“Of all the months of the year there is not a month one half so welcome to the young, or so full of happy associations, as the last month of the year”
Charles Dickens
December; for so many of us in the northern hemisphere it’s the start of the battle with the cold weather, we see the shortest day with the arrival of the winter solstice, and a chance to catch a glimpse of the Geminid meteors if you’re lucky! It’s also a time of great celebration, there’s Advent, and Christmas festivities, and towards the end of the month Hanukkah and Kwanzaa get underway.
Overall, it’s a month for staying out of the cold, and settling in to the darker nights. As always – I am finishing this writeup a long time past December, but so it goes… One of my 2025 resolutions is to be more timely in my write ups – its March, so we’re not off to the best start but there’s still time to pull it back. I’ve actually got a post nearly finished about my 2025 reading resolutions so keep an eye out for that in the next, oh – 3 weeks or so!
So, to the December reads –
Books Read:
| Title | Author |
| Bonded By Thorns | Elizabeth Helen |
| Woven By Gold | Elizabeth Helen |
| Forged By Malice | Elizabeth Helen |
| Broken By Daylight | Elizabeth Helen |
| One Christmas in Paris | Mandy Baggot |
| Christmas at the Beach Hut | Veronica Henry |
| All on the Board | Ian Redpath + Jeremy Chopra |
| Empty Bottles Full of Stories | R.H. Sin + Robert M. Drake |
Total keeping: 1 out of 8
If you’ve been near Instagram in the last few years, there’s a good chance that one of All On the Board‘s quotes has made it to your feed. This gorgeous little book is a compilation of some of their most memorable boards and is a beautiful reminder that kindness can be found in the most unlikely of underground stations.
I love this book, my Mum bought it for me when it first came out during the pandemic and it was such a ray of light. Now of course, it reminds me of hope in the dark and I love to come back to it when I need a little dose of positivity.
Although All on the Board started with anonymous posting back in 2017 [check out the Instagram here], that all changed in 2020 with the release of this book, where the authors were revealed to be Ian Redpath and Jeremy Chopra. From being the masked poets working for TfL, they have become vocal supporters of mental health and bringing humour even in the most difficult of times. Honestly, this book was a small highlight in amongst the chaos of Covid-19 and I would encourage you to read about Jeremy and Ian here, they really are an inspiration.
“In a world of sharks, be a giraffe”.
All on the board
Total heading for new homes: 7 out of 8
Over the years, I have read a lot of poetry, I reach for it when I’m sad, when I need inspiration, when I want to find a way to acknowledge how I’m feeling in times of unrest. I love it. I loved Empty Bottles Full of Stories, when it first came out….. but on revisiting it, it is not the one for me now. I did however want to recognise the poem Want It or Not, these words have stuck with me for years and I wholeheartedly believe that your soul prays, even when you’re not aware of it. I’ve passed this one to a friend, and from there it will likely find its way back into the world.
It wouldn’t be the Festive Season without a couple of cosy Christmas books in the mix. One Christmas in Paris by Mandy Baggot is a perfect wintery read, following the story of Ava as she heads to the city of love with her best friend Debs. I’ve never been to Paris, but Mandy makes it sound magical, especially under the lights of the Eiffel Tower – hopefully I’ll make it to visit one day.
The second cosy book was Christmas at the Beach Hut by Veronica Henry. I’ve got to warn you though, if you’ve ever been the one Project Managing Christmas [and feeling underappreciated], this will make you want to throw in the towel and run away to the seaside! I loved it, I love that Lizzy walked away from being underappreciated and I loved even more so that it all worked out in the end.
Rogue choice alert! I fell down a BookTok hole in December, and kept seeing the Beasts of the Briar series pop up. I’m going to level with you, it’s not my normal genre, and it’s definitely not going to be everyone’s vibe but I thought it was a great easy read. It’s heavy on the spice, even at times when it doesn’t really seem to be warranted, but it’s an interesting way to approach a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. I got through these pretty quickly, if fairy smut is your kind of thing then they’re worth a read, if not – I probably wouldn’t make these your introduction. Needless to say, they haven’t earned a place on my bookshelf long term, but a very nice woman on Vinted was pleased to score a bargain so it’s a win all round!
And so a full year of reading comes to an end with a total of 105 physical books, and over 60 kindle reads. I’ve got some resolutions for 2025 that I’ll share in another post, but the key one is to be more mindful with my reading. Sometimes, slower is better.
As always, let me know if you have any recommendations.
Nx
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