December Round Up
and 2025 in general
Happy New Year! I know I just shared a piece on the last year and how it felt, but I wanted to return to my monthly round ups after missing the last one in November. They are a nice way to finish off the month, look back on the positives, and appreciate what I actually achieved.
A hopefully succinct ending to 2025, a way to put it to bed and focus on what’s to come! This is a low-stakes piece, with little real retro- or introspection, so just look at my opinions on media and tell me what you enjoyed watching/reading/listening to in December!
Watches:
Thank Letterboxd for keeping track of (most of) the movies I watch. I do forget to add them quite often, but at least there are some things on there! Here are my highlights:
Wuthering Heights (1939)
I’ll be honest, a big reason I watched this was because I am eagerly anticipating the 2026 version by Emerald Fennell with music by Charli XCX. I have wanted to read the book for years, ever since I saw a drama about the Bronte sisters - one that I can’t seem to find anywhere online. Maybe it was a dream, but I know I have wanted to explore the story for long time.
After a little online reading, I found that the 1939 version with Laurence Olivier is often deemed the most romantically accurate. Now, that would normally turn me right away, but I do enjoy films pre-1950, so I thought I’d stick it on my screen. It also happened to be the only one I could get for free, and without pirating (I’m scared of malware).
My god was it good. Dramatic acting, beautiful landscapes, Laurence Olivier’s face. A recipe for success. If you haven’t watched it yet, I would highly recommend!
Charade (1963)
I made it a mission to watch as many Audrey Hepburn films as I could last year. I found this on an open access website (ignore what I said about malware earlier), and knew I had to indulge.
I adore Hepburn, and Cary Grant opposite her just added to it. Filmed on location in Paris, the videography is as stunning as the city itself, and is a wonderful contrast to the suspense thriller genre of the film. Interspersed with moments of comedy and romance that provide a welcome relief from the tense plotline with all of its twists and turns.
If you haven't had a chance yet, I highly recommend this. If you’re a lover of the 60s, Hepburn’s wardrobes, and Cary Grant’s face, get it on your screen and enjoy it now!
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025)
After very much enjoying the first movie, and also somewhat enjoying the second, I was highly anticipating the third installment of Rian Johnson’s murder mystery series. Joining the lead, Daniel Craig, are stars like Glenn Close and Josh O’Connor.
Initially, the Catholic overtones had me a little uncomfortable, hoping this movie wasn’t going to try to idolise the religion, but it instead showed balanced and opposing sides of the characters.
With the twists and turns you could have expected would be rife after the first two movies, Wake Up Dead Man did not disappoint. If you have a spare two and a half hours, get your popcorn out and get watching!
Reads:
As always, I will be including audiobooks in this. I often don’t have the time to nestle myself into a corner and read away, so this tends to be the best way for me to still enjoy books.
The Lesser Devil by Christopher Ruocchio
After finishing Empire of Silence in October, I knew I wanted to come back and continue this series. Labelled as book 1.5, this novella explores Crispin Marlowe’s story, the brother of the main character and narrator of the series. After only appearing in the beginning of Empire of Silence, it was nice to find out more about Crispin, finding out how he had changed and evolved since we last saw him, and understanding the impact that his (SPOILER) brother’s disappearance has had on him.
A relatively self-contained and fast-paced plotline in this novella helps to keep the reader (or listener in this case) engaged, diverting from the sometimes dragging exposition and monologues of the main series.
After finishing this, I moved immediately onto the second book in the series, Howling Dark, which I am still very much enjoying.
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
After this book being mentioned in a conversation with ellen ☆ , I thought I would give it a go. I had seen it elsewhere online previously, but hadn’t had the chance to read any further about it.
I’ll be honest, I struggled with this one. It may simply be that listening to it was confusing, or I didn’t manage to focus due to external stressors, but I wonder if I would enjoy this more with a physical copy. It’s not a particularly long book, so I’m sure a weekend on the sofa with some coffee and biscuits would clear this confusion right up!
Regardless, this was relatively heartbreaking. I think I’ll come back to this one way or another. Thank you for the inadvertent recommendation Ellen :)
Listens:
Now onto music! And podcasts, I guess!
My Scottish Queen, Nina Nesbit, decided to drop this incredible song. I was sent it by a friend who moved here years ago for uni, and has since moved away again. On the first listen, I started tearing up, and blamed her for it. She then decided to tell me that she was sat in the office, also crying. Heart-wrenching. 10/10.
I have tickets to see RAYE in February, and she announced that two of her sisters would be supporting her on this tour. Ever-dutiful listener that I am, I had to go and immerse myself in their music as well. No Audience by Absolutely is so ridiculously beautiful, I cannot stop playing it.
Finally, I began my binge of The Rest is Science! I could not imagine a better duo to host this podcast! Hannah Fry, a staple on my social media feeds, and Michael Stevens (Vsauce), who was a big proponent of my interest in science from a very young age, blend their personal styles of science communication perfectly in each episode. Keeping the light, accessible energies they both have had in their content historically, they manage to keep the audience easily engaged for more than half an hour, diving into complicated topics and theories, but explaining them succinctly and effectively.
Posts:
December ended up being a very busy month for me, and I even managed to finally share my first collaboration with another writer on here! If you haven’t had a chance yet, I would love if you could take a look at some of them:
Playing House
I don’t think I’m liable to love. It isn’t something I think of that often, although I couldn’t tell you whether that is by nature, or a careful and calculated move by my silly little brain.
Marcus and the Burning Room
Marcus Imblesby was a wizard. Not a particularly good or impressive one, but a wizard nonetheless. Marcus was a novice wizard at the Fumble Academy, a prestigious magic institution headed by Errlin Bifferstaff. Bifferstaff was a renowned sorceress, with centuries of headship at the Academy. She also happened to be Marcus’ aunt. They both insisted that i…
And here are some of my favourite posts from other writers:
I’ve had a big problem of not really finishing any books in 2025. My aim for January is to finish the books I’ve started. I have so many half-read tomes on my shelves, alongside the ones I haven’t even opened yet. The ones next to me right now are: Consider the Lilies by Ian Crichton Smith, There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak, Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin, and The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde.
Thank you for reading! Now, I shall be getting back to writing and sewing and singing and admin-ing my life away! I will be back with some new essays and short stories very soon! In the meantime:
You can read more of my essays here.
You can read some of my short fiction here.
If you would like to buy me a coffee, you can do that here.
Until the next short story <3
This is how you lose the time war is one of my FAV books ever!,!,!!! I loved this round up
ooooh i didn’t realise you were going to give the time war a read (well, a listen!) flicking back through my copy i did struggle to follow at times but seeing it in front of me was better! hopefully you have some time soon for that, sounds like there’s a lot of reading to squeeze in so i wish you luck!!!!!