With the (heavily enforced, appropriately artificial) rise of wildly unethical generative “AI”, the rapidly decreasing usability of all my favourite internet spaces alongside global developments that are unbearable to take in yet impossible to look away from, 2025 has, if nothing else, only strengthened my appreciation for the things that bring the most meaning to our brief human lives: People, art, and hobbies.

As this is largely a media focused blog, what follows are my favourite discoveries in the world of books, TV and movies for the year. And if you read to the end, you’ll find a little celebration of this year’s new hobbies.

FAVOURITE BOOKS I READ FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 2025:

CONTEMPORARY FICTION

Interesting Facts About Space by Emily Austin (2024) - Wildly anxious autistic Canadian lesbian with a commitment-phobia enters unexpected relationship while navigating a complicated family situation. Big feelings for the mentally ill.

We Could Be Rats by Emily Austin (2025) - Uptight older sister attempts to come to terms with younger sister’s suicide attempts. I read three books utilising a particular narrative device this year, and this was by far the best execution of it. Devastating; lovely.

Grief Is The Thing With Feathers by Max Porter (2019) - A small family grieving the sudden loss of their wife and mother are visited by a deranged talking crow. Part novella, part long-form poem. Weird; beautiful.

Selfish Girls by Abigail Bergstrom (2025) - A family of Welsh women re-navigate their complicated dynamic as the youngest daughter moves back to their home town. Generational mistakes abound; soapy and delicious.

HISTORICAL FICTION

James by Percival Everett (2024) - A reimagining of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim, an enslaved man saddled with a clueless white kid as he desperately seeks freedom for himself and his family. Horrific, moving, darkly funny.

Until The Red Leaves Fall by Alli Parker (2025) - a Japanese Australian playwright in 1950’s Melbourne tries to tell her family’s story in a system that wants only to exploit and bury it. Rich, saucy, had me shrieking “DUMP HIM” in a fun way.

Mere by Danielle Giles (2025) - A curse settles over a secluded nunnery in 900’s England, driving anyone who sets foot in the surrounding bog slowly mad. Atmospheric and really very gay.

The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis (2025) - A rumour about five young local sisters gets out of hand during a heatwave in 1700’s Oxfordshire. Fascinating study of masculinity, small town nonsense, and mysticism on the edge of a scientific age. Superb.

SCIENCE FICTION

Only The Astronauts by Ceridwen Dovey (2024) - An interconnected short story collection told from the perspective of various pieces of space junk. Clever; surprisingly moving.

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (1979) - A Black woman is pulled back to the Antebellum South every time her white, slave-owning ancestor faces a threat to his life. Absolutely chilling.

Slow Gods by Claire North (2025) - A monster bears witness to the end of a world. Difficult to sum up in such a short space. Big-brained, bittersweet.

FANTASY

The Siege of Burning Grass by Premee Mohamed (2024) - A pacifist prisoner of war is forced on a mission of supposed peace with a true believer of the fascist cause. Compelling; thought-provoking.

The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar (2025) - Two sisters on the edge of a magical river suffer a highly unfortunate misunderstanding. Feels fresh while paying tribute to centuries of folklore.

Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes (2025) - A promising young man takes on increasing amounts of debt to save his sister from indentured service; a mysterious young man haunts a strange city’s upper class in search of revenge. Weird, wonderful, and full of oversized bugs.

HORROR

A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enriquez (2024) - A short story collection exploring hauntings in post-2020 Argentina. Spooky and effective.

Bat Eater by Kylie Lee Baker (2025) - After witnessing her sister’s violent, racially motivated murder in New York in 2020, Cora takes up crime scene cleaning… and discovers that her sister’s murder was just one entry in a spree against young Asian women. Also, there’s a ghost in her house, and it demands to be fed. Visceral, properly spooky, and with some very solid social commentary.

NON-FICTION

Blood in the Machine by Brian Merchant (2025) - A deep dive into the story of the Luddite uprising which then draws strong parallels between textile barons and tech bro CEO’s. The arguments for “innovation” — as well as the severe blows to workers rights and the environment — stay the same.

