May Wrap Up & June TBR // Still at home, but might change soon 👀

May has been…. a long one? Not as long as March, that month still is the winner of longest month this year, but certainly slower going than April.

🎨 = Graphic novel // 🏮 = Asian books

1. HEIR TO THE UNDERWORLD by J.B Dennis {eARC} // ✰✰✰✰
2. HAPPILY EVER AFTER & EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN by Debbie Tung {eARC} 🎨🏮 // ✰✰✰✰.5
3. WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI by Sandhya Menon {RivetedLit} 🏮 // ✰✰✰✰
4. SAINTS AND SCOUNDRELS IN THE STORY OF JESUS by Nancy Guthrie {eARC} // ✰✰✰✰
5. THE FALLEN ANGEL by Kenneth B. Andersen {eARC} // ✰✰✰✰.5
6. WANT by Cindy Pon {RivetedLit} 🏮 // ✰✰
7. THE LAST TANG STANDING by Lauren Ho {eARC} 🏮 // ✰✰
8. THE CROSSROADS AT MIDNIGHT by Abby Howard {eARC} 🎨 // ✰✰✰✰✰
9. FIXING HEALTHCARE FROM THE INSIDE OUT by Harvard Business Review // ✰✰✰✰

I’m really happy with my reading this month. At first I thought I won’t be able to read much this month as my mental health kinda took a dip, but towards the end of the month I got some steam again!

1. EVERNIGHT by Claudia Gray – Ongoing
2. WHAT IF JESUS WAS SERIOUS? by Skye Jethani {eARC}
3. SEASONS OF THE STORM by Ellen Cosimano {eARC} – Ongoing
4. POPOL VUH: A RETELLING by Ilan Stavans {eARC} 🎨
5. AMERICAN MIDNIGHT: TALES OF THE DARK by Laird Hunt {eARC}

As with last month, I noticed a theme of post around the blogosphere which is Asian books recommendation! For those of you who may not know*, this is because May is Asia-Pacific Heritage Month

*It’s okay if you guys don’t know! I didn’t either because it’s not celebrated in my country. I googled it and it’s always mentioned that this is celebrated in the US, so I don’t know whether it’s US only or also celebrated in other countries

• Asian books recommendation
  • Divine @ R E A (D) I V I N E listed reasons to read Japanese crime fiction and she also gives 20 (!!!) book recommendations!
  • Chloe @ Marshmallow Pudding recommends #ownvoices asian books
  • May @ Forever and Everly recommends 25 books by Asian authors for you to read
  • Caro @ Book Cheshire Cat recommends her favorite books by Asian authors
• It’s also mental health awareness month, which means: more recommendations!
  • Marie @ Drizzle and Hurricane recommends 10 YA books with mental health representation
  • Caro @ Book Cheshire Cat recommends 5 books with mental health representation
• Divine @ R E A (D) I V I N E shares her struggle to promote diverse books
• Chaima @ Books with Chaima recommends some books filled with women with swords
• Buzzfeed writes a guide for people new to bollywood, which is perfect for people who wants to start or explore more of bollywood!
• Also from Buzzfeed, they featured 15 asian desserts that aren’t boba. Which, really makes me happy because as much as I love boba, I’d take patbingsu and mochi anytime! Warning, this post will make you hungry!

• Charis Rae @ Charis Rae wrote an in-depth analysis of the publishing industry and how violence is not the central theme of The Hunger Games
• Erin @ The Book Archive shared why she wouldn’t read the new SJM books
• Kyra @ Blog of A Bookaholic shared how the pandemic has affected her reading habit and how it helps her cope
• Marie @ Drizzle and Hurricane talked about how book blogging has changed in the past 5 years
• May @ Forever and Everly created Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus tag to celebrate the series announcement
• Ash @ Starlight Strands shared 12 heartwarming MG books by Asian authors
• Kay @ Hammock of Books reviewed 20 YA/MG movie adaptations and it’s such a trip down the memory lane!
• Rhi @ Marshmallow Harmonies recommended 8 books with found family trope
• Lila @ Hardcover Haven recommended 5 YA fantasy that deal with mental health disorders and listed 5 fiction podcast to binge in quarantine
• Amber @ Escape Life in Pages discussed about crushing on YA boys as an adult
• Maha @ Sunshine and Books invited 6 muslim creators on her blog to share their experience in the bookish community

So. Quarantine. That’s still a thing.

Nothing much happened this month. I’m still staying at home, finishing most of my online courses and work intensely on my thesis. My sleeping schedule shouldn’t even be called that anymore since I didn’t have any more schedule 🙃

It will probably end soon though. The Indonesian government announced the start of “New Normal”, where most of the businesses and malls will be opened in June, despite us not having enough testing or tracing mechanism, not enough healthcare provider and facilities, and protection that our existing doctors and nurses are sick and dying. The government never really prioritize our welfare from the beginning; at the first report of outbreak in China, instead of closing the borders they give travel promos 💀 They joked that prayers and traditional medicine caused us to be immune 💀 Despite having such a huge number of population and direct flights from Wuhan, we didn’t find any of our cases until March (other neighboring countries reported first cases earlier).

They did not issued a strict stay at home order, it’s more of a guidelines. We have one of the worst testing capacity in the world, the number we have now reflected the number of testing capacity, which is only on the hundreds/day despite having 268 million people.  Then pandemic grows worse without any signs of the curve getting flat- which is expected, you give below minimum effort and expected the pandemic to get better 💀🙃- the government issued a decree to open up the economy in late May/early June “no matter what”. So here we are, at the beginning of June, where the curve is still high and we just fresh out of ied where people went back to their hometown as a tradition and coming back to the city, and now we’re going to be in the same spaces with each other.

Honestly, it’s a disaster waiting to happen. But I don’t think we’ll ever know the extent of the disaster since our testing is so limited that we will likely figure out the outcome through burial data instead of testing ones 💀

But the point of this whole rant is a) I’m scared. We are so obviously not ready and while I do understand that we won’t be able to withstand the economic pressure, it will be a huge disaster and b) I am losing trust in my government. They half-assed their effort and keep defending themselves by saying “this is unprecedented, we are trying our best yada yada yada”. Stay-at-home orders supposed to buy us time to build our core capacities, but I didn’t see any new hospitals, respirators, etc. I didn’t see any test/trace/isolate procedure being strictly implemented. This is a huge pile of mess which the government now washed their hands from. And as bad as it sounds, I can understand why people became apathetic to politics and decided to not vote- being disappointed by the people you elect, that you believe in, is such a sad feelings.

On the other hand, I’m sure you are have heard what happened recently through the news, the brutality that was George Floyd’s death and the subsequent protest demanding for justice and change within the system. A lot has been said so I just want to say: SUPPORT THEM!!! This website provides ALL the resources you need, from petitions you can sign, organizations you can donate to, etc. For people outside of the U.S, especially fellow Indonesians, you can use the postcodes listed on the web to sign the petition and if you don’t have paypal, I think you can do the transfer using Jenius account.

• April Wrap Up & May TBR // A better month
• Mini Review: Mermaid Moon, The Good Son, and Heir to the Underworld
• 5 Elements that Determines How I Review and Rate My Books
• When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon
• Let’s Celebrate the Series Announcement: Percy Jackson vs Heroes of Olympus Book Tag
• The Fallen Angel by Kenneth B. Andersen
• Screen Rambles: April 2020 // A mixed bag
• Why Want by Cindy Pon Did Not Work for Me