April 2021 Wrap Up & May TBR // I Feel Like I’ve Become A Zombie

If you sing, you lose.

It’s been a while since I write a post here- I always scheduled my post in advanced so it’s been like… a month, give or take since I write anything. And I have to admit, I actually missed it! Writing posts have always been my form of release so the fact that I was so… zombie-ish in April to be able to write anything says a lot about how April was for me 😬

1. Man of Contradictions: Joko Widodo and the Struggle to Remake Indonesia by Ben Bland // 🌟🌟🌟🌟
2. She Said by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey // 🌟🌟🌟🌟.5
3. Ghosted in L.A Vol 1 by Sina Grace and Siobhan Keenan // 🌟🌟🌟
4. Ghosted in L.A Vol 2 by Sina Grace and Siobhan Keenan // 🌟🌟🌟
5. Ghosted in L.A Vol 3 by Sina Grace and Siobhan Keenan // 🌟🌟🌟
6. Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare // 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I started the month so well by finishing Man of Contradictions and She Said within the first week of April. Then I decided to start Lord of Shadows and while I enjoyed every minute of it, it took me forever to finished it. Maybe that’s just my mental self-defense against the wave of angst and pain the book has lol. The rest of the month was a blur, really, that I actually forgot I read and finished the whole Ghosted in L.A. I love the art and the characters, but it just felt rushed and underdeveloped tbh.

1. Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare
2. The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji
3. You’ve Reach Sam by Dustin Thao

The ending for Lord of Shadows gave Mark of Athena‘s a run for its money- it was smack dab in the middle of pain and chaos and I just couldn’t wait to see what will happen next. Hence, I’m reading QOAAD this month. As I barely read anything in April, I have quite a number of ARCs I need to get through this month, with the priority being The Decagon House Murder and You’ve Reach Sam.

Usually I did some lurking around the blogosphere even when I’m not posting, but again, I was pretty much a Zombie in April and didn’t bookmark anything so I went through my reader to find these posts🤦‍♀️

• There has been a lot of reviews for Shadow and Bone adaptations, which made me felt assured and really looking forward to watch it!
• Noura @ The Perks of Being Noura shared some tips on managing your time to read more
• Kal @ Reader Voracious shared her love/hate relationships with book boxes
• Simone @ Simone and Her Books read and reviewed Malice by Heather Walter
• Veronika @ Wordy and Whimsical reviewed some podcasts she’s been listening and I love all her recommendations since we seemed to share similar tastes in podcasts 🙌
• Caro @ Book Cheshire Cat listed books with autistic rep for #autismacceptancemonth
• Cam @ Camillea Reads shared her writings by retelling two classic fairytales
• Breanna @ Paws and Paperbacks talked about requesting ARCs on Netgalley
• Kay @ Hammock of Books gave us a guide to the grishaverse books and the order to read them
• Lais @ The Bookish Skies recommended 5 YA contemporaries with unlikeable characters

I really didn’t know what happened in April; maybe it’s just the plain old burnout or maybe I just didn’t have enough “me” time. I mean, I was always surrounded by people whether at work or home, and I did have a lot of meetings with friends in April to catch up. I strongly suspect the latter because I was exhausted, but all I wanted was to hide for a month instead of resting lol.

Anyways, due to the aforementioned feelings, I ended up escaping a lot to media I consumed. NCT has become my sanctuary at this point- I’ve been blasting their songs non-stop this past month and watching their content. And considering they have 23 members and 3 units, I never run out of content to catch up and entertain myself with 😜 I also escaped in short sessions by dragging out Lord of Shadows for the whole month- the thing about reading Shadowhunter books is that they provide the perfect escapism as they have everything, from romance to angst to actions 👌

I also got into another chinese BL show, Word of Honor aka Shan He Ling (山河令). I wouldn’t say it was as good as The Untamed (the plot was too loose and focusing on the martial arts world), but a) not all BL wuxia is trying to copy the untamed so the comparison is a bit unfair (but then again it’s like they’re setting the gold standard??? i’m so confused) b) it provides a good escapism c) it provides some structure as it is still ongoing and release subs every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and d) I love the chemistry between the main leads. This week will be the release of its subbed final three episode so I’ll probably review it together with my May screen rambles.

And finally, I had my first work travel this month! In fact, I just got back from a week of travel last night. It was really insightful, I certainly learned a lot of the situation on the field as well as how to talk with users. It was also super exciting in a way that it’s my first travel after over a year of staying home. There were some concerns regarding COVID, especially with how the situation in India have been these past few weeks, but it ended up being a safe and fun travels.

Not a lot of post this month lol. I tried writing posts but I just couldn’t and always ended up unhappy with what I was writing everytime I forced myself to write, so I just gave up and came back later lol.

• March Wrap Up & April TBR (2021)
• Down Comes the Night by Allison Saft // All the elements are there, but they’re not just hitting right
• March 2021 Screen Rambles

How was April for you?