December Wrap Up & January TBR

Happy new year guys! 🎉

December has been an unexpectedly busy month. I mean… it usually is since it’s the final stretch towards the end of the term and with the holidays approaching, there are a lot of relatives to be visited. But still, it was busier than what I predicted. I didn’t really read a lot and even though I did, I was very distracted to enjoy the books properly.

1. HARRY POTTER AND THE SOCERER’S STONE by J.K Rowling // ✰✰✰✰✰
2. THE BOYFRIEND SWAP by Meredith Schorr // ✰✰✰✰
3. JANE EYRE by Charlotte Bronte // ✰✰.5
4. DASH AND LILY’S BOOK OF DARES by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan // DNF at 29%
5. THE NIGHT CIRCUS by Erin Morgenstern // ✰✰✰.5
6. BLOOM by Beau Taplin // ✰
7. SEA OF STRANGERS by Lang Leav // ✰✰✰✰

1. HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS by J.K Rowling
2. THE GIRL IN THE TOWER by Katherine Arden
3. HALF BAD by Sally Green
4. S.T.A.G.S by M. A. Bennett

• Starting December in not so good way… apparently Goodreads and Netgalley have decided to shut the doors for international bloggers. Goodreads giveaway will be exclusively for US residence to bring the books to “more marketplace” (oh how ironic) and Netgalley request button has changed to “wish for it” for most of us international bloggers.
• Wish for it is all I’ve been seeing on Netgalley, but I thought it was just a coincidence. I never actually thought that they purposefully cut us off from the rest of the world. Sure, a lot of the readers are from the US but hello, there are other countries other than the US and I bet all readers combined are more than readers in the US. It’s not a problem of entitlement towards ARCs, but it’s a problem of ACCESS and being part of the community. US readers got comic con, screenings, fan meetings, book conventions, giveways, physical arcs, well stocked library, amazon… you name it, they got everything first. ARCs is one way we got a piece of those privileges and now they are trying to cut us too? Where does that leave us? Aren’t we readers to, bloggers or not?
• That sounds really bitter but I’m so fucking tired being treated like we don’t matter. Aren’t we a market too for you guys? Are reading now a hobby for the privileged only???
• Here are some bloggers who already speak up about it: Lost in a Story, The Book Corps, The Cursed Books, and Bookish Addict.
• Another excellent reason why limiting your audience is bad: Silvia @ Silvia Reads Books explain that diverse audience could give diverse perspective towards your books.
• The Ardent Biblio gives us some holiday book pairings.
• Tracy @ Cornerfolds talked about the out-of-control trend of special editions.
• Jennifer @ Rose and Myrtle reasons why people shouldn’t discredit YA literature.
• Hazel @ Stay Bookish turned these book covers into amazing cozy sweaters design.
• Aimal @ Bookshelves and Paperbacks listed all the diverse books releasing in January-June 2018.
• Claire @ Clairefy collaborates with various book bloggers (including me!) and talk about our favorite 2017 reads.
• Looking for reading challenges for 2018? Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction compiled all the reading challenges for 2018.
• Sophie @ Books Like Wolves guest-posting on Chloe’s blog and give us recommendations based on Taylor Swift’s 1989 and Reputation songs.

December turned out to be a busier month than what I was expected. I spent the first two weeks running around like a headless chicken trying to finish all assignments before the term break, the third week finding clothes for family wedding, and the fourth week meeting various relatives that gathers for the wedding. It was fun though, it’s been a while since the whole big family gathers together like that. Even my cousins in Australia and U.S.A, which I haven’t seen for YEARS, came back for the wedding.

It was also my first time seeing directly the traditional chinese wedding. I felt like knowing more about chinese traditions these past two years (last year was due to chinese wedding funeral) compared to the whole 19 years of my life. The procession itself was very unique and fun to know, but the whole thing was so complex and exhausting, I don’t think I would do a full one when I get married 😅

This month, I participated in 12 days of blogmas, hosted by Swetlana. I started out late and then totally underestimate the effort and time slot these posts would take, and as the result, totally threw my blogging schedule off the loop 😅 I didn’t post any review at all and posted only misc post, but I had fun writing them and I hope you guys had fun reading them too!

Also, did you guys notice my new layout? 😏 Let me know what you think of it!

• November Wrap Up & December TBR // Where has 2017 go??
• Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
• 12 Days of Blogmas // Day 1: A Love Letter to My 2017 Favorite Book
• 12 Days of Blogmas // Day 2: Returning Favorites
• Screen Rambles: November 2017
• 12 Days of Blogmas // Day 3: Top 3 Young Adult Debuts
• Top 5 Wednesday #28: Characters On My Naughty List
• 12 Days of Blogmas // Day 4: 4 Sequels or Finales
• 12 Days of Blogmas // Day 5: Authors New to Me
• 12 Days of Blogmas // Day 6: Disappointing Reads
• Cause I’m With You Till The End Of Line // Favorite Final Line
• 12 Days of Blogmas // Day 7: Backlist I Want to Read in 2018
• 12 Days of Blogmas // Day 8: 2018 Releases
• 12 Days of Blogmas // Day 9: 2017 Covers I Adore
• 12 Days of Blogmas // Day 10: Books I’d Love to Find Under the Christmas Tree
• 12 Days of Blogmas // Day 11: Best Books I Read in 2017
• 12 Days of Christmas // Day 12: Christmas Songs
• 2017: A Year in Review

Happy new year! How was December for you? What did you get for Christmas? Any memorable things happened during the last month of 2017? Let me know down below!