Oh. My. Gosh. I did it! I kept track of pretty much everything I read, watched and listened to this year. Thank you and good night!
Books
Boulder (2021) by Eva Baltasar
Boulder is the nickname given to a woman by another woman called Samsa while the former works as a cook on a merchant ship. The novel follows the eponymous main character as the couple moves to Reykjavík, Samsa has a child, and Boulder navigates how the resulting changes in their relationship clash with her desire for freedom.
Blood Meridian (1985) by Cormac McCarthy
Blood Meridian is an epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, brilliantly subverting the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the Wild West. Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, it traces the fortunes of the Kid, a fourteen-year-old Tennesseean who stumbles into a nightmarish world where Indians are being murdered and the market for their scalps is thriving.
Substacks
Short Stories
A Christmas Tale (Conte de Noël) by Guy de Maupassant
A Christmas Eve Festival by Guy de Maupassant
La Tarjeta Postal (2014) por Norma Lazo
La Navidad como Escalera (2018) por Alberto Ruy Sanchez
Navidad del 70 por Anamari Gomís
Nochebuena (1832) por Nikolai Gogol
Auggie Wren’s Christmas Story (1991) by Paul Auster
Flor de Nochebuena (1992) por Hernán Lara Zavala
El Wili por Ana García Bergua
Movies
The Mummy (1932)
IMDb RATING - 6.9/10 - 33K | Dark Fantasy + Supernatural Horror
A resurrected Egyptian mummy searches Cairo for the girl he believes to be his long-lost princess.
Gremlins (1984)
IMDb RATING - 7.3/10 - 268K | Dark Comedy + Dark Fantasy + Folk Horror
After receiving an exotic small animal as a Christmas gift, a young man inadvertently breaks three important rules concerning his new pet, which unleashes a horde of malevolently mischievous creatures on a small town.
Red One (2024)
IMDb RATING - 6.2/10 - 154K | Holiday Comedy + Action
After Santa Claus is kidnapped, the North Pole's Head of Security must team up with a notorious hacker in a globe-trotting, action-packed mission to save Christmas.
The Holiday (2006)
IMDb RATING - 7.0/10 - 361K | Holiday Comedy + Feel-Good Romance
Amanda lives in LA and is a movie trailer editor. Iris lives in Surrey and is a journalist. The two decide to swap houses for two weeks at Christmas - both trying to forget their troubled love lives, until love finds them anyways.
Jingle All The Way (1996)
IMDb RATING - 5.8/10 - 128K | Farce + Holiday Comedy
A father vows to get his son a Turbo Man action figure for Christmas. However, every store is sold out, and he must travel all over town and compete with everybody else in order to find one.
Christmas with the Kranks (2004)
IMDb RATING - 5.5/10 - 65K | Holiday Comedy
With their daughter Blair away in Peru, Luther and Nora Krank decide to skip Christmas altogether until she decides to come home, causing an uproar when they must celebrate it at the last minute.
Miss Congeniality (2000)
IMDb RATING - 6.4/10 - 245K | High-Concept Comedy + Action
Gracie Hart, a tomboyish detective, is forced to infiltrate the Miss United States beauty pageant as a contestant after her department learns that the event is under threat from an anonymous bomber.
Miracle on 34 Street (1994)
IMDb RATING - 6.7/10 - 50K | Holiday Family + Drama
A lawyer and a little girl must prove that a man claiming to be Santa Claus is the real thing.
The Family Stone (2003)
IMDb RATING - 6.3/10 - 87K | Holiday Family + Holiday Romance
An uptight businesswoman accompanies her boyfriend to his eccentric and outgoing family's annual Christmas celebration and finds that she's a fish out of water in their free-spirited way of life.
Over The Top (1987)
IMDb RATING - 5.8/10 - 64K | B-Action + Drama
Tough trucker Lincoln Hawk is determined to win back his son and triumph at the world arm wrestling championships.
Sinners (2025)
IMDb RATING - 7.5/10 - 331K | Folk-Horror + Period Drama
Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.
One Battle After Another (2025)
IMDb RATING - 7.9/10 - 223K | Action Epic + Dark Comedy
When their evil enemy resurfaces after 16 years, a group of ex-revolutionaries reunite to rescue the daughter of one of their own.
Train Dreams (2025)
IMDb RATING - 7.5/10 - 38K | Period Drama
Based on Denis Johnson's beloved novella, Train Dreams is the moving portrait of Robert Grainier, a logger and railroad worker who leads a life of unexpected depth and beauty in the rapidly-changing America of the early 20th Century.
Mi Pobre Angelito (1990)
IMDb RATING - 7.8/10 - 728K | Holiday Comedy + Holiday Family
An eight-year-old troublemaker, mistakenly left home alone, must defend his home against a pair of burglars on Christmas Eve.
Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
IMDb RATING - 7.3/10 - 195K | Dark Comedy + Romantic Comedy
Socially frustrated Barry Egan calls a phone-sex line to curb his loneliness. Little does he know it will land him in deep trouble and will jeopardize his burgeoning romance with the mysterious Lena.
The New Yorker at 100
IMDb RATING - 7.1/10 - 815 | Documentary
The New Yorker's centennial reveals behind-the-scenes access to editors, writers, and archives of this culturally vital magazine, one of print's last survivors.
YouTube
Music
That’s a wrap, 2025.
Thanks for reading, and for the suggestions!
That’s an impressive list! Thanks for the shout out!