My Monthly Wrap-Up | September 2022

Posted on by Lashaan Balasingam @ Roars and Echoes

Hi guys,

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: 3 (↑1).
Comic books read: 6 (↑3).
Manga volumes read: 10 (↓6).

Viewing Breakdown.

Movies Watched: 9 (↑1).
TV Series’ Seasons Watched and completed: 1 (↓1).

Gaming Breakdown.

Doom: Eternal (Completed and review to come!).
UNCHARTED 3: DRAKE’S DECEPTION: REMASTERED (BACK ON IT!).
The Last of Us Part 1 on PS5 (Currently Playing)

BOOK REVIEWS.

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune.
The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket.

COMIC BOOK REVIEWS.

Asterix and the Golden Sickle by René Goscinny.
Strange Adventures by Tom King.
Batman: Reptilian by Garth Ennis.

TV SERIES REVIEWS.

The Boys (2019-) Season 3.

VIDEO GAME REVIEWS.

Horizon Forbidden West (2022).

TOP BOOK.

The Walking Dead Compendium Three by Robert Kirkman.

Took me a moment to get through this brick but it was worth it. There’s only one more compendium to get through but I’m glad that this series has been strong from the start!

LEAST FAVOURITE BOOK.

Batman: Reptilian by Garth Ennis.

Bloody hell. This was a tragedy. You can read more about my thoughts on this by clicking here.

TOP MOVIE.

IMDb.

Out of the 10 movies I watched in September 2022, Rope (1948) was my favourite. I’m working my way through Hitchcock’s filmography every month and ended up watching Rope this time around, and boy, this one really stands out from many of his other movies!

What is Rope (1948) about? Two men attempt to prove they committed the perfect crime by hosting a dinner party after strangling their former classmate to death.

My thoughts: This was a meticulously shot, conceptually enthralling, and ingeniously tense thriller exposing the flaws of a perfect crime and human beings within a law-abiding society.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

CURRENTLY READING.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling.

I haven’t actually started this per se but since I’m on the verge of finishing up a couple of books, I thought I’d put it here anyway. Fall just seems like the right time in the year to dive back into that wizardly world so why not finally read this sequel, right? 🙂

PERSONAL LIFE.

September turned out to be a solid month all-around. I got to do as much of everything I’d always like to do, whether it would be on a personal (hobbies) or professional (work) level. At the beginning of the week, my girlfriend and I ended up going to a Frida Kahlo exhibition which allowed us to discover the Mexican painter’s exploits and life through a very original and dynamic visual experience. 😀

My flow was interrupted towards the middle of September and was especially marked by the arrival of a dear close friend’s baby girl. Considering that this is the first baby to enter my close friend circle, it suddenly does make me feel so much older. 😛

Similar to last month, this month’s random country was Poland, and my girlfriend and I got around to learning a bunch of stuff about the country throughout the month. We mostly read up and looked up fascinating animated documentaries on the country’s history as well as culinary recipes. We even got around to eating out in a Polish restaurant with a live pianist show and the food was DELICIOUS. I don’t even care that the next random months won’t be Poland, we’re sure to go back there for what they had to offer. You can see from the pictures below what I had (from left to right): a zurek soup (creamy sour rye malt soup with small pieces of pork sausage), a gołąbki (cabbage roll filled with pork and rice), and a mixed plate full of bigos (cabbage stew with roasted pork, plums, mushrooms, and pork sausages), four pierogi (dumplings stuffed with different things), one placki (potato pancakes), and one krokiet (breaded crepe roll filled with beef).

A zurek soup.
A gołąbki.
A mixed plate of goodies.

Later today we might even pick up a traditional Pączki (donut) and Sernik (cheesecake) at a Polish bakery and something tells me it’s going to be delicious! 😀

I also ended up watching two Polish movies. The first one is Cold War (2018) directed by Paweł Pawlikowski and is about a man and a woman meeting in the ruins of post-war Poland who have vastly different backgrounds and temperaments, fatally mismatched yet drawn to each other. This was a visually stunning portrayal of a suffocating political climate and showed us the resilience of culture within one’s broken self explored through the immortality of love.

The second movie, upon Piotrek’s review and recommendation over @Re-enchantment of the World, thank you for that, is Clergy (2018) directed by Wojciech Smarzowski and is a bleak and thought-provoking foray into the warped reality of the Polish clerical system and the alarming omnipresence of corruption, pedophilia, and immorality within the clergy, exposed through the intertwined lives of three Catholic priests. Despite phenomenal acting performances and a motley of eye-opening and preachy ideas, the story lacks an enthralling structure, a captivating pacing, and polished editing to its striking cinematography but still conveys its message poignantly and clearly.

And finally, I also ended up starting and am about to finish (today or tomorrow) two books written by Polish writers. The first one is Solaris by Stanisław Lem. This time a recommendation from Ola over @Re-enchantment of the World, I thought it was an excellent pick considering her not too long ago review of it. I also almost picked up a book by the noble prize winner Olga Tokarczuk but I, unfortunately, didn’t have enough time on my hands for that. Sorry, Ola! However, the second book I did end up picking up set me loose into The Witcher world with The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski. I’m one short story away from the end but, spoiler alert, I really LOVE it. I’m so hooked, I might have to binge through the rest of the series ASAP. More on my thoughts on each book when I’ll get my reviews up on the blog. 😉

Now I wonder what October’s random country is going to be. 😀

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!

