December 2014 Monthly Round-Up

This month was all about “Best of” Lists and reading favorites. I participated in A Month of Favorites, hosted by GirlxoxoTraveling with T, and Estella’s Revenge, which was a great forum to share some fun end of the year lists:

2014 Books Timeline
5 Books I Almost Put Down, But I’m Glad I Didn’t
5 Books That Deserved the Hype…And 5 That Didn’t
5 Favorite / Most Popular Blog Posts from 2014
5 Favorite Winter Books
Favorites By A Theme: Best Debuts of 2014
My Reading Year

As we are at year end…I obviously couldn’t miss the Best Books of 2014 (as told through yearbook style “superlatives”) and the Best Books for Holiday Gifts List.

Coming up…my blog makeover will most likely happen in early January. 

On to the round-up…

Favorite Book of the Month

Station Eleven, Emily St. John MandelFiction
Released September, 2014
353 Pages
Click here for my review

Affiliate Link: Buy from Amazon

Other December Reviews

An Untamed State, Florence Gordon, Boston Girl

An Untamed State by Roxane Gay
Florence Gordon by Brian Morton…and Top 10 Quotes from Florence Gordon
The Boston Girl by Anita Diamont (Mini Review)

Upcoming Reviews
Cry Father by Benjamin Winter

Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King
The Bishop’s Wife by Mette Ivie Harrison
The Missing Place
 by Sophie Littlefield
The Unimaginable by Dina Silver (Mini Review)
The Wife by Meg Wolitzer
This Town by Mark Leibovich (Mini Review)

Top 5 Books on my “To Be Read” List
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
Dirty Chick: Adventures of an Unlikely Farmer by Antonia Murphy
The Distance by Helen Giltrow
The Girl on a Train by Paula Hawkins
West of Sunset by Stewart O’Nan

Books I Tried, But Put Down in December
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Mermaids in Paradise by Lydia Millet
The Means by Douglas Brunt

Upcoming Releases I’m Excited About

City of Liars and Thieves, Descent, The Girl on the train, West of Sunset

City of Liars and Thieves by Eve Karlin (January 13)
Descent by Tim Johnston (January 6)
The Girl on a Train by Paula Hawkins (January 13)
West of Sunset by Stewart O’Nan (January 13)

Top Ten Tuesdays
Top Ten New to Me Author Discoveries
Top Ten 2015 Goals / Resolutions

November Weekend Cooking Posts
Baked Brie in Puff Pastry
My Experiment Cooking with Skate

Favorite Posts from Fellow Book Bloggers

  • I loved Trish at Love, Laughter, and a Touch of Insanity‘s fresh and relatable thoughts on What Kind of Mom She Is.
  • I’m such a sucker for the annual Best Books of the Year lists and Allison at The Book Wheel thoughtfully compiled a bunch of these lists from various publications in one place. And, Shannon at River City Reading hosted the Book Blogger Top Picks of 2014, compiled by open voting for all active book bloggers. I loved comparing the bloggers’ picks with the traditional media’s.
  • April at The Steadfast Reader put together this incredibly useful flowchart to for those looking to read Stephen King. King writes horror, thriller, and historical fiction…this flowchart will guide you in the right direction depending on your tastes (yes please to thriller and historical fiction…no thank you to horror!).


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13 Comments

  1. I think I’ll start Station Eleven today (just downloaded it from the library, at last!) and I cannot wait for Stewart O’Nan’s new book. Just love his writing!

    Posted 1.2.15 Reply
  2. I keep hearing great things about The Descent and Girl on the Train – looks like you have a great month coming up!

    Posted 1.2.15 Reply
  3. Carmen wrote:

    Let’s see if it goes through this time! I loved those December lists. I added a bunch of 2014 releases that you recommended to my ever growing TBR pile. Hopefully I’ll get to them between January and March.

    Posted 1.2.15 Reply
  4. Sarah, I read your Station Eleven review when you originally posted it and now that I’m over halfway through the book I want to read it again, but I’m not allowing myself to do it yet – ha! I’m really into the book now; can’t wait to see how things are going to end up. I’m also really looking forward to The Girl on the Train; that one is next up for me. Hope you have a great day and a good weekend!

    Posted 1.2.15 Reply
    • admin wrote:

      Glad you’re enjoying it! I’m trying to get my hands on Girl on the Train…couldn’t get it through Netgalley b/c it was international or something? I just tried Edelweiss…we’ll see if I get a different result 🙂

      Posted 1.2.15 Reply
  5. I’ve got to get my hands on Station Eleven. The Girl on the Train is great so far.

    Posted 1.2.15 Reply
    • admin wrote:

      Glad to hear it..I haven’t been able to get my hands on that one! May have to wait for pub date 🙁

      Posted 1.2.15 Reply
  6. I am listening to Station Eleven. Unlike other apocalyptic novels, I can totally see something like this happening in our world, especially considering the ebola scare. You are the only other person I know, other than me, who couldn’t get into All the Light We Cannot See. What do you have planned for your blog makeover?

    Posted 1.2.15 Reply
    • admin wrote:

      That’s why I loved Station Eleven – I’m not a fan of the apocalyptic fiction that drifts into fantasy. And, yes, I didn’t come across many others who didn’t like All the Light We Cannot See! Glad to hear I’m not the only one! I felt like I was slogging through the Amazon Sample, so I didn’t buy the book. I’m working with a web designer to do a full redesign…I’ve been using the WP Twenty Eleven theme (aka the theme for people who have no idea what they’re doing!) and am ready for my site to look more professional. The tech side of things is my weak spot and I’ve been learning as I go (I knew nothing about creating a blog or WordPress when I started), so I’ve been slow to do this. But, I’m really excited now! Happy New Year!

      Posted 1.2.15 Reply
  7. Station Eleven was so good! I adored that one this year — maybe my favorite fiction read of 2014. I’ve heard lots of good things about Florence Gordon too.

    Posted 1.3.15 Reply
  8. Rhiannon wrote:

    I love the style of this post. Too often I think that each of my posts needs to be a review. Thank you for inspiring me to shake it up a bit in 2015.

    Posted 1.4.15 Reply
    • admin wrote:

      Thank you! And I thought the same thing for a long time. Then I looked at the page views for different types of posts during 2014 and found my non-review posts did much better. I’m still writing book reviews, obviously, but am trying to mix in some more creative things.

      Posted 1.4.15 Reply

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