I am impressed with Aimee Phan‘s writing. Her debut fiction collection, We Should Never Meet, which featured stories that are told with cinematic scope, leads readers back to the Viet Nam War period and lets them witness those forgotten victims who were the products of the war. Phan’s tightly crafted style allows her individual characters to create a coherent experience.

The book opens with a birth-delivering scene in Viet Nam, and then flashes back to the mother’s childhood, where Miss Lien (the young mother) used to play with her siblings on the family’s rice paddy. Phan jumps back and forth between the present and the past, but still manages to retain her readers’ attention through her simple and accessible writing. From the beautiful rice field to the midwife’s black-lacquered teeth, she effortlessly permits her descriptive style to come to live. As someone who was born and raised in My Tho, which is near the Mekong Delta, the first story, “Miss Lien,” is like a trip down memory lane for me.

In the next story, “We Should Never Meet,” Phan flies us to Los Angeles to introduce Kim, a con lai (Amerasian) orphan who is struggling financially to move out of Vinh’s place. Vinh is her ex-boyfriend, who is also an orphan, and a member of a small Vietnamese gang in Little Saigon. From one story to the next, Phan alternates her settings from Viet Nam to America, but her language is constructed in a clever way that each episode could be read alone or interlaced with one another.

Phan’s technique of telling a story out of sequence is both intricate and innovative. Her skills lie in the subtlety of the connectivity and the ability to flow from one scene to the next. She gets me scratching my head on how I should tell the stories if I were the writer. Should I start off with “Emancipation” where Mai graduates from high school, then move to her best friend Kim (“We Should Never Meet”), and then switch to her nemesis Vinh (“Visitors”)? After the American scenes, should I take readers back to Viet Nam into the “Gate of Saigon,” then to “The Delta,” and so on? That sounds like fun. I should do it when I have completely forgotten about the book, but to erase these unforgettable stories would take me at least ten years.

What is the beauty of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) design? Check csszengarden.com. What are the benefits of using CSS? Check csszengarden.com. What do they mean by separating contents from presentations? Check csszengarden.com. Wow! How do they do that? Check The Zen of Design, Visual Enlightenment for the Web, by Dave Shea and Molly E. Holzschlag.

On May 8, 2003, the CSS Zen Garden website proves to the world the power of CSS-based design. Now the book is here to provide the thinking processes behind the works, and how designers take advantage of the powerful and flexible technology to produce complex visual presentations on the web. The heart and soul of the book lies in the deconstructions of thirty-six carefully selected submissions. These examples not only inspire us, but also support the design concepts and the layout techniques presented by the authors. The thirty-six pieces are arranged into six categories: the “Design” that makes our jaws drop; (Ballade); the “Layout” that makes us glance (prêt-à-porter); the “Imagery” that makes us wonder (What Lies Beneath); the “Typography” that makes us marvel (Blood Lust); the “Special Effects” that make us feel hungry (This is Cereal); the “Reconstruction” that makes us realize how coding could be easy and fun (Hedges).

The pleasurable and insightful reading section of the book is where the authors explore the design principles. The descriptive writing is clear, and the screenshots beside the texts help readers more easily visualize the materials. One of my favorite pieces is the psychological use of shapes behind Radu Darvas’s Zunflower. As explained in the text, “Circles are most frequently associated with feminine: warmth, comfort, sensuality, and love, and the extension of those associates… Triangles are thought to be masculine, expressing qualities such as strength, aggression, and dynamic motion” (57). Darvas uses triangles and circles to give his design a sense of harmony. The outcome is a “sensual image, one that is both masculine and feminine, and that creates a very memorable emotion” (57). Although the layout of Zunflower is minimal, the level of attention to detail makes it a perfect selection to showcase the striking visual design and the legible use of typography. I am only scratching the surface here. The book delves much deeper into essential design elements, such as the appropriate use of shadow, the influence of color, and the art of using pattern.

