It’s time for mini book reviews again! I like to do them in groups of three, sometimes four. Today I have three!
I am so thankful that I learned about Taber. I am slowly trying to make my way through her books, and this was the second one that I have read. I liked this one a little better than Stillmeadow and Sugarbridge, which I loved, only because it was all in Taber’s voice and perspective, and it was nice to meander through her life with her. She has such a wonderful POV, and it is just a relaxing and slice of life read.
ETA: Taber is an author who wrote memoir, essay style books about her life in the country and on the cape. It is gentle vintage fiction from an earlier era. I love the gentleness and just everydayness of it.
“April twilights are blue and deep. The air smells of growing things and running brooks. The pond holds the sky in it. The stars come out.”
This is the third and maybe final book in the series, which makes me sad. I really loved this series! It is a cute, easy to read series, and is absolutely so cozy. I love the town of Poppyville and I will miss it – and of course Dash as well, that cute little corgi you see on the cover. This book in particular was a lot of fun as it had a gold rush plot which is not something I see in very many books. One thing that I loved as well was a Gladys Taber reference! I could not believe it, considering I had just read Stillmeadow Daybook!
“I’d never get to sleep feeling so anxious, so I dug out a book of Gladys Taber essays that never failed to relax me, and read for an hour or so, reveling in her descriptions of cocker spaniels and life in an old Connecticut farmhouse..”
An Escape Goat was another really fun cozy! In this one, the main character Callie has connected with long lost family on the East Coast (she is from Seattle) and started a goat yoga retreat business on their farm. Of course, being a cozy mystery means that someone has to die. And they do. I said on Instagram that this is like a book version of a Luke Bryan song, but with murder, and I stand by that. It just has all those vibes – wholesome summer fun on the farm, big old trucks barreling down country roads, picnics with all the fixings, outdoorsy activities, small towns. I really loved it and need to get the next one in the series!
And that is about it from me here! Just a few short little thoughts on some good reads!
Hello! In honor of Disability Book Week, I wanted to share a small list of titles that promote disability representation in books. I know how thrilled Wyatt gets when he sees someone in a wheelchair in a book or in a movie, and I look for books for him that have wheelchair users or characters with cerebral palsy, that are represented in positive ways. We all like to see ourselves in books, or recognize small bits of us at least, and I am glad that writers these days are being inclusive of all or are at least working on it. This is especially important these days, when so many books are being banned, especially books that contain characters from marginalized communities.
This list is mainly comprised of books for elementary up to YA age groups, but that doesn’t mean that adults can’t read them!
*The longer I work on this list, the longer the list gets. I am going to put a few representative books on here, then make a dedicated page with a list of just titles and authors that is more comprehensive
Hello everyone! It is a sunny day with predicted temps in the 50s today. I have a cup of coffee, a kitten on my lap, and a little boy next to me. I am trying to stay centered and present right now these days. It’s been a heavy week, hasn’t it? It’s easy to feel lost and overwhelmed, and we need to do what we can in order to keep ourselves as sane as possible. Right now, I know I have responsibilities and the biggest one is Wyatt. I keep one eye and prayers on current events, and focus on Wyatt who needs me to keep things together here.
That being said, yesterday I just did just that, I kept my ear to the ground and went about my day. I prayed, I lamented, and I also took Wyatt to therapy, where he absolutely blew his therapist and I away. She put him in a gait trainer, which is like a walker but with more support, and he took off cruising, practically running. I couldn’t even get a video because I was so shocked honestly. Neither of us have ever seen him move quite like that! We have watched him use this gait trainer for a few weeks, building back up to it after his surgery last July, with some struggles, determination, and some drama as only Wyatt can provide. Yesterday though, he did it so easily. It all clicked and came together in one boy yesterday.
