March Wrap-Up: Books, K-Dramas, and Films
This month, like the passing of all months, came quickly and silently, with everything happening all the time, all at once. This month was draining, exciting, and full of movement.
Among all of the businesses, I managed to stay on and create a sustainable posting schedule, which I’m pleased to announce officially in this wrap-up post. You can look for new content every Monday. I will be posting one essay and a K-drama on a Saturday each month. On the 1st of each month, I’ll post a wrap-up to reflect on the previous month's content.
This month for my blog, I posted my first review of a poetry book, Dreamwork by Mary Oliver, as well as an essay that I did for school on "Wild Geese," one of the poems she included in her book. I don't usually do such in-depth essays as pertains to the nature of Art, but I thought that all of you would appreciate it. I also ordered some books this month from Book Outlet, which I highly recommend! In this economy, the only reasonable way to get books is to oftentimes rent from the library or buy books secondhand (which are all great options), but another alternative is Book Outlet, which I found was that I was able to get a variety of books that I was curious about reading and at a very reasonable price point. The only drawback (as someone who is a bit obsessive and likes her new books to be in perfect condition) was that they came with red and black marker dots on the side of the pages, but other than that, the quality was fantastic.
I also wanted to take this opportunity to be transparent with all of you. I’ve always loved fantasy as a Christian, but navigating the line between fantasy and the occult can sometimes get blurry. This is heavy and worth considering; in fact, it’s part of the reason why I felt the need to make this blog in the first place, to find good reads that I love and that honour God, and to share that love with others.
Recently, it has come to my awareness that the book Red Winter by Annette Marie, which I reviewed this month, was not only inspired by Shintoism and Japanese mythology, but also, due to a misunderstanding, I thought it contained elements used in real-world witchcraft.
Now that I have more clarity, I want to go over how I feel about the series. At first, I was really surprised by my findings. Why didn’t I sense something was off or that it crossed my conscience? After a day or so of research, I found that it doesn’t use any real-world sorcery, but instead uses elements of the Shinto religion in a fantasy setting, using real-world terms (ofuda, oni) but heavily fictionalizing them. The Red Winter series does not use accurate practices of witchcraft; rather, it employs religious tools in a fictional context.
I realize that, for me, this is the absolute line of what I feel comfortable consuming as a Christian reader, and even then, I’m still thinking twice about it and praying about it, to the point where I’ve privatized the review post I did for the book omnibus. I wanted to make note of this in my updated review. This experience was confusing, upsetting, and concerning, as I didn't want to be promoting a book to all of you that I said was good when it wasn't.
This was necessary to address, as I don’t want to lead others into things they feel convicted by and want to avoid. I want to reassure my readers again that God comes first for me, and that I hope to remain as faithful to Him as I should, even though, as a human, I sometimes miss the mark. Thank you to all of my readers for taking this messy journey with me to find art that not only “passes” the readability mark, but also honours God.
As always, I’ll be ranking my film and book recommendations from least recommended to most. And before we get into the list, I just want to say again: thank you to all of my readers and supporters. Your kindness means so very much.
Monthly Wrap-Up
Table of Contents
Dreamwork: by Mary Oliver — 3.5 stars
When was the last time you sat in the woods and did nothing?
For some of you, the answer may be: "It’s been a long time since I was a child." For others, maybe all you’re familiar with are sturdy walls and concrete places, so recalling such a time is alien. Others, who’ve made their home and their lives around nature, may reply "yesterday" or "today"—and if you were to ask Mary Oliver this question, she would probably respond similarly.
Mary Oliver's poetry book Dreamwork centers around her love of nature and the connection she feels within it. Through the backdrop of nature, Mary Oliver unravels.
This was one of my first exposures to a book of poetry as an adult. I recently picked it up after doing an in-depth essay on one of the poems, "Wild Geese," for a school assignment. I had read similar children's poetry or books with rhyme schemes as well as individual poems, but this was truly a different and new experience in many ways. To get lost, not within a storyline to see others and myself better, but instead within pages of poetry, was a unique experience, and I recommend this book to not only introspective lovers of nature but also those wanting to experience what it is to love and wonder at nature. That being said, the poetry book was a bit difficult to get into at first, and I felt like some poems were too abstract to be understood without doing research into them whcih made for an unnatural feel at some points within the book. I give this collection three and a half stars out of five.
