Welcome. I’m just a girl that likes to read, likes data, and wanted a place to capture both of those things.

What do I like to read? I read widely, but I’m especially drawn to thoughtful books that explore what it means to be human. My tastes tend to land at the intersection of psychology, spirituality, philosophy, and character-driven fiction. I love books that invite curiosity and perspective shifts rather than certainty, and writing that feels grounded, emotionally intelligent, and deeply human. I’m less interested in trends and more interested in stories and ideas that stay with me and continue unfolding over time.

Why “Urban Tofu”? I taught English at a university in Hunan, China years ago and “urban tofu” was one of my favorite local dishes. It’s nostalgic, plus I love a good cognate, false or otherwise (false cognate in this case).

I use a 1-10 rating system vs the more common 5 star system. It makes more sense to me, probably because I get so frustrated being confined to 5 stars with no half or quarter points on sites like Goodreads. 10 points gives me a lot more flexibility. See my personal rating rubrics for Fiction and Non-Fiction here. Anything above a 7.5 means I liked it, anything above a 9 means I loved it!

I’m a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor/Psychotherapist by trade, which is why you’ll find a lot of my non-fiction books landing in the Psychology category and even more specifically therapy books about EMDR or IFS.

Here’s a link to my personal home library that is open for perusal (again, data + books = something I will be interested in): Library Cat.

Cheers,
Aly

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Credits and Attribution

Shout out to OpenLibrary.org where my book covers and data are pulling from; to NPR Books We Love’s website, you’ll notice this site borrowed heavily from their design; and lastly, to my husband, who created and coded this website for me purely out of love (or in response to incessant nagging, one of the two).