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December Wrap-Up

Books Read This Month
1. Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik (Temeraire Book#2)
2. Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience,and Finding Joy by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant
3. Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman
4. The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
5. American Cookie by Anne Byrn

 Favorite Book This Month
Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman

Tess of the Road appears more quotidian than its fantastical forebears. Although set in the same world where the half-dragon Seraphina wins the day along with (some) tolerance for her kind, her fully human younger sister Tess finds less kindness. Like her namesake of the d'Urbervilles, Tess is led to ruin, and then left by her family to wither. Against the religious claptrap of her upbringing, Tess's journey rises to numinous in its sheer visceral earthiness. A poignant back massage precedes a divine revelation. A childish prank of mooning reveals a man's existential pain. Tess of the Road turns bodies and souls inside out (or outside in), creating a contradictory tense mirroring the grammar of Tess's friends, the draconid quigutl. Tess's road doesn't end with her quest, and her quest doesn't end with a road. The familiar melancholy that pervades Tess's story somehow becomes what makes it Hartman's most fantastical yet.
Blog Posts This Month

1. November Wrap-Up

November and December were crazy busy for me, but I made sure to get the November wrap-up out!

2. Top Ten Favorite Books with Dragons

I've been really enjoying books with dragons lately, so I took advantage of the TTT freebie week.

 Things Baked This Month (mostly straight from Smitten Kitchen's newsletter on holiday cookies)

 1. Confetti cookies-These were probably the biggest success, easy to make, and a colorful hit!
2. Spicy gingerbread cookies
3. Linzer cookies-I wanted to make the traditional ones with raspberry jam instead of Smitten Kitchen's Nutella recipe
4. Jam thumbprint cookies
5. Sugar cookies from American Cookie!
6. Orange cranberry breakfast buns--making these for New Year's this year; did a test batch yesterday (Dec. 30th).

 Links I Liked This Month

 1. 2018 Is An Investment Year for Cookbooks--I agree!

2. I wasn't the only one thinking about books with dragons this month--more dragon series for me to read!

3. Harry Potter and the Secret Gay Love Story- Via the REWM. 
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Comments

Danny Winters said…
Thank youu for sharing this
May 25, 2022 at 11:56 PM
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