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Hello fellow readers. How have you been doing? safe and healthy I hope. With April passing by, it means I've been staying at home for a month. Moreover, because of Covid-19 in April the government starts to apply large-scale social restrictions in the city that I live in. So I really can't go anywhere outside the house unless it's necessary. People aren't even allowed to go out or into the city. What a time to be alive! Anyway I told you before that there's an O.W.L readathon happening in April in which I participated in. So most of the books I read are for said readathon and I finished all my TBR for the readathon! Here's the list of books I read in April.
Books read in April
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Marriage: Vintage Minis - Jane Austen (★★★★) |
Marriage is a part of Vintage Minis collection which collects chapters from Jane Austen's works including Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. This collection focuses on Austen's view on marriage and women's stance on marriage at that time. Most of the heroines in these selected chapters married for status and finance. Some of the characters even questioned the purpose of marriage. It's interesting to read about it knowing that it's based on the society at the time which apparently not so different from the current society. Although at the time women often came as passive participants, some of the characters trying to break that norm. My only grievance is because I'm unfamiliar with the general plot and characters of the books chosen except for Pride and Prejudice, sometimes I have to guess who's who and the context because we're only given a snippet of a book. Other than that, I like this book. In fact, reading this book motivates me to read Jane Austen's books since I've only read Pride and Prejudice and even that was a long time ago.
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A Room with A View - E.M. Forster (★★★) |
A Room with A View is a romance book by E.M. Forster which published in 1908. It's a romance story about a young girl named Lucy Honeychurch who has two love interests with contrasting personalities. On the surface it's a love triangle story but it's also a critique on English society at the time. A Room with A View is actually a book that I wouldn't normally pick up by myself. The reason why I picked it up is because I'm planning to watch the 1985 movie adaptation which was nominated in the 59th Academy Award's Best Picture. Honestly I'm not disappointed, it was quite fun. Anyway, I've written a full review of this book if you want to know more of my thoughts on this book.
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The Book of Tea - Kakuzo Okakura (★★★★) |
When I first knew about the book I was wondering what aspect of tea it'd be about. Well it talks about every aspect of a tea ceremony especially Japanese tea ceremony from the history, philosophy, to the elements included in a tea ceremony. This book is divided into several chapters with each focusing on a particular aspect. I know from the outsider view (and this book mainly refer them as the western people), that having an elaborate ceremony for enjoying a beverage is uncommon and might often viewed as unnecessary. But it's the detail that's important and as a whole it's almost like an art form in itself. It's so thoughtful and influenced by Taoism and Zennism. The construction of a tea room is based on Zen monastery. Even the decoration placement in the tea room is carefully thought. They adopt the simplistic approach in decorating the tea room. An art piece only brought in occasionally and the other objects in the room can't be too 'noisy' over that art piece. If there's an art piece, it should be the center piece and the other objects are there to enhance the art piece. Japanese tea ceremony sounds peaceful to me, like it'll be a meditative experience. Reading this book makes me even more curious to experience a true Japanese tea ceremony myself. If you're interested in Japanese culture, I recommend reading this book.
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Absolute Justice - Akiyoshi Rikako (★★★) |
Akiyoshi Rikako is one of my favorite authors which is why I feel the need to read this book. However the character that becomes the focus in this book is unlikeable. It's so unlikeable that when I was reading this book I was in a constant state of anger and I feel stressed out. I wrote a full review of this book which actually is my rant towards this book. It's written in Bahasa Indonesia though, since the book I read is the Bahasa Indonesia translation version.
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Symposium - Plato (★★★★) |
Symsposium is one of Plato's famous works. It's a discussion on the meaning of Eros or passionate love. Even though it's a philosophical text, it doesn't read like one. it's like a fiction novel instead. I've written a review of this book. I'm not a philosophy scholar or formally study philosophy in school. I'm merely interested in the subject. However, if you're a casual learner like me but feeling intimidated to read this text, don't be. My suggestion is pick an edition which has notes in it because that could help a lot.
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Review Posts in April
April Favorites
Book
the Book of Tea
Symposium
TV shows
Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj
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I know I'm late on this. It's just that I've actually watched two or three episodes before but never got the time to continue watching all of the episodes. This whole stay at home thing gives me more time to finally catch up on the show. So I binge watched it. It's so hilarious. The world is a mess right now. Hasan managed to make me laugh at how messed up humanity and the world is. It's dark humour at its best. Though the show mostly talks about American policies and it's pretty much American centric, I still could relate to the issues that he's talking about. Overall, I highly recommend this show.
There you have it. I read a total of five books in April and four of them are for O.W.L. readathon. My work life was even more hectic than usual so I ended up not reading as much as I wanted to and watch Korean dramas instead. Yep, I'm into Korean dramas now. I was too tired to read so I picked my phone and watch Korean dramas through it. I guess it's probably because the west sitcom shows that I'm following are wrapping up their latest season already and the other show that I'm following is Westworld. I can't. There's not enough energy left in my brain to watch that show so I watch Korean dramas. They're easy to watch and sure it can be cheesy sometimes but I guess that's what I need. How about you? How did you spend your April? Any shows recommendation to watch?
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