Demi Moore had a rough childhood. She grew up in a destructive family. Her parents were alcoholics. Her father committed suicide in his 30s. Her mother whored her for $500 when she was a teenager. Moore became alcoholic and drug addict herself. She had difficult relationships with men including Bruce Willice and Ashton Kutcher. Despite her success as an actor, Moore had been through so much as a mother, wife, and a public figure. With the help of Ariel Levy, Moore penned a beautiful, heart-breaking memoir.

In his latest book, Professor Michael Eric Dyson dissects JAY-Z’s lyrical genius. In three parts, Dyson breaks down JAY-Z’s hustling spirit, poetic inventiveness, and political savvy. Dyson also unveils the nuances underneath JAY-Z’s braggadocious rhymes and clever wordplay. As a long time fan of JAY-Z’s lyricism, I was skeptical of this book at first, but I thoroughly enjoyed Dyson’s concise, engaging, and thoughtful examination of JAY-Z’s work.

This has to be most heartbreaking book I have read this year. Snyder’s deep reporting and compelling writing shed light on the deadliest corner of domestic violence. She recounts stories of men controlling, beating, and killing the women they claimed to love. In her meticulous research, Snyder busts the myth of reasons women don’t leave their abusive partner even though they know that they have put themselves in danger. They take the beatings to protect themselves and their children when the system fails to protect them. In familicide cases, the men kill their wifes, kids, and themselves. Snyder’s research also shows that gun is the deadliest cause in domestic violence. It takes the bargaining power away from the victims. As a father of four sons, I now have a new responsibility: making sure they never put their hands on women, particularly the ones they love.

Light on text but load of editorial design examples using typography, grid, and imagery. One of the magazines stood out to me was Format Wars simply because its main text is set in Fira Mono, which seems like an odd choice for a print publication. I would love to have a physical copy to see how Fira Mono holds up for long-form text. Most projects showcased in this book are good to drawing inspiration from for students and graphic designers.

Based on one of David Reinfurt’s graphic design courses at Princeton University, this book examines the history of visual communication through people who practiced design. Reinfurt focuses on typography, gestalt, and interface with brief profiles of practitioners, and highlights of their work. It is an informative read for students learning graphic design. Even though students can get hands-on practice with the assignments throughout the book, they will benefit much more in a classroom environment with feedback from their professor and peers.

The first 70 pages of this book provides historical background of graphic design and typography in the Weimar period. The dense writing and the names are a bit hard to follow if you are not familiar with German—like me. I love the typesetting. Avenir Next, designed by Adrian Frutiger and Akira Kobayashi, is simple and readable. I now know where to take my design for the next iteration of this blog. The rest of the book is filled with stunning graphic design examples using modern typography.

A book on combining colors with loads of case studies. I wish it has more in-depth writing than just an introduction of a project. Nevertheless, it is great example for presenting your work. If you would like to get some ideas for laying out your portfolio, take a look at this book. The grid layout makes the pieces clear and easy to scan. Definitely flip through to get some color inspirations as well.

The 100^th principle of this book is “Keep it simple.” It’s a blank page with only three words: “Simple is better.” The previous 99 principles aren’t that concise, but they don’t go in depth either. Each principle is about three paragraphs with lots of visual elements. This book might be helpful to students and beginners, but it is definitely not for experienced designers. I don’t find it too useful.

In her eight provocative, personal essays, Cottom analyzes beauty, politics, injustices, and sexual violence through the lens of a black intellectual thinker. Using her personal story, experience, and academics, Cottom offers a fresh perspective on those critical issues. Her writing is clear, concise, and thoughtful. An eye-opening read.

I still love PHP. It is a robust programming language that powers a handful of solid CMS including WordPress, Drupal, and MODX. I work with PHP almost everyday even though I am not a backend programmer. It has been quite a while since I picked up a book on PHP; therefore, I wanted to catch up. David Powers’s fourth edition of PHP 7 Solutions turns out to be a good choice for reviewing my knowledge. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. Powers offers many applicable use cases including how to create a CMS. I would love to setup a simple CMS for small client projects, but freelance has come to a halt in the past few years. Nevertheless, I recommend this book if you want to learn this awesome, dynamic programming language.