December Reading Thread! 📚❄️

[adelbert]

I can't believe it's already December! What did you read in November? What are you looking forward to this month? Do you think you'll hit your reading goals for the year?

[angelashly]

November was an ok month. Everything was 3 stars

The boyfriend
The girl who survived
The last one at the wedding
All I want is you
Guilt and ginataan
A merry little meet cute
One big happy family

December my reading usually struggles some so it will be filled with Christmas books. I also got the newest Alice feeney book from botm so I’ll do that too

[melohdy]

Read in November:

Worst Case Scenario by TJ Newman - 5 stars
Lights Out by Navessa Allen - 1 Star
Lock Every Door by Riley Sager - 3 stars
Drop Dead Sisters by Amelia Diane Coombs - 3 stars

Honorable mention because I finished it today - I'll Be Home for Mischief by Jacqueline Frost. This is the 5th book in the Christmas Tree Farm mystery series and I LOVE reading them during the holiday season. 5 stars

My reading goal was 36 books and I am currently at 51 for the year

[bearfootzcontinued]

November was a good month for me. They weren't all 5 stars, but they all kept my interest.

The God of the Woods
The Author's Guide to Murder
Done & Dusted
The Only One Left

First book finished for December was Here One Moment. Really liked it, but not as much as some of her others.

[abs]

November was ok. I read 3 books but they were all a bit longer.

All the Colors of the Dark (mostly an October read but I finished in November), Long Bright River, and Remarkably Bright Creatures. My favorite of the 3 was All the Colors of the Dark. The other two were a little long and only ok.

December? Who knows. Right now I’m reading like 2 pages a day and passing out at night. I’m reading How My Neighbor Stole Christmas and it’s fine. Not great not bad.

I did hit my goal of 52 books.

[boxerific]

November was just okay for me. Mostly average reads, but a few standouts.

Funny Story - 5 stars
Summer of '69 - 3 stars
Natural Selection - 3 stars
No One Can Know - 3 stars
Play Along - 5 stars
The Last One at the Wedding - 2 stars
Worst Case Scenario - 3 stars
Hello Stranger - 4 stars
We Used to Live Here - 3 stars
Secretly Yours - 2 stars
In the Likely Event - 3 stars
I Will Ruin You - 3 stars

[bearfootzcontinued]

I've read 46 of my 50 book goal so far, and I'm hopeful I'll make it. But honestly, I would like to get to 52 to average one/week but we'll see.

My TBR list for December so far:
A Merry Little Meet Cute
What does it feel like?
Christmas with the Queen
The Love Elixer of Augusta Stern
The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year

[nelzie]

November was an ok month, I didn't read a ton. Favorites were Wisteria and The Christmas You Found Me.

Only a few December releases on my tbr this month:
What the Woods Took by Courtney Gould
Not in My Book by Katie Holt
The Party by Natasha Preston

I mostly plan to stick with holiday books this month. I renewed my KU for a month because there are a lot on there.

[nelzie]

My holiday tbr, most are romance but the last two are thrillers. Pretty sure most are on KU.

One Foggy Christmas by Kortney Keisel
A Very Merry Nanny by Lyra Parish
The Holly Dates by Brittainy Cherry
Mad About Yule by Genny Carrick
My Favorite Holidate by Lauren Blakely
Merry Little Hate Notes by Jennifer Peel
How My Neighbor Stole Christmas by Meghan Quinn
Unlucky Christmas by Melissa Baldwin
Grumpy Little Christmas by Marika Ray
The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter
Love Blooms at Christmas Inn by Anne-Marie Meyer
Miss Humbug by Stephanie J Scott
Along Came Holly by Codi Hall

Secret Santa by Amy Tackett
The Christmas Holiday by Mikayla Davids

[emma]

November was a decent month for me, I finished 8 books plus a 19 page novella.