Beside the visual design aspects, the technical explanations behind the sites are impressive as well. To keep the writing clear and focused, the authors leave out CSS 101, and cover the important codes that crafted the visual presentations. For instance, some of the topics include the various implementations of FIR (Fahrner Image Replacement) techniques, the different layout methods (fixed, fluid, vertical, horizontal), the tricks to pull off curved edges, and the use of inheritance, layering, and child selectors of CSS.

The Zen of CSS Design opens with an introduction (pays homage to the Web Standards, explains the general rules of markups, and views the source codes of the set-in-stone Zen Garden’s XHTML file), and closes with sites’ reconstructions to provide readers hands-on experiences. Dave, Molly, and New Riders have published a book on web design that I would like to see more of. The perfect balance between visual and codes describes web design today. A website is no longer an adaptation of a print design or a piece of programming without images. Web design nowadays is the combination of both sides, in addition to many more considerations such as accessibility, usability, and compatibility. My appreciation goes out to not only Dave and Molly, but to anyone who has contributed to the Zen of CSS Garden project. Your work helps making the web a better, faster and prettier place to access information.

Ho Xuan Huong’s skillful wordplays have always intrigued me. She was famous for composing poems with both thanh (“pure”) and tuc (“obscene”) contents at once. Using noi lai (“phrase reversals”) and taking the advantage of word tones, she was able to paint perfect pictures as well as provocative imageries with her poetry. For instance, the last line of “Qua Mit (Jackfruit)” reads, “Xin dung man mo nhua ra tay ([Please don’t] caress me [or] sap will slicken your hands).” I am wondering where does the word Jackfruit comes from? Just kidding!

While surfing through the Browsing Collection at Vassar College Library, I was thrilled to spot Spring Essence: The Poetry of Ho Xuan Huong still features on the current interest shelf even though the book was published in 2000. I am delighted to see her work is exposed in the West and I appreciate John Balaban for his incredible efforts.

The book features forty-nine selected poems from Ho Xuan Huong, written in Nom (calligraphic script), Vietnamese, and translated into English by John Balaban. Although the second meaning (tuc ) is lost in translation – even he admits it in his introduction – he has done a phenomenal job of transporting her poetry to the Western audience. His endnotes help tremendously in explaining her work to those who are unfamiliar with the Vietnamese language and culture. I wish the endnotes were printed below the English translations for better reference even though they would distract from the visual layout of the book.

Before reading this book, I did not know we had a script writing system similar to Chinese calligraphy called Nom. In Balaban’s introduction he states that only about thirty, out of seventy-six million, Vietnamese could read Nom. Isn’t that remarkable? Speaking of the introduction, he does a great job of giving a brief summary of Ho Xuan Huong’s biography.

Ho Xuan Huong is an amazing poet and her work deserves to be known. John Balaban has made it possible by making the translations available. Furthermore, the reprinting of Nom characters, which original used by Ho Xuan Huong, alone is worth the price of the book. Spring Essence: The Poetry of Ho Xuan Huong is highly recommended for a pleasure experience.

Once a spanking new technology introduced to the world, I usually turn to the Visual QuickStart Guide first. When it comes to learn the basic concept of a program, nothing beats the Visual QuickStart Guide series and Mark Spencer’s Motion for Mac OS X is no exclusion.

Spencer assumes that you have never opened Motion before, so the first two chapters give you a quick glance at the program. Then he moves into Motion’s Objects, including the interface, timeline, and properties. Once you feel comfortable moving around, he will walk you through the goodies of Motion, such as Behaviors, Filters, Generators, and Particles. With the book’s concise style and Spencer’s simple instruction, you will be no stranger to one of the most powerful motion graphic tools on the market.

One of the advantages of Motion for Mac OS X is its depth of 504 pages. The book is a great reference whether you need to learn immediately how to create keyframes, work with audio, use templates, or produce title sequences.

Apple Motion is not too difficult to learn and once you understand the fundamental concept, you’ll be able to create professional looking motion graphics for only 25 bucks. The affordably priced is what I like best about the Visual QuickStart Guide series; learn a new software fast without put a whole in my pocket.

