December got to be a crazy month for me so this is a massive November AND December reading recap where I will attempt to write about the THIRTY-TWO books I finished across those two months. Twelve of these are books I have read in previous, recent, Decembers. Another 3 were just rereads from within the last 5ish years. There is a good bit of Christmas and a fair number of short stories or quick read to hit my reading goal for the year.
I'm very active on Goodreads here, somewhat active on Instagram here, and linking up with Modern Mrs. Darcy on the 15th!
One other book post lately:
{10} Favorite Grown-Up Reads of 2024
Now everything I've been reading:
Holiday Romance by Catherine Walsh
This is the Christmas set book I picked to kick off my holiday season (November - back to school after Christmas). It was a fun friends to lovers where casual acquaintances share the same flight from Chicago to Ireland around Christmas every year. Unintentionally at first but then very much intentionally. It was charming and fun. 3.75 Stars
Falling Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix
This is a follow-up to Running Out of Time which I read 20ish years ago after my Mom talked about reading it with her 5th grade class. In the first book a family in unknowingly living in the past on purpose, as residents of a historical village where current day people can observe what life was like "back then" (sometime in the 1800s). In this book they seem to be living in the future, where everything is automated, there is no crime, no war, no pollution...we've fixed everything! BUT...maybe we haven't. Not quite as good but interesting going the other way in the world. 3.5 stars
This is My Body: A Call to Eucharistic Revival by Bishop Robert E. Barron
I had had this half finished for 8 months or something and was finally motivated to get it done after finishing 33 Days to Eucharistic Glory a few weeks earlier. This one was a little deeper than that one so I took it bits at a time but still a worthwhile, Catholic, read. 4 Stars
Love at First Book by Jenn McKinlay
The second Irish set book on this list! A librarian moves to a small Irish town to take a sabbatical from her library job and try her hand at assisting her favorite author which also comes with a side gig of helping in a local bookstore. The location sounds pretty dreamy but the jobs aren't quite what she was expecting and neither is the author. Or her prickly son. It was sweet and moving. 3.5 Stars
Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness by Ingrid Fetell Lee
This was a reread for book club (although I'm not sure anyone else has read it). I read this years ago and really enjoyed it. Exactly the kind of nonfiction I like to read - informative but captivating, gives me little ways to improve my own life. 4.5 Stars
Before We Were Us by Denise Hunter
Romance featuring memory loss in a young woman. She's about to get engaged when she falls, hits her head, and wakes up with no fond memories of her beloved. Then he has to get her to fall in love with him again which is a bit hard because they had a rough start the first time around. Set in a charming New Hampshire resort town which sounded like a lovely place to visit. 3.25 Stars
The Mistletoe Mystery by Nita Prose
A short novel following Molly the Maid, working at the hotel around Christmastime. An enjoyable enough world to pop into every so often where there is a new book. Charming little novella. 3.75 Stars
The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter
One of my favorite reads of last year! I liked this more than the last book by this author (The Blonde Identity) and the Christmas setting didn't help. Two writers are invited to a remote estate of their favorite mystery writer to celebrate Christmas. They don't know why they are included with the family but go along...and then the famous writer disappears and the two authors team up to solve it. It was so fun (despite the possibility of murder??) and also festive. Quite enjoyed it. 4 Stars
All I Want is You by Falon Ballard
ANOTHER "two writers come together" story, the third on this list?? This was not intentional. A woman who writes "happily ever after" stories ends up being snowed in at a hotel with not enough rooms with a male writer who writes "not happily ever after" stories. They butt heads on whose approach is better (he wins more awards). They are stuck for multiple days at this hotel and find out their professional (and personal) goals aren't so far off. It was fun and festive. 3.5 Stars
Natural Selection by Elin Hilderbrand
Short story that I activated a Kindle Unlimited trial just to read. It was set mostly on a boat and was a short story so by nature there wasn't much there. But I could tell it was Elin Hilderbrand just in that short story. Enjoyable enough for free! 3.5 Stars
When We Were Friends by Jane Green
Short story from my brief trial of Kindle Unlimited. About divorce and one of those instant best friends where you suddenly have everything in common but then the friendship is strong but short lived. 2.5 Stars
Pray for Us: 75 Saints Who Sinned, Suffered, and Struggled on Their Way to Holiness by Meg Hunter-Kilmer
This was one of my favorite reads of 2024. I hadn't heard of 74 of these saints before reading this and learned about a lot of super interesting people. Some of these saints lived QUITE a life. Just really interesting and inspirational. 4.75 Stars
The Exception to the Rule by Christina Lauren
Another short story from Kindle Unlimited, mostly told over e-mail which made it extra fast to read. An e-mail mistake leads to a many year friendship, mostly just on Valentine's Day. Charming and cute. 3.5 Stars
