December 2017 Reading Round-Up

Happy New Year!  As 2017 comes to a close, 2018 just seems full of promise.  I’ve rounded off my year of reading and am looking forward to sticking to my resolutions and making this space even better for you guys.  Let’s take a look at the last reading round-up of 2017.  Spoiler alert: it was a good month!

 

Books I read

The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov

Turtles All the Way Down by John Green

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden

The Selection by Kiera Cass

Batman: Nightwalker by Marie Lu

The Mystery in White by J. Jefferson Farjeon

I am Thunder by Muhammad Khan

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao

I managed to read eleven books this month and surpass my reading goal for the year!  This was much helped by the fact that I read four books while home for the holidays.  This month featured books from a pretty wide range of genres. I covered classic sci-fi (The Naked Sun), classic crime fiction (The Murder of Roger Ackroyd), the Gothic (The Silent Companions), silly and trashy YA (The Selection), and contemporary YA (I Am Thunder).  I really enjoyed almost everything I read this month!  Even better, a number of these books were from my local library.  I’m going to try to support them more as I continue to devour books for this blog.

I think my favourites of the month were The Naked Sun, I Am Thunder, and The Silent Companions.  Each book was just so good!  Keep an eye on the blog for reviews.

 

Books I bought

Technically, I didn’t buy a single book!  However, I was lucky enough to get a TON of  books for Christmas.  We tend to do Christmas books in two waves in my family.  Of course, you get books under the tree.  Then, we head off to the bookshop shortly after Christmas and, well, go a bit mad. This is the opportunity to get anything that you didn’t receive under the tree or any new books that catch one’s fancy. I talked about this a little bit in one of my very first posts.

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao
Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust
The 4:50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (illustrated) by J. K. Rowling and Jim Kay
The Remains of the Day by Kazou Ishiguro
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Diviners by Libya Bray
Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie
The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov
The Lie Tree (illustrated edition) by Francis Harding and Chris Riddell
I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell (signed!)
A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick
The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman
Mythos by Stephen Fry
Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames
The Age of Assassins by R. J. Barker
Simon Versus the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertelli
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil Degrasse Tyson
Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities by Bettany Hughes

As I said, that’s quite a few.  However, I did get a few books I’ve already read!  Prisoner of Azkaban, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Remains of the Day, and The Lie Tree are some of my all-time favourite books and I got special editions.  The Remains of the Day in particular is stunning — it’s one of my absolute favourite books and I’m so glad this beautiful edition was released!

Otherwise, well, I have a lot of reading to do.  I always aim to read all of my Christmas books before the next Christmas, however that never seems to happen.  I’m going to try this year!

 

Book post

Batman: Nightwalker by Marie Lu

Everless by Sara Holland

Paris Adrift by E. J. Swift

The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton

I was lucky enough to receive some absolutely incredible book post this month!  Batman: Nightwalker is the second in the DC Icons series — Wonder Woman being the first.  I loved Warcross so much and was so thrilled to read a Batman novel by such a talented lady author.

Everless is the book from December’s FairyLoot box.  Not only is it an absolutely gorgeous book, it’s one I’ve been looking forward to for awhile!  I believe it releases here in the UK in January, so keep an eye out!

Paris Adrift is one of my current reads, and I’m absolutely loving it!  It’s such an incredibly cool time travel novel — I’m really intrigued.  I’ll be participating in a blog tour for this one, so watch this space!

Finally, The Belles.  The Belles!  This is one of my most highly anticipated books of 2018 and I cannot believe I got a copy of it.  It genuinely felt like Christmas came early.  I cannot wait to dive into this beautiful book, particularly with all the bullshit the author has had to face lately.

 

So that’s it for this month!  How was your December?  Did you get any books for the various holidays?  Let me know!