December 2016 Wrap Up

I can’t believe it’s time to wrap up December already, where has the time gone!? My last wrap up of 2016, as we prepare to say hello to 2017! I’m not one for New Year resolutions but if I was, it would be ‘to not buy any new books until I’ve read the 100+ books on my shelf’, but we both know that’s not going to happen! So let’s wrap this month up and have a quick look at what bookish goings-on are to come in 2017.

This month I read 15 books, well one I’ve still got to finish (Medea’s Curse by Anne Buist) but I’ll finish that today so I can go into the new year with a new book. Again, with the assistance of Goodreads and a Calculator, I read 4705 pages this month!

The Good

The standout reads of the month were:

The River at Night by Erica Ferencik, a great story of friendship, an even better story of survival – you can read my review here.

The Girl Before by JP Delaney – Review to follow closer to publication date (late January) but to describe this book in 3 words: fast-paced, thrilling, addictive.

Gilding the Lily by Justine John – I’m so excited to be on the blog tour for this great title and to share my review with you on the 11th January. I loved everything about this book and gave it a well deserved 5 stars.

Scared to Death by Rachael Amphlett – I actually read this book last month but I just wanted to give it another shout out. I featured in my first blog tour this month and it was for this title – you can catch my stop on the tour here, not only did I review the book but I featured a Q&A with the author.

The other reviewed and recommended reads of the month were:

Witness by Caroline Mitchell

His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet

The Mine by Antti Tuomainen

The Book of Mirrors by E.O. Chirovici

I’m Travelling Alone by Samuel Bjork

I may have read 15 books this month but, the burden of the book blogger, I didn’t get around to writing 15 reviews. So coming up in January will be reviews for the following titles (all recommended reads):

The Bad

I really can’t call these bad books, rather, books I’d be hesitant to recommend, well at least without an accompanying explanation. Rattle by Fiona Cummins just didn’t work for me. It has all the necessary ingredients for a fab thriller but I just couldn’t connect with it the way I hoped. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, this book just had too many pages for my liking, if it was half it’s length I would have given it rave reviews, I believe this is a personal book; your life experiences and open-mindedness will determine your enjoyment.

The New

Another low maintenance book buying month – 13 books, 4 for Christmas, and 1 swap on Read It Swap It – bringing my Goodreads shelf entitled ‘Own Books to Read’ to a grand total of 160 books!

Bought

1. Pride, Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame Smith & Jane Austen
2. Murder on the Home Front by Molly Lefebure
3. Art in the Blood: A Sherlock Holmes Adventure by Bonnie MacBird
4. Kiss the Girls by James Patterson
5. The Women Next Door by Cass Green
6. 13 Minutes by Sarah Pinborough
7. The Girl With A Clock For A Heart by Peter Swanson
8. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
9. 22 Little Dead Bodies & Other Stories by Stuart MacBride
10. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
11. Silent Scream by Angela Marsons
12. The Beauty of the End by Debbie Howells
13. My Fight Your Fight by Ronda Rousey

Christmas Presents

1. Pendulum by Adam Hamdy
2. Six Four – Hideo Yokoyama
3. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet – Becky Chambers
4. Sherlock Holmes: The Novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Swapped

1. Junk by Melvin Burgess

Note to self: never acquire more books a month than can fit in the crate.

To Review:

I’m currently drowing in books, ebooks to be precise, I’ll be spending the first few months of the year clearing them. We’ll say no more on that for now.

Criminally Good Book Club

Are you joining us in the new year, all you need is the book and an Instagram account as that’s where the discussions will be taking place – follow @criminallygoodbookclub and use the hashtag #cgbookclub to find other members. I know a few people expressed interest who aren’t on Instagram, adding an addition platform is on my to-do list but it may take a while.

The overall winner of the vote and our January book is: Pendulum by Adam Hamdy

And because it was so popular in the vote, our February book is: Trust No One by Paul Cleave

One last thing…..

Before I leave you all, remember this book I was looking forward to reading, that I still haven’t gotten around to reading but I will be reading it very soon…. gosh, that’s a mouthful to say out loud. Anyway this book:

For all my lovely followers in the UK, I have a copy of this book to giveaway, and all you need to enter is an email address and a UK mailing address so keep an eye out for my review and the giveaway in the New Year!

If you made it to the end of this wrap up, I’d like to thank you for the following and support you’ve shown me since I started this blog earlier this year. I’m currently working on a logo and banner for the blog so hopefully that’ll be up soon. There’s only one last thing to do and that is, to wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!