What I Read: December

I always get so excited to read Christmas books in December. It's fun to read nothing but fun and happy books for a month. That's exactly what I did this month and I ended up with some really good ones! One of these days I'm going to make a list of all the Christmas books I've read and note which ones were the best.

Such a pretty cover!

Books:

• Our Missing Hearts by Celest Ng- As I was starting my post for December, I realized I accidentally added this one to my November list, even though I finished it in December, so I'm moving it on over to the correct month. This was by far my favorite of Ng's books. It was so good. I loved the poem and how she wove that through the story. I loved the borrowed snippets of things that have happened in history she used from to make the story feel relevant and real. I also loved the underground work the librarians did to help people. The ending was heart breaking and I didn't realize I was reading the last page until I turned it and saw I was at the Author's Notes. I immediately began to cry. Ty was caught off guard and, honestly, so was I. This one really hit me in the heart as a mom.

• So, This Is Christmas by Tracy Andreen- The author of this book grew up in Tulsa and the book was set in Oklahoma so I was super excited to read it. It was cute. Not super good, but good enough to hold my attention.

• A Merry Little Meet Cute by Julie Murphy- I absolutely loved this one. One of my friends and I were talking about Christmas books and both realized we both had this one to read this year. We read it together which made it really fun because we texted back and forth about it as we were reading. There was never a meet cute which I was a little bummed by, but I get that the title referred to the Christmas movie moments that would be in the kind of movie they were filming.

• Amor Actually by Mackenzie Walton (editor)- You know my love for Love Actually and fitting a bunch of characters together in surprising ways. When I saw there was a Christmas book of short stories written by Latinx authors, basically re-imagining Love Actually, I was on board. This was way more steamy than I was bargaining for, but I still really liked it! I especially liked that the story of the wife getting cheated on started with her after the divorce (which she stood up for herself and pushed for) and her happy ever after (at least for the moment).

eBooks:

• The Holiday Swap by Maggie Knox- This was absolutely adorable and I loved it. I would have given it 5 stars but the ending was a little bit over the top and cheesy for me. I still loved it though!

• A Holly Jolly Diwali by Sonya Lalli- This was cute. The characters were a bit annoying and immature, but still loveable. 

• The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman- This book was really disjointed for me. There was a long holds list so when it was available and I was still reading a different ebook, I went ahead and downloaded it. When I got around to reading it, I only got halfway through before it returned to the library. Then I had to put it on hold again and it took me 2 months to get it back. I remembered the main details from reading it before, but it would have been a lot more enjoyable had I gotten to read it without a huge gap in between. I still loved it and am looking forward to reading the next 2 books in the series. 

Audiobooks:

• Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton- This was our December book for Book Club. I HATED it when I started it. The book grew with the narrator and it started as stream of conciousness and didn't make much sense. I had a hard time following it and almost gave up on it. About half-way through it picked up and it was really interesting and action packed. The narrator started telling the story with lots of color and beauty. Had the book just been the 2nd half, I'd say it was okay, but with the first half in there, it kind of sucked. I definitely wouldn't recommend this one, but I could see it being a really good movie.

• The Slippery Slope by Lemony Snicket- #10 in the series. I felt the same about this one as I have the last few. I was waiting on a Christmas book I had on hold to come in to I picked this one to listen to while I waited because it was short.

• The Christmas Train by David Baldacci- I really didn't like this one and only finished it because it was short. The main character was an entitled jerk and the story was just pretty dumb. There were all these little sub-plots that were just too much and I couldn't stand the main character which made it hard to deal with.

• The Christmas Sisters by Sarah Morgan- This was really sweet and I loved that it followed the 3 sisters along with their mom so the story was from 4 different perspectives which always keeps things fun and interesting. There was a moment in the book with a missing special stuffie which reminded me what we went through with Big Al and Carter.

• Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur- I loved the little nods to Pride and Prejudice in this book. I love retellings of Jane Austen novels, but this one wasn't a retelling, there were just little details borrowed from the book. I got really excited part-way through when I realized there are 2 more books in the series, each following a different character that had a supporting role in this book. I'm excited to read them, but need a break from romance books after December.