Can you believe the end of 2017 is in sight!?! I hope you’ve all had a good year, there’ll no doubt have been ups and downs, highs and lows, but I hope overall you’d consider it a good year. If not, forget 2017, we never liked it anyway, and get ready to embrace 2018!
Before we get to my December bookish activity, let’s address the elephant in the room…. Remember that 2017 Beat the Backlist challenge I committed to a year ago – the one where I planned to read 12 books from my TBR published in, or prior to, the 90’s, yeah that one. Well, I failed, epically! Only reading 2 of 12 (Perfume by Patrick Suskind & The Collector by John Fowles), I’m as devastated as you are about this, just where did the year go – but whatever, forget 2017, remember! The year may be ending, but this challenge is still on – to the 10 remaining books (picture below) – I’ll see you in 2018!
While I might have failed at beating said backlist in 2017, so I can feel good about myself again, let’s remember that time I successfully completed the 24 in 48 readathon – reading for 24 of 48 hours!
Now we’ve got that out of the way, onto my December wrap up – I read 19 books this month. In my December TBR post, I planned to read 17 books this month (2 of which were non-starters so I DNFed them – White Bodies by Jane Robins and The Good Samaritan by John Marrs), so of the 15 books left, I read 8 of them – that’s not bad for someone who struggles to stick to a set monthly TBR – I’m much more of a mood reader and will abandon any TBR immediately if I see enough good reviews for a book or for an impromptu buddy read – which is evident from me reading 11 books which weren’t planned for this month. I’m also getting much better at balancing my review copies with my own books and library books – reading a good mix without feeling pressured to read review copies only.
The Books:
The standout five star books of the month were:
NOS – 4R2 by Joe Hill
The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens
Hydra by Matt Wesolowski (review coming next month)
Also read this month:
The Foster Child by Jenny Blackhurst
The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor
Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan
Hidden Killers by Lynda La Plante
Close to Home by Cara Hunter
The Vanishing Season by Joanna Schaffhausen
Dark Pines by Will Dean
The Blinds by Adam Sternbergh
A Monster by Violet by Laura Wake (incl. Author Q&A)
Best Day Ever by Kaira Rouda
Little Broken Things by Nicole Baart
Read this month, reviews to follow next month:
Other bookish posts this month:
Urbane’s 12 Days of Christmas Blog Tour | Author Q&A: Mark Mayes (author of The Gift Maker)
Criminally Good Book Club:
Looking for an online book club? Come and read some criminally good books with us over on Instagram – @criminallygoodbookclub – we’re kickstarting the new year with the sequel to Stillhouse Lake.
January’s book is Killman Creek by Rachel Caine
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And that’s a wrap, folks! Join me in the new year as I kick off with a look back at my year in Goodreads. All that’s left for me to say is, however you’re celebrating, if at all, I wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Keeper of Pages 
Glad to see the back of 2017. Although I did meet you … wait, ugh, no, bye bye 2017. Seriously. 🤣😂
Happy New Year, Janel! May 2018 be all kinds of awesome! 😘
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It’s ok, I know I’ve been your highlight of the year 🤗🤣 Happy new year to you too, Eva, and yes to 2018 being all kinds of awesome!! ❤️
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Your reading talent always amazes me Janel… 19 books? You’re a wizard!
I really can’t wait to read NOS4R2 for my January BookBum Club pick! I hope I love it as much as you did 😛
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Haha, well January won’t be so impressive as I’m tackling Under The Dome by King and is like 1000 pages 🙈🤣 I’m not sure what I’m going to read for January’s pick 🤔 and I’m sure you’ll love NOS4R2 – if not, I’m just going to pretend you did 😂🤣
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Whoa yeah, that will definitely cut a few other books off your month but think of the King book as the equivalent of 3 other books 😋
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19 books…I can’t even imagine. That is so amazing! And you got to read NOS4A2 (US title), which I loved! Beat the Backlist was an epic fail for me as well, so don’t feel bad. Trying again this year, I think. And maybe you wouldn’t even have read those two if you hadn’t signed up for the challenge? Bring on 2018!
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That’s true, I probably wouldn’t have picked up those two had it not been for the challenge so I’ll take that as a small win 😃 and I’m glad I’m not the only who failed at it, but I have every faith we’ll do better in 2018!
Wishing you a Happy New Year with lots of bookish joy! 😊
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I’ve just signed up! And same to you. 🙂
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Wow 19 books that’s awesome! Happy New Year to you too xx
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🤓📖 All the best for 2018 Nicki 😊x
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Happy New Year Janel, I’m looking forward to reading your Hydra review…. Keep Reading!!
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Happy new year to you too, Kerrie!x
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Thank You xx
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What a fantastic month Janel! I don’t know anyone who can 100% stick to their TBR list, but I enjoy trying. I really need to make a point of reading The Life We Bury and NOS-4R2 early next year. I was really looking forward to trying the 24 in 48 readathon at the end of January, but I have to attend a wedding. Normally I would be excited about a wedding and even pondered the possibility of doing both, but I don’t think Las Vegas, a wedding and reading mix well lol.
Have a great weekend and Happy New Year! xx
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Haha, that’s definitely a bad combination, especially if you’re adding wine into the mix too! I wanted to do it again in Jan but I go back on clinical placement, and have two pieces of coursework to do 🙁 but it’s hosted twice a year so I’m hopeful for the later one. There’s so many books I wanted to read this year that I just never got around to, I’m definitely going to be more picky with what I read next year. Happy new year to you too Tina 🎇xx
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I am so impressed, with as busy as you are, how many books you still manage to read. You must run on coffee! Let’s hope we can both join the summer one!!
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Never underestimate the power of coffee! Lol. If we’re both able to participate in the summer, we should read one book that’s the same – a buddy read for motivation!
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I’d love that!! Let’s hope we can 🙂
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I’ve almost finished Hydra but my Top post of the year is full so I can’t add it, though I really want to!!! I totally failed the Beat the Backlist Challenge this year so I can only do better in 2018, haha! Happy New Year! xx
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I added Hydra as an extra to mine on the basis that it’s not been published yet but worthy of a spot, so while it’s not in the top ten, it’s still there, haha!
Happy new year to you too Meggy 🎇xx
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Happy New Year’s Janel!
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19 books is brilliant – I definately need to take a leaf from your book and get caught up with some of my must-reads books. Hope you have a book-filled Happy New Year, and good luck with the 1,000-page Stephen King tome! 🙂
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Thank you – I’m going to need all the support to get through it as I’ve got a few other books I’d like to read in Jan as well 🙈 A bookworms work is never done 😂 Wishing you a Happy New Year too 🎇🎆
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