Read my full review of Dreamwork: by Mary Oliver
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir — 3.5 stars
If you had thirty years to save Earth before space algae ate your sun, how would you do it? Ryland Grace, a middle school science teacher, is mysteriously recruited as a scientific operative to save the world. When Ryland Grace's old scientific paper, once snubbed by the scientific community, is found by the woman who is responsible for saving the world, he is recruited and given no choice in the matter. At first, acting as a guinea pig, he begins to explore the mysterious substance and the alien life form that is a threat not only to Earth, he finds out, but to the universe. It is up to him and a small group of scientists to defend the Earth and the universe at large from this new life form.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in hardcore sci-fi, or those wanting to get into specifically hardcore sci-fi, and is a reader who loves a high-stakes book. Overall, my rating of Project Hail Mary is three and a half stars out of five.
Read my full review of Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
K-Drama Review: My Love from the Star — 3.75 stars
Are you afraid of being forgotten or remembered?
Do Min-joon is an alien who arrived on Earth about 400 years ago. He meets someone who looks startlingly similar to someone he once knew when he first arrived—so much so that they could have been the same person. But that’s where the similarities end. This woman is completely different. After becoming her new manager, it becomes more apparent how different she is from any other human he’s met; she’s more absurd and ridiculous, but maybe also something he's never experienced before in his 400 years on Earth. Suddenly, he's worried that he will be remembered by a human.
Song Yi is an actress, not just an actress, but the biggest actress in South Korea. Her face is on the largest billboards, and she has the best brand deals. To put it lightly, she’s a star. When catastrophe hits, and her name is dragged through the mud, she is left out to dry by her agency and her old manager, with only her undependable, broken family to support her. With the pressure of the career she's worked so hard to build since she was a child going down the drain, what will happen next?
Overall, the premise of the K-drama was goofy yet intriguing, and I appreciated how the story played out. I would recommend this show to anyone who isn't too sensitive to minor plot holes and wants to be immersed in a dramatic, comedic story. My rating of this drama is 3.75 out of 5
Read my full review of My Love from the Star
Red Winter Omnibus by Annette Marie — 4 stars
Emi is the perfect
Kamigakari. She's made sure of it, with every aspect of her life in complete obedience to
Amaterasu and Oshida, the head servant of Amaterasu's shrine who raised her to be the goddess's perfect vessel.
When she arrives at a little shrine located on the outskirts of an Oni-infested mountain, where she is unceremoniously dropped off by her guard, she slowly begins to realize she isn't as perfect as she thought she was, and her future isn't going to be what she thought it was going to be.
And she is not sure if she wants it anymore.
Overall, I thought that the omnibus of Red Winter, which has the complete trilogy in it, was really great. It's a super entertaining book that, even with a bit of a slow start, has a very strong middle and ending. Despite this, I hesitantly recommend it, as I mentioned earlier in my post, some imagery is heavily tied to the Shinto religion that a more sensitive reader may be uncomfortable with. Overall, I would rate the trilogy as a whole four out of five stars, but I am extremely cautious to recommend it to anyone.
Read my full review of Red Winter Omnibus by Annette Marie
Always Remember: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse in the Storm By Charlie Mackesy — 4.5 stars
Always Remember by Charlie Mackesy—The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse in the Storm opens with a charming note from the author explaining to his readers that he never expected to make it this far in the creation of his novel. The fact that you, the reader, are reading it means he was able to complete a story out of the piled, unorganized papers and hectically arranged work on his desk. As he fondly says, making this book “will always remind me that all kinds of things can come from mess," further encouraging his readers, "so no matter how chaotic life is—try to be gentle with yourself and don't give up.”
And maybe this was a full-circle moment for the author. After the painful, messy process of writing and creating, he realized that this is what it is about, the process, even if we fail, get it wrong, or get hurt: “There seems to be a lot to achieve in this life. But I think just to be here and to sing our song is a victory.”
Overall, I loved Always Remember: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse in the Storm, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a healing, slow compilation of gentle stories that have Christian undertones. Overall, I rate this short and endearing novel four and a half stars out of five.
Read my full review of Always Remember: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse in the Storm By Charlie Mackesy
That's all folks! If you’re planning to read or watch anything from my March wrap-up list, feel free to comment below!❤❤❤
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