Books For Reviews
What People Are Saying
How to Be Human: Unlock the Knowledge Within
"The strongest part of How to Be Human is its focus on self-observation. It asks readers to look closely at breathing, emotions, identity, habits, and relationships instead of moving through life on autopilot. Some of the spiritual ideas may challenge readers, but the practical exercises make the book feel grounded enough to work with rather than simply admire."
"A book that encourages you to examine how much of your identity is actually yours. I especially liked the sections on internal dialogue and emotional control because they connect everyday behavior with the larger idea of conscious living."
"There is a lot packed into this book. Breathwork, personal history, relationships, emotions, self-discovery, and spiritual consciousness all come together under one idea: learning how to manage yourself before trying to control life around you. I found the chapter-by-chapter progression easy to follow."
"The breathing chapter surprised me. Starting with something so basic makes sense once the author explains how quickly stress changes the way people breathe and react. From there, the book moves into much deeper territory about identity, programming, and the stories people carry about themselves."
"How to Be Human reads more like a workbook for inner change than a typical motivational title. The author keeps returning to discipline, awareness, and personal responsibility. Readers interested in consciousness and self-mastery will probably find plenty here to sit with."
"I appreciated that the book does not treat self-improvement as a quick transformation. The exercises, journaling suggestions, breathing practices, and focus on observing your own reactions give the material a practical side. Some ideas are very spiritual, but the core message about knowing yourself is clear."
"The chapter on relationships stood out to me because it treats them as mirrors for our own habits and insecurities. Instead of placing all the blame outside ourselves, the book keeps bringing the reader back to awareness, communication, and responsibility."
"A reflective read with a lot to unpack. The sections about false identity and internal dialogue made me think about how easily routines and outside expectations can become part of our personality without us noticing. Definitely not a book I would rush through."
"Alchemist Asami brings spiritual philosophy, breathwork, emotional awareness, and self-discipline into one system. The tone is direct and sometimes challenging. I liked that the book repeatedly pushes the reader to practice the ideas instead of treating them as interesting concepts."
"The message I took from this book is simple: becoming more conscious requires paying attention to how you breathe, think, react, connect, and change. The later chapters on self-discovery and self-mastery give the earlier lessons a sense of direction. It feels designed for readers who enjoy introspective personal development with a spiritual angle."
What People Are Saying
Tricknology: Same Game, New Niggers
"Tricknology is confrontational from the beginning, and that seems intentional. The author examines the history of racial labels, colonial thinking, pseudoscience, religion, slavery, and institutional power with the goal of getting readers to question narratives they may have accepted without much investigation."
"The section on terms such as Caucasian, Aryan, Nordic, and Indo-European gave me a clearer sense of how much language matters when people talk about race and history. The author does not hide his perspective, but he repeatedly encourages readers to look into the sources for themselves."
"A dense and provocative book. It moves from racial classification into colonialism, eugenics, religion, slavery, economics, and present-day systems of influence. Even when I did not agree with every interpretation, the manuscript gave me a long list of historical figures and ideas worth researching independently."
"The strongest feature of Tricknology is the way it connects vocabulary with power. Words that sound neutral today are traced back to historical contexts involving classification, hierarchy, and empire. The book is clearly written to provoke discussion, not passive reading."
"This is not a detached academic history book. Rooankhatah writes with anger, urgency, and a clear point of view. The chapters on pseudoscience and eugenics were especially interesting because they show how supposedly scientific ideas can be used to support political and social agendas."
"I found the structure useful because each chapter attacks the larger subject from a different direction. Race terminology, genetics, colonialism, children, religion, economics, and modern power systems eventually connect back to the same question: how do old forms of domination survive after the language around them changes?"
"There is a lot here that will make readers stop and look things up. The author frequently names scholars, historical figures, theories, and institutions instead of speaking only in general terms. It makes the book feel like the beginning of a much larger research trail."
"A challenging read in both content and tone. Tricknology argues that colonial systems relied on more than military force. Language, scholarship, religion, law, economics, and education all receive scrutiny. Readers interested in the history of race and colonial ideology will have plenty to debate."
"The chapter on racial pseudoscience stayed with me the most. Seeing how ideas about skulls, heredity, purity, and supposed biological hierarchy became tied to real policies shows why bad scholarship can have consequences far outside universities."
"Rooankhatah clearly wants the reader to question inherited history. The book can be uncomfortable, but it is not trying to be neutral or soft. Its argument is that systems change their appearance more easily than their underlying logic, and the final chapters bring that idea into the present."
