What I Read: December

I always enjoy reading Christmas books once December rolls around. This year I had a large stack of Christmas books I had collected from Goodwill, Little Free Libraries, and after Christmas sales last year. I was so excited! This year we didn't find any books on sale after Christmas so I won't have as many next year. I finished 2 books today so I know I won't be finishing any other books before 2024 rolls around so I'm posting this early.

My stack of Christmas books I've collected over the year. I made a pretty big dent in the stack!

Books:

• Wreck the Halls by Tessa Bailey- This was my first Christmas book of the season and I loved it. I liked the storyline with the famous moms. They added a bit of humor that I really enjoyed.

• Tomie by Junji Ito- A librarian recommended this book to me when she heard I really liked Lore Olympus. Not that the books were similar, but she loved this graphic novel and recommended it because I had enjoyed a graphic novel. I put it on hold to read in October because it was listed as a horror book. I didn't get it until November and wasn't in the right head space to read it. It took me forever to finish it and I didn't really like it.

• A Holly Jolly Ever After by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone- This was another Christmas Notch book. I read Merry Little Meet Cute with a friend last year so we decided to read this one together this year. It was really cute and I enjoyed it.

• Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan- This is listed as a novel but it's short, maybe more of a novella. I really liked it, but was left wanting more since it was so short. It was really good.

• All I Want for Christmas by Maggie Knox- I was so excited for this one after reading Holiday Swap last year which was so cute. This one was not. I was so annoyed with the characters and hated how they kept being so stubborn and annoying. The whole book was one running away from the other one and being an idiot. I loved the premise of the story and thought it would be cute, but this one was not for me.

• The Elephant's Girl by Celesta Rimington- I read this aloud with the kids. Elise and I both loved it and gave it 5 stars. Carter was slow to warm to it and didn't want to read it for about the first half of the book. Then he started liking it and gave it 4 stars when we finished. I loved how Rimington included the different ways elephants communicate and I really loved how she imagined an elephant could communicate with a human. There were a lot of pieces with a ghost, a tornado, a girl without a family, being able to communicate with elephants, being able to communicate with the wind, and a mystery, but it all fit together and worked.

• The Jolliest Bunch: Unhinged Holiday Stories by Danny Pellegrino- I loved this book. A lot of times with comedic essays there are some really funny ones and then some really awful ones. The ones in this one that weren't as funny as the others were still good. I enjoyed this a lot!

• This Winter by Alice Oseman- Depending on where you look, this is either listed as Solitaire #0.5 or a Nick and Charlie story. It took place on Christmas and was told through Tori, Nick, and then Oliver's perspective. I enjoyed it and wished it was longer!

• Heartstopper: Volume 5 by Alice Oseman- I was a little confused reading this because I felt like it was going over things that had already happened. When I looked at the timeline at the back of the book, I realized it was because I read Nick and Charlie, a novella which is set after all the Heartstopper books. I remembered trying to decide if I should read the novella when it came out or to wait until after I'd read all the Heartstopper books because I knew it took place after all the Heartstopper graphic novels. Once I placed when this one fit in, I was fine with it. At the end of the book, there's a page that says the 6th volume will be the last installment.

• 365 Days of Wonder: Mr. Browne's Book of Precepts by R.J. Palacio- This book had a quote for each day. I kept it in the bathroom and read my quote for the day as I brushed my teeth each morning. I really enjoyed it. Each month had a little note from Mr. Browne's character which was cute and gave little glimpses into other characters from Wonder.

• Evil Eye by Etaf Rum- This was her 2nd book and I was really excited to read it. It was really sad at points, but ultimately uplifting to see her pull herself out of all the trauma she experienced throughout her life.

eBooks:

• A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas- This was short and I still struggled to get through it. People keep insisting that I need to read the 4th book because I will really like it, but I've liked each book in the series less than the last. I liked the 1st one quite a bit and have struggled through each of following ones. I really didn't like this one. Her writing is just so blah to me and I don't enjoy the storyline enough to get past that. I thought part of it was she made the books so long and she could cut out a bunch of junk and make them better, but this was a novella and I still didn't like it. This is an unpopular opinion, but there you go.

• Elektra by Jennifer Saint- I started this one a while back and made it half-way through before giving up. I decided since it was December and almost the end of the year, I should finish it. I didn't like it all that much, but I powered through. I was hoping for something more like Circe. This felt too much like the exact same story I've heard over and over, just told again. She didn't add much or invent things to keep me interested.

• Solitaire by Alice Oseman- I struggled through this one and almost quit about halfway through because the main character always running away, literally running, was starting to get super annoying. I was going to take a break from it with something else and come back to it later, but then it got interesting and I couldn't put it down. It was obvious this was her first book and she wrote it when she was really young. The character development wasn't as good as her other books I've read.

• Snow Place like LA by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone- I didn't like this one as much as their other books, mostly just because it was short! It was still a sweet storyline, but my favorite part was the epilogue!

• The Woman in Me by Britney Spears- This was a book club pick. I went into it expecting not to like it so I was surprised to like it at first. It got a bit annoying and it was a good thing it was short. She definitely externalized all her problems and blamed everyone else for her mistakes. I was annoyed with her by the end, but it was so nice to see her get out of the conservatorship and take back her life. What she went through was terrible.

Audiobooks:

• The Book Club Hotel by Sarah Morgan- This was our December book club read. It was cute and I like how Morgan uses so many characters. It keeps her books I've read interesting because you have so many storylines to follow. This one was super predictable and just from the first few introductory chapters I was pretty sure what would be coming later in the story.

• Eight Perfect Hours by Lia Louis- I did not like this one. I don't know that I would have finished it if I was reading it as a book.

• Nick and Noel's Christmas Playlist by Codi Hall- I wanted a Christmas audiobook, but nothing was coming in from the library because there were too many holds. I got on Audible and saw they had a bunch of Christmas audiobooks that were free so I got this one. It was cute.

• There's Something About Merry by Codi Hall- I was excited to see there were 3 books in the Mistletoe Romance series, one for each sibling in the Winters family. They were all Audible Originals and I wanted to get through them all before my membership expired December 31st because after that I'm going to keep Libro and get rid of Audible so I can support our local book store with my subscription purchase. Nick and Noel's Christmas Playlist was the first one and centered around the brother, Nick. This one was about the sister, Merry, I was a little disappointed because I got Holly and Merry mixed up and there were some scenes in the first book that had me excited to see what would happen with Holly and another character. I loved that in this book you got to see Nick and Noel from the first book continue their relationship as side characters. I enjoyed this one more than the first one.  

• Along Came Holly by Codi Hall- This was my favorite of the Mistletoe Romance series. I normally don't care for the enemies to lovers trope, but when Holly and Declan were introduced in the first book, I was excited to hear their story. I loved that you got to see Nick and Noel's relationship and Merry and Clark's relationship continue in this book. My favorite part was at the end of the book. This was just so sweet and fun! I planned to finish it before my Audible membership expired on 12/31. I realized on the 28th when my membership ended that I had my dates mixed up and I had an hour left on the audiobook so I renewed my membership for a month so I could finish it. It was half price because they wanted me to re-up so I got to finish this book and download another for just $7.99.