December Books

So technically, December is not over, but I will not have any more books finished, before the month is over.  I thought it would be fun to go ahead and wrap up this month by sharing my December books today!

I was annoyed that I didn't finish this first book in November.  I finished it on December 1st.  I almost cheated and made it a November book, but I didn't.  I kept it real.  ;)

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I listened to this book on Audible. And it was LONG. It was over 30 hours, and I had hoped to finish it in November, but that just didn't happen.

Overall, I found it interesting to hear about Jobs's life. As a consumer who loves both my iPhone and iPad, I was interested in knowing more about the founder and person of Steve Jobs.

At times, though, the narrative was confusing and dull. There were times that Isaacson jumped back in time after we'd progressed years in the future. Or he jumped ahead in time to mention a future event that would occur with a person in Jobs's life at that moment in the biography. I didn't really care for this style. As Jobs was a very significant business man, there were numerous people coming in and out of his life both personally and professionally, and it was hard to keep it straight! Jobs was also a jerk, and sometimes it made me angry to hear about how he treated people!

I didn't really care for the narrator much, and since Isaacson himself recording the introduction and epilogue for the book, I wish that he would have performed the whole reading.

My final thought is that this wasn't a great book, but it wasn't awful either.


Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was a refreshing "read" (aka listen) after my last book on Audible. For starters it wasn't 30 hours long, which got things off to a great start.

I wanted to keep listening to this book. I really liked Cath's character, and I could sympathize with her freshman year of college struggles.

I will say, though, that I was disappointed with the ending. The story just seemed to stop. I didn't feel like there was really a resolution. It ended with a piece of Cath's writing, but I don't feel like it wrapped the story up. This is why I gave it 4 stars.

Overall, though, I really did like this book!

The Chimes by Charles Dickens

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This was a free gift from Audible to their subscribers this year. It was a short listen (under 4 hours), and it was free, so I thought I'd give it a go.

I was feeling pretty tired when I was listening to this story, and listening to this on my commute was not the best of ideas. I found myself struggling to stay awake, and since I was driving, that was a bit of an issue.

I found this story incredibly confusing. The main character is referred to by two names, and a lot of times, I got lost in what was happening. When "Trotty" goes up to the bell tower, I got completely lost and the story made essentially no sense to me until the very end. So I would say that overall, I get what took place in the story, but I didn't enjoy it.

Dickens should have stuck with A Christmas Carol.


Voyager by Diana Gabaldon

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Another great book in the Outlander series! This one kept me riveted from start to finish, made me laugh, and moved me to tears.



View all my reviews

Not only does that wrap things up for December, but it also wraps up my books for 2015!  I set a goal to read 30 books this year, and I actually knocked it out of the park and read 36!

Based on that "performance," I'm going to up the ante in 2016.  My goal is going to be 40 books.

How did you do with  your reading goals this year?