Empire of AI by Karen Hao (2025) - A thorough history of OpenAI. This is a thick book that covers a lot of ground, exposing the void of ethics OpenAI operates under, while providing glimpses of what an ethical use of generative “AI” would look like. Vital reading.

More Everything Forever by Adam Becker (2025) - An exploration of the ideologies and goals touted by all of the tech CEO’s you’ve heard of, and a bunch more you haven’t. If you’ve ever considered any of these people super-intelligent, read this, and be amazed at what gross little dinguses have been allowed to amass unholy amounts of wealth and power.

FAVOURITE REREADS OF 2025:

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1813) - needs no introduction, surely. (Third or fourth time reading)

Chain-Gang All-Starts by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (2023) - an exploration of the US prison industrial complex in which prison inmates compete in televised, gamefied death matches to win their freedom. Fantastic prose, vivid character, devastating commentary. Abolitionist sci-fi. (second time reading)

The Bone Orchard by Sara A. Mueller (2022) - science fantasy in which a charming, but traumatised prisoner of war plays out an identity crises via a series of her personal clones amidst a high-stakes coup. I love women’s politics. (fourth time reading)

The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden (2024) - the apocalyptic nature of WW1 is made manifest as the devil descends on the western front. A lushly told, heartbreaking story of trauma and devotion. (second time reading)

The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir (2019 ongoing) - batshit science fantasy with oodles of heart. As yet unfinished. We live in hope for an announcement. (third time reading book 1, second time reading books 2 & 3)

Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield (2022) - pensive and domestic science fiction exploring the decay of a relationship after a deep-sea expedition goes wrong. Weird and sad. (second time reading)

Our Hideous Progeny by C.E. McGill (2023) - What if Victor Frankenstein’s great-niece found Robert Walton’s letters and used them to deduce his methods in the hopes of saving her useless scientific husband’s reputation, get them out of death, and kickstart her own career in paleontology? An excellent riff on the themes of Frankenstein with a queer female protagonist. (second time reading)

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1831) - What can I say, it was the year of Frankenstein! (second time reading)

FAVOURITE SHOWS THAT AIRED THIS YEAR

Severance S2 (Apple) - Corporate dystopian sci-fi that explores what might happen if workers could separate their work life from their home life. Hot tip: never give a corporation access to your brain. Eerie; a surprising amount of heart. A third season has been announced, but it hasn’t even started filming yet so expect it no sooner than 2027 (ugh).

Win or Lose (Disney) - An undersung animated series from Pixar exploring a pivotal kid’s baseball (or maybe softball?) game from the perspectives of the various players, their parents, and the coach. Really inventive and delightful, seems not to have been renewed for any future seasons but still very satisfying as a limited series. You will like it more than your kids will.

The Pitt S1 (HBO) - A not-quite realtime procedural charting one shift in a Pittsburgh ER. 13 episodes of high-stakes, devastating drama that actually engages with the PTSD some medical staff still carry from the early years of COVID. Absolute tear-jerker, and worth every slightly clunky moment trying to encourage its audience to just be better to each other. And Season 2 is coming NEXT WEEK! With extra episodes! A TV miracle.

Murderbot S1 (Apple) - A sci-fi romp based on Martha Wells Murderbot Diaries book series. An indentured security robot hacks its governing module to achieve freedom, but doesn’t know what to do with it and so just watches soap operas while it continues working. Enter: lovable hippy clients who will definitely all die if the bot follows protocols. A really effective adaptation. Season 2 has been greenlit, but no word on when we’ll see it. My guess is 2027 earliest (UGH).

Pluribus S1 (Apple) - Grumpy middle-aged lesbian is one of 12 people left out as the rest of the world is absorbed against their will into a euphoric hive mind. Ponderous; excellent. Season 2 was greenlit at the same time as S1, so we can only pray that leads to a new season in late 2026.

