I’m publishing this post just as the ball is making its descent on New Year’s Eve, since I want to give myself as much time as possible to finish my reading goals that I set back in January. I’ll have a separate post to talk about how well I fulfilled my 2018 bookish goals, as well as talk about my goals for 2019.

Stats

This month, I read 12 books, with a total of 3,983 pages!

That’s about 128 pages/day.

• 1 ★★★★★
• 7 ★★★★
• 4 ★★★
• 0 ★★
• 0 ★
• 1 Children’s books vs. 11 YA/Adult
• 7 E-books/Audio vs. 5 Physical books
  • My Kindle’s Reading Insights tell me that I’m in the middle of a reading streak 17 weeks long.
  • I read 22 days on my Kindle in November, but only 14 days in December (which seems odd, since I’ve had about a month off work).
• 0 e-ARCs; 0 Library books; 7 Owned books; 4 Subscription books; 1 book that I bought as a gift and read first 🙂

Books Read

I’ve added the book reviews as links below, to try and shorten the length of the monthly wrap-up posts, and hopefully encourage me to post them as I finish reading throughout the month, instead of waiting and having a pile to do all at once. Let me know what you think of the new format in the comments. Thanks!

1. The Gender Plan by Bella Forrest
   1. “I’m sorry if that doesn’t make me strong in your book, but I don’t care. I don’t exist for your approval.”
2. The Gender End by Bella Forrest
   1. I haven’t written a review for this series yet, but I enjoyed it. There were times where it was a little slow, or had battle scenes that dragged on for too long in excruciating detail, but overall, it had good world building and was a fun time.
3. Carry On by Rainbow Rowell
   1. No review for this one yet, either. I kinda suck this month.
   2. I rated it 3/5 stars. The first half or so was pretty slow and uneventful, but the second half was decent.
   3. A lot of people compare this to Harry Potter, but it was missing a bit of the awe and wonder that the Harry Potter series invoked in me.
4. Indianapolis by Lynn Vincent
   1. 4/5 stars. This was a really interesting read.
   2. Being prior Navy, I enjoy reading about naval military stories. Combine this with my fascination for Shark Week, and you have this book.
   3. I was glad that, although the subtitle is about the exoneration of the captain, the book focused more on the crew, the incident, and their time in the water, and not so much on the legal proceedings.
5. Rome by Jay Crownover
6. Nash by Jay Crownover
7. Gabriella the Superhero by Eric James
8. Zombie Lover by Piers Anthony
9. Verity by Colleen Hoover
10. The Queen: History in an Hour by Sinead Fitzgibbon
11. Xone of Contention by Piers Anthony
12. Jesus-Shock by Peter Kreeft

December TBR Books I Didn’t Get To

• A Tyranny of Petticoats by Jessica Spotswood
  • This one I had borrowed from the library, and I ran out of time before I had to return it. Our library is going to be closed for renovations for much of January, so I wasn’t able to renew it. I did mark in my Goodreads where I left off, so that I’ll be able to pick it back up later (which is one of the great things about a short story compilation).
  • So far, it is rating about 3/5 stars. The stories are well done for the most part, but unfortunately the time periods are not ones that capture my interest.
• Rerouting by Fr. John Riccardo
  • Since this one contains a lot of self-reflection questions, I wanted to hold off on just reading straight through this one until I had the proper time and attention to give it and answer all the questions as I go.
  • When I do pick it up again, I think I’ll create a new series of blog posts where I can talk about my ideas, reactions, and answers to the reflection questions.
  • I jokingly said that I refuse to read a book by Fr. John without it having been autographed for me. And I haven’t yet had this one autographed. LOL!
• The Oracle Year by Charles Soule
  • This one was an interesting concept, but was a little slow when I set it down a month or so ago and I became distracted by other, shinier, books.
• Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
  • This was another library book that time ran out on.
  • I hadn’t gotten too far into the story. I think the main character had met one person and gone out of her room once.
• Foolish Hearts by Emma Mills
  • I just never made it to this book.
• My True Love Gave to Me by Stephanie Perkins
  • Since this anthology has 12 stories, I thought it would be best to read one story per day for the 12 Days of Christmas. So, it should be finished early in January.
• What Light by Jay Asher
  • I just never made it to this book.
• The One-in-a-Million Boy by Monica Wood
  • This book was selected for Monica’s book club, and in my typical fashion, I had only read 1/2 of the book by the designated day. When I also was unable to make the book club meeting, I set aside the book for a little while.
  • It was a *really* good story when I set it aside, so I am looking forward to picking it back up again.