The Pleasures of Reading, Viewing, and Listening in 2025, pt.6: Erin K. Wagner

 

Annual Pleasures 2025

By Erin K. Wagner

 

The clue to 23-across on the NYT crossword puzzle for November 26 was a redacted Oscar Wilde quote: “To love _______ is the beginning of a lifelong romance.” My natural inclination was to find a word along the lines of “art” or “beauty,” given the source. The answer was instead “oneself.” Can we propose, however, that consuming art and narrative is a form of self-love? That we read and watch what we enjoy—that which reflects ourselves, challenges ourselves, nurtures ourselves? And that we learn how to love and respect other selves through the same method?

 Take a break this midwinter to care for yourself and others.

 Here were some of my favorite reads and watches for 2025. 

  Andor (s2)

I am a fully committed fangirl of this series. It’s the rebel TV show we need right now. And it is truly unlike any other Star Wars series (if you’re wary of the recent uptick).

 

 Anne of Green Gables series by L. M. Montgomery

I read through all of the Anne books when I was a kid—as well as many other works by Montgomery. They were formative for me. I love the CBC adaptations and was highly skeptical of Netflix’s version. However, reading back through these books as an adult was an entirely different experience. In addition to catching the problematic words, labels, and attitudes that Montgomery unthinkingly reflects (and which make me more willing to consider the anachronism of the Netflix series), there is a deep sadness in the later books that grapple with WWI. I highly recommend revisiting childhood favorites.

 

The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

My latest read, completed this December. A story that interweaves three generations of stories in a compelling and sinister mystery that kept me turning the pages. It examines how culture and heritage shape our fears and character.

 

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Jones

I’m still undecided on the end of this novel but am thoroughly intrigued by the vampire narrative embedded in the more mundane horrors of American colonialism.

 

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

My first time reading the work of sci-fi powerhouse Tchaikovsky. I am impressed by the variety of compelling perspectives on the evolution of species and ideas (including that of some spider-folk!).

 

A City on Mars by Kelly & Zach Weinersmith

A fascinating nonfiction read that I highly recommend to any writer hoping to set their fiction in space colonies. A detailed examination, with humorous interludes, of where we are now in the “space race.”

 

Conclave (2024), dir. Edward Berger

A look at a papal conclave that investigates both worldly ambition and religious inspiration. Truly engaging intrigue!

 

Eddington (2025), dir. Ari Aster

Some of Ari Aster’s work I cannot bring myself to watch. (I think Beau is Afraid would be awful for me.) However, this work I found truly compelling. An unflinching and very explicit look at the echo chambers that have hastened our current political moment. This easily pairs with One Battle After Another.

 

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

I dove into Fawcett’s work for the first time this year. Her Emily Wilde series hits the perfect note for me when I want a good fairy-world adventure.

 

Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green

An effective read on how Western colonialism and racism have guided the very fundamentals of health policy.

 

Great Performances: Twelfth Night (2025)

I have watched so many versions of Twelfth Night. But I think Peter Dinklage’s Malvolio might be my favorite ever. This is the filmed version of the Shakespeare in the Park staging. Support your local PBS station!

 

Hum by Helen Phillips

An uncanny and incisive story about the ever-monitoring role of technology in our lives that cuts very close to home and leaves you squirming at the end. (But important for that reason.)

 

I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons by Peter Beagle

If you need a comforting bedtime read with notes of nostalgia and commentary on classism and hierarchies, this is your book.

 

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), dir. Philip Kaufman

We watched this in honor of Donald Sutherland’s passing. It is very 70s in its glorious VFX but there is something truly gut-wrenching in this commentary on a consumer-driven society.

 

Katabasis by R. F. Kuang

An adventure in dark academia and hell (which Kuang equates). Replete with classic allusions, this story grapples with gender, race, and class in the context of higher education.

 

Murderbot (s1)

So violent and so humorous, sometimes simultaneously. This tv series truly captures the reckless mania of the book series.

