Tối nào thằng Đán cũng bắt tôi nằm xuống cho nó nhổ râu. Nó nhổ cũng đã ngứa thật nhưng lâu lâu nó nhíp vào da rồi kéo điếng cả người. Không cho nó nhổ thì nó khóc nên đành đổi qua nhổ tóc bạc. Tóc trắng thì không thấy chỉ thấy nó giật một lần ba bốn tóc đen. Thôi cũng đã hói rồi mất thêm tóc cũng chẳng ăn thua gì. Còn bao nhiêu thì nhổ bấy nhiêu.

Đúng là quả báo. Ngày xưa được nhẹ tay nhổ từng cọng râu và dịu dàng bức từng cọng tóc bao nhiêu thì bây giờ bị thằng con nó mạnh tay bấy nhiêu. Ai cũng chỉ có một thời được sướng. Nên nắm lấy cơ hội vì “Tuổi xuân là bao chẳng đợi thời gian vụt tới / Rồi mai đây trăng tà soi bóng ngó quanh lại còn ai.”

I love this little book. In addition to being clear and concise, Janis Bell’s grammar guide focuses on common mistakes I still make. In each explanation and each example, she writes as if she had read my mind. What I have found most effective is the way she teaches us to remember certain conventions such as when to use who and whom or lie and lay. It’s a must-have grammar reference.

One word to describe Barry Jenkins’s epic film has to be resilience. It takes resilience for a gay black boy who lived with a poor, single, drug-addicted mother to become a tough-yet-sweet young man. It’s an aesthetically delightful watch.

Allen’s poignant memoir recounts the troubled life and tragic death of her young cousin Michael Allen. At fifteen, Michael found guilty of carjacking and sentenced as an adult to eleven years in prison. While serving his time, he fell in love with Bree, a transgender. Released at twenty-six, Michael struggled to move on. The tumultuous relationship with Bree ended his life. In addition to her personal story, Allen provides insightful account of the injustice system of incarceration in America, particularly toward black males. It’s a devastating, informing read.

By combining William Strunk, Jr., and E.B. White’s The Elements of Style and Williams Zinsser’s On Writing Well, Ms. Lamb offers an indispensable guide for business writings including emails, résumé, and proposals. I tend to read books on grammar and writing every now and then just to remind myself the craft of the English language. This one is a good refresher.

In her debut poetry collection, Daley-Ward strips the complexity of sensuality, mentality, and spirituality down to its bone. By cutting straight to the human sufferings, her poems are powerful yet accessible. Even though I don’t read as much poetry as I should, I appreciate the simplicity in her prose. Here are a few of my favorites:

battle

Loving someone who hates
themselves
is a special kind of violence.
A fight inside the bones.
A war within the blood.

wine

It’s never too late to be wise.
See how your spirit has been
fermenting.

lesson

The difference between attraction
and compatibility

how it kicks you in the belly every
now and then.

Holy fuck! Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden is a mind-fucking thriller. So violent yet so erotic. So bizarre yet so beautiful. So twisted yet so sensual. I have never seen lesbian sex this vigorous. The film is two and a half hours, yet not a second is wasted.

In her concise, compelling book, Wachter-Beottcher lays out the danger and the insensitivity of biased algorithms, alienating online forms, and harassment-friendly platforms in the tech industry. As designers and developers, we put too much assumptions into the users without understand their circumstances. We place cleverness over clarity. As demonstrated examples after examples in the book, the results of these poor-designed decisions are unfortunate and tragic. It’s an important read for those of us who truly care about our users.

• “Reddit and the Struggle to Detoxify the Internet” by Andrew Marantz
• “Does Recovery Kill Great Writing?” by Leslie Jamison
• “25 Songs That Tell Us Where Music is Going” by The New York Times Magazine
• “Listening to Miles Davis and John Coltrane’s Final Tour” by Richard Brody

Huber de Givenchy’s words to live by:

Life is like a book: one has to know when to turn the page.

By Hiếu Minh Nguyễn

Convinced she’s in hell

my mother wakes me & begs to be taken

to the lake. Wailing in prayer on the kitchen floor

her skin itching with heat, a flame seizing for god.

I believe her. One day, we will all know when suffering comes

to play the instrument of our bodies. Her song, a single note

a copper kettle whistling for mercy. From the blue-black sand

of McCarrons, I watch her disappear

under the night water. Moonlit rings

spill from her absence.