What did you read in December?

[Vespasia]

What did you read in December? Any ratings or recommendations?



If you have a reading goal, did you meet it in 2023? Did you set one for 2024?

[charlatti]

Nothing amazing this month:

Defiant by Brandon Sanderson 4*
Beautiful Little Fools by Jillian Cantor 3*
Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll 2*
A Wretched and Precarious Situation: In Search of the Last Arctic Frontier by David Welky 4*
Resurrection Walk by Michael Connelly 4*
Come From Away: Welcome to the Rock: An Inside Look at the Hit Musical 4*
The Bad Muslim Discount by Syed M. Masood 4*

I set goals but I make them numbers that don’t require effort to reach. This year was 110; I think I started at 100 but raised it when I got close and I ended with 113. I’m starting this year at 100 again, but I’ll adjust up or down as needed — it’s not really a goal for me, just a way to track things.

[tacokick]

I set the goal at 150 so it will track things more easily but I don’t really have a goal.

Invitation to a Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food by Fuchsia Dunlop (great)

Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden by Camille T. Dungy (good)

Mother, Nature: A 5,000-Mile Journey to Discover if a Mother and Son Can Survive Their Differences by Jedidiah Jenkins (horrible)

Alice Sadie Celine by Sarah Blakley-Cartwright (boring)

The Beautiful and the Wild by Peggy Townsend (bad)

The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves (good)

The September House by Carissa Orlando (fun)

My Name is Barbra by Barbra Streisand (so detailed!)

A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars edited by Erin Sharkey (ok)

Eyeliner: A Cultural History by Zahra Hankir (uneven)

The Couple in the Photo by Helen Cooper (fun)

The Other Guest by Helen Cooper (fun)

All the Little Bird-Hearts by Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow (good)

The Sleepwalkers by Scarlet Thomas (eh)

The Weekend Retreat by Tara Laskowski (ok)

One-Hit Wonder by Lisa Jewell (not good)

The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino (ok)

I Promise It Won’t Always Hurt Like This by Clare Mackintosh (solid)

Everywhere an Oink Oink: An Embittered, Dyspeptic, and Accurate Report of Forty Years in Hollywood by David Mamet (eh)

Endangered Eating: America’s Vanishing Foods by Sarah Lohman (interesting)

The Divorce by Moa Herngren and Alice Menzies (Translator) (sad)

What Remains by Wendy Walker (nonsensical)

Only One Survives by Hannah Mary McKinnon (fun)

The Other Mothers by Katherine Faulkner (uneven)

The Lies We Told by Camilla Way (enjoyable)

A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djèlí Clark (cute)

[Vespasia]

The Paris Diversion by Chris Pavone -4*
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros - 3.5* (had a fun vent session with my niece about this at Xmas)
Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison - 4*
The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young - 4*
The Dead take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw - 4*


I set a goal of 52 books for 2023 and will repeat it for 2024. I read 79 books in 2023 and 80 in 2022 so I think one book a week is an easy goal. 

[estrellita]

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi 4*
What the River Knows 4*
House of Earth and Blood 5*
Icebreaker 2*

I had a goal of 3 books per month, so 36 for the year, and I exceeded it at 40 😊 I did finish two entire (so far) series so that was a big part of it lol. But pretty happy with it! I'm setting my goal to 45 this year and going to try focusing more on reading than video games or mindless phone scrolling!

[travella]

5*

Nothing More Dangerous by Allen Eskens  - this book was interesting, emotional, and a fast read. 

4*

Saving Ema by Allen Eskens - this is the next book in the series.  It was still good, but I didn't like it as much as the first book. 

3*

A Boy Called Christmas by Matt Haig

Shantaram by Gregory Davin Roberts

The Tie that Binds by Kent Haruf

2*

A Kidnapped Santa Clause by L. Frank Baum

Father Christmas by JRR Tolkein

The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett

I always set my goal at 45.  I don't like feeling pressured to read a bunch of books in December when things are crazy to meet my goal.  I read 96 books last year! 

[dearprudence]

The Winter Garden - 4*
The Book Eaters - 4*
The Afterlife of Holly Chase - 5*
Foxes for Christmas - 4*
Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe - 3*
Sugar and Snow - 4*
A December to Remember - 3*

I didn't set a number goal, just that I wanted to read more nonfiction and more books I already own and I did that. This year I want to read some of the older books on my "to read" list.

[mrspez07]

I was recovering from an appendectomy so I got in a few more books than anticipated. I had a yearly goal of 65 but only read 55, mostly because I didn’t get through as many audio books as usual.
My goal next year is 58, an average of the books I’ve read per year since tracking on goodreads.

Nora goes off script by Annabel Monaghan 4*
Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall 5*
House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson 4*
An Exaltation of Larks by Susanne Laqueur 5*
The Templar Legacy by Steve Barry 2*

Audio:
Just Mercy Bryan Stevenson 4*