November 2024 WrapUp!

Posted On November 30, 2024

Hi Readers! Such an amazing month November was! The month in general sounds like the Saturday of months, and yet I think it was one of the most productive ones for me. Got a lot of reading done, some good, some bad. Got a lot of work done. Got a lot of movies and shows watching done, mostly good, some bad. Spent time with the fam and with friends. And….. that’s it! Just a few things done well and enough makes it a good month for me now.

~~BOOKS READ IN NOVEMBER~~

I read SEVEN BOOKS across 1666 PAGES. This seems like a record for an altogether average reading year. Check them out to maybe find your next read from the list!

~~DUCKS: TWO YEARS IN THE OIL SANDS by KATE BEATON~~

I found this book to be extremely enlightening, as I had never read anything earlier about the oil sands or even any books set in Canada. I think what’s most glaring throughout the novel is sexism. Kate Beaton along with very few other women worked in a place that was largely male dominated with a 50:1 ratio of men to women. With themes of women in men-dominated workplace, sexism and mental health, Ducks is an excellent autobiographical graphic novel, and I think everyone should read it. I have rated Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton at 4/5 stars!

You can read the full review below!

Graphic Novel Recommendation: Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands

~~WE SOLVE MURDERS by RICHARD OSMAN~~

I have read all four books in The Thursday Murder Club, and no matter how the story unfolded, I loved those books. Being at Coopers Chase with the four septuagenarians somehow became very homey, like going to your grandparents’ home during summer vacations. So, leaving that comfort to hop onto a new series required some getting used to, pretty much like Steve Wheeler. Because the irony is that it’s the same author, same genre so the style of writing is similar to TTMC. It’s just the characters who are new, so it felt like I was cheated. But, as with any other thing in life, it moves on. So, I did too. I have rated We Solve Murders by Richard Osman at 3/5 stars!

You can read the full review below!

Brand New Series by Richard Osman: We Solve Murders

~TRANSLATED BOOKS~~

~~THE ANSWER IS NO by FREDRIK BACKMAN~~

Fredrik Backman is one of my auto-buy authors. I always read his Instagram captions and would be happy to even read his grocery lists. The Answer is No was a charming short story which started off amazingly well for me because I love reading loner characters. It evolved into something unexpected. But, overall, a fun read! I have rated The Answer is No by Fredrik Backman at 4/5 stars!

~~BEFORE WE FORGET KINDNESS by TOSHIKASHU KAWAGUCHI~~

If I had to share in one sentence my thoughts of the fifth instalment in the ‘Before Your Coffee Gets Cold’ series, I’d say, ‘End the series before the warmth gets cold.’ I still remember when I read the first two books of the series two years ago. I was so impressed with the masterful writing where characters could travel in time and couldn’t change the past or future but could change how their loved ones felt. It was so wholesome where regrets or longing or shame or sadness changed into fulfilment or intimacy or pride or happiness. I have felt that this core feeling of feelings has decreased in Before We Say Goodbye and further more in Before We Forget Kindness. Even when I tried hard to see the kindness in these stories, most of the times it eluded me. Given the nature of the time travel, I found that in almost all the stories the kindness was masked in selfishness. If you really had to put it under a magnifying glass, then the first two stories had a theme of kindness. I have rated Before We Forget Kindness by Toshikazu Kawaguchi at 2.5/5 stars!

You can read the full review below!

Book Recommendation: Before the Coffee Gets Cold Book Series!

~~THE KAMOGAWA FOOD DETECTIVES by HISASHI KASHIWAI~~

Set in Kyoto, the Kamogawa Diner doubled up as the Kamogawa Detective agency offers people delicious meals, and also helps them find long lost recipes. Located in a nondescript part of town making it almost impossible for people to find it, because if people did, the Kamogawa family would be overloaded with requests – such is the work-life balance I’d want too! The book consists of six short stories, each drafted in a similar fashion, where a customer comes in finding something they had eaten a long time ago, they describe the dish and provide context, and then Nagare makes it for them within two weeks and tells them how he was able to recreate it. What I loved the most about the book is how we connect food to different milestones in our life, how we connect food to people, to our feelings, to our nostalgia and to our memories. I have rated The Kamogawa Food Detectives by by Hisashi Kashiwai, translated by Jesse Kirkwood at 3.5/5 stars!

You can read the full review below!

Book Recommendation for Foodies: The Kamogawa Food Detectives

~~THE RESTAURANT OF LOST RECIPES by HISASHI KASHIWAI~~

The Restaurant of Lost Recipes is the sequel to The Kamogawa Food Detectives. Because I read them back to back, it felt like it was the same book, and becomes a tad repetitive. The stories that invoke characters’ memories and bring forth nostalgia and feelings for their loved ones had become a bit diminished in this one. It felt like reading the same story 10 times with slight changes to the characters’ back stories and change in the recipes. I have rated The Restaurant of Lost Recipes by Hisashi Kashiwai at 2.5/5 stars!

~~THE LIFE OF A STUPID MAN by RYŪNOSUKE AKUTAGAWA~~

I found out recently about the Penguin Little Black Classics. Of those tiny classics, I picked this The Life of a Stupid Man on a whim after reading an impressive review of it on Bookstagram. The tiny book is divided into three chapters, all more bizarre than the last. I still liked the first two weird stories because they had some semblance of a structure. But the last one titled as the book’s name was as random as it gets. At the end of it, I felt pretty stupid after reading the book. I have rated The Life of A Stupid Man by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa at 2/5 stars.

~~NOVEMBER STATS & MORE~~

From whatever I watched this month, I found Khel Khel Mein to be absolutely hilarious, The Substance really gruesome yet relevant, Man on the Inside to be simply perfect and a must-watch, Murder Mindfully a quirky yet edge-of-the-seat watching content!

~~LIFE LATELY~~

Slide 1 & 2: Diwali celebration with the family

Slide 3 & 4: Some abstract painting!

Slide 5: New photos on the grid!

Slide 6: A cat being coziest as everyone’s sweating it out during morning workouts.

Slide 7: Officially on Day 84 streak of consistent workouts! Way to go, ME!

Slide 8: Happiness

Video: Friends/Swifties/Chefs/Bakers/30s girls sleepover party

Until next time,