April Books

April was a month of solid reading, and I made a nice dent in my Quarantine TBR. This post is coming rather late as I was busy finishing my final essay for uni this month! Yes, that’s right I am done, fini, finito, 끝났다!

As we are all stuck inside and I am trying to be more considered with my purchases, most of these books have been borrowed from my local library via the Libby app. I think even after we are released from quarantine I am going to be more reserved when it comes to buying books.

The Three-Body Problem (三体) by Liu Cixin

Did I devour this book in 3 days? Yes, I did. Was it epic? Oh yes! I thoroughly enjoyed it and I can’t wait to get to the next book in the trilogy. As I stated in my Quarantine Reading List post I am already a fan of Cixin’s work from reading many of his short stories but this book is just sensational and I really enjoyed how the mystery slowly unravelled and how Chinese history in the form of the Cultural Revolution blended into the narrative to great effect. If you love Science Fiction you must read this book!

The Turkish Embassy Letters by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

A Uni book from earlier in the year, I decided to finish it so that I can declutter it as I am like the rest of the world using this prolonged period of time at home to sort through my possessions. I thought it was an ok read, and naturally, the most interesting parts were when Montagu was exploring Constantinople, but that in itself is problematic. Orientalism and colonialism is a tough subject to broach and as Montagu was a privileged white woman seeking out the ‘exoticness’ of the Ottoman Empire and its social customs it’s also an important subject to assess to educate yourself on. If you're interested in historic travel writing it might be worth reading but I can’t say I would have read this if I didn’t have to.

Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Butlers, banter and life lessons.

Ishiguro's story of Stevens a pretentious but well-meaning Butler is a touching story of memory and regret that perhaps can inspire us the reader to seize the moment. Thoroughly enjoyable.

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

This is the first Young Adult book that I have read in a while (except Harry Potter I guess) and I must admit that I only read it because I heard that Netflix is making a TV series out of the trilogy that this first book belongs to and a companion duology called Six of Crows. I found it to be quite a fun read but quite obviously formulaic but I have heard that most people think Six of Crows is better, so I’ll read the rest of this series and then move onto that one.

Pride and Prejudice by William Shakespeare

Just kidding Pride and Prejudice is obviously by Jane Austen but one can’t help but notice the similarities between this novel and Much ado About Nothing. Elizabeth and Darcy are Beatrice and Benedict, Jane and Bingley are Hero and Claudio and then that blasted Wickham has to be no other than Don Jon.

Anyway back to my review, this was my penultimate uni read and my first Austen book and I liked it very much. Austen is renowned for her wit and I found myself quite often literally laughing out loud. Pride and Prejudice is obviously the quintessential romance novel and I found Darcy in all his socially awkward glory to be rather endearing and thoroughly relatable.

To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

What a wonderful novella. To Be Taught, If Fortunate follows four astronauts as they explore four different planets, in this future humanity, knows it is not alone in the universe and through this mission, Chambers presents weird and wonderful alien organisms to us. Another fascinating facet of this story is that humans have a technology that can edit their genes to make them less fragile in the face of new alien environments. This is also a quick and easy read and you could quite easily finish it in one sitting.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

I must admit that I thought I would like this book more than I actually did, of course, it was a good read, I just didn’t love it. And for that reason, I don’t think I will read Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There unless someone can convince me it is far superior to the first book.

May 2020 TV Watchlist

If you're looking for something to watch and you’ve already watched all of Netflix, I’ve got you. This is my May Watchlist, a break down of all the TV shows I’m anticipating this coming month

When My Love Blooms (화양연화 – 삶이 꽃이 되는 순간) - Viki & tvN - Already Airing

I would have included this drama in my April watchlist but I didn’t know whether it would be available in the UK due to how the licensing works on Viki. Thankfully that is no longer a mystery as the first two episodes are up already.

This drama follows Han Jae-Hyun and Yoon Ji-Soo at two different times in their lives, back in the 90’s when they were both in their 20’s and the present day in where they are now in their 40’s. It’s a love story, but an understated and raw one. And just like I'll Go to You When the Weather is Nice and Chocolate have been my favourite dramas recently, I feel like this one is going to join the list as it’s a soothing, heartfelt story with beautiful poetic cinematography and great performances.

Good Casting (굿캐스팅) - Viki & SBS - Already Airing

Good Casting is a light-hearted spy comedy, a Korean Charlie’s Angels if you will. Two episodes have aired so far and it’s just so much fun. The premise is that a mismatch of three female agents are bought into a mission to find a corporate spy before he steals intellectual property from one of the largest firms in Korea. The three women are a workaholic who got a fellow agent killed, a young single mum who is a total rookie and an ageing spy who has been stuck in a desk job for years. You can expect cool choreographed fight scenes and pitch-perfect comedy, just what we need in these testing times.

