BATB score: 8/10 👨‍⚕️🩺🩻 *Disclaimer* I love Adam Kay and I love reading Adam Kay’s books! I believe it’s comedically therapeutic. Best to: you have to read “This is Going to Hurt” BATB 10/10 first and foremost to understand the back story of H and J, his old medical adventures as a doctor, why he gave up, and why and where he is now Best as: you know how becoming a doctor is the only occupation that our parents would acknowledge as ‘attaining success’? and how your true ha

BATB score: 8/10 🇰🇵🇰🇷 The other stuff about North Korea beyond the typical authors on defectors, starvation, reunification, and Kims. Best as: a thorough interview style qualitative research on North Korea; discussion of a capitalist movement in a communist country Best for: curious minds on/of North Korea - have you ever wondered where North Korean bought make-up? What kind of sanitary pads they are using? Do they watch porn? Best to: know that the grass is always greene

BATB score: 8.5/10 🩺🩻👩‍⚕️ *Disclaimer* In another life, I do wish to be a surgeon. I do have an unfair favoritism towards doctor/surgeon related books. Best to: Atul Gawande is exceptionally talented in being a surgeon, an author, and a researcher; living proof that you can be and you can nail so many things in one lifetime Best as: so many interesting topics from mysterious illnesses, to when doctors go wild, to real life cases - literally a day in a life of Atul Gawande

BATB score: 2/10 😒 Mariana Mazzucato, my friend, please take a chill pill; all the beautiful concepts no real world practical next steps Best for: my friend, you are saying so many things that you are not saying anything at all Best to: my friend, there were some pages that include the good stuff, how about we re-write this my friend to something more friendly? Best as: my friend, you are saying a lot of thing about the same thing just over and over again; my friend, you are

BATB score: 8/10 💕 a few weeks after Osamu Dazai wrote No Longer Human, he and his wife committed suicide by drowning in a canal near their house; that was also a week before his 39th birthday *reader discretion advised* this book is not for everyone; this book covers suicide, addiction, abuse, depression, depersonalization disorder Best to: this book is a semi-autobiography, semi-novel, semi-suicide-death-note; it’s like he is trying to tell us something, a final word to wh

BATB score: 4/10 🤷‍♀️ Best as: a casual fun chillax read about the 16 tinder dates Mark Powell has been through Best to: do not blame the Tinder platform for bad quality dates; our mission is quantity not quality - find your needle in the haystack; come come I pray for you Best for: you’ll learn nothing from reading this book; actually one thing you learn is that anyone can be an author and write about literally anything

BATB score: 4/10 🧘‍♀️ Best to: just read the first part of this book (aka the first 83 pages) the second part of this book was quite difficult to follow through; likeas when you are in a serious meditation retreat and you secretly fall asleep Best as: a reminder that “I am responsible for the way I am now” and thus the good and the bad is a byproduct of the way I was and thus to improve such good and to fix such bad requires a direct action of the way I will be Best for: ext

BATB score: 3/10 🙄 Marshall Goldsmith latest 2022 book is a literary disaster. Best to: Marshall Goldsmith’s 2007 “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There” was a hand down 10/10 life-changing perfectly-written masterpiece; 15 years later he disappoints perfectly with “The Earned Life” Best as: Marshall Goldsmith was trying to share his wisdom as a life coach but it was all over the place Best for: this book is as so bad that it was torturous to complete BATB lingering thought:

BATB score: 10/10 heart 🤍 #BATBREREAD Best to: Matt Haig wrote about his depression back when he had depression from 24-32 y/o (1999-2007); unfortunately, today (2022), at 47 y/o his depression is back. Matt Haig shared on his instagram “earlier this year I nearly died by suicide because I knew I would never be happy again” September 2022 Best as: the first time I read this book I was trying to understand my friends who have depression about how depression really feels like;

BATB score: 8/10 💙 #BATBREREAD Best as: oddly this book is less interesting and less relevant to me now that I am back to being an individual contributor; plus working remotely (work from home alone forever) removes all of the office politics and office foul plays to zero BATB lingering thought: you literally don’t have to be that bubbly charismatic character any more now that everything is through zoom; that ‘join meeting’’ and that leave meeting’ button is your way in and