I also went to yoga for the first time in forever and ever. My friend Kelly and I went to a local class held in an building downtown in our city. It was her first time ever and I was proud of her too! I had to laugh though – we have been friends over thirty years and I have never once seen her sweats and a t-shirt. She is always meticulously dressed. It was so cathartic and restful, and my body and soul needed that. As we sat there, in the old auditorium with it’s wooden floors and antique lighting along the high ceiling, I just felt such peace for a moment. It felt good to be moving my body with such purpose again, feel its strengths (and weaknesses – ugh my core!), and then the final relaxing pose on the mat at the end. I left feeling very refreshed and so did Kelly. When I asked her how she felt she told me that she felt like she really needed that, and I understood exactly what she meant. I am hoping to go every Tuesday night now.
I popped by to see my mom afterwards and she was doing so well. They changed her meds last Friday, and they told us to expect her to be very sleepy over the weekend, which she was. So I was happy to see last night a bright eyed, happy mother. She was chatty and awake, and I saw some real improvement in her. For those who don’t know, my mom had a stroke last month, and she also has moderate dementia. She has some mobility issues as well, but I am hoping with the meds change, we can get her up and out more, at least out of bed. They were really making her very weak and not doing much to help her at all. I went home feeling pretty good about my corner of the world, for at least one day. And that is where I am at these days, one day at a time.
Last week Wyatt and I took some time off for a spring break. We didn’t do too much, mostly just hung out at home and read and played and things like that, lots of art happened, but we had one day out with Mermaid Girl. All three of us are book people, so I took Mermaid Girl with us on one of our bookstore and dessert days! I picked an awesome bookstore too, Coreanders in Grosse Pointe Park. It is designed for kids and is filled with storybook murals and a tall stalk with a sun at the top in the center of the store, shelves of books and cozy reading spots. It even has an ice cream shop and a secret garden. We kicked things off with McDonalds, and then once we were at the store, we spent two hours wandering around, choosing books, chatting, having ice cream. It was so fun.
One of the coolest things about Coreanders is that it is two floors and the elevator is even a mural, all the way up. The door has a glass window and on the wall of the elevator shaft is a mural that follows the path of the elevator, so you are treated to scenes from The Hobbit as you make your up and down. It is really cool.
I didn’t get many photos this time, the weather was gray and gross and the garden has not grown yet, plus I was too busy with two kids and being in the moment, so I will share some photos from the first time I visited.
It is very cool, and it was the perfect little day off. We all left happy and with books (or for me, a journal and some bookmarks) in our hands. The kids also enjoyed ice cream, which was only 3 dollars for two giant scoops! A deal!
Afterwards Mermaid Girl came over and played with Wyatt and Mouse and Max before her dad came to get her. It was a nice time!
We also finally finished up the Gold Rush in history! We celebrated with a “Gold Rush” dinner of beans, bacon, and homemade biscuits, and we sat on the floor in our den on a buffalo plaid blanket. We all decided while the dinner itself was not bad, we certainly wouldn’t want it too often, much less for every meal! Something fun I learned about the gold rush – I mean, Wyatt learned- a bath cost $10 dollars which would have been about $419 dollars today!! Then I read randomly in the Gladys Taber book I just read, Stillmeadow Daybook, that the boomtowns had a rodent issue, so a shipload of I think 3000 cats was sent to California, where they sold to those argonauts for $10- $20 a cat! They were also often stolen from their owners, as they were in high demand!
And with that little tidbit, I will say goodbye. I hope whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!
It’s time for mini book reviews again! I like to do them in groups of three, sometimes four.
Let’s start with Trixie!
Trixie Belden The Secret of the Mansion: I loved Trixie Belden growing up and when I picked this up at the used book store I had to take it home with me. I am cracking up reading it now as an adult – these kids either have the best luck or worst luck, I can’t tell! So far, a small boy was bit by a copperhead, Honey almost got run over by a truck, Trixie dove into a shallow part of the lake, hit her head and knocked herself unconscious (with no follow up care), Trixie was thrown from a horse, Jim fell off a ladder, and a stray dog charged them and then died suddenly at their feet, a small aircraft crashed on their land, and a house burned down. It was a crazy ride, but I loved it. I loved the fact that Trixie had chores on her farm but also lots of freedom to be a kid, I loved that balance of responsibility and then just being a kid. It was nice to revisit Trixie and her friends, and I will probably keep reading this series, all over again.
