Towering TBR (Part: December)

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and welcome to the final month of Towering TBR! I honestly can't believe we've made it the full 12 months of whittling down my physical TBR. What a wild and fun journey it has been! There will be more one installment in the New Year as a finale with the final stats, so be on the lookout for that ;) But without further ado... December's Towering TBR.

Starting TBR Count: 14

TBR Reads: 1

TBR DNFs: 0

Rereads: 2

Library Reads: 2

Books Purchased: 0

Books Gifted: 4

Final TBR Count: 13

Total TBR Books Checked Off This Year: 53

TBR Reads

Beneath the Haunting Sea by Joanna Ruth Meyer - 5 stars 

This novel is stunning, lyrical, and perfect for lovers of the sea. The author's stories are so unique and yet each one fits so perfectly with the others. Highly recommend if you love mythology in your fantasy!

Rereads

The Afterlife of Holly Chase by Cynthia Hand - 5 stars

I read this originally in 2019 and felt the need to reread. Alternating between physical and audio, I felt more connected to the story this time around and gave it a whole extra star!

Josefina's Surprise by Valerie Tripp - 5 stars

Josefina Montoya has always been my girl and revisiting her at Christmas time felt like meeting up with a best friend again.

Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien - 5 stars

I truly plan on rereading this every year - it's whimsical, fun, and heartfelt. It truly rings the Christmas spirit in with each letter. 

Library Reads

Nutcracked by Susan Adrian - 4 stars

I love a ballet story and this one was so fun and Christmassy! The ending felt a tad forced but still a good time. Would definitely recommend it to fans of the Nutcracker!

The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke - 3 stars

A beautiful short story with wonderful winter vibes, but it just felt odd and pointless to me. I'm not a big short story fan so I may have been looking for more time to connect with the story emotionally than I was given. I would love it if this was ever expanded into a longer story.

The Last Unicorn Graphic Novel by Peter B. Gillis - 5 stars

The source material was my top favorite book of 2024 (sorry spoilers for my end-of-year wrap-up) so I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the story in another medium. It has the iconic imagery of the movie with a more realistic feel in the art that matches what I saw in my head as I was reading the novel. Beautiful, stunning, this story means so much to me.

Gifted Books

The Color of Revenge by Cornelia Funke

I have been waiting literal years for this book and I got it for Christmas!! This is the sequel to my all-time favorite book series "Inkworld" and I cannot wait to dive in!

Redwall by Brian Jacques

I have been loving classic fantasy recently, and this was highly recommended to me! It looks so cozy and like just the medieval fix I've been looking for :)

Moonbound by Robin Sloan

I know so little about this book other than there are dragons in space at some point, and the first page hooked me FAST. Also isn't this cover stunning??

Pony Confidential by Christina Lynch

As a certified horse girl, this book caught my eye immediately. I can't wait to read a "whodunit" from the perspective of a horse!

December Thoughts

I am so proud of myself for sticking to this challenge for an entire year! I started with 66 books on my original TBR and ended with 13. I'll talk more about stats later, but I am very excited with how fun this challenge was and how well it went! I definitely slowed down my progress on my TBR once December hit. I was in the mood for holiday books but it worked really well to finish one last book from my TBR and put the challenge away to enjoy Christmas.

I am so excited for a new (slower) reading year in 2025, but this has been an amazing process. I will see you soon for an official wrap-up and finale of Towering TBR!

~ K.J. Haakenson