Hey, guys! I am super excited to talk about the books I read in December. December was absolutely insane, from finishing my third semester of University to finals and Christmas and my birthday, and it was just crazy. But I did end up finishing fourteen books in December, which I am super satisfied with. I also ended up increasing my Goodreads Reading Goal for 2017 from 70 books to 80 since I was going to make it to 80 anyway. And I did! I surpassed it, actually, by reading 88 books, which I am super pleased with. But let’s go ahead and get into the books I read in the month of December.
The first book I read was Popular by Maya Van Wagenen.
This is a memoir that I have been meaning to read for forever, but I ended up picking this up for like seventy-nine cents during this bargain store’s Black Friday sale. I randomly decided to go ahead and read it, and I read it in one sitting. I found this book to be super relatable to me because it does really dive deep into the topic of popularity and what popularity actually means. I saw a lot of myself in Maya, and I really Loved seeing her take on popularity, so I really thoroughly enjoyed this. I ended up giving this 4/5 stars.
The next book I read was The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas.
This is a book that I have been wanting to read ever since its release, and I am so glad I finally got the chance to read it! This is a super powerful story that was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, which I am super supportive of, and it deals with a variety of different topics from racism to police brutality. It really just has a focus on getting your voice heard and the importance of speaking out against oppression, which was super inspiring to me. It follows sixteen-year-old Starr Carter who witnesses her unarmed black best friend get murdered by a white cop, and it is just such a powerful story, and I highly recommend it. This is one of my favorite books of the year and of all time, and I also reviewed it. I obviously gave this 5/5 stars because it was absolutely amazing!
The next book I read was Unlearned by Haley Pierce.
This is a book that was sent to me for review by the author, so thank you so much for sending this my way, Haley! I actually read this book twice this month. I definitely did not go in with super high expectations. That’s not to say I went in with low ones, but I just was not expecting much. This blew whatever expectations I did have out of the water because I absolutely loved this book. It just went places I wasn’t expecting it to and it explored some serious topics that I wasn’t expecting at all. It had a lot of substance to the story, but this is also a New Adult book with adult content, so if you can’t handle explicit sexual scenes, I think you should steer clear of this one. But if you can handle that kind of thing, I highly recommend you give this book a go because it was absolutely fantastic, and I really enjoyed it. I reviewed it, and I gave it 5/5 stars.
The next book I read was The Ocean At the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman.
This is a standalone dark fantasy novel that is centered around this man who has come back to his childhood hometown and finds himself at this pond at the end of the lane, whom his friend Lettie called the Ocean, and he remembers things from his childhood, though not in quite the same way as he had been recalling for years and years. I freaking loved this book. It was so mysterious and intriguing, and it just went to places I wasn’t expecting it to go. The writing was so addicting and had this aura of mystery that I loved, and it just had such an intricate world and well-developed characters, and I just really loved it, so I did review it, and I gave it 4/5 stars.
The next book I read was The Book of Teezus: Thus Spoke Yeezus [Through Me] by Tes Mekonnen.
This was actually more awful than I was anticipating this would be. It’s a book that was sent to me by the author unsolicited who apparently is a mega Kanye West fan. I was hoping it would be kind of funny, but it was not, unfortunately. I think it might have been quotes or short poems or I just don’t know what to call them, but they weren’t good. I would say the poetry was very convoluted, controversial, confusing, problematic, and just not good. I didn’t like it at all, and the bad writing just gave me a migraine after I finally finished reading it as it did make me feel like I was reading for fifty years versus thirty minutes. I ended up giving this 1/5 stars. Do not recommend…
I also read Blue Ivy Carter: A Little, Big Story by Tes Mekonnen.
I actually liked this one a whole lot more than I did the previous one because it had a semblance of a plot line. This was also sent to me unsolicited by the author, and it just tells this cute little story about Blue Ivy Carter and Beyonce and Sean Carter, and I really enjoyed it. It was only like ten pages long, but it was super cute, and I really loved it. The writing definitely improved with this one, and I ended up giving it 4/5 stars.
The next book I read was Happyland by Tes Mekonnen.
This is a standalone fairytale that is just a super wacky and unique story. While I had a few issues with it, overall, I thought it was a solid story. I honestly can’t tell you anything about it because it is so hard to describe where it is so wacky and abstract, so just know that if nothing else, it has gorgeous illustrations! The illustrations were my absolute favorite part of the book because they were so freaking gorgeous. I am in love with the art style. Anthony Resto illustrated the book, and now I just want to see more of his artwork. But I ended up giving this 4/5 stars, and my review will be up soon!
The next book I read was Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur.