What People Are Saying
Secrets – Part 1
"Secrets has an unusual format that caught my attention immediately. It is poetry, but the poems are surrounded by conversations in which professors examine the language, symbolism, gender politics, and philosophy behind them. It creates the feeling of sitting inside a literary seminar."
"Faceless and Nameless have very different voices, and the contrast gives the book its emotional tension. Faceless speaks from pain and restriction. Nameless responds as a male witness trying to understand and honor that suffering. Their connection becomes more complicated as the poems move into love and spirituality."
"The framing story with Professor Stallings and Harold Lawson worked well for me because it gives the reader more than one interpretation of each poem. Instead of explaining everything for us, their discussions often open additional questions."
"The poems dealing with women's freedom are intense. They examine control inside the family, religion, sexuality, education, and social expectations without trying to make the subject comfortable. Some passages are deliberately confrontational, but the emotional purpose remains clear."
"I wasn't expecting the book to move from patriarchy into cosmic philosophy, but it gradually does. By the later chapters, love, consciousness, separation, desire, and the universe become part of the same conversation. It gives Part 1 a much wider scope than the opening pages suggest."
"Secrets feels like three books interacting at once: a poetry collection, a story about academics reading a mysterious manuscript, and a philosophical discussion about gender and human connection. That layered structure is what made it interesting to me."
"The debate between the professors was one of my favorite aspects. They do not always agree, especially once religion and traditional gender roles enter the discussion. Those disagreements stop the analysis from feeling like one uninterrupted lecture."
"There is real anger in these pages, but there is also longing. The poems are not only about exposing oppression. They gradually become concerned with intimacy, nourishment, forbidden affection, recognition, and the possibility of two people meeting without domination between them."
"I liked the mystery surrounding Faceless and Nameless. The professors receive the manuscript without really knowing who these writers are, so their identities stay secondary to the voices on the page. It suits a book that spends so much time questioning labels, roles, and inherited definitions."
"Part 1 does not wrap everything up, and I think that works in its favor. The final discussions move toward unity and consciousness, but there are still unanswered questions about Faceless, Nameless, their relationship, and the remaining poems. It feels intentionally unfinished because the larger conversation is only beginning."
What People Are Saying
Once: “I’m Glad You’re on My Side”
"The relationship between Big Cee and Lil Cee gives Once its strongest emotional conflict. Big Cee built his power in the streets, but now he wants his son to avoid the same life. Lil Cee sees the money and respect before he fully understands the cost."
"Baltimore feels like part of the story rather than just a setting. The neighborhoods, street crews, family connections, police pressure, and drug trade create an environment where nearly every decision carries consequences."
"A gritty family crime story with a surprisingly strong generational theme. Big Cee knows exactly where the street life can lead because he has lived it, but his warnings compete with the example he has already set for his son. That contradiction drives much of the novel."
"The book has a large cast, but the relationships eventually start fitting together like pieces of one dangerous puzzle. Friendships from the younger generation are connected to grudges and killings from the older one, which makes the later revelations hit harder."
"Loyalty means everything in Once, but the book also shows how unreliable loyalty can be. Friends become enemies, family secrets surface, and old decisions come back years later. The title makes much more sense once you reach the final confrontation."
"Keisha and the rest of the Marion family kept the story from becoming only about street business. Violence that begins outside eventually reaches the household, and the family members who are not running the organization still end up paying for it."
"The story moves fast once the rivalries and investigations begin stacking up. There are robberies, betrayals, police pressure, romantic complications, revenge plots, and shifting alliances, but underneath all of it is a father trying to keep his son from repeating his mistakes."
"Psycho's storyline ended up being one of the most important for me. At first, he is part of Lil Cee's circle, but his family's past creates a conflict that has been waiting for years to explode. Once the truth comes out, earlier scenes take on a different meaning."
"Once does not romanticize consequences, even though many characters are attracted to the money and status of the streets. By the end, people are dead, relationships are damaged, Big Cee is in a coma, and Lil Cee is trying to start over somewhere else. Nobody walks away untouched."
"The epilogue was a good way to close the first part because it offers Lil Cee a possible new beginning without pretending the past has disappeared. Moving to North Carolina changes his surroundings, but the family losses, unresolved cases, and new connections make it clear that the larger story is still moving. The setup for Gangstress definitely leaves room for another chapter in the saga."