Hi guys,
The month has ended and it’s time to do a quick wrap-up of what has been done.
Reading Breakdown.
Novels read: 5 (-).
Comic books read: 9 (↑1).
Manga volumes read: 7 (-).
Viewing Breakdown.
Movies Watched: 14 (↑4).
TV Series’ Seasons Watched and completed: 1 (-).
Gaming Breakdown.
Gran Turismo 7 (Finished and to be reviewed).
Gotham Knights (Currently Playing).
BOOK REVIEWS.
Three Men in a Boat: To Say Nothing of the Dog by Jerome K. Jerome.
The Art of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka.
The Art of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien.
COMIC BOOK REVIEWS.
Batman: Shadow War by Joshua Williamson.
Batman (Vol. 1): Failsafe by Chip Zdarsky.
MOVIE REVIEWS.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003).
Blade (1998).
VIDEO GAME REVIEWS.
Middle-earth Shadow of War (2017).
MISCELLANEOUS POSTS.
TOP BOOK.
The Art of the Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien edited by Wayne G. Hammond & Christina Scull.
My thoughts: The second art book by the duo editors and Tolkien experts ended up being as fascinating as the one for The Hobbit!
You can check out my review by clicking here.
LEAST FAVOURITE BOOK.
Batman: Shadow War by Joshua Williamson.
My thoughts: I honestly don’t expect to be stunned and impressed by Joshua Williamson’s stories nowadays and this one was no exception.
You can check out my review by clicking here.
TOP MOVIE.
Of the 14 movies I watched in April 2023, Do the Right Thing (1989) was my favourite. This Spike Lee movie was on my watchlist for a while now and knowing that it is often considered his magnum opus, I looked forward to checking it out this month. It turned out to be way more impressive than I thought!
What is Do the Right Thing (1989) about? On the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone’s hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence.
My thoughts: This was a rage-fueled, blazing-hot, truth-stinging, emotionally volatile, unpredictably eruptive, visually explosive, and strikingly relevant and untameable beast delving into the lives of numerous characters within a community inflamed by social and identity issues while exploring love, hate, and everything in between.
CURRENTLY READING.
My thoughts: It was time for me to delve back into J.R.R. Tolkien’s stories with the first of his three Great Tales of Middle-earth! Already knowing what most of this story is about thanks to The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales, I mostly look forward to seeing how Christopher Tolkien structures this to make it much more accessible and as “finished” as possible for the reader.
PERSONAL LIFE.
April turned out to be another excellent month so far into the year. I couldn’t be happier about how every week evolved, how I was able to maintain a certain routine throughout the month, and how I’ve achieved a lot of the things I wanted to complete by the end of it. The month did kickstart with a nasty 2023 Canada ice storm that gave many of us a good traumatic reminder of what adults went through back in the 1998 ice storm that had hit us hard. Luckily for us, we somehow survived through it without any loss whatsoever while neighbors had to go a couple of days without electricity.
Halfway into the month, I also got the opportunity to check out a jazz event with my girlfriend’s thesis supervisor and other students. It turned out to be one of the best performances ever by Torey Butler and for a first-time experience, I don’t know how anyone else could top it in the future. It was also an amazing realization that some people really are gifted with incredible talents out there.
Towards the end of the month, we also bought tickets and started preparing for two upcoming trips this summer and I am beyond excited for them both: a first trip in June to Sri Lanka (which will also be a first visit in over 30 years for my mum of her home country!!) and another one in July to New Orleans with a couple of friends (here we come donuts and jazz!!!!). I’m quite excited for them both and look forward to everything I’m bound to discover! 🙂
As for the random country of the month, we ended up getting North Macedonia. I can’t say that I had a gazillion things to learn about here, especially compared to Great Britain the month before. However, I managed to read one novel by a Macedonian author and two movies by Macedonian directors. The book was a historical fiction called Freud’s Sister by Goce Smilevski which followed the story of Adolfina and pretty much went on to explore her relationship with her brother, the discussions about life, death, and whatnot, and her demise that makes you wonder if it was Freud’s fault that she died in a Nazi concentration camp. The first movie was You Won’t Be Alone (2022), which was a hauntingly hypnotic dark fairytale poetically exploring humanity, identity, sexuality, love, and an instinctive curiosity for life through the twisted relationship between a young feral witch and a scarred elder deeply-infuriated pseudo-mother witch. The second movie was a documentary called Honeyland (2019) which was an entrancing glimpse into the life of a nomadic Macedonian beekeeper as she faces the hardship of discourteous neighbours and their careless reproduction of her respectful art in a destructive fashion echoing human nature’s conflictual lifestyle within a natural ecosystem.
