Skip to main content

A Month of Reading: December


Best reads of the past month:

Vegan Virgin Valentine by Carolyn Mackler
This fun little book was like a sweet summer's day in the dead of winter. Mara Valentine reminds me of myself in high school. Socially backward and uninterested in being otherwise. Single-minded when it comes to being valedictorian. Hopelessly in love with a really cool guy. One of my favorite things about Mara is that, rather than letting herself be consumed by her ex-boyfriend's lameness, she opts for a healthier obsession and becomes a vegan. Awesome.

Best rereads of the past month:

In the Hand of the Goddess, The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, and Lioness Rampant by Tamora Pierce
Read the first one last month, so I had to follow up with the rest of the series. What fun books. They got me through being 13. Somehow I'm not surprised they can get me through being 28, too.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
The anticipation for Book 7 is rising fast. I figured I'd go back and give Book 6 its first reread. It was great. I picked up on tons of stuff I missed the first feverish time around. My only requirement for Book 7: Harry cannot die. And neither can Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Fred, George, or Neville. Do you hear me, Ms. Rowling? They're off limits. Please.

Deerskin by Robin McKinley
Because when she takes a story in hand, you can trust her. And you finish the book thinking it could never have been written any other way.

Comments

You Might Also Like

Angie's 2026 Must Be Mine

As ever, begin as you mean to go on. And so here are my most anticipated titles of 2026: And no covers on these yet, but I'm just as excited for each one: The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Volume 9 by Beth Brower Finest Kind of Fate by J.J. Mulder My Kind of Guy by Sarina Bowen Ravenous by Kresley Cole Mastermind by Sarah MacLean Game of Rogues by Julie Anne Long Grim Tidings by B.K. Borison Villain Edit by Rosie Danan What titles are on your list?

Retro Friday Review: Song of the Sparrow by Lisa Ann Sandell

Retro Friday is a weekly meme hosted here at Angieville and focuses on reviewing books from the past. This can be an old favorite, an under-the-radar book you think deserves more attention, something woefully out-of-print, etc. Everyone is welcome to join in at any time! So this is a book I've spent a lot of time talking about. Chances are, if you've hung around these parts, you've heard me push it. But I actually read it for the first time way back in the olden days before the blog was, well, what it is now. I read it shortly after it was first published, back in 2007, when I was writing monthly posts, mere collections of mini-reviews. So Song of the Sparrow  got shortchanged. I decided to address that situation today. The fun thing is lots of friends have read (and reviewed) it since, and so I was able to trip through their lovely thoughts and remember my own. When I heard about a retelling of Tennyson's " Lady of Shalott ," I was so in. I mean, I'...

Bibliocrack Review | Don't You Forget About Me by Mhairi McFarlane

There's really very little to say, isn't there? I hope you are well, wherever you are. I hope that your loved ones are. I hope that you're finding small ways to stay afloat, to remain connected to something, someone, someplace (real or fictional) that sustains you. Dark and difficult times, indeed. I've rather been holding on to this review. I felt so much, so quickly, so irrevocably for this book that it rapidly became hard to talk about to anyone who hadn't read it. And so I hope I can do it justice, just barely enough justice that, if you haven't, you'll run right out and do so. Now is the perfect time. I feel strongly that this book is what you need in your life at this moment. And so. You might want to prepare yourselves. I'm about to wax rhapsodic. But first, and introductory excerpt: At the end of that session, Fay said, What if it's not what happened with this boy you regret, it's you? It's the  you  who you left behind. It's ...