Most recently, I attended the online Trauma Skills Summit hosted by SoundsTrue. It featured ten days of amazing skills, practices, and guides for those that have experienced or support those with trauma. There was one lecture that stood out to me and I wanted to share the information with my friends here at Crutchprints. Elizabeth…
Book Review: A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline
This story is based on Andrew Wyeth’s painting “Christina’s World”. Christina was a real-life woman that became Andrew Wyeth’s thirty year muse as he visited her again and studied her world. In this fictionalized memoir in Christina’s perspective, her disability (true) and family history of descendants from the Salem witch trials ensures her world will…
Book Review: The Last Letter from Juliet by Melanie Hudson
A feature of the Once Upon a Book Club February 2020 box, this book is guaranteed to leave all readers in a flux of emotion as we laugh and cry all at the same time. Truly heartwarming and uplifting, this story is one you will want to pass on to your dearest of friends as…
Turkey Talk
“Hi, Turkey Babies,” I yell in my high pitched call as I make my way around the house towards the chicken coop. Immediately, a charade of clucking and gobbling greets me like a gathering of friends. I make some weird tongue noise that I imagine resembles the gobble of other turkeys, and my turkey friend…
Book Review: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
This romantic tragedy (once a banned book) tells a story in the third person via housemaid. The story of love and loss, cruelty, revenge, and returning to love we are taken on an unpredictable winding path of dissonance. Human behavior shines under the pressure of absurdity and depravity so unbelievable that we are forced to…
Book Review: One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow by Olivia Hawker
In 1876 on the Dakota prairie, two women are forced to combine households in order to survive when one husband is killed and the other jailed. Only one major obstacle exists between them: Nettie Mae’s husband was killed by Cara’s husband when stumbling upon an adulterous affair between the man and his Cara. Told by…
Book Review: Love and Other Consolation Prizes by Jamie Ford
This book was included as part of the Advent Box presented by Once Upon a Book Club in 2019. Set in 1962, Ernest Young splits his narrative between the present and 1902 he was brought to Seattle as a young boy. Coming from China during a time of famine, completely alone and eventually auctioned to…
(Severe) Sepsis and (Soulful) Sentiments
“Jesus, if this is my time, I’m ready. You’ve blessed me with years beyond cancer and expected death. You’ve given me family that loves me, friends that care about me, and experiences of travel that have been so dear to my heart. I do not have regrets, and I feel that I have done the…
Dreyer’s English by Benjamin Dreyer
Sent in a care package from a dear friend of mine, this book was an unexpected joy to read. A painless look at the grammar and word use that is guaranteed to leave you with newfound appreciation of the English language as well as a repertoire of inside jokes shared only with Dreyer and other…
Book Review: Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
Recommended by a friend, I found this book fascinating and a wonderful near-scientific report of social psychology and human interaction. Former top FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss gives up his secrets and lets us into the world of understanding how to identify what you want – then get it. Applicable for every relationship and decision…