Next up, another mystery, Nightshade for Warning, part of the Enchanted Garden series.
Nightshade for Warning: This series is so fun! I am bummed that it appears there are only three in the series, and I am picking up number three today from the library. Don’t authors know we want to keep reading a series forever when we like it? Lol. Anyway, this was another light read, full of flowers and intrigue, and aromatherapy. Ellie gets embroiled in another murder mystery, this time not to save herself but to save her brother’s fiancee, who is the top suspect. And of course Dash and Nabokov make appearances as well! You can see Nabby the cat in the window, hiding there on the shelf.
Speaking of cats..
Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter: I absolutely loved this book. It had cats, magic, cat welfare awareness, and it was set in 1920s Montreal. It was fantastic. In this world, average everyday people who are magicless don’t really care for those who are magical, believing them to be reckless. Agnes definitely is not a fan of magical wizards, so when she finds out that the Dark Lord himself is her landlord she is not thrilled. But she needs the space for her cats so she makes it work.
I loved Agnes’ character. She was a take charge, Type A personality, yet still quirky. Agnes likes things organized, loves a list (much like me lol), and loves her cats, all forty some of them, and worries about the ones still on the streets. Does she enter into a working relationship with the dreaded Dark Lord to help her cats? You will have to read to find out!
I was very involved in animal rescue for years before Wyatt was born, I helped start an organization, fostered, served on the board, volunteered at the shelter multiple nights a week, and I would like to add that from the perspective an animal rescuer, this book was spot on. The TNR efforts, all the little details involved, were perfect. Fawcett either has to be in animal rescue herself or did some thorough research!
I loved this book, and it is a definite five star for me!
When Wanderers Cease to Roam: I had been slowly savoring this book for a few months, diving in here and there when I needed a pick me up. I loved reading Swift’s memories, her snippets about cats and weather and nature and being cozy, the names she picked for each month. I loved her illustrations as well. This book is a treat for the soul. Thank you Jeanie at Marmalade Gypsy for sharing about it on your blog!
And that is it from me today!! I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!
Hello everyone! It is time once again for me to post a few mini reviews!
A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping is perfectly adorable. This book is all about love, what we will do for those we love, and finding the people we love. Just so much love. There is also some very villainous villains in this one too, a zombie rooster, a talking fox who is really a witch who has been cursed by her own curse, and various other magics at play. The characters are all those who have been hurt by others, whose existences were not deemed acceptable, for being different or “other”. The inn is a place whose real magic is love and healing, and it is just such a cozy, heartwarming read.
Yay for book one for me this year in the Books in Translation challenge! The Amberglow Candy Store was a very cute, simple, and quick read. I wasn’t in love with it, and I felt like it read pretty young. I actually even looked it back up to see if it was maybe middle grade but it isn’t. However, it wasn’t a bad book. It is split up into different little stories, like most of these healing fiction style books, and I definitely had my favorite stories. I loved the story of Ayumu, and I loved the story about Kogetsu, the han-yu who runs the shop. His story was probably my favorite. This story also made me want to try the types of treats mentioned in this book! All of them are unknown to me, and now I want to try them myself!
I do love this cover immensely as well.
I picked this up as a blind date with a book and it was an amazing read! This is a fictional thriller, murder mystery book, and I literally didn’t want to put it down. The mystery was well done, but even more so the depiction of social media. The ups and downs, the reality and the facade. What is authentic, what is not. And how even when we know that, we are still drawn in by the images and stories we see. I loved too that this was all juxtaposed against investigative journalism and social media, and research vs. opinion. It was all fascinating and I couldn’t stop reading. This is not to say either that all stories and images we see online are inauthentic or fake; just that maybe we all need to realize that everyone no matter how perfect they seem online, is still human.
