December Wrap-Up 2016

[@chrissybooksandberries]

I loved the way you talked about everything you've read. Great wrap up!

[@alltheshelves9142]

Thanks!

[@KayAmpersand]

You've had a great reading month, Whitney! Love your wrap-ups.

[@alltheshelves9142]

It was really really great. Thanks!

[@ambereatsbooks1477]

Thank you for the fantastic wrap up! I added so many of these to my ever growing TBR.

[@alltheshelves9142]

Thanks!

[@browngirlreading]

Glad to see you back!

[@alltheshelves9142]

Thank you!

[@lizziefayelovesbooks]

Oooh, The Great Deliverance is just ......(I have no words). Wow, you are right it is definitely not a cozy. I picked it up a few years ago because a friend recommended Elizabeth George and it blew me away!

[@alltheshelves9142]

It was so good!!! Those characters!

[@katehowereads]

So lovely to get to see a Whitney wrap up! Sounds like you had an intense and awesome month of reading in December. I'm so so glad you enjoyed A Great Deliverance and were already impressed with George's character development and writing. I can happily say - it only gets better! I'm reading book 4 which is a prequel to the first three and kind of blowing my mind with the next layers of depth we're getting with these characters.

[@alltheshelves9142]

Thank you! I read so much in December. It was a dream come true. Turns out high schools basically do nothing in December. The kids are so antsy, there are a million assemblies and activities. Leaves me lots of room to read. And I'm so happy to hear that the Lynley books get even better. I'm going to keep reading them for sure.

[@jessicafoster8738]

Britta beat me to it. I think you'd find This House of Grief amazing and horrifying. It's about the domestic space; a jealous, hurt and powerless - scorned - husband who forms a 'dark contemplation' and drives his three boys into a dam and then leaves them there, physically and emotionally. Garners hones in on the core of the issue (attending the court case [usually boring but not here] ); Robert Farquharson is so much like any typical Australian man and it is so simplistic and difficult to realistically cast him off as simply evil . The idea someone so ordinary, who clearly did love his children, could also cause such destruction with his love. Urgh our finest writer in Australia for me, Garner is great-so precise and scrutinizing. Sorry, waxed on a bit there ;) Also in mentioning Conrad, I do miss him, seems to have disappeared! :(

[@alltheshelves9142]

I am so so so excited about that book. Recommendations from both of you are probably slam dunks, and then it's true crime, too? And then thanks for letting me know that the author is so good, because that gives me so many more books to look into. I miss Conrad's videos, too!

[@nikkivenable3700]

I agree about Conrad. I miss him so much...I wish he knew how many of us truly miss his presence.

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

I loved His Bloody Project! Well-written, and the story was captivating. I especially enjoyed the ambiguity about what really happened and why. And, if you are still into true crime: I recently read Helen Garner, this House of Grief about a real life murder trial in Australia (2005 - 2010), a father accused of murdering his three young sons. Happy new year, and happy reading in 2017!

[@alltheshelves9142]

I am so pumped to read This House of Grief! This is exactly the kind of true crime I'm looking for. I loved the ambiguity around His Bloody Project, too. After I read it, I looked up all this stuff about the insanity plea and how it developed. So fascinating!

[@ThatsWhatSheRead]

Seemed like a great reading month! I plan on doing that- Columbine and A Mothers Reckoning back to back. So it was interesting to hear your feedback on it

[@alltheshelves9142]

It's worth reading them together. I kind of wish I had read Columbine first and then A Mother's Reckoning rather than the other way, but it was such a good experience.

[@stevieeteson1190]

I read His Bloody Project just before Christmas. It was brilliant and brought me out of a potential reading slump

[@alltheshelves9142]

Yes! At the beginning I thought it was going to be a slow read for me, but I blew through it. Loved it!

[@nikkivenable3700]

Have you listened to the podcast, Crimeworld? Oh, boy! Unbelievably good. Also, the book Murder in Peking blew my small mind. So freaking good, Whitney. It was an unforgettable book. It still haunts me! I think you'd love this one.

[@alltheshelves9142]

I haven't. So I will download it as soon as I get back home today. I love true crime podcasts SO MUCH. Even the bad ones. And I haven't heard of Murder in Peking so I bet I will love it.

[@nikkivenable3700]

OH NO! It's Midnight in Peking. I'm so sorry!!..no wonder you've not heard of it :). Oh, I think you will seriously love it....I have a good feeling about this.

[@RachelB.BookReferences]

I love that you read non-fiction; it's been very difficult to find that on Booktube. His Bloody Project sounds really interesting, I'll be checking it out. I just found your channel today and you've gained a new subscriber. :)

[@alltheshelves9142]

I just posted a list of my favorite nonfiction of the year that you might be interested in? I LOVE nonfiction, especially lately with all this true crime I'm reading! haha.

[@mursalinmosaddeque8999]

You have really got me interested in 'true crime' genre!

[@alltheshelves9142]

Some of it is terrible. But some of it is so good and I think it gets a bad rap.

[@mursalinmosaddeque8999]

What would be a good place to start? Truman Capote?

[@sophiakhan2202]

Great wrap up. I'm happy to find a fellow true crime fan! Have you read Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi?!

[@alltheshelves9142]

Yes! The Manson Murders are maybe what got me into true crime.

[@gloriapope1576]

I second all your thoughts on Columbine/A Mothers Reckoning.

[@alltheshelves9142]

Did you read them together too?

[@jesuisravi]

sorry...there's too much of that stuff in the news these days for anyone who wants to stay sane to go buy a book so he/she can get more of it.