Best book: Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer
February: My dad came and stayed with me for the month, and that was lovely. We got about nineteen feet of snow—like, more than we had in years—and that was the big topic of conversation. Kendrick blew Drake away at the Superbowl and we all chanted "A MINORRRRRR" for a full week. Trump started a trade war by putting tariffs on everywhere, including islands inhabited solely by penguins. Ontario had an election and nothing changed.
Best book: Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
March: I brought March Madness back, and we did snacks this year! (Plain chips won, which is madness.) Noah and I went to see The Lion King onstage in Toronto, and it was very magical. I was a fraud victim when my taxi driver turned out to be a criminal who stole my debit card and PIN and then stole $2400 the next day! I was very stressed, because it was also tax season and my tax preparer initially told me I owed $7,000 more than I ended up paying. I subscribed to Dropout and it was worth every single penny.
Best book: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
April: It was the 30th anniversary of A Goofy Movie and we listened to the soundtrack A LOT. (I'm not a Disney Adult but I was definitely a Disney kid.) There was a federal election and Pierre Poilievre, our capering troll-in-residence, did not win, thus delaying the Trumpification of Canada. Not much happened personally: the snow melted, my bestie came for a weekend visit, Climate Momentum put on our Earth Day Street Party. It was a cold spring.
Best book: The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer
May: I baked a Neapolitan cake. Noah and I went to the Minecraft movie and Annie at the Stratford Festival. Out on a walk, I saw a bunny with no ears and felt a full-body chill: it felt like such a weird-bad omen, but when I looked it up, it turns out that some rabbit mothers will groom their newborns so aggressively that they lose their ears (or, sometimes, die), so when I saw that rabbit around all spring, I felt much more respectful of its survival. The police caught the people who ran the debit card theft ring, and I was told I had given a clue - cue my inner Harriet the Spy, stage left. The flowers started blooming and there was a new Pope.
Best book: Home: A Short History of an Idea by Witold Rybczynski
June: Noah and I were both sick with head colds or allergies or some nonsense. I went to a library conference in Toronto and came home feeling so inspired. I took myself out to see The Phoenician Scheme alone in a movie theatre, the only non-kids film I saw theatrically all year, and it was a big hoot. Wildfire smoke returned. I went to the Beaver Valley for the annual Dominion Day party and it was great. ICE protests happened across the US.
Best book: I read two books and didn't really love either of them, but I guess Come Like Shadows by Welwyn Wilton Katz
July: Summer! A heatwave kicked us off; I, house-sitting in Toronto in an un-AC'ed apartment, packed myself in icy gel bags from Dollarama and soldiered on. I ate a black garlic and miso bon-bon and flirted with the counter clerk at the local sando shop. Noah did a week of dance camp and then we defected to the beach, where we played in the sand and went to community theatre and started healing all the small wounds of the school year. Noah and I did a "yes day." I started reading a surf memoir and did not want to stop.
Best book: Barbarian Days by William Finnegan, and my favourite of the year
August: I spent barely any time at home: I was in Sauble, Toronto, seeing friends, being alone, being with family. Noah and I went camping with my cousin and her family and my mom, and it was medium-good, which is good enough that I would do it again. There was famine in Gaza. I tried to spend less time on my phone.
Best book: The Sellout by Paul Beatty, which took me a long time to finish, but I got there in the end.
September: As much as Dominion Day kicks off the summer, Labour Day anchors the end of it, and this year was plenty nice: much laughter and good food. Noah went back to school and immediately started begging to stay home; steps forward, steps back. I made a stained glass leaf and a new lampshade, and organized an equinox walk through the woods, plus three work projects, so I was busy. Charlie Kirk was killed in America, and the mood was grim.
Best book: Circe by Madeline Miller
October: Noah skateboarded a lot, which was cute as hell. I was part of a storytelling event in Stratford, where I talked about my decision to wear more colour and how it changed my life. We all got REALLY into baseball, except for those of us that didn't—I did, and following the Jay as they made their World Series run was great fun. I knit a hood and watched a lot of Dropout. We saw Anne of Green Gables at the festival and I cried the whole time.
Best book: Wild by Cheryl Strayed
November: The Blue Jays played like heroes but ultimately lost the World Series, which was devastating. It was my mom's birthday, and I made her some neckwarmers. It was my birthday, and we ate parsnip ice cream. I got a new coat. It started snowing and didn't stop. I went for a bunch of medical tests and they all came back normal, and in some cases improved, so I finally started thinking about maybe worrying less about my health, which is a background drone of anxiety that sometimes (often) escalates into an internal scream.
Best book: Art Work by Sally Mann
December: The run-up to Christmas was full of just rude-tween attitude, which I really struggled with. I got busy with work again, still. I finished a pair of mittens I started knitting in 2024, and made a bunch of Christmas presents. I made lasagna from scratch. The Epstein papers seemed to be released, heavily redacted, except maybe not? My family was together for Christmas and everyone lived, even the cats, who hate each other, so maybe there's hope for us all.
Best book: The Language-Lover's Lexipedia by Joshua Blackburn
YEAR IN REVIEW: I read a lot; I also watched a lot of TV, most of it on Dropout. I gained some weight, and my 2025 fitness goals were largely unrealized—that fall at the beginning of the year took many months to heal from! My brother started hanging out with the family again, and my heart felt very full about it. I went on seven dates and those ultimately went nowhere. I saw a lot of theatre and thrifted some great stuff. Noah and I read The Indian in the Cupboard together, and they sobbed in my arms at the crying cowboy—a reminder that underneath their tough skin, they can be a real softy. I set a million goals and didn't do most of them. I sent and received great mail. I had great friendships.
2026 GOALS: I told my mom that birthday goal this year was to "have more fun," and I really feel that. I've been operating from a place of "should": I should eat better, I should get fit, I should be a calmer and more loving parent, a softer and more understanding sibling, a more attentive daughter. I should be a less anxious friend, employee, person. And somehow—shockingly—I haven't yet managed to bully myself into being or doing any of those things. So next year, I'm going to try to have more fun, more levity, more yes, more laughter, more sweetness. I'm going to have more fun.
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