December Books

The December book round up is pretty slim as my notes look like this:




I read more books than are listed but I can’t remember the others. This is the thing with the holidays. It’s a glorious, wonderful time of the year. I love it – from Thanksgiving until about now. But when my routines go out the window I find it hard to bring my A-game. Apparently, I was too busy or scattered to even jot down a note or two about any of the books I read in December.

The ones I do remember:

Field of Darkness by Cornelia Read. The one thing that turns me off in a book faster than anything is if I can guess the ending. I want to be surprised, yet the surprise needs to make sense. I thought this book did that perfectly. However, some reviewers on Amazon said that anybody with half a brain knows who did it within the first 30 pages. Apparently, I’m half brainless.

The Christmas Train by David Baldacci. I read this every year around Christmas time, except this year, I didn’t finish it. I wanted to read it. Or rather, I wanted to want to read it. Since I have read it several times, I know what’s going to happen (duh) and this time, for some reason, I couldn’t get into it. Yet I felt like I should read it because, you know, it’s Christmas. Finally, I released myself from the “shoulds” and picked up something else. Just so you know, it’s a fun and heartwarming little read.


Crow Lake by Mary Lawson. This is just one of my idiosyncracies, but one thing about this book that bugged me a little was that I couldn’t figure out in what time period it takes place. It was definitely last century, but I wanted to know in what decade. The story takes place, for the most part, in the Canadian wilds and the characters are Appalachian poor. It could have been the 1940s or the 1960s. Or later. It was a bleak, well-written story. When the big finish arrives at the end, though, I had rather already been wondering the same thing so when the main character has her lightbulb moment, it felt anti climatic.

These People Are Us by George Singleton. Far and away, I prefer novels to short stories, but I picked up this collection of short stories because I’ve heard such good things about the author. I enjoyed it, particularly the story about a forsaken town that fakes a tornado to get federal disaster relief. Think about it. Funny, right? I plan to read his novels next.

December Winner: Field of Darkness. No doubt.

And - this is November's books, October's list, the one for September, the one for August, and the one that includes twelve months of books.