Kiss Me at Christmas by Jenny Bayliss
This was set around a group of unlikely people coming together to put on A Christmas Carol at a British theater. It was longer than it needed to be and wandered around a bit to get to the point. Cranky people who turn less cranky. People fall in love. People help each other. 2.75 Stars
Worst Wingman Ever by Abby Jimenez
The final Kindle Unlimited book I read, an unlikely meeting where they keep crossing paths but don't really know it. Also sweet and charming. My favorite of all these short stories I think. 3.75 Stars
Comfort & Joy by Kristin Hannah
This book was not what I was expecting. Divorced and alone, a woman boards a small plane, gets in an accident, wanders in the woods, and ends up at an almost abandoned hotel near a lake. Things aren't quite what they seem. Maybe I should have seen the twist coming. I did not. Also unsure how I felt about this one... 2.75 Stars
Finding Father Christmas, Engaging Father Christmas, Kissing Father Christmas by Robin Jones Gunn
I've been reading this novella series every December for 10 years or nearly (wrote a post about them here). Set in the most charming village in England, a woman trying to find out who her father is and then finding so much more. All set around Christmas. Just very sweet. 4.5 Stars
Christmas with the Queen by Hazel Gaynor & Heather Webb
I really enjoyed this one. Set mostly in England with a few people loosely connected to Queen Elizabeth around Christmas and her giving her first radio broadcast. A young journalist, a chef in the kitchens. They were long ago friends during the war but had lost touch, now, unintentionally, the Queen brings them back together, many times. It was charming and a sweet love story, with a British backdrop. 4 Stars
A Home for the Holidays by Taylor Hahn
A story about grief at Christmas, when a woman's mother dies in mid-December. She moves back home to try to deal with that and is taken in by her mother's former best friend who the daughter had only vaguely heard of. The daughter discovers more about herself and learns more about her mother AND maybe finds love. It took an unexpected turn at the end that kinda felt out of nowhere and unsure how that made me feel about the book overall. 3.5 Stars
The Greatest Gift: Unwrapping the Full Love Story of Christmas by Ann Voskamp
This is the "advent" (December 1st - 25th) devotional that I have read every year for many years. Roughly following the Jesse Tree and the geneology of Jesus. I enjoy it, I've read it 10 Decembers or nearly, although I wouldn't mind finding a Catholic one for next December, I just never think of it in time and I own this one... 4 Stars
Winter Street, Winter Stroll, Winter Storms, Winter Solstice by Elin Hilderbrand
The other series that I read every December and have every year since each book was released (previous post here). I've read all of Elin Hilderbrand's books but these are among the ones I've read the most. I love my time with the Quinns every December, even though my frequent rereading of them does make a few consistency issues stand out... 4.5 Stars
Yours Forever and Starry Night by Robin Jones Gunn
I had other books planned for the end of December and then that plan went out the window and I knocked through both of these over December 30th and 31st, to hit my goal. Finished the second at about 11pm on New Years Eve (I had about 3 pages left from earlier in the day). From my beloved Christy Miller series (previous post here) that was a huge influence in my teen years. I've read these countless times over the last 30 years, bring back such fond memories. 4 Stars
Read with Sam
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
I remembered reading this with Luke years ago but I didn't know it was the week schools shut down in March 2020 until I was logging reading it this time with Sam. We had a very different life experience around reading it this time! I censored a few parts reading it (again, I did with Luke too) but Sam enjoyed the strangeness of this. I loved this book as a kid; the copy I read both boys was my paperback that my Mom let me color the pictures in it, but only in colored pencil. 3.75 Stars
Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard Atwater
Another one I read with Sam now after reading it with Luke years ago. This book works because it's so strange that they have penguins living in their house and nobody is too concerned about it but you figure it's the 40s or whatever so people just maybe had wild animals living with them. And then at the end the Dad runs away with the penguins to Antartica for a few years and his wife and kids are like "that's normal, he doesn't want to say goodbye to the penguins". 3.75 Stars
How Winston Delivered Christmas by Alex T. Smith
This was the 5th December I've read this to the boys although the least consistent we've been in awhile, missing many days and then needing to catch up. 25 short chapters, following a mouse trying to get a letter to Santa. Nice and festive and easy to read. Nice pictures too. 4 Stars
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
I LOVE this book and it's one of my favorite traditions to with the boys. We usually start it the week of Christmas, finishing it ON Christmas and I get choked up every. single. year. The Herdmans somehow get everything just right. Beautiful and wonderful. 5 Stars
Luke and I are still reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I am DETERMINED to finish it in January (although I was also determined to finish it in December...)!
That is the large number of books I've been reading over the last 2 months. What have YOU been reading??
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