April 2017 Wrap-Up & Favorites

Source

Hi fellow readers. It's the start of a new month (kind of), which means it's time for another wrap-up and favorites. Okay, I know it's actually late but here we are! Anyway, I had a pretty good month. Aside of the long weekend, April was nice because I managed to watch several good movies and read five books. Not too bad, eh? Anyway, here are the books I read in April.

Books read in April

	Summer Days & Summer Nights – Stephanie Perkins (edited by) (★★★)
	Summer Days & Summer Nights is the second short story collection written by various popular YA authors. The short stories in this book themed around Summer. Some authors who contributed to this book are Cassandra Clare, Veronica Roth, Leigh Bardugo, Libba Bray, and (of course) Stephanie Perkins. Some stories surprisingly have darker theme which centered around mental illness, and some are quite fluffy and fun to read. I've already posted a full review of this book if you want to know more of my thoughts on this book.
	Rumah Kertas – Carlos Maria Dominguez (★★★)
	Honestly, I've never heard of this book before. This book's English title is the House of Paper. It is very short, in fact I think this is more like a novella with only 76 pages. It is written by an Argentine writer. This book is basically about book lovers and all the crazy things they do (sometimes including me). I've also posted a full review of this book if you want to check it out.
	Sometoon #01 – Mojito Mohican (★★★★)
	Sometoon is a comic/ graphic novel about snippets of relationships between men and women. It is actually based of real life story from South Korean. The relationships in this book are between heterosexual people only, so there's that. But still, they all are ridiculously cute. Their stories make me feel warm and fuzzy and sad a little because they keep reminding me of the fact that I'm still single. Yet, I wouldn't mind reading it again.
	I Want to Eat Your Pancreas - Sumino Yoru (★★★)
	I Want to Eat Your Pancreas is originally written in Japanese. The one which I read is the translated version in Bahasa Indonesia. I read it along with a book club. I've already written a full review of this book in Bahasa Indonesia so I won't explain further here.
	Harry Potter & the Cursed Child - John Tiffany & Jack Thorne (★★.5)
	I finally read Harry Potter & the Cursed Child. I've been putting it off because of the reviews and also because I feel like it's meant to be watched not read. Well, I'm just too curious. Overall, the plot is ... interesting but I didn't enjoy the reading experience. I don't like the dialogue. They all sound too cheesy to my taste and the humour felt dry. I don't know, maybe my opinion will change if I experience it as a play. Nevertheless, this is one thing that I can check off my to-read list.

Review Posts in April
Remnants - Carolyn Arnold
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock - Matthew Quick
Summer Days & Summer Nights - Stephanie Perkins (edited by)
Rumah Kertas - Carloz Maria Dominguez

Non-Review Posts in April
Top 5 Authors I Want to Read More From

April Favorites

Books

Sometoon #01 – Mojito Mohican

Movies

Arrival

Source

Okay, my motivation watching this movie is because first, I was intrigued by the premise introduced in the trailer. Second, because it's nominated for the Oscars. I watched other Oscar nominated movies in April, but this one blew me away. It's so thought-provoking. It's an alien movie, but it doesn't have those cliches over the top first contact/ alien invasion scenes. I also think Amy Adams's performance amazing. She manages to make me sympathize towards the heptapods. Also, the music is so atmospheric. I was actually scared when Amy and Jeremy Renner's characters were going to see the heptapods for the first time. Now I'm just curious to read the source material of this movie which actually is a short story titled 'Story of Your Life' by Ted Chiang.

About Time

Source

This is the movie which has been recommended to me by my sister. See, my sister is not a big drama watcher. So when she recommended me a drama movie, there must be something about it; and man, it's so good. It took me a while to get into this movie. I was bored because it felt so slow. But then, I was hooked. It's touching and bittersweet. What I love about this movie is it doesn't focus only on the romance. It's also about family and how to appreciate even the simplest thing in life. If you haven't watched this movie, I highly highly recommend it.

Music (artists/songs)

Although I have several songs on repeat in April, let me just say that I'm pretty obsessed with Tame Impala's The Less I Know the Better. I just can't stop listening to it. For a depressing song, it's so dang catchy. I first learn about the song from CutiePieMarzia, a youtuber. She talks about it in one of her video and I couldn't stop listening to it since.

So there you have it. I actually watched several movies in April such as La La Land, Manchester By the Sea, and Silence. But Arrival and About Time are the ones which become my absolute favorite. What about you? Did you watch or read anything good in April?