My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized33 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 a week! Lol. That is about all I can say. Just a basic little week around here, with some good moments as well. Valentine’s Day, pulling Wyatt on a sled through the woods, planning his birthday (he will be 7 in two weeks! How is that possible!), his wheelchair evaluation and ordering, and a trip to the book store too. I have also been thinking about next year and our plans for school; we had a discussion about possibly sending him back but he is doing well here, and after his visit to his PMR doctor we decided to keep on homeschooling. She thinks and agrees he is thriving in the homeschool environment, and she supports us. We also talked about how it keeps his schedule flexible for appointments and therapies, which are also a huge part of our week. I am hoping that next year we will have more opportunities to socialize with other children and I will be looking into that as well. Having made the decision to keep on homeschooling, I started researching curriculum. I think I am going to change things up next year, and pick bits and pieces from different curriculum out there, and even write my own for literary arts next year. I want it to be literature based (obvioulsy) but includes lots of art and music and take us down lots of side trails, which you know we love. So, I guess it was a basic week but one with lots of big decisions being made as well!

Read Last Week:

I didn’t get as much time to read last week but when I did get the chance I really enjoyed this cozy by Mia Manansala! I am not quite finished yet but I will be soon.

Reading This Week:

I have a few contenders! I am not sure which will pique my interest the most so we will just have to see. These are the four staring at me from my shelf..

Any thoughts on these?

Posted Last Week:

Glimpses of Life Around Here

Valentine’s Day

Watching and Listening:

All Creatures Great and Small and Around the World in 80 Days. We finished up Mr. and Mrs. Murder, and moved on to Agatha Raisin’s newest season, and we are giving Loch Ness a try too.

Saturday movie night and another Studio Ghibli! This week we watched When Marnie was There, and this one is my favorite so far! I saw in the credits that it is based on a book, so I will see if I can get the book too. In other Studio Ghibli news I saw that a Studio Ghibli theme park is opening in Japan! How cool would that be to visit? It is going to be very influenced by the nature and pastoral scenes from the movies, with more emphasis on natural spaces and trails – sounds perfect to me!

And our wake up songs! This week we listened to Start Me Up by the Rolling Stones, Sunshine on my Shoulders by John Denver, Fire and Rain by James Taylor, Kitty by The President of the United States, and Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana.

And that is it from around here! What is going on in your neighborhood?

Glimpses of Life Around Here

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized13 Comments

Life has been pretty slow around here lately. We’ve been laying low, and hanging out at the house quite a bit. Billy had a crazy dentist appointment where we learned he needs quite a few things done, including a bone graft from a tooth infection, which prompted the visit in the first place. We have had various family members sick, both from Covid and regular illness, and frankly, the weather has been a pain. We love taking Wyatt out but not when it gets to single digits or even the teens. So, with all these things factored in, we have been just chilling out.

We obviously had quite a library haul the other day. And about 7 new holds came in for Wyatt this week, so tonight I will pick up more and return a few of these. I utilize the library so much – it really does enable us to read so much more. One of Wyatt’s favorite things is reading, much like I loved books and reading at his age, so we fill the house with books. Almost literally.

Tooth number three has left the building. In quite a big showy way. While removing Wyatt’s shirt the other day, his tooth got snagged somehow and came out with a low popping noise. And blood. I am pretty sure I am almost passed out from the trauma. Wyatt, however, was fine. It was loose to begin with but still! We couldn’t find the tooth either! We ended up having the “tooth fairy” deliver his present to the den where the tooth was lost, and we told him that she had special powers to find it. So out of three lost teeth, the first was swallowed, the second was a typical experience, and the third put on a show. The one next to it is loose and wiggly so we will see what number four does!

We have also been planning the garden! I don’t really need to order many seeds this year, but we had fun flipping through and looking for some unique and fun things to plant together. Wyatt was adamant about planting pumpkins this year again, and circled almost every variety. Also lots of kale and spinach although I doubt he really actually wants that. I want to plant a few more apple trees in our yard this year, and I would love a small pond/water feature! Maybe it will attract ducks and toads. I would love some ducks. We are not allowed to “keep” them in our city but if they just happened to hang out here sometimes that would make me happy.

I also was able to have my mom over for dinner the other night, and I was so proud of her for holding Luna. She was a champ! Don’t you think my mom needs one of her own?

I feel a restlessness these days, knowing spring is around the corner. I need to get out and see some new things all. I guess I have cabin fever!! We are going to get out this weekend – I just have to figure out what it is we are going to do!

