9 Things That Made My Life Better Last Quarter (Oct.-Dec. 2025)
Can you believe that, at the end of the year, I actually thought I might get this posted within the first week of 2026? Ha ha ha! Nice try, optimism! It’s like you thought I wouldn’t be sick for a whole month during a busy semester start!
Anyway, here are a few small things that made my final quarter of 2025 a little better.
Japanese golden age mysteries (such as those by Yukito Ayatsuji and Seishi Yokomizo)
I like golden age mysteries because they are fun silly little puzzles, even if a lot of them sort of fall apart if you try to map them onto the real world. These authors were advertised as the Japanese Agatha Christies, but, actually, I get much more of an Ellery Queen vibe. One thing that’s particularly interesting about reading them as someone who isn’t Japanese is that my unfamiliarity with some social conventions highlights the absurdity of the social conventions in British and American golden-age mysteries that I am familiar with.
Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning by Peter Beinart (non-fiction book, 2025)
This book articulated many of the beliefs and emotions I hadn’t figured out how to express within a Jewish context. It helped me to–well, not resolve, but to address the tension I feel between belonging to the Jewish community and the rhetoric both inside and outside that community that claims only certain attitudes toward Israel are “really” Jewish. More than anything, Beinart reminds me that, whatever the loudest voices might claim, the history of the Jewish community isn’t one of a people always united ideologically but of a people who value diversity and disagreement, even when some condemn others’ viewpoints.
gym results
100% honesty? I haven’t yet managed to reinstate the consistent workout routine I had pre-pandemic. And that doesn’t feel great. So imagine my pleased surprise when I noticed that, actually, even my sporadic workouts are having an effect. Swimming strokes are easier than they were at the start of the year. So is running.
hanging out with a baby
I gained a baby nibling this quarter! Yaaay! You’d think that having your own offspring would make other people’s babies less interesting, but you’d be wrong! The baby is just as cute, but now you’re way more confident handling them and less concerned about their bodily fluids!
Unf*ck Your Brain by Kara Loewentheil (podcast)
I don’t know that I’m exactly recommending this feminist self-help podcast, because I liked a handful of episodes but also found others to be… very much not for me. But the ones I liked, I really liked. So… *shrugs* I like that the creator/host addresses a lot of concerns I haven’t seen much of in general wellness media from a feminist lens; I found her suggested responses helpful in a few areas that matter to me, like thinking of your ethical impact when you occupy a position of relative power in your profession.
Spier & Mackay knit tees
I hadn’t heard of Spier & Mackay until I went looking for Canadian-made chinos to wear to work. Jury’s still out on those*, but I did fall in love with their cotton-silk blend knit tees. Thankfully for my pocketbook, they were a) in limited stock, since this is a summer style that’s now out of production and b) not in every colour I would have wanted. But I love how light they are and how they add a little texture to an otherwise plain basic.
City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett (SFF novel, 2014)
In a morally murky world where a formerly colonized people have become the colonizers by literally slaughtering their oppressors’ gods, leaving scars on the world from the implosion of age-old divine miracles, a gifted young intelligence officer tries to figure out who murdered her mentor. Complicating matters, said mentor was studying the deceased gods in the former colonizers’ capital city. I loved the world-building in this story and how the plot married noir-ish vibes (nobody here is a good person, exactly, but some try to be despite their circumstances) with unravelling uncanny magical mysteries.
unscented, aluminum-free deodorant
I include this reluctantly because I wish it didn’t make my life better. I wish I could just pick up whatever deodorant was on sale and not irritate my skin or stain my clothes. But I can’t. So hooray for the one I’m using now (Tom’s) that seems to do neither of those things.
I really enjoyed this made-in-Canada advent calendar with bean-to-bar truffles and mini chocolate bars. Not because I loved the contents better than other chocolate per se, but because it fit what I was looking for: a little treat that didn’t leave me wanting more but introduced me to interesting dessert flavours. I hate to call food “sophisticated,” because you can be sophisticated and enjoy plain and/or popular foods, but I appreciate that the term has become useful shorthand for tastes that don’t trigger my “moooore!” instincts and instead lend themselves to deliberate savouring.
Runners-up:
EXIT the Game Advent Calendar: The Missing Hollywood Star
The only reason I put this as a runner-up is because, yeah, I feel like by this point, it’s clear that I like these calendars. (And, yes, we do them a year behind.) This one had a movie theme, and Husband and I were surprised at exactly how many specific references to copyrighted IP they blithely threw in. As usual, there were 1-2 puzzles out of 24 that just flopped for us (i.e. even after we gave in and read the answer, we agreed that we never would have been able to identify it from the clues. In one case, we’d considered the solution as a possibility, but it hadn’t stood out as the obviously correct option compared to many other potential solutions.)
Off-White: Why Antisemitism Exists by Rachel Shabi (non-fiction book, 2024)
I found this an interesting analysis of antisemitism in the nuanced context of contemporary politics and the diversity of the global Jewish population, rather than the one-note discussion I encountered as a child and/or in more right-wing Jewish spaces. I guess, in general, I’m hungry for Jewish thinkers who are starting from a similar political vantage as I am, valuing both Jewish tradition and the conceptual tools of progressivism.
new lunchbox (this one)
It turns out that unless I pack my lunch in a hermetically sealed vacuum tube (or maybe buy only astronaut food?) I’m gonna risk leaks. But this container does work better than the other ones I’ve tried so far. Watery sauces still seep out, but, for the most part, I feel confident sticking this sucker inside its cloth bag and then among my very-much-not-waterproof belongings.
* Briefly: I appreciate that they’re carefully made with the idea that you’re going to take them to a tailor for more precise fitting, but I guess I hoped for a better off-the-rack fit like some other brands? Tailoring did make them look and feel awesome though!