I also really enjoyed the author pointing out that these women influencers are very powerful, rich women, some of them billionaires behind the scenes from their work as influencers, yet they are under the radar or not acknowledged as such. They might have a different sort of job, but at the same time are CEOs of their brands, which can pull in the big money. Why are they not acknowledged as highly as other powerful CEOs, or even acknowledged at all? I thought this was a very interesting viewpoint.
J0 Piazza spent five years down the rabbit hole, doing research, and is in fact a journalist herself. When she had her baby in 2020 (I think) she began a deep dive behind the moms behind the blogs and Instagrams that always looked so perfect and had it under control, and began the podcast Under the Influence which is all about this topic. I of course started listening and it is just as fascinating as this fiction thriller!
Hello everyone! Just when we thought winter was ending, we got a fresh layer of snow. Sigh. More than the snow, I am ready for the germs everywhere to disappear for the season! Michigan is still at a high level for flu, and it has been holding steady for two months. We actually had to cancel our skating trip because all but two kids are sick! (and knock on wood they stay well!)
Books:
Last week I read two books!
Everyone is Lying to You is a library book I got in one of those blind date with a book things. I absolutely loved it and could not stop reading it.
The Amberglow Candy Store… not as much. It was very sweet (lol) but it read very young. I actually went and looked to see if it was a middle grade book but it is not. It was not a bad read, but I didn’t love it. I do love this cover though!
This week I am not sure what I am reading. I do have a few I am thinking about.
I am also anxiously awaiting a hold I placed on a book of poetry by Lyndsay Rush, who is showing up for me everywhere the last few days. She was on a vlog I watched, she was quoted in the book Everyone is Lying to You, and then she popped up on another person’s Instagram who I follow. I would buy the book but I like to use the library first, plus Billy and I are trying to do a no spend month. Well, we are buying groceries and necessities but nothing just for fun or because we want it. We have a million birthdays this month and want to stay on budget.
Screens:
In between the Olympics, Billy and I watched The Burbs tv show. We both really loved it! Then Friday night we started watching the Netflix series Death by Lightning, which is fabulous. The cast is amazing – Michael Shannon, Nick Offerman, Betty Gilpin, Matthew MacFadyen – so many great actors. It is about James Garfield and his assassin Charles Guiteau, and it begins by saying that these two and their lives have been lost to history. That we have forgotten who they are, and their stories. I feel like I am learning so much, and I want to read the book that the series is based on by Candice Millard called Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President. Billy and I have also talked about taking a road trip out to Garfield’s farm in the spring. I love when a show or a book brings history to life, and sparks a new interest. So far I highly recommend it, although we are only two episodes in out of a four part series. Was Chester A. Arthur also so rough and uncouth? I need to know! Just a note: There is swearing in this trailer.
In-Betweens:
Well, I mentioned we had to cancel our skating trip which was a bummer. I know the kids were excited; it stinks that the majority of the families got sick. We do have another outing coming up in a few weeks, to a maple sugar farm. Orchard?
I don’t have too much else to add! I just did my Friday Coffee Catch Up a few days ago and yesterday we spent catching up on things. I did have a nice chat with Lisa and Cat from Cat’s Wire during our crafternoon, which was a nice break in the day. I didn’t end up crafting at all, since I had a sleeping cat on my lap.
Hello everyone! It has been forever since I did any book reviews, and I think I skipped over some books. Oh well I guess. This review has the last book I read in 2025, and the first two that I finished in 2026. Let’s start with that last book of 2025, The Bewitching.
“Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches”
This book snuck in at the last minute, and made it right onto my favorites list. It was amazing. I was deep into the story reading one night during a wild storm – rain that pelted the house so hard that even Miso, who was curled up on my legs, jerked her head back and flattened her ears, and the wind whipped by so fast and furious that the windows rattled. And I am not exaggerating! The night otherwise was quiet, it was later in the evening and Wyatt was asleep and Billy was downstairs playing video games. I had the house to myself, along with the book and the storm. I probably should have gone to bed, but I kept reading during that storm and I was freaked out.
