What have you been reading this December?

[Andrea]

Mary wrote: "Bowl of Red and Lights Out and Cry by Sarah A. Hoyt"

I read her Ill Met by Moonlight and enjoyed it, its challenging finding the rest of that series, I managed the third but can't find the second!

*edit* I can't buy it through Indigo or Kobo but I found it on OpenLibrary, nice!

[Georgann]

I love mincemeat pie, and I used to get it once in a while while my mom was still here, but since she and I were the only ones in the whole family that would eat it, we quit having it. I should look into getting a personal size one.

We listened to Steel Guardian on our way home from our daughter's today. I hate cliffhanger endings!

[Tony]

Georgann wrote: "I should look into getting a personal size one."

The ones readily available in Australia are individual sized, and usually come in packs of 4 or 6 (depending on which supermarket chain you buy from). It's not so much the minced fruit filling that is bad for diabetics - it's because the pastry is made with a lot of sugar, and then crystallised sugar is brushed over the finished pastry. Even in my pre-diabetic days, I found them too sweet to have more than one.

[Jonathan]

I’ve finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Rendezvous with Rama & Annihilation, this December.

Planning on picking up Left Hand of Darkness next.

[NekroRider]

I finished The Ghost King by R.A. Salvatore (Drizzt book 22) and decided to start a general fiction book Starlight by Richard Wagamese. It's the sequel to a book I read in 2020 and really liked the main character.

I was planning to do some festive reading this month, but I read Ghost King slower than I thought just because things were busy. And now feels a bit late to do so. This is short though, so maybe I'll still sneak one in.

[Tony]

I have finally finished The Last Dark, which brings to end my reading of the entire Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. I guess I'm glad I did it, and I'm certainly happy I have finished it, but I found the last couple of books really hard to read, mostly because I just didn't care what happened anymore.

[Carril]

Several books have particularly interested me this month.
The Mars House by Natasha Pulley— I was so upset by the main review I read for this interesting story that I wrote my own. Many modern conditions form the basis of the book such as the effects of climate change in killing the human habitat on earth, prejudice against refugees, eastern powers funding colonies, and government by the most privileged . So what is new?
The history of rural Georgia state USA using the lives of police chiefs in the fictional town of Delano by Stuart Woods surprised me. Chiefs is interesting and well written, a far cry from Woods’ easy on the eye Stone Barrington novels.
I’m partway through The Angry Women’s Choir by Meg Bignell. Very interesting characters. The human condition highs and lows from the choir women’s point of view, and set in the beautiful state of Tasmania, Australia.
Also have enjoyed fantasy stories, Unlit by Keri Arthur, and Fifteen Postcards (time travel) by Kirsten McKenzie.

[Tony]

I have started reading The Book of Lost Tales, Part One. Possible, but unlikely that I will finish before the end of the year.

[Andy]

Started Wind and Truth, which was a Christmas present. It’s a whopper of a book!

[NekroRider]

I finished Starlight by Richard Wagamese and it was very good. I've now moved on to Tombland by C.J. Sansom (historical fiction/mystery series). It's sadly the last Matthew Shardlake book! Its also most likely my last book of the year since its 800+ pages.

[Andrea]

Tony wrote: "I have started reading The Book of Lost Tales, Part One. Possible, but unlikely that I will finish before the end of the year."

I've read that. I've not read part II because its nearly impossible to find! This was one of the few years where I didn't read something by Tolkien in December, just ran out of time. It became a December tradition with LotR and I think the Hobbit movies too always coming out around Christmas time.

NekroRider wrote: "I've now moved on to Tombland by C.J. Sansom (historical fiction/mystery series). It's sadly the last ..."

Last December I was digging through my books in the back of my closet and found one called Dark Fire and I'm like, huh, wonder what this is. Turns out its part the Shardlake series. I didn't get around to reading it in the end (in fact I just put it under a big pile of books just today since I've got the Phillipa Gregory books to satisfy my historical urge for next year) but one day...

[Michelle]

I started the last one in the historical fiction/fantasy/smidge of horror Matthew Corbett series Leviathan last night.

[NekroRider]

"Andrea wrote: Last December I was digging through my books in the back of my closet and found one called Dark Fire and I'm like, huh, wonder what this is..."

Book 2 of the series and a good one! Unlike many mystery series, it's one that should be read in order though, so if you do get to it definitely read Dissolution first!

[Tony]

Andrea wrote: "I've read that. I've not read part II because its nearly impossible to find!"

There are copies (of the paperback edition) on bookfinder.com for less than $40 (hardcover copies look to start at $100). And those prices are in Aussie dollars, so they would likely be cheaper for you, as the Canadian dollar is pretty strong against the Aussie dollar at the moment (every currency seems to be strong against the AUD at the moment), and postge is likely to be less.

I picked up my copies as they were released (so mid-80s for the early books) and they have been sitting on my shelves ever since 😝

[Andrea]

Finished Eternal Life by Dara Horn, a book I pulled out of a book exchange box, turned out more interesting than I expected but I'll be putting it back in the box for someone else to enjoy.

Also finished Speaking Bones. It had one of the longest wrap ups after the climax I've read since the Eragon series, but while the Eragon conclusion bored me to tears, this one felt very appropriate and wouldn't have felt complete without it. All the loose ends were pretty well wrapped but still allowing for the fact the story continues, as it always does. Excellent series. This completes my 1k page BINGO slot.

Now I'm going to try to squeeze the second Prydain book, The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander, into what is left of this year. Got a little under 200 pages still to go but as a kids book its a quick read (but good) read. I need this one for the "Title Contains a Colour"

[Andrea]

Finished The Black Cauldron and completed the BINGO.

I guess in the hour and a half left of the year I'll continue with An Empyreal Retinue which I started on my eReader but didn't get very far into it. I won't be able to finish but since its a collection of short stories I might be able to get through a couple of them.