March 2024 Wrap-Up!

Posted On March 31, 2024

Hi Readers! I love March and I loved March this year too. I read a lot of good books. I spent time with family and friends. I travelled. I planned another trip. I went to the Van Gogh 360° immersive experience. I overperformed at work. I watched terrible movies. I rewatched Grey’s Anatomy. I celebrated my 30^th Birthday! Let’s look into it now!

~~BOOKS~~

~~WHALE by CHEON MYEONG-KWAN, TRANSLATED by JAE WON CHUNG~~

Whale is story telling at its best. Everything in this book is top tier – whether it is the plot or characters or pace or content. I am yet to write a review on this one. Every excellent read calls for more processing and provocation, after all.

I have rated Whale by Cheon Myeong-Kwan, translated by Jae Won Chung at 5/5 stars!

~~WELCOME TO THE HYUNAM-DONG BOOKSHOP by HWANG BO-REUM, TRANSLATED by SHANNA TAN~~

Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop is a super ambitious book. It tried to do a lot of things in 300 pages. And I never say this lightly, but it managed to achieve it. Whether it was this dream that all readers have of quitting their jobs to open a bookshop which is also a café, but also because it was realistic about its feasibility. It also goes to discuss jobs and there’s a healthy debate about the refusal of work vs making a living. It’s so meditative as well while talking of living in the moment. It’s cozy, yes. But it’s also thought provoking in the most comfortably uncomfortable ways.

I have rated Welcome to The Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum, translated by Shanna Tan at 4.5/5 stars! You can read the full review below!

Cozy Book Recommendation: Welcome to The Hyunam-Dong Bookshop!

~~THE VEGETARIAN by HAN KANG, TRANSLATED by DEBORAH SMITH~~

The Vegetarian is an audaciously insane book. This book is divided into three parts. The first part is husband and Yeong-hye universe told from husband’s perspective. The second part is brother-in-law and Yeong-hye universe told from the brother-in-law’s perspective. The third part is sister and Yeong-hye universe told from the sister’s perspective. This in itself captures how the perspective of someone who does something out of the ordinary is never taken into account. It’s always how the society views the person and the collective perspective which is considered as the norm.

I have rated The Vegetarian by Han Kang, translated by Deborah Smith at 4/5 stars! You can read the full review below!

Korean Book Recommendation: The Vegetarian by Han Kang

~~INSTRUMENTS OF TORTURE by APARNA SANYAL~~

Instruments of Torture is a compilation of eight short stories, each talking about a medieval torture device and brilliantly connecting it to modern-day torture. Each story starts with an explanation of that torture instrument. Then, story after story we see how forced physical torture of the past has become self-imbibed mental torture of the now, some times with exact correlation and some times with a subtle parallelism. I thought this dark, twisted & torturous correspondence of a singular concept with stories was ingenious.

I have rated Instruments of Torture by Aparna Sanyal at 4.5/5 stars! You can read the full review below!

Dark Short Stories Recommendation: Instruments of Torture

~~CRYING IN H MART by MICHELLE ZAUNER~~

I read the audiobook of Crying in H Mart. It was a grief memoir written by the author after her mother’s death due to cancer. It shifts between the past and present while talking about Asian culture and bi-racial identity. It talks about the complicated relationship that the author had with her mother. While I understand that this is a person’s life written in the form of a memoir, I feel that the attention it received was overhyped. Yes, there are moments where the content will make you teary eyed. But, also, this memoir wouldn’t have been as popular if it was written by someone who is not as famous.

I have rated Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner at 4/5 stars!

~~THE DANGERS OF SMOKING IN BED by MARIANA ENRÍQUEZ, TRANSLATED by MEGAN MCDOWELL~~

It was a grave mistake reading this book in two days. It’s a horror book of short stories, only the horror is not in ghosts or supernatural or robots or pandemics. It’s about the 0.009% of the cases that we may come across in the news, exaggerated by 99%! Most of the stories are based in Argentina with some supernatural or magical realism to them. It’s definitely one of the most absurd and weird books I have ever read, and I am not sure if I am talking in a good or a bad way.

I have rated The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enríquez, translated by Megan Mcdowell at 3/5 stars!

~~BABEL by R.F. KUANG~~

Reading Babel was a challenging experience for me. I was hoping for a 5 star read, and instead I cam close to DNFing it. I did not like fantasy fiction was implemented, or how the academia aspectswere written, or how it was basically a Robin Hood story. I didn’t like how the characters were uni-dimensional and I also hated the ending. The few things I liked was the concept and how white privilege was written.

I have rated Babel by R.F. Kuang at 1.5/5 stars. You can read the full review below!

Babel: The Unnecessity of a Book

~~MARCH READING STATS~~

March was long and I, for one, was glad for it. Aside from the one audiobook, I read the other six books from my physical TBR. As March is Women’s History Month, all the books I read were written and translated by women. March is also the month where a lot of readers read Korean books, so for Korean March, I read 4 books translated from Korean.

~~LIFE LATELY~~

I celebrated my 30^th birthday on 19^th March! It was quite low-key with lunch with parents and a day at home reading, just how I wanted it to be. On my birthday weekend, we did go to Pune to see the Van Gogh 360° Immersive Experience. It did not live up to my expectations, but it was pretty amazing. I met Suruchi earlier in the month and we splurged so we are taking it slow now, hah! I also met my dearest colleagues-turned-besties Mrinalini and Poonam after 6 months! Here’s to more months like this!

Until next time,