2025 Cultural Superlatives

Please let me recommend you something

Is there absolutely anything better than recommending something to someone and then having that person come back and say they loved it? It’s a sparkly, delicious, high, the closest to real power I ever want to be, and a part of my larger quest to become a cultural Yenta. So here I am asking you: as a little holiday treat for me, let me recommend you something.

HOWEVER I want to make clear that the books, movies, TV shows, and things you can buy or make that I am about to recommend are not the “best.” I am fundamentally opposed to the “best of” industrial complex. As I wrote last year when I did my Bookish Superlatives of 2024, I still feel that ranking, grading and pitting works of art against each other is really and truly a waste of time; I don’t participate in any platform that uses a “star” rating system for books (I use the StoryGraph app to track my reading) or a numerical system for any form of art. Rotten Tomatoes is a useful tool for me but not in the way you’d think — I’m just as likely to watch something that gets a 12% as a 99%; it’s usually the stuff on those extreme edges that’s doing something actually exciting.

I’m cranky and defensive about all of this because, as critic Kristen Martin recently wrote, “Book reviews are not advertisements, and books are not merely products. They are not commodities, and they are not consumables that get used up and thrown away, like face cream or paper towels.” (Related, sign this petition to keep AI slop out of our feeds & news rooms).

I think this is true of all cultural experiences and at the same time, life is short, we don’t all have the capacity to be poking around the edges of all the kinds of media we care about, and I’ve benefitted immensely from hearing how other people have encountered culture — whether “positive” or “negative”; hopefully neither.

So instead of “besting,” I give you—inspired by high school year books everywhere and in order only of my whims and whimsies — my 2025 “mosts.”

Emma’s 2025 Cultural Superlatives

BOOKS & WORDS

Most Fun to Discuss in the Group Chat
Colored Television by Danzy Senna
I’m linking to this novel on Libro.fm because I listened to it on audio (excellently performed by Kristen Ariza who has done all of Senna’s audiobooks it seems; I love when an author and an actor stay together for their whole career, will this be me and Marin Ireland?). Are you a biracial person or a sad bookish storyteller who has always wanted to write for TV? Do you want to speculate about what goes on inside the marriage of literary power couple Senna and Percival Everett (author of James, et al)? This very funny novel may be for you.

Most “Read Me for Filth”
Are You Mad at Me? by Meg Josephson
The best book I’ve read about the “fawn” or “freeze” trauma response that can lead some people (I know nothing about this myself) to abandon their own wants and needs and/or perseverate constantly about the versions of ourselves that live inside others people’s heads. Read it then read it again.

Most Surprising Nighttime Book (positive)
The Wedding People by Alison Espach
I have Daytime Books and Nighttime Books and books I read at any time of day. Daytime Books are books for which I have to be awake and firing on all cylinders and that often teach me something about how I want to write; Nighttime Books are usually further away from the kind of books I write and/or books that I can pleasantly consume as I drift off to sleep. This novel about a woman who checks herself into a fancy hotel with the plan of committing suicide was a huge commercial hit and I was expecting to feel meh about it, but it had insights about marriage and academia and depression that lingered with me.

Most Surprising Nighttime Book (negative)
Elinor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
I’m always interested in immersive first person voices that bring me close to antisocial characters that buck the world’s rules, and that’s how this book was sold to me and the entirety of the English speaking world. But while I enjoy Scottish grumpiness and cracks about mugs bought at “charity shops” that can be filled with vodka as much as the next person, I didn’t feel that Elinor’s obsession with a mediocre pop star was believable nor was I convinced by the mommy issues trauma plot at its core.

Most Exciting Organizing Principle
Black Genius by Tre Johnson
This essay collection is bursting with dynamic writing and vivid scenes of under-observed cultural touchstones like Philly’s Odunde festival, “the creativity of the 90’s graffiti-style airbrush tee, aunties packed weekend bus trips to Atlantic city, and the razor-tongued, socially-sharp, profanity-laced monologues of comedian Dick Gregory” but it is the connections drawn between the essays that make this book — fundamentally about the everyday ways Black Americans have embodied and defined American “genius” — so needed and special. Johnson is also a great cultural Yenta in his own right and his IG is an excellent follow.