Valentine’s Day

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized11 Comments

We had a pretty simple little Valentine’s Day this year, but it was a good one. It started out with strawberry Pop-Tarts, which I never buy, but I think I enjoyed mine more than Wyatt enjoyed his. In fact, I know I did since he took a few bites then asked me for toast instead.

After finishing our work for the morning, I set up our little hot chocolate party, and it was time for Wyatt to open his Valentine’s. We are part of an online cohort group for Blossom and Root, the curriculum we are using, and another mother organized a Valentine’s swap for any interested families. She divided us into “classes” of 25 and sent us our class lists and addresses. Wyatt and I looked online at different Valentine’s to make for inspiration and Wyatt found these that he liked. It ended up being an entire family craft project – the three of us spent a snowy Sunday morning creating them. I think they turned out super cute!!

We have been collecting Wyatt’s for two weeks now as they arrive and putting them in his Valentine’s Day mailbox – anyone who went to elementary school in the 80s probably made one similar.

As the envelope of Valentine’s grew fatter, Wyatt grew more excited to open them. Finally it was time for our little cocoa party for two. We had strawberry muffins to accompany our cocoa, although I had forgotten whipped cream! Billy makes super fancy cocoa; I am not that skilled and made it from a pouch, which we both still enjoyed minus the fancy.

After our cocoa party, Wyatt had a special delivery (from Amazon lol). My dad had ordered him a sled but due to all the snow it was delayed. Well, it arrived just in time for Valentine’s day! We are supposed to get another big snow tomorrow so looks like we will be putting it to good use very soon.

He had a good time sitting in it however, and scooting it around the house – and getting me to pull him around the house as well. The box it came in also provided some fun.

Next year I am hoping we can have a party with all of his cousins – all five girls.

Billy and I decided to skip Valentine’s this year for each other; instead this year was just about kiddo. We had grilled cheese sandwiches cut into hearts and french fries for dinner, followed by ice cream all accompanied by strawberry soda, another thing Wyatt never has, soda.

A simple easy day, nothing fancy, but definitely fun and full of love.

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized24 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

We had a basic week this week. Work for Billy, school for Wyatt and I, hanging out with my mom, chilling at home. I am hoping to find something for us to do today after Billy fixes our front porch step, which broke last night. We also got the good news from Wyatt’s therapist that insurance will pay for both his walker and a wheelchair, which is fantastic since Wyatt is not able to just walk everywhere right now. His stamina and endurance and ability right now allows him to walk short distances only, and I am so proud of him for it and all of his hard work, but we also need something for the other times. Kiddo is growing like crazy, 45 pounds and 42 inches and as a woman who is 5 feet tall it can be a challenge to figure out how to get us both around without any assistive devices. A wheelchair will be a welcome addition to the family, as it will be a form of freedom and independence. And phew I went on about that a bit more than I intended!

Read Last Week:

I just couldn’t read the book I had planned for last week, I am an Executioner. It was creepy and weird and clever and I am pretty sure had I not just read Our Crooked Hearts I could have finished it, but I am full up on creepy, weird, and clever for the moment. I picked up How to be a Good Creature instead, which I got for Christmas, and well, it was absolutely perfect. If you read here, you know I am a huge animal lover and always have been. I loved reading about Montgomery’s journey through her life and the animals that most changed her and how, what their stories were. I have had The Soul of an Octopus on my TBR for a while and I will probably be reading it sooner than later now that Montgomery is firmly on my radar. I just loved this book.

Reading This Week:

I started this last night and so far I am really enjoying it!

Reading With Wyatt:

We started a new chapter book read aloud and Wyatt is enamored. I have never read it before either, so it is new to me, and it is super cute so far. Wyatt wanted me to keep reading and reading it – I had to finally call it a night and tell him it was time for bed!

Posted Last Week:

Book Review: Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert

10 on the 10th: Love

Homeschooling: Russia, Tigers, and Lunar New Year

Watching/Listening

Oof. So this list is long this week! We finished Shetland – so good! And what the heck!! That ending I can’t take it!

We are also still watching Around the World in 80 Days and All Creatures Great and Small. We are not used to watching shows weekly anymore, and it is weird to have to wait. And we are watching the Winter Olympics when we get a chance. I am a Winter Olympics fan, more than Summer Olympics, and I was so excited about them starting! I was rambling off to Billy all the events I like – figure skating, skeleton, bobsled, alpine skiing, moguls, biathlon, ski jumping, snowboarding, and the luge – and he just cracked up and said that was the most sporting events he had ever heard me say. We are also occasionally watching Kim’s Convenience and Steel Magnolias.

