BATB score: 7/10 🧧🥡🥢 Jenny Tinghui Zhang’s first debut novel 2022 - wow, not bad at all! Best as: a historical novel about a horrendous life of an immigrant in relation to Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 Best to: if you ever wondered where Asian hate all originated from; I loved the first 200 pages, I disliked pages 200-300, and I liked pages 300-400 - this book was so close to being a 9/10 Best for: novel enthusiast covering topics of illegal immigration, back alley brothel

BATB score: 5/10 💔 You either love it or you don’t. Best to: it’s a slow burn book about a powerful Catholic family in Nigeria vs the rest of the family Best for: novel appreciation Best as: the book’s content can be summarized in <5 minutes but it can be overly analyzed for hours; it’s about religion, revolution, corruption, discipline, coming of age, Nigeria, the author’s voice; I didn’t like it Best quotes: “We did that often, asking each other questions whose answers we

BATB score: 10/10 🌷 Wow. What a classic! Definitely Amy Tan’s literary masterpiece 🌟🤩💫 Best to: prepare pen and paper to map out which grandmother, mother, daughter are related and what tragedy happened to who resulting with what in which chronological order 4 grandmothers, 4 mothers, 4 daughters, 2 granddaughters and many men in between Best as: a reminder of how we can not walk in anybody else’s shoes 👠, how each generation has their own challenges, and why miscommunic

BATB score: 8/10 👩‍❤️‍👨 likeas 9 mini-episodes of Love, Sex, and Robots on Netflix but more like 9 short novels of Love, Marriage, and Life Best to: know that the book title is an extremely poor indicator of what the book is really about; the book encompass 9 types of mature marriages and ties each of the 9 stories to Calcutta India 🇮🇳 Best as: a nice literary take on arranged marriage, affairs, divorces, lust, and falling out of love; and ending every piece on a cliffhan

BATB score: 8/10 🍋 As the media only covers the political parties and the hard facts, it reduces - the casualties, the victims, the orphans, the displaced - to mere numbers. Some time we forgot that they are people. Best as: this book is a chance for Syrians to have their stories told about longing to the life before, belonging to Syria amidst war, and hope for the future of Syria. Best to: Syrian civil war from March 2011 to present. we will never fully know the true effect

BATB score: 2/10 🙈 It’s like Murakami is trying to cash out the very last few squeezes of his writing career. And what does this book title even mean?!? Best as: a buy-bait for Murakami readers; a collection piece and evidence for you to rightfully claim that you have read most of Murakami’s works; 2020s Murakami work that demonstrates how he no longer is the hyped author Best to: okay one thing that is interesting is I never thought that Murakami would be able to write shor

BATB score: 6/10 okay but not wow 🙄 a collection of 9 sci-fi futuristic short stories covering time travel, metaverse, global warming, digital twin, god, and prism everything everywhere all at once Best to: check out “AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future” by Chen Qiufan and Kai-Fu Lee a BATB 10/10 instead Best as: other than the first and last story that was good, the rest of the stories were very meh; the plot, the twist, the dystopia concept, the sci-fi imagination, the cha

BATB score: 4/10 👾 not a page turner Best for: honestly, good effort to write a novel about a parallel universe of game lovers, game players, and game makers Best to: the problem I have is the fact that there is so climax / highlight to this novel - like seriously, what was significant? It just went on and on, game after game after game. Or maybe ‘life’ is that way? Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow? With nothing significant, just day after day? Best as: if you are a critic

BATB score: 7/10 🧐 hmm, interesting classic indeed 💯 Best to: written way back in 1926 (almost 100 years ago!) covering personal financial advices (disguised in easy-to-digest parables) that are still relevant and valid today Best for: the “thy, thee, speaketh, wisheth, hath, doth, herein, lieth” took a bit of time to adjust but is manageable; it’s about savings, passive income, repaying debts like any noble man should, retirement funds, hire a financial advisor, and when t

BATB score: 1/10 🔪 🩸 💀 “Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone” and I will be that Someone who will kill Benjamin Stevenson for all the time I’ve wasted trying to give this book a chance; I can not read another page more Best as: if you can’t captivate the readers within the first 100 pages of your book, I don’t think it’s a good book Best to: burn it; in all due respect, trying to read this book can actually make you hate reading as a hobby Best for: no one - just look

