Hello friends, happy Sunday and last day of the year! Can you believe we’ve reached the end of 2023?! I can’t! Before I get to my wrap-up for the month, I hope you have a safe and happy New Year! Thank you for supporting my blog in 2023 and cheers to 2024!

Currently Reading:

The Talisman by: Stephen King & Peter Straub. I’m going to try and read one more chapter before the day is done; as of right now I’ve just started part 2 and I’m hoping it’s going to be better than part 1 because it did not hook me at all. I’m finding this has been hard to capture my attention and I’ve just been bored. Really hoping this starts to look up or else this is going to be a veeeery slow and exhausting next couple of months.

The Divine Comedy – Paradise by: Dante. I’ve reached the last novel in this holy trilogy. I couldn’t stand Purgatory, but I’m really hoping to come out the other side on this one, only time will tell as I’ve only read the introduction!

What I’ve Read:

118/100

Love Hate & Other Filters by: Samira Ahmed. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I enjoyed this story; I found it could be a bit confusing and the characters a bit boring, but I liked the sentiment this story had.

Station Eleven by: Emily St. John Mandel. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ I wish I had liked this more, but after going through a global pandemic, this book didn’t feel very original or enjoyable to read.

Cycle of the Werewolf by: Stephen King. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ My last King read of the year, and it was a collection of short stories that take place throughout the year. I thought this was clever and really chilling.

Rituals by: Kelley Armstrong. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was the final book in the series and boy did it ever feel rushed. I’m glad we got a decent ending, but it could have been told so much better!

Feel Free by: Zadie Smith. ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 I actually ended up enjoying this more than I thought I would; the way she wrote about her experiences and the way she sees the world was so captivating to read!

You Only Live Once, David Bravo by: Mark Oshiro. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This book turned out to be a really cute story with time travel and a side animal character.

Moon of the Crusted Snow by: Waubgeshig Rice. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ My final Canada Reads book! I got it in just in time! This was a slow moving, yet chilling read; I really want to read the sequel because I want more!

The Night Circus by: Erin Morgenstern. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I read this for the second time this year… oops. I honestly thought I read it last year, but I enjoyed my reread and participating in the first ever readalong on the Story Graph!

The Divine Comedy – Purgatory by: Dante. ⭐️⭐️ I really wanted to like this, but gosh it was such a slog to get through. I’m hoping the last volume will be better than this one!

Whiteout by: Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk & Nicola Yoon. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ I didn’t enjoy this one as much as their first novel, Blackout, but this was still a cute read.

Links to my my blog posts this past month:

Links to posts I enjoyed around the blogosphere:

Everyone was busy posting wrap-up posts this month (which I love to read!) but these were a few of the standout posts:

Stephanie @The Abundant Word gave a great overview of Spotify Premium Audiobooks

Marie @Drizzle & Hurricane Books celebrated and reflected on 9 years of blogging

I sound like a broken record, but I can’t believe how fast this year has gone. I can say that I ended the year on a good note, it’s been lots of celebrating and getting together with friends!

Highlights:

✨Put up all the Christmas decorations, feeling festive!

✨Went to see The Maine for the 6th time! 💞✨

✨Tried to get my photo with Santa (who knew you had to book an appointment!) so took cute photos with a friend outside

✨Went to dinner with some friends

✨Went to my brother’s work Christmas dinner at a buffet, yum!

✨Decided very last minute to go to into work for our ‘festive’ lunch

✨Saw Christmas lights at the festival of lights

✨Went out to dessert with my friends, yum!

✨Did a lot of Christmas shopping!

✨ Baked cookies… the struggle was real, but I did it!

✨Celebrated Christmas with my best friends, with good company, food and games

✨Celebrated Christmas with family and good food!