Our Saturday night movie was Kiki’s Delivery Service, another Studio Ghibli. Billy and I are taking turns picking what we watch. I apparently go for the more cutesy ones while he chose one that was a little less cutesy. I have a feeling the next one we watch will be Nausicaa, as it is Billy’s choice. So far we have watched The Secret World of Arrietty, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Kiki’s Delivery Service, which was adorable. I also learned that Studio Ghibli was formed by the same people who did The Last Unicorn movie, which is an all time favorite of mine, so maybe I will sneak that one in one Saturday.

As for our wake up songs this week, it was a mixed bag as always. Ho-Hey by The Lumineers, We Didn’t Start the Fire by Billy Joel (and somehow my brain still remembered all the lyrics), Maps by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, White Rabbit by Jefferson Starship, and California Dreamin’ by the Mamas and the Papas.

Wyatt has been watching Let’s Go Luna lately, and it is so cute!

And that is about it from around here! What’s been going on in your world?

Homeschooling: Russia, Tigers, and the Lunar New Year

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn homeschooling7 Comments

We have been quite busy around here, learning about Russian folk tales and traditions, tigers, and the Lunar New Year. It love when we can combine subjects and learning, and we have also started adding in more geography and map reading, etc.

I haven’t posted about our homeschooling for a few weeks; I think we last left off at the very beginning, with Peter and the Wolf (which Wyatt still loves and plays at least once a day). We moved on to other stories, Good Night, Wind which is Yiddish, The Snow Child, and The Littlest Matryoshka. The Littlest Matryoshka is not actually a folk tale but I wanted to read Wyatt a story that introduced the Russian nesting dolls to him and that story was just so cute. More on that in a minute. I loved his reactions to these stories, to our retellings using our storytelling basket, and his answers to the journal question for each story.

Of the three stories, Wyatt liked The Littlest Matryoshka the best. I ended up reading it to him a few times that week before it went back to the library, and I agree, it was a lovely little story. When I asked him what design his matryoshka would be if he were a toymaker, he told me without hesitation that his would look like owls. So of course, I was on a mission to find him a set of owl nesting dolls. I told one of my friends and she sent me a link to a plain wooden set, and suggested that we make our own, since we love a project in this house. At first I was like no way – but after a bit I decided that was a fantastic idea. So over the snowy weekend, Wyatt, Billy, and I painted a set of owl nesting dolls for Wyatt.

I assisted Wyatt with the two largest, Billy took on the two smallest, and I did the middle one. This was a really fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon together!

I honestly really loved our art project that accompanied Good Night, Wind. With Wyatt’s cerebral palsy we are always working on fine motor skills, and cutting is so hard for us. First just for him, because his right hand has a difficult time holding on to the paper while “lefty” cuts, and for me because I am right-handed trying to help him cut with his left. It is always interesting. Anyway, the images for the book are stunning, made from cut paper and turned into colorful collages that have such movement. I decided we were going to make a collage too, inspired by the book, using the cut paper technique to give Wyatt some extra practice cutting.

I think it turned out super cute!

We also studied tigers – because of both the Year of the Tiger and Siberian tigers, of course. We also read How to Catch a Dragon, a picture book about the Chinese New Year, and learned that Wyatt was born in the Year of the Sheep, while Billy and I are both Year of the Rabbit.

Wyatt particularly liked the mask.

This was the end of journey through this area of the world for now! Our curriculum has us going to Scotland next, then I think Vietnam after that. We are certainly “world travelers” this year.

Books Read:

(Contains Amazon Affiliate Links)

The Snow Child by Freya Littledale || The Littlest Matryoshka by Corinne Demas Bliss || How to Catch a Dragon by Adam Wallace || Good Night Wind by Linda Elovitz Marshall

Resource Round Up:

(Links to printables, videos, and extra materials used)

Tiger Mini Unit – Life with Moot Moot

Welcome to Russia Lapbook Unit

Matryoshka dolls

Chinese New Year printables

Let’s Go Luna episodes Season 1 episodes 3 and 4 (Moscow); Dragon Dance episode

10 on the 10th

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized26 Comments
I love participating in 10 on the 10th which is hosted by Once Upon a Time Happily Ever After and Marsha in the Middle.

