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Rating: 
Summary: Good Reading!
Review: I found this book facsinating and insightful. It is easly to read and fully engaging -- Eng is grand story teller. While I found a few of her conclusions a bit of a stretch, most were right on target. Overall, the book was enlightening -- it revealed society's stereotypes and enabled me to re-investigate my own projections and prejudices.
Rating: 
Summary: For Asian American women violence survivors
Review: I read Ms Eng's sparkling book, and I was happy to see it out there and to see this visible sign of recognition for Asian American women as a diverse and outspoken group. But the actual content of this book struck me as irrelevant and possibly even damaging to Asian American women who may be struggling with family violence. Too often, intergenerational or cultural differences are invoked by violent parents or spouses as a way to try and justify behavior that is unacceptable in any culture. Growing up Asian American, it's possible that concerns about identity, cultural integrity, and so on, can cause a lot of internal conflict over the 'right' way to live, how to define happiness, success, and so on. Ms Eng's book does not address the significant number of Asian American women who may not be 'assertive' or 'feel powerful' NOT because they are subject to some kind of internalized model minority stereotype, but because they are trauma survivors, violence survivors. People whose parents reinforced their cultural dictates by beating, threatening, even using weapons. Ms Eng's book and portrayal of parental disapproval, affection, suspicion of new ways, is a charming one. But it presupposes a lot of things - parents' basic sanity, no mental illness of the parents, no actual violent impediments to a child breaking away from the parents and forging her own identity. For many Asian American women, "claiming a powerful life" has meant running from violence, sometimes literally, to start something from the ground up. These women may not look like Phoebe Eng in demeanor - they may be soft spoken because they've learned that's how one avoids being hit; they may be deceptive rather than confrontational because they are afraid. They need our community wide support for their healing - not lectures on how they should be more assertive and unafraid. They need our total rejection of violent behavior under any cultural justification batterers (spouses or parents) might offer. I hope if you are an Asian American woman and you read Ms Eng's book, and felt isolated in your very different experience - of, say, a parent who said you were "worthless", not merely "incomprehensible" for choosing a different career path; a parent who beat you instead of affectionately grumbling and filling your freezer with homecooked food - you will not feel alone. There are Asian American women warriors out there who are not glossy, who are not lecturing/condescending, who do not tell their stories of foraying out of corporate law as if these stories should represent Asian American women working in factories, escaping abusive marriages, or working their way out of being domestic workers. You can find a community of support if you reach out. Good luck to you and may you be strong.
Rating: 
Summary: More relevant for professional AA women, but good for all
Review: I read the book after I finished law school. It reflects many of the feelings that I have/have had about being an AA woman in American society. The book also provides strategies regarding how to forge ahead in one's life with honesty, conviction, determination, and zest. Best of all, it made me feel less alone -- that I wasn't imagining my struggles in the complex terrain of ethnicity, gender, class, and the second-generation experience.
Rating: 
Summary: It is too soon to be overjoyed
Review: I totally agree to the former reviewer from North Carolina in terms of the shallowness and too much diddactic conclusion the author drew for each topic.
Yes, it is worthwhile to bring up all of those topics and problems that we face without a choice in our life in the US society. But this author vibrantly puts comments with loud cheer and preaches so quick and easy solution without much contemplation nor pain to share with readers as if those things can be handled well as long as she reveals her little 'tips' for life as a successful woman. Sorry, I do not need it. We are not alone as a silenced and supressed mainority female. It is nice to let us know that. But where would we go from here after the painful acknowledgment? This book has nothing more than telling us what to do like a cheap magazine we can see in a supermarket cashier lane in that sense. Very shallow but very arrogant author's stance was only puzzling to me.
Rating:
Summary: Bravo! This book hits a nerve!
Review: My mother gave this book to me after she heard Ms. Eng speak. I usually take her recommendations cautiously, but she was right on with this one. Eng has done something truly life changing with her book. She describes situations that all of us can relate to, like dealing with ridiculous stereotypes of what we should be, and family expectations of our success or failure, and questions of our self image and relationships with those around us. But she takes it further. She tells us how we can use obtacles and challenges in our lives to find answers to much deeper questions - of who we are and who we want to be, of what we will choose to fight for, and whether we have the courage to go out and create a strong community of Asian American women that truly speaks of power. This is social change writing at its best. Sure, the small world of academics and activists might see some recurring themes, but for most of us, this is new territory. That Eng was brave enough to speak in everyday terms and in an accessible way, even though she comes from a background of hard core policy and legal types, shows that she's her own thinker. Like any writer, she can't speak for everyone. But she can speak for most of us. If there is an Asian American woman's perspective that has been left out of this book, as some previous reviewer felt, then the person who feels this should write that book herself or see that it gets written. If anything, Eng's book empowers us to go forward in this way.
Rating:
Summary: Bravo! This book hits a nerve!
Review: This book has elicited some very strong opinions -- and to me that means it's hitting a nerve with readers. That is excellent news, because a book like this should be controversial. I think Warrior Lessons elicits strong opinions, because it is about a silenced group finally voicing itself in a way that people are not accustomed to. It's strong, opinionated, and proud of itself, as opposed to self-deprecating and humble. That kind of gutsy gesture by Ms. Eng has helped me tremendously in understanding some of the issues faced by Asian Americans women. I am a psychologist with several Asian American clients who have expressed some of the same concerns as Eng does. And I've recommended the book to them. It's not a surprise that they all came back with rave reviews. Many of them felt a weight being lifted off their shoulders. They finally realized they were not alone. In fact, what they were feeling was quite normal. As a note to a previous reviewer who said that this book might not be for violence survivors, you're probably right. But one book cannot speak for an entire people, as Eng says right up front. Make no mistake, this is a pivotal and important book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book! A must read for all Asian American females!
Review: This book was very insightful, informative, and powerful! This opened my eyes to a lot of the struggles that Asian females go through. I do lots of one-on-one counseling with Asian college kids and young adults, many of them female. This book definately opened my eyes to a lot of things and helped me understand their struggles.
Overall, Phoebe Eng and the ladies she interviewed really opened their hearts and minds to lend themselves for this book. In addition to this, I'd also recommend Making Waves and Making More Waves by Elaine Kim and others, along with Yell-oh Girls.
I think it's high time that the world stop seeing Asian ladies like the stereotypes we've been taught and started seeing them as God does.
Again, Thanks to Phoebe Eng for putting this together and for all of those brave ladies who came forward and shared thier stories. God bless each and everyone of you!...
Rating:
Summary: Our book club loved it
Review: We just started an Asian American woman's reading circle and Warrior Lessons was our first book. All I can say is that it was the perfect choice, because it helped us start one of the most intense conversations I've ever heard between Asian American "sisters." Eng's book covered so many of the issues each of us faced over the last few years -- in relationships, on the job, with our families and self image. Several of us felt that she put our thoughts into words with such precision, and by doing so, she opened the door for a much deeper discussion about our hopes, our fears, and how we begin to connect our stories together, in the name of building community.
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