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Hello fellow readers! I know it's late but we've finally come to the end of the year. This will be the last wrap up & favorites for 2019. In December I read quite a lot to catch up on my Goodreads reading challenge. Guess what? I reach my 2019 Goodreads goal! Pumpkinheads is the last book I read in 2019. I also watched quite a lot of movies. Some of them are movies that were nominated in the Academy Award for Best Pictures. My favorites are included in this post. Anyway, here are the books I read in December.
Books read in December
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Night of Cake and Puppets - Laini Taylor & Jim Di Bartolo(★★★) |
Night of Cake and Puppets is a companion novel to the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy. It follows Karou's best friend, Zuzana and Mik. Night of Cake and Puppets actually takes place after Days of Blood and Starlight and before Dreams of Gods and Monsters. So it's before Zuzana and Mik are together. In fact it's a story of their first date night. As with other Daughter of Smoke and Bone books, this has that fairy tail quality but without the horror of war between angels and the beasts. This one is more of a cute romance story between Zuzana and Mik. You don't have to read this one because you won't miss out on anything if you don't read this book. But if you want to take a little break in between the books in the original trilogy but don't want to get out of the Daughter of Smoke and Bone world, Night of Cake and Puppets is an excellent reading choice.
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Batman: The Killing Joke - Alan Moore & Brian Bolland (★★★★★) |
This is the second time I read the Killing Joke and I'm telling you, it gets better. Although it's a reread, it's like I'm reading the Killing Joke for the first time. It gives me a new insight I highly highly recommend reading this graphic novel.
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Sea Prayer - Khaled Hosseini & Dan Williams (★★★★) |
Sea Prayer is a beautiful short read. The illustration is stunning. The prose is poignant. I'm amazed that short prose can evoke such emotions. At the end of the book, Hosseini wrote the background and inspiration of this book which is heartbreaking. Sea Prayer might be a short book but it leaves quite an impression on me.
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Three Japanese Short Stories - Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Kafū Nagai, Koji Uno, Jay Rubin (★★★) |
This little book is a part of Penguin mini modern classic collection. It has three short stories written by famous Japanese writers in early 20th century. The stories are Behind the Prison by Nagai Kafu, Closet LLB by Uno Koji, and General Kim by Akutagawa Ryunosuke. Each story has its own charm but my most favourite which is also the longest one is Behind the Prison. It's written in a form of letter from a narrator who've been back to Japan after living in Europe. In his letter he describes the nature of Japan and his observation as he re-experience Japanese culture. For a mini stories collection, I enjoy the story choices included in it. It's strange but not surprising in Japanese literature. If you like Japanese literature, I think you'll like this short stories collection.
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Hujan Bulan Juni - Sapardi Djoko Damono (★★★★) |
I haven't read a lot of books written in Indonesian this year. The last Indonesian book I read is Man Tiger by Eka Kurniawan. Even that one I read in English (I intend to reread it in Indonesian though). Anyway, I wanted to read this book because of the poem collection with the same title also by SDD. I read it and love it which is rare for me because I always have difficulty with poems. At the same time, I was scared to start this book because I was afraid that I wouldn't understand it. I end up liking it and continuing with the second book. I think I'll write a full review of this book but using Bahasa Indonesia.
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I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokpokki - Baek Se-Hee (★★★) |
I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokpokki is a non-fiction book by a South Korean author. The author is a girl who suffers from dysthymia. In this book, she recalls her therapy session with her psychiatrist while giving her takeaway from each session. This book is originally written in Korean. I'm lucky enough to have this book translated into Bahasa Indonesia. This book came to my radar because I need to read books on mental illness. Reading this book was not easy because of the topic what's talked about. It doesn't shy away from describing the reality of people with depression. Though it's quite a difficult read, there are many points from this book that can be used as our self-reflection. I've written a full review of this book in Bahasa Indonesia if you want to know more about my thoughts on it.
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Pingkan Melipat Jarak - Sapardi Djoko Damono (★★★) |
I continue on reading the trilogy because the first book ends in a cliffhanger. I do want to know what happen to Pingkan and Sarwono. In this book, we get more of Pingkan and Katsuo. This book feels surreal because the line between reality and dream is blurred. In the dream Pingkan kept mentioning some kind of cloth and sometimes she's described seeing herself in a mirror. The mirror itself I believe related to her identity. Somehow in this book Pingkan is often called as Galuh and Sarwono as Inu which comes from an old Javanese tale. Besides, Pingkan has always been struggling with her identity as a Javanese-Minahasan. This book also incorporates Javanese traditional belief (inthuk-inthuk and Pancer) and Japanese traditional belief (Ryukyuan religion). Although this book is even thinner than the first book, it's not as easy to read. Still, I will read the next book because I'm already invested in Sarwono and Pingkan's relationship.