Love Stories:

Something I loved about 2021….

… our summer vacation. We had such a perfect fun time together and Wyatt loved the beach and lake swimming.

Our Love Story

Billy and I met in 3rd grade, when we shared a double desk. I was super quiet, he was super chatty. I think our teacher had hopes that Billy would be quieter if he sat next to me. But, my silence did not dissuade him from talking. He would also draw me pictures and eat part of my lunch (after he asked if he could have it of course – he was always polite)

Then we re-met in high school. He had a mohawk and rode a skateboard everywhere, and I remember my mom told me that she didn’t want me “hanging around with that boy” all summer. After a month or two of getting to know him though, she ended up loving him. And so did I. We were inseperable, not just for that summer, and got engaged 4 years late and were married two years later. We had a huge wedding, 400 people were there, we had 10 people each in our bridal party, and it was New Orleans themed, with cajun food and beads and doubloons and masks. People still talk about our wedding, 21 years later. It was a blast. We took a 17 day honeymoon, going to New Orleans (of course) for a week, followed by a week at Disney World. We certainly lived it up!

And here we are 21 years later. Through good times and bad, hard times and easy times. He and Wyatt are my world.

Things I Love:

What food do you love and must have on a regular basis? Hm. I love soup. And toast. And I have a Haribo Cherries addiction. I eat them every Saturday night for movie night.

What fashion “trend” do you love?  It doesn’t even have to be a current trend. Oh dear. I am so not trendy or fashionable. I will say I love the 70s hair and curtain bangs that people are doing now, but I don’t think it would work on me.

Which season do you love most?  Why is it your favorite? Fall!! I love bonfires, crunchy leaves, chilly nights and warm days, boots and blankets and cider and Halloween – and oh just everything autumn!

If you could be with a loved one who has passed, who would it be and what would you do? This question made me cry. I miss my Aunt Barb so much everyday. I have so many loved ones who I would love to be with again, but my Aunt Barb and I had a special bond. I wouldn’t care what we did but I will say for sure that we would have a cup of tea and a dessert and let her play with Wyatt.

What would you love to accomplish in 2022? Baking cookies that actually look and taste like cookies. My latest attempt looked weird, crumbled like dust, and also tasted like dust. Yum.

Which do you love most:  shoes, handbags, belts, or coats? Coats I guess? I have like two pairs of shoes, no belts, but I do have lots of coats and jackets.

What love remains with you today? Family, animals, nature. Books and words and learning other people’s stories. Freshly fallen snow, a quiet woods. Summer picnics under the trees.

How do you show your love?  What is your love language? I had to take the love language quiz because I had no idea! I am apparently all about quality time and acts of service. I know that I do really just enjoy spending time with those I love, not even doing anything in particular. I also like to help my loved ones – and apparently I like it when they help me too!

Book Review: Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn book review5 Comments

Goodreads Summary:

The suburbs, right now . . .
Seventeen-year-old Ivy’s summer break kicks off with an accident, a punishment, and a mystery: a stranger whose appearance in the middle of the road, in the middle of the night, heralds a string of increasingly unsettling events. As the days pass, Ivy grapples with eerie offerings, corroded memories, and a secret she’s always known—that there’s more to her mother than meets the eye.

The city, back then . . .
Dana has always been perceptive. And the summer she turns sixteen, with the help of her best friend and an ambitious older girl, her gifts bloom into a heady fling with the supernatural. As the trio’s aspirations darken, they find themselves speeding toward a violent breaking point.

Years after it began, Ivy and Dana’s shared story will come down to a reckoning among a daughter, a mother, and the dark forces they never should’ve messed with.

My Thoughts:

Oh my word. This book was so creepy and spooky, with a prevailing sense of dread throughout the entire book, right from the get go. This summer, Ivy’s life is about to get weird. She begins to doubt things that she thinks she knows, learn things that just create more questions, and the one person who can answer these questions is being mysterious, as always.

The reader is slowly invited into the story between the two shifting perspectives of Ivy and her mother Dana, where by creepy little bit by creepy little bit we are introduced to a world of magic. A dark and scary magic, not magic like the sisters in Practical Magic or Sarah Addison Allen’s Waverly series, but a magic that cuts like a knife.

I could not put this book down once I started. I love a good witch book and this one freaked me out, while also crooking a finger that I couldn’t help but keep following through the darkness until I got to the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron books for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review!

