My Monthly Wrap-Up | January 2021

Posted on by Lashaan Balasingam @ Roars and Echoes

Hello ladies & gentlemen,

The month has come to an end and it’s time to do a quick wrap-up of what has been done.

Reading Breakdown.

Novels read: 2 (–).
Comic books read: 13 (–).
Manga volumes read: 9 (–).

BOOK REVIEWS.

The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter.
Dune: The Duke of Caladan by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.

COMIC BOOK REVIEWS.

Superman: The City of Tomorrow (Vol. 1) by Joe Kelly.
The Vision by Tom King.
Basketful of Heads by Joe Hill.
The Dollhouse Family by Mike Carey.
Digital Mini Reviews | When Space Calls… You Answer!
Batman (Vol. 2): The Joker War by James Tynion IV.
Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman.

MOVIE REVIEWS.

Wonder Woman 1984.

VIDEO GAME REVIEWS.

Hades (2020) Video Game Review.

MISCELLANEOUS POSTS.

A Year in Review – 2020.
Goodbye 2020 – Hello 2021.
My Monthly Anticipation | January 2021.
What Are Your Reading Modi Operandi?

TOP BOOK.

The Vision by Tom King.

Just in time for the ongoing WandaVision Disney+ TV series, this graphic novel turned out to be an excellent read reminding us why we shouldn’t ignore the character’s plight within the Marvel universe.

Check out my review for more on my thoughts!

LEAST FAVOURITE BOOK.

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X-Force (Vol. 1) by Benjamin Percy.

I can’t say that there’s anything really worthwhile from this first volume of the X-Force in the latest X-Men revamp but I know it didn’t make me want to read anything else by Benjamin Percy in the end…

TOP MOVIE.

The King of Comedy (1982).
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011).

Out of the 16 movies I watched in January, two managed to sneak away with a full five star rating: The King of Comedy (1982) and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011). The latter is a rewatch that allowed my girlfriend to finally see one of David Fincher’s greatest movies. We’ll be watching the Swedish version soon to compare (she’s only seen that one before and was convinced that no Hollywood version could top it). 🤣

The King of Comedy (1982) is an ingenious satirical dark-comedy following one aspiring comedian’s delusional dream to star on his idol’s late-night talk-show by any means necessary as he exposes the brutal endeavour for talent recognition and the madness of fame. Robert De Niro’s performance here is utterly mesmerizing by portraying a sympathetic yet creepy daydreamer who strives to bring to life a rehearsed illusion of respect, glory, and stardom.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) is a chilling, brutal, and unforgiving mystery following two socially-banished investigators as they meticulously uncover a family tragedy through modern journalistic strategies.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

CURRENTLY READING.

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Call of the Bone Ships by R.J. Barker.

I should have a review for this one coming real soon! 🙂

PERSONAL LIFE.

What a month it has been! It did fly by like it was nobody’s business but I’m glad for it. The months prior to it were intense in writing up an essay that I needed to use January to recharge since I’m going back into an intense month of writing in February. I don’t know if it’s just me but for some reason I like to stress myself by working harder towards the end rather than work a little everyday until the deadline. Some might say I have some kind of hidden masochistic facet to my personality.

With that being said, I managed to keep the month of January quite steady. I indulged everything with the necessary balance and calm to appreciate them without leaving anything behind. I also mostly focused on enjoying cinema and video games too, finishing up a couple of games and movies that have been on my backlog for far too long!

Unfortunately, our city is still in lockdown with a nice little curfew that has been quite successful lately. This will apparently remain for the whole month of February and there’s little hope for anyone who was looking forward to go back to enjoying restaurants, shopping, working out in gyms, and whatnot. But hey, more time at home to do things we always wished we had more time to do. Like read? 😀

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Thank you all for checking out my monthly wrap-up and don’t forget to check out any posts that might interest you or that you might have missed out on!

Stay tuned for my Monthly Anticipation post coming out soon. 😉

So what’s going on with y’all? What have you discovered this month? What are your thoughts on the books/TV series/movies I’ve checked out?

