The December ’16 Overview

I don’t want to brag, but I am going to anyway and say I KILLED it in December on the reading front. I looked at my Goodreads reading challenge (40 books) and I noticed that I was not very far away from 60. So I gathered all the thin books I could find on my to-be-read shelve and read them. This resulted in me finishing 11 books in December, putting my total of the year at 60 books!

So this post I wanted to round up the month of December like I have been doing. There will also be a post going up about the reading challenges I set out to finish at the start of 2016 and the ones I plan to take on for 2017 and a post about my top 5 favorite books of the year.

December

Here is the list of books I read in December with the rating I gave it on Goodreads (X out of 5) and what I thought in a quick 1 or 2-sentence review.

This month I read (in finishing order):

‘Nooit meer te druk’ by Tony Crabbe ***

I semi-enjoyed this book. However, it contained a lot of things I read, more enjoyably, in other books (see my fave non-fiction self-help books here) and it contained a lot of ‘example’ stories that felt unconnected to the ‘lesson’ they meant to convey.

‘The Club Dumas’ by Arturo Pérez-Reverte ****

A book club read, I enjoyed the way the story introduced me to the world of antique books. However, the ending left me unsatisfied and I enjoyed the ‘Three Musketeers’ storyline a lot more than the devil-worshipping one.

‘The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe’ by C.S. Lewis ****

Another book club read. A lovely, easy and quick read that makes you feel like a child, learning (sometimes antiquated) life lessons and it took me back to seeing the movies for the first time and wishing Narnia was real.

‘We Should All Be Feminists’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie *****

Great read on what feminism means and should mean to more people. An edited text version of a TED talk Adichie once did and it makes me excited to read more from her.

‘The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter–And How to Make the Most of Them Now’ by Meg Jay *****

Incredibly inspiring book that is already influencing the way I think about my time, goals and other aspects of my life.

‘Buffering: Unshared Tales of a Life Fully Loaded’ by Hannah Hart *****

As a fan of Hannah Hart’s youtube channel, I was excited to read her book and I was not disappointed. A great read on mental illness, discovering your (sexual) identity, facing your past and being recklessly optimistic trough it all.

‘De priester’ by Connie Palmen **

I disliked this book, it was so disturbing and the ‘Priester’ mentioned in the title is described so gross and disgusting. So great writing, but it left me feeling disgusted with it regardless.

‘I Do!’ by Rachel Gibson **** and ‘Blue By You’ by Rachel Gibson ****

Not much to say about these books, except that I LOVE Rachel Gibson and these novellas were no exception.

‘Slade House’ by David Mitchell ****

I really enjoyed the multiple story lines, however, the ending felt a bit rushed and I would have liked to see the unfolding of events at the end to be a bit more elaborate. Overall it was nice and creepy and I loved the general idea.

‘The Improbability of Love’ by Hannah Rothschild *****

My final book of 2016 and it was certainly a lovely read. The book introduced me to the antique art world, through multiple characters and a lot of history. My favorite character is still the painting itself.

January

For the new year, I have three book club reads I want to try to finish and if I have time, I want to finish reading ‘The Circle’ since a movie is coming out this year and I want to finish the book first. However, I am graduating at the end of the month, so time might be a bit short again.

• ‘Wuthering Heights’ by Emily Brönte (Undercover Book Club pick for February)
• ‘The Book of Night Women’ by Marlon James (Undercover Book Club pick for January)
• ‘Americanah’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Bored to Death book club pick for January)
• ‘The Circle’ by David Eggers