Tag: reading

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’s been slow around here, which was fine by me. I hope though that everyone who had to face down Helene has minimal damage. She was fierce looking.

Read Last Week:

Last week I read The Girl in White which was actually a little spooky for a kids book! This one was spookier than the other I have read by Currie, What Lives in the Woods. It was a good read for the season (without actually being too scary).

I also started Twilight Garden on Friday morning. I had forgotten I wanted to read this until I saw it on Rebecca’s TBR! Darn it. My TBR is just too crazy. Like everyone’s is, I am sure. Lol.

Reading This Week:

I will finish up The Twilight Garden, and then start another from my list. Right now I am not sure which direction I will pivot, but I feel I am leaning towards light and easy. Perhaps Berries and Bones, it look so deliciously fall. I also plan on starting The Whisperwicks, which is my book club book for the Patreon group I am part of for Alexandra Roselyn.

We are going away this weekend and so I hope to have some good reading time. It’s like that old saying though, “No one is more optimistic than a mother who takes books on the family vacation”.

I am also listening to an audiobook while I embroider. Right now I am listening to The Pumpkin Spice Cafe to see what all the hype is about. It has been compared to Stars Hollow and the Gilmore Girls which I love and have watched a million times over – and unpopular opinion coming, but I am not too excited about this book so far. It is too much like Gilmore Girls. I haven’t listened to much but it seems more like it is really just Lorelai Gilmore all over but this time she runs a cafe. The character talks a lot and talks fast, she drinks a lot of coffee – I don’t know. I guess I wanted the feel and or even a reimagining, but this is too on the nose. Does that make sense?

Posted Last Week:

A Few Whimsical Halloween Picks

Comfy Cozy Cinema: Ladies in Lavender

Friday Morning Coffee Catch Up

Watching:

We are busily watching our Comfy Cozy Cinema movies; last week was Ladies in Lavender, and tonight’s feature is Kiki’s Delivery Service. Comfy Cozy Cinema is something Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I started together and every year is so much fun! You are all invited to watch and post along with us.

Billy and I are also watching What We Do in the Shadows, as well as The Great Pottery Throwdown.

Also – I wanted to add that Lisa and I will be posting about our Comfy Cozy Care Package giveaway on Wednesday! We have lots of goodies we will be sending to someone to get all cozy with this fall!

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

Friday Morning Coffee Catch Up

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Coffee Catch UP24 Comments

Hello everyone!! I am so grateful for coffee this week. I am running on coffee and peanut butter toast this week – I have just been so busy! I am trying to prep for school and for Cub Scouts while also making sure Wyatt enjoys the last few weeks of summer.

One thing that happened – Wyatt got a hair cut!!

Our neighbor works at a barber shop and she did such a great job! I absolutely love it, and Wyatt does too. The barbershop is very swanky and Wyatt felt like a big shot in there among the adults.

He got it just in time for his cousin Mermaid Girl’s birthday party too. She had a cosmic bowling party and it was a blast. I had to laugh – it’s like no matter what, you can count on bowling shoes to always look exactly the same as they did decades ago.

I also got to bowl – and it was pretty sad. Lol. I came in last, tying with Chrissy’s mom. (Chrissy is my SIL) We were both not wonderful at bowling. I even took bowling in college as one of one PE credits! I remember Billy and I would have to practice bowling every week so that I could show improvement in class. We didn’t have to be good, just show that we got better. It was a stretch but I did it. Our practice sessions became just an excuse to get together with all of our friends every week, who also joined us at the bowling alley.

We also had our second Cub Scout committee meeting. The committee is made up of family and friends but it is still nerve wracking to me because I am the person who needs to run it and do like 90% of the talking. Right now we are still getting everything made all official, collecting applications and dues and signatures and learning the ropes of the big fundraiser that is starting, the popcorn sale, as well as planning the first meeting which is at the beginning of September, and the first outing, which is a few days after. It will be so fun once we get through all of this red tape, and can really get started.

We have our council meetings at the rowing club in our town, and it is such a great spot, right on the river and bonus, adult beverages that are very inexpensive.

I’m really cramming because of course all of this starts at the same time – school, Scouts, and then to throw a big wrench in there, Wyatt has a three day EEG at the hospital right in that same week. At least I guess we will get it all out of the way at once!

Of course we went to the library and got ice cream this week! Our favorite ice cream place closed for the season on Thursday so we had to make sure to get in before they shut down. So one day we went to the library, checked out a mass of books, and hung out on the giant porch reading for a bit before going to get ice cream. Then we went the very next day and got ice cream with my dad as well!

