Reading wrap-up: December

December and 2018 ended simultaneously,  bringing with it new Goodreads challenges, Christmas book hauls, and for me, the difficult decision of what book to start the year with.

Whilst I try and pick a tile from my TBR file, here’s what I read in December. (I had a bit of a brain malfunction and managed to delete all the photos I had taken for this post so the pictures have been taken from Waterstones or Goodreads).

Fire and fury

If it weren’t so scary, this book would have been hilarious. I got a bit lost at times as there were a lot of names, dates, places and relationships but I am very glad that I read it. Even if I had to read terms such as ‘post-literate’.

Author: Michael Wolff
Published: Little Brown Book Group, 2018
Genre (According to Goodreads): Non-Fiction

Blurb
The first nine months of Donald Trump’s term were stormy, outrageous—and absolutely mesmerizing. Now, thanks to his deep access to the West Wing, bestselling author Michael Wolff tells the riveting story of how Trump launched a tenure as volatile and fiery as the man himself.

In this explosive book, Wolff provides a wealth of new details about the chaos in the Oval Office.

 Rating: 3/5 stars

Godsend

I was very kindly sent an ARC of this title by Canongate for review. You can read that review here.

Author: John Wray
Published: Canongate, 2019
Genre (According to Goodreads): General fiction

Blurb
Inspired by ‘American Taliban’ John Walker Lindh, this compelling novel from the award-winning John Wray tells the story of a young girl leaving her home, family and country for radical Islam

In California her name was Aden Grace Sawyer. In Pakistan she must choose a different name – Suleyman – and take on a new identity as a young man. She has travelled a long way to begin her new life, and she’ll travel further to protect her secret.

But once she is on the ground, Aden finds herself in more danger than she could have dreamed. Faced with violence and loss, she must make intense and unimaginable choices that will test not only her faith, but her understanding of who she is.

Compelling, unnerving and timely, Godsend is a subtle masterpiece of empathy: a study of what it means for a person to give themselves to their faith, and how far they will go from home to find a place to belong.

 Rating: 2/5 stars

Feminists don’t wear pink (and other lies): Amazing Women on What the F-Word Means to Them

I loved this collection. There were – as you would expect – essays that I connected with more than others but they were all, in some way or another, really eye-opening. It was great to hear so many different interpretations and experiences that all orientated around the same idea.

Author: Scarlett Curtis (Editor)
Published: Penguin, 2018
Genre (According to Goodreads): Essay collection

Blurb
Funny, powerful and personal writing by women, for women, about what the F word means to them. Every woman has a different story to tell. Reading them all in one book might just change your life.

 Rating: 4/5 stars

The little village Christmas

I picked this up on a whim as I had an hour to kill in Costa, and it didn’t feel right to just sit there with a hot chocolate, but mainly just staring into space. So, I took myself to the bookshop and bought the cheesiest, most Christmassy book I could find. This was perfect.

Author: Susan Moorcroft
Published: Avon, 2017
Genre (According to Goodreads): Women’s Fiction

Blurb
Alexia Kennedy – interior decorator extraordinaire – has been tasked with giving the little village of Middledip the community café it’s always dreamed of.

After months of fundraising, the villagers can’t wait to see work get started – but disaster strikes when every last penny is stolen. With Middledip up in arms at how this could have happened, Alexia feels ready to admit defeat.

But help comes in an unlikely form when woodsman, Ben Hardaker and his rescue owl Barney, arrive on the scene. Another lost soul who’s hit rock bottom, Ben and Alexia make an unlikely partnership.

However, they soon realise that a little sprinkling of Christmas magic might just help to bring this village – and their lives – together again…

 Rating: 3/5 stars

Happily ever after

I went into this expecting something similar to ‘The little village Christmas’; less Christmassy but with the same sort of cosy feeling. Whilst this book did – in parts – have that same feeling, it was very different, and a little too… cynical for me to fully enjoy. The main character, Eleanor Bee, is a book lover, for her, like me, they are an escape. For her she needed to escape from her parents messy divorce, alcoholic mother, and brother with whom she seemed to share no familiar feelings, and escape was something she kept trying to do, throwing herself into work, relationships, and unhealthy habits. Whilst I felt for Eleanor, I found her annoying and a little self-serving. This paired with substantial time gaps in the narrative and a somewhat disillusioned approach to the publishing industry left me feeling a little despondent.

Author: Harriet Evans
Published: Harper, 2012
Genre (According to Goodreads): Women’s Fiction

Blurb
At twenty-two, Eleanor Bee is sure about three things: she wants to move to London and become a literary superstar; she wants to be able to afford to buy a coffee and croissant every morning; and after seeing what divorce did to her parents—especially her mum—she doesn’t believe in happy endings.

Elle moves to London. She gets a job at Bluebird Books, a charmingly old-fashioned publisher. She falls out of bars, wears too-short skirts, makes lots of mistakes, and feels like she’s learning nothing and everything at the same time. And then, out of the blue, she falls in love, and that’s when she realizes just how much growing up she has to do.

 

Rating: 3/5 Stars

 

What did you read in December? Let me know in the comments section below.