december reads

i had high hopes for my december bookshelf! after all, we'd be flying from Rome to Pittsburgh in the third week of December, and from Pittsburgh to Hawaii the week after that, and surely there would be eons of time relaxing at home in which to blow through the rest of my Goodreads challenge!

spoiler alert: that didn't happen. i couldn't lose myself in a book on the flights unless the girls were sleeping, and when they were sleeping, i felt pretty sure that i should sleep too, or if i wasn't tired, it was easier to watch a movie on the seatback screen than to try to balance my kindle without disturbing Cecilia sleeping on my lap. (therefore, i am proud to say that i watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire over the course of our travels!) and then when we were with family, i mostly wanted to be with family! imagine that.

but even though i fell about ten books short of my Goodreads 2018 goal, i think december's reading list is still pretty respectable. i am stilllllll working through the Great European Road Trip books and some of them are carrying over into 2019 as well. i am also excited to participate in the #cathLIT2019 book challenge (which involves reading 19 books this year from various categories pertaining to Catholic life and culture)! i'm looking forward to adding some more spiritual reading to my bookshelf this year.

without further ado:

1) Fatelessness, by Imre Kertesz. without being particularly graphic, this is one of the most disturbing novels about the Holocaust i have ever read, simply because the first-person narrator is so matter-of-fact about his experience being rounded up on his way to work in Budapest and shuttled off to a concentration camp. his story broadened my perspective on the Hungarian experience of the Holocaust -- i think it's the first book i've read on the topic that wasn't set in Germany. highly recommend!

2) The Accidental Empress (Sisi #1), by Allison Pataki. this novel reminded me very much of the incredible historical fiction book The Tigress of Forli (see my mini-review here), in that it was fast-paced and filled with intrigue and drama, while also shedding light on the Empress Elisabeth of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. the book really came to life for me near the end, as she and her husband the Emperor Franz Joseph were crowned Queen and King of Hungary in the Matyas Church in Budapest, which we visited on our road trip. however, after finishing the book, i read many reviews that decried the author's lack of historical accuracy, so now i'm interested to read more about the Empress Sisi's actual life. still, a very enjoyable read!

3) I Am Half-sick of Shadows (Flavia Luce #4), by Alan Bradley. i had never heard of this series before, but this particular book was recommended by Christy Isinger as a cozy Christmas read (as cozy as a murder mystery can be!). the eleven-year-old narrator is delightful and now i want to start at the beginning of the Flavia Luce series! but i had no problem following the story, jumping in at the fourth book. 

4) Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. i read this aloud to Greta and oh, my goodness, i'd forgotten just how good it is! it was a perfect introduction to a longer chapter book for Greta (we've previously read Pippi Longstocking and The World of Winnie the Pooh, but the Little House books have much longer descriptive passages). Garth Williams' timeless illustrations really captivated her interest, and she loved hearing about a little girl who is exactly her age and who is also moving to a new home, just like her. for my own part, i couldn't believe how vividly i remember specific phrases and mental images (like Ma's green dress dotted with strawberries) from countless readings as a child.

5) Mother Tongue: An American Life in Italy, by Wallis Wilde-Menozzi. i really, really struggled to finish this book. written by a woman who married an Italian man and moved to Parma with him and her six-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, it spans about fifteen years of her experience living in Italy. i enjoyed her descriptions of daily life, interacting with friends and neighbors, but there were also long soliloquies on politics, linguistics and philosophy that left me underwhelmed. the book just seemed to meander on and on without a clear plot, which is i think what she intended all along, but it's certainly not a page-turner. 3/5 stars on Goodreads.

6) The Heart's Invisible Furies, by John Boyne. this may well be my favourite book of 2018. it is absolutely masterful, and reminded me so much of A Little Life in that the main characters develop over their entire lifetime and we grow to think of them as real people. the novel opens in 1940s Ireland and follows a boy who is given up for adoption from childhood through old age. Boyne's writing is both precise and rich. make sure you have tissues. 

here's what's on the list for January! 

-The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky (#cathLIT2019 pick)

-The Balkan Trilogy, Olivia Manning

-Farmer Boy, Laura Ingalls Wilder

-Pachinko, Min Jin Lee

-Jesus of Nazareth, by Pope Benedict XVI (#cathLIT2019 pick)

-The Grace of Enough: Pursuing Less and Living More in a Throwaway Culture, by Haley Stewart (#cathLIT2019 pick)