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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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