Books, Screens, and In-Betweens!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized28 Comments

I am linking up with Deb at Readerbuzz,  Kathryn at Book Date, and  Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

Hello everyone! I am finally taking a moment after a crazy morning of kitten wrangling and not enough coffee.

If you read here pretty regularly, then you know that my husband surprised me with a kitten for Christmas! We couldn’t bring it home until this weekend though, as she was too young to leave her mom at Christmas. So on Friday night, we brought home two kittens, Mabel (orange) and Mouse! We decided that it was better to adopt Mabel and one of her littermates so they could occupy each other and save Miso from a lot of their kitten antics.

You can read more about it all in my Coffee Catch Up from yesterday if you want!

Books:

I finished up The Lady on Esplanade, which was pretty good. There were some aspects that sort of bothered me but the story itself was solid. I am also still enjoying my slow read of Stillmeadow and Sugarbridge. So much so that I joined a Pen Pal exchange for adults through the Analog Life Project I signed up for! I have a new snail mail pal, a woman in The Netherlands. I think I am going to make letter writing a part of week, for my new pen pal friend and also, just to my other in real life friends and online friends. I think it would be fun.

I also started the book While the Earth Holds Its Breath, and goodness I am loving it. I love Moat’s writing style and going on this journey with her. It is interesting to me, mainly because I already love winter, so reading about someone training themself to love it is fascinating.

Screens:

As for screens, Billy and I have been binging Stranger Things, and we finally finished the series last night. It was a great final episode. It was nuts to see them so tiny and little in flashbacks from the beginning and now the actors are all new adults. It was just really well done. I think tonight we are going to watch a movie but I am not sure which one yet. We may even watch two, since today is in the negative temps here.

The In-Betweens:

I already told you about the kittens, and other than that, it has been a pretty slow week. Other than Wyatt’s wheelchair completely losing a wheel while I was pushing it!

It was very scary for a minute, and I am so thankful that I was actually pushing him with both hands when it happened. We were walking through the parking lot to our car after physical therapy when it happened, and if I wouldn’t have had hold of both handles it scares me to think what would have happened to him. I stood there for a moment trying to figure out what to do, trying not to alarm him more than he already was, because he was scared. I ended up leaving the wheel where it was, then wheeling him to the car on one wheel, just holding up the other side myself. However, to load him I had to gently rest the chair on the ground in that weird off balance pose which really freaked him out but then I reminded him I would never let him fall and he calmed down. After we were all loaded back into the car, I drove to my FIL and he got the wheel back on solid enough to get Wyatt in the house, then Billy fixed it the rest of the way. It was quite the adventure, which ended much better than it could have.

Posted Last Week:

Top Ten Tuesday

My Year in Books Meme

Saturday Morning Coffee Catch Up- Kitten Update

Around the Internets:

Just a reminder that Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I co-host A Good Book and a Cup of Tea monthly which is for any and all bookish posts. And as I am typing this I realize I didn’t post any January information yet! I will rectify that today!

And I have decided to retire my idea of Soup and Story Saturday. I can’t figure out quite how to run it so I will shelve that idea, but still eat soup.

And that is it from me today! I hope that today you do something that makes you smile! I know too, that the world is very heavy right now, with a lot happening. So the small things we do, like just getting a special coffee drink (my current favorite is the matcha latte with vanilla syrup 1 pump and oatmilk from Starbucks), finding a moment to settle down and read, a long walk outside, are all so important to keep our mental health.

And now, just a few pics from the camera!

Saturday Morning Coffee Catch Up – Kitten Update

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized14 Comments

Good morning everyone!! If you read here regularly, then you might remember that Billy surprised me with an orange kitten for Christmas! I just had to wait for her to be old enough to leave her mother to pick her up.

Well, in the meantime we decided maybe we should also adopt one of her siblings to save our senior cat Miso from the full onslaught of kitten play. So, we told our friend we were interested in two, and well, we got to bring our new babies home last night! Billy braved the snow and cold to drive over and pick them up, and Wyatt and I were waiting very anxiously for them to return.

About 15 minutes later, we heard the car door shut and Billy’s boots crunching up onto the porch. They were here! I let Miso sniff at them through the carrier for a minute, then we took them back to my office, where they will live until they are vaccinated and dewormed. Well, for as long as we can keep them there. We had a little escapee this morning..

Meet Mabel (orange) and Mouse!

Our friend Justin, who has been raising them since they were born in house the week of Thanksgiving after he took in a stray mama, said that Mouse is an explorer and Mabel is a cuddler. And so far it does seem like that is the case! They seem to be adjusting well to leaving their home and mom. They have eaten and used the litter box and and played and cuddled and slept – and that was all within the first hour.

