The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2026. First published in 1926, this witty and moving novel about independence, courage, love, and choosing a life of your own still feels surprisingly modern. What would you do if you suddenly stopped living the life everyone else expected of you? Would you…
A Closer Look at Agatha Christie’s The Murder at the Vicarage
Why We Chose Agatha Christie Agatha Christie’s The Murder at the Vicarage is the first Miss Marple mystery. Early fall is the perfect season for a classic mystery, and Agatha Christie’s writing captures that cozy‑yet‑intriguing mood beautifully. The Murder at the Vicarage introduces readers to St. Mary Mead, a quiet English village where gossip, secrets,…
Charlotte Mason-Inspired Classic Literature for Homeschooling Middle School Students
Living Books, Beautiful Language, and Timeless Stories Classic literature gives young readers time to enter another world, meet memorable characters, wrestle with meaningful choices, and experience language written to be enjoyed rather than simply studied. Charlotte Mason understood the importance of this kind of reading. Her educational philosophy emphasized living books — books written with…
Our Reading Philosophy
A Thoughtful Way to Read Classics At Blue Crab Books, we believe reading should be a pleasure—not a test. A classic should feel warm and welcoming, not intimidating. A book should meet you where you are, not demand that you rearrange your life to meet it. Our reading philosophy is simple: slow down, savor the…
Why Classic Books Still Matter
Have you ever gone back to a book you loved when you were young and wondered how you missed half of it? Maybe you first read it at sixteen and were completely caught up in the romance or adventure. You knew exactly who the heroes were. You knew who was being unreasonable. You understood the…
A New Chapter in Literary Preservation
Blue Crab Books is entering a new era—one shaped by literary preservation, careful curation, and a renewed commitment to honoring the stories that endure. Our redesigned website reflects this direction, offering a clearer, more elegant way to explore our curated editions, heritage collections, and the work we do to celebrate timeless literature. Our New Projects…
Why Indie Authors Should Publish Wide
For many indie authors, one retailer becomes the entire business. And that creates a fragile foundation. Publishing wide simply means making your books available across multiple retailers and platforms—rather than relying on a single storefront such as Amazon. It’s not about avoiding any particular platform. It’s about building a publishing model that protects your work and…
Why Wuthering Heights Still Feels Dangerous 175 Years Later
More than 175 years after its publication, Wuthering Heights still feels dangerous. Not romantic. Not nostalgic. Dangerous. In a literary landscape that often softens passion into something palatable, Emily Brontë’s novel remains raw, unresolved, and emotionally uncompromising. It unsettles rather than comforts. It exposes rather than redeems. Few novels capture the extremes of love and…
Building Your Story: Characters, Setting and Theme
Part 2 of the Blue Crab Books New Author Series – practical guidance to help you turn your idea into a published book. Many new writers start with a great idea — but struggle to turn that idea into a story that actually works on the page. In this post, we’ll look at three foundations…
Indie Authors: your ebooks can now be sold through independent bookstores via Draft2Digital and Bookshop.org
There’s a meaningful new distribution option for indie authors—and it’s especially interesting if you care about reaching readers who actively support independent bookstores. Draft2Digital has announced that authors can now distribute their ebooks to Bookshop.org’s ebook platform, making those titles discoverable through more than 3,400 independent bookstores across the US and the UK. Before we…