What are we reading in December?

Because apparently we're in the last reading month of 2019, the question now becomes what are you reading in December?

I just finished the excellent Volume Control: Hearing in a Deafening World, by David Owen, and will likely pick up The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, later this afternoon.

We're supposed to be getting worse weather later today and the first snow of the season, so I'm going to settle in and try to finish a re-read of A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman for my RL book club this week.

How is is December!
I will mostly be reading library books, as I have set myself the goal of ending the year with a much reduced number of library books on loan to me.
It would help if I stopped reserving them, really, wouldn't it?

>3 Helenliz: I had to start suspending my holds three weeks ago so that I wouldn't have quite as many books coming in -- I go to my parents' for Christmas and am pretty much always having to return a stack of books unread because I can't read them all before I go.

Somehow I managed to pick up two quite dark reads at the same time so I am reading The Heavenly Table by Donald Ray Pollock, a grim and violent tale and just starting After Dark, My Sweet by Jim Thompson. When these are done, I must pick up some lighter fare.

I am reading The Bake Shop by Amy Clipston for NetGalley. This is a novel about an Amish woman who owns (you got it!) a bakery.

>3 Helenliz: I'm hearing you! I find it easier to just reserve books as soon as I hear about them than trying to keep lists! But I also have SO many books piled up.

>4 rabbitprincess: I must start tracking them all as my library will be closed for two weeks. I need to get all the ones due back in that period returned. And time will fly between now and then.

Still on Great Expectations as I am reading it along with others. Just about to start No Exit for December ScaredyKIT - revisiting the modern thriller category.

Finished up The Life of Charlotte Bronte by Elizabeth Gaskell yesterday for my book club and have now started A Dangerous Duet by Karen Odden.

Having to pick among five library books due back on the same day... going with Home Sweet Homicide, by Craig Rice, which was recently reprinted as an American Mystery Classic.

I've just finished The Marriage of Elinor and am reading The commandant and Murder for Pleasure. Three library books are waiting as well, so December is shaping up as a big month for reading.

I started the month by finishing a reread of Persuasion, which was lovely! Now I'm starting The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin.

>9 rabbitprincess: - Our local library has started automatically renewing your book if there's nobody waiting for it and just sending an email with the new due date. SO convenient.

>12 dudes22: That is convenient, or dangerous, depending on how you look at it! ;)

Home Sweet Homicide was delightful and I recommend it.

A change of pace: My Scotland, by Val McDermid.

>13 rabbitprincess: - I've always only needed a couple more days, but I wonder how many times they would renew. Maybe I'll ask my sister today when I go pick up a book I reserved.

I finished The Amber Spyglass yesterday - very good conclusion to the trilogy - and have been continuing with Revolving Lights by Dorothy Richardson. Also, I started Xenocide a couple of weeks ago and will get back into that.

With medical appointments taking up most of my time my reading plans suffered a sharp setback. I'll just finish off the year with light reading for CalendarCAT, AlphaKIT and RandomCAT - by the letter - starting with Dead Cold by Louise Penny. This is a re-read because I didn't warm to Penny on my first read. I should have started at the beginning of the series.

And of course as usual I'm reading everybody's threads, though I may not be able to post comments.

I've just started The Erratics by Vicki Laveau-Harvie, the memoir that won the Stella Prize this year.

I just finished Conversations with Dickens and The Bake Shop which are both for NetGalley. I enjoyed both of them. Currently reading Let it Snow by Nancy Thayer.

I finished A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman which was a re-read for my book club and am starting This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger which I had a hold on at the library since it came out a few months ago. I was worried I wouldn't get it before we left for Fla in Jan. Woo Hoo!

Finished The Erratics, a quick and interesting read, and am now reading Bill Bryson's The Road to Little Dribbling. Bryson's narrative persona seems to have ossified.

A short bit in, I'm really liking A Hard Winter Rain, set in Vancouver, BC, in the month of December.

Completed Let it Snow and I am now onto Christmas Sweets, a trio of Christmas novellas in one book, written by three of my fave mystery writers.

I'm reading the seasonally inappropriate A Summer to Remember by Mary Balogh.

>23 christina_reads: I think it's appropriate to escape to somewhere warm in the winter, even if it's only through a book!