The night was pretty quiet, we didn’t hear much out of them, and I think adopting two was a good idea. They curled up in their little bed and pretty much stayed there until I got out of bed at 6 am to use the restroom. When I came out, I looked into the room and saw them, waiting for me.

I tried to go back to sleep but it was game over. The little plaintive mews came from the room, and Miso’s interest was piqued, and she was prairie dogging to look over the barrier, and then I heard a scrabbling and up popped a small little gray head. Mouse. In seconds she had scaled the wall and plopped down into the hallway. Miso just sort of looked at her like “What in the world is this?” as Mouse made her way into the bathroom. So I got out of bed, scooped up our adventurer, and put her back in the office. Then I got a coffee and joined them, while they played and climbed on me and decided my phone and coffee were new toys. Now I am chilling with Wyatt and Billy is hanging with the kittens for a bit too.

It is definitely a change and something new to get used too, which we will. It will be a lot easier once we can let them roam around, but I want to make sure we don’t have them pass anything (like possible worms) to Miso. I am not sure if we will make it all the way to that appointment but we are going to try!

And that is our big news! Wyatt is a little apprehensive about them, but he will get used to them and love them as much as he does Miso.

They are adorable little balls of fluff, and I am so glad that their mother curled up on Justin’s porch that cold week before Thanksgiving, and that he let her in and let her stay, even after he knew she was a week from having babies. And he kept the mom and one of her babies too, so don’t worry, Mama cat is safe and happy too.

I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!

My Year in Books – Meme

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized12 Comments

I saw this over on Anne at Head Full of Books blog and it sounded so fun I needed to do it too!

My Year in Books

Rules?

  • Answer the questions with titles from books you read in 2025. (Some may end up being silly, others may seem overly serious.)   
  • The goal is to have fun. 
  • Participate by copying the questions below. Erasing my answers and inserting you own.  
  • Once you’ve created your post, link it below so others can see it, then visit others’ posts to see how they answered the questions.
  • Spread the word. Let’s see if we can make this a thing again this year!

Anne says to just have fun and not take these too seriously so that is my plan!

Questions:


In high school I was: Greenwild (Pari Thomson)


People might be surprised: What Moves the Dead (T. Kingfisher)

I will never be: The God of the Woods (Liz Moore)


My fantasy job is: The Baby Dragon Cafe (A. T. Qureshi)


At the end of a long day I need: Goblin Mode (McKayla Coyle)


I hate it: [when people don’t] Play Nice (Rachel Harrison)


Wish I had:  The Jewel of the Isle (Kerry Rea)


My family reunions are: A Fellowship of Games and Fables (J. Penner)


At a party you’d find me:  In the Company of Witches (Auralee Wallace)

I’ve never been to: Watership Down (Richard Adams)


A happy day includes: Beaches, Bungalows, and Burglaries (Tonya Kappes) (lol – not the burglaries part really, obviously)


Motto I live by: Home Before Dark (Riley Sager)


On my bucket list is: [learning] How to Talk to Your Succulent (Zoe Persico)


In my next life, I want to have: A Fellowship of Librarians and Dragons (J. Penner]

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Books of the First Half of 2026

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized48 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Artsy-Reader Girl

Today’s prompt is all about our most anticipated books of the first half of 2026. But, I am not good at keeping track of these things! So I am going to list the few I know about, then build my list as I visit all of your blogs!

Ok. That is what I’ve got! I am very very excited however to learn about what books are coming out in the first half of the year when I visit your blogs. Then I can make a most wanted list of my own!

Books, Screens, and In-Betweens

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized31 Comments

I am linking up with Deb at Readerbuzz,  Kathryn at Book Date, and  Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

Hello everyone!! We made it all the back around to Sunday. Besides the news this week, I had sort of a personally crazy week full of bodily mishaps. Lol. I busted my knee against the car transferring Wyatt from his chair to the car, and it got all huge and bruised for a night, then I got the pneumonia shot which made me all achy for 24 hours, and my arm still hurts! I put that shot off for two years because the first pneumonia shot I got was rough, so I figured this one would be too. However after having the flu followed by pneumonia in my late twenties and remembering how crap that felt, I decided to suck it up for the 24 hours and get it done.

Books:

I am currently reading the newest Royal Street Novel, The Lady on Esplanade. I love New Orleans and I love this series set there for its historic preservation and ghostly vibes. So fun!

