What are we reading in December?

It's the last month of 2016! What are you reading to finish up your challenge? I kicked off the month with This Adventure Ends by Emma Mills, which I really liked and stayed up way too late reading! Now I've started Skink: No Surrender by Carl Hiaasen.

I'm reading Happy Alchemy, by Robertson Davies, for the RandomCAT, and this weekend I plan to get to Fashion Victims: The Dangers of Dress Past and Present, by Alison Matthews David.

I just finished The Ice Carriers, which I'd only started yesterday--I just couldn't put it down!

Now, I'm still wandering through both Queen Victoria's Book of Spells: An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy and Conversations on the Edge: Narratives of Ethics and Illness, but I'm enjoying taking small gulps when I sit down with them, story by story and chapter by chapter. Thus, I'm also now reading Brad Meltzer's The Millionaires.

Because I plan to work on several series reads next year, I'm taking inventory and started reading Death of A Gossip. I've read these out of order, obviously because this is book #1. I also am trying to get through Cross The Line. I usually look forward to a new book in the Alex Cross series, but it hasn't hooked me yet.

Currently I am reading The Observations by Jane Harris and Tamar by Mal Peet, they are both shaping up to be stellar reads. I finally finished The Picture of Dorian Gray and my next classic is going to be Silas Marner.

I think I mentioned both of these at the end of the November thread, but I'm currently reading Jane Eyre (a reread, but last read 30-odd years ago so I remember almost nothing about it) and Redwall (which again I think I've had for 25-30 years as I remember it was a present from a school friend). I am making really heavy going of Redwall - I will finish it, but I'm not sure I'll manage to finish it by Christmas.

I've also just picked up an Early Reviewer copy of Making a Mark: Letter to a Grandson on the Story of European Painting so will try to read that this month too. It's (as the title suggests) written by a grandmother who wanted to make art more accessible to her autistic grandson.

I am reading The Transmigration of Bodies Yuri Herrera next Saturday's book group. I'm finding it hard going because it's so bleak, but at least it's short!

I finished A Share in Death by Deborah Crombie for my first read this month and am going to start The Christmas Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini next.

I finished Dear Mr. M by Herman Koch, an Early Reviewers win, which was a bit of a disappointment to me. I am planning to read Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories and Doc by Mary Doria Russell next.

I'm sorry you didn't like Dear Mr. M, Shannon. I did, but I was in the mood for a dark book full of unsympathetic characters.

I just finished Marrow Island by Alexis M. Smith. Smith wrote a book I loved called Glaciers, so I was so pleased that she's written a second novel. I loved this one, too.

And I'm reading Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn.

Finally started Hag-Seed, by Margaret Atwood, and am loving it so far.

I've just finished The Christmas Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini and will probably start my Dewey challenge book next.

Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn is interesting, but unrelentingly grim and parts are written in dialect, which can add or distract from a story. Here it's distracting. So I've added Trashed by Alison Gaylin to read at the same time.

I've just finished L'Orlando Furioso di Ludovico Ariosto raccontato da Italo Calvino and A Supporsed Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace (italian edition)

>14 RidgewayGirl: Kay I had Here Comes The Sun on hold a little while ago but then had to let it go because I had too many holds.

I'm reading Heaven's Keep and I do not like the direction where things are headed.

I've decided to switch my Dec Dewey book to Last Train to Paradise by Les Standford about the railway that Henry Flagler built across the Florida Keys in the early 1900s.

I'm reading Brad Meltzer's The Millionaires and also James Brady's The Marines of Autumn. Next up, I've got The Memory Tree and The Farm on the River of Emeralds, though that last one may be one I read in small bits for the rest of the month, given that it's nonfiction and the writing is pretty small.

I am reading my DeweyCat selection, Helmet For My Pillow by Robert Leckie and I'm about to start An Irish Country Wedding by Patrick Taylor.

I'm reading Miss Buncle's Book by D.E. Stevenson for RandomCAT. This is the last book to fill my challenge and then I'm done. I've a few Christmas mysteries that will fill the rest of the month.

I've finished the unrelentingly grim Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn and am now reading Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson, which is so beautifully written.

Finished The Santa Klaus Murder, by Mavis Doriel Hay, yesterday. Today I started a short story collection by Len Deighton called Declarations of War.

I'm still going with Jane Eyre, have ground to a bit of a halt with Redwall (will pick it up though, I'm just not in the mood for it right now), and have started Memory Cards which is a memoir by a guy about the same age as me of life in rural North Carolina. He writes really well, and the whole thing is a series of vignettes, which is a style which always really works for me.

I blew through Somebody to Love, a Kristan Higgins romance, and have now started Old Dogs by Donna Moore.

I've finally made progress with Still Midnight. I've started it a few times and never made progress until now. I'm not sure why, because Denise Mina is great!

I'm also reading 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl which is kind of sad, with the whole body image issue.

I'm still reading Farm on the River of Emeralds, and now I'm reading Alas, Babylon as my current fiction read.

Finally finished The Wangs vs. the World which was not exactly my cup of tea and have moved on to The Mothers and Death of an Expert Witness.

I caved and am now reading The Long Way Home, by Louise Penny. My mum thought it was a "weird" one. So far I think lowered expectations are helping ;)

I just finished Alas, Babylon, and it ended up being another favorite of the year, at the top of my list along with Robot in the Garden. It was wonderful. I'm still wandering through Farm on the River of Emeralds, but I've also got a bit of a book hangover at the moment from this last novel, so I'm not sure what fiction I'll pick up next.

I am reading Black River by a new-to-me author, S.M. Hulse. I am also reading Sacrifice by S.J. Bolton. Both books are proving to be good reads.

>30 DeltaQueen50: Judy, I love when one of your BB's is available at the library. I checked it out and started reading it last night and am reading a little now before leaving for work. I can already tell that Black River is going to be special and a memorable 2016 read. I had to check this is a debut book correct?

I'm also reading Do Not Say We Have Nothing, which is so far so good, but might take me into January to finish.

Reading (well, listening to) Dancer's Lament by Ian C. Esslemont and loving it.

Also reading The Pucelle Connection from the Genevieve Lenard series by Estelle Ryan.

I've finished The Mothers by Brit Bennett, which was excellent, and have moved on to Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner, which is a much more solid and well-written book than one usually gets as the first in a crime series.

>31 lsh63: Yes, it is her debut book and what a debut! She reminds me a little of Kent Haruf and that is big praise indeed. So glad you are enjoying it, Lisa.

I finished Doc, which was great, and am now reading The Long and Faraway Gone.

I just finished the new hyped crime novel, Missing, Presumed and found it to be an excellent beginning to a series. Steiner writes as though Denise Mina and Sophie Hannah merged brains.

Continuing on with The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride.

>36 RidgewayGirl: There you go again Kay, sending a BB my way, you're almost as bad as Judy. This could be problematic if it's available at the library. I'm off to go see. You know you got me with Denise Mina and Sophie Hannah!

ETA: I'm number 52 on 8 copies. That should take care of things and not get in the way of my other planned reads.

I've finished the wonderful 5 star Black River, for a debut novel, it blew me away. I'm working on Do Not Say We Have Nothing.

>36 RidgewayGirl: >37 lsh63: She got me with Denise Mina and Sophie Hannah as well!

>37 lsh63: & >38 DeltaQueen50: Huh. Looks like Black River is suddenly on my wishlist.

Um, Kay Black River is 1.99 in e book format at Amazon and Barnes and Noble right now.

Just spreading the joy!