Yay, it’s the end of 2025 and the beginning of a new year! I’m doing this as a proper December 2025 recap and will hopefully follow up some time in January with full-year recaps. Best wishes to everyone!
What I’ve read / Texte
📚 Books / Livres
I only have fiction to recommend this month. Oops!
In English
- Woodworking by Emily St. James, a novel with two great storylines entertwined. It’s about being trans and knowing it (or not) and living with it (or not) and being accepted as you are (or not) and trying to change the world for the better (or not).
En français
- Jouer le jeu de Fatima Daas m’a fait serrer les dents un certain temps, jusqu’à ce que je décide que sûrement elle voulait que je serre les dents en lisant. Effectivement, et c’était une lecture superbe.
📰 Web links / Liens web
In English
- The F-off contact page
- Creating new tongues: languages in the wake of the Yugoslavian dissolution
- Workers, students, and socialism in East Germany
- Brutalist architecture explained
- How crossword puzzles underwrote three of America’s major publishers
- By Ben Werdmüller:
- Disagree and let’s see
- Where do the children play?
- Every decision has three costs: time, focus, and optionality. I’m a big optionality person, at the expense of focus and especially time, and these days I’m trying to do this a bit less, if only because it’s the end of the December and I still haven’t settled on a winter coat that will fill all my criteria, so I’m running around in 3 sweaters and a flimsy jean jacket.
En français
- Le train de nuit Paris-Berlin va être relancé par une coopérative belgo-néerlandaise après son abandon par la SNCF
- Rien de pire qu’un bon patron
- Les agressions LGBTQIphobes en forte progression depuis 8 ans
- 🔏 Rap feat narcotrafic : tout pour le fric
- L’artisanat redevient-il désirable ?
- Mes recommandations pour consommer (le plus) responsable (possible)
What I’ve watched / Vidéo
🎞 Movies / Films
I went to the movies! I hadn’t done that in so long! There’s a tiny one-room cinema super close to where I live (I had no idea!) where the ticket is 7€ which is very reasonable and you can bring your own food and drinks. So I went to see One Battle After Another, since all the podcasts I like seem to really want us to watch it. I don’t feel like I wasted my money but I strongly doubt it was the best movie of the entire year, honestly.
📺 TV Shows / Séries
- Still on Abbott Elementary
- New Jet Lag season is set in the UK, so it has a lot of English people, but we bravely watch it nonetheless.
What I’ve listened to / Audio
🎤 Podcasts
I only include links if the podcast has bothered to have a website. All episodes are available for free on your favourite podcast app / web reader. 🔏 are Patreon episodes: send me a message and I’ll send you the file.
In English
I’ve spent most of the month listening to NotACast (the chapter-by-chapter analysis of A Song of Ice and Fire, as I just finished my A Storm of Swords read-through) and, more importantly (?), The Magnus Archives, which I had never heard of and my friend recommended to me, probably without realizing the magnitude of the rabbit hole she was sending me towards. It’s great.
Also:
- On 60 Songs that explain the ’90s (Spotify original but not exclusive):
- Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice
- Macarena by Los del Rio
- …and pretty much every episode
- On The Devil You Know (CBC original but not exclusive):
- A second helping from Satan: SATANISM 101
- Episode 8: Where are we now?
- …and pretty much every episode, except for the Taylor Swift one, I guess.
En français
- Sur Méta de choc : De l’ostéopathie à la spiritualité New Age
- Sur Le Phil d’actu : Une philosophie de Noël
What I’ve played / Jeux
Did a bit of Animal Crossing and pretty much immediately gave up again.
Finished It Takes Two, which was truly wonderful all the way through. If you enjoy other local co-op games with forgiving gameplay, not too enigma-based, for 2, and on Switch, please do recommend them!
Played a few really cool board games (notably King of Tokyo, Castle Combo, and, well, always more Skyjo).
And mostly, I completed several jigsaw puzzles (the perfect activity while listening to podcasts, really).
Where I’ve been / Lieux
M. and I went to Lyon for a nice 24-hour time away from home. Lyon can be really pretty. This time, it was not, but it’s fine, because we spent most of our time inside restaurants and Halles Bocuse. Three weeks later, I’m still digesting. I strongly recommend semi-splurging on a meal at Brasserie des Brotteaux if you’re in the neighborhood.
We went to more hockey games (yay!) and of course, I went through the usual (but unusually enjoyable!) circus of Christmas meals with various parts of my family.
Happy new year to everyone, and see you soon!