'Tis the season to look back and reflect. In my first article here, I want to share the books I read or listened to this year. I listened to most of the books during my commute before starting law school. In the first semester of law school, I mainly read three books, which are called Civil Procedure, Contracts, and Torts, and which I won’t comment here.

Non-fictions

People around me know that I like non-fiction books. I like them just because I can learn something I didn’t know before. Two friends recommended Radium Girls to me. It told a forgotten history of Radium in the early twentieth century of America. Those Radium girls’ suffering was so heart wrenching.

How Women Rise is such a great career book. This book identified 12 habits that hold women back in their pursuit of career success. I can resonate with most of them. Highly recommend to every career woman.

I listened to A Short and Happy Guide to Networking after starting law school. The author Desiree Jaeger-Fine is an immigrant and an introvert. She started networking since she came to America for law school. There is no name dropping in her book, and her advice is sincere and authentic. I highly recommend her book to all law students and anybody who is thinking about networking.

Outliers is the first book I read by Malcolm Gladwell, even though most of his book titles are so well known. This book tried to prove that there is no self-made success. Many factors can affect your success. At the same time, if you cannot change other factors, at least you can work hard just like the rice paddy farmers in South China.

I read One L by Scott Turow before law school. I didn’t know it was published in 1977 until I started to read it. Even though more than 40 years has past, most of the 1L experience has not changed yet.

Networking for Nerds is a good guide for people who like science and technology and work in academia, research and higher-education industry.

I listened to Sandra O'Connor's book Out of Order when we were studying about many cases from the Supreme Court in Civil Procedure class. This is a great book to learn about many Justices and stories about the Supreme Court.

Memoirs

Sonia Sotomayor’s My Beloved World is a must read. I listened to it after I started law school. It is such an inspiring personal story! What a tenacious person she is!

I delayed my reading on Becoming by Michelle Obama because I assumed it would be super political. A friend who read it told me it is not, I then started the audio version. I especially like her early life stories. It’s personal and relatable.

Fictions

I didn't think I like fictions because they were fake, and people were all twisted in those stories. Apparently, I was biased until a friend recommended the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy (including Crazy Rich Asians, China Rich Girlfriend, Rich People Problem) to me. The author Kevin Kwan is Singaporean Chinese. I love all these three books, they are funny, sarcastic, and REAL. Maybe because the characters are Chinese, and I know that group of people so well, lol. One thing I especially appreciate is the narrators for the three audio books. I guess they are all from Singapore or Malaysia. Their Singaporean accent was so authentic, and brought a lot of fond memories I had about Singapore. At the same time, they can switch between American Accent and Queen’s English and Singlish naturally. I loved listening to these three books. If you are looking for something different and interesting to read, I highly recommend these three books.

I felt the Sci-Fi the same way before, all made-up, day-dreaming, nothing useful, until a colleague recommended Prey by Michael Crichton to me when we were working on Artificial Intelligence. I listened to the Three-Body Problem in Chinese while I was on maternity leave. I was so engrossed in the book that I finished it in three days. Typical Chinese social background, hard science, I like it. The book was the first Asian novel ever to win a Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2015. Plus, the author Cixin Liu was an electrical engineer, just like me. In addition, it was my first time to listen to a Chinese audio book. I have to confess it is SO easy, compared to listening to an English book. My brain cells do not have to work hard at all. A law school classmate told me he read the trilogy (including The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death’s End) and we had a brief discussion about it. I plan to finish the other two books before the end of this year, and listen to the English version sometime next year.

Classics

There's nothing to say about classics. They are just classical. In other words, you have to know them because they have become part of the culture. I read or listen to them as a cultural enrichment. This year I listened to David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, The Trial by Franz Kafka, and The Stories of Old Greece and Rome by Emilie Kip Baker.