Hello, hello!
It’s been quite a while (okay, more like 5 months) since I last wrote something for The Rundown. Since I kept missing doing monthly recaps, I decided to do one halfway through the year. Hence this Midyear 2022 Recap.
I’m not sure if I can go back to doing monthly recaps in the near future, but I’m really doing my best to balance my work with doing fun leisure stuff.
So What Happened?
There’s a lot to unpack here… Back in January, I mentioned that I got a new job and it really tested my time management capabilities. I only had three freelance clients back then, and now I have more than that. I’m happy, but finding the right work rhythm was also challenging for me.
I started going out and work in public coffee shops when health restrictions became more relaxed. It was fun to drown in noise from time to time while enjoying a cup of coffee!
I also changed my blog theme! I found this simple, but cute and customizable theme from Code and Coconut. They also have other affordable themes available, so if you’re looking for one, I highly recommend them! There might be more changes in the future, but that depends on my free time. 😂
On the reading side, I haven’t really read much. Talk about being in a reading slump, yeah? Although, I hit my reading goal for 2022, which is a humble attempt to read five books! Check out the books I read from January to June below!
Books Read 📚
I read mostly contemporary YA and adult romance. As you can see, I liked most of them but I’m still looking for my next 5-star read! Although, I read a lot of webtoons during the past few months and I enjoyed them!
Feb-June Blog Posts
I’m glad I was still able to churn out content, even though I was a bit busy! Most of these are book reviews, but I wanted to highlight the blog series I did with other book influencers on how the pandemic affected their reading lives. Check out the round-up post here.
Book Reviews
Other Bookish Posts
Roll The Credits 🎞
TV Shows
Now, we’re talking! Since I was nursing a huge slump for most the previous months, I just directed all my interest towards watching shows. And if you know me by now, you’re probably thinking K-dramas! Well, you’re not wrong!
Contrary to my lackluster reading experience during these past few months, I enjoyed most of the shows I watched!
📺 Twenty-Five, Twenty-One. I was a little concerned when I first saw the teaser because of the age gap of the main leads. Although while watching, it really didn’t make me feel uncomfortable and I love how their relationship blossomed and developed.
It’s not a perfect show, and a lot of people are still mad about the ending, but this is one of my favorite shows so far. I laughed, cried, felt kilig all over, and cried some more. The OST was also amazing. I’m actually listening to it as I’m writing this post. I also might post a full K-drama review for this soon. It’s just that I’m still a big weeping mess because of this drama and I don’t think I’ll be moving on soon.
📺 Through The Darkness. This features the birth of criminal profiling in South Korea, and is based on the story of the first criminal profiler in the country. I mentioned that I enjoyed this during my January Recap and the show delivered until the end. I had to wait for all the episodes to drop, but I think bingeing this was perfect since it was so gripping and compelling!
📺 A Business Proposal. This generated a lot of buzz while it was airing, and it was well-deserved! This was a K-drama adaptation from the webtoon of the same name. It was also one of my most anticipated since I loved the webtoon, and I love all the main actors involved. It was just sad that we only got 12 episodes, but the good thing was it was well-paced and not dragging. But I have to admit, I REALLY NEEDED MORE!
📺 All of Us Are Dead. I love Korean zombie flicks so much because of all the thrilling action! I really enjoyed watching this, although there were some draggy parts here and there. I’m so excited for Season 2 because there were a lot of questions left unanswered!
📺 Tomorrow. This one is so criminally underrated! The show tackles a lot of social issues, mainly high suicide rates, weaved in different stories. I honestly cried in a lot of episodes because they were all so hard-hitting and relatable! I wish there’s a season 2, but it’s hard to hope since it has low viewership in South Korea despite being popular internationally.
📺 Doom at Your Service. My love for Lee Soohyuk brought me here! I have mixed feelings about this show’s pacing, but the plot was great! It just felt a little repetitive towards the end, but the chemistry between the main leads was really solid!
