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Books and music of 2025. A subjective and incomplete review of 2025

posted on: 31.december.2025

I have never done a year in review post, but with all the handmade "wrapped" posts that have been popping up on various blogs, I wanted to do one, too. I want to concentrate on books and music, as I haven't consumed a lot of other media, oddly enough. There was a time when I would go to the cinema once a week, every week. But those have gone, unfortunately. And even though I do watch series and films at home, it's nothing I am really obsessed with or want to talk about. So books and music it is.

I picked personal highlights. If you want to see all the stats, have a look at my books at bookrastinating.com and my music scrobbles on last.fm or ListenBrainz. (Since my post about scrobbling I went and deleted all non-music listens on either site, which lowered my numbers significantly.)

Books

Let's start with books. I do read paper books, e-books, and listen to audio books. I also love audio dramas, though I do not count them as books. There'll be an honorary mention at the end though.

A re-discovery: Commissario Brunetti novels by Donna Leon

Earlier this year I got back into Italian, via my new Italian-German co-worker and my re-ignited love for Italian pop music (more on that further down). This lead into re-committing myself to learning the language and eventually starting a new course in October, after a pause of several years.

On the first day of the course I went into the bookstore and seeked out the shelf with all the crime novels. I was looking for something in particular: a Commissario Brunetti novel by Donna Leon. Any one of them, I didn't care which. I had started to read them about 25 years ago but after a few years I stopped and never kept up to date. I have several gaps in my collection and don't know if I even read all the ones I already owned. There was one single one of those novels in that shelf at the store: #32 "So shall you reap". I bought it and began to read immediately. I finished 4 days later. These books read so fast. I felt right back at home in the world of the commissario, but also realised that I have missed quite a bit of development of and between the characters. And I wanted more. So I started back at the beginning with book #1 "Death at La Fenice" and moved my way up to #9 "Friends in High Places", which I finished just before the end of the year. I have rarely read books as fast as I am reading these.

Even though I usually read books that are originally written in English in that language, I do read these in German. Back when I started to read them I hadn't gone that step yet. I also am a fan of the publisher, Diogenes, and their designs. Some may find it boring and monotone, but I find it oddly fascinating. I also simply like how these books feel in my hand.

Eye-opener: Begin Transmission. The trans allegories of the Matrix. by Tilly Bridges

I've seen the original "Matrix" in the cinema back in the day and was blown away as everyone was. I also went to watch "Matrix: Relaoded", which did not blow me away at all. It left me confused. I never watched "Matrix: Revolutions" until a few years ago, but went back into the cinema for "Matrix: Resurrections", which hit me right in the heart. It's probably my favourite of the four. The two middle films kept bugging me though. I wanted to understand them. I wanted to love them. And then I saw Tilly's book. And then I read it, re-watching the films alongside it. And then I fell in love with the middle two films, and with the series as a whole. It all makes sense now. These films are brilliant! Tilly Bridges' book is brilliant! Read it!!

Tear-jerker: Die Auferstehung. von Andreas Eschbach

This is a German book, about a German phenomenon: Die drei ???. Writing about it here, in English, may seem a bit odd, but I'm going to do it anyway.

This book is set in the world of the The Three Investigators. This is an originally American book series, which kind of got its own life in Germany. Both as a book series, but probably even more so as a series of audio dramas (the first of which has been published in 1979 and they are still going strong). And now there are even (new) films. These stories are all set around three teenaged boys solving crimes. This book however is set some 30 or 40 years in the future, where those three best friends have become estranged and only through the events in the story are slowly finding their ways back to one another.

For me, this was a book full of pain, a single midlife crisis. I cried so much. Which is just an indicator for how deeply it touched me. The crime they need to solve isn't bad either. Some fans think it's too dark. The case itself is not, I think. But due to the rift between the three it is not the usual light read. It is a good one though. I listened to the audiobook and the excellent narrator, actor and voice actor Matthias Koeberlin, did his part in making this book as impactful for me as it was.

Filling in the gaps: Star Trek: Kahn audio drama series

This is the honorary mention. As I mentioned above, I love audio dramas. And I looooove that there are Star Trek audio dramas now.¹

Star Trek: Khan is presented as a 9 episode podcast, available for free (with ads). It features Naveen Andrews as Khan and Wrenn Schmidt as Marla McGyvers, as well as Tim Russ as Lt. Tuvok and George Takei as Captain Sulu, and many other great voice actors. It's enganging, suspensful, and a good bridge between what we've got to see on screen. I really really hope that there will be more Star Trek audio dramas in the future.

Music

On to music. Oh, how I love music. I wouldn't call myself an audiophile, as I listen on my laptop or my phone. But I do love music. I listen to it pretty much every day.

Italian pop music

As I mentioned above, I've been on an Italian kick this year. Since Sanremo, and even more so since Eurovision, I dove deep into Italian pop music. Not so much in numbers, but in intensity. I went back to some old favourites, but also (re-)discovered a few others.

Diodato

I read him being described somewhere as an "intense" singer/ songwriter. And I think that's not wrong. He has some good songs about trying to grapple with the current state of things. Here's one of those: Un atto di rivoluzione.

Lucio Corsi

I learned about him through Sanremo this year and pretty much immediately fell in love with his music. Probably my favourite song of his is "Orme". It has brought me to tears. Here's a live version. But the song that I should actually call my favourite is his newest: "Notte di Natale". I am obsessed with this song. And I don't even know why. I don't even particularly like Christmas. But this song just feels like a wonderfully warm and comfy blanket, like a hug.

Baustelle

A band I do remember from their first album, but at the time I wasn't into them. That changed this year, 25 years later, with their latest album "El Galactico". I don't know how to describe their music. You have to listen for yourself. One of my favourites is Spogliami.

...and more

I have a few more favourites, like The Kolors and Tommaso Paradiso, and many more still to explore. I've written a blog post about some favourite songs in July: Obsession: Italian music. If you care for a playlist with my current favourites, here's the one I keep on Tidal: Conazoni italiane. I keep the same list on ListenBrainz, but not all songs are yet in their MusicBrainz database. (I'll add them eventually.)

Synth sounds and more

Even though this music year was absolutely mainly about Italian music, I did listen to a few others. Here's a selection:

• Die Fantastischen Vier -- a German hip hop/ pop band. I set out to listen my way through all their stuff, but got heavily side tracked. I want to finish that in the new year. I've been collecting my favourite songs in a playlist and will add to it until I'm through.
• David Bowie -- Do I need to say more?
• Daft Punk -- See above.
• The Midnight -- One of my favourite synth bands. They released a new album this year: "Syndicate".
• Maniac -- I have to mention this song by Carpenter Brut feat. Yann Ligner. Wow! This is such a great, dare I say intense, version of the Michael Sembello classic.

The return of the CD

Not only have I started to (re-)build my DVD collection, I have also started to buy CDs again, where possible. Streaming is simply not good enough. The artists don't get paid well, and products can simply disappear if it suits the production companies (see the fate of Star Trek: Prodigy, as only one example). Where it's not possible to get the physical medium, I buy the digital albums. For that I either use Bandcamp or Qobuz.

In addition I have also started to listen to more locally stored files again. The next step is either to get my old Creative Zen Mozaic to work again, or buy a new portable music player of some kind. (I'm miffed that I didn't buy a Tangara when they were still available.)

On to 2026

What did you listen to or read or watch in 2025 that was significant to you? Are you looking forward to a certain release in 2026? The new year is just about to start and I do not know what's in store mediawise. What will be released? What will I discover? I can't wait to find out.

- Elena.

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