Hello readers and welcome or welcome back! Today I am going over my TBR for the last month of the year, as well as a readathon called Merry Bookmas. This is the winter version of Seasonathon , which happens once a season, and my third time participating and third time this year participating. It is hosted by Completely Melanie, Reads Reader, and Simply Kalani. If you click their respective names, you will find their announcements for this round which takes place during the entire month of December. There are twelve prompts and I am going to try and hit every one. I am doubling up, but I am not allowing myself to triple up, cos that would be too easy.
For December, I also have an announcement for something I have been working on for a while now. I am doing Book Blogmas. I will be posting every day from December 1st to December 24th. These posts will range from my goals in 2021 to the best and worst books I read in 2020. I hope you come by and check out my posts every day in December!
If you would like to, there is a form at the bottom of this page where you can subscribe and be notified via email when I post. Please comment down below and let me know what you would love to see for Blogmas, as I do have a few days open for ideas.
Reading Prompts:
Partridge in a Pear Tree: Read a book with a bird, fruit, or tree on the cover OR in the title.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: Read a red book.
Silent Night: Don't Judge A Disability by Its Visibility: Read a book with disability representation.
I Have a Little Dreidel: Read a book that involves a game.
I'll Be Home for Bookmas: Read a book in your favorite cozy spot at home.
Baby It's Cold Outside: Read a cozy book.
All I Want for Bookmas is You: Read a romance OR a book with a friend group.
Happy Kwanzaa: Read a book by or about a person of color.
My Favorite Things: Read a book featuring a favorite trope.
Last Bookmas: Read a book that came out in 2019.
Underneath the Tree: Read a book gifted to you or gift yourself a book and read that.
I Wanna Wish You A Merry Bookmas: Read the group book which is The Deceivers by Kristen Simmons. If you don't want to read that, read one of her other books. Don't forget to join us for the live show to discuss!
TBR:
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
I am not allowing myself to leave 2020 without reading this book. I started it earlier this year, returned it to the library, moved, and bought a copy of the book. I just need to pick it up now. Previously, I made it about fifty pages in before returning it. This one is about a black woman named Emira who is accused, without any reason, of kidnapping a white child whom she is babysitting. The other part of the book follows a woman named Alix, the white child's mother, whose husband has said something racially insensitive on TV, and the consequences that follow that.
This one counts for the prompts Partridge in a Pear Tree, to read a book with a bird, fruit, or tree on the cover OR in the title, AND Last Bookmas, to read a book that came out in 2019.
Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
I think this one is a Christmas book, or at least takes place during winter. I have previously read Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist by both authors. I have no idea what this book is actually about, but I am excited to read it, and then watch the show on Netflix!
The prompts this one counts for are Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, to read a red book, AND I Have a Little Dreidel, to read a book that involves a game.
Synopsis: So begins the latest whirlwind romance from the bestselling authors of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Lily has left a red notebook full of challenges on a favorite bookstore shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept its dares. But is Dash that right guy? Or are Dash and Lily only destined to trade dares, dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth at locations across New York? Could their in-person selves possibly connect as well as their notebook versions? Or will they be a comic mismatch of disastrous proportions?
Wonder by RJ Palacio
This one is carrying over from November. I saved it because it is the only unread book I own that I was gifted and that is one of the prompts. My mom gifted me this book last year for my birthday. I have previously started this book, read around 10 pages, and then moved on to something else, and I don't even remember what.
For this one, it fits two prompts again for Silent Night: Don't Judge A Disability by Its Visibility, to read a book with disability representation, AND Underneath the Tree, to read a book gifted to you or gift yourself a book and read that.
Synopsis: August Pullman was born with a facial difference that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid—but his new classmates can’t get past Auggie’s extraordinary face. Wonder, begins from Auggie’s point of view, but soon switches to include his classmates, his sister, her boyfriend, and others.
Our Dark Duet by Victoria Schwab
This is the second and final, as far as I know, book in the Monsters of Verity duology. In November, I joined a readalong called Schwabalong for Victoria Schwab. It started in October, but I caught up for it. They read Addie Larue in October and This Savage Song in November.
I only have one prompt for this one and that is I'll Be Home for Bookmas, to read a book in your favorite cozy spot at home. I have this one as an audiobook and I usually listen to audiobooks on my couch, at my dining room table when I work, doing dishes, making food, or doing laundry, and sometimes on my bed. I will probably pick my couch for this one.
Synopsis: There’s no such thing as safe in a city at war, a city overrun with monsters. In this dark urban fantasy from author Victoria Schwab, a young woman and a young man must choose whether to become heroes or villains—and friends or enemies—with the future of their home at stake. The first of two books. Kate Harker and August Flynn are the heirs to a divided city—a city where the violence has begun to breed actual monsters. All Kate wants is to be as ruthless as her father, who lets the monsters roam free and makes the humans pay for his protection. All August wants is to be human, as good-hearted as his own father, to play a bigger role in protecting the innocent—but he’s one of the monsters. One who can steal a soul with a simple strain of music. When the chance arises to keep an eye on Kate, who’s just been kicked out of her sixth boarding school and returned home, August jumps at it. But Kate discovers August’s secret, and after a failed assassination attempt the pair must flee for their lives.