📺 Love All Play. Another one of my favorites for this year! I watched this as it was airing and the weekly wait was super worth it! All the sports-themed K-dramas I’ve watched so far were great! I loved the badminton action, the drama, and the romance! The main leads’ chemistry was so amazing, even I feel butterflies in my stomach while watching them! UGH I LOVE MY PARK TWINS SO MUCH!!! I’ll also be posting my full K-drama review for this soon! (Please hold me accountable, lol)
📺 Money Heist Korea: Joint Economic Area. I haven’t seen the original yet, but after watching this I feel so compelled to watch it. I love the cat and mouse dynamics between the Professor and the police force. Although, six episodes aren’t enough to really give enough backstories for each characters. So far, I found Berlin’s character to be such a powerful force. I love Tokyo and Denver best, especially their visuals hahaha! Looking forward for the next episodes because EP6 ended in a cliffhanger!
📺 Stranger Things Season 4, Vol 1. Ahh, the odd one out. This was the only Western series I watched this year so far. I admit, I kinda forgot what was going on in and out of Hawkins since S3 felt like forever ago. But it was fun being back in Hawkins! I still love Steve and Robin!!! I enjoyed the newfound friendship Robin and Nancy developed, but I don’t like how they’re throwing in the idea of Steve and Nancy once again. That ship has sailed a long time ago!
I’m currently on a rewatch as I wait for Volume 2 to drop this Friday!
Movies
I only watched Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on theaters. The rest, I watched at home on streaming services. Being back in the cinemas was great, but nothing really beats watching a movie while lying down in bed.
There were a couple of YA book adaptations that came out on Netflix that I watched:
- Along For The Ride (from Sarah Dessen’s YA Novel). This was good and I appreciated it, but the movie didn’t really do well with fleshing out the characters.
- Love and Gelato (from Jenna Evans Welch’s YA Novel). This was even worse. Boring characters, too much love, not enough gelato. Kidding aside, it was really boring and the actors had zero chemistry! The basic plot was intriguing though, so I might check out the book.
Here is the complete list of movies I watched:
There goes my long Midyear 2022 Recap! I really am killing it with K-dramas, but I’m also reading from time to time. I’m currently reading Summer’s Edge by Dana Mele, The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston, which I’ll be posting a review in a few days.
I hope 2022 has been good for all of you so far, and I wish you all the best for the rest of the year!
Let’s Chat! 💬
How did the first half of the year go for you? What are your favorite books, series, and films of 2022 so far?
oh i tried watching Love & Gelato despite not liking movies and young adult content nowadays because i rated the book 5 stars when i read it tweet years back. i paused the movie a little into it though, it wasn’t nice enough and i couldn’t care less about the boys and first love. on the other hand, i just started The Summer I Turned Pretty because everyone’s raving about it and i want to know why—especially since i HATED the book. it’s quite nice so far though, surprisingly.
my year has been busy and good, filled with many new experiences. i am seeing myself losing energy and requiring a proper vacation though.
Glad to hear you liked the book version of Love and Gelato. I actually looked into it because I was intrigued with the whole aspect of her mom’s “mystery romance” and found that there were a lot of differences with the adaptation. I’m really interested to read the book. Re: The Summer I Turned Pretty, I think Jenny Han really lucked out with the adaptation department because all of her book to film adaptations got everyone raving. I’m not sure if I’ll read the book but I might check out the series.
Not going to lie, I kind of like the format of this mid-year rundown and I am loving the new theme! Good to see you’ve been busy and I hope you’re doing well with the new job. I think I might try working from a coffee shop this week actually — I work from home 3 days a week now and, it’s rough in its own way. Change of scenery may help.
I finally caught up with Stranger Things back in May and am currently terrified to watch the rest of season 4… I think I stopped after episode 3 to wait for it all to drop lol.
Thank you so much, Kal! I spent a lot of time picking a theme and tweaking it to my liking and I’m glad it worked out fine!