, whatever bits you want to put in it, and then pop it in the oven for a little bake. I eat this almost everyday for lunch!
I have also been making Wyatt’s beloved granola bars. He loves Kind bars, which are a bit pricey. So I searched online for something to make in place of them. I didn’t find an exact replacement, but I found a recipe for crumbly jam bars that looked interesting so I went for it. The first batch I made was half jam, half plain, because Wyatt is a picky kid with plain tastes. Much like his mother was as a child and still sort of is as an adult. He was not a fan of the version with jam in the middle, but loved the plain version. Mine look like sawdust blocks honestly, but they are so good! They are have this brown buttery caramely oaty taste. I can’t describe it exactly, but they are very good. Even Billy, who is not a fan of that sort of thing, will sneak one now and again. The best thing about them is they only use 8 ingredients and take half an hour tops to make! Some of the ingredients were a bit more up front, but when added up compared to buying actual granola bars it is still cheaper overall, because I can make so many with the ingredients. There is no refined sugar in them either, and while the coconut sugar really isn’t that much better for you, it does have a lower glycemic index so I tell myself they are better. This is the recipe that I use, although I do mix it up a bit.
These are the berry oat bars from the blog The Oven Light. The only things that I do differently are using different flour (I use a white wheat flour), and omit the jam since Wyatt likes them better without. They are super simple and take me no time at all to whip up for the week.
We have also been making our own cookies. I found an awesome recipe for chocolate chip cookies, and it makes so many cookies that we freeze the dough in small bunches to use later.
Later this week or maybe the weekend, whenever I have time, I am going to try making English muffin bread, since we only really eat bread in the morning as toast, and also a different cookie I found last night on Pinterest. They are honey pistachio cookies, and they sound fantastic! Wyatt loves pistachios, and eats them as a snack everyday. I think I will sub the sugar in the recipe with coconut sugar since we like it in the bars. This recipe is from Recipe Yumm.
I have also been keeping up with my embroidery, and with my coloring. I love to sit and color in my cute little book with my new markers while Wyatt paints with his paint sticks. I love these darn paint sticks. Wyatt loves to paint and wants to paint every day – and sometimes it is just a darn mess and a pain to do all the brushes and different paint and water, and well you get it. So on days where I just want it to be simple, he uses the paint sticks. He loves them – and so do I. It’s a very relaxing activity, to sit quietly and paint and color and listen to music. I have my tea, he has his water. I love the simple coloring books best. I don’t want complicated. We watch a YouTuber sometimes who reviews adult coloring books – I can’t remember her name but I will update this when I remember it, or look it up.
And then this week, inspired by both Jeanie from Marmalade Gypsy and Lisa from Boondock Ramblings, I have gotten back into my genealogy! I have found out a lot of information, including a little mystery! I had started my family tree a long time ago, before most of this stuff was online, and had a tree of names and was working slowly on sending away for the proof. Well, I was in my early twenties and soon lost interest. I saved everything though, like the little goblin I am, and pull it out every so often and look at it, and dabble. This week though I have gone a little nuts with it. And then I found some information that is super confusing!
Ok so, let me lay this out. My dad’s great-grandmother, Marie, married his great-grandfather, Alexander “Sandy” Walker in 1905. She lists her name as Marie Domaine, and her parents names as James Domaine and Josephine Bernard from France, although they supposedly lived in Pennsylvania, where Marie lived. However, I can only find one of these names, Josephine Bernard. In the 1900 census, a Josephine Bernard, born in France, and her daughter Marie, also born in France (in the same year that our Marie Domaine was born), worked as a housekeeper for a widower named James Cadamore. Josephine was also listed as a widower. Then I find Josephine Bernard later, married to James Cadamore. I find nothing of Marie Domaine or that last name, and no James Domaine. The area is the exact same, the same city in Allegheny county, they have to be the same people, right? But where did the Domaine come from? Did Marie leave home and create a new identity? Lisa suggested that Domaine is her biological father’s name, who if she is the Marie in the census, was born in Belgium. What is the story here? The dates and location and most of the names fit – just that Domaine is weird. What do you all think?
