Halfway Through December And What I've Read

Today is finally the last day of work/school before we get off for Winter Break. Our family is looking forward to lots of family time, lots of yummy food, lots of sleeping in, and lots of reading! And we're making the most of our time by heading to the airport right after we're done for today and *hopefully* flying out of here tonight!!! We're so excited for the next couple of weeks!!!

Until then though, we're just a little past "halfway through December" and I did want to share what I've read thus far this month. In early January, I'll wrap up my December reading, and my 2023 reading, in general. But here's what December has looked like so far...

I had higher expectations for this book then I maybe should have. I thought this book was okay, but it didn't grab me, and I'm not super excited to check out the rest of the series. I was hoping for more A Man Called Ove vibes which is unfair, but I'm still disappointed that it didn't meet my hopes.

This is the third book in the series but the one I've enjoyed the most, thus far. I am just a complete sucker for Regency romances (or what I've defined as "Regency romances"!). This was a fun one.

This is the first in the series from above but I didn't love it as much. So many of this couple's problems could have been sorted out by just talking to each other but I recognize that wouldn't have made for a good plot!

After reading a Cormoran Strike novel in November, I wanted to go back to the beginning of the series. This is a series which gets better with each book, in my opinion.

Again, since I'd read a later book in the series, I wanted to go back to the beginning again. This book held up well on a re-read, which is not always the case. And I still want to work at a Renaissance Fair!

This is a book which a friend loaned to me. I cannot remember if she loaned it to me in February 2020 or March 2021 but either way it had been sitting on my TBR for way too long. I read it as a lunchtime book and I didn't love it. I don't know if this would be a better book to read when I was able to devote more time to it but reading it in half hour chunks did not work well.

I'm reading a lot of Regency romance series right now! (Sidenote: I just Googled "Regency Romances" and I'm not using the proper definition. I describe them as any "proper British romance from the 1800s" whereas the proper definition defines them as "occurring in 1811-1820." Oh well, hopefully you all know what I mean. Any romance set among the upper class with lots of balls and particular etiquette is what I throw into this category!)

It was so odd to read this book, about polio, and the fears which people had for their children around polio, and the search for a vaccine, given everything we've just gone through with Covid. It was also sad to realize that while likely all of us know the name Jonas Salk, we've forgotten, or never known, other names, like Dorothy Horstmann's. This novel reminded me that cures aren't found in a vacuum and there's a whole host of people who work together to discover them. It also reminded me the importance of getting vaccinated as not that long ago, there were many more deadly diseases, especially for children.

This was the third book I'd read, but only book 2, of the series. I really think I may have started with the best book first. This one was okay, but I really enjoyed the third book in this series the best. Maybe I shouldn't have read them all in such quick succession!

So that was what I read in the first half of December. It was a lot of quick and easy reads among all the Channukah festivities and the early Christmas celebrations which were happening.

And now I'm off for a bit. Winter Break is about to begin and there are more books to be read so come back in January when I'll recap the rest of my 2023 year of reading!