Because my reviews are usually posted at least a month after I finish the book, I never really talk about what I’m currently reading or just finished reading. This Reading Recap feature will let you know the the books I just finished, am currently reading, and plan to read next. Past recaps here!
I wasn’t sure what I wanted to listen to for an audiobook, so I decided to use a Scribd credit on Fairest by Marissa Meyer. I also have this out from the library, so I plan on mixing the two of them. (You know how much I love to do that!) I’m also reading Icing on the Lake by Catherine Clark to kickstart my wintery holiday reads. I also found it on Scribd, so that saves a few bucks on the ebook 😉 I love these older romantic comedy-style contemporary books. I want to save some of my really Christmas-oriented books for later on in the month.
I somehow finished an 800 page book within a few days and managed to read a total of 17 books in November (that does include a DNF). I read three books in a row that received 4 stars, then had a couple of duds. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater was a Book Buddies pick for Kaitlin and me during November. I enjoyed it overall, but am mostly intrigued to see what happens next. I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest was a far-fetched but fun read that my real life book club chose for tonight’s meeting. It read a little young, but the comics were a nice added touch. Next, I had Chris choose what I should read from one of my shelves. He picked Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta and people were EXCITED. I was too, honestly… but I totally ended up being one of the biggest black sheep ever. I didn’t enjoy it at all and felt no connection to anything, even after the first 150 pages of struggling. The story did start to become clearer around that spot, but I never adjusted to it or really enjoyed/cared about what I was reading. No idea why. And my most recent book before this was Call Me, Maybe by Ellie Cahill. I enjoyed her previous NA release and this one was a lot of fun too! I needed something fun and light after finishing Jellicoe Road.
My biggest goal this month is to finish as many of my challenges as possible. I started to really organize what I plan to read after recapping my challenges last month. I decided to give myself a stricter TBR to ensure that I complete all of my challenges except one by the end of the year.
Completed challenges: (Fairytale) Retelling, Flights of Fantasy, TBR
Incomplete challenges: 105, Audiobook, Library, Reread, Goodreads
The Reread challenge is currently 8 books short of being completed and there’s no way to make that happen. The issue is that I set up an exact TBR of books to reread, which was 17 books, but ended up only reading a few of them. I’m still proud that I reread 9 books this year, considering I never started doing that until I started blogging. Now that this failure is out of the way, time to focus in on the achievable challenges I can and WILL finish this year…
I need to read the following types of books to complete challenges:
- 12 more books for the 105 Challenge
- 3 New Adult
- 2 books owned on my Kindle
- 2 Nonfiction and/or Humor
- 1 time-bending or parallel universe
- 1 non-audio reread
- 2 books owned before/during college
- 2 more audiobooks and 2 more library books can be included with the options above
- 10 books total to read in December (at least) to meet my Goodreads Challenge of 175!
Using this as a guideline, I included these books as my somewhat tentative TBR for December. There’s some wiggle room depending on the category, but I think I’ll probably stick with most of the books listed here. I already finished Call Me, Maybe, too.
Book Options & Challenge Categories
On top of all that, I still have my holiday TBR brewing! I don’t think I’ll finish ALL of the books everywhere, but my goal is to read at least five Christmassy books somehow. I like to give myself a lot of options so that I can choose based on my mood.
Wow. That’s a lot of books planned for December. Good luck! I have a lighter list (it’ll be up tomorrow) because I want to start the new year fresh without any books in progress. 🙂
That’s a good idea! I think I did that last year.
Looks like you’re all set for December, Lauren! I do like the look of the books on your reading list, however, so here’s to hoping you read as many of them as possible. Happy reading!
Thaank you!!
I may have to read one of those holiday books! They all look so cute! I hope you are enjoying Fairest. It was a very interesting book! I wonder what it is like as an audio… Anyway, I also am interested to see what happens in the next Raven Boys book and I do want to read I Am Princess X simply because it sounds unique and cute. Happy reading!
Fairest is definitely interesting so far! The audio is great. I love the narrator.