Best Books of December
As I said last month, I’m shamelessly stealing this idea from Jessica Lahey. She has a recurring monthly date where she reviews all the books she read that month. Book reviews are important for authors, and I want to get better about doing this.
So. I’m going to review them here and also online, but I’m going to do it a little differently. I’m only going to review the stuff I really liked. I don’t see a reason to spend my time writing about something I didn’t love; it’s just using up more of my energy. So only positive reviews.
These are the books I liked (or mostly liked) from December.
Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts (Kate Racculia): I adored this book. It’s like a grown-up Westing Game in spirit. And I was more than willing to look past any plotline clunkiness because I loved all the characters and the mystery itself. This book is pure fun, but it goes deeper than that. It also made me wistful for old friends.
A Clue for the Puzzle Lady (Parnell Hall) and Last Puzzle and Testament (Parnell Hall): These are the first two books in a crossword cozy mystery series. As in, there are always crossword puzzles in the book, and crossword puzzles feature somewhat (or a lot) in the plot. Are they perfect? No. Are they brilliant? No. But are they so much fun that you will read the whole book in one sitting and not care at all if you guess the ending beforehand? Absolutely yes. I’ve been devouring these because they are the perfect escape.
Reverie (Ryan La Sala): The book is described as Inception meets The Magicians… which isn’t close at all. It’s about a teenaged boy who wakes up with no memories after an accident but quickly learns that he and a group of other teenagers in his school can enter daydreams. The daydreams themselves are so powerful that they suck everyone in the vicinity into the storyline, and terrible things sometimes happen as imaginations run wild. It’s a solid book and an impressive first novel.
Do You Mind If I Cancel (Gary Janetti): I almost didn’t include this because when we got home, ChickieNob found his mean-spirited Instagram account, which sort of spoiled the good feelings from the book. But in the moment, before we realized that, we listened to his essays in the car on the way home from Asheville and laughed the whole way. If you’re planning to read it, I would listen to him read the stories on the audio book version.
What did you read last month?
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In December, I read the following books:
Sourdough by Robin Sloan (which was my book club’s December selection). First book I’ve read by the author, although I’ve had another of his titles on my “to read” list for a while. I enjoyed it and would give it 4 stars.
Dash Diet Cookbook for Beginners: riveting. Ha! Just kidding. Good information.
If You Tell by Gregg Olsen. I’d give this one 3.5 stars. It’s a true story about an abusive mother and her daughters.
I Know Who You Are by Alice Feeney. I enjoyed this book a lot until about 80% of the way through. The ending squicked me out. 3 stars.
I also continued reading A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah Maas, which I started in early November and am still working on. (It is a library book in electronic format, and I can only keep it checked out for 2 weeks at a time.) I anticipate finishing it this month, as I’m now about 80% through it.
In the department of cozy mysteries, I read The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King. It was fun – and I am now reading the second in that series.
I also read The Gifted School by Bruce Holsinger – which is snarky fun. Almost everyone is HORRIBLE.
I read 5 books in December — all of them reviewed on my blog:
* “The Baker’s Daughter” by D.E. Stevenson
* “Women & Power” by Mary Beard
* “It’s Even Worse Than You Think” by David Cay Johnston
* “Gaslighting America” by Amanda Carpenter
* “Out of Grief, Singing” by Charlene Diehl
That last book is a pregnancy loss memoir
I read 5 books in December — all of them reviewed on my blog:
* “The Baker’s Daughter” by D.E. Stevenson
* “Women & Power” by Mary Beard
* “It’s Even Worse Than You Think” by David Cay Johnston
* “Gaslighting America” by Amanda Carpenter
* “Out of Grief, Singing” by Charlene Diehl
That last book is a beautifully written pregnancy loss memoir.
My December reads:
The Library of Lost and Found by Phaedra Patrick
Educated by Tara Westover
Year of No Clutter by Eve Schaub
All were good. But Educated was my book of the year. It was extraordinary.