What I Read: December 2024
I actually read books in December! And let's talk reading goals.
Happy 1st of January! I hope you ended last year with a good book (and maybe started 2025 with one, too?!?).
Are we still doing numerical goals when it comes to reading? I usually plug one in on Goodreads, just to get the reminder to go away, but never think of it again. My default is 52 books, or one per week, and most years I surpass that — especially when some of those are read-alouds for the kids, or middle-grade or young adult fiction.
I used to set really lofty goals — not numerical ones, necessarily, but something like “read one memoir, one nonficiton, one fiction, and one classic a month” — in order to round out my reading life. Then I had kids and I read for survival: I needed one little tiny piece of me to remain the same after the transformation that was motherhood. I no longer plan my reading life, but have let it be a little haphazard. I’ve been happy to lean into the serendipity of a library hold coming in, or I pluck something off the never-ending TBR shelf at home. Often, I am reading on a deadline for a book club or because something is due back soon.
Tennyson turns five this week, and I think I can tiptoe a little farther away from survival than I have been. I’m not sure I’m ready to dive into an intense classic, but I am feeling like my reading life could use a jolt of something. Maybe some more intentionality? Something more challenging? Perhaps more reading in community? We’ll see what 2025 brings.
If you have a reading goal in mind for this year, I’d love to hear about it. Maybe it’ll help me give shape to my vague one above.
Here’s What I Read in December:
Small Wonder: Essays {nonfiction}
by Barbara Kingsolver
I picked up a used copy of these essays at a book sale this fall and packed it in my bag for vacation in November. I knew nothing about the book. Essays are nice to take on a trip, I thought, It’ll be easy to pick up and put down. How wrong I was. Turns out, Kingsolver wrote the essays it contains in 2001-2002, in the wake of September 11th, when the American psyche was undergoing a drastic polarization. I began this book approximately three days after an election of some consequence here on our soil, and it felt as piercing in November 2024 as I’m sure it did in 2002. On page 14 of this book, Kingsolver writes “... I have to stop taking in more news so I can consider what I’ve gathered so far and pay attention to my own community, since that is the only place where I can muster a posse to take on our own local disasters of the day.” And that’s a phrase I’m going to be carrying with me into the New Year.
Goodreads | Bookshop | Libro.FM
The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living {nonfiction // audiobook}
by Miek Wiking
A quick audio listen of a book that was popular several years ago. The book discusses “hygge” — pronounced “hoo-guh” — and how the Danes practice it intentionally all year long, but especially during winter. It’s sort of like our English word “cozy” but on steroids, with a focus on making your environment as relaxing and ideal as possible so as to stave off the winter blues. There are lots of candles, nourishing stews, plenty of dessert, warm lighting… all the ambiance you wish for on a cold winter’s night spent with good friends and good food. Listening as the Winter Solstice approached was a great choice. I’ve got Wiking’s “The Art of Making Memories” queued up as my next listen.
Goodreads | Bookshop | Libro.FM
The Long Winter {audiobook}
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The kids and I listened to this one as the Winter Solstice drew near, and it felt like perfect timing. We are all dreaming of one big snow to play in, but we are glad we haven’t gotten blizzard after blizzard like Laura Ingalls and her family did while living in a prairie town in the winter of 1880-1881 — and that our grocery store would likely remained stocked even if we did.
Goodreads | Bookshop | Libro.FM
Touching Wonder: Recapturing the Awe of Christmas {nonfiction}
by John Blase
I have long-enjoyed following John Blase and his work, and returned to this Advent book by him this year. It follows the story of Luke in The Message Bible, with John’s reflections and prayers that the story brings about. It makes the nativity story feel earth-y and real, like you could reach out and touch it. John is an honest writer, and sometimes we need that reality against all the tinsel and lights.
Good News of Great Joy {Christmas poetry}
by Jenny Bravo
I first read this several years ago, and wanted to return to it this Christmas season as I try to add more poetry back into my everyday life. This is a self-published volume by Bravo, and it’s stark and sparse verse bring the Christmas story to life in a new way. It’ll be a perennial re-read for me, I think.
Slow Dance {novel}
by Rainbow Rowell
Carey and Shiloh were high school best friends… and everyone wondered why they never dated. Fast-forward 15 years and they dance together at a friend’s wedding, which sets the dominos tumbling toward them rekindling their once-close relationship, trying to see if it fits around Shiloh’s divorce and shared custody and Carey’s Naval deployments and responsibilities toward his aging mother.
