Gun violence in America is way out of control and we still don’t have a solution. Even the U.S. government still has no policy to prevent mass shootings after mass shootings. Wait is Cuong Lu’s attempt to address the issue through love and compassion. The book is his love letter to the killers in hoping that they will treasure their lives and the lives of people they want to take. He points out in the prologue, “The moment the violence stops, peace is possible.” I hope this book will reach those who are in despair before they hurt themselves and other people.

Khi nghe ca khúc “Vết thù trên lưng ngựa hoang” của cố nhạc sĩ Phạm Duy, tôi luôn thắc mắc câu “Ngựa hoang muốn về tắm sông nhẫn nhục”. Sau khi đọc quyển tiểu thuyết giang hồ của tác giả Duyên Anh tôi mới hiểu được nguồn gốc của sông Nhẫn Nhục. Nhân vật chính Hoàng Guitar muốn kiếm sống bằng nghề đánh đàn chứ không đánh đá. Anh cố lội sông Nhẫn Nhục để đến được bến bờ bình yên, nhưng đời vẫn trôi anh về bến bờ du đãng. Tuy Vết thù hằn trên lưng con ngựa hoang đã gần 60 năm mà giờ đây tôi mới đọc lần đầu. Tuy nhiên vẫn bị lôi cuốn bởi cây bút đầy hấp dẫn của nhà văn Duyên Anh.

Once in a while, I like to pick up a writing guide to refresh my memory. Jeffrey Strausser’s Painless Writing will show you how to declutter your preposition, activate your active voice, and smooth out your prose. It’s a painless guide to improve your write, and a quick read too.

Logo design has always been challenging yet rewarding. It’s not always easy to come up with an effective logo, but it just feels great when you hit the mark. In this book, logo designer George Bokhua presents simple-yet-practical principles to help you get there. It’s a short, informative read. The typesetting for the book is superb. The illustrations are beautiful too.

This is not a manual book on how to write a poem in Vietnamese. Nam Lê’s poems are personal, political, and a bit diacritical. Though I haven’t fully grasped his language of poetry, I appreciate his lyrical proneness:

The house in my head
I name home.
Though where I’m really from
The dead bird stays dead.

I’ll definitely revisiting this electrifying collection, but I have a few words about the typography. The author’s name is set in a san-serif typeface filling up the entire cover. It is quite striking. The poems inside are set in Minion, designed by Robert Slimbach. They are simple, readable with excellent diacritical marks. Hats off to the designers.

I had to read this book for a web design project. I didn’t know anything about the American Robin, but I have learned so much from it. Len Eiserer, the author, is such a great writer and his passion and love for the American Robin are apparent in his writing. I laughed in one chapter and almost cried in the next. You don’t have to take my words for it. You can now read it yourself for free at theamericanrobin.com. It is such a wonderful gift from Dr. Eiserer.

Since I am in love with snowboarding, I’ve been thinking of trying out skateboarding. When I spotted Skateboarding for Dummies at the library, I wanted to give it a read. Daewon Song is a 32-year-old Korean-American pro skateboarder. He breaks down all the details from choosing the right board to kicking off beginner techniques. Now I just need to get myself a skateboard and get started. I can’t wait to get back to snowboarding though.

I read this cookbook cover to cover and bookmarked many recipes so I could refer back to them later on when I cook up new websites. With his clear writing and knowledgeable technical skills, Matuzović provides the solid foundation (HTML & CSS) to ensure that accessibility is baked in. If you want to learn web accessibility, this book obviously for you. What not so obvious is how well it teaches HTML and CSS. I definitely recommend it for designers and front-end developers.

As someone whose English is a second language, I read many books on grammar rules. Most often, the expert advice was to avoid using ain’t, double negative, hopefully, and so on. Only Anne Curzan flips the script and gives us the license to use these words when appropriate. A fascinating read for someone who is fascinated with the English language.

The Darkest White, by Eric Blenheim, is a biography of Craig Kelly who was a legend in the snowboarding world. In part one of the book, Blenheim takes us back to the birth of snowboarding and how Kelly got into the sport. It’s a fascinating read. Blenheim writes about the punk rock of snowboarding:

Unlike football, baseball, basketball, or, more to the point, skiing, snowboarding had no coaches, no schools, and no rules. There was zero attachment to establishment or the past, and it was something teens could do without some older authoritarian telling them how to do it better. Even the elders in the sport were thirty—tops—and they were figuring it out right alongside the youngsters. The only thing they knew for certain was that it was radical.

Part two, in which Blenheim gives details about Kelly’s mission to become an ACMG guide, is a bit of a drag. Part three is where the actions are. Now that I am into snowboarding, this book is an intriguing read for me.