Writing, obsessing & reading. A short review of readings in 2025

By Maria Martelli | ianuarie 21, 2026

I feel I am entering so headstrong into the big, scary, unpredictable times of 2026 that it feels silly now (late January) to write a post about my favorite books from 2025, or what I wrote, or whatever. Everyone (who did it) did it in December! Well. I took some time off in December (as I hope for all people to be able to do!). But now I’m back, I have a really short list, some are books you can find in English, some are books from Romanian literature. And the first part is just me, here, looking back at reading & writing in 2025, which was, for me, among other things, the year of writing.

Last year I wrote more than I ever did in any other year of my life, as in more words AND more as in more time writing AND more as in constantly (weekly, as a practice). I started writing on a big prose project, I researched a lot for it, I put it on pause, I switched back to my short story collection, I realized it can actually exist (I have enough stories!), wrote some more, got into another project, also wrote some poems at some point – all in all, a lot of writing. Thirty minutes to one hour in the morning before working, or in the afternoon after lunch, or in the evening after everything, or sometimes two-three hours on the weekends. Not every month, of course, but often enough. Not so much publishing, not yet… things have to ferment.

What’s out, though, is:

Keep in mind that I read much less in 2025 than the year before, and much more in translation in Romanian (to hone my language, I actually have to give up reading so much in English). Ok, now let’s hear it for my ten novels. They are ordered chronologically from when I read them and I’m adding just a few words about them:

Ten novels (some are novellas and one is a short story collection…)

Chain-Gang All Stars – Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. It’s got dystopia-that-seems-super-real, political commentary, dramatic queer love and the energy to pull it all off, drawing you into an abolitionist view while giving you top-tier entertainment. 

Yellowface – R. F. Kuang. Sharp and brilliant, a story of literary theft, cultural appropriation, racism and the loneliness of the capitalist, American publishing industry. I kept reading it until I finished, I could barely put it down. 

I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem – Maryse Condé. A complex novel, extremely vivid, ruthless towards power systems and devoid of platitudes – despite the difficult subjects it deals with, the traumas and violence, the reading experience is stirring & charming.

The friend – Sigrid Nunez. A book that caught my eye with its cynicism towards the world of writing and its gentleness towards human-dog relationships, which made me laugh and moved me. A superb read for anyone who writes literature, which raises many questions about how and what we write, why we write, and the state of literature in general.

Foster – Claire Keegan. A bundle of emotion in just a few dozen pages, it tells the story of a little girl left in the care of a family for a while – who knows how long. Her adjustment to the new home, the relationships between the two adults, the things we learn, from what is unsaid, about them and the girl’s parents, all come together to trouble the reader’s heart, until it eventually brought me to tears.

Everything Inside – Edwidge Danticat. A collection full of beautiful and heartbreaking stories, da capo al fine. The lives of migrants between America and Haiti, the betrayals, the deceptions, the traumas and especially death, all repeat themselves, showing a different face with each new story. It’s a book I hold carefully, as if I’m holding pain in my hands.

Earthlings – Sayaka Murata. The strangeness of Earthlings seeps into the reader quickly, and I was caught up, fascinated with it, before the first traumatizing event happened. This is not an easy book, it’s disturbing to the core and it uncovers human darkness in a way I’ve never seen done.

Locul. Evenimentul (in original fr. La Place. L’Événement) – Annie Ernaux. How much Ernaux moved me! How can, in so few words, he tell the memory of his father, his work and habits, his shame? A sharp voice, a clear and painful writing, which remains, churning, in your stomach.

Autobiography of Red – Anne Carson. A work with a poetic sense and a vital, bodily pulsation, like I’ve never encountered before. I am still in awe when I think back to it and I’d read it again (in English – I read it in Romanian translation and it was still very good). 

No one is talking about this – Patricia Lockwood. I really, unexpectedly, enjoyed this a lot. It’s funny and it’s exactly like the internet at times. I wanted to take pics of it and post it online all the time.

Two non-fiction books

One day, everyone will have been against this – Omar El Akkad. I found this book so poignant, powerful and well written, intermingling memory & memoir. His writing as a migrant, a writer and journalist, while making the case for the freedom of Palestine, is a key reading for the year.

Voice of the fish – Lars Horn. A book full of sweeping, swimming, superb imagery amidst the exploration of transphobia, abuse, illness and disability. At times the essays were slow, at times spellbinding in their poetic beauty.