35 thoughts on “My Monthly Wrap-Up | September 2022”

  1. Funny how babies do that. And it gets worse. Wait til that baby is old enough for you to debate with. The life cycle of humanity is an open book and yet I find it keeps surprising me. I hope it has good surprises in store for you.

    Looking forward to your thoughts on Doom: Eternal.

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  2. First, I have to say that the food looks authentic, glad you liked it!
    Clergy was too important for me to care much about details, I like its director but he’s quite heavy -handed… Cold War is definitely more sophisticated, and has great music – I’ve seen it on my first date with my now -wife, so it’s very special to us :⁠-⁠)
    Books I hope you’ll review, so we’ll talk then.
    I’m not having a full Canadian month yet, but I’ll have maple syrup with my pancakes tomorrow!

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    1. We ended up listening to some Tulia (as per your recommendation) while eating Polish cheesecake and donut too hahah I’m so glad to hear that you also saw and enjoyed Cold War! Clergy really was a helluva thought-provoking movie. I do want to watch Ida (2013) someday now. I also really wanted to fit The Promised Land (1975) into my schedule but I couldn’t find a good 3-hour window for it in the end hahaha
      I look forward to sharing my thoughts on both books in question!
      I hope those pancakes and maple syrup were good!
      Thank you again for sharing your recommendations for my Polish month, Piotrek. I appreciate it. 😀

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  3. Poland, very cool! I have ancestry from that region, though the borders changed so often. Poland, Czech, Slovak. I’ve had home-cooked halupki quite often, which should be the same or similar to the gołąbki you had. I don’t know all the regional differences. And so far I’ve also absolutely loved every Witcher book I’ve read. Granted, only three so far: The Last Wish, Sword of Destiny, and Blood of Elves. I can’t wait to read the next one. It’s the sort of fantasy I seek out almost as comfort food. I’ve yet to read Solaris but have had it on my list for quite a while, since watching two of the movie versions of it many years back. I think I first tried the 2002 Soderbergh version, then watched an earlier one, maybe the 1972 Tarkovsky one, and then wanted to try the book. One day…

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    1. I learned about the whole Border change throughout time and am still shocked that, at some point, Poland didn’t even exist on a map! The gołąbki reminded us a lot of dolmadakias too The difference is what it’s wrapped in, as far as I know, essentially!
      I saw your thoughts on the first Witcher books and I’m 100% with you! It really was a perfect book and a perfect time, reminding me why I love fantasy worlds in the first place! I already ended up, impulsively, buying the rest of the series. I do hope to get through these books faster than other series that I own now hahah I haven’t tried any of the movie versions but something tells me that I’d appreciate Solaris more as movies rather than the book… More on that soon! 😉

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  4. You are busy. Thanks for your many, wonderful reviews. I am so amazed at how much video games have changed from Atari and Mario’s Donkey Kong. Cheers for a great weekend!

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  5. Rope is a classic movie. It’s been awhile since I last saw it, but the movie remains quite memorable. The “visit” to Poland looks and sounds like it was well worth it, especially for the cuisine. Congrats to the friend on his newborn and yeah, that does make one feel quite a bit older doesn’t it? September is in the rear view mirror now…on to October!

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    1. I’m really glad to have finally seen it. It really stands out from a lot of his other movies, so far, and in so many ways (technical and story-telling). I definitely had a blast embracing some Polish content throughout the month, that’s for sure. Thanks, Bruce. Hope you’re having a fantastic month of October too!

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  10. Woohoo for Polish month at Lashaan’s! 😀
    I’m so freaking happy you love Witcher short stories, and that you enjoyed the food. Polish food is amazing, very tasty but simple, so it’s also easy to botch it 😉 Glad you found a good place, and hopefully you’ll be as happy with the sweets! There are some very interesting Polish movies to watch at your leisure, as they have already entered a classical canon: Kieslowski’s movies, The Saragossa Manuscript, and a good few more.
    Here’s to a great October, Lashaan!

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    1. Thank you for your recommendations, Ola! I definitely ended up adding a bunch of classic Polish movies to my watchlist and I’ll definitely still be eating more Polish dishes for the rest of my life now. I just need to visit the country someday now (maybe when the climate out in Eastern Europe is less scary). Hope you’ve being doing good, Ola.

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  12. What a great month of September, Lashaan! I’m very excited for you to read the Harry Potter series and I’m a bit jealous that you get to read them for the first time! I hope you like them! You definitely went full-on Polish this month ahah, and the restaurants you tried seem really delicious! I thought it would be easier to find one in Brussels but it’s not as common as I thought it would be! Have a great month of October!

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    1. Yep, I’m loving my time reading through the second book as we speak! 😀 I too am surprised that you guys didn’t have more Polish stuff nearby. I guess people just expect you guys to hop onto a train and go there instead or something hahah Thanks, Juliette. Hope October will be an awesome month for you too! 😀

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      1. Yeah, I also talked about this with Dave yesterday. I’m sorta almost 30… I don’t feel almost 30! I feel 22, at most 😋 I still have to show my ID when buying alcohol. And Dave is nearing 40… how do people have kids at like 20yr old? 🤯

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