My April 2020 Roundup—A Lot of Books, And Others

It’s been a while since I did an actual roundup. (The one for March does not count cause that one’s just mainly about books.) But here I am. I wasn’t planning on doing this actually but I already did the featured image for this post and I’d hate for that precious “artwork” to go to waste.

Anyway, April went by in a blip. And of course, seeing that we’re still under community quarantine, it’s not as eventful as I’d wanted. But it was definitely a lot for me to take in, personally.

How to Really Know Someone, Vol. 8

Well well, I haven’t actually done this in a while. And by a while, I meant since May of 2018—wow, almost two years ago. It really has been a long time. So, I wrote a draft of this post last last week and I intended to have it published last week, but you know, things happen, brains get sidetracked. Yadah yadah yadah.

Anyway, let’s get on with this then.

My Plans After the Quarantine

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. I know that I’ve always said that I prefer being in the confines of my own home and I’m more of an introvert (not full on, but I usually am anti-social), but there are instances—although far and few in between—when I want to get out and see people.

While I do dislike socializing with other human beings, I do, however, like to watch people. Not in a creepy way or anything but I just like watching them and thinking about what their life is like and what they’re going through or something. It’s a weird hobby but what can I say.

Diving Down My TBR Pile, Vol. 1

I was going through my Drafts because apparently, it has ballooned to 124 posts and I didn’t even notice until today. I already trashed some of them but this particular post caught my eye. I don’t know why it’s in my Drafts because upon checking, I already published that post back in 2018.

Not sure what I was thinking then but anyway, shit happens, my brain goes haywire sometimes, and now here we are. This isn’t the actual post—obviously—but the idea is something that I want to actually pursue.

Netflix Recommendations, Vol. 1: Tagalog Movies

I’m not the biggest fan of Filipino movies. The recipe for most local films has been the same for what feels like centuries. The genre changes, of course, but for every genre, the shit’s basically what it was two or three or even five decades ago, save for a few indie films.

We have marital affairs, rich boy/girl falling in love with a poor boy/girl (and no, it’s never homosexual), an adopted child with a biological mother who realized she made a mistake all those years giving the child up, badly-executed slapstick comedy, and an action movie that’s always about some drug syndicate.

No Cheers for The Cheerleaders

The Mystery Week on Goodreads ended yesterday (or earlier today, I’m not sure anymore). And my Mystery Week ends today, with this post about The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas.

I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to squeeze in one more mystery novel before my self-imposed deadline because Sadie was still looming over my head (even though I’ve already read another book after that) and it was just too heavy. But hey, I managed. Next week, though (and maybe the week after that as well), is all about romance and happy endings and teenage love stories.

Then She Was Gone was A Surprise

I’m gonna be honest. I’m not really a big fan of British novels, for various reasons. For starters, the “accent” in my head while I’m reading is not pretty. I try to avoid reading it with an accent but since I’m fully aware that they’re British, it’s a bit hard. Plus, there are instances when they’d throw in characters who are Irish or Scottish so the whole accent fiasco gets even worse.

Then, there’s my issue with not fully knowing or understanding the British way of life and culture. I’ve been watching American movies and TV shows and have been reading mostly American novels so I’m pretty familiar with their lifestyle. With Brits, though, it’s a foreign territory. So it’s kind of hard to immerse myself into their world.

Sadie is for ‘The Girls’

Before anything else, Sadie is not your usual mystery, suspense-thriller novel. It’s not the kind that’s longing for a big reveal. It’s basically a true crime but fiction. Although you may not know it at the time yet or maybe you’re in denial (just like I was), you already know the ending.

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Trigger warning. Trigger warnings every-fucking-where.