Books Read in December

I thought I would sum up the month of December before taking a look back at the whole year. After reading so few books in November (because I tackled the lengthy Middlemarch), I made up for lost time in December. I also made a last ditch effort to make some progress in my 2012 Reading Challenges, so I chose my books accordingly, with a strong focus on reading off my over-full TBR shelves (and tackling some shorter books!). It turned out to be a good strategy - I read some really great books this month that I've been meaning to get to for ages. Here's what I read this month:

• The Big Burn by Timothy Egan, nonfiction read for my neighborhood book group.
• Greetings from Planet Earth by Barbara Kerley, a middle-grade novel.
• Time and Again by Jack Finney, a classic time travel novel my husband gave me for Christmas last year.
• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, the teen/YA novel everyone was talking about all year.
• The Santa Trap by Jonathan Emmett and Poly Bernatene, a picture book (it counts!).
• The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, a novel my best friend has been raving about for years - why did I wait so long to read it?
• The Thirteenth Child by Patricia C. Wrede, a teen novel my son has been telling me to read for years! This one is a bit of cheat because I haven't finished it yet, but I will by tomorrow at the latest with a bunch of airport/airplane time, so I'm counting it for 2012!

Wow, seven books - possibly my best month of the year! Of course, one was a picture book... And I am a bit behind in writing reviews - plenty of reading time this busy month but not much writing time!

The quality was spectacular this month - every one of these books was excellent, and I have really enjoyed reading all month. It's hard to choose a favorite, but I think The Bean Trees comes out on top - I finished it and immediately wanted to start its sequel, Pigs in Heaven (but I left it at home).

As I mentioned, I specifically chose books this month to help my 2012 Reading Challenges, so I made lots of progress there. I added 5 new states to my Where Are You Reading Challenge (Montana, Virginia, Indiana, Kentucky, and South Dakota). South Dakota was a bit of an educated guess since The Thirteenth Child takes place in an alternate world similar to the old West, but I think that's about where they are in the Great Northern Plains, don't you think?

Best of all, I added four more books to my 12 in '12 Reading Challenge to read 12 books from my TBR shelves!

What great books did YOU read in December?