December Wrap-Up and January TBR

Hey all, Dani here.

Well, so long and good riddance to 2020. It was definitely a very odd year, and I am glad that it is over. I’m really hoping that 2021 is better, but overall last year wasn’t completely horrible. I did have some pretty great things happen…like meeting some new geek friends and being invited into their D&D group.

Anyway, before I can really look forward to everything in the new year, it is time to reflect back on the month of December and 2020 as a whole. Let’s look at how I did with my overall goals for the year.

As usual with these monthly wrap-ups, let’s start by checking in on my progress towards my overall goals for the year.

• Reading: I read 14 books in December, bringing my total books read in 2020 up to 250 books, which was the increased goal I set for myself after I reached 200 books a few months back. Honestly I struggled with reading in October-December, so I ended up reading those 14 books in the time from Christmas through the end of the year, and a majority of them were manga. Yes, 2020 ended up being an amazing year for reading, but the last couple months were some of my worst overall in terms of quantity.
• Blogging: This was a massive failure in the month of December because I think I only had like three posts in the whole month. Honestly, blogging started to take a major hit midway through the year as the stress and anxiety of the pandemic really set in. I miss blogging regularly, and hope that I can get a better and more consistent schedule going again in 2021
• Writing: Another pretty big failure of the year overall. In the past couple months I did manage to do some pretty decent creative writing for my D&D characters, so that is better than nothing, but I want to do more than that. This is another area of focus for the new year.
• Conventions: Obviously we didn’t go to any cons in December, so overall for the year we went to Ohayocon back in January, and then we did digital Gen Con in August. That’s it. No Cincinnati Comic Expo, No Renaissance Festival, No anything else. Damian and I both really miss cons. I’m hoping that in the later half of 2021 we might see a few in-person cons on the schedule, but it is pretty cool that a lot of conventions have utilized digital options as well.

All right, well I guess I should probably talk about one other important life change update for Damian and I. We have adopted a fur baby, and even only having him for just a few days so far, he has added so much love and joy to the house, so I’m really happy with this decision. So…meet Diablo. He’s about 1.5 years old, and we adopted him from the local shelter. He is already very spoiled and very loved. I may have gone a tiny bit overboard buying him toys and snacks and a pretty cool cat tower to play on.

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Okay, so now let’s go over the books I read in the month of December. I would give my usual spiel about how if I have a review up, I’ll include the link to that post, but I reviewed no books in December so…my review backlog is ridiculous at this point. I might have to settle for some mini-review posts to catch up a bit.

My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s Vol 3 by Matsuri Akai and Hiroyuki Aigamo — 4 stars

The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht — 5 stars

The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis — 5 stars

Edens Zero Vol 4 by Hiro Mashima — 5 stars

Edens Zero Vol 5 by Hiro Mashima — 5 stars

Edens Zero Vol 6 by Hiro Mashima — 5 stars

Edens Zero Vol 7 by Hiro Mashima — 5 stars

Edens Zero Vol 8 by Hiro Mashima — 5 stars

Edens Zero Vol 9 by Hiro Mashima — 5 stars

Wicked Saints by Emily A Duncan — 5 stars

The Ever After by Amanda Hocking — 4 stars (review coming soon)

Fairy Tail Vol 16 by Hiro Mashima — 5 stars

Fairy Tail Vol 17 by Hiro Mashima — 5 stars

Fairy Tail Vol 18 by Hiro Mashima — 5 stars

Well, that’s all for 2020, but there are so many more books to look forward to in 2021, quite a few of them from my December book haul, so let’s check out what books I picked up in the final month of the year. I’m actually a bit surprised at the small size of my book haul for this month. I will say that I did end up buying another 17 books not included in the photos here…but they were gifts for friends, so they don’t count in my personal book haul.

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Of course, this also means that it is time to reveal the December OwlCrate unboxing. I’m really excited about those leg warmers, and of course I was happy to see the wooden ornament for 2020. Since my tree is still up, I have added it to all of our geeky and bookish decorations. I’m definitely excited to read this book, which is an adaptation or twist on Romeo & Juliet, and I have heard wonderful things about it.

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Finally, let’s end this post by looking forward to January 2021 and seeing what books I’m hoping to read in the first month of the year.

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I have quite a few NetGalley ARCs for January, six of them that need to be read, plus obviously there’s one that I just read at the end of December. I am sincerely hoping that I will be able to finish them in time to get release week reviews up, so we’ll see how January starts. And since Monday January 4th is the first Calendar Girls post of the year, I’m hoping to have my review for The Ever After by Amanda Hocking up on Tuesday the 5th.

Then You Have a Match and The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry are both out on January 12th, Hall of Smoke and The Mask of Mirrors are out on January 19th, and Shadow City and Wings of Ebony are out on January 26th. I am really really hoping to have those books read and reviewed by their respective release weeks. That’s why I haven’t made my TBR too overly ambitious; I think 10 books is a pretty solid number to aim for.

Okay, well, I have a lot more to talk about, but that will wait for upcoming posts, like my Goals for 2021 post, which I’m writing up next and will hopefully post tomorrow. That is all from me for today, but I will be back soon with more bookish content.