This book is filled with an overwhelming sense of foreboding. The story is told through three different points of view, from different times in history – the early 1900s on a farm in Mexico, 1930s New England, and 1990s New England. I love this multilayered approach to the story, and how we can learn from previous generations. It is hard for me to say which timeline and story that I liked best, because I loved them all, although the early 1900s storyline of Alba was a bit slower and took me longer to get hooked. I loved this book and I am so glad that I own it!
This book does have some trigger warnings, so look them up if needed.
I was looking for an audiobook to listen to when I ran into this one on Libby. I had just watched A Biltmore Christmas starring Bethany Joy Lenz, so she was fresh in my mind. I loved the cover, so Sweet Valley High, and I did like the series One Tree Hill, for at least the first two seasons. So, I went for it.
I am glad that I did! This book is read by Lenz herself, which made it all the more real, hearing her story in her own words and voice. Becoming part of this cult was a slow roll, a creeping insidious happening, one that would be hard to see coming until it was too late. It was couched in love bombing and isolation, preying upon people looking for connection, to others and to Christ. However, what happens is much more than that. It was also about total control to the organization, of resources and time and most of all the people. It was struggle, but Lenz was able to escape and tell her story, and I am so glad that she has since found happiness and independence.
This book had been on my TBR forever, and I am so happy that I finally read it. It is a short book, a quick read, but not a fluffy one. It is bleak, yet also hopeful. I have never read a dystopian novel like this one, that at its center you really could feel the heart of the characters.
When the lights go out in a small northern Anishinaabe community in Canada, nobody worries at first. This happens all the time. However, as the days turn into a week, and they don’t hear anything from the South about what is going on, things begin to seem a bit more dire. Food supplies begin to dwindle, they must conserve all of their resources, and most importantly, work together and look out for each other. This is their way. Community. They care for each other. They share. They collaborate and help. They endure. They remember the old ways, they remember their culture. They gone through other “end of the world” events before as a people, and have survived. When they were sent from their homes to an unfamiliar land, when their children were rounded up and sent to residential schools – these also were end of the world events. And still, here they are.
However, the world begins to creep in, and threatens the community.
A sense of dread and doom lays heavy over this book, it is bleak, and scary to consider such isolation and lack of resources. Yet there is also that feeling of something more.
I could talk forever about this one, but I don’t want to give too much away. It is a short book and I don’t want to ruin anyone’s reading experience with spoilers. However, if you have been sleeping on reading this, I absolutely recommend it.
Hello everyone!! I hope that the past week has been good to you! It’s been a whirlwind of course around here, but a very fun whirlwind filled with family.
Books:
I found that I couldn’t read before Christmas. I think there was just too much happening, and I couldn’t relax. However, the day after Christmas I picked up a book and immediately just had that comforting feeling that you get when you sink into a good book. I am loving this one so far!
I also started listening to an audiobook as well. I was scrolling through Libby for a nonfiction book to listen to when I wanted to listen to something quiet, and ran into Dinner for Vampires written and read by Bethany Joy Lenz. I just saw her in A Biltmore Christmas, which is fresh in my mind, so I ended up starting that one last night. It is interesting so far. When we were younger, Billy and I really liked One Tree Hill for a season or two, so I remember this show as well.
Screens:
We spent some time over the past week watching Christmas movies, our old favorites, with the grand finale favorite of A Muppet Christmas Carol. That movie never fails to make me smile. We haven’t watched much post-Christmas Eve, but I am hoping to watch a movie tonight.
Wyatt and I finished up YouTuber Morgan Long’s Vlogmas series, which was a nice little bit of Christmas Cheer as well.
The in-betweens today are all holiday related! I will probably do another Christmas post, one last Comfy Cozy Christmas post, but mainly last week I did a lot of baking and wrapping, like a lot of people I am sure. Wyatt and I also spent some time on Friday just sitting at the table, working on our own projects. He was painting and playing with stickers while I worked on my planner. I got a new planner this year, a Hemlock and Oak planner, and I am loving it.
