April 2022 Wrap-Up & Favorites

Source: personal collection

Hi fellow readers! In April I participated in magical readathon hosted by G over on YouTube. Because of the readathon, I read more books than I usually did this year which is a good thing. I read books that have been on my TBR list for so long and end up liking them. So without further ado, here's the list of books I read in April.

Books read in April

	What We Talk About When We Talk About Love - Raymond Carver (★★★★)
	This book is a short (or tiny) story collection which revolves around the theme of love. Thanks to this book, I discover a literary movement called dirty realism. Also, because of this book I'm intrigued to read other Carver's books. If minimalism writing style fits you, you might want to check this book out.
	In Praise of Shadows - Junichiro Tanizaki (★★★)
	In Praise of Shadows is Tanizaki's essay on Japanese aesthetics. In this essay he describes the Japanese aesthetics ranging from architecture, dining ware, food and then compare them to the aesthetics of the west. His writing is quite compelling to me because I like Japanese culture but I never really see it side by side with other cultures. I personally think shadow is the right word to describe Japanese aesthetics. Even in their literature, there is this dark and mysterious quality that I couldn't put my finger on. But that's why I love Japanese culture and literature. The writing itself can be all over the place. One minute he talked about windows and lamps the next thing I know I read a detailed description of soup and rice. It doesn't bother me at all. This is the first time I read Tanizaki's nonfiction and I enjoyed it. I'm excited to read his other books.
	The Stranger - Albert Camus (★★★★★)
	The Stranger is a book that I've been dreading to read. People described this book as a book that everyone should read at least once; or that it's an important book which represents Camus's philosophical view. It's intimidating. I thought this book would be difficult to read. It's not. It's easy to read. In fact, the plot is so simple but the implication of it is huge. It's about absurdism, nihilism, and social custom among other things. I agree that The Stranger is a book everyone should read at least once in their life. This book ends up to be one of my favorite books of all time.
	The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison (★★★★)
	Now this is the book that's difficult to read because of the topic. It's about racism and unfair society beauty standard. This book is quite graphic and there's abuse towards children in it. So if you don't have the stomach for it, I wouldn't recommend this book to read. However, if you're looking for a gut-wrenching story with a powerful message, you could try picking up The Bluest Eye.

April Favorites

Book

The Stranger

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

TV shows

The Dropout

The Dropout is a show which based on Elizabeth Holmes's story. If you don't know who she is, she was a CEO of a biotech company called Theranos. Her company claimed to have developed method of conducting blood testing by using only small volumes of blood. However, she's convicted of criminal fraud because the method doesn't work and her company actually doesn't have a product. The show depicts Holmes's story building the company and how she committed the fraud by lying to investors and manipulating the data. It was unbelievable. I still can't believe how she managed to lie her way through it all and how she insisted on being not guilty. It's like she doesn't believe that what she's doing is wrong, it's insufferable. After watching this show, I watched the documentary on HBO called 'The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley' and I think Amanda Seyfried did a great job at portraying Elizabeth Holmes. If you follow the real case, you might want to check this show too.

Dopesick

Dopesick is another show which based on a real tragedy. This one is based on the story of U.S. opioid epidemic in the 90s caused by OxyContin. OxyContin is an opioid developed by Purdue Pharma which supposed to be used to relieve severe pain. In order to increase sales of the drugs, Purdue Pharma used aggressive sales tactic and manipulate the data to make the drugs appear less addictive than it actually is. This show is horrific. It shows how greedy big pharma is and how inhuman they are. Those are real people that they lied to but to them they are just numbers, dollars. Dopesick tells the story from different perspectives, such as the doctors, the sales reps, the pharma executives, the government agencies, and the people affected by it. I can't emphasize enough how devastating this show is but I think it's necessary to tell this kind of story.

There you have it! I'm so happy that I finished four books in April. I don't have high hope that I would finish at least the same amount of books in May. That's okay. Anyway, I had fun participating in the readathon. Did any of you participating too? If so, what books have you finished during the readathon?