Combined November-December 2019 Reading Wrap-up

In the last two months of 2019, I took an unintended blogging hiatus, from both this blog and my writing blog. I was around here a little bit, but I was so tired trying to get everything wrapped up before the end of the year that I totally fell of the  bandwagon with blog hops and readathons.

Australia is rather on fire, especially on the east coast, at the moment and there are a number of emergencies unfolding in areas surrounding where I live. Fortunately we’re safe for the moment, apart from terrible smoke haze blowing in every night and making it hard to breathe.

It’s hard to stay positive when so many lives (human and otherwise) are under threat and it seems like governments don’t want to do anything to bolster resources, but I’m finding good things to focus on. That includes more books and hanging out in the book blogging community, and I plan to do more of that going into 2020.

So without further ado, read and reviewed in Novemer and December 2019:

November Reading:

1. 1. Serpent and Dove by Shelby Mahurin (YA fantasy – 4 stars – review) (read October, reviewed November)
   2. The Antics of Evangeline by Madeleine D’Este (YA steampunk – 4 stars – review) (read October, reviewed November)
   3. A Christmas Wish and a Strawberry Kiss and the Cozy Kettle by Liz Eeles (contemporary romance – 2.5 stars – review)
   4. When We Were Very Young by A. A. Milne (children’s/poetry – 5 stars – no review)
   5. Portable Curiosities by Julie Koh (short stories/satire – 4 stars – review)
   6. The Hate Race by Maxine Beneba Clarke (memoir – 4 stars – review)
   7. The Flower and the Serpent by Madeleine D’Este (YA horror – 3 stars – review)
      
      

December reading:

1. 
   
   1. Curses and Candy Canes by multiple authors (anthology/fantasy – 3 stars – not intending to review)
   2. A Holiday by Gaslight by Mimi Matthews (historical romance – 4 stars – review)
   3. Welcome to Country by Marcia Langton (non fiction – unrated – review)
   4. Beneath the Surface by Rebecca Langham (queer sci-fi – 3 stars – review)

A couple of slow months, as I said, but there you have it.

Booktube:

I have a Booktube account where I talk about Australian books. I’m trying to get more consistent with it, and while I didn’t post  much during my off-period, I did post a NaNoWriMo update. But then I dropped out of NaNo, so that was the end of that. There’ll be more this year, though!

• 1. NaNoWriMo 2019 Update 1

You can check out the channel whole here. 

Favourite Bookish Photo:

I was so pleased when all five of the Talon Saga books were on the shelf at my library at the same time! Unfortunately, I ended up not enjoying the first book so I didn’t read any further, but they do make a very attractive set. You can see all my bookish photos (plus some RL as well) on my Instagram.

Currently Reading:

Physical book: Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray. I read her Firebird trilogy in 2019 and snapped the three books in this Constellations trilogy up when I saw them at the library. I haven’t been completely grabbed by this yet, but I want to see where it goes.

Ebook: None on the go at the moment. But I’m getting a new Kindle soon! Probably.

Audio book: Before The Devil Breaks You by Libba Bray. I actually started reading the book because I felt the audio book would be too long, but I missed all of January LaVoy’s amazing voices way too much! I’ll be seeing this series through to the end on audio, even if it takes me forever!

Planning to read next:

I really want to read It Sounded Better In My Head by Nina Kenwood. It sounds delightful! I actually sneakily read the first chapter when I first received this in a pre-Christmas book swap, but I made myself wait until I wasn’t already in the middle of a bunch of other books.

What are you reading? 🙂

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