Ecce Sigum

Immanentize the Empathy

Tag: Christine Stephens Krieger

December 2025 Books and Reading Notes

John Winkelman

December was a surprisingly book-heavy month, fueled in large part by me taking a full two weeks off from work. This is the first vacation in a long time where I didn’t have to go anywhere or do anything for the entire break. So I read. A lot. And I wrote in my journal. And I slept a lot.

I didn’t set out to pick up so many books in December, but opportunities to increase my collection just kept appearing.

If you look at the dates where I completed reading books, you will see that they start at the beginning of my time off. And they continue right through to the end of the year. I am still reading, and will likely complete at least one more book before I return to work on Monday.

One additional note: Two of the books i read – The Crying of Lot 49 and The Poppy War – I picked up from the Grand Rapids Public Library. One of my goals for the new year is to spend a lot more time at the library. I love acquiring new books, but collecting is expensive and the library is only a few blocks from my house.

Acquisitions

Reading material I acquired in the month of December, 2025
Reading material I acquired in the month of December, 2025
  1. Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba, Let This Radicalize You (Haymarket Books) [2025.12.07]
  2. New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine #5 [2025.12.11]
  3. New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine #6 [2025.12.11]
  4. New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine #7 [2025.12.11]
  5. Katelyn Millett, From the Stillness Within [2025.12.20] – Kate is a local poet and for a time was a student in the Tai Chi class. She has some serious talent.
  6. David Day, An Atlas of Tolkien [2025.12.22] – Received as a Christmas gift from my wonderful partner.
  7. Scott Krieger, Certain Lightnings (Grand River Poetry Press) [2025.12.23] -Received as a gift from the author.
  8. Arthur Waley (translator), The Books of Songs [2025.12.23] – Received as a gift from Scott K.
  9. Wu-chi Liu, Irving Lo (editors), Sunflower Splendor: Three Thousand Years of Chinese Poetry (Indiana University Press) [2025.12.23] – Received as a gift from Scott K.
  10. Pat Thomas, Evergreen Review: Dispatches from the Literary Underground: Covers & Essays 1957 – 1973 (Fantagraphics) [2025.12.29] – A Christmas present to myself, to complete my collection of Evergreen Review anthologies.
  11. Varlam Shalamov (Donald Rayfield, translator), Sketches of the Criminal World: Further Kolyma Stories (New York Review Books) [2025.12.30] – A Christmas present to myself, to go along with Kolyma Stories, which I picked up a few years back. I had no idea there was a second volume to this set.

Reading List

Books

Books I read in the month of December 2025.
Books I read in the month of December 2025.
  1. Ivan Turgenev (Charles and Natasha Hepburn, translators), A Sportsman’s Notebook [2025.12.22]
  2. Christine Stephens-Krieger, Love Garden at the End of the World [2025.12.23]
  3. Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49 [2025.12.27]
  4. Scott Krieger, Certain Lightnings [2025.12.28]
  5. R.F. Kuang, The Poppy War [2025.12.29]

Short Prose

  1. Jim C. Hines, “Images of Death” [2025.12.01]
  2. Kameron Hurley, “Mother” [2025.12.04]
  3. Jim C. Hines, “Crimson Frost” [2025.12.28]

Weekly Round-up, December 20, 2025

John Winkelman
Piles of snow at the bottom of the Grand Rapids Community College parking ramp.

And just like that, I am finished with work for the year.

This past week was hectic but fun. Last weekend my partner and I drove to Novi so that I could attend a ConCom meeting for Magical ConFusion. While I was in the meeting Z sat in the hotel restaurant working on her business Gallafe, which she is re-launching in January.

We arrived at the hotel Saturday and immediately set out looking for food, which we found in abundance at Bi Bim Bap inside the Atrium of Novi. The food overall was very good, and the kimchi was ferociously spicy and (assisted by a hot toddy back at the hotel) scorched my cold-ridden sinuses clean. Highly recommended.

On Sunday, after the meeting, we met up with a friend at the Basil Bowl on Haggerty, which is also excellent, and offers good food for when one is recovering from a cold or a hangover.

This past Wednesday, Z and I drove over to the Frederick Meijer Gardens to experience Enlighten, which was most excellent. Fortunately the outdoor temperature Wednesday evening was considerably warmer than the past few weeks, so the two-plus hours we spend wandering the mile-long path through the installation was comfortable and enjoyable. If you have a tolerance for being outside in the snow, I highly recommend attending.

  • Light show at the Enlighten event at the Frederick Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, Michigan
  • Light show at the Enlighten event at the Frederick Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, Michigan
  • Light show at the Enlighten event at the Frederick Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, Michigan
  • Light show at the Enlighten event at the Frederick Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, Michigan
  • Light show at the Enlighten event at the Frederick Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Reading

I am about three quarters of the way through A Sportsman’s Notebook, and should be able to complete it by the end of the year. Then on to the next thing.

Writing

I didn’t have time to write anything new this week. However, when reviewing the links in my Literary Matters page I discovered that Coffin Bell, the online journal which published my short story “Occupied Space,” has closed. So I have now published “Occupied Space” here on my website.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Mutants, Fae
Setting: Labyrinth
Genre: Fantasy

Listening

Scott Krieger reading from his new book of poetry, Certain Lightnings.

Christine Stephens Krieger reading poems from her new book Love Garden at the End of the World.

Interesting Links