BATB score: 7/10 🤕 *reader discretion advised: this is not a book but a white-paper research making a sole proposal that serial killers, mass shooter, psychopaths, etc, can all be pre-empted and predicted if we take domestic violence cases more seriously* “You could certainly say about half the cases of mass shootings are extreme incidents of domestic violence.” In other words, it’s not that domestic violence predicts mass shootings. It’s that mass shootings, more than half

BATB score: 7/10 😬 okay but not wow about how feeling good boosts our creativity and productivity Best to: only part 1 out of 3 is a BATB 10/10, part 2 was a knock off copy of Atomic Habits by James Clear, and part 3 was Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett; every section in this book is an elevator pitch BATB lingering thought: book recommended to BATB by a renowned c-level.. could it be that he only read part 1? Best as: take a break by taking a walk esp. take park walks al

BATB score: 7/10 🧍‍♂️ wahhh.. almost there but didn’t quite hit the spot - so close! Best to: Freida McFadden signature style writing - hook the reader into this suspense, mystery, theories on how the story is going to unveil itself for 250+ pages alongside the confused main character; and then surprise, after surprise, after surprise until the epilogue - all your guesses are wrong wa ga ga! Best as: you are invested, you read this far, you need to know, you will finish this

BATB score: 7/10 👠 okay but not wow Best for: McFans - Freida McFadden’s fan club to might as well read everything that she has ever written (all 27 books and counting) because why not 🤷‍♀️ Best as: a blueprint on plotting against your coworker; I never liked my coworkers anyways - office bullying is a real deal Beat to: okay, I hate some of my coworkers and do wish them the very worst Best quote: “never give other people the satisfaction of seeing you cry.”

BATB score: 7/10 ⚠️ Chris Voss, former FBI hostage negotiator, has all the legitimate street cred to write this book about How to Negotiate with Anyone Best as: however, this book was difficult to follow and hard to grasp any actionable insights; ie. from negotiating for hostage release to negotiating your salary within the same page, numerous anecdotes that at the end all sounds the same, difficult one-liner concepts too fast to hold onto Best to: is this a first draft? if y

BATB score: 7/10 🔥📚👨‍🚒 true classic piece of art, an oldie from 1953 Best to: dystopia novel - if books are illegal and if conformity without question is the norm; where firemen burn books and everyone has ADHD and is dumb Best as: a political book - censorship, no freedom for imagination, government brutal crackdowns, witch-hunt of intellectual outliers, mass tabloid groupthink Best for: 72 years later, BATB 2025 has just came across this book?! BATB lingering thought: h

BATB score: 7/10 🤓 Best as: a memoir to Bill Gate’s adolescence years from age 7 with a lot a lot of details that wasn’t necessary BATB lingering thought: talking about a head start; when you start being curious about the world since 7 and start programming at age 13, by the time you are 19, you already made Microsoft Best to: when the library is your comfort zone, reading books is your favorite pastime activity, and programming is your prodigy; you get a Bill Gates ie. “The

BATB score: 7/10 🥺 Best as: Sweden’s dark side of teen guns and gangs, poverty for young immigrants, racism and homicides 🇸🇪 Best to: a memoir of a Swedish social worker who crossed the line and took one home BATB lingering thought: the ending got me chills Best for: something different to read, did you know about Sweden’s teen gun violence? I didn’t either. Best quote: “Will you care if I die?”

BATB score: 7/10 💙 Best to: ex-facebooker director of public policy, minus-one to Mark Z and Sheryl S tells ALL; careless people on external global issues and internal company culture Best for: ex-facebookers, current meta-mates, anyone in public policy; we’ve witnessed all of this BATB lingering thought: one for the road, one in a books; closure to once-a-facebooker - how you think about quitting everyday but takes years to finally quit (or in this case… *otherwise) - and s

BATB score: 7/10 😱 reader discretion advised: not for the faint-hearted; painful tales of children born in North Korea concentration camps Best as: from reading so many North Korea escapee stories, this one stands out as he had to escape from the concentration camps first and only then escaped from North Korea like the other escapee stories Best for: North Korea stories enthusiast Best to: scarier than North Korea is today’s genocide in Gaza; scarier because this is globally

BATB score: 7/10 🤔 Best for: first jobbers / young rat racers or a reminder for senior leaders; how to be beloved by your manager, how to navigate office gossip and benefit from corridor talk, how to ask for a raise, and when and how to quit tactfully Best as: once you are more senior, you either figure out how to navigate manager politics with your own playbook or you don’t give a fuck any more 😂 BATB lingering thought: at 35 years old, after sprinting in this corporate ra

BATB score: 7/10 🤯 BATB loves victim’s memoir - own your story 💪 yeah! from the front page news, the unbelievable tragic story, the imprisonment, the documentary, “The Act” movie spin off; yes girl, you tell your story! Best for: you need prior knowledge on Dee Dee and Gypsy case, extreme Munchausen by Proxy, actually very famous case you should know BATB TL;DR: “When Dee Dee Blanchard was twenty-four years old, she gave life to me. When I was nearly twenty-four years old,

BATB score: 7/10 🐴 Best as: a series of random short stories about everything and anything Best for: written with the same satire as BoJack Horseman blunt witty humor Best to: a good story / bad story roulette; hit-or-miss rate 7:3 Best quotes: “There are two kinds of people, he thought: the people you don’t want to touch because you’re afraid you’re going to break them and the people you don’t want to touch because you’re afraid they’ll break you.” “What happened to our soc

BATB score: 7/10 🧐 Best as: 100 most influential novel by BBC News 2019 - might as well ✅ Best to: a novel about bisexuality and internalized homophobia, sensitive masculinity and social alienation back in 1956 where everything is controversial 🧐 wowza Best for: literature as an art form ; art appreciation Best quotes: “People can't, unhappily, invent their mooring posts, their lovers and their friends, anymore than they can invent their parents. Life gives these and also t

BATB score: 7/10 👏 good effort reader discretion advised another ex-googler leaving a “dream job” due to burnout pivoted to writing a book about aspirational wellness; you might live a dream life, but whose dream is it? BATB lingering thought: Anne-Laure Le Cunff, ex-googler, is a neuroscientist now 🤯 Best to: the first 1/3 of the book was a 10/10 on why KPIs are harmful; nothing in life is on a positive linear trajectory duh 🙄 likeas this book everything just went downhi

BATB score: 7/10 🫶 re-read of BATB’s favorite books: Adam Kay quits becoming a doctor and became a comedian instead 💯 this book is his diary entries Best to: would love to read about the thought process of leaving at the final year of doctor residency, one’s mental talk, stakeholders / family expectation management, and how does one come back and make sense of it all Best as: any career is tough when you put your heart into it 🥹 Best for: anyone who wants to be a doctor or