I didn’t realize Rowell released a new novel for adults recently, so I was pleasantly surprised to run across this at the library one day. I LOVED her early fiction, like Attachments and Fangirl, but lately I knew she’d been writing She-Hulk and the Carry On series with Simon Snow, and I just hadn’t been interested in reading them. I was mostly delighted by this book — it could use a few-paragraph edit in places to keep it a bit more PG-13 — but I overall loved the story and the characters and would have kept reading had the novel continued on past it’s end.
Goodreads | Bookshop | Libro.FM
The Poet’s Dog {middle grade fiction}
by Patricia MacLachlan
I picked this up off a display shelf at the library, falling in love with the cover and the title. It’s a short, sweet book told from the point of view of a dog who rescues two kids in a blizzard. I really, really enjoyed it. It feels a little grown up considering the size and length of chapters, since the topic matter is largely about death and a dog missing his human after he passes, but it’s so, so sweet that I think I’ll likely be recommending it far and wide to the 9-12 audience. The same author wrote Sarah, Plain and Tall, and now I have the urge to go back and read that one from childhood!
Goodreads | Bookshop | Libro.FM
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever {middle grade fiction}
by Barbara Robinson
“The Herdmans were absolutely the worst kids in the history of the world.”
It’s a great opening line, and the rest of the book doesn’t disappoint either. It’s hilarious, and insightful. In seven short chapters, this novel takes you into one church’s production of the Christmas story and turns it on its head, leaving you laughing and also just a little bit teary-eyed.
I remember my 4th grade teacher reading this aloud to me, and I knew I wanted to read it with the kids. As soon as we finished, Arthur asked me to start over at the beginning, so I’d say it was a hit — even if the real meaning probably won’t sink in until he’s a bit older. I hear the new movie is excellent — I hope I can watch it soon.
Goodreads | Bookshop | Libro.FM
The Bodyguard {romcom // audiobook}
by Katherine Center
I first read this in July of 2022 (it’s actually the last book review I ever did on Instagram!), and I knew I wanted something fun to listen to over Christmas break. I listened while cleaning out our primary closet and then doing a puzzle as the kids popped in and out and I stopped to feed them lunch, and snacks, and more snacks… and it was the perfect choice because I already knew the plot but really enjoyed listening anyway.
Me review from IG still holds up: “This book is just plain fun. Is it a fairly formulaic rom-com? Yes. Do you know within the first 50 pages of what is (roughly) going to happen? Also, yes. But it is a delight to go along for the ride with Center and her characters. Hannah and Jack are both fully-formed and like-able, and both are exceptionally easy to root for. The story unfolds with a few twists and turns that keep you reading, and honestly: every page is worth the time. If you want a gem of a rom-com that takes you exactly where you want to go, this is it.
Goodreads | Bookshop | Libro.FM
I also started The Power of Ritual by Casper Ter Kuile, The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl, and began thumbing through The Sibley Guide to Birds (current edition) that I got for Christmas. I never even made it to Miracle on 10th Street — maybe next Christmas season.
What I’m Reading with the Kids:
Scott started reading aloud The Very, Very Far North while I cleaned up after supper last night. For school, we’ve started the Wind in the Willows, and will soon dive into Five Little Peppers and How They Grew. We listened to The Long Winter (above), and they’ve been listening and re-listening to a Frozen audio collection (on sale at Libro.FM for 3.99 for 5 more days!) while on winter break.
A few new-to-us Christmas picture books we discovered:
Santa’s First Christmas by Mac Barnett (funny and sweet)
Christmas Tapestry by Patricia Polacco (older audience… 8+?)
The Lost Gift by Kallie George (cute! has animals!)
Sam’s Wild West Christmas by Nancy Antle (an early reader, but good!)
We really enjoyed The Remarkable Christmas of the Cobbler’s Sons — but it’s super expensive on all websites. So if you ever find a copy at a second hand store, snatch it up!
I kept trying to get the kids interested in Christmas is Coming: Traditions from Around the World, with no luck. Maybe when they are a bit older?
What I’m Reading Next:
I’m in the middle of a few things mentioned above (oops). I need to read Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body by Rebekah Taussig for a book discussion at our church in two weeks, and I’m supposed to read Deacon King Kong by James McBride for my neighborhood book club in late-January. An audiobook copy of Maame by Jessica George just came in at the library for me, so I should probably get that downloaded and start listening!
The Five Little Peppers!! I had completely forgotten about those books. I remember being obsessed with them as a kid!