I took almost three weeks off in December, giving myself lots of time to read, wrap presents, work jigsaw puzzles, and watch it snow. Unfortunately, once I finally had the time to read as much as I wanted to, I had a hard time settling into a book--like, a HARD time. I never have this problem. But I did find a couple of things that kept me going.
The Giver of Stars is a book I picked up off our library's new book shelf. I've never read a Jojo Moyes book, and I'm not sure if this book is representative of her work, but I was impressed by it. While a little fluffy and a little overly dramatic, it was much better written than I expected. This is the story of a small group of American women who set up a mobile library, delivering books on horseback to folks who live in the mountains. The characters are interesting and easy to root for, and there is good resolution, which I sort of demand in a story. There was also a strong sense of setting, which I enjoy. All in all, I liked this one quite a bit, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone looking for something a little lighter (actually, the story isn't light, but the reading is). My rating: 4.5 stars.
Okay, can I just admit something? I was never a fan of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. The man creeped me out as a child, and frankly, still does as an adult. And those puppets, especially, creeped me out. But there's been a huge resurgence of Mr. Rogers; tons of books for adult and children have been published in the last couple of years, and of course the new movie with Tom Hanks, so I decided to give The Good Neighbor a listen while I worked on jigsaw puzzles. Read by LaVar Burton, I enjoyed this on audio. The book itself was a bit fawning, but not badly, and my only real disappointment was that Fred Rogers' faith and religious training was somewhat glossed over, or at least, I would have preferred more discussion of that. While my feelings for Rogers haven't really changed, this book did make me examine why I felt that way as a little kid, and why I feel that way still. I was a shy, sensitive child, and his ultra-gentle manner should have been reassuring and a respite from a loud, demanding world. But it wasn't. Perhaps it was that Mr. Rogers was so unlike every adult male in my life, so my little mind decided he was too different for comfort. At any rate, I enjoyed this biography, especially the audio version. My rating: 4 stars.
I just love a Pioneer Woman cookbook, and I'm so glad they come out every other year. I keep fearing Ree will run out of recipes and have to go weird, but I hasn't happened yet. In her newest cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: The New Frontier, she does include several low-carb recipes as well as numerous instant pot recipes. I found several things I'd like to try, though I can't really remember any right now other than the overnight peaches and cream oatmeal. The book, too, has a fresher look than her previous books, and I have to admit I kind of miss the visual overload of riotous color and collage art of the older books. It was still a pretty book, but it's much more average. Her picture-for-each-step technique and her funny introductions to each recipe haven't gone anywhere, though, and I'm glad of that. This book was every bit as good as her other books. My rating: 4.5 stars.
I have only one more book to read in the Flavia de Luce series before I'm caught up, and I don't like that one bit. With the most recent book, the tenth in the series, Alan Bradley said he was going to evaluate whether Flavia was done giving him stories. I sure hope she sets him straight that she has LOTS more to tell and many more mysteries to solve. In the ninth book of the series, The Grave's a Fine and Private Place, Flavia, her sisters, and Dogger go on a little boat ride to shake the gloom after the death that happened at the end of the eighth book, and as Flavia trails her fingers in the water, she hooks them into a dead man's mouth. And we're off and running. This wasn't one of my favorite plots of the series, but the murder and mystery as always less important to me than Flavia's wit and brilliance anyway. And Flavia was every bit herself in this one. My rating: 4 stars. 
Nicole Chung's All You Can Ever Know has been on my TBR for ages. I love books about Asian culture, and I have a soft spot for adoption stories, so I was interested in this one from the beginning. Every time I tried to read it, however, I could not get into it. I finally decided to try it on audio, but in the end I decided it's not the format, it's the book that I don't like. I don't really know how to say what I want to about this one, and I don't want to disparage anyone's adoption journey or feelings of being caught between cultures. And yet, this book annoyed and troubled me. There was a constant feeling that Chung was trying to drive her story after it happened, trying to make it bigger than it really was. Frankly, her feelings of being different and feeling alienated were no different from most kids' childhood experiences. I think her feelings had less to do with race differences than they do with personal differences. I kept feeling like she was looking back and injecting what she feels about her race as an adult into her childhood . It did not ring true for me at all. It felt fake and contrived and manufactured. I smelled it a mile away, and I really should have stopped listening. Had she taken a gentler approach and tried less to ram race (and her hatred of her birth mother) down her readers' throats, had she trusted her readers (even if some of them are white!) to understand how hard it must be to be the only Asian American girl at school (because we were all the "only" something in school), it could have been a transforming experience for her and her readers. As it was, she bludgeoned her story and her readers, and I just felt bad about all of the negativity in the book after it ended. I'll continue my search for a more nuanced story of intercultural adoption. My rating: 2.5 stars.
There, now that I'm finally done with my December 2019 reviews, I can catch up on my January reviews. I feel so far behind, but it will feel good to be caught up...eventually.
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