Fear the Flames - Olivia Rose Darling - 3 stars
The Matzah Ball - Jean Meltzer - 3 stars
We Solve Murders - Richard Osman- 4 stars
The Soulmate Equation- Christina Lauren - 4 stars
Home (Murderbot 4.5) - Martha Wells - 3.5 stars
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism- Amanda Montell - 3 stars
You Shouldn’t Have Come Here - Jeneva Rose - 3 stars
The Cloud Roads - Martha Wells - 4.5 stars

The standard was Cloud Roads, it was a really good solid fantasy with great world building and I’ve already requested book 2 from the library. Cultish was the most disappointing, I thought it would be more about language but it was mostly a high level review of cults over time

[trueblue]

Continuing my general coping mechanism of escape reading for November:

5 Stars
The Great Alone -Kristin Hannah


4 stars, all rom-coms beach reads ranging between Hallmark and Lifetime.
My Favorite Half night stand-Christina Lauren
Perfect Distraction-Allison Ashley (TW: cancer)
Prayer Box-Lisa Wingate
Would you rather- Alison Ashley

one Half of a star:
Counting Miracles-Nicholas Sparks. I had to click back through to the plot summary on Libby to remember what it was about. Plot consists of three intertwined story arcs, the one about a grown man searching for the father he never knew, one about an old man who survived near unsurvivable tragedy, and one about a single mom finding love again. I quickly skimmed the single mom romance storyline, I don’t think it added much of anything to the plot.


I have downloaded 77 books to my kindle this year, there are a handful of DNF in that group so I am well short of my goal of 100. Although until this past weekend I didn’t even remember I set that goal so 🤷🏻‍♀️

[loony]

November:
An Education in Malice
When Life Gives you Vampires
Killing November
The Ministry of Time
Listen for the Lie
The Death of Mr. Westaway

We had some weird stuff happen in November, so I was totally distracted.

December will be mostly romances. I have met and exceeded my total books/year and I abandoned my thematic challenges around June.

[cdnfroggy]

November was a really good month for me, which was good. Unfortunately I think this will be the first year I don't complete my reading challenge of 80 books, because I just had some months that were not great quantity wise.

My reads were:
Midnight on Beacon Street 4*
Soup, Salads, Sandwiches 5*
Payback's A Witch 4.5 *
Guillotine 5* and my favourite
youthjuice 3 *
Reception 3.5 - 4 *
Morbidly Yours 5 *
Pucked 3 *
The Deviant Vol. 1 3.5*

For December I'm reading mostly holiday romances with some horror sprinkled in - I love Christmas/holiday themed horror.

[cnf]

Hi. I read nine books in November.

The Roommate Situation
The Neighbor War
A Novel Love Story
City of Souls and Sinners
Boarded Hearts
Frozen Over
City of Lies and Legends
All The Christmas Vibes
Filthy Rich Fae

Right now I'm about halfway through Along Came Holly and Servant of Earth. Both are decent.

I plan to mostly read Christmas romance books this month.

[caer]

In November I finished 11 books. There were a few clunkers but a few were among my favorites of the year - The God of the Woods and Is She Really Going Out With Him. I’m at 107 books for the year (goal of 100) but I don’t usually read too many in December. Also my son broke his arm on Thanksgiving and we haven’t been sleeping well since then so who knows how many more I’ll get in!

I’m reading American Predator now, it’s a true crime book about a serial killer in Alaska. It’s ok so far, a little slow, but that could also be my fatigue talking.

[mathrun]

November was pretty good for me. I crossed off a bunch of challenge prompts, plus a couple other TBR.

