Oh my gosh, you guys – how is it December already?! I feel like the year just got underway and somehow it’s almost over. I am shook. Time to start Christmas shopping – well, I have already started, but in a haphazard way, so time to get organized, I guess. I’m in and out of Christmas spirit, as is usually the case at the beginning of December. When I’m hitting a Peloton holiday ride, I’m basically Mrs. Claus, but the rest of the time, it all just feels like too much work. Par for the course.

Anyway, I’m rationing holiday reading right now because I still haven’t forgotten the year – it might have been 2020? – when I only read Christmas books all of December and was burnt out in a big way by the time the actual holiday rolled around. This was a big reading week, as you can see. I started the week by finishing The Historian on Monday night. That felt very much like a November book to me, so I wanted to get it done in November, and I did. In print I then moved on to The Professor, and spent most of the week over it. I’ll have more to say in a full review for the Classics Club, but it’s not Charlotte Bronte’s best work, by any stretch. Actually, I think most would agree it’s her worst. Anyway, I finished it – with one short hiatus to finish off The Almanac 2022 (in the dentist’s chair, waiting for Novocaine to kick in so I could get a flossing injury fixed – don’t ask). I always read The Almanac month by month through the year, so all I had left was the December chapter. Finally, after finishing up The Professor at last on Sunday morning, I picked up The Franchise Affair and read half of it on Sunday evening. I’m determined to finish the rest today. I have a flight to Seattle tomorrow for the last business travel of 2022 and I want to list to an episode of Shedunnit on the plane, all about the real-life kidnapping case that inspired the novel. So naturally I’ve got to get the book done before I head to the airport. There’s a method to my madness, really.

That’s a lot of reading – but there’s more! (Always said in my Marissa Tomei voice – from the courtroom scene in “My Cousin Vinny” – IYKYK.) On audio, I blazed through The Christmas Hirelings, read by Richard Armitage. (It was a pretty predictable, rather silly Victorian novel, but short, and I’ll listen to Richard Armitage read the phone book.) Having finished that, I downloaded God Rest Ye, Royal Gentlemen – not the most recent Lady Georgianna mystery, but I hadn’t read it yet and felt like a festive listen. So apparently audiobooks are the one area where I’m allowing holiday reads so far. (Once I get back from Seattle I’ll dive into festive reading in earnest.) I’m five chapters in and having a glorious time, as I always do when Georgie is involved.

Next up on audio, I have Christmas Days, by Jeannette Winterson, which I downloaded last year and have been saving. Very much looking forward to that one. And in print – no idea. I always take my kindle with me on travel and just see what strikes me in the moment. Look at me, reading spontaneously.

Very calm weekend before the holiday storm – ordinary, that is, maybe not calm. Nugget had a bowling birthday party to attend and it took him a few throws but he got his bowling skills back after they lapsed over pandemic times. Peanut had a Girl Scout meeting and we took a short hike. And that was about it. Errands, laundry, Peloton – the usual. Holiday craziness starts now…

What are you reading this week?