Goodbye 2021! This is OFFICIALLY (I know I have been saying this a lot) my last post dedicated to 2021 and December was a pretty good month. To be honest I started losing momentum with this month as it was so busy at the bookstore leading up to Christmas and the New Year. But I am happy to say goodbye to 2021 and all the books I read both good and bad and I am looking forward to seeing what 2022 has to offer.

• I read 7 books this month
• Genre: 6 fantasy and 1 murder mystery
• Gender of authors: 3 men and 2 women
• Race of authors: 4 white authors and 1 muslim author
• Age range: 3 adult and 4 children
• Format: 7 paperback

The Fall of Babel – Josiah Bancroft (5 stars)

This was a very poignant moment in my reading life reading this book. The first book in this series was one of the books that got me back into reading and this series has always held a firm place in my heart. It was a bittersweet feeling reading the last book in the series and I loved reflecting on how much the series meant to me.

This book in particular did a great job in wrapping things up from plot points to character arcs. I really enjoyed finally uncovering the secrets of the Tower and all the action-packed, emotionally intense moments that came with it.

Rumaysa – Radiya Hafıza (DNF)

I’ll keep this one brief. I picked this book up knowing I wasn’t the target audience but hoping that despite that I would still love it. Just because its for a specific target age group doesn’t meant you can’t love and appreciate the story. That being said I didn’t love the writing style for the obvious reason of it being too young for me. That is not a criticism of the author at all I should have been just more self aware.

Murder on the Orient Express – Agatha Christie (3 stars)

Now I was super excited for this book all year long. I wanted to wait specifically for winter time so I could read it in the cold weather to match with the setting of the book and everything. But I knew how this book ended which meant that this book was boring to read. I have read other Christie novels where I already knew who the murderer was and throughly enjoyed them but this was not the case for this book. I also found the pacing to be slow and the chapters to be repetitive.

Shadows of Self – Brandon Sanderson (4.5 stars)

While I felt the first book was more about establishing this new world in the Mistborn series. The second book was all about connecting this series with the old one. I enjoyed this book a lot due to all the connections it had to the original trilogy. The over-arching mystery is picking up and intriguing me so much but this book also had a really interesting singular mystery as well. I am super excited to see where the rest of the series goes.

Leo and the Gorgon’s Curse – Joe Todd-Stanton (5 stars)

A really beautiful take on the greek myths and the variety of monsters and mythical creatures. Todd-Stanton is a super talented artist and story-teller and this story was soooo good!

Marcy and the Riddle of the Sphinx – Joe Todd-Stanton (5 stars)

Another great book. This was probably my favourite. I loved the exploration of overcoming fears in this story and the illustrations of the Egyptians Gods were so beautiful!

Arthur and the Golden Rope – Joe Todd-Stanton (5 stars)

Again, just a beautifully illustrated book with a strong message about being yourself… also Thor was in it and that was super cool!