BATB score: 10/10 💙 #BATBREREAD Best as: what a one-of-a-kind story indeed; giving it your all for neurosurgeon residency just a few months away to graduation (delayed gratification) diagnosed with terminal cancer (life has other plans) - life took a big detour to chemo and therapy - and yet life was cut short to only 22 months more; total lifetime 37 y/o Best to: death is inevitable, it’s just a matter of how soon Best for: just a reminder that this book made Bill Gates cry

BATB score: 7/10 💊 Best to: know that Matthew Perry is no Chandler Bing; what we saw was perfect acting that everything is alright and that’s how addiction is epic scary because you never truly know what any of us is really going through BATB lingering thought: I really hope that Matthew Perry finds a glimpse of joy of being enough and gets to experience simple happiness in his retired years; you know how you are known for that one thing? even though you have done many thing

BATB score: 9/10 ⭐️ Reader disclaimer: BATB loves Dan Ariely #fangirl love his writing style, his quirky experiments, and his natural curiosity to the oddest things; so would a picture of flowers 🌸 or of eyeballs 👀 make you more honest? Like what? Best to: so how do we cheat without feeling too bad about cheating when not cheating at all is just stupid Best as: so the extent of cheating increases when you believe you are Robin Hood “we cheat because we are good people who c

BATB score: 9/10 🙏 Best as: it’s a holocaust survivor’s memoir plus a self-help guide to happiness - a 2-in-1 combo! so this book does not end once he has escaped Auschwitz but continues on with how he doesn’t hate Hitler and how his biggest revenge is “to be the happiest man on earth” Best to: check out Eddie Jaku’s 11-minutes TedX Talk “A Holocaust survivor’s blueprint for happiness” it is pretty much what the whole book is about BATB lingering thought: so Eddie Jaku wrote

BATB score: 7/10 🤣 Likeas any stand-up comedy shows, really just for laughs. Best to: ah, so this is what Australian jokes are about - Apple Cider Vinegar Best for: knowing who Wil Anderson is helps make this book a little bit more humorous Best as: check out the audiobook read by Wil Anderson - it’s like watching his stand-up performance with your eyes closed; not bad I would have to say BATB lingering thought: this book cover though, so epic!

BATB score: 5/10 🫠 Best as: a birthday gift for your bff coworker who you like to gossip with, a farewell gift for a colleague joining a consulting firm, a coffee shop decoration, a poop book (a book you take to the toilet with you to complete number two’s 💩) Best to: a silly fun read, no brains needed, just for laughs, don’t expect anything, definitely not a self-improvement book Best for: the book title 💯, the paper quality, the colorful cartoons and high quality prints

BATB score: 9/10 💉💊❤️‍🩹 Best to: wow wow wow what a story! I have never heard anything like this before and never would have been able to predict what would happen next; definitely a page turner! Best as: boy, I think about it every night and day. I’m addicted wanna drown inside your love. I wouldn’t wanna have it any other way, I’m addicted and I just can’t get enough Best for: you know how you still have a moral compass but yet things just spiraled for the worst? BATB li

BATB score: 2/10 💔 please allow me to kill you with kindness Best to: the thing is, you had every right and all the merits to write your previous book “In Order to Live” [BATB score: 8/10] in sharing your personal account of life of and escape from North Korea; but then, you have low to zero merits to write this book “While Time Remains” in analyzing American culture and events from a point of view of an immigrant / new joiner Best as: or is this your academic thesis? Best f

BATB score: 10/10 🧘‍♀️ 🧘‍♂️ 🧘 Best to: a very approachable sharing of monk spirituality and life wisdom that will make you think Best as: an introduction to monkshood for the corporate rats written in a friendly mood and tone for the average joe Best for: you know how other spiritual book can be very wordy, redundant, and boring? This book is legit good not sleepy 💯 BATB lingering thought: what would have to be the key trigger for me to quit my corporate job, my high clim

BATB score: 9/10 💚 Best for: almost a 10/10! It’s just that he wrote this book truly for himself to remember the past and to grateful for the future. “Can we live in a way where we look forward to looking back?” Nothing wrong with that. It’s just like I am that sneaky nosey neighbor reading this personal book of his. Best to: a very fun and casual read about the life of Matthew McConaughey Best as: for sure, Matthew McConaughey is extremely talented in acting and writing 💯