✨Going to celebrate New Years with my best friends! 💞

What I’ve watched:

Sense8; season 2. I definitely enjoyed this season more. In the first season, I felt like I spent too much time trying to figure out how the world worked and how these characters were connected, whereas in season two I could actually enjoy seeing all the characters come together and it was SO. FREAKING. BEAUTIFUL. I love that this show really had no boundaries and had no limits. It showed love and life in such a fluid motion, gosh it was so brilliantly done. You could also tell they were trying to expand the world by bringing in different clusters, but unfortunately because the show was canceled they couldn’t go to all the places that they wanted. You could also tell they knew the show was going to be over before they had written and shot everything because each of the characters were able to get a resolution to their story. Some felt a little more rushed than others, but with a two and a half hour finale, I feel like they really tried to get it all in, and they did such a great job. I’d highly recommend this; it’s really too bad it didn’t have the following it needed to continue on.

The Santa Clauses; season 2. I had no idea there was going to be a second season; I just happened to stumble upon this while on Disney+. To be honest, this probably didn’t need a second season, but did I still enjoy it? Yeah, I did. So the first season was all about Scott trying to find the next Santa… only to realize he’s going to stay Santa, why give up the gig? This season was all about preparing his son, Cal, to become the next Santa… only Cal has no interest in the job. He’s a real people pleaser though and so he can’t possibly say no to his father. Meanwhile, the elves are in crisis because evil Santa has been woken up and wants to take over as the real Santa. I also liked watching Gabriel Iglesais in this, as he played the oblivious Santa Land owner, who just took the evil Santa into his place as if he was the real-deal; it was pretty comedic. This was really easy to get through, 6, 30 minute epiosdes really do fly by. I honestly don’t see there being another season since the story wrapped up, but who knows.

Creepshow; season 4. It came to my attention last month that there was a new season of Creepshow that was released back in October, so I of course had to jump on it. Just like the previous seasons, I enjoyed the anthology style storytelling. Some stories were better than others; the ones where they’re able to set up the story without a lot of heavy dialogue or exposition are the ones that work out the best. There were a few that really stood out as a good, creepy story that kept it short and brief. Although, unfortunately there were quite a few that were trying to do too much and in the short 20/30 minute time they had to tell the story it felt rushed and like they didn’t have enough time to tell it. As a whole though, I enjoy seeing what kind of stories they’ll come up with next.

Boy Meets World; season 3. I finally made it to the end of the third season! I feel like it took me ages to get there. For the most part I enjoyed this season. There were things I remembered from being a kid, but I feel like most of this season I didn’t really remember. I have a feeling as I move through my “rewatch” there will be less and less I remember because I think I only watched the first two seasons as a kid, but we’ll see. As for this season, it still boggled my mind that Topanga was barely in this season, and when she was, it was to be with Cory… she really had no other storylines, which sucks. Then there’s Cory, what I’m really finding is how unlikable he is as a character. The way he treats Topanga like property is horrible; the way he treats his friends at times and then the way he treated his own brother in the finale all because everyone was leaving him he pulls the biggest hissy fit. Even Pod Meets World addressed it in saying that Cory, the character this show is about, hasn’t grown at all since the first season and it’s so true. Everyone else has, like Eric has become such an amazing character and I can’t wait for more, the same with Shawn, his growth with his dad and Mr. Turner; so much good stuff among the boring Cory stuff. I can’t wait for season 4!

The Simpsons; season 12. Another solid season, again there were episodes I liked more than others, but for the most part it was another entertaining season. It always makes me laugh when we see technology from the early 2000s make its first appearance, like the home computer. What I noticed a lot this season, were the titles of the episodes; they were all a play on other pieces of work in pop culture, which I thought were clever. The episode with NSYNC was extremely entertaining and probably the most memorable episode. They brought Mauve back in a sense when Ned finds her plans to open a religious themed amusement park, that was something. I also thought it was interesting to watch Ned get over her death because I guess we’ve been led to believe he’s been doing fine… but he has not been, so it was nice to get a check in on him. I look forward to what season 13 has in store.