Wyatt and I both loved sitting on the big porch. It is so high up and set so far back from the road that it felt like we were just in our own bubble or our own little world. Wyatt really enjoyed people watching and wheeling around out there too. Can I just move into the library? Wyatt and I decided that would be a super cool place to live.

Looking forward to fall, which is right around the corner, I am busy making plans for field trips and little mini-vacations, for Halloween and scouts. I am also planning out my fall TBR (we will see how I do – I am not great at sticking to the plan), and all the comfy cozy bloggy stuff that Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I do together. This year we are even having a little giveaway in October and I am really excited about it!! And speaking of comfy cozy fall things, this is our fall movie line up and dates, if you want to watch or post along with us! The dates listed are the dates that our posts will go up! I think we have a fantastic list and I am really looking forward to just slowing down this fall.

And now just some randoms from the camera roll!

Have a great weekend everyone, and I hope you do something that makes you smile!

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized45 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 all doing well! It’s crazy to think we are eleven days into August already. This summer is flying by! I can feel autumn in the air this weekend; we had the windows open all day yesterday and it was wonderful. It has just been so muggy all summer that we haven’t really been able to do that, so it was nice to air everything all out!

I didn’t read much last week. I spent a lot of the week working on school or Cub Scout stuff. We are getting so close to September and then it will be go time! When I finally took a break I usually worked on my embroidery. I finished my cat and plants piece, and started a new one for fall! Wyatt’s been playing from sun up until sundown these days too, which is good. I love to see him getting involved in things and playing. I can’t wait for Billy to finish the wheelchair ramp so that we can have easier access to outside!

Reading This Week:

I did start both of these last week and I am enjoying them both quite a bit! I am hoping to finish them this week.

Posted Last Week:

Birthday at the Brasserie!

Top Ten Tuesday: Series Books

Wednesday Morning Coffee Catch Up

Back to School Basics: Homeschool Edition

Watching:

We are watching The Great British Sewing Bee at night when we finally collapse into bed. It is one of those calming shows, just like the Bake-Off. I usually watch a bit of YouTube too, when I first get into bed and start sewing. The people in my rotation these days are Randi Lynn Reed, Kristina at With Love, Kristina , and Ahya’s Cottage. So many online accounts everywhere are already introducing fall content which seems premature to me, but I get it. I am ready for the coziness of fall too.

And that’s it from me today! Enjoy your week everyone!

Book Reviewish – The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn book review13 Comments

It seems like every July/August I am in the mood for a book that is so beautiful and emotional that I cry. Last summer it was Tom Lake; this summer, it was The Berry Pickers.

The Berry Pickers Publisher Summary:

“July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, vanishes. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother, Joe, sitting on a favorite rock at the edge of a berry field. Joe will remain distraught by his sister’s disappearance for years to come.

In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, her mother frustratingly overprotective. Norma is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem more like memories than imagination. As she grows older, Norma slowly comes to realize there is something her parents aren’t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she will spend decades trying to uncover this family secret.

For readers of The Vanishing Half and Woman of Light, this showstopping debut by a vibrant new voice in fiction is a riveting novel about the search for truth, the shadow of trauma, and the persistence of love across time.”

My thoughts:

This book made me cry. A lot. I don’t know if it will make others have the same emotional response that I did however, as some of my emotions were triggered by my own past and trauma. I am just going to say though, it will probably make you cry some. I posted this on my Instagram and someone commented that they read it in the laundromat and just sobbed while reading. I felt that comment.

The story follows the story of a Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia, who spend their summers every year picking blueberries in the same area of Maine. This has been the way it is for years. They are known, they are expected. Yet when one of their own goes missing, not much is done. (surprise surprise) The Mi’kmaq community who is in Maine for the harvest searches secretly while giving the appearance of working, although of course their focus is on finding little Ruthie, not necessarily how many berries end up in their baskets. At the end of the season though, the family must return to Nova Scotia, leaving the mystery of what happened to Ruthie, their daughter, their sister, behind.

The rest of the book is told from the perspectives of two characters, Joe and Norma. Joe was the last one to see his little sister Ruthie before she disappeared, and the guilt of this weighs on him his entire life. We hear from his point of view what the next fifty years were like for him, living in this shadow his entire life – in addition to what also happens to him those next fifty years. Through it all he always has his family though, and the love of his mother, who never ever gave up on thinking her daughter Ruthie was alive.

