All the books I read in December and what I thought of them 

In December I read 13 books and completed my secret Goodreads reading challenge on the last day of the year. The official Goodreads reading goal was 55 books because my resolution this year (last year?) was to set easily achievable goals, but the secret Goodreads reading goal was 100. I medically cannot handle reading a number of books where the last two digits are different (last year? two years ago? in 2022 I read 111 books and that did nice things to my brain). I read a lot of nice and interesting books this month.

✨✨✨

The Four Loves by C. S. Lewis

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

My biggest quarrel with C.S. Lewis is he thinks that friendship means seeing the same truth and working toward the same goal; the affection you have for other people because you've come to appreciate them for who they are rather than because your similarities is something entirely different (affection). I can believe these are separate kinds of love, but the way he defines words has no association with what those words actually mean. I love love, so I did enjoy this book.

❤️❤️❤️

Thirst for Salt by Madelaine Lucas

rating: ⭐⭐⭐

This book asked interesting questions about love, such as, does this woman really love a man, or is she just sublimating her desire for a child into romantic love? That's an interesting question. It was really excruciating to watch the protagonist of this book neglect every other relationship she had so she could be obsessed with the love interest, but that might have been the point. I still didn't like it. I liked the dog. I think everyone has times in their lives when they want to leave everything behind and go live by the sea—I mean, I sometimes do—but you don't need a man in order to do that.

🐶🐶🐶

Love in the Western World by Denis de Rougemont

rating: ⭐⭐⭐

I really enjoyed the first part, the sixth part, and the seventh part. Every other part was sort of unnecessary. This man feels very strongly about Catharism, but I don't understand what that has to do with me.

This book expressed something I feel deeply within myself (courtly love is really stupid). It is a really interesting idea that when you feel passionate love toward someone, you don't really want them, you want to keep wanting them, so, naturally, your love must be an expression of your death instinct because, if you were dead, your longing could never be fulfilled. I would really like for someone to solicit me for advice regarding their love interest because I could tell them that their love is an expression of their longing for death. That's terrible advice.

💀💀💀

The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨

I think this is like if Conversations with Friends was funny and semi-wholesome. I have not read Conversations with Friends. I have said many times before that I like books about nice people being nice to each other, and the characters in this book are clearly imperfect but they are very supportive and it makes me happy. My favorite part was when the protagonist (who has a best friend named James) meets another person who introduces himself as James and she says, "sorry, I already have one of those."

🥔🥔🥔

Alone in an Untamed Land by Maxine Trottier

rating: ⭐⭐⭐

I read this book because there was child marriage in it, and then the child marriage happened, and I didn't care for that. Who could possibly have predicted this.

🐈🐈🐈

The Mothers by Brit Bennett

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This book does a theme I enjoy (you can never get over the past and it follows you forever) very well. I liked the friendship between the two female protagonists and I wish things had gone better between them for longer.

🚗🚗🚗

Heartstopper (volume 5) by Alice Oseman

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I love Alice Oseman.

🏫🏫🏫

Till We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

It is really interesting to me how the narrative seems to think of the protagonist as technically a woman but almost completely un-female (in fairness it is probably deeply offensive in the way it does this). I also like how the book talks about the positive and negative aspects of her friendships. All of her relationships are such a mixed bag what with their wholesome and beautiful qualities which exist alongside the protagonist's selfishness and the ways she hurts people she loves. I am definitely less jealous than her but on other levels I relate to her a lot and I really enjoyed her character.

🏰🏰🏰

Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton

rating: ⭐⭐⭐

I really support the author in writing a book ostensibly about romantic love despite knowing nothing about romantic love. I think that's an extremely valid and legitimate thing to do, and I'm glad this book exists. On the other hand, her entire young adulthood is the plot of every depressing contemporary I've ever read where the protagonist had self destructive relationships with men. I'm sure there were many aspects of her twenties she didn't enjoy, as it's her life that she was living, and, likewise, I didn't really enjoy reading about such things. Obviously it's a memoir so I can't say that the book is objectively bad (she's an engaging writer), and you can't really criticize a memoir based on the plot, but, speaking strictly in terms of personal enjoyment, I didn't care for the experience of reading this book. The last ~60 pages were great.

🍷🍷🍷

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This book needed to be roughly 25% shorter. Literally all I care about is Crowley and Aziraphale's relationship. I don't care whether they get together, I just want it to be clear that they love each other a lot in whatever capacity. I don't care about any other element of the plot.

I am very upset with the TV show for reasons pertaining to my recent comments and I will rant about it extensively to whomever is foolish enough to give me the opportunity. 

😇😈

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto (rerereread)

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I love Kitchen; with much pestering I convinced my dad to read it (I am my father's personal book recommender) and he thought it was acceptable. It's not a win but it's also not a loss.

🫕🫕🫕

Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel (reread)

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

friendship goals

🐸🐸🐸

The End by Lemony Snicket (rerereread)

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This is the best middle grade series in the whole world, and also a fitting book to read on the last day of the year. I hope my readers have a pleasant new year and that any 2024 releases they are anticipating will exceed their expectations.