Wow! We’re actually done with 2018 and as with every year, December went out with a flurry of activity, parties, family and friends. I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t left with a whole lot of extra time for reading, but did manage to squeeze in a few, including my first three January books. You can check out those and a whole lot of other winter books I’m going to be reading in my Winter Preview 2019 post. With the new year here, I’m hoping things will begin to settle down and my new normal will involve massive amounts of time for reading. (I know, but I can always dream!)

{My December, Books & Blog}

The Cream of the Crop

Books I enjoyed the most…

• The Perfect Liar by Thomas Christopher Greene – This was the perfect kickoff to my 2019 reading. It’s a domestic thriller done right, and I don’t often say that. (I’ll have a full review next week.)
• The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker – I loved Walker’s debut, The Age of Miracles, so was a little nervous about the sophomore slump. No need! This second book is wonderful and her writing spectacular. (Full review next week.)

A Cut Above

Great stories…

• Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones – I listened to this one and liked it very much. The story of sisters, born four months apart, who share a father, but have different mothers. Only one knows of the other’s existence and each tells half of their story. The writing by Jones and the narration by Heather Alicia Simms and Rosalyn Coleman-Williams made for a very pleasant couple weeks of listening. (Consider that my review!)
• Ways to Hide in Winter by Sarah St. Vincent – A slow burning, character driven story, Ways to Hide in Winter was both suspenseful and eerily calm. (my review)
• Late in the Day by Tessa Hadley – I’ll be honest, I’m still not exactly sure what to think of this book. It was my last read for 2018 and I both liked it and didn’t, but I’m still thinking about it and that speaks more to liking it than not. (I’ll sort out my feelings and have a full review soon.)

Subpar

Book I could have skipped…

• Little Deaths by Emma Flint – I listened to this one and though I got through the whole thing, I wasn’t always enjoying it. (my review)
• Fire Sermon by Jamie Quatro – If this book wasn’t so short it would have been a DNF. I struggled through it, but just could not connect or even sympathize with the angst ridden main character. (my review)

DNF

• Happiness by Aminitta Forna – I gave it to about 30%, but the story was far from causing me happiness!
• We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler – I’d seen this book on several all time favorites list, so wanted to give it a try. Unfortunately, I was completely bored.

Top Blog Posts

• December was all about book lists and like many other blogs I posted several. By a HUGE margin, my most popular was Best Books of 2018.
• Novel Visits big Winter Preview 2019 was also visited many times followed very closely by Six 2018 Books That Deserved Their Hype, plus…Six That Didn’t.
• I also published Favorite Debuts of 2018 and my Favorite Audiobooks of 2018 in December.

{From the Book Blogging World}

Favorite Reviews & Recommendations

I’m not going to lie, with the holiday rush I haven’t been keeping up on bookish news this month the way I normally do. So instead of the usual, I’m going to share some of my favorite Best Books of 2018 posts from the last month. I always love looking at what others liked most and comparing how my tastes line up with theirs. Plus, sometimes I pick up gems that I’ve missed.

Links take you to wonderful best book lists…

• Renee at It’s Book Talk has a great list with several books I’ve seen from no other bloggers.
• Catherine at The Gilmore Guide to Books and I often have very similar reading tastes, so it was no surprise when our favorites included three books in common.
• With four best books in common, Sarah at Sarah’s Book Shelves was my closest match and several others on her list just barely missed the cut for me.
• If you like thrillers take a look at Annie’s favorites over at The Misstery.
• Another great list of mostly thrillers came from Melissa at The Bookworm Fantasy.
• I think Allison at Mind Joggle is brilliant because she and I have the same favorite book of the year! Plus, most of her other selections are books I also loved.
• Amy at Read a Latte had best books that included 2018 releases and some of my favorite books from 2017.
• Tina at TBR. Etc. has a great mix of fiction and nonfiction on her 2018 best books list.

One last thing…

Did you listen to the first podcast from Sarah’s Book Shelves Live yesterday? Sarah’s new podcast is adding a fresh new take on a bookish discussions. It’s one I know I’ll be listening to every single Wednesday. Her first episode featured Georgia Hunter, author of We Were the Lucky Ones, and it was fabulous! (Yours truly will be the guest on January 16th.) You can subscribe to her podcast everywhere you normally listen to podcasts.

That’s a wrap! How was your December?

Disclaimer: There are Amazon Associate links contained in this post.