Most Absolutely Devastating If You Have Either a Mother or a Daughter
Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt
The definition of a Daytime Book, I read this (weeping) on the beach and then made my mom read it. Difficult to describe. A sharp diamond of a British novel about a woman who intervenes in the life of her drug-addicted daughter by scooping up her granddaughter and taking her home, this is not for the faint of heart, but neither is it to be missed. 18% more alive after reading.

Most Innovative Sex Writing
Sky Daddy by Kate Folk
Another audio listen for me narrated by the ever-excellent Kristen Sieh, this is a novel about Linda, a San Francisco woman who works a job moderating website comment sections to fund her real passion — masturbating on planes. I’m kidding, sort of, but the book really is about a woman who is romantically and sexually interested in air travel though it might turn out to actually be about the tech industry, neurodivergence, and loneliness itself. Vision boards make several very fun appearances.

Most ❤️‍🩹
Better by Arianna Rebolini
“Why do so many people want to die—and how do we begin to understand what makes a person choose suicide?” is the subject of this deeply human and strangely funny nonfiction book. Secretly also a memoir about how to be a part of family where many members struggle with mental health and how to stay the course towards a life that is centered around art-making even under late stage capitalism. Read my interview with Arianna here.

Most 🙂‍↔️ Newsletter
Weird but true that Ezra Kupor ‘s Substack Galley Brag featuring candid interviews with real ones in the book business is the most hopeful thing I’ve read all year if you care about books surviving into our next phase of matter. If you only subscribe to one (other!) bookish newsletter let it be that one. (Runner up: this Philly cultural events newsletter that always sends me to cool movies, talks etc. that I would otherwise miss).

Most Under-Appreciated Classic
The Princess of 72nd Street by Elaine Kraf
This is a book that comes at another non-normative mental health experience — psychosis — but from the deeply imaginative angle of a novel about a woman named Ellen who has what she calls, “the radiance.” The prose alone, amiright: “I am glad I have the radiance. This time I am wiser. No one will know. . . . The radiance drifts blue circles around my head. If I wanted to I could float up and through them. I am weightless.”

MOVIES & TV

Most Perfect
Perfect Days (Hulu)
It might take you a minute to gear up for this slice of life Wim Wenders movie about a man who cleans toilets in Tokyo (I needed it to be pushed upon me several times by people I respect) but once you do you will never, ever, forget it. It’s slow but not tedious, sensory but not self-conscious, meandering but not non-narrative, and the character’s attention to the experiences that make up a day of being alive are so specific they feel like yours.

Most Powerful Use of a Midcentury Modern House in New Jersey
Deliver Me From Nowhere (in theaters)
Listen, the Bruce Springsteen biopic didn’t get “great notices” as my Dad would say, but don’t heed the haters. This isn’t a biopic actually, which is maybe where the marketing goes wrong; it’s the story of how one piece of great art got made: the album “Nebraska,” Springsteen’s weirdest and quietest record (yes, I’m linking to it on Qobuz because fuck Spotify). Springsteen was at the height of his career, fresh off “Born to Run” fame, but instead of cash in, he holed up in a little house in the woods and recorded songs inspired by a historical event he learned about on — yes — microfiche and by his childhood (OK the flashback scenes in the movie are unnecessary). A story about what can happen when commerce bows to the absolutely unshakeable vision of an artist, and a love letter to Asbury Park, NJ.

Most Absurd Premise That Somehow Really Works
Traitors Season 3 (Peacock)
Oh Gabby Windey, you beautiful anti-capitalist bimbo genius, you shine so brightly in this strange Clue-style competition show where washed up reality TV stars go to backstab each other hosted by Alan Cumming. (Windey is of Bachelorette fame until she realized she was a lesbian and married ex-Hasidic comedian Robby Hoffman who stole the show in Hacks). I was skeptical too but now I am an EVANGELIST. Does the show make any sense? No, but neither does surrealist art or this Gabby Windey fan account. And yet.