And this is it from me today! I am off to find some more coffee. I hope that whatever you do today, that you do something that makes you smile, my friends!
And don’t forget, we have drop in crafternoons! Our next one is May 24th. If you are interested in dropping by, send me an email at crackercrumblife@gmail.com!
Hello everyone! Have you ever had those mornings where the coffee just hits perfectly? That is my morning coffee today. I don’t even know what I am drinking today, it is just good.
It was a bit of a week this week! I think our weeks are going to be like this for a while, while we are in the run-up to Wyatt’s surgery. Just a lot of different appointments and phone calls and arranging equipment, and so on. And if any of you have dealt with insurance companies, you know how many hoops you need to jump through first, and the amount of phone calls you need to make! However, it does look like things are starting to all come together, and as a person who needs things prepared and ready, I am starting to at least feel better on that front!
I made a joke yesterday that my whole week has been spent between doctors appointments and the fish store, because it has. Who knew this new fish tank would give me (and Billy) such a headache! It is our first community tank so it is a learning curve. We had a few losses right away, because our parameters were off, but we have been diligently doing 75% water changes almost daily and running up to the store for water tests. We have three lemon Tetra, that we named the Lemon Sisters, two albino African dwarf frogs who have had a few different names, we can’t settle on any, and one Khuli loaches. Once our water is perfect (and we are soooo close!) we are adding two more loaches because they prefer to live in a group. I read that they will actually die of loneliness if they are the only one in a tank! Ours should be ok since it won’t be that long of a wait – I asked Sam at the fish store to make sure! It seems like our little frog likes it though, and they hang out together. So maybe the loach doesn’t feel so lonely. That group needs a name too. If anyone has any name suggestions for the frogs and loaches, I would love to hear them! (and I snuck a photo of Wyatt’s favorite fish, Moon, into the group here, even though he lives on his own)
Wyatt and I also went for a stroll and browse through my favorite nursery the other day. I still haven’t given up on my plan to plant a tree or trees in my yard. I had originally wanted to plant birch trees, but with the new ramp I don’t think it will work. So I am thinking maybe a Japanese Willow now? I also liked the look of the Whipcord Red Cedar, but that might be a bit much too, lol. Wyatt found the name “Crabapple” tree hysterical, and laughed about the whole time we were there. I did buy two little rue plants to put on the deck, as a small offering to the butterflies.
Last night we had Cub Scouts!! It was a very chill, easy meeting this time, with the kids working on windchimes to hang in the yards. I would have said they were for their mother’s as gifts, but in our group, the mothers are there with their children and helped them make them. Our little pack is getting so close and it makes me so happy. Wyatt even allowed one of the other kids to push him in his wheelchair, which is unusual! He usually only lets family do that, so Billy and I were happily surprised at that development! Wyatt was playing, and with someone other than his cousins! He was slightly apprehensive, I could tell by his face, but his desire to play was greater than his apprehension. Progress!!
The kids all seemed to have a good time designing their wind chimes, choosing the best and most “aesthetic” beads as one little girl kept saying, and putting them together. The parents all seemed relaxed (even me!) and it was just a fun night.
Next month we have a few things lined up- a fishing derby, a meeting, and then the kids are helping my church pack bag lunches to hand out free to the community.
I even had an outing, all on my own! The clinic where Wyatt has therapy hosts a Mother’s Day event every year, and it so fun to go too. This year it was Kentucky Derby themed, and we had to dress up a bit and wear hats or fascinators. They had games, good food, prizes, and lots of togetherness. We all shared our wins for the past year, and there were some tears among us moms of special needs kids, feeling the hardships and pain, but also celebrating the wins, big or small.
And then that was our week! It was a week of ups and downs, but I think that is what life is, isn’t it? A series of ups and downs? We enjoy those up moments, and then rally together for the hard ones.
And I will say goodbye for today! I hope that whatever you do today, that you do something that makes you smile!
Hello everyone!! Welcome to week six of our Paris film journey! Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I wanted fun and whimsy and beauty this spring, and although an actual trip to Paris in the spring would be better, a film journey will have to do.
