Darla!

Category: short reviews

TV Shows I’m Currently Obsessed With

With the exams season over and the finals week not starting until next month, I’ve been pretty much unemployed right now. In order to tone down my reading-craze a bit, I’ve been watching quite a lot of TV shows. Here are four TV shows I’m currently obsessed with:

1. Brooklyn Nine-Nine

A mutual on Tumblr got super obsessed with this show that he couldn’t stop reblogging all Brooklyn Nine-Nine gifsets. I kept seeing the gifsets that I finally got sick of them and decided to watch the show. I got hooked instantly. This show is so hilarious! It tells the story of a detective squad from the 99th precinct of NYPD. They are all good detectives with unique personalities. Police procedural has always been my favourite genre, and with almost all my fave police shows already got canceled (Motive, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, etc.) this comedy has become #1 on my list.

2. Superstore

Superstore is a workplace comedy set in a hypermarket called Cloud9. I’ve never worked in retail. but from what I’ve read working retail can be very stressful. Superstore tells the comedic side of said stressful job. It also makes fun of the corporate and how badly they treat their employees. Season 2 was concluded earlier this month with a tragic episode which is a mixture of hilarious and heartbreaking.

3. Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

This show has always been on my list of favourite TV shows, although I have mixed feeling about it. The first half of this season (the Ghost Rider arc) was very boring and I stopped watching at episode 6. But then I decided to start watching again near the end of the season and I must say that the second half of the season (the crazy robot aka LMD aka AIDA arc) is fantastic! I feel that the show has drifted too far away from the whole MCU, but the last scene in the season finale (is it a cliffhanger, I’m not sure) hinted that perhaps the next season will have a direct link to the upcoming Infinity War? Let’s just see.

4. Keeping Up with the Kardashians

I know a lot of people hate Keeping Up with the Kardashians (and the family altogether), but it’s a show that’s so ridiculous that you can get so attached to it, get it? Hahah… I hadn’t really watched this show, but a few months ago E! Channel aired a marathon of season 12 right before season 13 premiered and I can’t stop watching since. I like them, they’re kind of funny.

There are several series already on my list that I haven’t started watching yet (e.g. Sense8, Iron Fist, etc.) and there are also series premiering their new seasons next month. But Ramadan is starting in 3 days so I’m very conflicted between watching these shows or devoting myself to ibadah hahahaha :p

What are your favourite TV shows?

Image from 1/2/3/4

Dara | Bloglovin’ | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

23 May 2017
Recent Reads: April

I’m changing the title of the monthly Books I Finished In… post into the shorter and catchier Recent Reads. So, here it is… Recent Reads: April.

My books purchase is under control, at least for now hahah! I only impulsively bought one book, the others were planned purchases. I’m limiting myself to read one book per week, so in April I finished these five books:

1. Jolly Foul Play by Robin Stevens

It’s a good thing that there are quite a lot of books in this series because I like it very much. I hope Robin Stevens is planning to keep writing and producing more and more books in this series, like Agatha Christie did with all her detectives and sleuths. In this book, the girls are back again in the Deepdean School. Someone is murdered and secrets of older students are out. The Detective Society has grown quite bigger than in the previous books, so Daisy and Hazel are not alone in solving these two cases. I must say that this book is kinda scary compared to the previous ones in the series. The victim is a student and two students also go missing, so the girls are actually involved instead of being the outsiders looking in. I like this book very much, maybe even more than the previous ones I’ve read.

2. A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro

In A Study in Charlotte, we are introduced to Charlotte Holmes and Jamie Watson, the direct descendants of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson who happen to be the same age and go to the same boarding school (though it’s a setup done by Jamie’s father). A student is murdered and the clues point to the two of them, so they have to solve the mystery while avoiding being arrested for the murder they didn’t do. Every book blogger I follow praises this book. Unfortunately, the bookshops in Bandung and Jakarta don’t have it so I had to order it online and wait patiently for it to arrive for almost a month (international shipping is so ugh!). It’s so worth the wait! Although it’s weird to read that Holmes and Watson are romantically involved (I’m not a JohnLock shipper, sorry…), I like the characters. I like Charlotte’s personality and Jamie’s rage (is that bad? Lol). I also like Jamie’s relationship with his estranged father and his new family. I’m currently waiting for the paperback version of the second book to be available in Book Depository.