Norma on the other hand, grows up in a home of privilege, the daughter of a judge. She has been suffocated by her mother’s love which is strangling and oppressive and not healthy, and her mother’s overprotectiveness. Her father is more distant, but she has her aunt June who is the breath of life for her. Supportive and loving, she is there to help and guide and just be there for Norma when she needs it, her whole life. She tries to help Norma understand her mother some but really helps fill in those cracks. Norma has these memories though that don’t make sense, and the sense of unease, or of something missing, never leaves her.

While there is the underlying mystery and the fallout, the idea of love and family in all of its forms is such a huge theme in this book. The love of siblings, of two very different mothers who desperately want to hold on to their daughters yet in two very different ways and under different circumstances – one the physical, the other the memory. It shows the goodness of love and how it can be just joyous and free and supportive and all the things that love is, and also the darkness that some love can bring.

It is a very wonderfully written amazing story, from start to finish. It left me exhausted but so glad that I read it. It was just one of those books that I will never forget.

Thursday Morning Coffee Catch Up

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized16 Comments

Hello everyone!! Last week when I wrote this post I didn’t have any coffee – only instant packs that Billy had taken camping! Now thankfully we have a full pot brewing in the kitchen, and I have a steaming cup next to me.

It’s been hot and muggy out there this week. Disgustingly humid. Wyatt and I have been hanging out at home most of the time, but we have ventured out a few times.

Saturday we hung out with my brother and his family for a small fire, which was nice. It was before the really gross weather moved in and it was a nice preview of fall and fires. I can’t wait. The kiddos were all just doing their thing, and my littlest niece Wild Child was having fun playing with the portable fan I had bought Wyatt. (Thanks for the suggestion Captain, we take it everywhere!) It was just a nice relaxing evening, hanging out.

Sunday we spent in our shady spot at the park, under the trees. Wyatt absolutely loves this so we try to do it whenever we can. On the way there though we passed a local rotary club having a little to-do at the fire station. They had demonstrations shooting off the fire hose, and also had some free ice cream from the Good Humor woman. We spent a nice time at the park afterwards, full of ice cream, just drawing, enjoying the breeze under the trees, the singing of birds, and reading. (me lol)

Later that evening, we had game night, which is Wyatt’s favorite. This time we played a game we had checked out from the library called What’s Next. It was really fun! It is sort of a choose your own adventure/rpg type game. There are three stories you can choose from, and each card has either an event or a choice you need to make or do. There are little side challenges as well, and a tower of peril! It really was a lot of fun, and we are definitely adding it to the wish list!

The rest of the week we have been home, with one journey to the library to check out more books, and to collect Wyatt’s summer reading National Parks Card and cryptid card that he earned. Next week he gets to shop the library “shop” with the book bucks he earned with all the reading we have been doing.

I have been working on getting our school plans together for next year. I absolutely love doing it honestly, putting together the plans and then finding fun tie-ins. Fall looks like it is going to be a lot of fun, with reading adventures like Alice in Wonderland and The Phantom Tollbooth, Indigenous history of Michigan, dinosaurs, and artists like Charley Harper! I am just starting to construct my Charley Harper art study for Wyatt, and I am having to taper things down because there is just so much we can do – too many ideas and not enough time. I think Harper will be a really fun artist to start off the year!

And just some randoms from the camera roll!

Have a great week everyone, and stay safe!

Wednesday Morning Coffee Catch Up

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized9 Comments

Hello everyone!! We are out of coffee and I am drinking an instant coffee from a Via pack Billy found that was leftover from his camping trip this morning. This does not bode well…. or I can look it like I am lucky that he had that. I think I will view it that way, Billy pulling some magic out of his bag.

Anyway… we have been super busy it feels like. We are just in the middle of so many house projects and taking care of business around here, and also making sure that we have some fun too. It is summer after all.

I mentioned on my Sunday-Monday post that last week was like the perfect quintessential summer week. We had a bike ride, trips to the library, a softball game, ice cream, dinner out (at Wyatt’s request, he is such a homebody but asked to go out and we were so shocked that we did!), reading, and for me, some embroidery as well. Then over the weekend we had our Saturday night game night, and Sunday a party! Let me tell you about all that.

On weekends we have a bit of a routine – Friday night is pizza night, and Saturday night is game night. Wyatt loves game night, which makes me so happy! Usually I put together our little snack tray and it is half cookies/candy or some sort of junk, and then the other half is healthy. This week I let Wyatt pick everything for our snacks and who would have guessed it, but he picked all cookies and candy. That plate by the way is our plate for us all to share, and we didn’t eat everything thank goodness. It was fun though!