I am also slowboating my way through Stillmeadow and Sugarbridge because it is s such a wonderful calm read. I like to read it in small bits when I need uplifting.

Screens:

We finally started the newest season of Stranger Things, and it really is so good, despite all the actors being so much older now! It is cute though when they do flashbacks and they are all just tiny – it is crazy they were so young when the show started! We are close to the end now, maybe just one more episode I think? Then I think we might move on to Yellowjackets again, which we were saving for winter.

As for the blog, I posted only a few times last week.

Mini Book Review: The Bewitching, Dinner for Vampires, and Moon of the Crusted Snow

A Cozy Little Life: Small Things that Make Me Smile

In-Betweens:

It was a crazy week, as I mentioned above. We also started back to homeschool last week, back to physical therapy at the clinic, and had our Blackbirds Kids Club meeting. It is always so hectic getting back to the routine after break!

And I will leave you with just a few photos from the camera roll!

I hope that whatever you do this week, you do something that makes you smile!

Small Things That Make Me Smile

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized29 Comments

So life lately feels heavy, this week in particular. Watching the news breaks my heart and gives me panic attacks and in our world of 24 hour news coverage we can never quite get away from it, unless we make the effort. Put the phone down. Turn off the tv. I find it easy to lose myself in projects, but I don’t always have the time to do those. There are days, like every weekday, when we have homeschool and home therapy and all the other things, and it is so easy to pick up my phone and scroll in those quick in between moments. On those days, I need to rely on small things to lift my spirits. A great cup of coffee or tea. Five minutes with a good book. A long stretch.

There are some small things I am loving lately, that make me smile.

Orange is one thing. Actual oranges to eat – I love peeling one and getting hit with that fresh sharp citrus scent. So much so that I have included orange scents into my shower routine. My body wash is orange scented, and oh my shampoo and conditioner smells so much like driving through an orange grove I just stand in there enveloped in the scent for a few extra minutes. I am using The Earthling Co. shampoo and conditioning bars in Citrus Sun and it does my sun deprived self so much good. I also bought a citrus tinged perfume as well, but it doesn’t quite smack me in the face with an orange scent as much as I want so I am going to keep looking.

Also, waiting on our little orange kitten. Not much longer now!

And while I am waiting for her, I am of course getting all the cuddles from Miso. Billy and my bestie Kelly are trying to talk me into two kittens, but I think that might be hard for Miso. Or easier, if they play with each other and give Miso a break? Ugh. I don’t know. Anyway, Wyatt got a little pop up indoor tent from my dad that turned out to be big enough for Wyatt and I to sort of lay in and read. We like to climb in there and read some of his books for school, and then after that, just hang out for a bit. I love when we are in there and Miso pokes her little head in, like “Hey what are you all doing?” and then saunters in and lays on me, like she does. It is super cozy for all of us, I guess.

Tea is another thing that has been making me smile. Peppermint tea, ginger orange turmeric, lemon ginger, are all flavors that perk me up these days. And if I get a chance to go to Starbucks, I love their Honey Citrus Mint Tea. I feel like I am going to be picking one of those up today, now that I mentioned it. They are just so good!

I am also enjoying winter fruit salad. It has apples, pears, kiwi, clementines or oranges, and pomegrante seeds and I could eat it all day. It just wakes me up!

Finally, one of the books I am reading is a collection of letters between two friends, sent to each other in 1953. It is perfect to just pick up and read a few letters, spend five to ten minutes in their calm little worlds of dogs and rural life.

These are just a few small things that make me smile and pick me up when I need a little pick me up.

I hope that whatever you do today, you find something, no matter how small, to make you smile.

Mini Book Reviews: The Bewitching, Dinner For Vampires, and Moon of the Crusted Snow

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized13 Comments

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.

And, yay – I am checking off the television category of the Nonfiction Reading Challenge with this one!

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.

Books, Screens, and In-Betweens

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized40 Comments

I am linking up with Deb at Readerbuzz,  Kathryn at Book Date, and  Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

Hello everyone!! We have had the most chill week ever, and it has been so nice! We are deeply wintering over here, I guess. It has just been so cold, and Michigan is one big virus out there, and we are content and happy and aren’t feeling the need to go anywhere, so… we didn’t. Billy has been off work for almost two weeks and it has been so good to just be together, having all of this family time.

Books:

I have been working on three different reads over break! I am slow reading Stillmeadow and Sugarbridge, which is a book from 1953, and is a collection of letters between the two authors about their rural lives. I love it and pretty soon it will be my main read.

