California State University Dominguez Hills’ R+J (2023)

It was always my intent to incorporate theatre and film reviews to Read House Review. While I could go back and begin with my very first film experiences as a child – which are already covered in my original teaching philosophy – or my first theatre experience with UCSB’s She Stoops To Conquer, I decided

Karma Lekshe Tsomo’s Buddhist Feminisms and Femininities

Language is powerful and can express more than mere concepts. My Buddhist studies were limited to one course back in the early 2000’s, but I never looked at religion the same since. It completely changed my POV of Catholicism and Christianity. And, it also surprisingly shifted my thoughts on feminism. It totally gave me this

Perdita Durango (1997)

Savage. I found Perdita Durango (1997) on Tubi, and I debated for the longest time whether to watch it or not. I am so, so glad that I decided to watch it after all. What a gem of a film! Honestly, this film is a cult classic. I put it right next to Fight Club

Hotel (2001)

Wikipedia states this is a “British-Italian comedy” and a “horror-thriller” which I find as an amusing attempt at stating that it’s a genre defying film. Written and directed by Mike Figgs, Hotel (2001) does not have the cult following that it deserves. I found myself intrigued and repelled by this film enough to let it

Alexandra Solomon’s Taking Sexy Back

Although sex is something you (usually) experience with another person, your sexuality is yours. Alexandra Solomon’s Taking Sexy Back is a very reaffirming book on the complicated nature of women’s sexuality. Having surveyed quite a few of the books within this genre, I find her to be reasonable but a little generic. However, I did

The State of Affairs

“But when we reduce the conversation to simply passing judgment, we are left with no conversation at all.” One of the most controversial books in the last two decades, Ether Perel’s The State of Affairs quickly joined Mating in Captivity on my bookshelf. Her first book primarily addressed sexuality in the twenty-first century. The State

Esther Perel’s Mating in Captivity

“Love rests on two pillars: surrender and autonomy. Our need for togetherness exists alongside our need for separateness.” Reviewing Esther Perel’s Mating in Captivity feels a little like reviewing anything written by Brené Brown. Alas, it will not be a perfect review, so I may as well confront it directly. It’s more than a little