6 Books I Read in December
6 Books I Read in December
By: Brittany Shields
Merry Christmas party people!!
I hope you all have a good holiday with friends and family!
The end of the year is a busy time for me because I compile lists from the whole year and prepare my reading challenges for the next year. I’m posting this list early so I don’t have to worry about it later. If I finish any more this month I’m going to carry them into next year because it’s a free country.
Here’s a few links for you to check out:
My Merch Shop (for all your bookish apparel and extras needs— unique and fun designs!)
My 2022 Books Year in Review (all 101 of the books I read this year with links to my reviews)
The Best Books of 2022 (My top 20 favorite books from this year)
My Gift Guide for Book Lovers (post for belated Christmas gifts, birthday gifts, or just reading swag for all you readers out there!)
Shelf Reflection’s 2023 Reading Challenge (Coming Soon!!!)
2023 Goodreads Choice Awards Reading Challenge (Coming Soon!!!)
Bible Reading in the New Year (if you’re looking for a good way to read the Bible next year these are some great options!)
Follow me on my Facebook page to stay up-to-date on all that I’m reading and recommending!
Now take a look at what I read this month and I will catch you all on the snow-covered flippity flop!
1. Alter Ego (Jonathan Stride #9) by Brian Freeman
Genre: Suspense/Thriller
“They had two dead strangers in town. One killer. One victim.”
The newest Jonathan Stride novel, The Zero Night, just released Nov 1 so I had some catching up to do before I read that one. (Skip the first few of this series but then they get really good)
In Alter Ego, a Hollywood movie is being shot in Duluth about a case from years back that involved Stride (who’s a detective). He had rescued a girl from a serial killer.
The A-list actor playing Stride (his alter ego) in the movie is Dean Casperson—the golden-boy of Hollywood and can do no wrong.
But when a hired killer is found dead and the body of a young woman found buried in the woods, the evidence starts pointing at Casperson, maybe he’s not so good after all.
Going after such a beloved public figure can have major consequences. Stride and his team have to navigate the case and deal with the collateral.
Read my review to find out a fun surprise Freeman puts in this book!
2. Die Around Sundown (Inspector Henri Lefort #1) by Mark Pryor
Genre: Historical Fiction/Mystery
“Ironic, then, that the moments of actual peace, of real respite, in this awful blood-soaked war would come at sundown, both sides tired of raining bombs and bullets on each other all day, grateful for that still beautiful moment when the blood stopped flowing and the only red we saw spread itself across the horizon as a signal that we’d managed to live a little longer.”
This one is a new take on a WWII novel.
It’s less about the war and more about solving a mystery. And I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Inspector Henry Lefort has survived WWI and finds himself as a police detective in Nazi occupied Paris during WWII. As the Germans are packing up art from the Louvre, one of them is found shot. Lefort is forced to solve the crime in a matter of days or face the wrath of the Nazis.
There are other plotlines surrounding Lefort’s PTSD in the form of misophonia and just art itself, as well as what really happened to Lefort during WWI.
Read my review to see what surprising historical figures find their way into this story!
3. The Rom-Com Agenda by Jayne Denker
Genre: Romance
“You’re a hopeless romantic and an incurable optimist. Uh, usually.”
The Rom-Com Agenda is pretty much exactly what you’d expect it to be— light, funny, no twists or turns, happy ending.
It’s the classic: Girl witnesses Guy getting dumped. Guy becomes depressed and goes on a makeover mission to get his lover back. Girl becomes involved in the makeover process. There’s a cat, a fireplace, and a long wait for Guy to realize Girl is the love of his life. A moment of uncertainty to prove himself. And Boom. Guy and Girl are in love.
I enjoyed this book. It’s a fast read. It’s got pretty good dialogue and banter. It was just what I was expecting and fits the bill of rom-com.
When you read a rom-com, you’re not looking for everything to be realistic or deep and profound. You just want to be entertained and to relive the excitement of new love.
Read my review to see what my favorite part of the book was, see the cast of characters, and hear my three critiques.
4. Mama Bear Apologetics Guide to Sexuality: Empowering Your Kids to Understand and Live Out God’s Design by Hillary Morgan Ferrer
Genre: Christian Living/ Apologetics/ Cultural
“Our kids are being desensitized, song by song, cartoon by cartoon, numbed to the point where immorality feels like no big deal. We want them to be able to dispense with the false ideas about sexuality that our culture sends their way.”
I recently read ‘Mama Bear Apologetics’ which is a book focused on exposing cultural lies and helping our children become critical thinkers to form and hold onto biblical beliefs. I loved the book and have recommended it so much since then.
When I saw they were putting out a book talking about topics of sexuality specifically, I knew I had to read it.
Both of these books are so essential for parents who want to train up their kids in truth in a world that makes it hard to.
Within the umbrella of ‘sexuality’ she covers things like: premarital sex, pornography, same-sex attraction, transgenderism, sex positivity, purity culture, the Genderbread Person curriculum taught in schools, and ultimately what God’s design is for sex and sexuality.
There are a ton of practical examples of how to communicate abut these things with your kids, questions to ask, and things to pray. Plus there are a lot of resources they offer in the back of the book and on their website to aid parents in talking about all these things.
Read my review to see what some of my favorite things were, some quotes, and a super awesome list of ‘Things to Repeat To Your Kids Until They Want to Gag.’
5. The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley
Genre: Mystery
“If you know what is good for you, you will stop. You will leave this place. And never look back.”
This was on my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2022 and it was my 100th book of the year so it was pretty disappointing that I didn’t really like it.
It had the same abundance of swearing, crassness, alcohol (wine though because Paris), smoking (because also Paris?), and sex.
It had the same problem of unlikable characters.
It had somewhat the same script: A (potential) crime was committed and an outsider is figuring out what happened and there are several characters with secrets, motives, and opportunities to do said crime.
What made this book slightly better than The Guest List was that it had more action. There was movement. There was more than one day and one location. And we had enough information to solve the mystery ourselves.
I actually liked the plot concept and found it suspenseful. I didn’t have it all completely figured out and a couple reveals I wasn’t expecting.
But all the other content just overshadows it too much for me.
Read my review to see the cast of suspects, my favorite part of the book, and a couple new words I learned.
6. The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman
Genre: Nonfiction/ History/ Humor
This was also on my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2022. Unfortunately, I didn’t like it either.
I should have done more research and I might have guessed it wouldn’t be for me. But I saw the title and the cover and I was immediately all in. A happy nostalgic book about the nineties? Yes please.
But nope.
Klosterman’s writing style comes across as pretentious, disjointed, and cynical. The subtitle should be ‘Everything that’s wrong with the nineties.’
He covers tons of major people and events from the 90s in the realms of sports, politics, music, movies, TV, celebrities, technology, and science. I did learn some things, but it just wasn’t what I was expecting and I had no idea what points he was trying to make.
Read my full review to get a better idea of his writing voice, and read the parts that actually resonated with me.
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