December's Monthly Recap

We're at the end of the month, and the end of the year. It's not been the best year for me away from the blog, but I on the blog, I think it's been pretty good! Here's a look over what's happened on the blog in the last month.

Reviews:

• What We Left Behind by Robin Talley - I was pretty disappointed in this. No communication between characters, and exhausting.
• The Art of Wishing by Lindsay Ribar - This was fun and awesome! I'm looking forward to the sequel
• Just Visiting by Dahlia Adler - My first Adler book, but not my last! A really wonderful story fo friendship.
• More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera - THIS WAS AMAZING! So much better than I thought it would be! So surprising with a fantastic twist! (Not pictured as it was borrowed.)
• A Boy Called Christmas by Matt Haig - This was wonderful! Charming and magical, and really made me smile! (Not pictured because I lent it to someone.)
• Made You Up by Francesca Zappia - Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! Romance, mystery, Schizophrenia! Such a great story!
• The Next Together by Lauren James - Absolutely gripping, but the ending left me disappointed.
• One by Sarah Crossan - Great premise, but verse, it seems, isn't the right style for me when it comes to getting emotionally involved in a story.
• Rethinking Normal by Katie Rain Hill - This was really fascinating. A memoir by a transwoman of her teenage years. Eye-opening and interesting.
• The Big Lie by Julie Mayhew - This book was SO thought-provoking and scary, and oh my god, you need to read this book! The whole thing! Even the notes at the end!
• Rooms by Lauren Oliver - Beautiful writing as always, but it felt quite slow to me. I wasn't as invested n this book as I normally am in Oliver's novels.

Other posts on Once Upon a Bookcase:

• We hs just one post for Bookish Spinsters - Equality in Sport - before I postponed the link-up due to things happening in my personal life. The postponment might become a mini-hiatus. I'm not sure yet when it will be back up, and I'm still dealing with a lot of things.
• As it's the end of the year, I wrote a post Looking Over 2015, Looking Forward to 2016. I've signed up for a couple more reading challenges since writing it, so if you're interested in what I'm taking part in, check out my reading challenge page.

What I've been reading elsewhere online:

• Katherine Locke discussed how she's making Twitter her space again, after leaving for a week because of abuse she was getting, with some great tips if it's becoming too much for you.
• Pop! Goes the Reader held a month long 'Tis The Season: Authors Talk Holidays event, which is pretty self explanatory. There were a great number of authors sharing their personal holiday stories, with a number of holidays covered. Do go check it out.
• Dahlia Adler now has a number of pages on her blog for diverse books with minority characters: 
• 2016-17 YAs by Authors of Color
• #OwnVoices in Disability and Neurodiversity
• Books By and About Marginalized Races
• Books By and About People Who Identify as LGBTQIAP+
• Jewish MG/YA/NA Authors
• Resources for Marginalized Perspectives
• Courtney Summers wrote a blog post about how difficult girls deserve to be loved and why she would never write a book that suggests otherwise.
• Check out Disability in Kidlit's Goodreads shelf for #OwnVoices YA.
• Barnes & Noble talk about 15 of Our Most Anticipated LGBTQ YAs of 2016.
• On YA Outside the Lines, Natasha Sinel talks about mature themes covered in YA, and how parents have an issue with sex in YA - Is There *gasp* Sex in This Book?
• Forever Young Adult share their Most Anticipated Books of 2016: Standalones & Series Starters.
• Epic Reads talks about The 17 Most Anticipated YA Books to Read in January.
• Grace of Gracie Actually Writes wrote Girls Just Want to Have Fun, a post on female masturbation on Oh No, Not Another Blogger.
• Author Alex Gino wrote Why I Use the Pronoun "They".
• Over on XOJane, K.T. Bradford wrote I Challenge You to Stop Reading White, Straight, Cis Male Authors for One Year.
• Along the same lines, a reading challenge has come up on Twitter to #ReadWomen. In response to this, Dahlia Adler wrote a really fantastic post On #ReadWomen that you might want to read before you crack on with the challenge.
• After reading Dahlia Adler's On #ReadWomen post, author C.K. Oliver wrote A Trans Guy's Thoughts on #ReadWomen.
• Dahlia Adler (can you tell I'm a fan of this lady?) also answered a question on Goodreads on moving from writing m/f romance to f/f romance. 

 So that's been my December! How was yours? :)

Have a Happy New Year, everyone! :)