getting cosy for december: what i'm reading, playing, and recommending this month

welcome to cosymas! 🎄☕

Welcome to Cosymas! Every Sunday in December (fingers crossed), there’ll be a new Cosy Process for you to read.

December is my favourite month, and I’ve been wanting to do something like vlogmas (or vlognukah 👀) for a few years but between moving house and mental health dips, something always got in the way. But this year! This year we’re doing Cosymas. Grab a warm drink and take a few minutes for yourself with me 🎁

Since it’s been a while, we’re starting with an instagram style R.E.P.O.R.T to have a good catch up on some of my recent cosy highlights and give you some cosy inspiration for the colder months.

(some links in this email may be affiliate links. if you purchase anything via that link, I receive a small portion of the price with no extra cost to you! these links will be followed by a star like this * to make them clear.)

READING 📚

I haven’t been reading as much this year as I have done other years, and I’m feeling Some Kind of Way about it. I’ve DNFd like four+ books, and some of those are actual DNFs, not “I’ll come back to this later” DNFs. It feels WEIRD.

Luckily, this was the first year since 2019 I was able to go back to YALC (vaccinated, masked, and nasal spray applied) and being in that hub of bookish enthusiasm and community really helped me want to pick up more books again, so here’s what I’ve been reading recently:

Last read:

• The Duke at Hazard by KJ Charles - I try to have a KJ Charles book on standby for emergencies because I know I’ll love them, and post-election it was time to break the glass and read this latest. It’s a Regency m/m romance between a Duke pretending not to be a Duke and the man he meets while trying to recover his stolen family ring, and it’s SO romantic. Possibly the sweetest swapping of kinks discussion I’ve ever read? I was reading this on a train and at one point I had to close the Kindle app like I was throwing the book across the room from feelings and send this message to my friend:

Current reads:

• Dark Heir by CS Pacat - CS Pacat’s writing never fails to amaze me (HOW. HOW DO PEOPLE USE WORDS LIKE THAT) and I really wanted to pick up something that had writing I’d love. I read Dark Rise* when it came out and liked it but didn’t love it as much as Captive Prince, but let me tell you, when I reread it so I could read this sequel? Loved it. No notes. in Victorian London, our hero Will discovers he’s from a secret lineage of Stewards, sworn to protect the world if the Dark King ever returns, and from there we plunge into a world of hidden magic, old civilisations, and queer yearning. I’m obsessed.

• Then Things Went Dark* - Bea Fitzgerald - ‘What if someone was murdered on livestreamed reality tv’ definitely hooked me, and SO many more people are queer in this book than I was expecting. As someone who doesn’t actually enjoy a lot of reality tv but when I do, I really do, this book is super hitting the spot that I wish more actual reality tv did. (Sidenote: I hope these detectives get married.)

• A Letter to the Luminous Deep* - Sylvie Cathrall - As a known lover of both deep-sea shenanigans and fictional academia, this epistolary format book has called to me for ages. I’m reading the audio version, so each of our main four letter writers has their own narrator, and I’m in love with all of them. We’re following two pairs of siblings - two that fall in love through letters following a confusing aquatic discovery, and their siblings a year later trying to piece together what happened to them from the letters they left behind. I love this underwater academic society; I love weird enormous deep-sea creatures; and I love our cast of characters. I’m about halfway through and already bereft at the idea of leaving them all behind.

Next read:

• Death at Morning House* - Maureen Johnson - I loved Maureen Johnson’s Truly Devious series, so another YA murder mystery in a weird old house but this time it’s f/f? Done. Sold. (Literally sold: I bought it at YALC)

EATING 🍪

Do you ever look at some of the festive special versions of things in supermarkets and wonder who buys them? It’s me. I’m buys them. Currently I’m loving how many foods come in a gingerbread special for December, and let me give a special shoutout to gingerbread Oreos - they’re genuinely incredible.

PLAYING 🎮

*acquires microphone* EVERYONE PLEASE PLAY FIELDS OF MISTRIA. If you are a farm/life sim person like me, you’ll probably also have played a million similar farming/fantasy games trying to find that Stardew Valley feeling, so let me tell you: Fields of Mistria is the one I’ve loved the most since Stardew by a long, long way. It’s sort of Stardew by way of the 90s anime aesthetic, so it’s GORGEOUS, and the quality of life features are some of the best thought out ones I’ve seen. It’s still in early access so it isn’t complete, but even in early access it’s one of the most well-constructed farm/life sims. Also there’s a hot MILF doctor to romance and in the latest update you can ride a pink cow around town. What more do you even need.

OBSESSING 🥰

Like the rest of the world, we went to see Wicked last weekend and oh my god. I hadn’t seen the musical or read the book (I DNFd it as a teen and never went back) but I’d heard a few of the songs before, so I went in without any real preexisting emotions and came out with ALL the emotions. Did I burst into tears at Defying Gravity? Yes. Have my wife and I spent the last week singing What Is This Feeling at increasing volumes around the flat? Yes. Did Instagram immediately get my number and start serving me Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo interviews? Yes, and I hope they have a beautiful wedding when they realise they’re in love.

RECOMMENDING ✨

If you’re at ALL into watching gaming videos, or even if you aren’t and you just want to try something new, I cannot recommend Charlie Barley’s YouTube channel enough. Her Stardew videos are ultimate comfort watches for me, and her recent quest to play through all the Papa’s franchise games has been an absolute delight. And don’t just take my word for how much I watch her content: YouTube has the DATA to back me up:

this is fine

TREATING 🎁

I’m writing this on Black Friday, so let me just tell you a couple of the things I picked up this year:

• Some 99p in-app purchases in the mobile games that have been getting me through the year

• A no-ads version of Perfect Tidy (another mobile game)

• Cook for Love on switch: this was my Black Friday impulse purchase of the year. I was reading through the list of games on sale and this one looked so beautiful, and I’m always a sucker for step-by-step cooking games (yes, I was a Cooking Mama girl growing up) so by the time you’re reading this I’ve probably spent a quiet afternoon with a hot chocolate and this game

• The big one: a SAD lamp. I’ve been considering a SAD lamp for a couple of years, even though my seasonal depression happens in summer and not winter, and after a few low mental health days this November I took the plunge. Maybe the dark in the winter does affect me and I haven’t noticed; either way, I had a rough mental health time last December/January and I want to give myself the best shot of enjoying my favourite time of year that I can. Soothe me, SAD lamp!

I’d love to hear some of your REPORTs in the comments, and I’ll see you next Sunday for another installment of Cosymas! 💕

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