Yours truly,

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Published by Lashaan Balasingam @ Roars and Echoes

Reader. Reviewer. Researcher. Criminology Ph.D. Candidate. Montreal, Quebec (Canada). Want to know more? Connect with him!

44 thoughts on “My Monthly Wrap-Up | January 2021”

    1. Thank you! On tuesday, things got a bit better for the further regions around our city, but we’ll be continuing our safety measures, including curfew, until late February and maybe even throughout march break too… Absolutely! 🙂 I’m trying to write up a review for all the games I finish playing/replaying here but don’t want to overwhelm y’all with just reviews of games either hahaha

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      1. Happy to read things got a bit better at least.
        And I’m looking forward to those posts! Not a massive gamer myself, I still like seeing other people’s experience with them. I guess I watch too much YT over Dave’s shoulder 😋

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  4. With lockdown and curfew still in place (it’s the same where I live), I consider myself lucky to be an avid reader and watcher of TV series and movies: otherwise I might not have fared so well… 😉
    As for the two movie versions of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, I saw both and the Swedish version is the one I prefer, if nothing else because Noomi Rapace *IS* Lisbeth Salander for me: she literally breathed life into the character and I can imagine no one else portraying her. I look forward to your review of the first movie!

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    1. I think it’s safe to say that hobbies have kept us quite sane throughout the past year. Hopefully, it has brought many of us to appreciate what we love even more! 😉

      Ohhh, it’s nice to hear how much you adore Rapace in her role! That sounds promising. I haven’t seen it myself but I do look forward to discovering the Sweedish trilogy now. 😀

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  6. How’s the vaccine rollout going for you guys? Here the bureaucrats have gotten their hands on the process and are totally screwing it up. It feels like all the time we gained with having the vaccine being created so fast is now being pissed away with bad logistics 😦

    Looking forward to your next post 🙂

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    1. We’re having similar issues with a hold on the whole process. It recently got going again but I don’t think it’ll go any faster in production or vaccination. With the priorities set, I doubt the common citizen will get the chance to get vaccinated till September or something. 😮

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  7. Hi Lashaan.
    I read ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ by Stieg Larsen and enjoyed it very much. Those Swedish names and towns are long and complicated and do not have enough vowels! As far as the movies go, I think the 2009 version was made in a modern film-making style and attempted to appeal to mainstream movie audiences. The 2011 version is very true to the book and the characters. How odd is it for this film to have been re-made so quickly. I think a persons enjoyment of each film depends on whether or not they read the book and believe the 2009 version is for non-readers, and the 2011 version is for fans of the author/book. Happy Trails!

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    1. I’m really happy to hear that you’ve read the original trilogy! So interesting that the 2009 version tried to appeal to a mainstream movie audience. Maybe being international was an obstacle that they wanted to overcome as easily as possible. I’m planning on checking out the books after the movies myself but I like that the deciding factor comes down to what the viewer wants from the adaptation! Have you tried the other books by David Lagercrantz? I haven’t heard anyone tell me yet if they’re worth checking out or not…

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      1. Wow, you are really going for full submersion.

        I enjoyed the Larsien books, but I think I’ll leave it at that, even though it is understood that he intended to continue the series. Maybe one day I’ll read your review for the follow up novels to see if David is able to fill Stiegs shoes.

        Happy Trails!

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  9. Interesting how little you enjoyed the X-Force reboot. If I recall correctly this was one of my least favorite X series when it originally appeared. Just didn’t work as well for me as the other titles, felt like they were just creating new titles for the sake of selling more. But that was a long time ago so perhaps my memory has become clouded by an accumulated layer of cynicism. 🙂 I absolutely LOVED the book series beginning with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Each volume completely sucked me in. But I’ve not tried either version of the film yet. Perhaps one day. I’ll probably start with the Swedish version as I most often tend to enjoy the original foreign films over their Hollywood remakes. I do like Daniel Cragin, though, so maybe… 🙂

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    1. And, to be frank, I still don’t see the relevance of the X-Force. If feels redundant and unnecessary in scope. They could’ve focused their attention elsewhere instead of creating this random group.