FAVOURITE SHOWS THAT ARE NEW TO ME

Silicon Valley S1 - 6 (HBO) - Reading about the horrors of Silicon Valley naturally led me back to this dark comedy which really did try to warn us all what was coming. Very funny, very depressing.

The X-Files S1 - 3 (?) - Two incredibly attractive FBI agents investigate the supernatural and extra-terrestrial in perpetual autumn with a success rate of about 2%. An icon for a reason.

FAVOURITE FILMS RELEASED THIS YEAR

KPOP Demon Hunters - Cool K-Pop girl group saves world from hot demon boy band using the powers of self-acceptance and friendship. Fun, fast-paced and full of absolute bops. Still lowkey want a Saja Boys T-shirt.

The Phoenician Scheme - The latest Wes Anderson movie sees Benicio Del Toro take centre stage as a grifter who keeps having near death experiences, and therefore decides to bond with his estranged eldest daughter (a nun) while trying to embroil her in his new scheme. Delightful, really into the way Wes Anderson has been stepping even further away from realism in his art design.

Frankenstein - Guillermo Del Toro’s take on the literary classic is flawed but full of heart. Despite the narrative bumps, I had a great time with all the performances. And, of course, it’s absolutely gorgeous to look at.

Predator: Badlands - A family friendly Predator movie that, frankly, slaps. Use it to indoctrinate your children into sci-fi STAT.

Wake Up Dead Man - Rian Johnson’s latest entry to the Knives Out series sees Benoit Blanc in a beautiful church investigating an impossible crime. Lovely themes at work here, and it’s always nice to see Daniel Craig living his best life. The hype around Josh O’Connor is deserved.

FAVOURITE FILMS THAT WERE NEW TO ME

Conclave (2024) - The pope dies, therefore triggering an election for a new one. Compelling, gentle, and absolutely beautiful to look at. Who could have guessed that papal politics would provide me with a new comfort movie? Not I.

Judgement At Nuremberg (1960) - An engaging and nuanced fictionalisation of one of the Nuremberg trials of 1945-46. A retired judge from small-town America sits in deliberation over German judges accused of abetting the Nazi regime while a German prosector seeks to exonerate the German people. Spectacular.

The Great Dictator (1940) - Charlie Chaplin’s prescient lampooning of Adolf Hitler filmed prior to the outbreak of war — and while the US and Britain were still broadly trying to appease him. An important entry in cinematic (and general) history, but also a clever work of comedy that is both funny and moving.

Some Like It Hot (1959) - Two jazz musicians witness a mob hit in prohibition Chicago and so, to get out of town and save their skins, they don drag and join an all-female band headed for Florida… where the mob is having a convention. Also, they both fall in love while in drag. A romcom that hits all the beats and has aged incredibly well. Rollicking good fun. Also: Marilyn Monroe in a dress that barely exists.

I’m going to talk about the hobbies I’ve enjoyed engaging in this year in terms of:

NICE THINGS I DID FOR MYSELF IN 2025

Because what is a hobby but the carving out of time in which to be kind to yourself by engaging in something that brings you joy and/or new knowledge and skills? Hobbies are the best kind of self-care, and if you feel that you’re lacking in them I give you full permission to go forth and treat yourself.

I BOUGHT A PEN.

On a whim (which was probably brought on by the spontaneous explosion of ads for ridiculously expensive fountain pens all over my social media), I bought a fountain pen. Nothing fancy, and certainly nothing from the ads. It was a $20 plastic Kakuno Pilot pen from Office Works that came with plain black ink. Upon announcing the development to bluesky, I was warned that doing this would open up a gateway to fountain pen obsession and ink capitalism. But that hasn’t come to pass. This pen is so lovely to write with that I haven’t had the urge to try anything else, and the refills are like a dollar each.

What it has led to, however, is two rather fancy Paper Republic leather journals and a pile of inserts: blank notebooks for research, dotted notebooks for brainstorming, planners for planning and memory-keeping which, for the first time in my life, I have consistently kept up with. More than one of those research notebooks has already been filled front and back. Putting pen to paper, it turns out, is an absolute joy, and it turns out to be very good for creative thinking.