This is a poetry collection that literally everyone has read. Everyone has been hyping this book up and talking about how amazing it is, but there are the select few who decided this was not their cup of tea. I am one of those few. I am not disrespecting the experiences that inspired this poetry. This poetry is extremely personal, and I commend Rupi for being brave enough to share it with the world. However, there were parts of the poetry that I did not feel emotionally connected to, and it was all just things I had heard before. But I did enjoy parts of this, and the parts I did enjoy I really loved. I just don’t think her style of poetry is my cup of tea, and that is fine. It just was not for me. But I gave this 4/5 stars, and my review will be up soon!
The next book I read was Lumberjanes Vol. 1: Beware the Kitten Holy by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, and Shannon Watters.
This is the first book in a graphic novel series that is centered around this group of friends who go to this all girls camp to teach them survival skills and they end up fighting and kicking butt against a bunch of supernatural creatures. This was a super great story about friendship and just women, and I loved it so freaking much. This was my heart and soul, and I just really enjoyed it. I really loved the art style as well because it was super adorable, and I just really recommend this series because I really enjoyed this first volume. But my review will be up soon, and I gave this 4.5/5 stars.
The next book I read was Three Under the Mistletoe by Tia Siren.
This is probably pretty self-explanatory from the cover and the title. But this is an adult romance novel, so there is adult content and if you aren’t comfortable with that, don’t read this. I just picked it up while it was free because I knew it was getting close to Christmas and I had read Tia Siren’s other works before and really liked them. I also really like this one. As always, there is great writing, an actual plot, three-dimensional characters and some really great romance. I really enjoyed this book, so I ended up giving this 4.5/5 stars. I would have given this 5/5 stars, but the ending was just a little bit too abrupt for my taste…
The next book I read was Astonishing X-Men Vol. 1: Gifted by Joss Whedon.
This is the first volume in an X-Men series that is centered around Scott Summers and Emma Frost running Xavier’s School and trying to change the public opinion towards mutants. I thought this first volume was very action-packed, very interesting, and it really set up the plot well. I loved the development of the characters along with the dynamics between all of the characters. I just thought it was a solid first installment to what seems like is going to be a fantastic and badass series I am super into! I ended up giving this 4/5 stars.
The next book I read was The Mirror & The Maze by Renee Ahdieh.
This is a short story that happens right after The Wrath and the Dawn ends, so I can’t tell you anything about it. I just randomly decided to read it because I realized it was in my Kindle library (no idea how it got there). I don’t think this is required reading or anything, but I think it was interesting to see a certain character dealing with the end of The Wrath and the Dawn. I did still enjoy it, even if it was only eleven pages long. I ended up giving this 4/5 stars.
The next book I read was Big Bad Billionaire (Part 1) by Tia Siren
This is the first part of an adult romance novel, which was published in three parts in total. This story does have some graphic adult content, so if you can’t handle a lot of graphic scenes, I don’t recommend this book, but I did enjoy this. It wasn’t my favorite work by Tia Siren, but I still really enjoyed this. The ending of this first part really pissed me off to no end, and I am so upset. Like, I want to know what happens, but at the same time, I really do not want to know what happens, if that makes any sense at all. Either way, I did enjoy this first part, and I gave it 4.5/5 stars.
The next book I read was Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #1 by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.
This is a comic I was not expecting to pick up, but it was free on Prime Reading, so I figured I could go ahead and give it a go, and man. This comic blew me away. I absolutely fell in love with it because not only was I learning more about this dark town and story I knew nothing about, I was also learning more about things from Riverdale (the comics) that I didn’t know before, and that is just so exciting and interesting. I loved the art style, and I really loved seeing the crossover of the Archie Comics and Sabrina. Not that they interacted, but characters from Riverdale do appear in this issue, and I really loved seeing that. I just think this story is definitely going to go places, and I am super excited to see that. I obviously gave this 5/5 stars!
And the last book I read in 2017 was Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #2 by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.
This was a super short, but still very good, installment to the Sabrina comic book series, and I really enjoyed this! It definitely was exploring our villain more than anything. It really gave a lot of backstory to her character and was trying to give some context to her motives along with hinting at some of her plans for Sabrina. I think this was really setting up for the rest of the series, but learning about everything to do with Madam Satan really made me super excited for the rest of the series and what it will hold, so I ended up giving this 4/5 stars.
And there you have it! Those were all of the books I read in December. What is your favorite book that you read this year? Comment down below! I would love to know. And that is going to be it for this post today. Thank you all so much for reading this, I hope you enjoyed it, I hope you have a happy new year, and I will see you next time!
