The Cosy Process in 2025

plus a couple of recent reads! 📚

I’m making a couple of changes / taking a couple of risks with The Cosy Process this year! I’m in my don’t ask doesn’t get era? I’ll workshop that.

If you’re just here for a catch up on some of the books I’ve read so far this year, scroll on down!

If you’re here for updates, here’s what you can expect from The Cosy Process this year:

• I love how Hannah Whitten describes her vision for her Substack as a sort of blog/newsletter, so I’m leaning into that kind of vibe!

• Basically, we’ll be doing the same sort of thing we have been doing here — chatting about books, cosy games, staying cosy in an un-cosy world — but hopefully more often. Let’s make that twice a month dream a reality!!

• On that note, I’m turning on paid subscriptions. Frankly, times are hard right now, and if you’d like to financially support this cosy part of the internet, or the cosy gay behind it, there’ll be an option to do this for £5 per month, or £50 annually.

  • As well as supporting this cosy gay, paid subscribers will get a ~30 minute chatting-with-a-cup-of-tea style podcast/voice note with me once a month. I really love Chey Barton’s Patreon podcast, so it’ll be kind of that vibe: casual, catching up with a pal and being interrupted by cats.

• If you’ve already pledged, be aware that I’ll be turning on paid subscriptions (which will take your pledged payment) on March 1!

• In the long run, I’d love to do a rebrand/visual refresh for The Cosy Process, but that’s way down the line!! For now, the visuals I put together when we started this endeavour on a wing, a prayer, and a “stop overthinking it” will see us through.

If you don’t have the capacity to become a paid subscriber right now but you want to support The Cosy Process, please feel free to buy me a coffee!

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In a surprise turn of events, I’ve read like. a LOT of books so far this year. In fact, as of writing this, I've read 15 books, which, for halfway through February, feels like a lot. For context, I read 65 books in the whole of 2024, so doing some very rough rounding, I’ve read in a month and a half almost a quarter of the number of books I read in the entirety of last year. ✨reading a lot depressed v can’t read at all depressed!✨

Here are a few notable mentions from the books I’ve read so far this year:

• Buried Deep and Other Stories by Naomi Novik*: if you read my favourite books of 2024 post, it won’t come as a surprise that when I learned this short story collection had a story set in the Scholomance world after the Scholomance series, I immediately had to pick it up, and it was a great decision. The Scholomance story was a wonderful return to that world, and, while I’m not often a short story collection person, reading through Naomi Novik’s work and watching her grow as a writer over the years is just such a treat. Also, there’s a story about sculpture artists that lives in my bones now.

• Hither, Page by Cat Sebastian: Listen. I love queer historical romances. And I always want to love Cat Sebastian books, but something never quite clicks with me and I don’t know what it is. HOWEVER. This one, I had so much fun with. It’s essentially an Agatha Christie vibes post-war small English town murder mystery, except that it’s also a romance between a traumatised doctor and an undercover spy. I loved all the background characters, didn’t figure out who did it until right before the reveal (although ymmv: I am notoriously terrible at guessing whodunnit), and had a really lovely time the whole way through.

• Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett*: I enjoyed book 1 in this series but there’s always something… not quite For Me about fae books, which is frustrating because I want to love them more! But I liked our grumpy academic and her melodramatic academic rival and their reluctant (on her part) romance so much that I knew I was going to keep going with this series, and I had SO much fun with this one. Lean into the hurt/comfort, Heather Fawcett. I see you and I appreciate you!!!

What have you been reading so far this year? Any favourites? I’d love to know!