 

Nosferatu (2024), dir. Robert Eggers

I’m often wary of Eggers’s work and its sometimes-overwhelming male gaze. But the black-and-white meticulousness of this remake is truly an original watch.

 

Notes from a Regicide by Isaac Fellman

Aqueduct Press alum Fellman delivers a simultaneously physical, grounded, and surreal narrative that hints at an almost Gene-Wolfian world. The story examines the nature of revolution itself.

 

Predators: Badlands (2025), dir. Dan Trachtenberg

I was a big fan of Trachtenberg’s Prey. Though I think Prey might be the more sophisticated movie, this Predators movie is thoroughly enjoyable, embracing the “humanity” and humor of the Predator.

 

The Righteous Gemstones (2019-2025)

A send-up of mega-churches and the commercialism of Christian mainstream culture. But unlike some McBride vehicles, there is a genuine emotion at the core of this show that acknowledges the promise/potential of love and faith when truly pursued. (TW: these shows are not for the faint of heart.)

 

Roadside Picnic by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky

A sci-fi classic that I finally read, in a volume introduced by Le Guin. I so appreciated the detailed mundanity of this world—and the post-first-contact setting for our desperate characters.

 

St. Denis Medical (s1) & The Paper (s1)

Competitors to fill The Office vacuum. The Paper is drier and yet more zany than St. Denis. But both shows have well-rounded and sympathetic characters at their core.

 

Scavengers Reign (2023)

Beautiful and surreal animated mini-series that thinks about the flora and fauna of an alien planet—and the implications for intelligence and sentience.

 

Sinners (2025), dir. Ryan Coogler

You’ve no doubt heard of this blockbuster. A truly satisfying vampire story that critiques past and current race relations in the US.

 

Skeleton Crew (2024-2025)

This is no Andor, but I appreciated that this Star Wars show knew what it was—and leant into the ET-esque nostalgia of an 80s sci-fi film.

 

Superman (2025), dir. James Gunn

Entertaining, humorous, and yet still grittier in its thematic implications than previous DC iterations.

 

The Tusks of Extinction & Where the Axe is Buried by Ray Nayler

I seem to be a fan of just anything Nayler writers. I love his incisive prose and his focus on how artificial and human intertwine.

 

Wednesday (s1 & 2)

Season 2 was underwhelming, but Jenna Ortega’s performance as Wednesday (and the widely-praised dance scene of season 1) is a truly star turn.

 

Wellington Paranormal (2018-2022)

We finished up this series—sadly—this year. It was a show where you have trouble hitting play on the last episode, knowing there will be no more. Coming out of the same world as the last show on my list, this New Zealand-set show about a police force responsible for managing paranormal threats is clever.

 

What We Do in the Shadows (2019-2024)

And we caught up with and finished What We Do in the Shadows, a bittersweet experience. This show deserves all the praise it has received and manages to show heart without sappiness (but not without blood). 

 

Erin K. Wagner grew up in southeast Ohio on the border of Appalachia, but now lives in central New York, where she hikes in the Catskills and listens for ghostly games of nine-pins. She holds her Ph.D. in medieval literature and teaches literature and writing in the SUNY system. Her stories have appeared in a variety of publications, from Apex to Clarkesworld, and her novella The Green and Growing is available from Aqueduct Press. Her second novella, An Unnatural Life, was released by Tor.com in September 2020. Aqueduct published her collection of short fiction, When Home, No Need to Cry, in 2022. Her novel, Mechanize My Hands to War was been released in hardcover from DAW in 2024. You can visit her website at https://erinkwagner.com/

 

The Pleasures of Reading, Viewing, and Listening in 2024, pt. 7: Erin K. Wagner

 

 

Photo by Kathryn DeZur

 Annual Pleasures 2024

 by Erin K. Wagner

 

 

   

     Another year passed—and yet my TBR pile, my want-to-watch list, is higher and longer than ever. I have dedicated more time to truly unplugging from work so as to read and view the narratives that sustain me. And I find it immensely satisfying and optimistic that I never need to worry about running out of those stories. I think, at the end of this year, I am reminded more than ever how much it is art that keeps us going even as current events might make the work of creating art feel more pointless than ever. Don’t believe it. Keep going. Keep creating and keep consuming the art that nourishes us.

