March Wrap Up & April TBR (2021)

Another month, another wrap up! I feel like settling into my routine of work-home-repeat and now that I’m used to it, time has been flying really fast!

CRUEL BEAUTY by Rosamund Hodge // 🌟🌟🌟.5
DOWN COMES THE NIGHT by Allison Saft {eARC} // 🌟🌟🌟.5
THE BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY by W. Chan Kim 🎧 // Currently reading
DECK OF OMENS by Christine Lynn Herman 🎧 // 🌟🌟🌟

Do you see something different on March’s read books? That’s right, I finally gave audiobook another chance! Deck of Omens is my first audiobook ever and while it took me a month, I finally finished it! 🥳 I think I finally understand the problem with audiobooks: I couldn’t listen during working hours or when I’m doing anything that requires concentration as it will cause me to skip some parts and it’s hard to rewind the exact place I missed so it took me so long to read them. On top of it, it took me a while to get used to the character’s voice given by the narrator; the beginning was a struggle for me 😥 However once I got used to the voices, it works well for me! Non-fiction doesn’t have this problem, so I will probably use audiobooks to read more non-fiction moving forward 😀

As of now, I already finished MAN OF CONTRADICTIONS: JOKO WIDODO AND THE STRUGGLE TO REMAKE INDONESIA by Ben Bland which basically tries to explain Jokowi’s (our current president) contradictions: from the man he portray himself to be and the one we’re seeing now, as well as the political, social and cultural context that shaped him. I would love to do a review one day just to get this book out of my system as I find it fascinating, hence why I flew through it 😃 I also just started SHE SAID by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey (non-fiction on how the authors broke the Harvey Weinstein story) and LORD OF SHADOWS by Cassandra Clare as I was suddenly in a shadowhunter mood 😂

THE DECAGON HOUSE MURDER by Yukito Ayatsuji {eARC}
XOXO by Axie Oh {eARC}
SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN by Shelley Parker-Chan {eARC}

As I already read 2 long books, I’m not sure I will read other books in April. But in case I do, I’m trying to tackle some eARCs in April and it seems like these books will satisfy my mood reading: a mystery, a romance, and a fantasy. I’m not sure about She Who Became the Sun since it’s another huge book and I’m trying to avoid burnout, but I am excited for it and I hope I can get to it.

I’m loving Chaima @ Books With Chaima‘s review of Down Comes the Night by Allison Saft, which convinced me to pick this book up this month
Clara @ Bookworm of Notredame shared 3 movies she watched and loved recently, but in aesthetics and it’s just so pretty 😍😍😍
Tiffany @ Read by Tiffany told us about 3 webtoons she thinks should be adapted into k-drama
Kal @ Reader Voracious listed reasons why she loves morally gray characters and I agree with every single one of them!
Cam @ Camillea Reads reviewed My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell and it’s one of the best review I’ve ever read
Marie @ Drizzle and Hurricane reflected on her thoughts after a year on bookstagram
CW @ The Quiet Pond review of Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean made me so happy and want to pick up the book asap!

I feel like I’m living solely through screen in March and it kindaaaaa took a toll on me 😬

March really flew by with me settling into a routine with the day to day of my work. I also had a lot of trainings and meetings last month so I had a lot of zoom calls. On top of it, I also watched Flower of Evil on Netflix, listening to audiobooks or reading books on my phone on my spare time. So yeah, it really felt like I didn’t stop staring at screens 24/7 and it didn’t feel nice. I always lost track of time and I can feel my eyes started to feel its effect: they got super dry that I’ve been using eye drops for a while now 😬

I also think my mental health took a dip this month as the result of constant screen time- zoom exhaustion is real, apparently. I just want to make a blanket burrito and hide from people for a few days 😥

Other than that, not much to update. I’ve been feeling like my updates have been really dry lately since I didn’t do much outside of work and reading and fangirling 😂 Since I’ve been reading less this year too, I’ve been thinking of doing quarterly updates instead of monthly… What do you guys think? I’m just scared that I will forget what happened in the past 3 months if I do a quarterly wrap up…

This is also your reminder to add DIAL A FOR AUNTIES to your TBR, to pre-order or immediately purchase it upon its release on April 27th! I’ve never been this hyped up for a book and the reason for it being:

🌟 Chinese-Indonesian rep. In case you don’t know, I’m Chinese-Indonesian so despite the book being set in Southern California, it’s still super exciting for me!

🌟 Murder mystery! Our main character, Meddelin Chan, accidentally killed her blind date and she’s asking for her aunties helped to get rid of the body. I think there’s some sort of accident where the corpse got sent to a wedding or something??? But I’m curious on how Meddelin killed her date and on whether she’s actually responsible for his death…

🌟 Hilarious aunties. Have you seen the promo materials on the author’s twitter?? From the rivalries to hobbies, each of the aunties have such an explosive and fun characterization!

As you can see, I’m super excited for this book. I’ll try my best to buy it on the first day but it’s probably won’t be available immediately (despite being written by Indonesian lol). But anyways, I hope you guys are as excited as I am and will love this book!