I've made almost no attempt to keep track of what I've read this month as a result of deadlines and the like. As a result, this list mostly covers the Christmas period rather than the entirety of December. I did read some other books and I might add them if I ever find out what they were.
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Total: 7 books.
Daniel Isn't Talking (Marti Leimbach)
The Edible Woman (Margaret Atwood)
The Memory Keepers Daughter (Kim Edwards)
My Best Friend's Girl (Dorothy Koomson)
The Principessa (Christie Dickason)
The Promise of Happiness (Justin Cartwright)
Missing Kissinger (Etgar Keret)
Daniel Isn't Talking was lent to me by Julie with the recommendation that it was far better than Born on a Blue Day. I read it in the evening on 28th to save me taking it too far away and forgetting I'd got it. The book certainly provokes empathy in a very different way to Born on a Blue Day but I'm not entirely sure I'd otherwise compare the books at all. It was an easy read, well-written and generally pretty good but I think I'd be unlikely to read it again.
I started the The Edible Woman just before Christmas and finished it on Boxing Day. The book had been sat on my shelves for a fair while having been mooched from clastica (UK) in November. Margaret Atwood is a funny author and her books seem to vary somewhat. I wasn't really sure about this one. I quite liked the subject of the book and the characters were both real and amusing but it felt a little bit like it wasn't going anywhere (the point I'm sure). I'll put this book back up on the swap sites as I'm not going to want to reread it in a hurry.
I borrowed The Memory Keepers Daughter from Lizi and read it in a day on the 23rd. She'd bought it with me on a Tesco trip in the summer and I've avoided buying it since then knowing that I could read her copy. Having read it I'm quite glad I did, the book is a good read but it's not one of those books I'd have been likely to keep. The book feels a little like some Jodi Picoult in places but doesn't quite have the same continuous smooth style. The story is good but I enjoyed reading the back and anticipating the story more than I did some of the actual reading.
My Best Friend's Girl was my light chick-lit read for traveling to Derbyshire. I started it on the train up and finished it the day after on the 22nd. The book embellishes the standard girl-meets-boy... girl-loses-boy... girl-loves-boy plot with some deeper, more complex elements which was quite nice. It's still easy to read and predictable but makes quite a nice change from other books in this genre. The book was the result of a read-it-swap-it exchange (swapped for Why Men Don't Have A Clue And Women Always Need More Shoes with lindam (UK)) and I've put it back online now I'm done. Since I mostly enjoyed this book I've now mooched Marshmallows For Breakfast by the same author from Suze S (UK) on BookMooch.
The Principessa was a library discovery. Unlike most of my library books, I read this one fairly soon after I borrowed it (the others mount up on my bookshelf) and I'm very glad I did. Christie Dickason finally gives me some historical fiction to enjoy outside of those written by Philippa Gregory. I really liked this book and am on the lookout for others by the same author.
The Promise of Happiness is one of those books that I've seen everywhere but never read. Having missed it when it was in Waterstone's best-sellers, I finally borrowed this from the library in Lancaster. This book was nicely different from things I've been reading recently. The characters are nice and the story is both real and original (to me at least). I might not read it again, but I'm glad to have read it this once at least.
I started Missing Kissinger back in October but as a book of short stories it's been very easy to put down and come back to months later. Some of the stories in this book were great (I really liked the first one), but I didn't quite understand them all. I think the author might be slightly odd and probably won't seek out anything else he's written but it was an OK library read.
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