This was our final week viewing movies set in Paris, and I feel like we saw six very different stories. It was fantastic, and I had so much fun!
Our final movie was Charade, starring Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant.
I was very excited about this movie! I love both of these actors, and I could not wait to see them on screen together. I didn’t know what to expect at all, and I can guarantee you had I thought about it, I would never have imagined this movie and dynamic.
First, let’s see how Rotten Tomatoes sums it up. “After Regina Lampert (Audrey Hepburn) falls for the dashing Peter Joshua (Cary Grant) on a skiing holiday in the French Alps, she discovers upon her return to Paris that her husband has been murdered. Soon, she and Peter are giving chase to three of her late husband’s World War II cronies, Tex (James Coburn), Scobie (George Kennedy) and Gideon (Ned Glass), who are after a quarter of a million dollars the quartet stole while behind enemy lines. But why does Peter keep changing his name?”
Hmm where to begin! First, this cast was pretty spectacular. Besides our two leads, we have Walter Matthau, James Coburn, and George Kennedy. I don’t think I had ever seen any of those men young before so that was interesting in itself! James Coburn was terrifying, honestly, as Tex. There was a scene where he had Hepburn’s character, Reggie, trapped, and was flicking lit matches at her and it was very creepy! It was a well shot scene, and Coburn played menacing very well.
This movie was crazy and all over the place and I liked the chaos. Hepburn and Grant meet while she is on vacation in the Alps, and they have a strange conversation about divorce and views and are they now friends, etc. She has already stated that she is planning to divorce her husband, as neither of them love each other, so when she returns home and learns her husband is dead, she is not super upset over it. She is a bit confused, as she doesn’t know why anyone would want to kill him, or why he would have chosen to sell everything in their apartment, or where the money from that sale is. Which is the point of the movie. Just where is that money, because everyone wants it.
Hepburn’s character is that of a cute little imp, slightly scattered and irreverent, silly, yet she has a pretty important job as a simultaneous translator. She meets with all of these different men, Walter Matthau of the CIA, Jacques Marin of the Paris police (who was also in How to Steal a Million), the men who knew her husband during the war, and while she takes them seriously, there is also an air of.. je ne sais quoi about her. She is hard to describe and summarize, which I enjoyed.
She cracked me up in her pursuit of Grant’s character. It was very cheeky on her part, and he seemed to do his best to hold her at bay, in his own goofy way. I read online that this was Grant’s last role as a leading man, as he felt weird about the age gap, and that they actually changed the script around so that Hepburn was chasing Grant, rather than Grant chasing Hepburn. They felt it would be more palatable to the viewers. There is one scene where Hepburn “traps” Grant in her hotel room by trickery, and that scene might have been slightly off putting if done differently. First, if Grant had done that to her, it would have come off very differently to the audience; in this scene though, it was more like two kids playing, and that was because of how the two treated it. Hepburn slammed the door shut and laughed and Billy and I had a chuckle because it reminded us of The Count Van Count from Sesame Street laughing, and the expression on her face was very open and just like it seemed, like “ha ha ha”. Grant’s character took it in stride and handled the whole thing in a very goofy way as well, by showering in his suit.
I thought their dynamic was just so playful and friendly in this movie. I think it was obvious that the two enjoyed each other’s company in a platonic way, that they were just good friends having a lark, and that this was all good fun for them. I enjoyed just watching the two of them interact much more than I cared about where the money was or who the killer was or figuring out the mystery.
The two remained friends throughout their lives. I found this on the Christie’s website, and it just seems so perfect.
Hepburn and Grant met for the first time in a Paris restaurant just before filming began on Charade, introduced by their mutual friend and director Stanley Donen. Audrey, admitting she was terribly nervous, knocked over a bottle of red wine, staining Grant’s cream suit. Donen wrote the funny incident into the film, when Hepburn as Reggie accidentally tosses a scoop of ice cream onto Grant’s jacket. Like all Hepburn’s leading men, with the possible exception of Bogart, Grant was instantly charmed by her, telling a reporter after filming All I want for Christmas is another movie with Audrey Hepburn.
