It's January 2018 already! Another year has passed, subhanAllah.
I can't help but feel that this semester I have finally, without realising it, took upon more work than I can handle. But the fact that I am calm -on the outside at least- about it makes me feel like, hey, maybe I can handle it after all! But this coming two weeks will be very busy for me, and if I can successfully get through them, then maybe I can do anything and everything that life throws at me! (a very exaggerated exaggeration)
I don't have much to share, except a series and a book.
TV Series //
I recently watched The Fall, a British/Irish psychological thriller. If you've been following me for sometime now, you'd know that I love watching psychological thrillers and just when I thought this would be a regular thriller, it proved me wrong. I came to know that British series are significantly different from American series. American series would have many seasons and more or less 20 episodes per seasons. The Fall only had 3 seasons (with a brilliant ending!) and 5-6 episodes per season. Therefore binge-watching 3 seasons of The Fall was similar to binge-watching a season of an American series. The movie is brilliantly written! I loved it from the start to finish, I loved how it touches on feminism (both male and female issues), it had a strong female lead that help track down the killer and the killer was.. not the regular young creepy male loner, which made it interesting. If you're looking for something to watch, would totally recommend.
Book //
This book is pretty famous, people on the internet talk about it, and I wanted to read something in 2018, so I randomly picked this book. The number of pages is intimidating, and when I read the first few pages, which immediately introduced 4 male characters, I couldn't differentiate them, which made me think that I wasn't gonna finish the book after all.. BUT I WAS WRONG.
The author quickly distinguished the four characters by race and background, and the book ended up turning into one of the most painfully beautiful books that I have ever read. It so heart-wrenching, it made me cry many many times and I had to put down the book from time to time because my heart couldn't handle it. It is beautifully written, and reading what initially seemed scary turned out to be easy.
I personally hate reviews before attempting to watch or read something and started reading this book without knowing what it was about because when you indulge in it without having any expectations and you're more.. surprised? when you read it but if you're one of those people who like reviews, here's a goodread's review that I feel describes the book perfectly:
I personally hate reviews before attempting to watch or read something and started reading this book without knowing what it was about because when you indulge in it without having any expectations and you're more.. surprised? when you read it but if you're one of those people who like reviews, here's a goodread's review that I feel describes the book perfectly:
I can't, with a clear conscience, give this book anything less than 5 stars. It's a book that kept me reading long into the night, made me turn each page with vigor and curiosity, gave me chills and shivers over the joys and sorrows of each character, and ultimately left me feeling a bit older and tortured and yet at peace with the deeply complicated nature of humanity.
What Hanya Yanagihara does with A Little Life is nothing nearly as pretentious as that paragraph above. Somehow in 720 pages, she manages to adequately--better yet, excellently--show and make the reader experiences the lives of these young men. The novel follows four boys who meet at college: Malcolm, JB, Willem, and the central and mysterious figure, Jude. It's truly Jude's tale, but Yanagihara ends up telling each and every one of the boys' stories with ease and genuineness that makes them real.
Her prose is clean and honest and revealing of the many emotions that humans experience. It's never explicitly beautiful, not flowery or overwrought with adjectives or descriptors. But it has its own beauty that comes from its ability to convey these feelings, making you feel every pain or happiness that Malcolm and JB and Willem and Jude feel. It's some of the best prose I've read in a while (or ever read), and I wanted it to keep going on forever.
There's so much more I could say about this book. About how it hurt me to read at times--because yes, there is very graphic material that makes the reading cringeworthy in parts--about how I fell in love with so many wonderful people in this story, about how I learned empathy and sorrow and frustration and anger for and with each of them, and how if I were to write a book I would want it to have the essence of this one.
The truth is, though, I can't recommend this book to people, not without knowing them very well. Because it's a difficult journey that I can't suggest everyone take. Don't take this book lightly. But if you do choose to read it, if you choose to flip to that first page, be prepared for something inexplicable and jarring, but resilient and beautiful and ultimately worthwhile. (Source)
Well, that's it for this month! Anyone still making resolutions? Hope this year you'll achieve all your hearts desires!