I am also halfway through Moon of the Crusted Snow, a book I have wanted to read forever, and that I received from Dini from Dinipandareads. It was so sweet of her to send it to me, and I am finding it a fast, compelling, scary read! I am enjoying it very much.

I also listened to Dinner for Vampires, which ended up being my first book finished in the new year, and since it is a memoir, I get to check that off my challenge list. Lenz, known for her One Tree Hill fame, lived for almost a decade under the control of a cult called the Big House Family. The audiobook is read by Lenz, and it made the book feel so much more real, to hear her story in her own voice. I am glad that she has since been able to find happiness and independence.

Screens:

I told you we have been watching a lot of movies! The Paddington series of movies was adorable; I am pretty sure they are a family favorite for all three of us. I think we might actually make orange marmalade today even.

Wonka was the perfect Christmas break movie! Over the top, beautiful, musical, heartwarming – I absolutely adored it.

Hot Fuzz and The Big Year are old favorites. The Big Year is a movie that we watch every year, since maybe 2012? It just kicks off our year. And Hot Fuzz is our favorite of the Simon Pegg/Nick Frost movies.

We couldn’t believe how many actors we kept seeing pop up in the different movies. It became a game, like let’s see, is Olivia Colman in this one too? Hugh Grant? Just so many. We were definitely in a groove.

In-Betweens:

In between all of this, we have been organizing and cleaning, and working on our own little projects. I have been fun creating embroidery pieces that are personalized to my friends and myself. I have only made 2.5 so far, I am still working on mine, but I love this new phase of my embroidery.

The first two have very long stories behind them. Also, rest assured that none of us think ferals are trashy. I can’t do them freehand yet, and I am still working on my lettering skills, but I am really enjoying this. The rabbit with the Watership Down quote is for me. And ignore the shoddy print job, my printer doesn’t like the transfer paper.

Posted Last Week:

Comfy Cozy Christmas: Our Christmas Celebrations

Top Ten Tuesday: My Favorite Reads of 2025

Hello January and 2026!

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

Hello January and 2026!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized25 Comments

Happy New Year everyone!! It’s a fresh new year out there, full of first sips of coffee to be had, new books to flip through, blank journals to scribble in.

The past few years, my word of the year has been “community”. I wanted to build a bigger community for myself, for Wyatt, for our family. And I feel like I have really done that! Through new blogging friends, our Scout/Blackbirds group, new friendships here, church, and all of our relationships built at our favorite destinations, I feel like we have a nice little community out there for us. As a very shy person, this was actually difficult for me. I had to push past my nerves and learn to find my voice. To engage with other people, to initiate. Sometimes this can be very scary for me, and it is easier for me to stay in my nice cocoon of comfort at home. Which if it was just me, that might be ok. But it is not just me. I mean, Billy is able to do all this for himself, and he is an extremely outgoing and extroverted person so he does, but as Wyatt’s parent at home and the parent who spends the most time with him, I can’t keep him in this cocoon. He needs to do things, experience things, have friends, see all he can. So, I made it my goal to make sure that happens, even if it gave me butterflies. And the more I did it, the easier it became for me. And so this year, my word is “connection”. I want to connect more deeply with what we are doing. I can move past the nerves now, and really experience what we are doing, and who we are with.

I also want to reconnect with nature. This is a part of my life that has been neglected for a few years. Billy and I used to be out in the woods all the time, and that is one area that we haven’t quite figured out yet, accessibility for Wyatt. I did find a front wheel that we can add and remove from his wheelchair and I am going to try to apply for a grant for it this year, but until then, it is tough unless it is paved. But, now with our new deck and ramp in the yard, we can turn our yard into an outdoors area that is accessible right here. Billy is putting in a pond this spring, and we are laying pavers in part of the yard to place wheelchair accessible raised garden beds, and a space for his outdoor toys. Billy and I are also hoping to get some flowers in this year. I dream of adding trees but I have been saying that for years now. Maybe this will be the year!

2025 had it’s challenges – the biggest one being Wyatt’s surgery, which all of you know about it if you read here regularly. That was a difficult time, and I honestly didn’t know before the surgery how we would make it through. And then it happened, and the support we received from people blew me away. We had neighbors send meals for days, friends drop by with food or sending gifts in the mail to make Wyatt’s days easier (and mine), grandparents who stepped in when Billy had to go to back to work and spent the entire day with Wyatt and I, helping me through the hard stuff. Cards and e-cards, comments of support here on the blog. There was just so much love and kindness and encouragement. And that was honestly my biggest takeaway from 2025. Not the hard stuff, but the love.

