What have you been reading this December?

[Michelle]

I found that I was in the mood for a seafaring tale, so I'm reading Richard Bolitho — Midshipman. I hope I like it since I bought nine books in the series from a used bookstore 🙄 Someone needs to schedule an intervention...

[Mary]

Perseus Corbett and the Forbidden Valley by David Breitenbeck

[Kivrin]

I've been leisurely rereading "The Two Towers". I love Tolkien's use of language. Really refreshing to read someone who understood language and how it should be written. I'm also rereading Sand so I can read the new sequel.

[Andrea]

Finished reading Gold, I enjoyed the little editorials he would write for his magazine as much as the stories.

Ok...6 days left, I can probably fit two more, especially since Cress by Marissa Meyer, while a good 500 pages, I can probably read 150+ a day since YA novels tend to go fast, which will leave me time for another Dune book. Oh, and the Ender stories, yesterday found Mazer In Prison

I also thought I'd wrap up the year with the Tor Dune reread, though I didn't account for two things, first, it covers more than the first book, and second, they included 20 minute segments from the audio book version, not having ever listened to an audio book before I'm kind of enjoying it - https://www.tor.com/series/rereading-...

[YarnCatsNBooks]

Just joined this group. I read all kinds of books, but for this forum I've read Project Hail Mary, and A Long Way to A Small Angry Planet.

[Mary]

Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature by Charles Wareing Endell Bardsley

[Andy]

Finished The Lost Metal. A good end to era 2 of Mistborn.

[Andrea]

Finished Cress, that will leave three more for the Lunar Chronicles, plus a batch of short stories.

But more pressing, next up is back to Dune with Dune: The Lady of Caladan. I'll have to read more than 100 pages a day to make it before midnight on the 31st :)

I've also been making progress on the Ender short stories, though a bit disappointed that a few are just excerpts from the novels (or maybe at the time they were previews). I've got about 6 more with 3 stories not available free online since they were recently published either in a magazine or an anthology.

3 more days left of the year! Looking forward to getting back to some fantasy. I know the first book I'll read is the first book of Shannara (the reviews make it sound like a bad Tolkien knockoff but I assume it gets better after that otherwise there wouldn't be around 30 books in the series...). But for the second book I've got so much to pick from, looking forward to making those selections!

[Tony]

Andrea wrote: "Looking forward to getting back to some fantasy. I know the first book I'll read is the first book of Shannara (the reviews make it sound like a bad Tolkien knockoff but I assume it gets better after that otherwise there wouldn't be around 30 books in the series...)."

Terry Brooks is a good author but, yeah, the first few Shannara books are heavily derivative (probably the nicest way to put it) of Lord of the Rings.

[Tony]

I have finished The Guns of the South and thoroughly enjoyed it. I expect this will be the last book I finish in 2022, with only 25 hours left in the year for me - and I will be asleep for some of that time 😄

[Andrea]

Finished reading First Meetings in Ender's Universe, which contains four short stories (I found it on OpenLibrary if anyone else is reading Ender stuff). It's got two stories about Ender's parents, one about Ender meeting Jane for the first time (I couldn't help but cringe as he clicked on the ad, I mean the risk of viruses and malware!...lol) and also includes the original Ender short story that first came out in Analog magazine 1977. Interesting to note the difference of which there weren't really a lot though I'm not sure Card had even figured out what the invading aliens were like yet :)

I have two more stories from the Intergalactic Medicine show magazine (discovered they are also available on his official website) but there are two that were were published in magazines that I can't get for free, and one in an anthology that I just nabbed on sale so that will arrive in the new year.

Whew. I mean there are still the prequel novels about the formic wars and some graphic novels I can't find anywhere, but pretty close to wrapping up all things in the Ender world :o) I did not, at the start of the year, think I would still be reading Ender right up to the last day.

[Audrey]

Finished up When the Earth Had Two Moons: Cannibal Planets, Dreadful Orbits, Icy Giants, Dirty Comets and the Origins of Today's Night Sky; thoroughly enjoyed it; in the middle of Partials; finished Step Right Up.

[Georgann]

I needed something to read today that wasn't in my stack waiting for all my 2023 challenges to begin, so I read Be My Ghost. Fun little cozy mystery, and a non-fiction to read tomorrow between preparations for New Year's events.

[Andrea]

Finished the two last Ender stories, or at least the last two that I didn't put only my "impossible to find" shelf :)

Now, I've got to focus on finishing The Lady of Caladan, I've got about 165 pages to get through before the stroke of midnight.

[Audrey]

I'm trying to squeeze in Spy Ski School before midnight for a challenge, but I have a bunch of errands to do as well. 11 hours left.

[Audrey]

Andrea wrote: "Finished Cress, that will leave three more for the Lunar Chronicles, plus a batch of short stories.

But more pressing, next up is back to Dune with Dune: The Lady of Caladan. I'll ..."

I've still only read the first two Shannarra books. The first has major Tolkien vibes, but I still liked it a lot.

[Andrea]

Finished The Lady of Caladan with an hour left to go! I have a couple other books I'm part way through so will read a little more from one of those while I wait for these last 45 minutes of 2022 but won't be finishing either of them.

Definitely had fun with my SF themed year and found an unexpected gem with the Ender series and had a lot of fun plundering my library for tons of graphic novels that I otherwise never woud have read.