Check out what I enjoyed reading and watching over this past year. I finally sat down and read some classics/hits.

And, if you’re so inclined, check out my latest novel, Mechanize My Hands to War, forthcoming December 17.

 

What I Read

Babel-17 (Samuel R. Delany, 1966)

I had never read Delany before now—despite having studied him in association with the concept of Afrofuturism. Babel-17 feels like the forebear of Story of Your Life (or the movie Arrival). Ultimately, this is a Sapir-Whorf story that examines how the language we use shapes our reality. And its female protagonist is satisfyingly kickass. 

 

The Best of All Possible Worlds; The Galaxy Game; The Blue, Beautiful World (Karen Lord, 2013-2022)

This trilogy is just the best. It felt like I had been missing it, like a favorite before I had even finished it. It is an optimistic series but one that doesn’t shy away from the big, gritty problems. 

 

Chain-Gang All-Stars (Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, 2023)

This book feels like we’re zoomed-in close, mimicking the videoed combats (a near-future gladiatorial prison complex), intimately close to the competitors vying for their lives.

 

Lincoln in the Bardo (George Saunders, 2017)

This book hardly needs my praise on top of all it has already received. But it is a uniquely formatted book, and I am sucker for odd narrative choices. A celebration of life and death. 

 

The Mercy of Gods (James S.A. Corey, 2024)

A new entry into sci-fi/space opera that is smaller in scope—if still expanding across galaxies—because its interest lies so much in the personal experience of a displacing, dehumanizing event from which our characters must claw back. 

 

The Mountain in the Sea (Ray Nayler, 2022)

A quiet book with just the right combination of natural and man-made mystery. An investigation of what we mean by intelligence. 

 

The Poisonwood Bible; Demon Copperhead (Barbara Kingsolver, 1998 and 2022)

I finally read Kingsolver this year—despite the fact that the title of The Poisonwood Bible had long intrigued me (and, for seemingly no reason, I had associated with Sherlock Holmes). It was not a Sherlock Holmes story—but both Poisonwood Bible and Demon Copperhead—deftly explore privilege and marginalization, whether in Africa or Appalachia.

 

Translation State (Ann Leckie, 2023)

As usual, Leckie has provided a masterclass in crafting perspective—one which plays with gender and social construct in multiple ways.

 

The Wood at Midwinter (Susanna Clarke, 2024)

I am a Clarke fan. So even though her new work is slight—a beautifully-illustrated short story—I made sure to order it as soon as I heard of it.

 

What I Watched

Alien (dir. Scott, 1979)

A classic, obviously. I rewatched it this year in anticipation of seeing the new addition to the series. But seriously, Ripley is just such an awesome character.

 

Civil War (dir. Garland, 2024)

Gutwrenching. Brace yourself before watching this. A movie about art, news, and the consumption of both that stays with you.

 

Deadloch (Amazon Prime, 2023- )

For the crime/mystery fans. A truly intriguing mystery—but the mystery is overshadowed by the interpersonal relationships and the investigation of how toxic masculinity suffuses the police structure.

 

Dune: Part Two (dir. Villeneuve, 2024)

Beautiful. In many ways, less acutely but more deeply tragic than the first—where the scale of destruction is both personal and planetary.

 

English Teacher (FX, 2024- )

As a professor, I am a sucker for a series about educators. English Teacher is not a sappy, “they taught me more than I taught them” series. It’s a direct and witty exploration of modern educational dilemmas.

 

Fallout (Amazon Prime, 2024- )

Turns out cannibals and a nuclear wasteland is a perfect setup for comedy. My friends tell me it was dark?

 

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (dir. Miller, 2024)

You feel Miller’s stories in your gut with their frenetic action. And it’s nice to see Furiosa take even more center stage.