Awwwwww

Most Mesmerizing Cleavage
All’s Fair (Hulu)
No one will talk about this with me! Shame on you! Speaking of surrealist art, you absolutely cannot approach this show as a narrative. It is purely associational. One moment, a close up of Niecy Nash’s ample bosoms framed by the labels of a bright purple double breasted suit. The next, Nash, Glenn Close, Naomi Watts, and Kim Kardashian are sitting in a perfectly circular office somehow lined 360 degrees with books discussing how they are going to even the score against their nemesis, Sarah Paulson. Let it all flow over you — while you do something else.

THINGS YOU CAN BUY OR MAKE

Most Compelling Holiday Auction
Blue Stoop’s Holiday Auction, The Last Word
I’m biased here but if you’re looking for a gift for the writer, reader, eater, or kayaker in your life, this is the place, and most items are available to ship anywhere in the US. I’m offering a one-hour career consult, wonderful independent publicist Kathy Daneman is offering a one-hour publicity consult to help you strategize on getting reviews and media attention for your book, there’s a private date night at a bookstore, a consult on landing a nonfiction agent, a query letter critique and Q&A with agent Eric Smith, and a book club bundle of 8 copies of The God of the Woods signed and personalized by NYT bestselling author Liz Moore.

Most Specific Interest You Can Rep on a Hat
This “Short Stories” hat from Electric Literature

Most Delicious Non-Alcoholic Cocktail
St Agrestis Phony Negroni
Balanced and herbaceous, drink as is with “a nice big cut of ice” according to my partner, who is allergic to alcohol but drank these as their cocktail of choice in the hazy, treat-filled days post having top-surgery. The original is perfect for the holidays, the mezcal is a nice smoky change, and the white is lighter—nice for spring and summer or as a champagne alternative.

a buffet of my partner’s top surgery drinks (including St. Agrestis)

Most Complicated Cake that Justifies the Extra Steps
Claire Saffitz’s Coconut Cake
I will be honest that I was not that jazzed when this very same partner asked me to make them this Claire Saffitz coconut cake for their birthday. I am a competent baker, but any frosting that involves heating elements is usually a no from me. But this one was really not that hard in the end, Saffitz explains every step needed to make this moist cake with German buttercream frosting, and it was bonkers good.

Most Satisfying Regular Nail Polish
2025 was the year I really got into doing my own nails at home but I royally fucked them trying to remove a gel set myself and have since had to completely abandon gel while they heal. I love Cirque’s jelly colors (like this one) which are sheer, buildable and apply — even to my dominant hand — with almost no mess and Mooncat’s magnetic polishes (like this one) that give the look of gel cat eye.

Most Well-loved Furniture Splurge
Joybird Amelia Chair in Velvet Royale Blush
A big purchase to be sure, and one I did a lot of research for, but I believe this is the perfect office reading chair. My office is small, not big enough for a chaise or a chair and ottoman, but I dreamt of a truly massive/cushy chair that I could lounge in comfortably — none of this sitting upright nonsense. The Amelia chair is literally round, so she fits super well in my corner, but she’s somehow roomy enough to feel like a couch. Performance velvet has stood up to both cat claws and red wine spilled while high.

Most Impressive Upgrade to a Childhood Craft
May I humbly suggest crafting this snowflake? Thanks to the girlies of TikTok, I learned that we are doing paper chains and paper snowflakes this year, but gone are the days of folding white computer paper and cutting out random triangles. This beauty is very demure, very mindful, and now the plump, 3D centerpiece of our South Philly window.

As I write this, I’m listening to the new Robyn song, which is just the most. Would you like to recommend ME or other Frump Feelings subscribers one of your 2025 most something? Please do in the comments.

Happy holidays, Go birds, Fuck ICE, Free Palestine.

yours,
Emma

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