[Book Review] Too Much is Not Enough by Andrew Rannells

During this pandemic, so many random things happened, especially after spending total 10 months stay at home (and counting). I always like musicals. It always has a special spot in my heart. But, as I’m living in Indonesia and the access to Broadway is very very limited, I only got to watch musicals from Movies or TV series. But, as Disney+ streams Hamilton and HBO Go had Newsies, my love to musicals grow and grow. I spent hours in a da watching clips from any other musicals. I found many bootlegs (ups, sorry) and watched it over and over. I even learned how to do belting! Terribly, of course. Not for anyone’s consumption. Dedicated only to my (poor) husband.

So, I watched (and re-watched and re-watched again and again and again) the Falsettos Broadway revival Live from the Lincoln Center. Somehow, this guy who’s playing Whizzer really hooked me up. I knew him from many clips I watched before. Like I knew he was one of the King George III, replacing Jonathan Groff for 5 weeks while Groff had to do filming for Looking. I saw him in The Intern. Somehow his interviews appeared in my Youtube suggestions. I watched him sing and liked his every performance. So, at the time I saw him in Falsettos, I was already half a fans. After falsettos, half a fans becoming an obsessed fans. Book of Mormon, The Boys in the Band, The Prom, The New Normal, Girls, Black Monday, even his Lincoln Center concert. I watched it all. Not only once, but many many times. Again, my poor husband has to bare with me with all my obsession. Haha!

So, yeah, I Bumped into this book simply because I’m Andrew Rannells fans. I knew some of the stories already from many interviews, but most of the story he wrote here are new to me. So in the eye of a fans, we still can get to know Andrew more. But how about if you’re not a fans? What’s in it for your from this book?

This book is about his stories before those shows we know him from. It really stopped before he got Hairspray’s Link. So if anyone of you want to know his story behind Book of Mormon, Girls, Falsettos, you won’t get it. You’ll get the story behind how he becomes who he is now.

Typically a memoir book, we’ll find out about his childhood and many of his firsts. Some of his stories had been told through many interviews though (like that story about when he auditioned for Rent), but still Andrew got a real talent in writing. It’s fresh, witty, hilarious and touching at the same time. I could hear his voice reading his sentences. I laughed hard so many times. I got teary eyes when I read “Josephine”. I felt terrible somehow during “My Second Date with Brad”. And I could feel the desperation, especially during “Everything Is Rosie”. The way of his writing makes the readers can exactly feel and be there within his stories.

But the point of this book is not only from his fresh ways of storytelling. It’s the stories itself. It’s about the courage to face your biggest fear. The hurts feeling after so many rejections. The strength to keep your dream alive. It’s about how you accept yourself, let yourself feel the sadness or frustration just to strengthen back your will. He reminded us that it’s normal to forget your dream over something more secure. But he never gave up. His boldness to come out of his comfort zone just to get back on track to reach his dream is really inspiring. If he stayed in that secure jobs he had, he wouldn’t got those 2 Tony Nominations!

If you need a light and hilarious book that also boost your motivation, I highly recommend this book. Thank you, Andrew!

My verdict 
1. Storyline : 4.9/5.0
2. Writing way : 4.75/5.0
Total : 4.8/5.0

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

I don’t read a lot this year (17 books only and still counting), but this is the best book I’ve read so far this year!

Read this at the first time with a purpose to get a little touch of Russian history, I ended up “trapped” in every character that Towles create in this book. This book is about a gentleman names Alexander Ilyich Rostov who was sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. We can see how a gentleman with full of wisdom and wit who never worked before had to adjust his life by living in the hotel’s attic, worked as head of waitress, made a lifetime relationships and found a larger life and even a meaningful life as a gentleman despite being prisoned.

I love count Rostov and the Triumvirate, I hold Sofia dearly in my heart, and I despise the Bishop so much. I gasped, shrieked, laughed, sighed to each of the moments our beloved count experienced. I’m happy, sad and thrilled for him and other characters as it’s so deeply engraved in this book. I definitely invested so much emotion in this book.

Something we can learn from this book : live your life to the fullest even though you feel like you’re trapped within 4 walls (literally and figuratively). Make new friends, create new habits, learn something new, and keep your mind sharp & positive!

Thank you, Count Rostov for reminding us such thought during this pandemic situation 🙂

I read the book with my e-book. Good decision as i can’t stop reading it even it’s already late at night and the light has been turned off. I really love this book it made me want to sketch its cover! It also inspired to a new project of mine that will be launched soon!

I also love the way how Towles played with the timeline. He divided decades based on book part. Each decade has a background of a changing Russia between early 1920s to early 1950s. He could telling a story of 10 years after then go back to the present days within a paragraph, without leave us confuse with the story. My favorite character is Count Rostov, of course. And I love how Towles write all those very detail about his character; his thoughts, his manner, and his attitude toward everything around him.

So here’s my verdict :
Story line : 4.5/5
Main topic : 4.5/5
Inspiring words : 4/5
Character development : 5/5
Total : 4.5/5

Origin By Dan Brown

Where do we come from?
Where are we going ?