 

Godzilla Minus One (dir. Yamazaki, 2023)

A Godzilla movie that is as invested in its characters as the monster (but the monster is also oh-so-fun). And one that questions the glorification of war.

 

 

The Kitchen (dir. Tavares, 2024)

I watched this early in the year. A near-future glimpse of class warfare, dwindling resources, and the market of death/funerals. Tender and violent in turn.

 

One Cut of the Dead (dir. Ueda, 2017)

Hilarious. A love letter to and critique of the zombie genre. 

 

The Other Two (Comedy Central/HBO, 2019-2023)

How? How did this often-crude comedy end up tugging at my heartstrings and leave me almost crying at the end? Give it some time for the characters to open up to you.

 

The Quiet Place: Day One (dir. Sarnoski, 2024)

The theme of my watches and reads this year seems to be the examination of the small human experience against the vast backdrop of conflict or crisis. Lupito Nyong’o absolutely deserves an Oscar for her performance in this movie. The movie’s not unpredictable—but it hits the emotional beats well.

 

Rebel Ridge (dir. Saulnier, 2024)

An action movie that questions violence as a solution? It’s a paradox—and the movie’s presentation of race, gender, and structural violence elevated it.

 

Reservation Dogs (FX, 2021-2023)

I finished this series a bit late since I didn’t watch it as it aired. The last season was even more explicit in its exploration of how the past impacts the present—and how we can’t escape its systemic and personal consequences. A brilliant show. 

 

Return to Oz (dir. Murch, 1985)

A surreal trip that I saw for the first time this year. Despite generally being wary of surrealist film, this movie is just so over-the-top and keyed into my childhood Oz obsession that I couldn’t help but like it.

 

Search Party (TBS/HBO, 2016-2022)

Another dark comedy that manages to switch up genre season-by-season and deliver on its apocalyptic ending. We ended far from the simple murder with which we began.

 

Triangle of Sadness (dir. Östlund, 2022)

A critique of the rich--pointed and, in some places, crude. Thus, effectively spot-on.

 

Woman of the Hour (dir. Kendrick, 2024)

I didn’t expect to like this movie as much as I did. But I think it captured its theme well: the large and small terrors that haunt femme-bodies in our capitalistic (and game-show) world. 

Erin K. Wagner grew up in southeast Ohio on the border of Appalachia, but now lives in central New York, where she hikes in the Catskills and listens for ghostly games of nine-pins. She holds her Ph.D. in medieval literature and teaches literature and writing in the SUNY system. Her stories have appeared in a variety of publications, from Apex to Clarkesworld, and her novella The Green and Growing is available from Aqueduct Press. Her second novella, An Unnatural Life, was released by Tor.com in September 2020. Aqueduct published her collection of short fiction, When Home, No Need to Cry, in 2022. Her novel, Mechanize My Hands to War has just been released in hardcover from DAW. You can visit her website at https://erinkwagner.com/.

The Pleasures of Reading, Viewing, and Listening in 2023, pt. 10: Erin K. Wagner

 

The Pleasures of Reading, Viewing, and Listening in 2023
by Erin K. Wagner

 

 

In what has become a holiday movie, through unknown manipulations of nostalgia and music, Julie Andrews (or Maria), as optimistic au pair, assures her charges (and us) that recalling our favorite things will help ward us against the dog bites and bee stings of the world. In light of this, I provide a list of the favorite media I consumed this year.

(I realize there is a theme here—of posthuman structural analyses—sharpened by my pedagogical emphases this year.)

Books & Shorts

 Between editing my own work and reading for lessons, I did not read as many books as I had hoped this year. That said, here are some that I really enjoyed—or that provided blueprints for the future. 

LaValle, Victor. “Ark of Light” in Lightspeed (2020).

I taught this for the first time in my class this semester. A very short story, with relatively anonymous characters, the narrative touches on immigration and marginalization. It forefronts, however, unquenched hope and faith for a better future. 

Le Guin, Ursula K. The Dispossessed. Harper & Row, 1974.