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized25 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

Hey all! I hope you all had good weeks last week. Ours was a bit odd – we were expecting to have Wyatt’s EEG this past week but it got bumped due to the predicted snowstorm. We were supposed to get 15 inches of snow; we got 5-6 inches instead. Other than that, the week was pretty quiet and spent homeschooling, reading, playing, and prepping for the snow. I had a moment of panic thinking we were going to be snowed in without coffee so I made sure to buy two bags to be safe.

Read Last Week:

This book was spectacularly spooky! I loved it. I plan on reviewing it this week.

Reading This Week:

This was incredibly hard for me to find at the library! I don’t buy a ton of books, and prefer to use the library. I ended up having to borrow this as an e-book from my library system’s partner libraries. Has anyone read this? It sounds really good to me!

Posted Last Week:

A Little Bit of Everything Valentine’s Gift Ideas

Two Mini-Reviews: The Girl Who Speaks Bear and A Blizzard of Polar Bears

Hello February!

Watching:

We are watching so much Masterpiece right now. I signed up so we could watch All Creatures Great and Small and we have been wandering around watching other shows as well. We are in love with Around the World in 80 Days. It is fantastic. I was sort of lukewarm after the first episode but now I am addicted. We are also watching Kim’ Convenience Store on Netflix.

Saturday night is our movie night. We pop popcorn, eat candy, and pick a movie. Last night’s feature was Howl’s Moving Castle, another Studio Ghibli. I loved it. I think I liked The Secret World of Arrietty a little more but this one was also fantastic.

And I forgot to write down our wake up songs! We listen before we actually get moving so sometimes I forget what they are. Lol. I know we listened to R.E.M. Nightswimming and Landslide by Stevie Nicks, both pretty mellow songs. Nightswimming is a better night song but I love it.

A Little Bit of Everything Valentine’s Gift Ideas

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn holiday gift guide15 Comments

Valentine’s Day. A holiday I have really begun to embrace as a midwinter pick me up, more than a romantic holiday. A day that I can celebrate anyone that I love, from my spouse to my child to family to friends – or even myself honestly. And truth be told, Billy and I rarely celebrate this with big gifts for each other or big nights out (even pre-pandemic!) I do like to pick up little trinkets and cards here and there for people though, as I think we all need a little lift in February. And making people happy makes me happy too!

Sending cards snail mail is on my mind this year. I signed Wyatt up for a Valentine Card exchange with other homeschool families and we are going to start making his this weekend. And that got me thinking.. I think this year I will pick up a few for my friends, and drop them off ninja style on their porches with a bottle of wine. I started browsing Etsy, my go to for all things, and found more cards than I have friends! And of course I looked for cards for Billy while I was at it. I did find so many other cards but shipping was a concern – some places wanted four or five dollars to ship a four or five dollar card and that is not within the amount I wanted to spend. However, I did find cards with shipping costs I could get down with.

(Contains Etsy Affiliate Links)

Fierce Creature Card from Firebrand Press || Woodland Fox Card from Firebrand Press || Toadally Awesome Card from Callam Creations

But since today is a snow day and I have plenty of time to just play around on the interwebs, I did. And so many things caught my eye! Pretty things, useful things, cute things, pink things, even some strange things, for Valentine’s Day. Things for me, for Billy, for the kiddos, for my friends…I guess I am feeling the love this year.

Ghost Friends Bag: This cracked me up. I don’t wear much make up so I don’t need a makeup bag personally, but I love bags like this for travelling and also for keeping all of my pens and stuff in. I feel like one can never go wrong with a bag, and this one is hilarious.

Star Coasters: Just because they are so pretty! (my husband calls me a magpie, which is why my previous blog was called Quixotic Magpie)

I am, I am, I am pin: I know Valentine’s Day and Syliva Plath don’t exactly go hand in hand. But let’s all listen to the brag of our hearts and remember how alive we are.

Mosaic Heart Earrings: I love the colors and how the pieces all come together in a crazy little pattern and hold there – like friendships.

Good Things Are Coming: Sometimes we all need a reminder.

Handmade Basket: My stepmom has been giving me handmade artisan baskets every Christmas and now I am addicted. This one is so pretty! I can imagine filling it with small jars of berry jams and gifting it to a friend – with a loaf of homemade bread for a little extra love.

Valentine Mice: These are just too darn cute! And you have your choice of getting one mouse or two!

Personalized Hot Chocolate Mug: I think I saw on Jinjer’s blog the idea of having a special hot chocolate mug, and thought it was so fun!