I feel like I have so much to tell you guys, way too much for this post. Plans for next year, projects, everything we have done. I feel like I am bubbling over with stuff to talk about but I try to keep this post less chatty! I will be posting soon, I can tell.
Hosting:
Just a reminder, Lisa at Boondock Ramblings and I co-host a few linkups and a Zoom Crafternoon together!
We have our Comfy Cozy Christmas for all things December and holidays (not just Christmas) that will be closing soon.
In case you missed Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 3: So, on November 22, 2024 I started a little book book, as I call it, but it is a journal of the books I have read with a few jotted thoughts, quotes I like, and stickers. I am an archivist and chronicler at heart, and I have been having so much fun journaling my reading experience this way. I thought it would be neat to share my favorite quotes from all the books I have read – in different parts of course.
“But mermaids- mermaids relish pain. Mermaids embrace pain. Mermaids accept the pain of discipline if far less than the pain of regret.”
“Pat loved the sound of a day to spend. It sounded so gloriously lavish to “spend” a whole day, letting its moments slip one by one through your fingers liked beads of gold.”
“It was the kind of cafe you went to for lattes on a first date, or to meet up with old friends over a pot of chai, or to read a book by the fire while sipping on a mug of hot chocolate with extra mini marshmallows.”
“Those were the sounds of his favorite people. As long as he could hear them, he was safe.”
“It was like some houses stopped breathing the moment their owners died.”
“The fire danced and twirled and then, unbelievably, it somehow grew two little flame hands , which it planted on its two little flame hips, and it waggled at me.”
“He’d whistled in the dark more than once in his life. And an imminent hurricane seemed very, very dark.”
“The world will drive a woman insane, then point and laugh at them.”
“It felt like they had been tricked into attending some Tupperware-candle-lingerie-medieval warfare – party where you technically didn’t to buy anything, but actually you kind of did.”
“But that’s life. It’s unpredictable and anything can happen at any time. Which is why you should live doing what makes you happy, what lights you up inside, what keeps that flame burning.”
” She was not the girl who admitted defeat, and she certainly never let go. She had never let go of anything.”
“Here’s the thing: Witches might eat you, but other than that, they generally respected your boundaries.”
“When I am perturbed, I like to walk. I feel slow and stupid when I sit, but walking seems to wake something up in my brain.”
And we have now made it to the end of October in my reading journey! The last and final post will be up before the New Year!
In case you missed Part 1: So, on November 22, 2024 I started a little book book, as I call it, but it is a journal of the books I have read with a few jotted thoughts, quotes I like, and stickers. I am an archivist and chronicler at heart, and I have been having so much fun journaling my reading experience this way. I thought it would be neat to share my favorite quotes from all the books I have read – in different parts of course.
“What any woman wants is not for you to decide. You would do well to remember that.”
This is actually a quote from the translator’s note.
“This book catalogs the many pleasures of reading: the joy of discovering a new author; the hedonism of staying up too late to finish a book; the surreptitious thrill of getting to know someone by reading their favorite book; and the freedom of walking into a bookstore and scanning the titles, waiting for something to catch your eye..”
“Emily had inherited certain things from her fine old ancestors – the power to fight – to suffer – to pity – to love very deeply – to rejoice – to endure.”
“Daisy had begun to feel like a seed taking root. She was insect-nibbled and wind-ruffled and elbow-skinned. Her hair was full of twigs, her fingernails were filthy – and every part of her felt hungry and alive.”
“There was something so special about a notebook without a single note in it. It felt like touching pure potential.”
“Tea doesn’t wake me up like coffee does. It doesn’t hug me and tell me everything is going to be ok if I just drink it.”
“He was all dreams and wild ideas, and she was more….sciency.”
“I looked at Francis and began to wonder why I had ever thought I had lived in a world without dragons.”
“You are amusingly soft-hearted for a villainous swamp creature.”
“Being a good neighbor is all about making sure that the people you share land and air and water with don’t need anything either.”
Phew. Part two done, and we have made it to May in my journal. I did skip over Watership Down, which I read in-between Greenteeth and A Prayer for the Crown Shy.
I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!
