Tag: cozy mystery

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized28 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

Hello everyone!! It is snowing here! Our first snow of the year! I always feel like it is my personal gift from Mother Nature when it is around my birthday, which is next week. I am very Lorelai Gilmore about snow, especially the first snow. Tonight I am going to make soup and if I can, I am going to try to make cinnamon rolls for the first time as well.

What I Read Last Week:

This book was the perfect pick me up, full of cozy moments, snow, soup, and winged cats. I loved it!

Reading This Week:

I had started Shady Hollow when I finished The Enchanted Greenhouse, so I am reading that, but I also want to read A Land so Wide.

Posted Last Week:

Hello November

Good Book and a Cup of Tea Monthly Link Party

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Randomly Grabbed Off the Shelf

Introducing Soup and Story Saturdays

Comfy Cozy Cinema: The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain

Friday Morning Coffee Catch Up

Watching:

Billy and I must be craving cozy, because we have started our umpteenth rewatch of the BBC farm shows. We just finished up Victorian Farm again, and will probably move on to Edwardian Farm next. The hold these shows have on us! Lol. I am not the only one though. I found this reel on Instagram and it made me giggle. I even commented about how we love to watch this show, blah blah, and a bunch of people liked my comment, probably because they are the same!

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Tonight we are watching the last movie in our Comfy Cozy Cinema line up, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. Then after American Thanksgiving, we will begin our Comfy Cozy Christmas link party where you can all feel free to spread the holiday cheer, all winter holidays in December btw, not just Christmas, by linking up your holiday posts! With the snow today, I can feel the winter holiday season so clearly now!

Internet Happenings:

I’ve already talked about them all a little, but Lisa and I are hosting Comfy Cozy Cinema, then Comfy Cozy Christmas together. We are also co-hosting A Good Book and a Cup of Tea, which is a monthly book linky for anything book related. And finally, I am introducing my new Soup and Story Saturdays. It is, you guessed it, all about soup! Link your posts about a soup you made or have eaten, a recipe if you made it, and either a bit about the book you are reading, or a story you want to tell us about your own life. Pretend we are at dinner together, having a meal and sharing a tale. Because I want to be a hobbit with you guys.

I also just signed up for the Library Love 2025 Challenge – I guess better late than never. I will be watching for next year’s sign up now though, if it continues. 99% of our reads come from the library and I believe wholeheartedly in supporting your local library!

And that is it from me today! I hope that whatever you do, you do something that makes you smile!

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized43 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

Hello everyone! I hope you are doing well, and that if you celebrate Thanksgiving, you have a good one, no matter what you do.

I haven’t been reading much lately. I don’t know what is going on, but I am in a bit of a slump which stinks because I have so many new books and I love them and I am excited to read them all. I just can’t sit still these days. Maybe after the holiday I will settle down.

I did read one book, just a little one.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to like this one. I am not really a sci-fi person, but if there was a book that was cozy sci-fi, it is this one. I found myself imagining the roads that Sibling Dex and Mosscap were taking, the slow days, the conversations and the tea, and I just fell in love with this book. It was different, it was thought-provoking, it was gentle, and it made me smile.

A few short quotes from a book that I saved so many from:

“No matter what I’m wonderful.”

“We don’t have to fall into the same category to be of equal value.”

This slim book is so filled with goodness. Even if this is not usually your jam, I say give it a whirl.

Reading This Week:

I picked this up over the weekend and immediately fell in love with it. Maybe my slump is over? Wyatt and I are having a whole week of hygge this week – no real school, just reading and art and baking, and this book seemed perfect for those curl up and read moments ahead.

Posted Recently:

Comfy Cozy Cinema: Chocolat

A Few Short Book Reviews

Coffee Catch Up: Birthday Books!

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Watching:

We are all finished with Comfy Cozy Cinema and it feels weird to not have a Sunday movie all ready to go. Besides that, we are watching The Spiderwick Chronicles that star none other than my teenage celebrity crush, Christian Slater. I loved him so much as a teen. Lol. I can still probably quote Heathers and Pump Up the Volume. And, I have to say, as an adult maybe I still have a bit of a crush on adult him.

