December Books

Despite 2 weeks of vacation, my reading in December was a bit slow. With the holidays, parties, events, working out and little house projects here and there I hardly ever got to sit down with a book, it seems! I’m looking forward to changing that in January.

In the meantime, let’s talk about what I did finish reading.

Mockingjay by Susan Collins
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah, let’s talk about this for a moment. I know I touched on the whole Hunger Games Trilogy in the November post, but I mentioned that I hadn’t quite finished Mockingjay. Turns out it would take me almost the entire month of December because man — that was the WORST BOOK IN THE SERIES. I had heard grumbles of that on the internet before reading, but I really got it once I started in on the book. I’m glad I read it, but it was kind of a drag. Disjointed, boring at times, all over the place — I don’t know. Not what I expected. That said, I’m dying to read another series with multiple books because those are always fun. I’ve picked up A Game of Thrones, and I’m kind of excited to get into that! We’ll see how I like it.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
I have mixed feelings about this book and I think the best word I can use to describe it is unique. It makes me cringe to use that word though, since I had a professor in college that used to say only ignorant people say “unique” because they don’t have a large enough vocabulary to actually describe how they really feel. OUCH!
ANYWAY. It was just a different kind of book. The author found a collection of old, interesting photographs and spun a story around them about an orphanage, a boy, his grandfather, WW II — I mean it was definitely not your everyday book premise. I liked that. I also liked his writing style. It was beautiful in parts — and I mean, like, read out loud beautiful — and eloquent and descriptive and there were parts that just tugged on your heart strings. But also, there were parts of the narrative that felt like they were there just to incorporate a silly picture. So while the idea was a good one, the execution didn’t feel seamless to me, so I did get distracted a few times. But the story in fanciful enough without being crazy, and emotional enough to get wrapped up into — so you see??? Mixed feelings, and all that. I’m glad I read it though. Definitely glad I read it.

The House of Gucci: A Sensation Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed by Sara Gay Forden
This book was REALLY FREAKIN’ AWESOME and exactly what the title says it was! Not only is the history of Gucci, which I was dying to know about because I love Gucci and maybe at one point wanted to force Tom Ford to be my BFF, but it is a murder mystery, a financial history, as well as a gossipy look back at one of Italy’s most influential fashion houses. It’s also full of fashion history and how Milan became a big player and OH! I just loved it. It was one of those books that just combined a lot of my interests and I found myself shouting to Garrett from the bathtub “Hey, did you know….???” And even he thought some of the facts were interesting. It’s a bit outdated, published in 2001, but fun to read nonetheless if you are even a bit interested in the business of fashion, or Gucci in general.

*****
I think I finished out the year reading 67 books. Sweet! Here’s to 2012 reading, I can’t wait!

So what fun reads did you get to in December?