Kelly Goto and Emily Cotler’s Web ReDesign 2.0: Workflow That Works is the most comprehensive book on the design/redesign process. With the second edition, the authors bring the book up-to-date with the integration of web standards and CSS into the workflow.

Workflow That Works refers to the Core Process developed by Goto and Cotlers. The Core Process – consists of five phrases: Define the Project, Develop Site Structure, Design Visual Interface, Build and Intergrate, and Launch and Beyond – has been successfully applied to real world projects. After reading the well-documented phrases along with useful tips, checklists, forms, and worksheets, I can see why the workflow works. Each phrase is carefully designed to help keeping up the paste. As many web designers know, keeping the process flowing is not an easy task, especially with contents. I know the feeling of waiting around for the contents to come.

Beside the Core Process, I find the chapter on “Testing for Usability” is an important addition to the workflow. The authors have done a great job of clearing up the concept of usability, as they point out, “Many companies think they are already conducting usability tests, but in actuality they are running focus groups or online surveys.” After the brief explaination, they provide readers step-by-step process on conducting a small-study usability session.

“Working with Complex Functionality” is an invalable chapter for anyone who deals with e-commerce, dynamic contents, or any heavy technical related issues. The author not only teaches the assessing, creating, and inplementing of the complex functionalities, but also show how to bridge the gap between designers and engineers.

While Goto and Cotlers contribute their expertise on the workflow of web design, other expert contributors provide their advices on various topics, for instance: Jeffrey Zeldman on web standards, Eric Meyer on CSS, Jakob Nielsen on usability, and many more… On top of the expert topics, the real world examples, provided with screenshots and clear explanation, help readers visualize the before and after redesign look and feel.

Web ReDesign 2.0: Workflow That Works is clearly not a technical manual but a process guideline. While the authors aim at both high and low budgets web sites, I highly recommend it more toward the high budget ones. It will garantee to save you tremendous amount of effort and money in the long run. While this book might be helpful to web designer and developer, it is definitely beneficial to web manager and director. It will help them keep the project on track while managing the designers and developers through the process. Though the title is for redesign’s workflow, the Core Process can be apply straight to any newly design website as well.

New to web design? Want to learn HTML fast? Need to get your Flash skills up to speed? I have found three great books for you. Putting together a web page is not hard but creating an attractive, accessible, and easy to use site is not as simple as one might think. So starting off designing web page the correct way will benefit you in the long run.

Before delving into the coding and technical details, let’s begin with exploration. The best way to learn is to evaluate other websites. Exploring Web Design (Design Exploration) by Jeremy West, William Crowson, and Shannon Pochran will help you learn from good examples and avoid bad ones. The book does an excellent job of introducing the fundamental principles of web design, such as visual layouts, typography, color theory, and usability. Make sure to take the time and read “Web Accessibility” carefully. It’s one of the behind-the-scenes details that separate your site from those amateurs.

Once you understand the fundamental concepts, let Elizabeth Castro, author of the #1 best-selling book on HTML, help you with the coding. Creating a Web Page With HTML, Visual QuickProject Guide is extremely short and to the point. It’s by far the most compact book on HTML I have come across. Castro delves straight into HTML and CSS with her clear language and easy to follow instructions and illustrations. Follow the tutorials and learn the codes but do no pick up the visual layout. I wish the web page designs were stronger than what is being presented in the book.

You have studied the fundamental web design and learned the coding. That should be enough, but if you want to spice up your web page with animation and interactivity, Flash Out of the Box is your next book. Flash in not easy to learn for beginners, but this book is clear, straight forward, and easy to understand. You’ll be able to learn the basic animation techniques and pick up some ActionScript programming quickly and easily. Flash is a powerful tool, but use it with caution. Don’t abuse it with useless animation. Refer back to Exploring Web Design for appropriate use of Flash.

As you can see, I have grouped these three books together because they are for beginners in web design. From understanding the fundamental principles of web design to quickly learning HTML and CSS to incorporating Flash contents into the design, these three books complement each other even though they are written by various authors and distributed from different publishers. Though three books are recommended, you don’t have to get them all if you only need to work on a specific area.

