‘Twas the last month of the year! I figured, before I start posting my usual annual review, I could make a December in Books post to close the circle that is 2024. December has been a very chill month, reading-wise. This month has been a time of staying in – preferably with a nice cup of tea and those gorgeous pastries from my usual bakery runs. Despite the holiday rush and festivities, I was still able to read quite a few things. I started a couple of books just for the fun of it (even if I said I wouldn’t really pressure myself to read a lot) and ended up discovering new favorites along the way. This is a quick post to run down all the books I’ve read in December 2024:
Books I’ve Read in December
In December, I’ve read 6 books:
- The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg – 5/5☕
- What I Ate in One Year by Stanley Tucci – 4/5☕
- The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers by Samuel Burr – 3.5/5☕
- Any Man by Amber Tamblyn – 4/5☕
- The Honjin Murders (Detective Kosuke Kindaichi, #1) by Seishi Yokomizo – 4/5☕
- The Christmas Tree Farm (Dream Harbor, #3) by Laurie Gilmore – 3/5☕
I started off the month by finishing The Power of Habit – which was an unexpected 5-star read for me. I listened to it back-to-back with Dr. Norman Doige’s The Brain That Changes Itself, which was the perfect foil to the reading experience, as it focuses on neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to change itself. The Power of Habit was an immersive, fascinating read, presenting stories and scientific facts that highlight how habits can have a massive impact on both the individual and the community. There are a couple of anecdotes and cases, as well as some significant historical events viewed through the lens of ‘habit’ as a main enabler. Just quickly running through all the ‘informative’ non-fictions I’ve read this year, this is probably my favorite for the year. I think this is a really nice book to read if you are in the position of wanting to introduce lasting change in your life and want to do it in a more structured way. When I think about it, this can almost go hand in hand with James Clear’s Atomic Habits.
Stanley Tucci’s What I Ate in One Year is a fun book I picked up when I was looking for something for casual listening while doing chores. While I admit that I quite liked his memoir significantly more, Taste, as it is more structured and follows a theme more explicitly, Stanley Tucci’s personality shines through more in this book. It delivered what it promised – a rundown of Tucci’s food adventures, even the mundane, in a year – recorded in a diary-like format. I suppose if you are interesting and charismatic enough, you can pull it off – which luckily, Stanley is. It’s not exactly ground-breaking writing and concept, but entertaining nonetheless.
The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, on the other hand, was the book of the month of our (office) team book club. It’s a story of a boy that grew up in a commune of (ageing) puzzlemakers, and centers around making (and choosing) your own family and finding your way/place (and discovering your identity) in the world. While I didn’t really care much about the main storyline, I would read pages of the early days of the Fellowship as well as all of the interesting characters in that group. I do think it would also be a different experience if one were to read it in print (or digitally), as the book is filled with puzzles and visual details that are only narrated and described in the audiobook that I had. But still, an overall decent read.
On the other hand, Any Man was a book that I came across because it was Cindy’s top book of 2024 (one of my favorite booktubers) – which really piqued my interest as I’ve been following her recommendations for a while now. It is a fully immersive book focusing on the after-effects on the male victims of a serial sexual assaulter called Maud. Major, major trigger warning for this, as this book really got in deep – but it was also deeply affecting and highlights the POV of male sexual assault victims, which are not usually talked about. Liking this and listening to this felt a bit weird, personally though, as it was that time when the Pelicot trial verdicts were handed down. But it was a really good book, one that I think is better suited to be listened to rather than read in words (the audiobook is fully cast, and the production was really interesting).
The Honjin Murders was a surprise that came to me at the end of the year. Other than the bookstagram folks that I religiously follow liking honkaku as a genre (particularly Divine of @readivine__ / blog), C finished this book so fast that I got intrigued. This has always been in my TBR list for the past year. While I expected to like this, it is curious that I still think about this book even though I just rated it 4 stars. The formula is there, it being a classic whodunnit – but what struck me the most was how deeply culturally rooted it is. The motivations and subsequent actions of the characters were driven by social nuances that are fascinating to read, and in a way very different from the western stories that are written in the same vein. This book played like a movie in my head, and I ended up devouring it relatively faster than I usually do a book. So now, I have the second translated book in this series (given to me as a Christmas present, thank you very much!) and am thinking of what other series in the same tone that I could dive into. I am not sure if it’s because I just read it recently but I am almost positive that it is included in my top books I’ve read this year.
And then I finished the year with a guilty pleasure cozy romance: the latest book of the Dream Harbor series by Laurie Gilmore, The Christmas Tree Farm. It was amusing how I (almost) started the year with the first book of the series, The Pumpkin Spice Café, and now I am ending 2024 with the third one. It wasn’t a particularly memorable story, but this ended up being the soundtrack of all my winter ☃️ holiday baking – so it was a fun way to spend my time. I wouldn’t have it any other way. 💟
What I am Currently Reading
The following is what I am actively reading at the moment:
- Didion and Babitz by Lily Anolik – Probably the book all IT Literary girls are reading or have read last December. This reads like a documentary, but it is starting to get into a gossip-y direction that I am not sure if I am actually liking it at the moment. With the amount of name-dropping that is happening in this book, I feel like a specific type of person would like this and I am not sure I am that one. It’s a shame, because I was initially so intrigued about this and the first few pages (particularly the introduction) have captured my attention so much.
Note: Yes, I definitely DNFed Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo. 👀 Probably for another time.
What I am Looking Forward To
As of writing and publishing this post, it is indeed already 2025 – the new year! I am deferring all of the things I am looking forward to in my annual year in review post (that I am currently drafting). I hope it won’t take some time. But in the meantime, happy new year, everyone! 🎇
2024 Book Read Count as of writing: 54 /24
In the mean time, here are past Year in Books posts that you can check out: 2019 in Books | Best Reads of 2021 | 2022 in Books | 2023 in Books; I also wanted to note that this is the first time that I actually completed my Month in Books posts for a year (even if some months are lumped in a single post). Check them out here: January | February & March | April, May & June | July & August | September | October | November | December (this post!).
Pages and Coffee Cups 