TELL ME TUESDAY is a floating feature, depending on your reading style, where you tell us what you read last, what you are reading now, what you will be reading next, and why.
•
I am curious why people read what they read, so tell me!
December was my Catch-Up Month, so there was no reading theme.
•
January's theme is Dragon Daze & Robot Raves.
★★★
(3.5)
CLASSIC
LITTLE WOMEN TRILOGY THREE
FAMILY - FRIENDS
Published 1886 - Own Ebook
❋
I usually re-read Little Women over the long Thanksgiving weekend, but this year I decided to read Jo's Boys instead because I hadn't read it yet. I really liked the second March family book, Little Men, so naturally I thought I would like this one. There were some good reading moments, and I loved seeing where all the characters ended up, but all in all I found most of it tedious.
★★★★★
(4.5)
LITERARY FICTION
STANDALONE
HISTORICAL FICTION
IRELAND
CHRISTMAS
Published 2021 - Own Paperback
❋
This was my fourth NYT 100 Best Books of the 21st Century Personal Challenge title for 2025. The Christmas theme was intentional, even though I don't normally read holiday books, because Liis from Cover to Cover sent it to me for Yule in 2024.
★★★★★
CLASSIC
CHRISTMAS
Published 1883 - Own Ebook, Audiobook, and Hardcover
❋
It was my seventh year reading this Christmas Eve over to Christmas Day.
★★★★★
CLASSIC
Published 1853 -Own Ebook and Hardcover
❋
This was my annual Dickens year-long slow read for 2025. It is my favorite Dickens and was my fourth time reading it.
★
LITERARY FICTION
STANDALONE
"MUSIC"
"THE HUMAN CONDITION"
Published 2010 - Libby Borrow
❋
This was my fifth NYT Best 100 Books of the 21st Century title for this year. How it won a Pulitzer Prize is beyond me. It's just a shallow hipster stroking narrative. The reason music and the human condition are in quotes is because the author's musings on both are ignorant. I think it was written to catch the eye of, and to pleasure hipsters' performative egos. She compared a free "kids" concert in a NYC park for hipster Millennial parents of babies and toddlers to the significance of Woodstock. Good grief. My son is a Millenial and he and his friends scoff at the hipsters thinking they are authentic and non-comformist when the opposite is true. They somehow are conformists in their nonconformity. They have given other Millenials a bad name. This will have a Not a Book Review Book Review at some point.
★★★★★
(4.5)
PLAY
HISTORICAL
CLASSIC
Published 1941 - Own Paperback
❋
There was no ebook, so I had to read a physical copy. I purchased a used paperback from Better World Books. It is said this is the best antiwar play ever written. It was from my Patti Smith Reads shelf on Goodreads. I read it for my personal challenge to read two plays in 2025.
★★★★★
MIDDLE GRADE
BETSY-TACY SERIES ONE
CLASSIC
HISTORICAL FICTION
FAMILY-FRIENDS
Published 1940 - Own Ebook
I used this audiobook image because all the other cover images were fuzzy.
❋
A collection of all four Betsy-Tacy MG books showed up as a $1.99 ebook, so I scooped them up because I remembered them mentioned in the movie You've Got Mail. I loved that movie and I don't see it mentioned at all within the book blogging community, even though it was about bookstore owners. Maybe I should do a blog post about it. Anyway, the whole Middle Grade part of the series (there are more books about Betsy which are Young Adult, concluding with her wedding) were delightful. If you like the Green Gables books, and also like reading MG, I think you will love these stories.
(4.5)
Published 1943 - Own Ebook
THESE WERE ALL OF MY DECEMBER BOOKS
MINUS THE TWO WITCH THEMED MANGA
WHICH WILL BE FEATURED ON MY NEXT
THE WEDNESDAY WITCH.
CLASSIC
Published 1847 - Own Ebook and Audiobook
❋
I'm re-reading this for my A Year of Brontë with Liis from Cover to Cover. Neither one of us cared for it in our teen years, so we decided to revisit it as adults. When we first started reading we were both liking it and wondered why we had problems before, but the story has started to lose me again. It might rally, I'm at sixty percent, but I am not hopeful.
•
This will be my first robot themed book for this month. Possibly my only one. I have already started reading it, but I set it aside to read Wuthering Heights.
DECEMBER READING WRAP-UP
⚫
BOOKS READ
TWELVE
ARCS
NONE
PHYSICAL BOOKS
TWO
EBOOKS
NINE
AUDIOBOOKS
ONE
MANGA - GRAPHIC NOVELS - COMICS
TWO
MIDDLE GRADE
FOUR
YOUNG ADULT
THREE
ADULT FICTION
FIVE
NONFICTION
NONE
RE-READS
TWO
MY FAVORITE BOOK IN DECEMBER
⚫
2025
BOOKS READ
84
(25,072 pages)
•
⚫
PERSONAL CHALLENGES
NONFICTION 10/6
MIDDLE GRADE 12/12
NATIVE AMERICAN/FIRST NATIONS AUTHORS 4/4
MUSIC 1/4
PLAYS 1/4
BACKLIST ARCS 4/4
CLASSICS/VINTAGE 12/6
RE-READS 8/4
FREEBIES/99¢ KINDLE BOOKS 16/4
NYT 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY 5/4
•
MIDDLE GRADE - 12
YOUNG ADULT - 17
ADULT FICTION - 45
NONFICTION - 10
What are you reading? Tell me!
I have Small Things on my shelf and am looking forward to it. I need to reread Jo's Boys. It was my favorite when I was a kid but I wonder what I would think of it as an adult. I somehow missed the Betsy Tacy books but they look like a lot of fun. I may have to pick up one or two when I see them.
ReplyDeleteThere was a MG book series being talked about on Instagram that Sebastian would have loved and I recall other books he would have loved if I had known about them, and there's been books like the Betsy-Tacy series I had no clue about I would have loved. We started talking about how before social media we were at the mercy of what the public and school libraries, Scholastic book fairs, and the book sections in department stores had for knowing what there was out there to read. ☺
DeleteAll new to me. We have different reading tastes. I hope your next book is good.
ReplyDeleteThanks, me too! ☺
DeleteYou know... I am starting to really question the "goodness" of books that have been selected for the NYT 100 Best Books. The person or persons who made that list have a very different taste in books than I do. Just the other day I perused through some of the options to select for a book club and not a single one jumped out any longer as - Oh! This, maybe! - Okay, Richard Powers may be the redeeming author at some stage. Anyway, I was in the library last night and happened to recognize one of the titles on the shelf from the list: 10:04 by Ben Lerner. Will see how that goes. hmm...
ReplyDeleteIn another news: I finished Wuthering Heights! I have too many jumbled thoughts about it. I will message you soon with my "word salad" :D
Yes, the other NYT Best Book I hated was also ego-stroking, but that one was author stroking. Even with Middle Grade and Young Adult I am sick of books getting awards based on subject only and not the quality of the writing. Don't get discouraged with the list, though, because all the others I have read from the list I have at least really liked. ☺
DeleteI am ready to dig into your WH word salad and add some of my own lettuce, ha ha! 📖
ReplyDelete
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like you've been reading A LOT. I'm so jealous. Share your time with me!
ReplyDelete