What I Read ♥ December 2025
December was a really good reading month for me, and a wonderful way to end 2025. I ended the year by reading 6 books and accomplishing my Goodreads reading challenge, but I’ll be recapping all my reading goals in a separate blog post later this month. Anyway, I was pretty surprised when I looked back and saw that I had read so much in December, seeing as it was a relatively busy month with it being the holiday season. Nonetheless, I still manage to make time for my reading.
Make sure to follow me on Goodreads to be updated on what I’m reading and on StoryGraph if you’re curious about my book statistics.
My star reading scale
★★★★★/5 – Loved it! I would reread and recommend this book to others.
★★★★/5 – Kept me entertained. There were a few things that bothered me. I would reread.
★★★/5 – Didn’t love or hate and would recommend to others.
★★/5 – Did not enjoy it and probably skimmed through most of it to get to the end.
★/5 – I hated it and regret wasting my time!
DNF – Did not finish.
N/A – Not Available. Meant for memoirs or books I prefer not to rate.
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Episode Thirteen by Craig DiLouie ★★★/5
Fade to Black is the newest hit ghost hunting reality TV show. Led by husband and wife team Matt and Claire Kirklin, it delivers weekly hauntings investigated by a dedicated team of ghost hunting experts. Episode Thirteen takes them to every ghost hunter’s holy grail: the Paranormal Research Foundation. This brooding, derelict mansion holds secrets and clues about bizarre experiments that took place there in the 1970s. It’s also famously haunted, and the team hopes their scientific techniques and high tech gear will prove it. But as the house begins to reveal itself to them, proof of an afterlife might not be everything Matt dreamed of. A story told in broken pieces, in tapes, journals, and correspondence, this is the story of Episode Thirteen — and how everything went terribly, horribly wrong.
I found the concept of Episode Thirteen very intriguing. A novel based on a ghost-hunting reality TV series during what could be their last big investigation? Sign me up! However, the execution wasn’t there. There was too much dialogue and scientific explanation that took me out of the story. Too much buildup and not enough action, for my taste. I also felt like all the characters weren’t developed enough. Especially the main host of the paranormal series, he was so vanilla, and I honestly forgot he was there half the time, and he’s supposed to be the host! In fact, all the male charaters were too simlar that they meshed into one big caricature of a white man who is interested in horror. On a positive note, the audio production was amazing! I listened to this via audiobook, which I would recommend as it made certain parts read like an actual series. It made for a delightful listening experience.
You can purchase Episode Thirteen here
Bewitching the Elements: A Guide to Empowering Yourself Through Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit by Gabriela Herstik ★★★★★/5
Empower yourself by connecting to the five elements through meditation, breathwork, tarot, crystals, rituals, and journaling
Bewitching the Elements was part of my Scorpio TBR that extended into December/Sagittarius season because it took me longer to devour this witchy guidebook. However, I’m glad I took time with it because I needed extra time to take in everything that I was learning! Gabriela Herstik goes into so much detail and gifts you a lot of useful knowledge on how you can better amplify your spiritual practice by using the elements. I found it very insightful and aesthetically pleasing as it was typed in blue writing! lol
You can purchase Bewitching the Elements here
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific by Cheryl Strayed ★★★★★/5
At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State — and she would do it alone.
Told with suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.
Wild was part of my Sag TBR, known for their adventurous side, I thought Wild would be the perfect book for Sagittarius season. I was captivated the entire time! It felt like I was hiking beside Cheryl as we journeyed throughout the Pacific Crest Trail. I don’t know what else to say besides that I loved this!
You can purchase Wild here
Play Nice by Rachel Harrison ★★★/5
A woman must confront the demons of her past when she attempts to fix up her childhood home in this devilishly clever take on the haunted house.
I really wanted to love Play Nice by Rachel Harrison. It was one of the few 2025 new releases that I was anticipating, but it disappointed me. If you follow my monthly ‘what I read’ blog posts, you know I enjoy reading horror. But, this read too similar to other horror novels I read in the past few years. It was like a combination of The Stranger Upstairs, How to Sell a Haunted House, and Diavola. It felt unorginal. Plus, the main character came off as such a brat and only became more unlikable as the story went on. I normally never like any of Rachel Harrison’s leading ladies but I always manage to like another one of her characters but Play Nice didn’t have a single character that I wanted to hear more from. Rachel Harrison is one of my favorite authors, but this is my least favorite Harrison novel I’ve read so far.
You can purchase Play Nice here
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert ★★★★★/5
Gilbert offers insights into the mysterious nature of inspiration. She asks us to embrace our curiosity and let go of needless suffering. She shows us how to tackle what we most love, and how to face down what we most fear. She discusses the attitudes, approaches, and habits we need in order to live our most creative lives. Balancing between soulful spirituality and cheerful pragmatism, Gilbert encourages us to uncover the “strange jewels” that are hidden within each of us. Whether we are looking to write a book, make art, find new ways to address challenges in our work, embark on a dream long deferred, or simply infuse our everyday lives with more mindfulness and passion, Big Magiccracks open a world of wonder and joy.
This was my only reread of 2025, despite being one of my goals. However, I’ll discuss this in more detail in my 2026 reading goals. After rereading Big Magic, I can confidently say that it’s still my favorite book on creativity, as of 2025! I first read Big Magic in 2018, and I’m happy to report that it’s just as influential and inspiring as the first time I read this book! It’s exactly what I needed to hear at the end of the year, and I can’t wait to implement what I learned from this book in the New Year!
You can purchase Big Magic here
Wild Spectacle: Seeking Wonders in a World Beyond Humans by Janisse Ray ★★★★★/5
Looking for adventure and continuing a process of self-discovery, Janisse Ray has repeatedly set out to immerse herself in wildness, to be wild, and to learn what wildness can teach us. From overwintering with monarch butterflies in Mexico to counting birds in Belize, the stories in Wild Spectacle capture her luckiest moments—ones of heart-pounding amazement, discovery of romance, and moving toward living more wisely. In Ray’s worst moments she crosses boundaries to encounter danger and embrace sadness.
Anchored firmly in two places Ray has called home—Montana and southern Georgia—the sixteen essays here span a landscape from Alaska to Central America, connecting common elements in the ecosystems of people and place. One of her abiding griefs is that she has missed the sights of explorers like Bartram, Sacagawea, and Carver: flocks of passenger pigeons, routes of wolves, herds of bison. She craves a wilder world and documents encounters that are rare in a time of disappearing habitat, declining biodiversity, and a world too slowly coming to terms with climate change.
In an age of increasingly virtual, urban life, Ray embraces the intentionality of trying to be a better person balanced with seeking out natural spectacle, abundance, and less trammeled environments. She questions what it means to travel into the wild as a woman, speculates on the impacts of ecotourism and travel in general, questions assumptions about eating from the land, and appeals to future generations to make substantive change.
Wild Spectacle explores our first home, the wild earth, and invites us to question its known and unknown beauties and curiosities.
After reading and loving Wild by Cheryl Strayed, I was excited to read Wild Spectacle. Unfortunately, it didn’t hit the same. This was difficult to read. Not because of the subject matter, but because of how this was written. The author is a nature writer, so there are a lot of mentions of plants and landscapes in great detail that went over my head. I thought Wild Spectacle would be more of a travel memoir, but it was more of a memoir about the author’s relationship with nature and the people she met along the way. It was also surprisingly sad. The chapter about the butterflies brought a tear to my eye.
You can purchase Wild Spectacle here
Have you read any of these books? What did you read in December?