As evidenced in Grant’s playful letter, the co-stars remained affectionate friends. Years after Grant’s death in 1986, Hepburn reminisced Cary – such a lovely souvenir in my life… He had me down flat the minute he met me. I think he understood me better than I did myself.
And I have wandered a bit away from the movie itself, but that is ok, right?
And that my friends, is a wrap on Springtime in Paris! I hope that you have enjoyed it as much as I have. Thank you to everyone who has commented and watched and posted along with us! I have enjoyed reading your thoughts on these movies!!
Did you watch? What do you think of this movie? Feel free to comment and/or link up with us!
This week’s prompt: Authors (or books by authors) Who Live In My State/Country
I chose to go with authors from my home state of Michigan, or who lived in Michigan for a part of their lives. I apologize in advance for the length of this post!
Angeline Boulley: “Angeline Boulley, an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, is a storyteller who writes about her Ojibwe community in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. She is a former Director of the Office of Indian Education at the U.S. Department of Education. Her debut novel Firekeeper’s Daughter was an instant #1New York Times bestseller and recipient of many internatioanl accolades including the ALA Printz and Morris Awards; the YA Goodreads Choice Award; the Walter Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature; and is Carnegie Mellon nominated. Angeline lives in southwest Michigan, but her home will always be on Sugar Island.” (from Macmillan Publishers)
I have loved both Fire Keepers Daughter and Warrior Girl Unearthed. I can’t wait to read her new one, Sisters in the Wind, that comes out in September. So far both books have been set in Michigan, in the area that Boulley is originally from.
Beth Nguyen: “Beth Nguyen is the author of four books, most recently the memoir Owner of a Lonely Heart, published by Scribner. Owner of a Lonely Heart was a New York Times Editors’ Choice pick and was named a best book of 2023 by NPR, Time, Oprah Daily, and BookPage. Nguyen’s three previous books, the memoir Stealing Buddha’s Dinner and the novels Short Girls and Pioneer Girl, were published by Viking Penguin. Her awards and honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Book Award, a PEN/Jerard Award, a Bread Loaf fellowship, and best book of the year honors from the Chicago Tribune and Library Journal. Her books have been included in community and university read programs around the country. Nguyen’s work has also appeared in numerous anthologies and publications including The New Yorker,The Paris Review, The New York Times, Literary Hub, Time Magazine, and The Best American Essays.
Nguyen was born in Saigon. When she was a baby, she and her family came to the United States as refugees and were resettled in Michigan, where Nguyen grew up.
She received an MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan and is currently a professor in the creative writing program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.” (From https://www.bethminhnguyen.com/bio)
I read Stealing Buddha’s Dinner for book club years and years ago it feels like, and I found it a very interesting read! It is a memoir and takes place in Grand Rapids, MI.
Jeffrey Eugenides: “Jeffrey Eugenides was born in Detroit and attended Brown and Stanford Universities. His first novel, The Virgin Suicides, was published by FSG to great acclaim in 1993, and he has received numerous awards for his work. In 2003, he received the Pulitzer Prize for his novel Middlesex (FSG, 2002), which was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and France’s Prix Médicis. The Marriage Plot (FSG, 2011) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and won both the Prix Fitzgerald and the Madame Figaro Literary Prize. His collection of short stories, Fresh Complaint, is from FSG (2017). Eugenides is a professor of creative writing in the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton.” (From Macmillan Publishers)
I have read this book and watched this movie so many times, and it never fails to make me cry. What an absolutely heartbreaking story. I have not read any of his other work, although I feel like I should.
Christopher Paul Curtis: “Christopher Paul Curtis won the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Award for his bestselling second novel, Bud, Not Buddy. His first novel, The Watsons Go to Birmingham–1963, was also singled out for many awards, and has been a bestseller in hardcover and paperback. His most recent novels for Random House include The Mighty Miss Malone, Mr. Chickee’s Messy Mission, Mr. Chickee’s Funny Money, and Bucking the Sarge. Christopher Paul Curtis grew up in Flint, Michigan. After high school he began working on the assembly line at the Fisher Body Plant No. 1 while attending the Flint branch of the University of Michigan. He is now a full-time writer, and lives with his family in Windsor, Ontario.” (From Random House)
I have this book on Wyatt’s list for next year!
