Review: So and so
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 23, 2014
The word "best" in the realm of "good reads" is - as the authors of the book point out,  subjective. With that in mind I went in with an open mind.The Amazon editors pick out their best 20 books and I found out the issue I had was less in the selection and more in the books presentation. By this I mean there's no categorization. It's just a case of if its "great" then throw it in there, be it fiction, travel, autobiography etc. Yes, there are those out there who are quite eclectic readers, and will gobble anything that comes their way. But many others tend to have a niche preference. I'm a little of both, yet still felt a sense of incongruity while going through the winning selections. I thought I'd see a "Best Fiction" category, a "Best Nonfiction category" etc,but as  earlier pointed out, it was all lumped into one "Best books" pile.To say this was the only problem I had would be an oversimplification. After reading through the review of Donna Tartt's "Goldfinch" in which I must add was quite deftly done with an inclusion of a Q & A with regards to her work process/methodology, I assumed that would be the tone for all the other reviews, but on reaching the number 2.  Khaled Hosseini's "And the Mountains Echoed:" it became apparent that the editors wanted to take another route. No interviews with the author on his methods; just an extract of how the story shared parallels with the life's experiences of young people from the Afghan region -- specifically, an Afghan girl scheduled for surgery who happened to be a huge fan of the writer..Soon after this the editor makes a U-turn back to what worked -- Interviewing the writer of "Thank you for your service" David Finkel. At this juncture, it's not far fetched if one said each book review was written by a different member of  the editorial team.All in all,this Reader's guide isn't bad, nor is it great. But I would recommend it if you're looking for where to start. But for next years edition, my 2 cents is that you work on the books layout.