The Sunday Salon - I refuse to believe it's almost Christmas!

I feel like I've failed quite epicly on the review front lately. For a while now I've been reading a lot and not reviewing much, and after beating myself up over it for a week or so I decided to cut myself some slack. I've already decided to make December an 'easy reading' month, where I will be mostly re-reading plus a few library books (currently Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips, which is shaping up to be a lot of fun), so hoepfully I'll be able to catch up on a few reviews in the next couple of weeks.

It's been a while since I've done a monthly summary post, so here's what's happened in November...

I have read the following sixteen books:

• The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan
• An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
• Fables: Animal Farm by Bill Willingham
• Chocolat by Joanne Harris (re-read)
• Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan
• Little Women by Louisa M. Alcott (re-read)
• Good Wives by Louisa M. Alcott (re-read)
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
• Little Men by Louisa M. Alcott (re-read)
• Jo's Boys by Louisa M. Alcott (re-read)
• Saplings by Noel Streatfeild
• A Killer of Pilgrims by Susanna Gregory
• What Lies Beneath by Sarah Rayne
• Still Alice by Lisa Genova
• Mort by Terry Pratchett (re-read)
• Curtain Up by Noel Streatfeild

I also signed up for a lot of reading challenges for next year. I really feel like I'm getting better at reading the books I own and controlling the impulse to buy more. Having said that, I did buy three this week - Amazon just makes it too easy, and there were a couple I wanted to get hold of for Advent with Austen. This past week I was reading A Walk with Jane Austen by Lori Smith, which I absolutely adored, and which got me all inspired to write and to re-read all the Austen I read so long ago. Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility were the first of her novels I read, and that was about six years ago I think if not more. It really must be time for a re-read! I love that this event is giving me an opportunity to completely indulge myself and get immersed in all things Jane - Austen makes me happy to read and that's what I need right now :-)

Most excitingly (for me at least), I am hosting my first ever reading challenge for 2012. The Telling Tales Reading Challenge is the amalgamation of my passion for fairytale and mythology, several conversations on the subject with my sister, and the fun I had participating in the Once Upon a Time challenge this year. If you want to know more about it, and to sign up, go here, and forgive me for the convoluted nature of the levels - I got a little carried away with the list making!!

In other news, I just got back from seeing Hugo which was entirely amazing. It's been a very long time since I watched a film through my hands, but I had to because not knowing what was going to happen made me so tense! The film was incredibly acted and very moving and now I really really must get my hands on a copy of the book! Anybody read it? What did you think?

Hope you're all having a lovely winter Sunday