Anissa Gray: “Anissa Gray was born and raised in western Michigan. She is the author of the critically acclaimed 2019 novel The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls. Gray is also a journalist whose work has been featured in The Washington Post, CNN, The Cut and Shondaland. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her wife.” (From https://anissagray.com/about)
I have had this book on my TBR for a while now. I didn’t know she was a Michigan native!
Joyce Carol Oates: Oates moved to Detroit in 1962 with her husband, Raymond Smith. The two were English Professors at two universities in Detroit. Oates worked for U-D Mercy, while Smith worked for Wayne State. At this point in her life, she had not yet published a novel. Her time in Detroit is said to be very influential on her work, as she took in the city as it was then. She was here during the riots in 1967, a time that has not been forgotten for anyone who was around then. My mom remembers the curfews, Billy’s dad was living in the city as well and remembers the violence of that time. She eventually moved across the river to Windsor, where she wrote the book, Them. The Detroit Free Press says about this book, ‘In her first months in Canada, Oates finished her novel “them,” in which Detroit is a character, just like human characters, scuffling, hurting, prone to violence. “All of Detroit is melodrama, and most lives in Detroit fated to be melodramatic,” the narrator says.” (Detroit Free Press)
I have not yet read this book. I went through a time where I binged Joyce Carol Oates and I am pretty sure it plunged me into almost a depression of sorts. It was all just so heavy and violent and tragic and sad, and I have not gone back to that well. She is an amazing writer – I just don’t recommend binging her work all at once!
Chris Van Allsburg: From his bio on Penguin: “As long as I can remember, I’ve always loved to draw. But my interest in drawing wasn’t encouraged very much. Growing up in the 1950s, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, boys were supposed to be athletic. Certain peer pressures encouraged little fingers to learn how to hold footballs rather than crayons.
My early love for drawing developed into a love for telling stories through pictures. Stories begin as fragments of pictures in my mind. I create a story by posing questions to myself. I call it the “what if” and “what then” approach. For example, for my book Jumanji, I started out by thinking “What if two bored children discovered a board game? What if the board game came to life? What then?” The Polar Express began with the idea of a train standing alone in the woods. I asked myself, “What if a boy gets on that train? Where does he go?” After the boy got on, I tried different destinations out in my mind. “What about north? Who lives in the north?” Then ideas of Christmas, Santa Claus, and faith began to take shape.”
He has many books, but Jumanji is my favorite.
Elmore Leonard: “Author Elmore Leonard was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1925. His family moved frequently until 1934 when they settled in Detroit, Michigan, when his father got a job with General Motors. Leonard joined the navy after graduating high school in 1943, and served during World War II. After three years, he left the navy and enrolled at the University of Detroit, majoring in English and Philosophy. Leonard worked at the Campbell-Ewald advertising agency while still in college.
Around 1950, Leonard began writing and publishing short stories and western novels for magazines, with the first being The Bounty Hunters in 1953. Some of the other most notable works were Three-Ten to Yuma also published in 1953, as well as Hombre, in 1961. Leonard then moved into educational films and crime novels. His first big crime novel was The Big Bounce in 1969; He followed that novel with titles such as Fifty-Two Pickup in 1974, and Swag in 1976. His breakout novel however, was his crime thriller Glitz, in 1985, which followed a Miami detective being stalked by a criminal he had sent to prison. Leonard based most of his novels in Detroit and Florida, and was known for his working-class protagonists, damsels in distress, and particularly colorful and sleazy villains.
Leonard and his novels have been nominated for numerous awards, such the PEN Lifetime Achievement Award. One of his short stories, Fire in the Hole, became the basis for the television series Justified. Some of his other short stories and novels such as Rum Punch and Three-Ten to Yuma have been made into films. Rum Punch was adapted into the Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown.
