December 2023 Wrap-Up 🎅🏼

Happy Sunday, bibliophiles, and happy New Year’s Eve!

2023 has been a year of growth for me; I’ve taken a lot of leaps that I never thought I would take, and all of them paid off. December has been busy, but now that I’m home for break, I’m glad that I’ll get some rest before the end of the year.

Let’s begin, shall we?

GENERAL THOUGHTS:

First off, I hit 600 followers a few days ago! Thank you all for sticking with me for all these years. Lots of love to you all.

Most of December was fairly stressful and chaotic, what with finals and all. The good thing about being an English major is that I typically don’t have any final finals that I have to take in class, but instead, I typically have to write rather long papers and slap some portfolios together. But now it’s all done! Now, I’m nearly done with my science credits, and I recently declared a minor in Women and Gender Studies, so I’m starting those classes next semester!

Blogging and reading are always slower around this time of year—the finals slump comes for us all. College (and getting older, I suppose) has slowed down my reading speed somewhat, but it makes me glad to spend more time with books on some days. (Doesn’t mean I still blow through books in a day sometimes. Happens to the best of us. The Siren, the Song, and the Spy was incredible.) It’s also been fun to introduce some book pairings to my Sunday Songs—I’m glad I can introduce a bookish aspect to them!

Other than that, I’ve just been getting work done pre- and post-finals, putting puzzles together, drawing when I can, celebrating the holidays with my wonderful family, and starting every week eagerly looking forward to Wednesday because of the new season of Fargo. (Dear LORD, what was that ending for episode 7?????? I’m SCARED)

READING AND BLOGGING:

I read 16 books this month! Inevitably slower going because of finals, but I’ve had a ton of great books towards the end of the month! I also passed my reading goal of 200 books—I read 207 books in 2023!

2 – 2.75 stars:

• The Witch King (Witch King, #1) – H.E. Edgmon (⭐️⭐️)
• You Have a Match – Emma Lord (⭐️⭐️)
• The Splinter in the Sky – Kemi Ashing-Giwa (⭐️⭐️.5)

3 – 3.75 stars:

• Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World, #1) – Rebecca Roanhorse (⭐️⭐️⭐️.25)
• Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch, #1) – Ann Leckie (⭐️⭐️⭐️.25)
• Shadow Speaker (The Desert Magician’s Duology, #1) – Nnedi Okorafor (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
• The First Bright Thing – J.R. Dawson (⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
• Margo Zimmerman Gets the Girl – Brianna R. Shrum and Sara Waxelbaum (⭐️⭐️⭐️.75)

4 – 4.75 stars:

• The Mountain in the Sea – Ray Nayler (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• The Only Good Indians – Stephen Graham Jones (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• A Black Women’s History of the United States – Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• Alphabet Squadron (Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron, #1) – Alexander Freed (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• X-Men (Penguin Classics Marvel Collection) – Stan Lee et. al. (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• The Stardust Thief (The Sandsea Trilogy, #1) – Chelsea Abdullah (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)
• The Siren, the Song, and the Spy (The Mermaid, The Witch, and the Sea, #2) – Maggie Tokuda-Hall (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)
• Into the Heartless Wood – Joanna Ruth Meyer (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5)

FAVORITE BOOK OF THE MONTH: The Siren, the Song, and the Spy – 4.5 stars

POSTS I’M PROUD OF:

• I had fun reviewing (read: half ranting, half reviewing) The Witch King, Shadow Speaker, You Have a Match, and The Siren, the Song, and the Spy!
• Music rambling, now with book pairings! Here are my Sunday Songs for 12/10, 12/17, 12/24, and 12/31.
• I had fun with the Holiday Drinks Book Tag!
• Here are my 5-star reads for the year!

POSTS FROM OTHER WONDERFUL PEOPLE THAT I ENJOYED:

• Welcome back, Prose & Pancakes!
• The Corner of Laura had a great take on the Twelve Days of Bookmas tag!
• Hollis and Micky @ A Take from Two Cities talked about their top 10 most anticipated releases of 2024!
• Cherelle @ A Bolt out of the Book talked about her top 10 books of 2023!

SONGS AND ALBUMS THAT I’VE BEEN ENJOYING:

Today’s song:

That’s it for this year (!) in blogging! I hope you have a wonderful day, and take care of yourselves! See you in 2024!