BATB score: 8.9/10 Context: Thailand's Prime Minister aka Military Junta Commander in Chief aka Uncle Toodaloo recommended his Thai citizens to read this book to better understand how to live in UNITY in the midst of desperate political clashes. The fable is leaps and bounds away from the slightest hints of UNITY. Not quite sure what he meant there. Quick slurp of the famous pig tale: a pig said all animals are equal, secretly made pig allies, hid resources to pig-selves, oth

BATB score: 7.24/10 👁🔍🌏 for being monitored 360-365-24-7 SECRETS ARE LIES SHARING IS CARING PRIVACY IS THEFT Best to: a modern twist to George Orwell's 1984 - a novel about how global social network companies monitor, collect, analyse, and own all of our digital (and soon offline) footprint for the mission of a better communal humanity: targeted ads, CCTV security, political transparency, etc Best for: ex-googlers and ex-facebookers as the current googlers and facebookers

BATB score: 10/10 🐭🤍👨‍🍳 Daniel Keyes' masterpiece written in 1959, read in 2021 by BATB (+62 years later). Lovable character, engaging journey for self-enlightenment and concluding that IQ quotient is a mere measurement of unnecessary things. Best to: a true timeless classic from a pure talented author - how could you compose something that is still 100% relatable to the general public +62 years later? #dayum Best for: you better read this if you haven't #FOMO ; for anyon

BATB score: 9/10 🟡 Kazuo Ishiguro, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, writes books as an art form. Best to: intellectually stimulating about figuring out the world and our purpose in life Best for: a literature class required read, a literature book club, an English Literature scholar read; Ishiguro's writings are exceptional. it's more about the narration of the story, the hidden humanity behind, and the social dilemmas of 'told but not told' Best as: "Never Let Me Go

BATB score: 10/10 💙💙💙 Bravo Matt Haig 👏 💯🙇‍♀️ thank you for making us appreciate our stupid little life and the meek joy of living in such a beautifully narrated book Best to: so, you have as many lives as you have possibilities. Different made-choices lead to different outcomes. If there was one thing that was done differently, your life would have been a different story. So, with infinite choices, what is the best way to live? Best for: people experiencing midlife cri

BATB score: 6/10 ⏳ one of Matt Haig's standalone novel - a fictitious tale of an immoral with eternal youth and the search for meaning of life when one truly does have centuries to live Best to: well-written, captivating, entertaining, easy-read; unfortunately BATB is not a fan 💔 the narration is slow and the ending is meh Best for: Matt Haig's fans but do check out "Reasons to Stay Alive" first and foremost Best as: actually Netflix should have a go in making a movie adapta

BATB score: 6/10 🕊 the first book to a seven-volume series autobiography of Maya Angelou - it's just very long and detailed Best to: written back in 1969 - definitely a classic; must have been a required read in literature class back in high school Best for: long-form autobiography bookworms - life goes on, and on, and on, and on, and on Best as: maybe just read chapters 11 and 12 which were critical to who Maya Angelou is, then you will understand how she writes so well and

BATB score: 6/10 😽 BATB read level: 1 easy peesy Best to: a Japanese whimsical modern fable - literally "modern" as it has just been published in Dec 2021; it's about how the act of and the business for reading books has changed Best for: if you like a talking cat 😸 , books 📚, and Japanese fables 🇯🇵, this book is made for you Best as: great as a children's book (a lot of action and fantasies) and great as an adult overthinking fable (so what's the underlying meaning of e

BATB score: 9/10 🤩 BATB read level: 1 easy peesy Best to: a very moving novel about bullies, being special, and friendship 🥺 very captivating, entertaining, and easy to read Best for: so you know the famous K-Pop band BTS? and you know RM the leader of BTS? he reads this book - hmm, actually SUGA and J-Hope were seen reading this book too; not that it matters, but it kinda matters Best as: a weekend getaway, a feel-good read 🌟 BATB nerd moment: Alexithymia is the inability

BATB score: 9/10 💎 this book is beautifully written 💯🥺👏 Best to: Toni Morrison, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and award winner of the Presidential medal of Freedom by Barack Obama in 2012 - with all that said, won't you read her masterpiece work? Best for: literature art at its best, avid novel readers, book appreciation Best as: word choices, word flow, harmonious composition, sentence structure, character build up, and so

BATB score: 6/10 🫥 huge performance gaps from his work of art “Flowers for Algernon” [1959]; “The Fifth Sally” [1981] is a victim of Daniel Keyes own award winning success - I had too high expectations, I am sorry Best to: check out “Flowers for Algernon” seriously, it got so many awards! Best for: fictional telltale from a POV of someone who is struggling with multiple personality disorder; great synopsis but narration was extremely meh - this and that then that and this Be

BATB score: 3/10 ⌛️ yep, they both died at the end Best to: a great plot line about how you get this death day alert on the day you will die so that you could make the best use of <24 hours that you have; about reminiscing, regretting, and trying to fully max out the <24 hours that you have Best for: enthusiast of very slow novels 😴 Best as: actually, if Netflix makes a movie out of this and just touch on the futuristic ideas and social behaviours of death-cast calls, the La

BATB score: 8/10 🥹 a novel on 10 characters on 10 different types of everyday anxiety - relatable and lovable in every way Best to: scarier than being diagnosed with a mental illness is suffering and surviving everyday's immense anxiety while smiling and acting cool like you have it all in control as you are and do have the textbook definition of success and happiness #itsharderthanitlooks Best for: we all need therapy 💔 Best as: "Anxious People" Netflix TV Mini Series 6.8/

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 ⚗️⚛️🧪 *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: 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: 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: 3/10 🫥 Best as: okay. I am done with Matt Haig fiction. Best to: good storyline about a alien on a mission on earth; earth’s stranger’s point of view of humans; yet, very wordy and slow narration Best for: the chapter “Advice for a Human” concluding 97 advices for humans was sweet Best quotes: “Make sure, as often as possible, you are doing something you’d be happy to die doing.” “Dark matter is needed to hold galaxies together. Your mind is a galaxy. More dark t

BATB Score: 10/10 👏 Freida McFadden, girlfriend, you did it again! Best as: wow what a come back International Thriller Writers Award; book published Oct 2024, ending on a high note 🎵 that perfectly concludes 2024 👏 Best to: know that Freida McFadden is a pen name; the real author is a physician specializing in brain injury; this serial murder mystery with all the details of the human anatomy is truly juicy Best for: if you are in to fiction, thriller, psychopaths, murders