December 2024 Reading Wrap-Up
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Here’s my booklist on Bookshop!
A Psalm for the Wild-Built and A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers
A reread! I have a review here from my first read with updated thoughts. I always love the compassion and empathy Chambers shows for her characters. I’m a big fan of rereading so it was interesting to read through these. As always, these were a delight.
Even Though I Knew the End by C.L. Polk
This is a short book but I coulnd’t quite get into it. It’s supposed to be a period piece but I don’t think it felt like the 1940s. The story wasn’t fully fleshed out and the love story didn’t speak to me either.
In the Watchful City by S. Qiouyi Lu
I LOVED this book. Here’s my review. If you’re a fan of books with cities, interwoven stories, and mind-melding beams of connection this is a must read.
The City in Glass by Nghi Vo
This is one of my auto-read authors. While this book wasn’t perfect I loved the ambiance and characters.
Here’s my review.
Absolution by Jeff VanderMeer
This was an ARC I recieved from FSG. Journeying into Area X again was such an uncanny and fun experience. The first third of the book was everything I wanted, but after that I felt like it was difficult to read and I didn’t love all the directions it took.
The Henna Start-up by Andaleeb Wajid
I read this for the Indian authors book club on Instagram and was so happy to find it. This was such a fun read! It’s overall lighthearted and while I didn’t love the romance aspects, the bits with between mother and daughter were so touching.
Greek Lessons by Han Kang
I hate to say it but this was not my favorite Kang I’ve read. The last third was amazing but it felt stilted and hard to connect with the writing style before that. More thoughts to come.
From the River to the Sea: Essays for a Free Palestine by Sai Englert, Rosie Warren, Michal Schatz
This is a mix between more informational and personal essays. Because of this it is a poignant and important read. I read this through a couple months, an essay or so every couple of days to make sure I was abosrbing all the information. Please give this a read.
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
The Ministry of Time is a book I’ve seen all over the internet. I wanted to love this. I watched The Terror over the summer and loved it. Subsequently, I dove into this history and read up on the real expedition. This book though was hard to get a handle on. It was funny and charming in some aspects but others fell flat and rushed in others.
The Book of Everlasting Things by Aanchal Malhotra
This was a book I put on pause because of the length (I was intimidated!) and picked back up. SO glad I did. I need to write a review on this because there is so much to talk about. If you liked books like Pachinko, this is similar in that its intergenerational with a wide lense of history. What’s different is it is more focused on the history of perfume, history of Partition, and the love story. I couldn’t stop crying the last 100 pages. Excellent!
Sour Cherry by Natalia Theodoridou
This was an ARC from Tin House Books, which overall I really enjoyed. The atmpsphere and writing style were excellent. A really interesting look at domestic violence and a feminist retelling of Blue Beard.
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Such a fun, timely read! It’s a classic for a reason and a great introduction to Dickens. Funny, heart-warming, and more atmospheric than I thought it would be.
Here’s my review.
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
This is another author I want to read their whole backlist. While I think the blurb is a bit, misleading, I loved this story.
The Bird Tattoo by Dunya Mikhail
This book was a bit of a miss for me. It was trying to do so much with not enough depth to it.
At the Bottom of the River by Jamaica Kincaid
My last read of the year ! My first read was Annie John, which I absolutly LOVED. This was an interesting change between the two books. While Lauren from (@lostcupofstars) talked about the abstractness of At the Bottom of the River, I don’t think I was fully prepared and my end of the year brain wasn’t quite ready for this. Nevertheless it was an excellent book, I think I just need to reread at a better time for me.
The end of the year. Thank you all for coming with me! See you in 2025 :)