May 2020 TV Watchlist

If you're looking for something to watch and you’ve already watched all of Netflix, I’ve got you. This is my May Watchlist, a break down of all the TV shows I’m anticipating this coming month

When My Love Blooms (화양연화 – 삶이 꽃이 되는 순간) - Viki & tvN - Already Airing

I would have included this drama in my April watchlist but I didn’t know whether it would be available in the UK due to how the licensing works on Viki. Thankfully that is no longer a mystery as the first two episodes are up already.

This drama follows Han Jae-Hyun and Yoon Ji-Soo at two different times in their lives, back in the 90’s when they were both in their 20’s and the present day in where they are now in their 40’s. It’s a love story, but an understated and raw one. And just like I'll Go to You When the Weather is Nice and Chocolate have been my favourite dramas recently, I feel like this one is going to join the list as it’s a soothing, heartfelt story with beautiful poetic cinematography and great performances.

Good Casting (굿캐스팅) - Viki & SBS - Already Airing

Good Casting is a light-hearted spy comedy, a Korean Charlie’s Angels if you will. Two episodes have aired so far and it’s just so much fun. The premise is that a mismatch of three female agents are bought into a mission to find a corporate spy before he steals intellectual property from one of the largest firms in Korea. The three women are a workaholic who got a fellow agent killed, a young single mum who is a total rookie and an ageing spy who has been stuck in a desk job for years. You can expect cool choreographed fight scenes and pitch-perfect comedy, just what we need in these testing times.

The Eddy - Netflix - May 8th

From Damien Chazelle, the director of La La Land and Whiplash comes another Jazz infused creation. The Eddy is an 8-part series set in Paris featuring a wonderful cast of actors from André Holland (Moonlight, Selma) to Amandla Stenberg (The Hate U Give) to Joanna Kulig (Zimna wojna) to one of my favourite French actors Tahir Rahim (Un prophète, Le passé). The cinematography looks like it will have frenetic energy to it, almost a documentary style which matches well with the improvisational style of Jazz.

Homecoming Season 2 - Amazon Prime - May 22nd

Full disclosure, I haven’t actually watched season 1. But I love Mr Robot and Sam Esmail is the mind behind both of these TV shows and I am a massive fan of Janelle Monae’s music so I feel like I need to watch it. Also the trailer has me intrigued, so I think a binge of season one is on order this month too.

Snowpiercer - Netflix - May ???

Netflix doesn’t even show a release date but according to TNT its May 17th and according to Geektown its May 25th.

This is a wildcard watch, or shall I say an ‘out of curiosity’ watch. I love the Bong Joon-ho film and recommend it to pretty much everyone so I’m interested to see if this American tv adaptation is a complete f-up or if it’s actually any good.

Let me know in the comments section what TV Shows you have on your watchlist this month.

Space Bunnies Book Club - April & May - Dune

Me and my sister Charlotte have decided to launch a new book club. It’s called Space Bunnies and will be a Science Fiction and Fantasy orientated Book Club

Our first book club read will be Dune by Frank Herbert. I chose Dune this month because it’s been on my bookshelf for years and all those Dune images for Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation have finally made me grab it off the shelf!!!! Dune was also part of my Quarantine Reading List.

As we are already half way through April and this book is kind of massive we will be reading it until the end of May.

Feel free to join the club on any of these platforms:

Goodreads

Instagram

Facebook

We look forward to you joining the club!

So all thats left to do is buckle up and get ready to head to Arrakis!

Quarantine Reading Recommendations

As promised here are the books I recommend you read to pass the time while we are in Quarantine. Fiction is a great distraction so I hope you can delve into these books to escape reality for a short while.

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

To quote myself last year in my review of the book is perhaps the best way to recommend it to you now as I don’t think I can improve upon my summary:

‘Invisible Cities is not just a novel by any means. It’s a poetic study of the human experience. Framed by a conversation between the famed Venetian explorer Marco Polo and Kublai Khan, Invisible Cities explores 55 different cities that may or may not be imaginary or in the very least a description of Polo’s hometown Venice.’

READ THIS BOOK! It has become one of my favourites and I am currently reading Cosmicomics by Calvino and I feel like that will also become a favourite.

Anything (by this I mean any of his books) by Haruki Murakami

Murakami is a genius, in my opinion, I love how he writes and I love what he writes about. I’m still relatively new to his works as I started reading him in late 2016, and to be honest, I have only read four of his books (and countless short stories). But, I am nearing the end of my degree - literally in a few weeks so I feel like I can fully delve into his work and slowly work my way through it.

My recommendations based on what I’ve read of him so far is Norwegian Wood and Sputnik Sweetheart.

