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 in it, and on top of that, we’ve been hit by one life-changing event after another. It feels like they’re happening every day. So what…
Category: Tsundoku: Book and Movie 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:…
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, and it’s presented as so from the beginning. However, it was hard for me to keep the details straight….
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 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,…
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 ended up scoring a signed copy of “A…
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,…
Remember Me by Mary Higgins Clark
Back when I was a wee little Gilly, my Ma got roped into a subscription for Reader’s Digest Condensed Books. This novel appeared in vol. 217 in 1995, when I was 12. I didn’t have the luxury of going to the library often as a child. Going to the library…
Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury
I have decided to elevate Ray Bradbury as 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…