Other well-known works by Elmore Leonard include: City Primeval, Stick, Freaky Deaky, and Get Shorty. Elmore Leonard passed away on August 20, 2013, following a stroke.” (From the Detroit Historical Society website)
Leonard is an author I have never read, but my dad enjoys reading him so I wanted to include him for sure!
Jim Harrison: “Jim Harrison was born in Grayling, Michigan, to Winfield Sprague Harrison, a county agricultural agent, and Norma Olivia (Wahlgren) Harrison, both avid readers. He married Linda King in 1959 with whom he has two daughters.
His awards include National Academy of Arts grants (1967, 68, 69), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1969-70), the Spirit of the West Award from the Mountain & Plains Booksellers Association, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2007).
Much of Harrison’s writing depicts sparsely populated regions of North America with many stories set in places such as Nebraska’s Sand Hills, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Montana’s mountains, and along the Arizona-Mexico border.” (Goodreads Summary)
He has been on my TBR for ages. Maybe this is the year to read him.
Ok this last one… I debated on and then decided to just do it.
Ernest Hemingway: “Ernest Hemingway’s connections to Michigan began when his parents first brought their six-week-old son there for three days in September 1899. His father, a young physician, practiced medicine in his hometown of Oak Park, Illinois, and his mother was an artistically inclined woman who enjoyed the cultural aspects of their Chicago suburb. The previous summer the Hemingways visited Walloon Lake (then named Bear Lake) and were so taken with the area that they purchased two hundred feet of waterfront property. The 1899 trip was to finalize plans for the building of their cottage, Windemere. They took pictures, selected the exact site on the property where it was to be located, and arranged for construction during their brief stay. The next summer would be the first full one there for the family, and Ernest would return to Michigan each year until he was married in 1921. Even today members of the Hemingway family either summer or live year-round in the area.”
Hemingway is not a favorite of mine, but I do think it is cool that he visited Northern Michigan for so many summers, just like I have. He has a few books set there, including The Big Two-Hearted River (and just an FYI, there is also a Michigan craft beer named Two-Hearted as well). I think it is neat that I have walked in and vacationed in some of the same places Hemingway did, and found peace in.
And my friends, that is my very long post of Michigan authors! I can’t wait to hop around visiting this week – because it will take me all week probably to visit everyone!
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date
Hello everyone! Our week was pretty good. We had some ups and downs but overall, pretty good. Wyatt and I had a nice routine week, we had some fun moments, we refreshed some of our fish tanks, we saw some cousins – those were all good. I had some news about my mom that was not so great, and is causing me some anxiety, but I am hoping and praying for a solution.
What I am Reading:
I didn’t finish anything last week, but I did start reading two books. Then Friday the book I was waiting for came in, so I am going to start that one too. So I guess I am reading a few books this week.
Version 1.0.0
I hope to finish A Prayer for the Crown Shy today at some point. I am also enjoying Budde’s book How We Learn to Be Brave.
We have been pretty much collapsing into bed after full days over here, so not much television has been happening. We did watch The Brokenwood Mysteries, Beyond Paradise, and The Wheel of Time.
In addition we have been watching our Springtime in Paris movies! Last week was The Intouchables, which was such a feel good movie. If you need a pick me up, watch this one.
This week we will watch our final movie in our six week Springtime in Paris journey. I will be sad to say goodbye! It was such a fun little movie watching challenge. We are ending things with Charade with Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant, and I am very excited to watch it.
Online Things Happening:
While we are wrapping up Springtime in Paris, Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I are still hosting our Drop In Crafternoons once a month. Lisa and I have been hosting crafternoons for fellow bloggers on Zoom since January, and it has been so fun. It is nice to meet the person behind the blog, hear their voices, and share more stories – all while we work on whatever craft we choose! There is no right or wrong activity, you don’t even need to craft if you don’t want to. Just hang out, that is fine too!
I have also started adding downloadable, printable children’s birthday invitations to my Etsy store, Fox and Firth. I have been trying to create three a day and adding them, so keep checking back as the inventory is constantly growing!
And that is about it from me today! I hope that you are all are feeling happy and loved, and do something today that makes you smile!
Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.. 