The Eddy - Netflix - May 8th

From Damien Chazelle, the director of La La Land and Whiplash comes another Jazz infused creation. The Eddy is an 8-part series set in Paris featuring a wonderful cast of actors from André Holland (Moonlight, Selma) to Amandla Stenberg (The Hate U Give) to Joanna Kulig (Zimna wojna) to one of my favourite French actors Tahir Rahim (Un prophète, Le passé). The cinematography looks like it will have frenetic energy to it, almost a documentary style which matches well with the improvisational style of Jazz.

Homecoming Season 2 - Amazon Prime - May 22nd

Full disclosure, I haven’t actually watched season 1. But I love Mr Robot and Sam Esmail is the mind behind both of these TV shows and I am a massive fan of Janelle Monae’s music so I feel like I need to watch it. Also the trailer has me intrigued, so I think a binge of season one is on order this month too.

Snowpiercer - Netflix - May ???

Netflix doesn’t even show a release date but according to TNT its May 17th and according to Geektown its May 25th.

This is a wildcard watch, or shall I say an ‘out of curiosity’ watch. I love the Bong Joon-ho film and recommend it to pretty much everyone so I’m interested to see if this American tv adaptation is a complete f-up or if it’s actually any good.

Let me know in the comments section what TV Shows you have on your watchlist this month.

Quarantine Playlist: Songs to Keep you Sane

This is the playlist that is keeping me sane while locked up in my house.

But in truth, my position is one of privilege; I can stay inside and read books, listen to music, do yoga in my garden, watch movies, paint a portrait, write a novel. While others are out in the world saving lives on the front line of the NHS here in England, or holed up in labs across the globe frantically searching for a cure to the virus. Keep that fact in mind and be grateful that the only thing most of us have to do is just stay inside. Its the perfect time for self-reflection and self-improvement like I explored in my How to Survive Quarantine Blog Post

Stay home, stay safe and I’ll be back soon with my Quarantine Book Recommendations at the weekend.

My Quarantine Reading List

These are all the books I’m going to be reading while in Quarantine, some for Uni but many others for the sheer pleasure of reading seeing as I have much more time to do both.

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 (82년생 김지영) by Cho Nam-joo

Kim Jiyoung, born 1982 became a sensation in Korea when published with it becoming the first million-selling Korean novel since 2009’s Please Look After Mom. It follows Kim Jiyoung as she navigates the trials and tribulations of being a female in a mostly misogynistic world. The book also recently got a film adaptation starring Train to Busan’s Gong Yoo and Jung Yu-mi, which I’m looking forward to watching if and when we get it in the UK.

The Complete Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino

A Uni book, but the book I have been looking forward to the most this year as I have already read Invisible Cities by Calvino which I loved. The Complete Cosmicomics collects all of the Cosmicomic short stories together in one volume; they are bonkers, comically absurd and totally wacky tales of science, family and politics set in space.

Dune by Frank Herbert

A Sci-fi classic that influenced many that wrote after him, Herbert’s Dune has been on my bookshelf for ages, but I will finally get into it while I’m stuck at home for the foreseeable future as I really need to escape reality and be transported to a far off land right now (like most of you too). Also, Denis Villeneuve’s film adaptation starring Timothée Chalamet is coming out later this year, so that’s another reason to read it.

Pride and Prejudice & Persuasion by Jane Austen

Two more Uni reads, but everyone loves Austen, and I can’t wait to delve into her world, I’ve seen many a film adaptation of her works such as Autumn De Wilde’s recent lavish and stylish Emma. but I am yet to read her novels! Yes, I am fully aware that it is a literary crime to have got to 26 as a self-proclaimed book worm and to have never read a single Jane Austen novel. Thankfully Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion will put an end to that, and then I really want to read Emma (as I loved the aforementioned movie), and then I’ll probably end up reading the rest of her books.

The Uncanny & Other Essays by Sigmund Freud

I’ve always been fascinated by Freud and his theories, and in my Modern Lit course for Uni he is kind of required reading if you want to get a look into the socio-historical context of modern and post-modern lit. I also read Civilization and Its Discontents recently, and I found that rather interesting and helpful for an essay on Ford Maddox Ford’s The Good Soldier. The Uncanny can also be applied to many other periods and genres of literature, especially the Gothic, which is a genre I absolutely love.

Seasons of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih

Another uni read, although this one didn’t manage to find itself in the stack of books for the post picture as I have misplaced it in the frightful mess that is my bedroom. But I am really excited to read this book as it’s another piece of translated fiction, and it will be the first translated from Arabic that I will read. Seasons of Migration to the North is the story of how colonialism and orientalism can be extremely destructive to a society as a whole and to the individual’s within it. Being set in Sudan also means that the novel explores the interconnectedness of African and Arabic cultures within the country.

The Three-Body Problem (三体) by Liu Cixin

Liu is China’s master of Hard Science Fiction, I’ve read most of his short story collection The Wandering Earth (the title story is also a Netflix movie!), so I want to get started on his critically acclaimed Remembrance of Earth’s Past (地球往事) Trilogy ASAP. I also have a signed copy of The Supernova Era that I got at Forbidden Planet right after it came out in October last year with all intentions of reading it immediately. Alas, it is still waiting on my bookshelf, perhaps I’ll read that one too…it really depends on how long this Quarantine thing is going to go on for!

Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

Another Uni book, but again it’s one I’m interested in as I read Weight (a retelling of the myth of Atlas) when I was a kid and enjoyed it, so I’m intrigued to read something else by Wintersonson. Also, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is a semi-autobiographical Bildungsroman (anyone else just love this word?) aka a coming-of-age novel about a young lesbian growing up in a Pentecostal Community.

The City of Words by Alberto Manguel

Uni required reading. There is a quote somewhere in this work that will be the subject of an essay I have to write so I feel like I should read the whole (or most of) this book to get the gist of the subject and maybe find more parts to quote from. The City of Words was originally a lecture that was turned into a book.

Orlando by Virginia Woolf

I recently read Between the Acts for Uni, and I am rather intrigued by Woolf’s writing style, which is famously challenging due to her use of stream of consciousness. Also while studying another text, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s The Turkish Embassy Letters it was claimed that Montagu was part of the inspiration of the main character in Orlando, which is cool and the other part being Woolf’s female lover Vita Sackville-West. Orlando has also been described as ‘the longest and most charming love letter in literature’ by Sackville-West’s son Nigel Nicholson, which sounds absolutely romantic.

I clearly have a lot of reading ahead of me, and I can’t wait to sink my teeth into this eclectic mix of books, reading may just be the only thing to keep me sane in these coming weeks of Quarantine.

Let me know in the comments what books you’ll be reading during Quarantine and whether you have read any of these books.

How to Survive Quarantine

At first, I didn’t take the SARS-CoV-2 seriously, I thought ‘oh this will all blow over’… It didn’t and it won’t.

It’s strange when you realise that you are living through a moment that will make history for some it was WWII, the Fall of the Berlin Wall et cetera, for me it was 9/11 and the 7/7 bombings in London. I remember where I was on these occasions and that they would change the face of the world forever. SARS-CoV-2 is another of those moments. We are living through exceptional times that will most definitely leave a scar.

With the whole country going into quarantine I thought I would put forward some ideas on what to do with all this time spent at home so that we don’t go crazy and can use this time to make some positive changes in our lives. And it is also worth noting how most of us lucky in the fact that we have a roof over our heads in this time, as many people are out on the streets or struggling to make ends meet due to this whole situation.

What to do while in Quarantine

• Read a book, or 5 - I can make a reading recommendations list if y’all would like.

• Make a playlist and dance around the house singing loudly

• Commune with nature - RESPONSIBLY! Open a window, sit in your garden, let the sun shine on your face and the fresh spring air fill your lungs

• Exercise - Practice yoga, run up and down your stairs, push-ups, pull-ups, jogging on the spot or maybe dig out those old school Mr Motivator tapes and get moving!

• Think then do - Confront yourself, are you satisfied with the path you're on. If not think about how you can change the direction your heading in. For me, I will be filling my time making videos for youtube, studying, taking photos, decluttering, studying the languages I’m learning and writing, lots of writing.

• Use technology to come together - We have all this fantastic tech around us that allows us to see and talk to anyone around the world, so let’s stay indoors but visit our loved ones virtually.

• Binge-watch TV - Oh there is so much content out there in the world, and if there is a TV show you’ve been meaning to watch now is the perfect time to sit back and watch.

• Pursue that hobby you’ve been meaning to do - We all have those hobbies where we have exactly what we need to get started but somehow haven’t managed to, for me that’s my acoustic guitar, sitting patiently in its bag waiting for the day I pick it up and start learning.

• Pamper yourself - Use that expensive facemask, watch a youtube tutorial on how to do facial massages, run a hot bubble bath and pour yourself a glass of wine and indulge in the luxury of it all.

• Start a blog - If you’ve always wanted to have your own little space on the internet then now is the time, I use Squarespace which is probably the easiest platform to get started on and I love it #notsponsored #butiwishiwas

• Get drunk - We all need to let loose sometimes

• Research - If there is something you're fascinated by take some time and find out about it, whether its Quantum physics, Norse Mythology or the Mongolian Empire, find out new information and enrich your mind.

• Train your pet - A way to keep you and your pet busy and having fun, I’m going to get Eddie our Jack Russell to learn a few new tricks…if I can get him to stop snoozing in the sun that is.

• Clean and declutter - we are all going to be stuck at home for quite a while so you need to have a clean and organised space to inhabit, so get vacuuming, dusting and sorting through your belongings.

• Play games and board games - If you're lucky enough to be in quarantine with your family, friends or loved one then pass some time playing games it will make you laugh and appreciate those around you.

So do your part, stay at home and stay safe and healthy. Also, let’s show as much gratitude to NHS staff as possible, they are working hard to keep us all safe and they are risking their lives to do so!