Damian Allen’s Motion: Revolutionary Motion Graphics is the first book I read from Apple Pro Training Series and I am impressed with the clear, straightforward, and easy to follow instructional approach to learning the software. I am the type that gets impatient easily when it comes to reading and doing exercises at the same time, especially when I get lost. Fortunately, Allen knows how to craft short and concise lessons to retain readers’ attention. He understands that if an exercise is built upon the previous one, readers will get frustrated if they get lost in between. To avoid this problem, he provides projects along the way so that readers can pick up and move forward. It’s a clever teaching technique that keeps readers in tune. Many hands-on training books lose my interest by the time I get to chapter 3 if I get confused and reluctant to advance.

Apple Motion software is an amazing tool for creating motion graphic, but I wouldn’t know its power without the guidance from Allen. The Grand Tour manual that comes with the software does not help much. With Allen’s Motion, I get to understand the way Apple Motion works as Allen carefully walks through the essential features, including Generators, Layers, Objects, Particles, Behaviors, Keying, and Keyframes.

While Adobe After Effects and Macromedia Flash rely heavily on their Timelines for animation, Apple Motion comes with a Timeline, but not necessarily as its main feature. As a Flash veteran, I could not imagine creating motion graphics without a Timeline (except for ActionScript programming), but Allen proves me wrong. Throughout the lessons, I rarely pick up the Timeline and still am able to create animated effects with the “Mini-Timeline,” Behaviors, and Particles. Not having to invest tremendous amount of time to get comfortable with the Timeline is an advantage for beginners. They can jump right in to create dazzling motion design.

Although Motion is 500 plus pages, it takes me about ten hours to complete fourteen chapters. Each lesson is clearly explained with step-by-step instructions along with full color screenshots to complement the exercise. The hands-on trainings progress seamlessly from introducing the fundamental concepts to using templates to producing title sequence and a DVD motion menu. Allen’s sense of humor helps keep the reader moving through the lessons quickly and painlessly. After completing this book, I am ready to leave Flash to pick up Motion for producing web motion graphics and then go back to Flash for interactivities.

The strength of Apple Motion is its ease of use and its professional result. Experimenting is a great way to learn, but understanding the way Apple Motion behaves will save you an enormous amount of time, and that is where Allen’s Motion comes in to play. Read the book, comprehend the basic concepts, and go wild. As for Apple Pro Training Series, I am looking forward to other titles for the well-thought out exercises to learn Apple’s products.

I read Song Vinh’s journal every day. Once in a while, he reveals a poem or two; therefore, I’ve already gotten a glimpse of his work. When he announced the release of Huong Mua, I was excited and could not wait to get my hands on his book of poems.

Huong Mua is a gift from Song Vinh to many of us, expatriate Vietnamese, whose bodies are living in other lands but whose hearts and souls will never leave our homeland. In “Thang Tu, XXIX,” he shares, “Toi thanh goc My coi long Viet Nam.” Even when he becomes an American citizen, his roots are still in Viet Nam. He uses the words “luu vong (in exile)” and “tha huong (release from homeland)” repeatedly throughout his poems to describe our lost state of mind. His words speak eloquently the reality of our lives in other countries. In “Than Phan,” he expresses, “Gom thay cai canh tha huong / hai muon nam van khong thuong que nguoi.” Twenty years later, he still cannot fall in love with another ground. I am sure many of us feel the same way.

Beside the love for our homeland, Song Vinh is also a kind-hearted man who appreciates everything around him. In “Dem o B645/E207,” he describes his bitterness, witnessing an elderly Vietnamese man who takes out the trash from his office, even though there is nothing wrong with being a janitor. He reminds us in “Thi Tham Voi Nhau” to dream of simple life instead of desiring the whole heaven. He goes into his personal life in “Thinh Thoang” as an orphan child who misses his mother.

