FOR PLEASURE:

No Logo, Naomi Klein

Venture Deals, Brad Feld & Jason Mendelson

Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

The Circuit, A Tennis Odyssey

Siddhartha, Herman Hesse

FOR CLASS:

Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert

Clouds, Aristophanes

Medea, Euripides

Book of J, Harold Bloom

Genesis, Exodus, P

Confessions, Augustine of Hippo

Civilization & Its Discontents, Freud

On the Genealogy of Morality, Nietzsche

The Odd Women, George Gissing

The Awakening, Kate Chopin

An American Marriage, Tayari Jones

January 2021 Read: Venture Deals by Brad Feld & Jason Mendelson

I read this book mainly to prep for VCIC (Venture Capital Investment Competition), but I was surprised that I actually enjoyed reading it! Feld and Mendelson do a great job of incorporating both sides of the table into the discussion, and I appreciate that they featured the “Entrepreneur’s Perspective” too. The dynamics of term sheets and investor relationships feels like trying to understand game theory on a microcosm. I love what an intellectual challenge it is. On the other hand, the authors of this book have been in the industry for a long time. Long enough that they get to pick/choose/lose their startups. Their experienced perspective is more able to consider all these players of the game.

It’s probably just the impetuous teenager in me, but I’ve always trusted that experience is the best teacher. While I value my mentors, coursework, and advisors, I always need to try something or witness it firsthand to trust it. That’s why I ended up loving my VCIC experience (though we didn’t place). VCIC put me on the hot seat. It was Venture Deals in action - and it showed how unprepared and intense an investment process gets. Really appreciated my January read :)

February (really through April) 2021 Read: No Logo by Naomi Klein

July 2021 Read: Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

I read this book in high school but it has to be one of my favorites. During August I went through a particularly hard time in my life with the passing of my mother. I think in grief I sought stillness, while Siddhartha gave me movement. Funnily enough I had the copy from high school on hand as I had returned home, but my roommate and friends sent me the copy I had purchased while in New York.

This short book is all about Siddhartha’s searching and yearning. He wants to know more, do more, be his practice. At the time, all I could feel was a huge weight in my chest that would open and close through the day. When I returned to New York in mid-August, I found it hard to rekindle my curiosities. As I write in early October, I still struggle to be interested in things (and pay attention in class at times). Siddhartha helped me think again. While the pain of this loss lingers within me, I know to move past.

September 2021 Read: Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

While I did read this for class, I was shocked by the beauty of the prose (Lydia Davis translation). The content and subject matter themselves have much to dissect, but I was surprised by the intentionality of the pacing, setting, and details. Every scene is set up like a stage, and the intimate feelings within transpire out of the pages like an osmosis. I particularly loved the beginning description of how Charles courts Emma. The calm before the storm, there is a light tranquility tinged with anxiety that left me itching for more.

The class, by the way, is called “Desperate Housewives of the 19th Century Novel” taught by Professor June Foley. Great class, great professor.

October 2021 Read: The Awakening by Kate Chopin

I thought I really related to Edna’s unfeeling to her situation at the beginning of the novel. She is not particularly feminine, but still attractive, and it seems that her lack of femininity is designed to foil with Adele. Sometimes, I see myself this way. I’ve been told before that I’d have an easier time getting a boyfriend if I didn’t dress or appear the way I do (which is strange, and slightly hurtful).

It was disturbing to see her accept the taking of her own life as her resolution. I was really upset by the end of the book as she seems to have moments of joy and almost mania, juxtaposed next to her feelings of despair. The Awakening is a really beautiful novel. I think the next time I want to read it, I want it read aloud to me, the way Robert reads to her.

I read this as part of my Desperate Housewives course.

November 2021 Read: The Odd Women by George Gissing

This book was the hardest to read probably. It was very dense and detailed to the extent that I got lost in all of it. However, the content and scenarios that these women are put in were fascinating. I learned a lot from the strong independent women about how they developed their ideas, and I learned a lot from the young women about the pitfalls of society marriage. This wasn’t my favorite book, and I probably won’t revisit it. But, it was helpful for my understanding of how the novel changed in its content and purpose through time.

I read this as part of my Desperate Housewives course.

December 2021 Read: An American Marriage by Tayari Jones