      Have you ever tried the newer trilogy by David Lagercrantz? I am curious to hear what people think of that trilogy written after the death of the original author.

      Hahaha I won’t lie that international movies do tend to steer clear of the Hollywood formula and add more grit to their cinematography but I’ll still say that David Fincher’s take was quite solid. 😉 Hope you get the chance to try it out someday, my friend! 😀

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      1. I haven’t tried the David Lagercrantz books. I often shy away from series contiued by authors who weren’t the original creators, as if I think they’re not as pure, or sometimes as if they’re a sacrilege. 🙂 No, I don’t really feel this strongly about it, but strongly enough it’s a real effort to get me to try them. I might be missing some good reads by doing this.

        And I think you nailed it about watching original foreign films versus the remakes, especially if they’re US remakes. They almost feel closer to independent films willing to take chances that typical Hollywood studios so often seem to shy away from (not always, but very often, it seems). But sometimes Hollywood really does put out a great film, and it sounds like this might be one of them. I hope to see it at some point. I appreciate your enthusiasm and recommendation of it. 🙂 I just realized my feelings about original foreign films versus Hollywood remakes is really a very similar issue to my feelings about a second author continuing a series by another author….

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  12. How did your January just fly by when mine felt like a whole year?? I really wish it would have been more relaxing, but oh well, maybe March (already given up on February two days in) will do the trick.
    I am glad you enjoyed the Vision graphic novel. I was looking into checking out myself, but there is so much that I want to read and watch, it’s tricky to keep up.

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    1. Hahaha I guess I managed to make the most of each week, anticipating the weekends every time, and making sure to always have something fun and exciting to do every day (on top of reading hehe)! 😛 Sorry to hear that February seems to have been hellish for you though! I hope things calm down quickly for you, Kat! 😮

      I highly recommend the Vision graphic novel (or the two trades that it collects together). It’s wonderful for many reasons. 😀

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  13. Hooray for making it through January! I don’t think that I enjoyed The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo movie as much as you did. I don’t really remember it, but I think I was pretty annoyed with it being pretty different from the book. And I thought Daniel Craig (while I’m a fan of him) was far too pretty to play the main character haha. Have you read the books? I have always wanted to try the Swedish version of the movies.
    I hope you have a great February!

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    1. I’m so intrigued by the fact that you found that it detracts from the original source material. I do give movies the chance to do so since a direct copy of a book could be disastrous on-screen sometimes too hahah I haven’t read any of them yet but I plan to fix that sooner rather than later. By the way, I think I even read somewhere that Daniel Craig purposely “gained” weight to try and stop people from seeing James Bond on screen hahahah I can’t say it worked too much, physically speaking, but his performance as an inquisitive journalist was quite good in my eyes! Thanks for stopping by Stephanie! 😀

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  14. There’s little hope that we’ll get back to those things in February in my part of the U.S. too. The good thing is that I’ve been reading more and catching up on shows, the bad thing is that I keep wondering if we’ll ever get back to a point were we can just hang out with a crowd of folks again. I miss concerts and huge parties.

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    1. It’s so weird to imagine a future where we can go to a concert all glued together, sweaty and screaming with love for a band performing live… I just imagine that there will probably first be some kind of reticence before people get back to old habits. Guess all we can do is remain hopeful for a bright future hahah 😀

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  15. When I was in college even though I did study regularly I always felt there was so much to read before test and so much to do before submitting dissertation. But as soon as I was out of that environment I do everything at last minute including reading and blog posts.

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  17. Well, I am big fan of the Stieg Larsson books, and I’m afraid I share your girlfriend’s former view: The Swedish versions surely can’t be topped by a Hollywood version?! 😉 Just looking at photos, I would say the Swedish Lisbeth Salander is much closer to how I imagined her in the books.

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    1. I like to think 2021 is going to be a transition year for all of us and hopefully, with all this vaccine talk, 2022 will be the year where we’ll be able to enjoy the outdoors without worrying about the pandemic.

      Ha! I find myself wanting to rewatch them too. That’s how good they are! 😀

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