November 2024 Wrap Up + December TBR List

    Happy (late) Thanksgiving! I hope ya'll stuffed your guts with some yummy food and had a great time with family and friends as well as a great reading month. I can say for myself, I had a pretty good month of reading.

    To start off, I read The Dream Thieves, Blue Lily, Lily Blue, and The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater which I gave 4/5 stars, 4/5 stars, and 3/5 stars respectively. I think this is one of the best Young Adult Fantasy series out there and I really recommend picking it up if you haven't already.

    The next book I picked up was Diary of a Void by Emi Yagi. I thought this book was stellar. I love the commentary and the dry humor from the main character. Super quick read. Really recommend. 4/5

    I then read an absolute banger created from the brilliant mind of Tasha Suri: The Oleander Sword. Holy shit if you are not reading this trilogy I don't know what you're doing with your life. 4/5

    My next read was Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky. This was a super interesting read. I love when world history is told through the lens of a niche subject. 4/5

    I read this book in tandem with the last one. A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers is a super short book with a decent message but jut didn't do it for me. But it might do it for you. 2/5

    I then picked up What You Are Looking For is in The Library by Michiko Aoyama. I loved this book so much. It's a collection of stories about different people going through difficult times in their lives and they each go to the same library and their they are able to find the tools to turn their lives around for the better. 5/5

    My next read was Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel. Another banger. I fell head over heels for Nettel's writing style and prose. There really isn't anything more I can say about this book, I recommend reading my review. 5/5

    My perfect score streak came to an end with this next read. Done and Dusted by Lyla Sage is a small town-cowboy romance. I, unfortunately, don't expect much from romance books and this one was no different. I had a good time reading it but, it fell short too often to give it a score higher than the one I gave it. 2/5

    My final read of this month was Solito by Javier Zamora. This book was super inspiring and tugged on my heartstrings. 4/5

    Now, if you read my previous wrap up/tbr list post for October you would notice that there are two books missing from this list. 

    The first is The Familiars by Stacey Halls. The quick and easy answer as to why this isn't on my wrap up list is because I dnf'd it at about 40%. I just wasn't really vibing with it so I've decided to donate it to a local leave-a-book-take-a-book library near my house in the hopes someone else will find it and enjoy it.

    The second book is If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio. The reason it's not on this list is really because I couldn't get a hold of it. Normally, if I don't have the physical copy of a book I will check it out on Libby and there were just too many people in front of me to get a hold on this book. I just wasn't able to get in time before the month ended. That's it.

    Anyway, it is now time to go over the books I plan on reading in the month of December.

1. I want to start off this month by finishing the last book in the Burning Kingdoms Trilogy: The Lotus Empire by Tasha Suri. These books have quickly become some of my favorite and I really want to get into her other works.
   
   
2. Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikaze Kawaguchi has been on my TBR for quite some time and I recently bought a physical copy. So, I'd say it's about a good a time as any to read it.
   
   
3. The Enchanted Sonata by Heather Dixon Wallwork has also been on my TBR for a long time and I think it's a great book to get into the Winter/Christmas spirit. I mean a story retelling The Nutcracker Ballet with some Pied Piper sprinkled on it . . . yes please!
   
   
4. The next book I want to pick up is Belladonna by Adalyn Grace. I've heard some pretty good things about this book and I'm really looking forward to reading it.
   
   
5. The next book on my list is Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber. It's time to go back to my roots and pick up a YA Fantasy Romance novel and this book seems promising.
   
   
6. Next up is The Third Wife of Faraday House by B.R. Meyers. Gonna try to give Historical Fiction another go before I take a complete break from it because I have not had the best of luck recently.
   
   
7. I then want to read The Dallergut Dream Department Store by Lee Mi Ye. I'm noticing that I'm becoming quite fond of books with magical realism aspects so I'm hoping this one is a banger.
   
   
8. The last book I'm hoping to read in December is The Deal by Elle Kennedy. I'm gonna be so honest with you, a big reason why I'm reading this book is because I heard there is going to be a TV series adaptation of these books and I hate being left behind. I've got a bit of FOMO when it comes to book to TV adaptation. So, I'm getting ahead of the game.

    I've overall really enjoyed this month in regards to my reading goals. This month I finished my goal of reading 30 books this year and It's the largest amount of book I've read in a single year. School really just sucked out all of the motivation I had for reading so I'm really happy I could get back into it during my gap year.

    Anyway, I've babbled for too long. Hope you guys have enjoyed November and here's to an even better December.

Until Next Time,

A Lazy Reader