December 2024 Wrap-Up & Favorites

Source: personal collection

Finally! One month left and that is it for 2024 wrap-up. Without further ado, here's the books I read in December 2024.

Books read in December

	Carrie - Stephen King (★★★)
	Carrie has become a classic since God knows when. Perhaps only some have read it, but many know what it's mainly about. It's a story about bullying with a supernatural twist. It's King's first published book and it has been adapted into film several times. As a fan of King's writing, it's nice to finally read his beginning. It's compelling and unlike most of King's books, it's not that long. Perhaps Carrie could be a starter if you're a Stephen King first-timer.
	The Hunting Gun - Yasushi Inoue (★★★)
	The Hunting Gun is a novella about a tragic love affair between a woman, Saiko, with her cousin's husband, Misugi. It is told through three letters written by Saiko, her daughter Shoko, and her cousin Midori. From these letters, we learn about the affair from the perspective of three women and the impact of the affair on each of them. The Hunting Gun is actually Inoue's first work. Although it's a fairly short book with uncomfortable theme, I enjoyed reading it as his prose are beautiful. It's almost feels like reading a poem. I'd like to read his other books. Overall, the Hunting Gun is a nice introduction to Yasushi Inoue's works.

December Favorites

Books

Carrie

Series

Workin' Moms

I randomly played this series because the clip of this series was played as a banner on my Netflix account. The premise intrigued me so I just click the play button without much thought. That's the best decision I made because this show is hilarious. It's been a while since I actually laugh out loud because of a comedy series. The theme is also pretty relatable. Not that I am a mother (not yet anyway) but I'm working a corporate job and at my age, I have many friends or colleagues who are working moms. I personally think most of the dilemmas faced by the characters in the series are also experienced by working moms anywhere, though not to the extreme and hilarious extent as the series. Workin' Moms is the highlight of my December. Overall, I highly recommend this series.

Overall, 2024 was such a roller-coaster year for me. I set a target of how many books I planned on reading in 2024. I couldn't achieve it but no, I'm not disappointed at myself. I'm more angry at the situation because when I think about it, I usually spare some time to read at night or at lunch. Lately I'm either too tired or too busy monitoring some work-related activity, at night! (which resulting in me getting even more tired; it's a never-ending cycle). This is unhealthy. I hate it to be honest. However I don't have the energy or the focus to think of some workaround because I'd rather spend it to do things I actually like. I don't have much time. I've made a resolution to focus my energy to do things that I actually enjoy. As for those things that I don't like but unfortunately still have to do, I'm going to let my empty shell to do them because I'm done. Anyway, see you in 2025!