That pen is also directly responsible for me writing Christmas cards this year, which was an exercise that made me very happy. I also have a few friends I’m planning to exchange handwritten letters with in 2026, because we all miss receiving nice mail.

All that from one cheap pen!

Important note: While writing this blog, a friend texted me a picture of her brand new Kakuno Pilot pen. Thrilled to be so influential.

I RELEASED THE IDEA OF A WRITING CAREER GENTLY INTO THE ETHER

Which sounds more dramatic than it is. This year, the television show that provided the bulk of my work and income ended. At around the same time, the small business my partner started a few years ago became too much for him to handle alone and he asked if I could step in as a full-time employee. At first, I had a small identity crisis over it. As much as I’ve always hated — and been very bad at — the hustle, I’d pinned so much of my self-worth on my identity as a career writer for so long. What would it mean if I gave up?

Answer: less stress, a much more reliable income, more time with my partner, and, ironically, by shifting writing from a career to a hobby, more time and headspace to work on my own projects. And, as a huge bonus, I’m actually having fun with writing again.

I LET MYSELF BE CHEERED INTO KNITTING A JUMPER

Winter in Western Australia is usually a blink-and-you miss it situation, but in 2025 it came early and lingered long. We had more rain than I can ever remember seeing, and it was COLD! I yearned, therefore, for a cozy, handmade jumper. Some friends who knit assured me that knitting a jumper is easier than it looks, and so, with nothing more complicated than a basic scarf or cabled hat under my belt (and not at all recently), I swatched some leftover wool and followed a video tutorial. And it worked! And it was fun! And I love that jumper! I have since completed two more jumpers (a cable knit for my dog, and a cable knit for me) and am a third of the way through a kind of lacework tank top for myself. Next year I have plans to make a cable knit jumper for my partner and some more complicated lacework stuff for myself. Also: I want to learn how to knit socks, hopefully in time to make some as Christmas gifts.

The lesson here is to just start doing stuff. Even if it looks scary or complicated. Also: have lovely, supportive friends who cheer you on.

I STARTED LISTENING TO MUSIC PROPERLY AGAIN

As in, I started listening to albums again—no skips allowed! This started in January last year when my partner and I ditched Spotify for Apple music, and ultimately led to my partner buying me a record player for Christmas, along with four excellently chosen records (Metallica’s Self Titled, Phoebe Bridgers’ Stranger in the Alps, Twin Peaks: Music from The Return and Fallout: The Soothing Sounds of the Apocolypse). I’ve spent many of my evenings since Christmas sitting by the record player with a cup of tea, reading or knitting to the gentle crackle of a great album, getting up every so often to change sides. We’ve also found a great local record shop to expand our little library from. I’ve spent much of my adult life thinking of myself as not really a music person, but maybe that’s just because CD’s were basically over by the time I’d finished high school. It’s been digital files and playlists since I was 18. But now music’s fun again! And has the bonus element of throwing up a pair of middle fingers to the streamers.

AND ALL OF THIS WAS HELPED BY

Yeeting my stupid phone into a tin, and then, when that stopped working, paying for an app that shuts down access to all of my social media for certain hours of the day. This hasn’t banished the internet from my life, but it has helped me to remove myself from anything that would draw me into an endless scroll, or expose me to rage bait, or tempt me to watch a series of short-form video content I won’t remember anyway. It’s been difficult — I’ve been very online for a very long time, have made a lot of friends from around the world who I speak to over the socials, and I have clearly become reliant on a lot of whatever it is that these apps and websites release in me — but it’s been worth it. My short-term memory is better than it’s been in ages, my mental health is shockingly great, and I have more time for things that are actually good for me and the people around me. See: all of the above.

Where will all this newfound time and mental energy take me in 2026? I’m not sure (though pottery and crossword puzzles are on the immediate agenda). But no matter what else is going on, I can confidently predict that I will be reading books and watching TV, then running here to tell you all about them.

Thanks for reading along, friends. May this year be kind to you.

x