I am conflicted about this book. There is a depiction of sexual assault (tw) that the book does not seem to fully grapple with. But the assault is of a piece with the book’s overall warning: that to possess items or people leaves yourself possessed, not free to pursue a society of true equity. A fascinating inquiry into nonauthoritarian socialism that reads almost like a treatise for the future. Like much of Le Guin’s work, it is truly haunting. 

 

Martine, Arkady. A Desolation Called Peace. Tor, 2021.

A year of duologies! I finally had a chance to read the sequel to Martine’s fabulous A Memory Called Empire. Though this book was less poignant imho, it was a riveting posthumanist and postcolonialist examination of identity.

 

Parry, H.G. A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians and A Radical Act of Free Magic. Orbit (2021 & 2022).

A duology that swept me right up into the childhood joy of reading (one more page!). An alternate history of the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars that questions the interplay of power and freedom. With vampires. And spellcasting. 

 

Pratchett, Terry. Going Postal. Doubleday, 2004.

I have almost finished my first read-through of Pratchett’s Discworld (which I’ve mentioned in previous lists). I just wanted to give a quick shoutout to the delightful adventures, starting with Going Postal, of the entrepreneurial Moist Lipwig. A skewering of modern bureaucracy. 

 

Robinson, Kim Stanley. The Ministry for the Future. Orbit, 2020.

Another treatise. A book of thought experiments, per Le Guin’s description of science fiction, that is intended to jumpstart real and radical change to save our environment. 

 

Yoachim, Caroline M. “Welcome to the Medical Clinic at the Interplanetary Relays Station | Hours Since the Last Patient Death: 0” in Lightspeed (2016).

A choose-your-own-adventure story that questions the reality of free-will? Why, yes, I don’t mind if I do. Fun and piercing at the same time.

TV & Movies

What can I say? I really like the screen. These are the movies and TV that really stuck with me.

Archer, Jim, dir. Brian and Charles. Focus Features, 2022.

A truly ridiculous premise with a DIY look that gut-punches you in the most lovable way. 

 

Brest, Martin, dir. Beverly Hills Cop. Paramount, 1984.

I have long thought that cop movies of the 80s dealt in more nuanced ways with intersectional identities than the 90s and 2000s. This movie is one such example.

 

Coscarelli, Don. Bubba Ho-Tep. Vitagraph Films, 2002. 

This movie is by no means perfect (or feminist). But it gets under your (mummified) skin and delivers a powerful message on how our society handles the concept of aging and the welfare of the aged. 

 

Dos Santos, Joaquim, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson, dirs. Spiderman: Across the Spider-verse. Sony, 2023.

I’m not a huge fan of animated movies, so it often takes some arm-twisting to get me to watch one. But even I loved this film. It’s gorgeous—and I hope the studio recognizes the need to value the labor that goes into creations like these. 

 

Gerwig, Grega, dir. Barbie. Warner Bros., 2023.

I admit it. I fell for it. It really hits you over the head with some of its messaging—but this belies the nuanced analysis running underneath as well. The performances, the look, the songs: perfect for what ails you. 

 

Gilligan, Vince and Peter Gould. Better Call Saul. AMC, 2015-2022. 

Visually, this series could not be more different from Barbie, especially in the black and white of the final season. But the last season also forefronts the viewpoint and empowerment of Kim, the counterweight to the titular Saul.

Gilroy, Tony, creator. Andor (s1) on Disney + (2022).

I have admired the Star Wars prequel Rogue One as the best of the movies released after the original series. This TV series is a notch even above that. Quiet, dark, and desperate, this series focuses on the real cost and sacrifice of rebellion and the real evil of bureaucratic annihilation. There isn’t much of the force here, but it is a forceful series. 

 

Goldstein, Jonathan and John Francis Daley, dirs. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Paramount, 2023.

I think we’ve already watched this movie four times (?) in order to share it with friends and family. It is fun, fun, fun.

 

Hernandez, Tara and Damon Lindelof. Mrs. Davis. Peacock, 2023.