Those 2 questions are the main topic for this Dan Brown’s latest Robert Langdon’s series. Sudah cukup lama saya ingin membaca buku ini. Bahkan bukunya sendiri sudah tersedia di rak buku saya sejak beberapa tahun lalu. Akhirnya, setelah beberes buku minggu lalu, saya memutuskan untuk membaca buku ini, dengan asumsi ini akan menjadi bacaan ringan. Well, what to expect from some pop culture novel, right ?

Novel ini mengambil setting di Spanyol. Dimulai saat Langdon diundang oleh seorang tech-savvy, well-known, super rich and also atheist, bernama Edmond Kirsch. Edmond berencana untuk membeberkan penemuan dia mengenai 2 pertanyaan fundamental tersebut; “Where do we come from? where are we going?”. Namun, seperti novel-novel Dan Brown lainnya, something (really) bad happened, and our beloved symbol professor from Harvard has to race with time to finish what Edmond planned to do.

Yaa, kalau sering baca buku-bukunya Dan Brown, especially Robert Langdon series, pasti akan sangat terbiasa dengan patternnya. Langdon diundang atau ketemu dengan orang penting. Orang pentingnya mati. Ada rahasia yang harus diungkap. Ada cewek pinter dan cantik nemenin Langdon memecahkan teka-teki yang harus diungkap. Ada orang jahat mengejar yang mau bunuh mereka, dan biasanya orang jahat ini di-backup oleh orang penting lainnya. Rahasia terungkap. Everyone lives happily ever after.

Nah Origin persis seperti ini. Ditambah banyak tempat-tempat yang sangat mainstream seperti Casa Mila, (ngelewatin) Park Guell, Sagrada Familia, bahkan sedikit menyebutkan stadion FC Barcelona. Dan Brown juga memasukkan beberapa quote yang cukup mainstream dari Winston Churchill, seperti:

“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”
“The price of greatness…is responsibility”
“History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.”

Ceritanya memang agak dragging to long. Beberapa karakter kurang terdevelop dengan baik. Dan ada beberapa bagian yang rasanya tidak perlu diceritakan. Walaupun bagian-bagian tersebut tampaknya memang sebagai pengalihan issue/perhatian untuk twisted ending-nya. In fact, one of the good reason i like this book is the twisted fact at the end of the book. [SPOILER ALERT!] About the one who’s instructed the killer to kill Edmond Kirsch.

Another thing that made me stick to the book is the topic itself. To be honest, those 2 fundamental questions are lingering in my thought these days. So, i just wanna know other author’s thought about it. Well, the answer for the first question is quite appalling. I just heard about it when i read it. But the answer for the 2nd answer is similar with what Yuval Noah Harari try to explain in Homo Deus.

Also, there are some good words for deeper thinking in this books. Here are some of my fav :

“…human, despite being God’s sublime creation, were just being animals at the core, their behavior driven to a great by a quest for creature comforts. We comfort our physical bodies in hopes our souls will follow.”
“Nietzsche: “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.”
“…it is in hearing the voice of the devil that we can better appreciate the voice of god.”
“Memento mori,” the monarch whispered. “Remember death. Even for those who wield great power, life is brief. There is only one way to triumph over death, and that is by making our lives masterpieces.”
“Love is a private thing. The world does not need to know.”

So, here’s my verdict :

Story line : 2.0/5.0
Main topic : 3.5/5.0
Inspiring words : 3.0/5.0
Character development : 2.5/5.0

Average total score : 2.75/5.0

[Short review] Reading: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – Parts One and Two (Special Rehearsal Edition) by J.K. Rowling

As a fanboy of Jo, at the time i started this book after reading (very) bad reviews about it, i kept telling my self; open your mind, it’s a script book which is different from the others, and nothing can make Jo failed you.

Well, She failed me.

I’m really sure she just took a super tiny lil part writing this book, because everything just don’t make sense.

1. It’s only -literally only- about Albus and Scorpius. If you’re looking for other 2nd gen characters, not a chance. Not even Teddy Lupin!

2. The dialogue -all of it- is rubbish. Feels like reading a middle school play scripts made by lamest fans ever who maybe got a lil bit excitement in LGBT. I mean, boys friendship should be like Ron-Harry….not like, well…

3. The twist. Puhleaaaseeee reallly?!?! Voldemort the dark lord did that???? Seriously Jo, you just made one of the best villain ever as low as a drug dealer gangsta!

4. If one of your reason to love Jo is because how she creates some unique names….let’s rethink about it.

See??all the reasons why i hate this book…i don’t think Jo even touch 10% of it.

I finally found my worst Harry Potter series.

[Short Review] Reading: Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith

I know, I know that i promised myself to finish that book lists on my “where-have-you-been” reading challenge…but when it comes to JKR (or Galbraith), I surely will be distracted.

What I can say about this book is….WOA,WHAT A ROLLER COSTER FEELINGS! As usual, JKR serves us deeper thoughts and feeling about the characters she develop, and in this 3rd series of Cormoran Strike I keep changing my mood from intense and thrilling moments to giggling enthusiastically following the up and downs of Strike-Robin’s relationship.

If Agatha Christie a sensible wingbacked chair, then Robert Galbraith is a vast, overstuffed sofa, complete with dog hair and something unmentionable behind the cushions.

Ps: if you’re a fans of Strike-Robin, you better get ready at the end of the stories.