Happy New Year!!

Here’s to an awesome 2018 – full of great reads, awesome adventures, and quality time with friends and family.

To start the new year off, here’s my ridiculously large December Book Haul. Hopefully, I’ll be able to read a lot of these books this year rather than constantly getting new books. Between the library, Cyber Monday sales, and Christmas, a lot of books found their way into my home in December. … Oops. 🙂

It was a busy, busy month. I didn’t read as much as I’d originally planned to, but I made lots of new bookish friends. Here’s my ridiculously large December Book Haul.

What was in my December 2017 book haul?

Library books, books I bought for myself, received for review, or borrowed from friends

• Real Friends by Shannon Hale
• What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton
• Jane by Aline Brosh McKenna
• As You Wish by Chelsea Sedoti
• Anatomy of Animals by Dave Kellett
• Sweet Caroline: Last Child of Camelot by Christopher Andersen
• Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton
• Leap of Faith:Memoirs of an Unexpected Life by Queen Noor

Cyber Monday Book Outlet Haul

• The Bookseller by Cynthia Swanson
• Moth and Spark by Anne Leonard
• Love, Lies and Spies by Cindy Anstey
• Duels & Deception by Cindy Anstey
• The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi
• The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson
• Soundless by Richelle Mead
• Starflight by Melissa Landers
• The Berenstain Bears’ Bedtime Battle by Stan and Jan Berenstain
• The Berenstain Bears Under the Sea by Mike Berentstain
• The Berenstain Bears Visit the Firehouse by Mike Berentstain
• The Berenstain Bears Pirate Adventure by Mike Berentstain
• The Berenstain Bears Love Their Neighbors by Jan and Mike Berenstain
• Richard Scarry’s Trucks (Board Book) by Richard Scarry
• Richard Scarry’s Boats (Board Book) by Richard Scarry
• Richard Scarry’s Planes (Board Book) by Richard Scarry
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Board Book) by Alison Jay

What can I say, I adore cute kids books. And now that I have another adorable nephew (born Dec 28!), I need to research what great books I can gift to those cute little boys.

Christmas Gifts

• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (1927 edition)
• Lonely Planet’s New Zealand’s Best Trips: 26 Amazing Road Trips by Brett Atkinson, Sarah Bennett, Lee Slater
• The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Meets World by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale
• 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl by Mona Awad
• Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore
• Fire by Kristin Cashore
• The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli
• We Should All be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

And probably one of the coolest Christmas gifts ever: my sister-in-law gifted me a collection of kids’ books that once belonged to my husband. Many of them even have his name in them in adorable little kid printing!

• Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? by Dr. Seuss
• Dr. Seuss’s ABC by Dr. Seuss
• I Can Read With My Eyes Shut by Dr. Seuss
• Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
• Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss
• Bears on Wheels by The Berenstains
• The B Book by The Berenstains
• Oh The Thinks You Can Think! by Dr. Seuss
• Ten Apples Up On Top by Theo LeSieg
• There’s a Wocket In My Pocket by Dr. Seuss
• Are You My Mother by P.D. Eastman
• The Cat In the Hat by Dr. Seuss
• The Cat In the Hat Comes Back by Dr. Seuss
• One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss
• In a People House by Theo LeSieg

Whew! That’s quite the list.

Did you count? That’s 48 books! This is the biggest, craziest, most ridiculous book haul I’ve ever had.

This is almost all of it. This photo is missing the adorable kids’ books from my sister-in-law on Christmas Eve, the exciting travel book I got for Christmas from my hubs, and the book mail I got just after Christmas.

Thank you so much to my friends and family who loaned and gifted these books to me! You are wonderful.

What did I read in December?

• Nice Try, Jane Sinner by Lianne Oelke
• Rickety Stitch and the Gelatinous Goo by Ben Costa
• Real Friends by Shannon Hale
• Jane by Aline Brosh McKenna
• What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton
• Brightwood by Tania Unsworth

At the end of December, I’ve read 88 books this year! To hear about how how I accomplished this one goal of my collection of goals see last week’s post Reading Goal Wrap Up. To get an idea of what I read, see my Reading Stats and check out my Goodreads Challenge.

How rad is this collection of kids’ books? They all once belonged to my husband and have his cute little boy writing in them on the nameplate page.

In case you missed it

In December, I posted 14 blog posts. It was a fun mix of book reviews, Christmas-themed posts, and year end wrap up and forward-thinking posts.

Book Reviews

• Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo – An awesome YA Fantasy that opens up the Grisha Verse series.
• Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst – Another rad YA Fantasy that features to princesses who fall in love and save the world.
• The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer – A fun Middle Grade fantasy novel about twins who fall through a storybook into a fairytale world.
• Beautiful Book: The Princess in Black – This book is a great way to introduce young readers to the chapter book. Plus, it’s a princess who likes and is good at both wearing dresses/hosting tea parties AND battling bad guys and monsters!

Christmas-themed  Posts

I gave my mom and my husband some gift ideas in Non-Book Bookish Gift Ideas for the Bookworm in Your Life (I even got a few of these! Stay tuned to Instagram to see them!).

I also participated in Top Ten Tuesday with Books I Hope Santa Brings. If you compare that list to the one above, you’ll see a TON of the books are on both! I was spoiled this year.

Oh, and I made sure I said Merry Christmas to you!

This book came in the mail just before the end of the year. I supported it on Kickstarter earlier in 2017. Dave is hilarious! And my lovely friend @bethisomething coloured this book for him and helped design it.

Looking Back on 2017

As many do, I spent some of my holiday break reflecting on the year behind and looking forward to the year ahead.

• Top Ten Favourite Books of 2017  – This was a very difficult list to make.
• Writing Goal Wrap Up – In which I confess that I didn’t meet a single one of my writing goals.
• Reading Goal Wrap Up – I met my Goodreads goal…but none of my other goals.
• Reading Stats – What did I actually read? How many pages? What genres? What formats?

And last, but not least, I looked forward to the new year with Ten Books I’m Looking Forward to Reading in 2018. This list includes books from years past, some 2017 releases, and some 2018 releases.

Thank you!

Thank you for joining me in 2017! And thank you for coming back in 2018! I enjoy my little blogging experience but I know that it wouldn’t be nearly as fun without lovely readers like you. So, thank you. Thank you for your views, your likes, your comments, and your shares. It warms my hear that people want to read what I have to say and trust me for book recommendations.

I’m excited to see how this blog will continue to grow and develop over the next year. In 2017, I hit and surpassed 1000 views in a month. It was a SUUUPER exciting day. And it’s all thanks to you. <3

Did you get any books for Christmas?