Sunday night we had our Full Moon party! We joined the Kids Moon Club from Wilder Child when Wyatt was like 3 or 4, as something to do and make the long winters more fun. I didn’t take him out too much during the winter due to ~germs~ and he was so tiny at the time, my little tiny preemie boy who remained small for a long time. So we did stuff here to have fun. For a year or two we followed the club, doing all the things, and then as years passed, sometimes we would join in, other times not. (it’s a lifetime membership) This year and last year Mermaid Girl started joining us and it has been super fun. This year she has joined us as well, and we have been mixing it up and taking inspiration from the “official” club activities but have been doing our own things too. This month for sure. This month is the Buck Moon but we decided to make it the Blueberry Moon instead, and had a blueberry party! We also invited Mermaid Girl’s whole family this time around, and it was fun to have Mermaid Girl and Wild Child here together for the fun.

We had blueberry drinks – blueberry lemonade for the older kids, blueberry hard cider for the adults, and I kept the menu simple. Grilled cheese all around, with fancy cheese and bread for the adults and kids grilled cheese, with Kraft singles and white bread. We also had spinach salad with walnuts, goat cheese, and blueberries, and a lemon blueberry trifle that was absolutely devoured.

The craft activity this time was painting tshirts, and it was so neat to see what the kids all chose to do- and for Wild Child to get in on it too. They all really enjoyed it. They also made a blueberry moon collage, which turned out really well! After crafting, we went outside, threw down a blanket, and the kids played with a frisbee and with Wyatt’s metal detector. We all had such a good time!

We also added a new fish to our family last week! His name is Star and he lives in Wyatt’s bedroom, near the end of his bed so Wyatt can watch him swimming around. He is super tiny for a betta and I kind of wonder if he is young. He seems to be happy with his new home, as he made a bubble nest! This really has nothing to do with happiness and is actually a sign that he is ready for a lady friend but all betta owners like to think it is because their fish is happy.

Here is little Star! His tank is sort of a weird eerie yellow because the wood (Manzanita) leaks tannins into the water that is actually good for the fish but it makes the water yellowish. It dissipates after a while though, like a week or two or three. Right now it is funny though because it looks so 70s to me. He put so much work into this bubble nest. I didn’t have the heart to tell him though that he is not getting a lady friend.

I think tomorrow I am going to do a little post on our menagerie. It has been a while!

And now just some randoms for the roll! That goofy one of Wyatt and I… we were waiting at CVS for my tetanus shot that I needed. My arm still hurts!

And that is it for today! Try to do something that makes you smile today!

A Few Mini Book Reviews

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn book review13 Comments

Hello everyone! Welcome to my little post about a few books that I have read lately! I am not the greatest book reviewer in the world; mine are sort of haphazard and probably don’t include much depth or insight, but … I just like to share my thoughts and what I liked about the book and how it made me feel.

When I first started reading this one, I was a little unsure if I was going to like it. The main character Yuki was so whiny and immature, and that was reflected in the voice of his character, who is the narrator of this book. It is written as a journal type book, but without journal entries, from Yuki’s perspective so we see everything through his eyes and filter. When the book begins, he suddenly finds himself transported from the city life he is used to, the mountain woodlands of Kaumsari. His family has arranged an apprenticeship and he is very unhappy about this. But as he gets more used to life in Kamusari, the people, their ways, his job, he grows in all ways. It is a real coming of age story and I ended up absolutely loving it. I am hoping to read the sequel this fall.

In the spring I went to a huge used book sale at a local library, and they had grab bags of cozy mysteries for a dollar! I bought a few of the bags, and each bag had like five or ten books in them. As soon as I opened the bag when I got home and saw this one, I knew it would be the first one I would read. I LOVE a lodge setting in the mountains, and a white fluffy kitty? I am so there. I did enjoy this first book in the series, but I did feel at times there was not enough investigating by the main character, if that makes sense. I feel like she got most of her info from the actual police department, as the deputy would just spill all the beans to her. It was interesting though and I am going to definitely read the next in the series as well.

I absolutely loved this book! I don’t usually read romances but this one got my attention because that main character is a snail scientist, and I love snails. Sometimes that is all it takes. Anyway, I absolutely adored it. I loved the journey that Christa’s character went through, and it was handled very well. For those who like a clean romance, this was not a closed door book and there was some swearing for those who dislike that as well. There are some trigger warnings though, for SA. It is brief and not graphic but still upsetting.