Somehow, some way, otters have come to represent our family and also our marriage. Lol. So of course I looked at otter stuff.

Otter t-shirt: This is one tough looking otter.

Otter keychain: Um, just adorable!

Otter bracelet: I can’t help but love this.

And phew this was a lot! But it was just so much cuteness and cheerfulness, I had to share, especially on such a cold and snowy day – at least here it is cold and snowy! I hope where you are you are safe and happy!

Two Mini-Reviews: The Girl Who Speaks Bear and A Blizzard of Polar Bears

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn book review7 Comments

It’s a snowy day here, and going to get snowier. The perfect day to review the two bear books I read in January!

Goodreads Summary:

Found abandoned in a bear cave as a baby, 12-year-old Yanka has always felt out of place in her small village. When she wakes up to find that her legs have become bear legs, she sets off into the forest to discover who she is, on a journey that takes her from icy rivers to smouldering mountains, with an ever-growing group of misfits alongside her… Interwoven with traditional stories of bears, princesses and dragons, Yanka’s journey is a gorgeously lyrical adventure from the best-selling author of The House With Chicken Legs.

My Thoughts:

I absolutely adored this middle grade book! I loved Yanka’s journey to find herself and her history, and the lengths she went to in order to make this discovery. Her journey took her on quite an adventure, with wolves and dragons and near death experiences – all while sorting through her own emotions and feelings about who she is and who she wants to be.

I also loved the “herd” she made along the way. They say friends are the family we make for ourselves, and Yanka, whose family had been very small, added a whole menagerie creatures and people to her family. Mousetrap, Yanka’s house weasel, is such a fun character and I know that when Wyatt and I read this book one day in the future, he is going to get a kick out of him.

I am so happy that I bought this book for our home library – and I plan on adding The House with Chicken Legs very soon!

Goodreads Summary:

Fresh off her wolverine study in Montana, wildlife biologist Alex Carter lands a job studying a threatened population of polar bears in the Canadian Arctic. Embedded with a small team of Arctic researchers, she tracks the majestic bears by air, following them over vast, snowy terrain, spending days leaning precariously out of a helicopter with a tranquilizer gun, until she can get down on the ice to examine them up close.

But as her study progresses, and she gathers data on the health of individual bears, things start to go awry. Her helicopter pilot quits unexpectedly, equipment goes missing, and a late-night intruder breaks into her lab and steals the samples she’s collected. She realizes that someone doesn’t want her to complete her study, but Alex is not easily deterred.

Managing to find a replacement pilot, she returns to the icy expanses of Hudson Bay. But the helicopter catches fire in midflight, forcing the team to land on a vast sheet of white far from civilization. Surviving on the frozen landscape is difficult enough, but as armed assailants close in on snowmobiles, Alex must rely on her skills and tenacity to survive this onslaught and carry out her mission.

My Thoughts:

I was so super excited to read this book – I had loved A Solitude of Wolverines and was anxiously awaiting the next in the series. However, I had mixed feelings about this book. I loved parts of it – there is so much information about polar bears and the town of Churchill that I found interesting. Like did you know that polar bears all have unique whisker points on their face? And that there is a Whiskerpoint Project to collect these IDs? I didn’t either, and how fascinating! Although I would not want to be the one to collect that data. Yikes. And the book didn’t shy away from what climate change is doing to polar bears and their habitat, and also what all the plastics in the world are doing to them either. It was depressing. I always have to skim by anything that talks about how polar bears are suffering, it just really bothers me. I know there would be information on it obviously going into this book, so I was prepared for it but it is still upsetting. That bothered me but didn’t detract from the read in any way. As I said, it was expected and would have been very out of place to omit. All of the book that centered around wildlife biologist Alex were fantastic.

Which brings me to the other half – the action hero Alex. I totally get her background and that she is a total BA, and in the first book, it is only a minor part of the story, compared to this one. It was just. too. much. It actually made it really hard for me to finish reading. It was just over the top I guess, in my opinion. I can of course suspend reality when reading, that is part of the point, and I don’t need books to be totally realistic because that is not why I read fiction. I read nonfiction for that. But this one was just a bit too heavy on the action part for me. I was hoping and expecting some, as it was an exciting part of Wolverines. But it was too much. Will this stop me from reading a third book in the series? Probably not. I will give it another go, this is only the second in the series so perhaps Henderson is finding her way with Alex still. We will see.