The Butcher Game 3⭐️
Mistletoe Mystery 3.5⭐️
Tower of Dawn 4.5⭐️
Tom Lake (audio) 4⭐️
Hello Beautiful 4.5⭐️
The Elegant Universe 5⭐️ (I started this in late 2023 and just now finished it. If you are more than mildly interested in physics and haven’t read it, I highly recommend. It was written in the late 90s as an explainer of what Super String Theory is, and surprisingly most of it is still relevant today. It’s very, very dense, but at the same time makes physics “fun” and accessible for someone with a pretty basic background. I took it in HS with a terrible teacher and was a math major in college. So, I didn’t need a lot of context/background to follow.)
Kitchens of the Great Midwest 4⭐️
Four Aunties and a Wedding 3⭐️
Everyone this Christmas has a Secret 4⭐️
Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight 4⭐️
The Hitchcock Hotel 3⭐️
Something in the Water 4.5⭐️
Sophie’s Choice 3.5⭐️

December will include Wuthering Heights, a Reread of Crescent City, and Glitter up the Dark as my last three book challenge reads. I’ll probably fill in with some combination of Christmas themed mysteries, binging the rest of the MurderBot series, and trying some of the fantasy series recs someone posted a week or two ago.

I set a goal of 175, hit that in October, set a new goal of 190 and I think I’m 1 or 2 books short right now. I expect to hit it.

[abs]

Dec 2, 2024 18:26:22 GMT -6 caer said:

In November I finished 11 books. There were a few clunkers but a few were among my favorites of the year - The God of the Woods and Is She Really Going Out With Him. I’m at 107 books for the year (goal of 100) but I don’t usually read too many in December. Also my son broke his arm on Thanksgiving and we haven’t been sleeping well since then so who knows how many more I’ll get in!

I’m reading American Predator now, it’s a true crime book about a serial killer in Alaska. It’s ok so far, a little slow, but that could also be my fatigue talking.

I’m sorry about your son’s arm! That sucks. I hope it heals quickly!

[caer]

Dec 2, 2024 18:54:46 GMT -6 abs said:

Dec 2, 2024 18:26:22 GMT -6 caer said:

In November I finished 11 books. There were a few clunkers but a few were among my favorites of the year - The God of the Woods and Is She Really Going Out With Him. I’m at 107 books for the year (goal of 100) but I don’t usually read too many in December. Also my son broke his arm on Thanksgiving and we haven’t been sleeping well since then so who knows how many more I’ll get in!

I’m reading American Predator now, it’s a true crime book about a serial killer in Alaska. It’s ok so far, a little slow, but that could also be my fatigue talking.

I’m sorry about your son’s arm! That sucks. I hope it heals quickly!

Thank you! He gets the cast off the day after Christmas so we just have to make it until then - he’s not in any pain anymore, just uncomfortable which makes it hard to sleep. This is our 3rd broken arm between the two boys (and the second one that happened on Thanksgiving, so that holiday is dead to me lol) so at least I know what I’m going this time I guess!

[cakewench]

Here's my rundown for November:

All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda - 2 stars
Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Laurie Gilmore (audio) - 3.5 stars
These Fleeting Shadows by Kate Alice Marshall - 3 stars
Time and Tide by Peter Grainger (audio) - 3.5 stars
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros - 4 stars
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (audio) - 3 stars
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones - 3.5 stars
My Favorite Half-Night Stand by Christina Lauren - 4 stars
One of Us is Dead by Jeneva Rose (audio) - 4.5 stars
House of Last Resort by Christopher Golden - 3.5 stars
One-Star Romance by Laura Hankin - 4 stars

Currently reading The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager, and listening to The Big Four by Agatha Christie. And when I remember, Steel Heart Iron Claws on Kindle Unlimited.

I can't remember if I mentioned this already or not but I decided to DNF Zodiac Academy for now. I just couldn't get into it, but maybe I'll give it another shot next year.

[icedcoffee]

I couldn't get into The Only Good Indians and DNF. Maybe I should give it another chance?

[icedcoffee]

Currently reading Home Before Dark by Riley Sagar and it's so good. Very very much like Haunting of Hill House so far though which has me a little 🤔

I'm listening to The Asylum Confessions. Currently on the 4th installment and I love it so much

[Rusty Red]

Increased a little more in November but still not back to my prior 12-13 books a month. My brain just isn't in it. There's obviously a theme here of what was most available at my Libby location.