The Salmon Who Dared to Leap Higher by Ahn Do-hyung

An uplifting story of a Salmon who was unlike his fellow Salmons thanks to his silver scales, he learns to defy expectations and keep working hard to pursue a dream. This is a poetic fable that will warm your heart and inspire you to look deep within and question what you want out of life.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

To continue the theme of heartwarming reads that cause you to have a profound moment of introspection is one of my favourite recent reads (It was the last book I read in 2019). Before the Coffee Gets Cold takes the concept of time travel and turns it into a lesson on how to cherish each moment and that you should always appreciate what you have while you have it! THis book isn’t in the pile as I lent it to my sister so that she could have something healing to read in this time (I also gave her some of Haemin Sunim’s beautiful little books of wisdom too).

Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman

A beautiful love story that will take you back to a safer time, one summer in Italy when Elio and Oliver fall in love. I love the movie and I love this book, I feel like I may have to re-read (and re-watch) it this summer. And I also want to read the follow up Find Me as soon as it’s published in Paperback.

Normal People by Sally Rooney

With the BBC adaptation imminent I keep wanting to revisit this book. I love Rooney’s writing and I feel like this whole quarantine situation has made me want to read about love stories. Either I’m compensating for the extreme lack of romance in my life or I am trying to expel the heavy emotions that this time is putting on us all. I can’t decide what it is…maybe it’s both (insert cry emoji)

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

If you're not feeling too fragile this book is a masterpiece I was going to try and write about it for my final essay at Uni but they cancelled it (cries, both tears of sorrow and tears of joy). The Vegetarian tells the story of Yeong-hye from the point of view of three different people: Her husband, Her brother-in-law and Her sister. Its complex and beautiful and is one of the best novels I have ever read! I also have a second-hand copy I managed to get on eBay that is in Korean so with all the spare time I’ve got at the moment I am going to work towards reading it in Korean!

I love it when art inspires art, and for Kang, a line of poetry by Lee Sang inspired her story.

나는 인간만은 식물이어야 한다고 생각한다,

I believe Humans should be plants.

What a strange and interesting sentiment. Perhaps we should at the very least look to plants for inspiration. They work within their ecosystems to keep a balance in nature and support other living things around them.

Quarantine Playlist: Songs to Keep you Sane

This is the playlist that is keeping me sane while locked up in my house.

But in truth, my position is one of privilege; I can stay inside and read books, listen to music, do yoga in my garden, watch movies, paint a portrait, write a novel. While others are out in the world saving lives on the front line of the NHS here in England, or holed up in labs across the globe frantically searching for a cure to the virus. Keep that fact in mind and be grateful that the only thing most of us have to do is just stay inside. Its the perfect time for self-reflection and self-improvement like I explored in my How to Survive Quarantine Blog Post

Stay home, stay safe and I’ll be back soon with my Quarantine Book Recommendations at the weekend.

March Books

March was very strange month for the entire world but reading is one of the best ways to escape this craziness for a few hours. Here are the books I read this March

My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

I listened to this short book on audible, and I can say that it immersed me so much into the story as the narrator Weruche Opia did such a wonderful job of inhabiting the different characters. It’s an interesting tale of a woman who knows her sister is a serial killer, and just how far you will go for family. If my sister was a serial killer I don’t think I would be as loyal as Korede.

Counting Stars, Like a Chicken on a Folding Screen and The Human Arachnid by Kye Yong-muk

I read 3 of Kye Yong-muk’s short stories this month all of which are available to read for free thanks to the LTI Korea via Buk.io. These short stories were all written during or just after the Japanese occupation of Korea and as such reflect this troublesome time in the countries history, one of upheaval, political disarray and poverty. These short stories are a part of history, a part of world history that is often unknown to most in the west. And it’s rather powerful stuff, especially when you read The Human Arachnid which is full of censorship as it was written in 1929 about the working conditions that many Koreans found themselves under the tyranny of Empirical Japanese rule.

Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf

Woolf is one of the most iconic writers of the modern period, her use of stream of consciousness is absolutely iconic at this point. Between the Acts is rife with comedic social commentary and it is also representative of Woolf’s interest in literary history. It’s an interesting read but you have to pay close attention to fully uncover each carefully crafted layer.

Untold Night and Day by Bae Suah

This book is very dreamlike and bizarre. If you love surrealism and fragmented narratives then give this one a read, Bae Suah never disappoints with her beautiful yet strange prose.

Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys

This is one of the bleakest and darkest books I’ve ever read, it’s so excruciating to read Rhys’s novel of a woman in despair just before the second world war. This is a uni book that I’m glad to have read but can safely that I will never read it again because it just made me feel so deflated and sad.

Photo Shop Murder by Kim Young-ha

I finally managed to get a hold of this collection of two short stories by Kim Young-ha second hand from AbeBooks. The two stories are ‘Photo Shop Murder’ (which easily feels like it could be a Korean movie with its subversion of expectations) and ‘Whatever Happened to the Guy in the Elevator’ a surreal and almost Kafkaesque exploration of one man’s commute to and from work. I love Kim’s writing and this little book didn’t disappoint.