Two graphic novels 

Nocturnos – Laura Perez. Beautifully poetic, its movements are made of slow, lingering color escaping as the light leaves and the creatures of hiding and sleeping and dreaming and hunting and living appear. 

The demon of Beausoleil – Mari Costa. A funny (+ traumatized) gay half-demon with an increased sexual appetite has to fend for himself after his rich family disowns him because he is kind of an asshole. An entertaining, easy & cozy read! 

Romanian poetry spotlight

Nu toată lumea moare din dragoste – Laur-Mihai Amanolesei. Bittersweet, verses of bodies and summer, languages ​​and lyrics from songs, this poetry volume shines, sweats, hurts, heals, revealing pieces of queer life from childhood and youth.

Restul – Svetlana Cârstean. Arteziana – Svetlana Cârstean. First two from a poetry trilogy, both read with N. (albeit the second one in 2026 but anyway). Both handle obsessions, repetitions, with clear form, a writing intermingled. The first one deals with what is left (unsaid, unpaid, undone). The second is an ode to friendship between girls & women. 

Carte de bucate pentru hiene mici – Despina Bădescu. A poetry volume about troubled love like I’ve never read before – full of irony, playfulness, and dreamlike images. 

Dezir – antologie erotică queer, ed. Paula Dunker, alecs cândea, Iulia Mocanu. A long awaited queer erotic anthology in Romanian, full with fantasies, poems, prose explorations, illustrations and photographs – you find a little bit of everything in it! It’s playful, daring, super-authentic, a really nice mapping of the erotic imaginations we are otherwise privately accessing.

Urlete pentru eliberare – Poeme și ilustrații în solidaritate cu Palestina, ed. Raluca Panait & Nóra Ugron. Underlining this again for its importance in the Romanian literature sphere, which so often ignores important issues such as the struggle for the freedom of Palestine. The poems are often heavy, crafted with sorrow and hope for its peoples, hope that there might one day be joy, from the river to the sea. 

Muie Coquette by Marius Dominic Barbu & Uimirea-frică a pământului by Nóra Ugron. I’m writing about these two together here because they are my friends’ books so maybe I am biased but still they are VERY GOOD READ THEM. Muie Coquette is a thundering debut full of love & pain from a young trans poet, there’s trauma that’s hard to bear, and there’s joyfulness and playfulness as well. Uimirea-frică a pământului is Nóra’s second book, an activist tour-de-force, dealing with themes they have touched upon in the first one as well (Orlando Postuman): the loss of nature, the difficulties of queer love, increasing climate destruction and militarism; ending with poems dedicated to the struggle for a free Palestine. I have also been to both of these books’ launches, which have been beautiful, emotional experiences. Stay tuned for 2026 launches and esp. for Muie Coquette which will come out in print (for now you can freely read it online)!

Dreaming & obsessing 

A 2025 review would not be complete without admitting to at least two of my big obsessions of the year.

  • The first one is Arcane, the animated TV Series following League of Legends champions in Piltover, majestically brought to the screen by French animation studio Fortiche. I can’t say much about why I am/was so obsessed with it because when I start being like this, my critical thinking shuts down and I don’t even want it to start up again. I just go on screaming: THE VISUAL WORLD BUILDING! The chemistry of that childhood gang! The emotional intensity! The solarpunk aesthetic of the firelights! The dynamic of the two sisters! The hot scenes! And so on. I listened to all the music albums separately (numerous times) and, unfortunately (?), took up the game as well (spending the evenings with A., more often losing than not, apparently). I play support or mid if anyone’s interested 🙂 
  • The second would be my renewed interest in dreaming, and specifically lucid dreaming. Something I’ve always been into (not incidentally many of my old online nicknames contain the word “dream”). This time, as part of my big writing project (more on this if it ever manages to manifest into something public). So on this note, to anyone who is interested in the practice of dreaming (as something you do intentionally, you pay attention to, you learn from, you have fun with, etc.) I recommend Creative Dreaming by Patricia Garfield (it’s an old book admittedly – 1995 – but it still contains a lot of useful info). For a scientific explanation of dreaming, I found the When Brains Dream: Exploring the Science and Mystery of Sleep by Stickhold and Zadra pretty good. And for those who really want to pick up lucid dreaming, the classic Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by LaBerge & Rheingold explains a lot! I still have a few on my list on this subject that I hope to get back to as soon as my obsession renews once again (it got side-tracked by others). Meanwhile I keep writing my dreams down and I suggest you do the same (at least on and off… you never know what you might find within them!)
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