What I’ve been up to in December 🎄 Holiday Romances & Holiday Stress

Hello fellow bookworms 🎄 I cannot believe Christmas is over and that another year has started 😱 This year sadly wasn’t as festive, as I’m still frustrated with my thesis, but I tried to make the most of it by reading all the holiday romances!

Important Resources

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🔁 = Reread 💌 = Library Books ⌛ = Digital Arc

📚 = #TackleYourTBR 📖 = #DevourYourTBR 😊 = Buddy Read 💕 = 12 Book Recs by Friends

I read 22 books in December! I didn’t think it would be this much, but I was basically reading all the holiday and festive books 😂 I was a bit too overambitious with my TBR, so I lowkey stressed myself out, something I want to avoid in 2023. There were 3 Holiday Romances on my Kindle that I sadly didn’t get to, so I’ll be reading them next year! I found many great books in December, but I also had a record of 4 books under 3 stars (including my second 1-star book of the year) 😱 I was feeling a bit like the Grinch, but luckily the rest of the month evened this out with some nice surprises!

I read 10 books out of my comfort zone this month! Most of these were Adult books, as I was reading all the Adult holiday romances in December! I had three complete fails, but luckily also some books that I ended up loving 😄

• The Geek Who Saved Christmas (Annabeth Albert) ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5📚📖
• ExtraOrdinary (V.E. Schwab, Enid Balam) ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 📚📖
• Merry Inkmas (Talia Hibbert) ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5💌📖
• The Holiday Trap (Roan Parrish) ⭐⭐⭐⭐💌📖🎧
• The Holiday Swap (Maggie Knox) ⭐⭐⭐⭐📚📖🎧

• Mr. Dickens and His Carol (Samantha Silva) ⭐⭐⭐⭐📚📖
• Jingle All the Way (Debbie Macomber) ⭐⭐⭐.5💌📖🎧
• The Christmas Bookshop (Jenny Colgan) ⭐⭐💌📖🎧
• Window Shopping (Tessa Bailey) ⭐⭐📚📖
• Nick and Noel’s Christmas Playlist (Codi Hall) ⭐⭐💌📖

📚 #ClearUrSht Readathon 📚

1. ExtraOrdinary (V.E. Schwab, Enid Balam) ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 📚📖

2. So, This is Christmas (Tracy Andreen) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 📚📖

3. The Geek Who Saved Christmas (Annabeth Albert) ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5📚📖

4. Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute (Talia Hibbert) ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5⏳📖

5. The Holiday Switch (Tif Marcelo) ⭐⭐⭐⭐📚📖

6. New Year’s Kiss (Lee Matthews) ⭐⭐⭐⭐📚📖

7. All I Want for Christmas (Wendy Loggia) ⭐⭐⭐⭐📚📖

8. The Holiday Swap (Maggie Knox) ⭐⭐⭐⭐📚📖🎧

9. Mr. Dickens and his Carol (Samantha Silva) ⭐⭐⭐⭐📚📖

10. Window Shopping (Tessa Bailey) ⭐⭐📚📖

11. Father Christmas and Me (Matt Haig) ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5💌📖

12. Merry Inkmas (Talia Hibbert) ⭐⭐⭐⭐💌📖

13. A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐🔁🎧

14. Let it Snow (Green, Johnson, Myracle) ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5🔁

15. The Miracle of Ebenezer Street (Catherine Doyle) ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5💌📖

16. The Holiday Trap (Roan Parrish) ⭐⭐⭐⭐💌📖🎧

17. Whiteout (Edited by Dhonielle Clayton) ⭐⭐⭐⭐💌📖🎧

18. How to Excavate a Heart (Jake Maia Arlow) ⭐⭐⭐.5💌📖🎧

19. Jingle All the Way (Debbie Macomber) ⭐⭐⭐.5💌📖🎧

20. The Christmas Bookshop (Jenny Colgan) ⭐⭐💌📖🎧

21. Nick and Noel’s Christmas Playlist (Codi Hall) ⭐⭐💌📖

22. Talk Santa to Me (Linda Urban) ⭐💌📖🎧

Favorite Books 💕

Advent Calendar Event Announcement 🎄It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas ~ What I’ve been up to in November 🍃 Books, my Master’s Thesis and other Disasters 

Christmas Songs Book Tag 🎧🎄All I Want for Christmas Is Books ~ My Advent Calendar Gift🎄Free Canva Templates for your Platform! 

Review: The Luminaries by Susan Dennard 🌲 Creepy Forests, Monsters & Small-Towns ~Winter Recommendations ❄️ Festive & Snowy Stories 🎄 

Least Favorite Books 2022 😱 Bring on the unpopular opinions ~ Favorite TV Shows I watched in 2022 📺 ~ Favorite Books of 2022 🏆 