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,
Roars and Echoes 
Your wrap ups are coming quick or is it that time us flying?
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Time sure does fly when you’re having fun! 🙂
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Your choices are an interesting mix. The film “Do the Right Thing, I find to be quite analytical.” I love your commitment. 👍👍
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It’s a fantastic movie and I highly recommend it, AOC! 🙂
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I have not watched the film in quite some time and now that you have reminded me, I will. Thanks Lashaan. Have an awesome week.
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Sri Lanka and New Orleans, nice! I’m hoping you’ll write up some posts on your experiences and any great food you find. Jazz is fascinating. I wouldn’t say I’m a huge fan in that I don’t seek it out, but I absolutely appreciate the passion some folks put into their music. I remember really enjoying being in the jazz band in high school. We got to play a very different range of music there than we did in the normal band. I don’t think I ever had that real connection to the music that a true jazz musician would but it did teach me to appreciate the music.
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I’ll definitely be sharing my adventures on my blog throughout the summer! I’m quite excited by the novelty of it all and how different both experiences are going to be. I’ll try to tap into all the photography knowledge I’ve learned through you for my pictures of all the wildlife out there too. 😉 I totally understand what you mean about jazz. I always feel like great jazz musicians really have a special connection with music, on a soul-level, you know? 😉
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You are going to have a busy summer with all that traveling!
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Tell me about it. I already look forward to the calm of August hahahah
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What you need is a double. Someone who can do all the boring stuff and suffer while you have all the fun 😉
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I remember seeing Do The Right Thing in the theatre when it first came out, Lashaan. I consider it a great and important film, and I’m glad you enjoyed it. Those two upcoming trips this summer sound wonderful, and it’s easy to understand your excitement about them!
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I’m quite surprised that I hadn’t seen it before but I am really glad I did now. It’s still so relevant too. And, yep! So excited for what both trips will have in store for me this summer, Bruce! 😀
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I’ve never been to New Orleans so I will live vicariously through your trip when you go😁 Sounds like April was a fantastic month!
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I look forward to giving you that opportunity, Tammy! Happy reading in May! 😀
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Looks and sounds like a fab month Lashaan! I bet you can’t wait for those two upcoming trips. Hope May is a really good month for you!
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Absolutely, Nicki! I can’t wait! I hope you have an awesome month of May too! 😀
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Sri Lanka? That sounds amazing! And I don’t know how I’d survive your winters Lashaan LOL
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It is, Sophie! Yep, I have no idea how we do it up here hahah
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I’ve never heard of Do the Right Thing but it looks really good! Honeyland sounds interesting too – I like these “smaller” focuses.
Hope you have a good May ahead!
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It’s a fantastic movie and I highly recommend it. If you want something more intimate, human, and with a pro-environment message, Honeyland would be an interesting pick! 😀 Happy reading and tea-drinking, Eustacia! 🙂
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Looks like great month, Lashaan! Interesting country of the month. I don’t know much about Macedonia and I had to Google the location. Wish you fantastic May.
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Hahaha it’s surrounded by other much more known countries but I can’t say there’s a lot to look forward to there for now! 😀
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Do the Right Thing = such a throwback! I can’t remember when last I saw that movie, but just thinking about it has brought on such a strong sense of nostalgia for back when I first saw it.
Ice storm in April??!! Omg! I don’t think I’d be able to survive in Canada, lol.
That would be cool for your mom to visit her home country after so long. For folks I know who’ve been away from their homeland for so long, it’s sometimes a very emotional return trip.
And I’m headed to New Orleans too this year! But in June. Can’t wait!
Hope your travels are safe and lots of fun!
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Such a good movie! I now look forward to rewatching it again in the near future. It’s crazy how timely it still is too.
Oh yeh, it was such a shocking twist. So many will remember it in such a PTSD way….
That’s exactly how she’s living it right now. Beyond excited to visit her home country again and probably for us to see it too with her.
That’s soooo cool! I hope you have a blast in New Orleans! Make sure you indulge in all that souuuuul foood! 😀 Enjoy!
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Lol! I sure will! All the food and music.
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