Reading and reflection
I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately and reflecting on my own life experiences.
Yellowface by RF Kuang — in the modern era, how do we balance cultural appropriation and representation of minorities? Who should own this narrative? This reminds me of the public backlash against Rachel Dolezal, a white woman who pretended to be black, as the director of an NAACP chapter in 2014.
Untamed by Glennon Doyle — Glennon, a married Christian woman with children, realizes that she can no longer “tame” her inner caged lion. She ends her happy marriage, meets her wife (Abby Wombach, a retired pro-soccer player), and paves a new life for her and her family.
What does it mean to be a good mother? A beautiful woman? A useful woman in society?
How do you choose yourself without crumbling under guilt of being selfish?
They Called Us Exceptional by Prachi Gupta — a real and poignant memoir of an Indian American family that seems like the model successful immigrant family, but is shattered within. The themes are too real — from the repressed generational trauma, to the suppressed stigmas around mental illness in Asian American families.
The Three Body Series + The Redemption of Time — this was a really cool series that starts with the historical Cultural Revolution in China, then speaks to how humanity copes with impending threats of extraterrestrial invasion.
If the universe was shrouded in darkness, how does one foster altruism in a dark forest where every civilization’s goal is self-preservation?
If you had the choice to repeat human history exactly as it happened, would you do it? Or would you yearn for change?
What is the difference between eternal life and eternal death?
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng — a traditional, affluent 'American Dream' household with wealthy parents and three children living in a gated community is compared to a girl and her single mother living a nomadic life because of the mother’s artistic and mysterious past.
Dune by Frank Herbert — whoever controls
spiceGPUs, controls the universe. Herbert wrote this novel in the 1960s as political commentary over the brutal fight over crude oil in the Middle East. Today, humans face the dire consequences of our ever-dwindling natural resources. Specifically, water and the thirst for energy (developing AI). How is the AI industry going to sustainably develop and meet the energy demands necessary to create AGI(s)?
I have loved rabbit-holing on good reads and would love to hear from you what I should read next!! <3