What I Read in December

December was a month for me to fall back in love with reading after being in a pretty good slump for the month of November. I read some really wonderful books this month which was the perfect way to end the year! I’m sharing my end of year recap soon, so without further ado, this is what I read in December!

DAISY DARKER BY ALICE FEENEY – 4 STARS

What a way to kick off the month! We read Daisy Darker as our December book club pick, and it was probably the longest we’d ever discussed a book at one meeting! Full confession: I tried to buy the book at Barnes & Noble two days before our meeting and they didn’t have it, so I ended up having to listen to it on YouTube? Right before I started reading, I heard it was loosely inspired by And Then There Were None, so I had a rough idea of how the plot would play out, but I truly had no idea where it was going by the end! The dysfunctional Darker family meets for the weekend to celebrate Nana’s 80th birthday, and you will never be able to predict what happens once the party begins.

NO CURE FOR BEING HUMAN BY KATE BOWLER – 5 STARS

Kate Bowler was living an ordinary and happy life with her husband and toddler when she found out she had stage four cancer and her life was flipped upside down overnight. She was left grappling with the question of what is the purpose of your life when you know it has an impending end date? She tackles the ideas of self-help and living your best life, and what does any of that really mean anyways? Bowler has a stunning way of making you feel completely seen that I haven’t experienced often in other writing.

LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY BY BONNIE GARMUS – 5000 STARS

Lessons in Chemistry is my favorite book of 2022 hands down. I put off reading it for so long because I just thought it was another cheesy romcom, but I was so, so wrong about that. This book is absolutely incredible, hilarious, and heart-breaking in the most human way. It’s the story of Elizabeth Zott, a female chemist in a completely male-dominated industry in the 1950s. She is beautiful, wildly independent, and incredibly brilliant, and she’s on her way to change the world around her. I want everyone to read this so we can all talk about it!!

THE HOUSE ACROSS THE LAKE BY RILEY SAGER – 4 STARS

Casey Fletcher is a recently widowed actress who is spending time at her family’s lakehouse on Lake Green to escape the media. To pass the time, she begins drinking at night and watching her neighbors across the lake through her binoculars until she sees something that she shouldn’t and begins to question everything that she knows to be true. There were so many times that I thought I had figured out this book, but I was so so wrong. My jaw was on the floor by the end!

WHEN WE BELIEVED IN MERMAIDS BY BARBARA O’NEAL – 2 STARS

First confession, I have been reading this book on my Kindle since September of 2021, so that could contribute to why I did not like this book at all. But it was just so far-fetched? It’s about two sister who grew up in a really difficult home in California, but after leaving home, the eldest sister is killed in an accident in the UK. Years later, Kit is watching the news and sees a woman being interviewed after a bombing in New Zealand, and it is most definitely her sister. I just didn’t feel like there was a single likable character in this entire story.

WRONG PLACE WRONG TIME BY GILLIAN MCALLISTER – 4 STARS

I have heard so many good things about this book, so I couldn’t wait to pick it up! A mother witnesses her teenage son commit murder on Halloween, but when she wakes up the next morning, it is the day before. And then the day before that. She has no choice but to dig to the root of where it all began in order to stop it from happening. I was really enthralled at the beginning, and the twists had my jaw dropping left and right. I do think it was a little long, but I still really enjoyed.

THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD MOTHERS BY JESSAMINE CHAN – 4 STARS

Holy cow this was a wild book. Frida Liu is suffering from postpartum depression, heartbreak, and exhaustion when she makes the terrible decision to leave the house, just for a little while, with her one year old daughter alone inside – the decision that will change the course of her life forever. After the neighbors call the police on Frida, she is entered into a new experimental program run by the state. She is sent to a year-long, abusive and emotionally manipulative school where she is instructed to be a good mother with the culmination of the year being a trial to determine if she can gain back her parental rights. This book is so difficult to read and heartbreaking and just an interesting look at what it means to be a good and loving parent.You can find all of the books I’ve read this year here:
What I Read in January & February
What I Read in March
What I (Didn’t) Read in April
What I Read in May
What I Read in June
What I Read in July
What I Read in August
What I Read in September
What I Read in October
What I Read in November