This show is really weird. Like, it’s weird and then it gets weirder. But its commentary on the “threat” of AI is extremely relevant and forces us to remember that even stories about AI are really about people.

 

Johnson, Rian, creator. Poker Face (s1) on Peacock (2023).

Oft compared to Columbo, Poker Face is a feminist take on the detective show with a truly beguiling performance by Natasha Lyonne. It also acknowledges the wider structures that drive us to act. 

 

 

Judkins, Rafe, dev. The Wheel of Time (s2) on Amazon Prime (2023). 

With a higher budget and a year’s experience under the actors’ belts, this season of Wheel of Time surpassed the first striking out from the source-text to complicate definitions of good and evil and to center the women’s experiences outside of Rand. 

 

Kasdan, Jonathan, dev. Willow (s1) on Disney + (2022).

A truly fun extension of the Willow movie that seems to have been cut short. It plays with the gender-inversion of classic fantasy tropes and questions the savior narrative. 

 

 

Manzoor, Nida, dir. Polite Society. Focus Features, 2023.

An updated look at the romance conventions encouraged by modern renditions of Austen. Enjoyable fight choreographies and a speculative plot-turn that is truly surprising.  

 

Mazin, Craig and Neil Druckmann, creators. Last of Us (s1) on HBO (2023).

I’ll admit it. I cried with the rest of America. More than once. And I don’t cry easily. There has been some controversy around the series, but I read the violence of the series as a critique (if the paradox is possible). 

 

McQuarrie, Christopher. Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, Pt. 1. Paramount, 2023.

Often box-office hits, the Mission Impossible franchise is, I think, still underrated in terms of how solid its cinematography and storytelling is. Its presentation of women wavers between savior and saved, but I think the most recent additions have introduced some truly strong characters. The series, as a whole, grapples with the age-old philosophical problem: save the one or the many?

 

Nolan, Christopher, dir. Oppenheimer. Universal, 2023.

There are valid criticisms of this film. But its harsh send-up of toxic masculinity (intended or not) as the foundation of many truly horrific events in history is still worth watching. 

 

Polley, Sarah. Women Talking. United Artists, 2022.

A quiet, and quietly disturbing film, that does not need to fully visualize assault in order to critique it (a criticism I often have of films on this topic). This centers on the women and their engagement with a fundamental religious worldview that is far from simple. 

 

Stahelski, Chad, dir. John Wick: Chapter 4. Lionsgate, 2023.

I’m a sucker for these films. They transcend many action films, I think, not merely in terms of cinematography and choreography, but in their embrace of a speculative underworld that reimagines the violence of our society (and its purpose). 

 

Wilson, Hugh, creator. WKRP in Cincinnati. CBS, 1978-1982.

I indulge in old sitcoms as a comfort blanket for the mind. Borrowed nostalgia, as it were. This is one that truly seems ahead of its time and grapples with some real issues occasionally (not always perfectly). 

Podcasts

Hobbes, Michael and Peter Shamshiri, hosts. If Books Could Kill.

One of my new favorite podcasts. The hosts take the bestselling self-help tomes and societal commentaries of the last thirty years or so and point out the logical flaws of these too-easy analyses and grifts. With the sharp and unforgiving wit I’ve come to expect from Hobbes and Shamshiri (who is also a host on 5-4, a podcast on the Supreme Court that I’ve added to my regular listening queue).

Erin K. Wagner grew up in southeast Ohio on the border of Appalachia, but now lives in central New York, where she hikes in the Catskills and listens for ghostly games of nine-pins. She holds her Ph.D. in medieval literature and teaches literature and writing in the SUNY system. Her stories have appeared in a variety of publications, from Apex to Clarkesworld, and her novella The Green and Growing is available from Aqueduct Press. Her second novella, An Unnatural Life, was released by Tor.com in September 2020. Aqueduct published her collection of short fiction, When Home, No Need to Cry, in 2022. You can visit her website at https://erinkwagner.com/.