3. Closed Casket by Sophie Hannah

Why would a rich children books author change her will to leave everything to her dying secretary instead of her two children? The reason might surprise you for a second and make you roll your eyes immediately after. It’s very silly. While I like the majority of the characters in A Study in Charlotte, I hate everyone in Closed Casket. Nobody is likable. The case itself is good and very Agatha Christie-ish, but the characters are awful. Yes, that’s including the Hercule Poirot.

4. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

Big Little Lies shows us how our action can change other people’s lives forever. It’s heartbreaking but also quite funny. With the HBO series finale getting praises everywhere on the internet, I became very curious about this book. I decided to read the book first before watching the show. I’ve been looking for adult books to read because every book I’ve read is YA and Big Little Lies won my heart right after I finished reading the very first page. I really like it! I’m definitely going to read more books by Liane Moriarty.

5. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

When someone kills themselves, we may never know and understand what drives them to do that. But before she committed suicide, Hannah recorded cassette tapes and set them to be sent around the thirteen people responsible for her actions after her death. This book was also bought by me because of the words about the Netflix show going around on the internet. Some people like it, others say it’s sending the wrong message. But I must say the book is very good and well written. It’s a quick read, I finished it in less than a day, but it left a huge hole in my heart. I cried halfway into reading it. It’s very heartbreaking. But I read somewhere that the show has several differences from the book. I haven’t seen it but I will when I get the time. It’s Netflix, so I’m probably going to finish the whole show in one seating.

***

Whoa, that’s still quite a lot of books, isn’t it? Haha… But I’m taking it veeeeeeryyyyy slow this month. I’m currently reading two books, Red Queen and the next installment in the Murder Most Unladylike Mystery series, Mistletoe and Murder. I started Red Queen in March but I’m still halfway through it. I started Mistletoe and Murder last week but I haven’t finished either.

What about you? What have you read lately? Give me book recommendations! 😉

Dara | Bloglovin’ | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

8 May 2017
Books I Finished in March

My husband reminded me to start controlling my spending on books because I spent almost 1m for books alone last month! Isn’t that crazy? He keeps sending mixed signals, though, because he’s actually the devil behind it all. Whenever we are in the bookstore he’s all like “Just buy it!” every time I touch a book. I hate him! (Also I love him for that LOL)

So, anyway… Here are five books I read in March:

1. The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories by Agatha Christie

I normally loathe it when a good book gets its movie/TV cover, but this one literally caught my eyes right when I walked into the bookstore (they’re so damned smart at displaying!) I regret buying this book because as I read on I realised half way that I actually had read all the stories. Compulsive book shopping is not good, kids!

2. 20 Cerita Detektif Diambil dari Majalah Bobo: Lukisan yang Dapat Mencuri

For Indonesian 90’s kids, Majalah Bobo is a part of our childhood. It’s a kids magazine with short stories, comics, science articles, etc. This book is a compilation of 20 detective stories taken from Majalah Bobo. I’ve been thinking about writing stories for children, so I read this book for inspirations. All of them are actually quite simple but I can see that children will get absorbed to the stories. I love all the stories!

3. Murder Most Unladylike Mysteries Series by Robin Stevens

Oh my god this series! I’m so so SO in love with these books. I was looking for A Study in Charlotte at the bookstore when I saw these colourful books on display (again, they’re so smart!) They didn’t have A Study in Charlotte so I picked one of these colourful books to read the synopsis on the back cover. Turns out, it’s a detective series too. It’s about two school girls who form a detective society and solve murders together. I bought the first one of the series (the blue one), took it home, and finished it in 6 days. Then I bought the second one (the green one) and finished it in 2 days! I also finished the third one (orange) in 2 days. I was obsessed, okay?

***

That is all for March. As for this month, I’ve already finished two books so far. I’m currently reading two books and yesterday two more books I ordered online had arrived on my doorstep. It’s gonna be a busy month!