BATB score: 3/10 🐋 Best to: a PG13 introduction to the impact of global warming on nature’s marine life ; a reminder on how nature heals souls BATB lingering thought: I love the book’s cover, it’s sho prettay; and whales are sho elegantly beautiful 🐋 Best as: a children’s book but the child/parent must have the patience to read 300 pages est. 2 hours to complete the narrative Best for: if Mother Nature could talk, this book is her cry for help 🥹💔 Best quote: “Dear ocean f

BATB score: 6/10 ⚗️⚛️🧪 *reader discretion advised* maybe BATB really doesn’t like novels Best for: you must like novels esp long and slow novels; I believe there were 20+ micro-incidences Best to: well, the book talks about the struggle of being a smart and aspirational female scientist vs societal expectations and gender discrimination back in the 1950s (which most of it is still true today) BATB linger thought: throughout reading this book, I just wanted the book to end. I

BATB score: 10/10 🥹 wow, Mitch Albom, you did it again! 👏 Best to: wow what a story, a little bit of fiction, a lot of non-fiction, written gracefully, emotionally narrated, engaging storytelling structure, happy closure ending, oh so beautiful 🫠 Best as: “It was a time in human history where the world was cleaved in two, those doing nothing about the horror and those trying to stop it. A world of light and dark.” and unfortunately, this is what is happening today in Gaza

BATB score: 7/10 💛 Oprah's Book Club July 2023 pick - love the start, meh the middle, okay with the ending Best as: a sneak peak into the life of an author in the publishing industry battling conversations on truthful representation, cultural appropriation, plagiarism, fan clubs and hateful comments, sales/PR, and how far one will go for success (and then the next success) Best to: ethical dilemma lovers; how far is taking it too far? Best for: very relatable novel esp love

BATB score: 10/10 🤯 *reader discretion advised* BATB does not like fiction and rarely rate the work of fiction fairly but wow oh wow boy oh boy goodie 💙 Best as: a page turner thriller, suspense, cringey, twisties and turns book 🔑 Best to: oh thank god that it does not end on a cliffhanger but is complete on it’s own - good night 💤 sweet dreams Best for: who is Freida McFadden? why have I not heard of you? where have I been? BATB lingering thought: Freida McFadden has wri

BATB score: 10/10 🤩 omg Freida McFadden! you did it again! 👏 Best to: just when I thought I can predict your ways of writing and outsmart your suspense, you kept me on my tip toes 💯 unable to put this book down must finish reading in one sitting Best as: Freida McFadden is a physician specializing in brain injury and is a splendid author of addictive, unpredictable thriller fictions BATB lingering thought: oh thank god that you didn’t end each book on a painful cliffhanger

BATB Score: 10/10 🎈 *reader discretion advised: 10/10 but not for everyone. esp not for the faint hearted; thriller, sick, psycho, twisted, gut-wrenching, perfection* Best as: when a doctor, Dr. Lucinda Berry, trauma psychologist + researcher in childhood trauma, becomes an author in disturbing psychological thrillers; it’s really good! Best for: anyone who is tired of self-help books BATB lingering thought: why can’t we just read because it’s fun? why does every pastime act

BATB score: 9/10 🤯 it’s uber difficult to land an epic sequel, so I had the lowest expectations, but boom boom clap! Freida! who are you?! you did it again! Best to: Freida McFadden (ahh it’s only a pen name), Harvard graduate, practicing physician specializing in brain injury, is a fantastic thriller author BATB lingering thought: maybe doctors make the best thriller psychological authors? Best as: total 11 years of writing 27 books and finally getting her international fam

BATB Score: 6/10 🫥 Freida McFadden, girl, this one.. wasn’t great - but but, I still believe in you and will continue to read your other older pieces! Best as: it is never easy to nail a trilogy and this volume iii wasn’t giving Best to: if you have never read any of Freida McFadden’s work and if you are going to only read one and one only, please read “Never Lie” 💯 Best for: well, if you have read volume i and ii, you might as well finish volume iii and have some closure i

BATB Score: 5/10 🙂‍↔️ Best to: okie Gregg Olsen, you do much better with nonfiction than fiction; could also be, that no fiction imagination can beat the suspense and thriller of real life Best as: it’s okay, let me buy your nonfiction books and give you another chance Best for: if you are going to read one book and one book only from Gregg Olsen, please read “If You Tell” 10/10 BATB score Best quote: “People born rich don’t try so hard. They know they don’t need to. They al