December.

GOOD NEWS! I hit my 52 book goal! Hooray. It meant I had to put in a bit more effort in December. But I had a few books on the go at the start of the month, so that helped. I am planning to do a big summary, look back on the year, book post. But for now, here are the books I read in December:

• Daring Greatly     (Brené Brown)     - I have touched on this book a little bit in this post. It really deserves a whole post dedicated to it. I'm not sure when/if I will get that done. Maybe it would be better to wait until I have read it a second time. This book kind of kicked my ass so hard that I am still sort trying to pick up the pieces and make sense of my altered world. But please please read this book. Especially if you struggle with vulnerability, but even if you don't, still read it! I promise it will benefit you. We need to learn about and talk about shame and vulnerability. I promise there is something in this book for you. The chapter introduction for Chapter 3 (Understanding and Combating Shame) is "Vulnerability and shame in one book! Are you trying to kill us? or Defense Against the Dark Arts." She tells a story about how a guy once compared her to Snape and then they had a conversation about when Sirius told Harry about how everyone has dark and light inside of them and how that was kind shame and vulnerability. Seriously, what more could you want?

• Amazinger Face    (Zoë Foster Blake)     - Zoë Foster Blake is a former Australian beauty editor and this book is her updated version of Amazing Face, which she wrote at an earlier date. (Fun fact here: I was trying to look up the date that Amazing Face was published, and when you google 'amazing face' this photo is the first hit.) Basically this is a book about how to make yourself look better. Is it a bit vain to have read it? Maybe. But do I care? Nope, not at all. If you didn't know (and why would you), Zoë Foster Blake is married to a certain Hamish Blake. That may have been how I was alerted to the existence of this book. She is seriously funny and even makes a book of beauty tips funny and enjoyable to read. I learned a bunch of handy tips and about what certain makeups and things are for. A result of buying this book has been a large increase in makeup purchases, but also an increased skill in using them. 

• A Day to Die For    (Graham Ratcliffe)     - More Everest! This one got its own whole post. You can read it here if you want to. 

• How Should We Then Live?     (Francis A Schaeffer)     - This one I listened to as an audiobook. It was good! But so much information. It essentially traces human thought from Rome to modern day (modern day being the 1970's when this book was written). It sort of tries to show why people think the way they do. It tries to take you through what led both us individually and as a society to the place we are. Why do we no longer believe in absolute truth? And how did that come to be? But there was SOO much information. I think that listening to it instead of reading it decreased my retention. When you are reading you can stop here and there to process things. It is harder when you are listening. I mostly listened to it while driving or riding in a vehicle and I didn't constantly stop and start it to try and give myself time to think about each thing said. So I know I didn't catch the full weight of all that was being said. But still, I found this book to be quite informative as well as slightly convicting and a little bit depressing at times. But not in a bad 'you should avoid it' way. More in a 'the world is a depressing place sometimes' kind of way, which is not something we can or should try to avoid. This book is also done as a video series. I'm thinking if you want to get the most out of it, that might be the way to go. I'm hoping to come back to this at some point. There were a few thoughts from this book that I found to be quite relevant and important. I want to find them in my paper copy of the book and go through them again.

• The Phantom Tollbooth    (Norton Juster)     - Full disclosure: I only know about this book because Leslie Knope reads it to filibuster a meeting on Parks and Rec. But it is so good! If you haven't read it, you should. It is a children's book, but it is filled with clever word play.  It is a classic.