Dara | Bloglovin’ | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

13 April 2017
Books I Finished in January

In my previous post, I talked about my goal to read 12 books this year. To make it official, I logged in to my Goodreads account to set my 2017 Reading Challenge. I checked my Currently Reading shelf & I’m very embarrassed to say that I had nine books there. Five of them are the ones I started reading in 2013 & 2014. They’ve been sitting in my Currently Reading for more than three years! That’s how bad of a reader I’ve become. So in January, I read like crazy. I read whenever I had the chance. I read while eating, before going to bed, and even while watching TV (multitasking, yo!). I managed to finish four of them. They are all the more recent ones; the ones I started reading last year. I figured it would take longer time to finish the ones I had abandoned for years because I might have forgotten the story so I would need to re-read at least a few chapters back.

Alright. So here they are:

1. The Lola Quartet by Emily St John Mandel

I just realised that I’ve never written my review for Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel. I don’t know why I haven’t done that because I really liked that book & it was one of the most amazing & well-written books I’ve ever read. Station Eleven was my very first Emily St John Mandel’s book, so naturally I looked for her other books and my next choice fell upon The Lola Quartet. It’s a story about four high school friends who were in a jazz quartet. On the last day of their high school, they played a concert on the back of a truck. That was the last time Gavin, a member of the quartet, saw his girlfriend, Anna. Ten years later, Gavin sees a photograph of a little girl who looks like him and has Anna’s surname. Gavin tried to find out what really happened these past ten years and why his fellow quartet members keep it a secret all these years.

The written style is as beautiful as that of Station Eleven. The story is entirely different because there is no worldwide catastrophe in The Lola Quartet, unlike in Station Eleven; there are only personal disasters and how growing up can be very different for everyone. Ditching the traditional structure of narrative, both Station Eleven and The Lola Quartet are more like recounts rather than narratives. Reading these two feels like reading someone’s diary. It’s very flat, yet (again) very beautifully written so it broke my heart anyway. Not recommended if you want more dramatic conflicts.

2. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

I ditched this book after reading about 85% of it for a very silly reason: I don’t like how Jacob (our main character) is going to leave his parents. See, this is perhaps the reason why most heroes in stories are orphaned. Parents are a burden. I’m not very comfortable reading about a young character goes on a journey to fight evil while their parents wait at home, scared shit about their kid’s well-being. But I finished it anyway, for the sake of eliminating it from my Currently Reading. The story is very good and interesting. The idea is quite fresh, including that idea of the hero having both parents alive. I don’t like the part where Jacob falls in love with his grandfather’s old girlfriend, though (yeah they’re the same age now but I still think that’s kinda creepy LOL).

3. Filosofi Kopi by Dee Lestari

Oh look… Ungil!

Dee Lestari is a prominent author in my country. All her books are best sellers. The most famous is perhaps the Supernova series, a series I tried to read once but couldn’t because it was ‘too hard’ for me who is not really into ‘heavy literature’ (get it?). I’ve only read one more book by Dee and that was Recto Verso, which is a short stories collection. It tore my heart apart and broke it into pieces because the stories are all heart-wrenching. I picked Filosofi Kopi because it is another short stories collection and I felt that I wasn’t ready for a book-length-story-commitment so short stories were nice at that time. Not as wonderful as Recto Verso, though. There are only a few stories I like, the rest is just so-so (I’m sorry!)

4. Corat-Coret di Toilet by Eka Kurniawan

This one is also a short stories collection. I’ve read another collection by Eka Kurniawan, entitled Perempuan Patah Hati yang Kembali Menemukan Cinta Melalui Mimpi, and really liked it so I tried reading another one. Corat-Coret di Toilet is, however, not as good as Perempuan Patah Hati (the title is very long!). Eka Kurniawan is a well-known author; some of his books have been translated and published in English. You can find them at Amazon. Just search for his name.

***

Now I still have five books to cross off from my Currently Reading list. I’m gonna do it. I know I can do it!

Dara | Bloglovin’ | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

9 February 2017