Currently I am struggling with Lolita as even the author's beautiful writing can't get me past the subject material. On the lighter side, I am reading a lively western by Elmore Leonard, Last Stand at Saber River as well as Lord Edgware Dies by Agatha Christie.

>24 BookLizard: And it's also summer in the Southern Hemisphere, so in that sense it's totally appropriate!

Just finished The Twenty-Three, by Linwood Barclay.

And much to my relief, I was able to renew my current library book: Cruel To Be Kind: The Life and Music of Nick Lowe, by Will Birch.

Just finished The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle which was a real rollercoaster and now started A Home At The End Of The World which is, as I would expect, beautifully written, insightful and moving.

I'm about to start Snowspelled by Stephanie Burgis, which looks like a fun wintry novella!

I am now reading The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah and Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George.

>30 DeltaQueen50: I absolutely loved anything by Jean Craighead George when I was younger. I may have to schedule some rereads next year.

>31 JayneCM: I thought Julie of the Wolves was an excellent read. :)

For people in Australia, one of the Kindle Daily Deals today is Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea for $1.99.

ETA A possibility for the August GeoCAT

I just finished A Silken Thread for NetGalley. Next up is The Little Bookshop on the Seine which has been on my TBR list for awhile.

I've begun rereading The Reluctant Heiress by Eva Ibbotson, one of my go-to comfort reads!

I am still working on NetGalley reads this month. Just finished (skimmed) The Little Bookshop on the Seine which was a cute and quick read. I seem to be getting a lot of those lately.

I'm now rereading Shannon Hale's Austenland. I remember liking it when I first read it, but it's been more than 10 years at this point! So I'm interested to see how it holds up.

Currently I am reading Tool of War by Paolo Bacigalupi which is the final volume in his Ship Breaker trilogy. Also I have started Like Life a collection of short stories by Lorrie Moore.

Raiding my parents' bookshelves and have picked up a P. D. James novel, A Taste for Death.

I was also able to save myself a library hold by getting my mum to borrow The Nocturnal Brain, by Guy Leschziner, from her library.

My mum read The Nocturnal Brain earlier this year and is now reading Why We Sleep, by Matthew Walker. I have a hold on that one too but will keep the hold in place, because I'm not sure I'll feel like sneaking in a read of it while she has it out ;)

Has anyone read The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern? It's gotten good reviews, and there is a huge waitlist for it at the library, but I couldn't get into it when I started it. Not sure if it's the book or me since I do have 2 other unfinished books going and one I intend to finish What You Did by Claire McGowan.

>40 BookLizard: My cousin did. She loooooooves The Night Circus, so I suspect her 3-star rating for The Starless Sea might not be a good 3 stars. I could ask her.

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Made some progress on my audiobook of Watership Down, which I bought for Peter Capaldi reasons. Also planning to dig into a couple of American Mystery Classics: The Bellamy Trial, by Frances Noyes Hart; and The So Blue Marble, by Dorothy B. Hughes.

I'm trying to finish Milkman before the year ends, but I am struggling with it. But then again I've been too pooped from post holiday cleanup and eating too many Christmas cookies to give it the full concentration needed.

41> Thanks. I liked, didn't love, The Night Circus. I need to remind myself that a long waitlist doesn't necessarily mean a book is good - just that everyone else has also heard that it's good. I think I'll go reread All Systems Red - that's been my comfort read this year, so maybe it will help cleanse my palate figuratively and snap me out of my reading funk.

I am reading the first volume, A Question of Upbringing from Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time and plan to read the whole series in 2020. It's many years since I first read it.

Just finished the new Michael Connelly, The Night Fire, and started on the newest John le Carre, Agent running in the field.
Revisiting an existing and known universe with well known characters is always nice, especially if you are a bit under the weather, and don't have too much bandwidth to dedicate to your reading.

On the other hand, le Carre writes amazingly, and even with a whole new cast he manages to draw me in.

I am finishing out the year with a very light historical romance called Wonderful by Jill Barnett.

I'm going to finish out December by getting a head start on my January RandomCAT choice: Solomon Gursky Was Here, by Mordecai Richler.

And if I'm really lucky, I'll be able to finish The Bellamy Trial, by Frances Noyes Hart.

I too have already started my first January read, Empress Orchid, as I know I will not be finished in the 11 hours of 2019 left to me!

I'm desperately trying to finish Miss Grimsley's Oxford Career by Carla Kelly before midnight tonight! :)