After a stunning October of reading, November started strong – until I got completely bogged down with a book I was reading for book club and it pretty much zapped my mojo for the rest of the month. It was still a decent month thankfully, and as our weather has turned positively frosty {the week’s forecast is low- to mid-40s for the highs, and low 20s overnight} it’s the perfect time to read my way into hibernation! What did I read? Keep scrolling to find out …
Titles & Star-Ratings (with format!):
š§ Everyone on This Train is a Suspect (Benjamin Stevenson) āāāā
š Home Cooking (Laurie Colwin) āāāāā
š The Mistletoe Mystery (Nita Prose) āāāā
š§ Everyone This Christmas has a Secret (Benjamin Stevenson) āāāā
š± Counting Miracles (Nicholas Sparks) ā
š The Woodsmoke Women’s Book of Spells (Rachel Greenlaw) āāāā 1/2
š You, Again (Kate Goldbeck) āāā
š± Puck and Prejudice (Lia Riley) āāā 1/2
I bet you can guess which one bogged me down … It has been many years since I read a Sparks book; I was never the biggest fan, but they were decent enough reads until his writing changed a while back. After torturing myself with this one, I remember all over again why I stopped reading. And I do mean torturing myself … Issues with the writing and/or plot aside {and there were definitely some “you’ve got to be kidding me”-moments}, what really got me were the geographical/setting errors. Maybe it was because I’m so familiar with the area/location, but it read as if he’d been given a checklist of places to include – extremely random/arbitrarily at times – and done only the most basic research. One of the earliest, and perhaps most egregious, missteps featured a trip to Coaches and having to circle the packed parking lot multiple times to find an empty place. Friends, Coaches is located in a grocery store shopping center. If that parking lot, which is very big, ever filled up that completely … There were other instances too, and I kept myself reading by live-texting the insanity with my friend J, because y’all … No. Just no.
After that agony, it was understandably hard to get the mojo back … but I did manage a few more, and I’m feeling excited about December and finishing the year strong. I’m officially at 84/100 for the year, but I would be the most surprised of all of us if I managed to knock out 16 books to hit the target. I’m guessing I’ll end up around … 95. Since I’ve already surpassed last year’s total, I am very pleased with 2024 reading.
How did your November reads shape up? What’s the most exciting book on your December TBR? I’ve got a couple more festive reads I want to indulge in, as well as a couple others calling my name {including the newest installment in a favorite series!}.
May your days ahead be merry and bright, and filled with fabulous reading!
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I read some lovely books last month. I never plan my books ahead for the month, but I have so many good ones to choose from. Next year I am definitely going to read some that have been gathering dust on my bookcase. New to me authors and some best sellers from a few years ago that I never got around to. I tend to collect new reads and slide them in ahead of what I already have. Happy December reading! I think the weather is going to be well suited to cozy quilts, hot cups of coffee, and wonderful books š
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I try to have an idea of what I’m going to read (mainly built around library due dates if I’m honest š ) but it’s hard to stick to a hard and fast list. I have seen somewhere that reading books and collecting them are two different – but related – hobbies, and I completely agree š hehe
Happy cozy reading to you as well! ā¤
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I’ve seen a couple of the adaptations and really enjoyed them but never tried reading a book by Nicholas Sparks and now I’m incredibly nervous š¬ granted the setting eras would go totally over my head but it sounds as if there were more issues than that alone. And I get you frustration, I’m pretty sure I’d be rolling my eyes if an area I knew well was continually depicted poorly.
I’m glad you ended up enjoying The Woodsmoke Women’s Book Of Spells though and most of the others. It looks like an interesting mix of books this month.
I hope you have a wonderful December and that the latest Installment in the series is a hit š¤ enjoy the rest of your festive reads too.
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I have no idea how I put eras instead if errors š I really need to start reading my comments back before hitting send.
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At least they sound the same š lol
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The older books are better (still not perfect, but decent). Things took a turn a while back and safe to say: they’re still turned, LOL! It really made me wonder if some of the other locations he’s used were misrepresented this badly and I just didn’t know/realize, or if it’s a weird fluke or etc …
It really was an interesting mix of themes and experiences, haha … Woodsmoke was good, reminded me a lot of Spells for Forgetting (which I *loved*)!
Here’s to happy December reading for us both! š
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That’s such a shame that, that happened. It’s odd as you’d think the reverse would be true. Maybe they’re forcing books out now or something š¤ and good point, they could be as you don’t really know unless you’re familiar with a place.
Ah Spells is still on my TBR but I should definitely move it up if it’s in any way similar.
Yes, here’s hoping š„°
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