Let it Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle
This is the only John Green book I have yet to read. I have just been waiting for December to read it! I haven't read anything else by the other two authors. I have not heard many good things about this one, but I am ready to see where I stand. This one also has an adaptation on Netflix that I am excited to watch after reading it.
For this one, I have the prompt Baby It's Cold Outside, to read a cozy book. I never actually know what reading a cozy book means, but I think this one might fit the bill. Winter gives me cozy vibes.
Synopsis: A Christmas Eve snowstorm transforms one small town into a romantic haven, the kind you see only in movies. Well, kinda. After all, a cold and wet hike from a stranded train through the middle of nowhere would not normally end with a delicious kiss from a charming stranger. And no one would think that a trip to the Waffle House through four feet of snow would lead to love with an old friend. Or that the way back to true love begins with a painfully early morning shift at Starbucks. Thanks to three of today’s bestselling teen authors—John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle—the magic of the holidays shines on these hilarious and charming interconnected tales of love, romance, and breathtaking kisses.
The Switch by Beath O'leary
I just got this one on Libby. It will probably be the first in line Out of the five romances that I have read this year, I liked one of them. I know that I don't like romance books, but they keep calling my name. This one sounds really interesting, and I hope I end up liking it.
This one fits the romance prompt All I Want for Bookmas is You, to read a romance OR a book with a friend group.
Synopsis: When overachiever Leena Cotton is ordered to take a two-month sabbatical after blowing a big presentation at work, she escapes to her grandmother Eileen's house for some overdue rest. Eileen is newly single and about to turn eighty. She'd like a second chance at love, but her tiny Yorkshire village doesn't offer many eligible gentlemen.
Once Leena learns of Eileen's romantic predicament, she proposes a solution: a two-month swap. Eileen can live in London and look for love. Meanwhile Leena will look after everything in rural Yorkshire. But with gossiping neighbours and difficult family dynamics to navigate up north, and trendy London flatmates and online dating to contend with in the city, stepping into one another's shoes proves more difficult than either of them expected.
Leena learns that a long-distance relationship isn't as romantic as she hoped it would be, and then there is the annoyingly perfect - and distractingly handsome - school teacher, who keeps showing up to outdo her efforts to impress the local villagers. Back in London, Eileen is a huge hit with her new neighbours, but is her perfect match nearer home than she first thought?
Frankly in Love by David Yoon
This is one that I recently bought, and I need to get to more books I own for the Clear Ur Shit readathon I am also doing until the end of the month of December. This is the fifth book on this list that I do physically own.
This one fits the prompt Happy Kwanzaa, to read a book by or about a person of color.
Synopsis: High school senior Frank Li is a Limbo--his term for Korean-American kids who find themselves caught between their parents’ traditional expectations and their own Southern California upbringing. His parents have one rule when it comes to romance--“Date Korean”--which proves complicated when Frank falls for Brit Means, who is smart, beautiful--and white. Fellow Limbo Joy Song is in a similar predicament, and so they make a pact: they’ll pretend to date each other in order to gain their freedom. Frank thinks it’s the perfect plan, but in the end, Frank and Joy’s fake-dating maneuver leaves him wondering if he ever really understood love--or himself--at all.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke
This is a series I stumbled on earlier this year and I really want to read it. I really like books that have food in them, and this is one of those long running mystery series. There are currently 26 books in this series, and Hoopla has 21 of them. I might read more than the first one, if I have time in the month. It also has an adaptation, but I don't currently have any way to watch it.
This one will fulfill the prompt My Favorite Things, to read a book featuring a favorite trope. I am not sure this is a trope, but I am sure this book has some sort of food element to it, and I love that in books.
Synopsis: Hannah Swensen already has her hands full, between dodging her mother's attempts to marry her off, and running Lake Eden, Minnesota's most popular bakery, The Cookie Jar. But when the Cozy Cow Dairy's beloved deliveryman is found murdered behind Hannah's bakery with her famous Chocolate Chip Crunchies scattered around him, Hannah sets out to track down a killer. The more Hannah snoops, the more suspects turn up. This is one murder that's starting to leave a very bad taste in Hannah's mouth, and if she doesn't watch her back, her sweet life may get burned to a crisp.
Malorie by Josh Malerman
This is the only book on the list that is outside of this readathon. I just got Malorie from Libby, so I might get to it in November, but I will read it in December if not. I got it four weeks earlier than I thought, which has worked out in my favor. Malorie is the sequel to Bird Box, which I read earlier this year, and takes place twelve years after Bird Box. I haven't heard much about it so far, but I am hopeful I will like it. I am going to let my husband listen to it fist, as he is currently listening to Bird Box, but I will read it soon after.
Synopsis: Twelve years after Malorie and her children rowed up the river to safety, a blindfold is still the only thing that stands between sanity and madness. One glimpse of the creatures that stalk the world will drive a person to unspeakable violence. There remains no explanation. No solution. All Malorie can do is survive. But then comes what feels like impossible news. And with it, the first time Malorie has allowed herself to hope. Someone very dear to her, someone she believed dead, may be alive. Malorie has a harrowing choice to make: to live by the rules of survival that have served her so well, or to venture into the darkness and reach for hope once more.