Welcome to my January 2025 Wrap-Up! At the end of every month, I like to look back on everything I’ve written, read, and enjoyed recently, gathering it all in a single post for us all to enjoy. This month’s post is coming a few days later than usual since I recently had the flu (0/10, would not recommend), and was NOT feeling up to writing anything at all. But I’m doing much better now, and I’m so excited to share this month’s wrap-up with you all!
General Highlights
As always, here are some of the biggest and most memorable moments from this month, both good and bad:
- The month started with quite a lot of stress. Los Angeles (where I live) immediately caught fire. I am very fortunate that I never had to evacuate, though those warnings came concerningly close for a week or so.
- More stress: one of my dogs got quite sick at the start of the month, and we were very concerned about her for a couple of weeks. Luckily, she’s making quite an exceptional recovery, and she’s even regained her ability to walk semi-normally after some damage to her spinal cord.
- I went to Disneyland! My parents got me a 3-day pass for Christmas, and I used my first day earlier this month. I had such a blast, and I’m looking forward to going back again soon.
- As I mentioned earlier, I got the flu, and it really sucked.
- I did a lot of gardening this month. It’s warm even in January here, so I was able to get a few new seeds started and maintain the plants that I already have.
- I finally got around to setting some goals for 2025, and I feel like I have a lot more clarity about my life at the moment.
Despite all the stress at the start of the month and my illness toward the end, January was overall a good month for me. I’m feeling more energized and inspired than I have in a while, and I hope to carry this energy with me throughout February as well!
January 2025 Wrap-Up
On The Blog in January 2025:
After taking a couple of months off from blogging, I have finally returned! I was able to get 4 posts published this month. Although I would have liked to get another one or two out, I gotta say I’m proud of these 4.
Books I Read in January 2025:
I finished reading 4 books this month, and I started 5 (yes, 5!) more. I’m happy with the variety of formats and topics that I read:
- 2 memoirs
- 1 journalistic nonfiction
- 1 fiction
Although none of these books ended up being absolute favorites of mine, they certainly gave me a lot to think about, and I find a ton of value in that. Here are some quick summaries of the books I finished:
Educated by Tara Westover
★★★★☆ 4 stars | Memoir | Read My Review
Wow, what a read! This story of Tara Westover’s life is shocking, moving, and downright awe-inspiring at times. It is truly incredible how far a good education and a truckload of curiosity can take a person and completely change their world. Although I wish this book had zoomed out a bit more and placed Westover’s life in the greater context of the world, I still found this story to be delightfully worth the read. As long as you’re not too squeamish about gore, I would recommend this memoir to you.
Filterworld by Kyle Chayka
★★★✬☆ 3.5 stars | Nonfiction, Technology
An interesting, if a bit repetitive, account of how algorithms are rapidly pushing us toward homogeneity. This book was a bit scattered, with many loosely related topics bound up into one. That said, Chayka touched on some fascinating points that made me ponder the way I view social media and how it, in turn, shapes my interests and the culture I consume. While this book was not groundbreaking in my opinion, it left me with some great food for thought. I’ll have this on my mind for a while.
Counting the Cost by Jill Duggar
★★★✬☆ 3.5 stars | Memoir
This memoir ended up being a lot more focused on the TV shows that Jill was in than I’d hoped for. A lot of time was spent on her childhood, and I understand that this context was important, but I wanted to read more about her breaking free from her religion/family. That said, the last 30% or so of the book touched on that stuff, and it was really a great read. I just wish there had been more of it. Overall, there was too much of a buildup without enough payoff for what I’d wanted. I think this memoir would be a lot more interesting for those who were fans of Jill Duggar’s shows.
The Vegetarian by Han Kang, Deborah Smith (Translator)
★★☆☆☆ 2 stars | Horror, Lit Fic, Adult
This book is structured as three Parts. In my opinion, Parts I and II were wayyy too graphic for my taste. Fortunately, Part III was slightly redeeming, and it could honestly stand alone as a decent short story. But it wasn’t enough to save the book overall for me. Even though I “get” what the author is doing with this story, it’s not done in a way that I personally connect with. Not my cup of tea, which was super disappointing since I’ve heard incredible reviews from others.
Other Media I Enjoyed in January 2025:
Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE
I know, I’m super late to the party on this one. As a casual K-pop girl group fan, I’ve been hearing about KATSEYE for a while. However, I only recently looked into them a bit more and fell down the rabbit hole of Dream Academy. It initially took place right as I was getting into Kpop, just in time for me to have completely missed it… This month, I finally got around to watching the Netflix docuseries, which follows the formation of the group KATSEYE. I was surprised by how emotionally invested I became in all the girls’ journeys, and I’ll admit I shed a few tears at some of the eliminations. Since watching, I have gotten way more into KATSEYE, and I highly recommend this show and the girl group to anyone interested.
Heartstopper: Seasons 1-3
After reading the graphic novels at the end of 2024, it was time for me to finally watch the Netflix adaptation. I was overwhelmingly pleased with it! The casting was perfect, the vibes were spot-on, and I loved how accurate the story was to the novels while also adding a couple of sub-plots/characters here and there to keep it fresh. I don’t want to say too much for fear of spoilers, so I’ll just say this: whether you’ve read the graphic novels or not, this show is great fun and gives us some much-needed feel-good queer representation in popular media. I highly, HIGHLY recommend this show to everyone!
Coming in February:
A Non-Commital TBR Pool:
Every month, I like to list a handful of books that I will hopefully-maybe get around to reading in the upcoming weeks.
I won’t go too in-depth this month since I basically already have a full post on books I want to read during Black History Month this year. Instead, here are the 5 books I’m currently reading, since I plan to finish these before I start the books in the aforementioned post:
- The Grace of Wild Things by Heather Fawcett
- Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Holy Ground by Catherine Coleman Flowers
- Opinions by Roxane Gay
- Conspirituality by Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, and Julian Walker
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Anyway, that concludes my January 2025 Wrap-Up! Let me know in the comments if you have any favorite books or other media from this month.
As always, my next monthly wrap-up post will be in one month, on March 1. Until then, I will continue posting my usual content on Tuesdays and every other Friday. I hope you have a wonderful February!
With love,
Corinne <3