Leverage in Death - J.D. Robb
Sizzling Sixteen - Janet Evanovich
Smokin' Seventeen - JE
Explosive Eighteen - JE
Notorious Nineteen - JE
Takedown Twenty - JE
Top Secret Twenty-One - JE

[lucilleaustero]

Best fiction I read in Novemmber was The Women.
Best non fiction was Revenge of the Tipping Point.

December books on my list, with a * next to the completed book

How to Age Disgracefully*
The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife
The Ministry of Time
Collected works of Dorothy Parker
Horse (next month's book club host chose this one)
All in Her Head
The Anxious Generation

How to Age Disgracefully wound up being cute, better than I anticipated and The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife is clever so far, about halfway done.

[lucilleaustero]

Dec 2, 2024 18:27:34 GMT -6 mathrun said:

The Elegant Universe 5⭐️ (I started this in late 2023 and just now finished it. If you are more than mildly interested in physics and haven’t read it, I highly recommend. It was written in the late 90s as an explainer of what Super String Theory is, and surprisingly most of it is still relevant today. It’s very, very dense, but at the same time makes physics “fun” and accessible for someone with a pretty basic background. I took it in HS with a terrible teacher and was a math major in college. So, I didn’t need a lot of context/background to follow.)

I read the Elegant Universe when it first came out and remember loving it. I read a lot of scientific books and found it accessible, even as a someone in their early 20s. The Fabric of the Cosmos, also by Greene, was excellent.

[CestLaVie]

In November I finished:

- Financial Feminist
- The Duke and I
- The Women
- Pumpkin Spice Cafe
- Queen of Shadows

Right now I am tandem reading Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn. It's the first time I've intentionally tandem read something and it's been fun. I am 75% done each book currently.
I am also halfway through A Court of Wings and Ruin. I was into it but I have it hard copy and didn't want to bring such a huge book on vacation so I ended up deeper into Throne of Glass since I had that on kobo. I am hoping to finish up Throne of Glass completely in December.

I need 7 more books for my goodreads challenge which might be hard given the massive books I've been reading. Hopefully some cute christmas ones in there.

[CestLaVie]

Has anyone read the Ravenhood series? I bought Flock on a whim after a tiktok but I am waiting until I finish my current series before I start it.

[angelashly]

Anyone asking for books for Christmas?

My family is doing an exchange and our price point is $30 and I’m thinking books are a good thing to write down but I already gave my sister the new Nora Roberts for me.

[bearfootzcontinued]

Dec 4, 2024 8:51:45 GMT -6 angelashly said:

Anyone asking for books for Christmas?

My family is doing an exchange and our price point is $30 and I’m thinking books are a good thing to write down but I already gave my sister the new Nora Roberts for me.

I loved The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo but don't own it so I'm asking for the deluxe edition hardcover.  
There are so many special editions out there now and I won't deny that those fancy edges suck me right in. 

Also added the pre-order of Onyx Storm to my list, and also Iron Flame since I haven't read that yet. Although I should probably get the Kindle version or large print. 

[angelashly]

Dec 4, 2024 10:02:18 GMT -6 bearfootzcontinued said:

Dec 4, 2024 8:51:45 GMT -6 angelashly said:

Anyone asking for books for Christmas?

My family is doing an exchange and our price point is $30 and I’m thinking books are a good thing to write down but I already gave my sister the new Nora Roberts for me.

I loved The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo but don't own it so I'm asking for the deluxe edition hardcover.  
There are so many special editions out there now and I won't deny that those fancy edges suck me right in. 

Also added the pre-order of Onyx Storm to my list, and also Iron Flame since I haven't read that yet. Although I should probably get the Kindle version or large print. 

Maybe I should just do a target card and preorder that too

[angelashly]

I was going to add on the new ally carter book to my BOTM box too but maybe I could do that one