Adventure Log: December 2019 in Review

Happy 2020, friends! Welcome to my December 2019 wrap-up, and a bit of a branding tweak. I’ve changed my monthly recaps to Adventure Logs in keeping with my blog’s theme, which I fully intend on leaning into in 2020 & beyond!

December is a month where everyone reflects on the past eleven months (I originally typed ‘elven’ haha), looks forward to the new year, and scrambles to finish the goals they set for themselves. I was no exception. Overall, I am pretty proud of everything I accomplished in 2019, especially in light of everything going on IRL, even though I didn’t meet goals.

Most of my spoons have been spent on the 2019 Bookish Reader’s Choice Awards, which has been a lot of work but also a lot of fun! In case you missed it, the winners were announced on December 31st! 🎉

Reading

I read a total of 2,501 pages across 7 books in December. Which is just dismal, but I was pretty occupied with the Bookish Reader’s Choice Awards. And my slump reared its ugly head again: I only read maybe 8 days out of the month altogether.

I am still behind on reviews, but I hope to get them up on Goodreads at least in the next week to clean slate. (Two down as of right now!)

✨ As a quick reminder, I’ve done away with star ratings on my blog reviews. You can read more about my reasoning in this discussion post on ratings systems, but you can find my ratings on Goodreads!

My Favorite Read of December

Embrace Your Weird: Face Your Fears and Unleash Creativity by Felicia Day was an unexpected delight.

I’ll be honest: I didn’t notice the tagline of the book when I downloaded my audiobook review copy from LibroFM. I just say “Felicia Day” and “Embrace Your Weird” and was like YES. But this book was not only fun, but really helpful!

Narrated by Felicia Day herself, this book is full of her special brand of quirky nerd and talks about tangible ways to try and combat the ways we hold ourselves back. Sure, it’s related to creativity but it honestly would be a great read for anyone struggling with anxiety, guilt, and procrastination in their lives.

Read my ALC Review

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All December Reads

ARCs/copies from author or publisher are noted below by an asterisk *

• * Fireborne (The Aurelian Cycle #1) by Rosaria Muda – I literally took the entire month of December to finish this book, which is a good personification of my reading slump in action. But did I really enjoy this book!   |  📖  Full ARC review
  
• * Seven Deadly Shadows by Courtney Alameda and Valynne E. Maetani – this book is so good, friends! Fast-paced and atmospheric, but also with characters you can’t help but love.   |  📖  Full ARC review 2/3/2020
• My Lady Jane (The Lady Janies #1) b/y Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows – Sometimes what you need to banish a book hangover is historical fantasy where Lady Jane Grey is married to a man who spends his days as a horse. My Lady Jane made me howl with laughter, but it also tackles issues of privilege, sexism, classism, and persecution.  |  📖 Full review
• Prince Charming (Royals #1) by Rachel Hawkins – This was the December 2019 YA Book Club pick for Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore. It isn’t something I would have picked up on my own, but made for a fun evening read. This was a cute, fast, and fluffy read. Not a lot of depth but an enjoyable read… and if you are one for fake dating, enemies-to-lovers with biting British sarcasm, you’ll probably enjoy this one.
  
• Her Royal Highness (Royals #2) by Rachel Hawkins – This book is a queer royal romance and I actually enjoyed this book more than Prince Charming. While there isn’t a lot of depth to the plot itself, the characters feel like real people with complex histories, and it is fun to dive a bit more in! I appreciate the world that Hawkins of crafting with the fictional book series that our characters enjoy and all the universe tie-ins. I’ve learned that the publisher won’t be continuing this series because it hasn’t sold well, which saddens me.
• * A Castle in the Clouds by Kerstin Gier – After not reading at all for 8 days, this book called to me on Edelweiss when I was supposed to be writing my Anticipated Reads post. Despite the ARC ban, I downloaded it. BUT IT CURED MY SLUMP! It is such an adorable read, with a side of mystery and a tinge of maybe paranormal.   |  📖  Full ARC review

Did Not Finish

• None

December Statistics

Total Books Read: 7 | Total Pages Read: 2,501

Total Books Read in 2019: 91
Goodreads Reading Goal: 52 🎉

ARC Mountain Update

I recently put myself on an ARC Ban (as of July 12, 2019), and back in July I wrote a post about the ban to hold me accountable, and I’m reporting on the mountain each month.

How am I doing? Well my “lololol but at least it’s just 2020 ARCs so 🙃” is no longer applicable because 2020 is here and I am now in a hell of my own making.

Pre-2020 ARCs: 16 (read 1)
2020 ARCs: 24 (read 2)
Finished in December: 3 (Fireborne, Seven Deadly Shadows, A Castle in the Clouds)
ARC Reviews to Write: 2 (Fireborne, A Castle in the Clouds)

I’ve joined Destiny @ Howling Libraries’ #ARCApocalypse readathon and you can expect a more detailed TBR of my ARCs at some point.

Awesome Community Posts

I didn’t really blog hop last month, but here are some posts and challenges that caught my attention in December.

• Pages Unbound looks at whether Macmillan’s e-book embargo disproportionately affect women
• Cassie @ Let’s Get Galactic is branching outside of her reading comfort zone this year, and you can too!
• Feed Your Fiction Addiction and It Starts At Midnight are hosting the 5th annual Book Blog Discussion Challenge. If you want to write more discussions and ink up monthly, check this out!
• CW @ The Quiet Pond is hosting the #StartOnYourShelfAthon in 2020, a really fun and unique reading challenge that encourages you to read your owned TBRs!

In case you missed it, my 2020 Book Blogger / Reader Spreadsheet template was released last month! This is honestly the best version yet and I am so proud of it; I hope it serves you well!

Thank you

Thank you, everyone, so much for visiting, liking, commenting, and sharing your bookish thoughts with me last month! I hope that you had a fantastic December, let me know how your month went in the comments below!

Let’s go on another /adventure together!