And that is it from around here! I hope you are all well!

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized29 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

Hello everyone! Our week was full of school last week, and catching up on some things. It was a good busy. I loved getting caught up around home honestly. Getting things reorganized, moving stuff around. However, I went to bed at night exhausted and zonked out before I could even fathom reading.

I did finish one book though!

I had been very curious about Arden’s writing for kids, as I loved The Bear and the Nightingale. I have to say, I was just as much caught up in her middle grade as I was her adult fiction. I am looking forward to reading the next in this series, although that probably won’t be until January.

Reading This Week:

I just love this cover. And the sound of the book as well! I am reading in between stitching right now, when I get time. I am working on a few embroidered gifts, so I need to make sure I spend time on that as well. I just need two of me I think! Or, to be ok with never sleeping. Lol.

Posted Last Week:

Top Ten Tuesday – Books with Rabbits on the Cover

Comfy Cozy Cinema – Bringing Up Baby

Friday Morning Coffee Catch Up – Halloween and Anniversary Chatter

Holiday Gift Guide – Cozy Fantasy Edition

Watching:

We are still watching the same old things here. The Great Pottery Throw Down and What We Do in the Shadows. We love them both!

We also only have two weeks left in our Comfy Cozy Cinema movie watching with Lisa at Boondock Ramblings! This week we are watching and talking about The Grand Budapest Hotel, and next week is our watch party for Chocolat! If you are interested the watch party and chat (all text on discord) in on November 17th at 7 pm EST. I plan on surrounding myself with some good chocolate candy to nibble on, some red wine, a comfy blanket, and my cozy bed for the watch.

And that is it from my corner of Michigan today! How are you all doing?

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized28 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

Hello everyone! I hope that you had a good week! Last Sunday we were waiting for Billy to get home from his camping trip, and he got home later in the evening that Sunday. We were very happy to see him! The rest of the week was spent working, all of us, in our own ways. Billy at his job and then around the house, Wyatt in therapy (he kicked butt on Wednesday!!), and I have been working on Wyatt’s room. He needed a huge upgrade, as he is now 9, which I can’t believe yet here we are. So I have been going through all of his stuff (sometimes with his help, sometimes not…iykyk) to donate or pitch or keep. It’s been a weird week but a good one.

Read Last Week:

The Easy Life in Kamusari

Oh, I just loved this book. At first, I wasn’t sure about it. The main character was a bit of a whiner and the language/tone/voice was so juvenile – then I realized, duh of course it is, because the character himself is young. Yuki is young adult, who after graduation finds himself as a forestry trainee sent off to a rural village in the mountains, far from his home in the city. This story is a coming of age story, and it was really very beautiful and thoughtful. I am looking forward to reading the second book, Kamusari Tales Told at Night.

Reading This Week:

After The Easy Life I needed something just light, so I grabbed Getaway with Murder off of my cozy mystery TBR shelf. I wanted something I could just relax into before I start this Riley Sager book.

Posted Last Week:

Top Ten Tuesday: Books With My Favorite Color on the Cover – Green!

Watching:

We are back to watching the Great British Sewing Bee. By the time we are ready to relax and watch tv these days we are whipped and kind of collapse. We need something easy to watch! Tonight we are going to watch a movie although which one has yet to be determined! So not too much on this front.

Listening:

While what we are watching has tapered off for the summer, we are listening to things much more. We both love to listen to books and podcasts while we do work around the house. I also listen to something when Wyatt takes his morning after meds nap while I stitch on my embroidery that is more just me stitching than real embroidery but I have fun.

Billy is listening to the audiobook Words of Radiance, in the Stormlight series by Brandon Sanderson.

I am listening to a few different things. Sometimes I listen to the cozy mystery To Fetch a Felon, which is a cozy mystery in the Chatty Corgi series. Sometimes I listen to Silent Came the Monster about the 1916 shark attacks along the Jersey shore. And then sometimes I listen to The Night Owl True Ghost Stories Podcast. (for those of you in Texas, he is a Texan covering stories in and around Austin)

And that is it from around here today! I hope you all are doing well!

