A couple of more books in the former native speaker's collection

Last week I submitted a proposal for a one-semester leave to do some research to simultaneously work on an article and develop an undergraduate course on comparative rhetoric. I won't find out whether I receive the leave until April, but I decided to start (continue, actually) buying some of the books that I hope to be reading then. Some of the books are specifically about comparative rhetoric and some are about various aspects of Taiwanese society, history, and communication. The latter group are mostly for the article I'm working on. The last few days I've received two books:

• Hsin-i Sydney Yueh, Identity Politics and Popular Culture in Taiwan: A Sajiao Generation. Lexington Books, 2017.
  This book looks promising as a communication studies-focused look at sajiao (撒嬌) beyond the common understanding of it as a communication practice used primarily by women to sound cute or to persuade their (usually male) partners. This book "won the Outstanding Book Award in the International and Intercultural Communication Division in the annual convention of National Communication Association in 2018."
  
  
• Richard Madsen, Democracy's Dharma: Religious Renaissance and Political Development in Taiwan. University of California Press, 2007.
  I heard about this one through Twitter and thought that I read it to get a sense of how Buddhism and Daoism might have affected rhetorical practices in Taiwan's process of democratization. I've seen reviews from sociologists that praise the book, but I've also seen more critical reviews from scholars in religious studies who argue that Madsen misunderstood or misrepresented aspects of Taiwanese Buddhism and Daoism. 

Whether I get the leave or not, I'm looking forward to reading these (and other) books. But now it's back to grading...