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This Is Major: Notes on Diana Ross, Dark Girls, and Being Dope – Shayla Lawson
Non-fiction / 23rd November 2020

Introduction This Is Major is about black activism, I guess. I noticed this book in the Humor category of the Semifinal Round of the 2020 Goodreads Choice Awards. As I was looking for something light to read, I picked this book. Author Shayla Lawson is an American poet and writer. Other than this book, she also has 3 poetry collections. Contents This Is Major contains an introduction titled American Girls and 16 chapters. The chapters in ascending order are 1) You Are Here, 2) For Colored Girls, 3) I Tried to Be Twitter Famous, 4) Tammy from HR, 5) No, My First Name Ain’t Whoopi, 6) Black Girl Magic, 7) Names for “Black” and What Year It Was, 8) Black Girl Hipster, 9) “Black Lives Matter” Yard Signs Matter, 10) Intraracial Dating, 11) Love Songs for Thots, 12) Cake Is Canceled, 13) Let Her Be Laughter, 14) Diana Ross Is Major, 15) Young, Drifted & Black, and 16) & Just in Case You Forgot Who I Am, I Am. Review This Is Major is an essay collection of the author. The theme revolves around the experience of being a female African American. All the essays can be read as a…

Expected Returns: An Investor’s Guide to Harvesting Market Rewards – Antti Ilmanen
Non-fiction / 8th August 2020

Introduction I have chosen Expected Returns to read after I saw it in the recommended list on a financial blog. The target audience of this book is actually experienced professional investors and advanced finance students in CFA or MBA programmes but I am not one of them. I just want to know how the author calculates expected returns. Author Antti Ilmanen is a Principal and Global Co-Head of Portfolio Solutions Group at AQR Capital Management. Before that, he had worked at Brevan Howard, Salomon Brothers/Citigroup and Bank of Finland. He has advised many institutional investors, including Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global and the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation. He has received multiple awards such as Graham and Dodd award, Harry M. Markowitz special distinction award, Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy awards, and CFA Institute’s 2017 Leadership in Global Investment Award. Contents Expected Returns has a total of 29 chapters, a foreword, and 2 appendices. The chapters are divided into 3 parts. As there are a lot of chapters, I will not list down the chapter names here. Part I is Overview, historical returns, and academic theories. This part contains 7 chapters and serves as an introduction on historical average returns, key concepts,…