From reading his work, I truly respect Song Vinh for his use of language. His rhyme schemes are minimal yet he is able to paint images that are both aesthetically beautiful and easy to visualize. I like his use of personification in “Chuyen Mua” as he describes, “Xe lan nhip moi qua cau / Cham cay den do cho lau cung danh.” He gives the car human characteristics as she rolls tiredly over the bridge, hits the “tree” (a red light) so she must stop. Many of his wordplays are artfully constructed. In “Thang Tu 2” he forms a line of eight words consisting of Trinh Cong Son’s song titles such as “uoc mi bien nho mot loi chia tay.” The technique is both innovative and clever.

Christmas is around the corner and what could be better than a gift filled with beautiful poetry in your native language? Huong Mua is unquestionably a perfect present for any overseas Vietnamese. For those, including me, who would like to learn and broaden our native language, this book is highly recommended. His words are simple yet they are filled with emotion and liveliness.

My English tutor uses Picturing Texts by Lester Faigley, Diana George, Anna Palchik, and Cynthia Selfe to develop my writing. I must confess, this is the first textbook that I read from cover to cover, and many revisits are necessary. Design has always been my passion, and I am working on my writing; therefore, this book matches my interests.

Picturing Texts breaks down into seven detailed chapters, from exploring (“Picturing Texts”) to analyzing (“Looking Closer”) to evaluating (“Making Lives Visible,” “Representing Others,” and “Constructing Realities”) to recognizing (“Picturing Argument”) and to constructing (“Designing Texts”) the visual texts. The authors have done an exceptional job of explaining each topic with visual examples along the way to make their points clear. The strength of Picturing Texts is the insightful essays written by professional writers and designers. My favorite pieces include: the disturbing family home video of “What’s Wrong With This Picture” by Michelle Citron, the psychological driving behind advertisements “Shock’s Next Wave” by Bruce Grierson, the interesting theory of “Squaring the Circle” by Jessica Helfard, the creative process using comic and words of “Through the Door: Digital Production” by Scott McCloud, and the misrepresentation of “In Brochures, What You See Isn’t Necessarily What You Get” by Jennifer Jacobson.

Of course, you can’t get away with writing and designing assignments from a textbook; however, these exercises are well developed to help you expand your writing and juice up your creativities instead of stressing you out like a Biology textbook does. Furthermore, the book features work from the provocative concept designer Tibor Kalman, the brilliant typographer Paula Scher (check out her brief documentary video from Adobe Studio), and many other well-known artists to get you inspired.

The Web is a perfect medium for bringing words and images together. While Picturing Texts makes many references to the Internet, it does not delve into hypertexts and online writing. Other than the lack coverage for Web writing, Picturing Texts is an essential textbook that appeals to both writers and designers. Thanks to my English tutor for sharing the book. Now I hope to pass it on to you.

True! Design is everywhere you look but if you don’t understand what you are staring at then design is useless. Fortunately, Steven Aimone’s Design! will open up your mind and guide you to see the purpose of design. What are descriptive, narrative, emotive, utilitarian, and decorative of designs? What are the elements of design (lines, shapes, textures, colors, etc.)? Why are a certain elements arranged they way they are? Why is design space important? If you’re unclear about the answers to these questions, this book will help you straightened out.

As someone who gets involved with web design as a passion, I had no prior training on design. While my classes at La Salle were too busy shoving down Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, and other software programs, the fundamentals of design were not part of the curriculum. One of our art professors realized the important of the missing part and tried to cover it but the class was not as successful as it should be. The hands on assignments she gave us (the black squares exercises) were definitely on the right track but most of my classmates thought they were kindergarten because the theories were missing. If she had this book to accommodate her assignments, the class would have been a huge success; therefore, Design! should be a required textbook for any Art 101 or Introduction to Visual Design classes at colleges and universities.

Design! is not only an invaluable design inspiration but an enjoyable reading as well because of its easy to read approach and clear visual examples. I recommend this book enthusiastically to anyone who designs for a living or pleasure and to anyone who simply enjoys and appreciates the aesthetic qualities from the work of art.