End of the Year Survey: 2022 Edition 💕 ~ Goodbye 2022 🎇 An Annual Wrapup

For this section I’m sharing my Favorite Blog Posts of the Month 💗

• Cozy Fantasy BOOK TAG ― (Original) (24hryabookblog)
• End of the Year Book Survey 2022 + Hiatus Announcement (Alicia @ A Kernel of Nonsense)
• Bookish Holiday Gift Guide (Anniek @ Anniek’s Library)
• 2022 TBR Challenge Wrap Up | How did I fare in the battle against my books? & Books I Didn’t Get to Reading This Year | My reading ambitions have once again exceeded me & The 12 Days of Christmas Book Tag | Let’s get in the festive spirit! (Abi @ Scribbles and Stories)
• Advent Calendar – A December gifts’ event – Day two & Advent Calendar – A December gifts’ event – Day three & Advent Calendar – A December’s gifts event – Final day (Cam @ Vicoli and Caffè)
• Advent Calendar Part 2 || Catch up and New Gifts! & Advent Calendar #3 || Featuring my gift! & Advent Calendar #4 || More gifts for you! & Advent Calendar #5 || The Last One! (DB @ DB’s Guide to the Galaxy)
• Winter 2023 TBR (and a look back at my Autumn TBR progress) & 2023 Goals: my 2023 TBR! & 2023 Goals: a little list of reading goals for the new year! (Destiny @ howlinglibraries)
• 12 Book Challenge – 2023 & Let’s Talk Bookish: 2022 Reading & Blogging Reflections (Dini @ dinipandareads)
• 2022 YEAR IN REVIEW (Jordyn @ Birdie’s Book Nook)
• 2022 in Review: Reading Stats & Year in Review Book Tag & Project Backlist Reading Challenge: Tackling the Owned TBR in 2023 & 2023 Ultimate Book Blogger / Reader Spreadsheet Template (Kal @ Readervoracious)
• TV Shows That Got Cancelled Too Soon – I AM SAD! (Kat @ lifeandotherdisasters)
• Paring Down My Social Media Presence in 2023 (Kate @ Your Tita Kate)
• New Year’s Book Tag (Kristin @ Kristin Kraves Books)
• the most disappointing books of 2022! (Lais @ thebookishskies)
• High School in Books/Films vs. High School in Real Life (Lotus @ Pages of Starlight)
• 2022, the year in books & Pick a winter aesthetic & get a YA book recommendation! & 10 YA Comfort Reads to Warm Your Heart (Marie & Nyx @ drizzleandhurricanebooks)
• An Update: Life, Books, and the Future (May @ foreverandeverly)
• 2022 recap: bookish & 2022 recap: nonbookish & 2023 reading resolutions & 2022 bookish challenges wrap-up (Morgan @ morganisreadingagain)
• #HCPonStrike: Why To Support (Nicole @ Thoughts Stained with Ink)
• Reading Check-in: Catching up with my Goodreads Reading Goal! (Pauliina @ thebookaholicdreamer)
• Is Book Blogging Dying? No, but it’s Evolving (Sophia @ Bookwyrming Thoughts)
• My Books of 2022 | new favourites, the biggest disappointments & DNFs & Top 5 TV Shows of 2022 (and top 5 continuations) & Favourite International Book Covers | brace yourself, there’s a lot (Sophie @ Me and Ink)

My Thesis is slow-going, but what else is new 🙈 Sadly this section remains focused on the problems with my Thesis. The good news first: I finally got more information on what the study is supposed to be about and I also got a partner for the project!! It’s a relief to no longer be doing this alone and good that I finally have someone to confide in and talk about our issues. I could at least do some research, but sadly the communication is still leaving a lot to be desired. We were promised another meeting before Christmas, only to suddenly find out that it had been postponed. We couldn’t discuss our potential research questions as planned and had to wait for January because the professor was on holiday break. That didn’t stop her from giving us a last-minute research assignment that needed to be done by Christmas, so we went into overdrive trying to pull it off. My research partner got a response, but I send my E-Mail early the next day and didn’t even get a reply 😕 We have a seminar in January and I have no idea how we’re supposed to present our study with a poster when we’re still missing so much information. If we somehow can’t present it and I still have to attend this seminar … At this point, I don’t put anything past our supervisor.

🎄 What I Watched in November🎄

Like every December, I’ve been watching a TON of Christmas movies! Most of them were rewatches, but I did check out some new ones as well 🥰 I watched 17 things in December, so I’m not including the rewatches!

TV Shows

• Wednesday (S1)
• Money Heist: Korea (S1, Part 2)
• Young Royals (S2)
• Holiday Home Makeover (S1)

Movies

• Inside the Mind of a Cat
• Christmas with You
• Falling for Christmas

• Scrooge: A Christmas Carol
• Christmas on Mistletoe Farm
• A Boy Called Christmas
• The Claus Family

2023 is already in full swing 🎇  January is shaping up to be pretty busy for me! I have a huge block seminar that spans two weekends (😫) and potentially other University Events. With a lot of luck, I’ll also be starting the research study and finally applying for my Thesis, so I have my official deadline. We’ll see how it all turns out! Reading-wise my plans are pretty low-key, though I’m taking part in StoryGraph’s January Pages Challenge, which is all about tracking any progress you make daily. If you track it every day of the month, you get entered into a big giveaway 🥳

📚 #DevourYourTBR 📚

This month’s challenge is to “Kick off the year with books already on your TBR”! If you’ve never read it and you owned it (or had it on your TBR) prior to January 1, 2023, it counts for this challenge.

© DevourYourTBR

January TBR

One of my resolutions for the new year is to start the month with a TBR of no more than 6 books! I thought it’d be nice to show my TBR to hold myself accountable 📖 I’m going to read more than the books listed below, but I really needed to get rid of my overambitious TBRs!

• Begin Again (Emma Lord) ⏳📖
• Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries (Heather Fawcett) ⏳📖💗
• Mysteries of Thorn Manor (Margaret Rogerson) 📚 (preorder)

• Legends and Lattes (Travis Baldree) 📚📖💗 [Discord Book Club pick]
• Secrets of Winterhouse (Ben Guterson) 💌📖
• A Court of Frost and Starlight (Sarah J. Maas) 💌📖💗🎧

What were you up to in December? What was your favorite book of the year? What are your top priority reads for 2023? 🎇