After not having such a great reading year in 2020, 2021 has been going much better for me. I'm actually ahead in my goodreads challenge (!) and have already read 22 out of my goal of 52 books for the year. In the spirit of catching this blog up to what has been going on in my life, I thought I'd talk about all the books I've read so far this year. Just think of it as one big monthly wrap up for the months January to April.
It's been over 1.5 years since I last uploaded to this blog and so many things have changed. Looking at my last posts, I just got back home from my exchange semester in Seoul? That seems like a lifetime ago. Since then, I graduated university, finished one and started another internship in the legal field, moved into a new apartment with my boyfriend, acquired about a hundred plants and, of course, found myself in a global pandemic - fun times! But through all of it, I never stopped reading and also never stopped missing being a part of the online book community.
This week, I made my 'comeback' on bookstagram, and it just wouldn't feel complete if I didn't also try and revive my blog. I honestly haven't looked at this page in over a year, and scrolling through it now, I feel so proud of what I accomplished with the blog design and everything. I really put so much work into this blog, and despite it never reaching much of an audience, it was my little corner of the internet, where I could be creative in my own way and do what I wanted, for so long. It would be such a shame to give it up completely. So here I am.
I really don't know where to even begin with starting up this blog again. But I wanted to upload this random little post to announce my return, and of course I'll go right back to planning some bookish posts.
The Carls just appeared.
Roaming through New York City at three a.m., twenty-three-year-old April May stumbles across a giant sculpture. Delighted by its appearance and craftsmanship—like a ten-foot-tall Transformer wearing a suit of samurai armor—April and her friend, Andy, make a video with it, which Andy uploads to YouTube. The next day, April wakes up to a viral video and a new life. News quickly spreads that there are Carls in dozens of cities around the world—from Beijing to Buenos Aires—and April, as their first documentarian, finds herself at the center of an intense international media spotlight.
Seizing the opportunity to make her mark on the world, April now has to deal with the consequences her new particular brand of fame has on her relationships, her safety, and her own identity. And all eyes are on April to figure out not just what the Carls are, but what they want from us.
Compulsively entertaining and powerfully relevant, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing grapples with big themes, including how the social internet is changing fame, rhetoric, and radicalization; how our culture deals with fear and uncertainty; and how vilification and adoration spring for the same dehumanization that follows a life in the public eye. The beginning of an exciting fiction career, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing is a bold and insightful novel of now.