And we did do some really great, fun things too last year. Wyatt was on a bowling league, and went to music camp. It was a year of bookstores, and dragons. Of milestones – Wyatt turned 10, Billy and I turned 50, and our marriage turned 25. I got my mom’s insurance and medical help all settled, and I know that she is safe and taken care of where she is. It was a year where I found the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe, and the perfect lipstick color.

This year, one thing I want to do is keep reconnecting with myself as well. Somewhere in parenthood I lost a bit of me, which I think is normal. You live for your child. But there are places I can still be me, Erin, not “Wyatt’s mom”, which is what I am known as most of the time when I go places. I used to love getting cute outfits together, and now that I am no longer in my 30s (wahhh) and just didn’t bother much in my 40s, I want to reclaim that part of me now. Maybe not on an everyday basis, but I want to find my style now. One that works for my lifestyle but also is more than a tshirt and yoga pants on the daily. I’ve been on that quest for a while, and I have steps one and two conquered, now I am on to the harder part.

I also joined a movement from Little Truths Studio, the Analog Life Project. I’ve been listening and reading a lot about this new move back to life before all social media all the time. Like life in the 90s, the early 2000s, when we had access to the internet and social media but it wasn’t what it is now. I don’t want to give up social media and the internet, I believe it is important for access to all sorts of things, but I want to reclaim that space. I don’t want it to be a place I retreat to in order to doomscroll because I am bored or need to decompress or whatever. I want to put that energy or lack of energy in some cases, into other things. My journaling, reading, game nights, art nights, daydreaming. Puzzles and crafts. Learning to draw and paint. Pen pals and snail mail. I just don’t want to aimlessly scroll anymore. I also did a crazy thing and bought a book that is written in French. Do I speak French? No. Do I read French? No. I took French in high school, I took Latin for four years, and I took Russian in college, and I have always been pretty good at picking up languages when I try them. So, this will be something I do to decompress. Slowly, slowly translating this book. It might take me a very long time but I will do it!

I am also attempting two different reading challenges this year. The Nonfiction Reading Challenge hosted by Shelleyrae at Book’d Out, and the Books in Translation challenge hosted by Jennifer at Introverted Reader. I think I can manage probably the smallest level of each. Maybe more! We will see. I am excited about both. I am already working on a memoir for the Nonfiction Challenge, Dinner for Vampires by Bethany Joy Lenz.

And that is it from me this morning my friends. I will leave you with some random photos, and as always, I hope that you do something today that makes you smile!

Top Ten Tuesday: My Favorite Reads of 2025

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized30 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Artsy-Reader Girl

Hello everyone! Today I am going rogue and posting my Top Ten Favorite Reads of 2025!

First though, I want to thank the little book fairies that gifted me last week! Thank you so much!!

My absolute favorite read of the whole year was a heartwarming, simple book. I absolutely loved it. Cat’s People by Tanya Guerrero. It just is so full of love and kindness and found family.

The rest of these are in no particular order.

I don’t ordinarily read romances, but I read three this year! I really liked them all, but Jewel of the Isle was my favorite. It was just so funny and sweet and took place in Michigan. I should probably read other books by Kerry Rea!

Ok. I am including The God of the Woods despite the ending because I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the book. I had so many thoughts and feelings about this book which always signals a good read.

Chlorine was a crazy read, a bit disturbing, but I couldn’t stop reading it, and it is another one that made think so deeply about different themes. It was such a powerhouse of a little book.

Another one I am including despite a weak ending is A Land so Wide. I really enjoyed this book until the end. I felt like Craig did a great job building a world here, that was foreboding and mysterious, and I would have loved to spend more time in the village honestly.

Home Before Dark, because I love a good haunted house story and Sager is a master.

I love the Monk and Robot series so much. It is such a gentle, thought provoking series and A Prayer for the Crown-Shy was just as beautiful as the first book.

Of course there will be cozy fantasy on this list. It’s my favorite genre currently!

The Spellshop is the epitome of cozy fantasy in my opinion, and Uncharmed was also just so fun, with big Mary Poppins’ vibes and I love Mary Poppins. Finally, Of Salt and Shore was so unexpected. I read it and just fell in love with the characters, especially the resilient Lampie.

Wyatt’s favorite book this year he said was The Phantom Tollbooth, and Billy’s favorite was Dungeon Crawler Carl.

And that my friends is it! Have you read any of these?

And just when I thought I was done, a book squeaked in at the last minute. I literally just finished this and omg it was sooo good. I literally could not stop reading it! (Dec. 29th, 4:35 pm)

And now, that really is it. I am looking forward to the books I will discover and live through in 2026!