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Yang Fana adalah Waktu - Sapardi Djoko Damono (★★★) |
This book is the final book in the Hujan Bulan Juni trilogy. The opening took me by surprise because there's a quote from Ed Sheeran's song, Thinking Out Loud. If you don't know, Sapardi Djoko Damono, the author of this book is a senior Indonesian writer, like, literally senior. So it's delightful and a bit funny to have him quote a new popular song. Anyway, the writing style is pretty much the same, long paragraphs with little to none commas or periods. Even the dialogues between the characters don't use the usual quotation marks. However, they're still written in a different format than the non-dialogue paragraphs so it's easy to differentiate. After reading the previous books, I've come to appreciate and enjoy his writing. In this book, Noriko appears a lot especially at the last half of the book. Her character is the one who gives surprising development which I love. I don't want to spoil the story so I'll just say that this book is a nice and satisfying conclusion (at least for me) of the trilogy.
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Pumpkinheads - Rainbow Rowell & Faith Erin Hicks (★★★★) |
Pumpkinheads is such a cute graphic novel. I'm interested in it because of the premise. Personally, I never experienced the Fall season before. Hence, the idea of a mini-themepark-like based on a pumpkin patch intrigued me. I must say, it looks like a lot of fun. Reading Deja helps Josiah on his love quest while enjoying the pumpkin patch was fun. The food, the activities, the decorations fascinate me. The color palette used accentuate the warm and cozy feelings of fall season. Deja and Josiah's friendship also warms my heart. The cast in this graphic novel is diverse do that's a plus. All in all, Pumpkinheads is one of those graphic novels that I might reread in the future; just to experience the season through Deja and Josiah.
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Review Posts in December
December Favorites
Book
Batman: The Killing Joke
Sea Prayer
Pumpkinheads
Movie
Marriage Story
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I don't think I need to explain anything about this one. Even when the trailer just came out, I was already interested in it. People have been talking about it on the internet and it's just that good. This movie tells a different side of a divorce. It stars Adam Driver and Scarlet Johansson as the divorcing couple. I love that this movie seems realistic. Even when two people love each other doesn't always mean that they're meant to be together. It's giving me the same vibe as Blue Valentine. I think that's the first realistic romance/drama movie that I've ever watched. Anyway, Marriage Story is highly recommended. If you have't watched it, go do it.
Awakenings
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Awakenings is one of the Academy Award Best Picture nominations from the 90s that I watched in December. Honestly I didn't expect that I'd like this movie as much as I do. Based on the summary that I read I expect it to be ... boring. But it's not. In fact, it moves me and I learn something in the way. I recommend this movie to watch and don't forget to prepare tissue.
Schindler's List
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This movie is the one that I regret I don't watch earlier. It's been referenced a lot and the music score often used as a backsound. Now that I've watched it, I get why it won the Academy Award Best Picture in 1993. Schindler's List is based on a novel titled Schindler's Ark. It's a Holocaust movie following a German industrialist who managed to save a thousand of Jews during Nazi occupation. It's shot in black and white except where it counts. You'll see what I mean. It's quite brutal and vulgar but sadly I think that's what really happened back then; or even worse. Despite of the problematic 'white saviour' trope, I still think Schindler's List is an important movie to watch.
TV Series
Modern Love
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Modern Love is an Amazon Prime series based on a New York Times weekly column. It's an adaptation of various essay revolves around love which submitted by NYT readers. Season 1 of this series consists of 8 episodes with different story for each episode. Honestly, I've only watched the first 3 episodes and I'm already hooked. These episodes are so cute, funny, and touching. Knowing that these episodes are based on real stories just warm my heart. I'm actually saving the remaining episodes because I kind of don't want the series to end. I highly recommend this series.
Mindhunter
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It's a Netflix series based on the true crime book Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit. It follows FBI agents Holden Ford and Bill Tench on the early days of FBI's Behavioral Science Unit. What makes this show so interesting to me is because this is set in the 1970s-1980s, there's not much known about serial killer. In this show, we see how they establish the studies of serial killer, the how and why; mostly the why which fascinates me. Because of that, this show can be so academic and theoritical at times and the dialogues are sometimes fast paced. It's difficult to follow but still, fascinating. Jonathan Groff is the lead and he surprises me. The last show that I watched him in is Glee and it's a total 180 from this one. So he really surprises me. This show can be unsettling though, so fair warning if you want to watch it.
There you have it, fellow readers! I end this year in a good note, pop culture-wise. I'm still debating whether to write yearly favorites or not. I mean, I already posted my favorites every month. Either way, how's your new year's eve? Did you spend it by snuggling up cozy and read or going out with friends? As for me, I slept through the night. I just don't have the energy anymore. Besides it was raining all day so the weather kind of gloomed my mood. Nevertheless, I wish you all a happy new year!
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