April 2023 Books, Music & Movies

The A-Z challenge took up most of April so I didn't do much else unless you counted work. I finished the challenge right on time (Links to all the posts over here) so I made a winner's badge which I have never done before which is odd considering I've done the challenge 8 or 9 times. So it was a busy month. Here are the medias I consumed in April.

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Books I read

01 - The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien > link
I really enjoyed the beginning but I was disappointed by the ending. [Spoilers ahead > You have a group of people - Bilbo and the 13 dwarves - and we spent all this time with them but who slays Smaug (the dragon)? Some other person who we maybe get to know for a few minutes. What's the point of having these main characters if they are not the one to do the important task? They kept mentioning Smaug and how they will have to face him but all they got was a glance of him and then they never saw the dragon alive again. < End Spoiler]
        It was a somehow happy ending but it seemed we went on a long journey and ended up seeing nothing much, just some interesting characters, a battle that is sort of interesting and a dragon half interesting and characters who are mostly interchangeable aside from the hobbit and that's only because they keep referring to him as the hobbit about about every other page. This was a bit of a slow read but I sort of enjoyed it.

02 - The Gates of Sleep (Elemental Masters #2) by Mercedes Lackey > link
The beginning was snail pace and then the second half was rushed. Marina, the main character, was a seventeen-year-old who was more interested in clothes and enjoying life rather than worrying why her aunt had (sort of) kidnapped her and kept her housebound. Clearly, her guardians (the people that raised her before her aunt took her) were not so great at parenting. They waited seventeen years to teach her protection spells and sort of kept Marina in the dark about everything and all so she can have a normal life or something like that. And the mother and son villains are a bit unlike villains. They were okay with forcing girls into prostitutions, stealing whatever magic they had and doing some casual murders but they cared about what people think of them?
   And the romance is just plain dumb. [Spoilers ahead > All of sudden Marina decided she was in love with the doctor, Pike, who we are introduced kind of late. And of course, he's such a gentlemen, he waited until she was twenty-one (she's seventeen) to marry her, allowing her to enjoy her life and see if she really wants to marry him. It seems rather odd considering older man marrying young girls in those days was sadly very normal so I don't know what's the fuss but maybe Pike was really trying to refuse Marina. After all, she just declared herself his fiancée almost as if declaring she wants a cup of tea. The poor man is such a gentleman that he will probably marry her just to be a gentleman. < End Spoiler]
    I half enjoyed this book but I guess I was expecting more magic (there is a magic-ish fight scene) and better main characters.

03 - Hickory Dickory Dock (A Hercule Poirot Mystery) by Agatha Christie > link
I like Miss Lemon but I didn't care for her sister or any of people at that school. I was only half paying attention but it was dull to me.

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Music I listened

04 - Fuse by Everything But the Girl > link
Everything But the Girl's music is always worth listening to. Fuse was good but maybe I need to listen to it a few more times to truly appreciate it.

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Movies I watched

05 - Phil's Adventure > link
This was a bit of a fun movie and it was pretty short, like an episode of a tv show. The target audience is eight or above so I guess it's probably why I didn't enjoy it as much.

06 - Arrival > link
The first 30 minutes is mostly in darkness as if they couldn't afford any lights. I know they want to create a certain atmosphere and it probably looks great if you're watching it on a big screen but on a small screen, it's a rectangle box of darkness. But some might say this is to contrast the scene to come because there is a scene where it's extremely bright and white. It's a slow movie with a lot of slow-moving imaginary and deep, intellectual ideas but I guess I wasn't in the mood for it because I thought it was a bit too much thinking and not a lot of happenings. And the end idea is kind of just okay, I don't want to spill any spoilers but it's nothing new. (I watched this on youtube over here for free with ads).

How was your April? I hope May is being good to you.