The Crown; season 6; part 2. If you thought part one had a lot of drama, part two held quite a bit too. It started off a little slow, but it really did pick up. The episode where we meet Tony Blair was SO boring it really made me not want to continue because it was such a slog, but I made it through. Speaking of boring, but I feel like I could be in the minority here, but I thought William and Kate’s origin story was so boring, like I couldn’t care less. Like I would have been happy with seeing them meet and then be together, but everything else they decided to show us, really bored me. I would have liked more Harry… I get why we didn’t but, I would have liked that, like how we got to see Margaret’s side. In the end, I like how and when they decided to stop the series. I’m definitely going to miss it… and I hope one day, they decide to pick it back up!

Star Trek: Voyager; season 4. Technically as I type this, and when it goes up, I still have 1 more episode left of this season, but my mum and I are determined to finish this season before the year is done. So at some point this afternoon, this will get watched. As for my thoughts, I’m sad that we had to lose Kes as a character, I liked watching her progress and become part of the team, especially as she worked alongside the Doctor; they’re relationship was so much fun to watch because he became somewhat of a father figure to her and it was beautiful. Things change I guess. Speaking of change, we gain a new character, and one that everyone loves, Seven of Nine. She was human, assimilated into the Borg collective and now has no memories of being human, so the crew are trying to help her become human again. It’s been interesting to watch her progress. She kinda reminds of of Data from TNG because he was an android who wanted to be human so their journey’s are quite similar. The crew are slightly closer to getting home, I’m still curious if they’ll make it. I feel like that’s what’s keeping me going for this one because my gosh I’m still not connecting like I was other series. Once this one is over, I feel like I’ll be glad and I’m sad to say that.

The Mortal Instruments; season 1. Like above, I have 1 more episode that I plan to watch as soon as I finish writing and posting this. This is another Netflix show that has been sitting on my list since the dawn of time, it feels. I don’t know why I’ve been so hesitant to watch this because… I actually like this? Don’t get me wrong, I loved the movie and that will always hold a special place in my heart, but this show is also good. I feel like they’ve moved things around and there are things I don’t remember quite as well… which has me thinking if I should do a reread next year(?). I thought they were going to leave the Clary/Jace siblings out of this one… nope, the brought it up at the end and I went oh, welp. I also feel like they brought up Malec really early… I don’t remember them getting together so quickly, but I could be wrong. It took some time for me to warm up to these actors, but I’ve really enjoyed Harry Shum Jr. as Magnus. He does it just right. I’m excited to continue, and I’m now sad it only lasted 3 seasons.

List of Movies:

• Disney Movies (I didn’t watch any this month, aside from the Santa Clause 2, see below, but I don’t want to get rid of this section)

• Christmas Movies
  • Just In Time For Christmas – this was just as cheesy as the title suggests; I didn’t care for the conflict, it felt very dated, but I was still pretty engaged
  • Christmas Everlasting – another Hallmark Hall of Fame movie and it was sad, but also witty and the banter was fun, plus there was a cat. I didn’t care for the quilt cult (as people call it on Letterboxd 😂)
  • The Grinch – the Jim Carrey one, which is the best one (in my opinion)
  • Miracle on 34th Street – the remake is a classic I watch every Christmas Eve with my mum
  • Home Alone 2 – the superior of the 2 (don’t even mention those spin offs they did after this)
  • The Santa Clause 2 – for some reason I only got around to watching this one this year, but that’s ok.
  • November Christmas – another Hallmark Hall of Fame movie that had a lot of heart.

Silver Bullet – the Stephen King adaptation to Cycle of the Werewolf. I thought it was a great adaptation and at times was a bit better than the short novella in terms of pacing and character development.

What I’m watching:

The Simpsons; season 13. I’m all of 3 epiosdes into the new season, but I’m enjoying it so far.

Instagram & YouTube videos from the month:

How was your December? Read, watch, do anything interesting? Let me know! Happy New Year!