December 2021 in Retrospect: What I Read/Listened to/Wrote About

Even if the month brought me a bad Jack Reacher (stupid Lee Child wanting to retire…how selfish), I think it was pretty good for reading around here: 33 Books finished, 8,149 pages (or the equivalent) with a rating of 3.5 Stars on average (a little lower than I’ve had lately, but still really good).

I don’t have any books unfinished–sure, that meant I read short works for the last day and a half of the month, but I wanted to start 2022 with a clean slate (something I almost never do, so I was pretty happy about that).

Writing-wise, I put out a variety of things, and a pretty good number of posts, but the things left unfinished stack is way too large…

All in all, color me pleased. Although, at this point, anything that brings an end to the up-and-down year that 2021 was is good to me. Anyway, here’s what happened here in December.

	1		1
	1		1
	7		0
	5		0
	13
		Average =	3.5

“Traditionally” Published: 21
Self-/Independent Published: 11

• The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly: Ballard Tackles a Pair of Tough Cases in this Timely Novel
• The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender: A Gorgeously Written Let-Down
• Psalms that Curse by Sean McGowan: A Primer on Controversial Prayers
• All the Lonely People by Mike Gayle: Extraordinary things can happen to ordinary people
• Dr. Rick Will See You Now by Dr. Rick is a Thing that Actually Exists (and I chuckled at)
• Mistletoe and Crime by Chris McDonald: Adam and Colin Get Called Back into Action
• Time and Tide (Audiobook) by Peter Grainger, Gildart Jackson: The Times They Are a-Changin’
• Who Is Jesus? Knowing Christ through His “I Am” Sayings by J. V. Fesko
• The Last Time She Died by Zoë Sharp: The First Novel in This Series Will Keep your Brain Spinning
• I have a Few Unnecessary Thing to Say About A Christmas Carol: A Signature Performance by Tim Curry
• Better Off Dead by Lee Child and Andrew Child: Readers Would Be Better Off Without this Reacher 2.0 Mess
• OCDaniel (Audiobook) by Wesley King, Ramón De Ocampo: An Uplifting MG Mystery/Coming of Age Story
• Grave Reservations by Cherie Priest: Move Over Shawn and Gus, It’s Time for the Real Deal
• Leaving the LAW by Robert Germaux: Looking at JB’s Past as He Tries to Save a Kid’s Future
• We Had a Little Real Estate Problem (Audiobook) by Kliph Nesteroff: One of Those Books You Didn’t Know was Needed Until You Read It
• Pure by Jo Perry: A Murder Mystery and So Much More
• A Sheep Remembers by David B. Calhoun: Remembering Psalm 23
• Risen by Benedict Jacka: I Don’t Like to Use “Perfect”, but I Came Close in Describing this Series’ End
• Fools Gold by Ian Patrick: The Batford Trilogy Ends with a Bang
• The Case of the One-Eyed Witness by Erle Stanley Gardner: A Dose of Nostalgia Delivered in a Twisty Whodunit.
• The Nutcracker by E.T.A. Hoffman: A (weird) Classic Christmas Story
• Faith in the Time of Plague Edited Edited by Stephen M. Coleman and Todd M. Rester: Reformation and Post-Reformation Voices Speak to Our Moment
• Grenade Bouquets by Lee Matthew Goldberg: True to the Rock Scene it Describes, there’s a Bit of a Sophomore Slump Here
• Some Things I Still Can’t Tell You by Misha Collins: A Thoroughly Pleasant Batch of Poems
• Fortune and Glory: Tantalizing Twenty-Seven by Janet Evanovich: Stephanie’s on a Treasure Hunt
• Catch-Up Quick Takes: A Few 2021 Books I Can’t do a Full Post About (Super Powereds: Year 1 by Drew Hayes, Kyle McCarley (Narrator); Master of Formalities by Scott Meyer, Luke Daniels; See Her Die by Melinda Leigh; Cold Wind by C. J. Box, David Chandler (Narrator); Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses by Kristen O’Neal; Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives by Tim Hartford, Nicholas Guy Smith (Narrator); Stuff You Should Know: An Incomplete Compendium of Mostly Interesting Things by Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant)

Other than the Saturday Miscellanies (the 4th, the 11th, the 18th, and the 25th), I also wrote:

• The Count to 10 with Me Tag
• Book Blogger Hop: My Book Blogger Origin Story
• Book Blogger Hop: Main or Supporting Character?
• Top 5 Tuesday – Top 5 covers of 2021
• Down the TBR Hole Revisited (1 of 3)
• Book Blogger Hop: How Many Books in 2021?
• Top 5 Tuesday – Top 5 New Authors of 2021
• Down the TBR Hole Revisited (2 of 3)
• Festivus 2021: For the Rest of Us
• 2021 While I Was Reading Challenge
• Down the TBR Hole Revisited (3 of 3)
• The Irresponsible Reader in 2021: Thoughts, Thanks, and Stats
• WWW Wednesday for December 1, December 8, December 15, December 22, and December 29, 2021.
• The Friday 56 for 12/3/21 (Love & Bullets: Megabomb Edition by Nick Kolakowski), 12/10/21 (Grave Reservations by Cherie Priest), 12/17/21 (Risen by Benedict Jacka), and 12/24/21 (A Dream About Lightning Bugs by Ben Folds).

How was your month?