As a millennial – and every generation after – it’s near impossible to have a straight talk about our finances. We didn’t get much training, and we’ve been hit by one life-changing event after another. It feels like they’re happening every day. So what are we to do? Amin makes a good point from the jump: start today. Life goes on, bills need to be paid, people need shelter and food to eat. We weren’t…
Category: Tsundoku: Book, Movie, & TV Reviews
Unbound Feet by Judy Yung x A Larger Memory by Ronald T. Takaki
Happy Lunar New Year, one and all. May the Year of the Tiger bless you and your family this year. In celebration of this event, I’m sharing a review of the books Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco by Judy Yung and A Larger Memory: A History of Our Diversity with Voices by Ronald Takaki. The thesis of Unbound Feet is that a storied and engaging history is found through…
Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale by Pamela Hamilton
I thought the book was well-written, but I wasn’t on board with the pace of how things happened. I get that this was a fictional telling of a real woman’s life, presented as such from the beginning. However, it was hard for me to keep the details straight. I couldn’t quite place where we were from paragraph to paragraph sometimes. A new character would be introduced, and the implication was that you should already know…
Be a J.E.D.I. Leader, Not a Boss: Leadership in the Era of Corporate Social Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion by Omar L. Harris
Although I haven’t read Harris’ previous book, The Servant Leader’s Manifesto (affiliate link), I would consider Be a J.E.D.I. Leader, Not a Boss, to be a spiritual sequel. His corporate background informs his argument about where corporate interests can grow in a way that serves their employees and their stakeholders, and ultimately, themselves. As they say, please write what you know, and Harris knows his audience well without talking down to them or overtly shaming…
A House of My Own: Stories from My Life by Sandra Cisneros
I timed my reading of “A House of My Own” (paid link) by Sandra Cisneros so that I would finish it before I saw her speak via Zoom at the 2021 Las Vegas Book Festival for their NEA Big Read presentation. I scored a signed copy of “A House on Mango Street.” It’s earned a treasured spot on my bookshelf. The talk itself invigorated me. It was skewed more toward teachers, but I just sat…
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
The novel was published in 1920 about 1870s New York society. It’s fascinating how one look, one casual phrase, could destroy a person’s entire reputation. I think that’s still true, but we can start over somewhere else and bounce back for the most part. If someone is ruined (the Beauforts, more so Regina than Julius, highlighting the gender discrimination of the time), it’s unheard of. The specter of New York looms as its own character…
Remember Me by Mary Higgins Clark
When I was a little Gilly, my Ma got roped into a Reader’s Digest Condensed Books subscription. This novel appeared in vol. 217 in 1995 when I was 12. I didn’t have the luxury of attending the library often as a child. Going to the library was a treat because it wasn’t a thing that I was allowed to do often. My Ma never had time to take me to the library because she had…
Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury
I bestowed Ray Bradbury with the honorary tile of being the grandfather of my literary aesthetic: cinematic absurdist. I found an essay (an interview, really) in this book where he states “All my stories are cinematic. … I may be the most cinematic novelist in the country today. All of my short stories can be shot right off the page. Each paragraph is a shot.” Ray Bradbury I knew there was a reason why I…
You Suck: A Love Story by Christopher Moore
A Dirty Job (paid link) was my first Moore novel because I bought the e-book on sale. That novel inspired one of the short stories in my thesis, Electric Angels. It taught me that even if there are rules and your characters are the only ones who know how it works, it all works together. I love the irreverent tone in this novel that is classic Moore. Having soaked up what I could at the…
The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence by Gavin de Becker
You have cleverness, dexterity, and creativity—all of which powerfully combine when you are at risk—if you listen to your intuition. Gavin de Becker, the Gift of Fear I’ve meant to read this book for ages. I finally finished it with my Silent Book Club and burned through it during my WFH lunches. It’s so nice not to have to bring my lunch every day; it’s already in my house! Then, I can focus on simply…