A Series of 5-Star Books (August 2023 Edition)
So many 5-star books, so little time! Over the course of the year, I’ve read some amazing books. For this post, I wanted to return to writing Nano Reviews (six- to ten-words only!). Find the seventeen 5-star books I’ve read in 2023 (so far) below:
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
· The Devil went down to Moscow…
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie
· Love, War, and Betrayal in 1960s Biafra
The Way to Paradise by Mario Vargas Llosa
· Syphilitic stockbroker turns painter, retires to South Pacific
The Myth of Normal by Gabor Maté
· Hungarian-Canadian doctor proposes authentic solutions for a sick US society
Orientalism by Edward Said
· Occident views Orient with Occidental bias. Always has.
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
· Rushdie’s Booker brilliance, pre-fatwa
The Loneliest Americans by Jay Kaspian Kang
· Asian-American male explains integration into US culture. Snark factor = high.
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
· All the people with 5-alpha reductase deficiency say What?
A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane’s Signature Album by Ashley Kahn
· The making of THE quintessential 1960s jazz album
A House for Mr. Biswas by V. S. Naipaul
· The journey is not the destination; it’s the house, dammit.
Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie
· Rushdie on the run, post-fatwa
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
· García Márquez’s Nobel brilliance; birth of magical realism
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
· Alpha class screws society with “feelies” and “orgy-porgy”
Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese by Patrick Leigh Fermor
· Shadows of the Byzantine in superstitious southwestern Greece
Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build Immunity by Sander van der Linden
· ‘Prebunking’ just may trump spread of misinformation. Inquire within.
River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh
· 1839 Canton and the lead-up to the First Opium War
Flood of Fire by Amitav Ghosh
· First Opium War and the founding of Hong Kong
#BigNothingBooks #5stars #NanoReview #BookRecommendation