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Sunday-Monday Post42 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

Hello everybody! Last week was a better week for Wyatt – yay! It was a much better week – we got out of the house here and there, including a really cool trip to the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge in Ohio, which was spectacular, and Wyatt got some actual relaxing down time to recuperate while I caught up on some things around the house, including finally starting some homeschool planning for next year. I am super excited already about some of the things we are going to be doing! We also got to sit on the porch at the library, which I love. I think my dad is going to visit this week and watch Wyatt so I can get out for some “me time” and my plan is to grab a coffee, my library book, and read on the porch here for a bit. It was nice to hang here with Wyatt though for a minute or two.

Read Last Week:

I read Flower’s book Prose and Cons and just devoured it, but now I want it to be fall. Lol. I am saving the next one in the series until wintertime, since it looks like it takes place around the holidays. I did however, put another series by Flower on hold at the library..

When I finished Prose and Cons, I wasn’t feeling like a new book really, but I was looking for some lighthearted comfort and remembered how much I loved the MG book Gone-Away Lake last year. So I grabbed that copy off of Wyatt’s shelves and started rereading it. Yep, just as good as it was last year. I love this book honestly. It is a little old fashioned in some parts and in the way of the Little House series, maybe just a few problematic phrases but overall it is full of adventure and whimsy. Wyatt is not really a fan of it yet, he prefers books with animal characters, but that is ok. I mean, my favorite book is Watership Down, so it tracks.

Reading This Week:

I am excited about this one, since it is set in Northern Michigan, near Traverse City, one of my favorite places to visit.

Posted Last Week:

What Wyatt’s Reading – July

Tuesday Morning Coffee Catch Up

Watching and Listening:

Nothing too exciting right now on this front – we finished up When Calls the Heart (just in time for the new season to begin, yay!), and are working on rewatching Death in Paradise. We tried to start White Lotus but for some reason that night Wyatt was being a pill about going to bed so we switched it off to come back to a different night, and then just haven’t gotten back to it. I was enjoying it though!

As for listening, we have been just all over the place. We have been listening to a lot of Billy Strings, the National Parks, and occasionally some Jim Croce or James Taylor or Carole King. It sometimes depends on the weather what we listen to.

Anyway, that is about it from around here! How are you all doing?

Book Review: Shady Hollow by Juneau Black

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn book review5 Comments

Goodreads Summary:

The first book in the Shady Hollow series, in which we are introduced to the village of Shady Hollow, a place where woodland creatures live together in harmony–until a curmudgeonly toad turns up dead and the local reporter has to solve the case.

Reporter Vera Vixen is a relative newcomer to Shady Hollow. The fox has a nose for news, so when she catches wind that the death might be a murder, she resolves to get to the bottom of the case, no matter where it leads. As she stirs up still waters, the fox exposes more than one mystery, and discovers that additional lives are in jeopardy.

Vera finds more to this town than she ever suspected. It seems someone in the Hollow will do anything to keep her from solving the murder, and soon it will take all of Vera’s cunning and quickness to crack the case.

My Thoughts:

This book was absolutely adorable – or I guess as adorable as a murder mystery can get, which in this case is pretty darn adorable. Shady Hollow seems like a wonderful village to live in, with a bookstore named Nevermore owned by a raven named Lenore, a moose named Joe who runs the local coffee shop, and of course Vera Vixen, the reporter with a nose for news…and solving mysteries.

Shady Hollow is a sweet little woodland town, usually a sleepy little woodland town as well. But when the grumpy toad Otto Stumpf is found dead in the water, it sets the town a buzz. At first it is thought that he died accidentally, but circumstances and evidence soon begin to point to murder – you know, like that knife found in his back when they pull him from the water. But who did it? And why? Otto’s murder kicks off a series of events, revealing new mysteries and secrets and even more danger, especially for Vera who is hot on the case.

I loved this book. I love books with animals, although honestly I was a little overloaded this time around as I am also reading Wind in the Willows and a Heartwood Hotel book aloud with Wyatt – so many animals who talk and wear clothes and live like people! However, I enjoyed escaping into the world of Shady Hollow in my own free time, and I am looking forward to reading the next one in the series, Cold Clay, which I have on my list for autumn!