I was absolutely glued to this book! Like, I can’t read Riley Sager all the time because everything in my life gets neglected so that I can read. (well not the living people or animals but don’t look at the laundry or dishes while I have one of his books in my clutches) This one was insane. I loved the crumbling house being set against the unraveling of the mystery.. it was just very well done, that idea that everything, the house and secrets were just falling down around the characters in the story. I loved it so much that I immediately ordered a copy for my mom to read. I have to say, I am pretty good at figuring books out and this one, I didn’t see that ending coming!!

Have you read any of these? What were your thoughts?

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized27 Comments

Hello everyone!! We had a pretty busy week last week with just life stuff and it being summer. I have been working super hard on Wyatt’s big room update and I have finally made it to the last stage – the decorating. Hanging the artwork, the final touches, etc. It should be done pretty darn soon! It’s been so difficult getting rid of some of his picture books though. We just have so many it is insane – I have collected so many over the years from book sales, garage sales, from book stores and holidays, plus I worked in an elementary school library for years before Wyatt was born and bought books from the Scholastic Book Fair and from the used book fair, making a small library before Wyatt was even a thought. We have been giving them away to people though, and putting them in little free libraries whenever we see them though so that makes me feel better about getting rid of them. They are getting a new life now.

Read Last Week:

Getaway with Murder was a pretty fun and light cozy. I loved the setting of the mountains and the lodge. I also enjoyed the little one or two paragraph chapters from Yeti the cat’s point of view. As for The Only One Left, holy cow what a ride!! It was amazing. I could not stop reading it!!

Reading this Week:

I need a bit of cozy this week after The Only One Left, so I am reading Verse and Vengeance from one of my favorite series, the Magical Bookshop series by Amanda Flower. I really can’t wait to relax with this one later.

Posted Last Week:

Top Ten Tuesday – Books That Feel Like Fall

10 on the 10th – July 2024

I meant to blog more last week, and to go commenting on everyone’s posts but things got away from me! I hope to be more present here this week.

Watching:

We are still watching The Great British Sewing Bee. It is just as wholesome as you think it is. More so even. The judges on this show are more like teachers and you can sense the connection between them and the contestants. We are loving it and it is the ultimate relax show after a long day.

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 Mid-Year Book Freakout Tag

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn books and reading11 Comments

So, the clouds outside are gathering and dark, the wind is picking up, and storms are on the way. Chores are done for the night, I have some Ginger Turmeric Tea next to me on the table (although tonight I wish it was wine!) and I thought this would be the perfect time to write this post!

I’ve seen this around on BookTube and by other book content creators and thought it sounded fun!

Is it just me or does it sort of remind you of those senior superlatives in high school?

1. Best book you’ve read so far in 2024

Hands down, the best book that I have read so far this year.

2. Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2024

This book was such a fantastic follow up to the first in the series, Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing by Lisa Howeler. I love Gladwynn and her vintage style, as well as the homeschooling mom who is also the barista. Such a fun series!

3. New release you haven’t read yet but want to.

I love this series set in Northern Michigan in one of my favorite places in my home state, the Traverse City area. I need to pick it up – it looks like the perfect summer read!

4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year.

I absolutely loved The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches and I can’t wait for this new book to come out! And I have to wait all the way until December!!

5. Biggest disappointment.

The Darling Buds of May. Loved the show, did not like the book. At all. That has never happened to me before! I do love this cover though.

6. Biggest surprise.

I received The Magic All Around from the publisher and I didn’t know much about it prior to reading it. However, once I picked it up I could barely put it down. It was so good, I could not stop reading it.

7. Favorite new author. (Debut or new to you)

I am late to the party on Sager, and I wish I had picked up his books sooner! I just finished The Last Time I Lied today and again, it was another book I could not stop reading. It was crazy good, and had so many twists and turns! I can’t wait to read another of his books!

8. Newest fictional crush.

I wouldn’t say crush but I would definitely like to hang out with Tress and talk about her adventures and see her cups.

9. Newest favorite character.

See above.

10. Book that made you cry.

Of course it is a middle grade. I loved this book! I had never heard of it honestly when I picked it up at a used book sale, I just thought it looked neat, with that cute little house and the tree. And it was a cute little book…with the exception of the part that made me cry!! It was the loss of an animal friend that did it, of course.

11. Book that made you happy.

Another middle grade! I one hundred percent adored this book, and while it gave me some anxiety, it ended up all working out and just left me with the warm fuzzies.

12. Most beautiful book you’ve bought so far this year (or received)

It’s a tie for me on this one. I just love love love that cover of Watership Down and I was so happy that Billy and Wyatt got it for me, but then that cover of Tress is fire.

And there you have it! My Mid-Year Book Freakout. How would you answer some of these questions?