December marked the productive end to the 2021 reading year. I finished the year with 39 books, most of which I thoroughly enjoyed. For this month’s best books on Amazon, I read Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table, The Last Season: A Team in Search of Its Soul, The Messenger, and Washington’s Crossing.
My favorite book that I read out of these books was Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table. Author Sara Roahen takes you into the heart of Big Easy’s food and drinks scene. New Orleans is one of my favorite cities. Naturally, a city about the two things I love to do in a city that I love spending time in hooked me in.
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Best Books on Amazon
Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table
Author Sara Roahen takes you into the history of the New Orleans food and drinks culture. From the Sazerac cocktail to raw oysters to gumbo to po-boys to red beans and rice to braciolone to ya-ka-mein, readers learn all there is to know about why this city punches above its weight when it comes to food and drink. It was fascinating to learn in Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table how many iconic cocktails and dishes were born in New Orleans.
Recommend: Yes
The Last Season: A Team in Search of Its Soul
Coach/author Phil Jackson hooks me in when it comes to the mental side of basketball. In Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table, Jackson takes you behind the scenes of the Los Angeles Lakers’ 2003-2004 season, otherwise known as The Last Season. You learn about why future Hall-of-Famers Karl Malone and Gary Payton were acquired. How Kobe Bryant’s rape case impacted the team dynamic. Why Shaq and Kobe butted heads. I simply love reading about the inter-team dynamics that are best told by the head coach.
Recommend: Yes
The Messenger
Book six of the Gabriel Allon series by Daniel Silva delivered. Gabriel Allon, art restorer, and Israeli spy track al-Qaeda’s next move after a suspect was killed in London. After sifting through these suspects’ photographs on his computer, Allon learns an attack at the Vatican is imminent. Gabriel Allon being Gabriel Allon takes you across Europe and to the Caribbean and back to stop this attack. attacks ever aimed straight at the heart of the Vatican.
Recommend: Yes
Washington’s Crossing
David Hackett Fischer tells the incredible story of the leadership of Geroge Washington leading his men when all hope was lost after the Declaration of Independence. On Christmas night, Washington led his men on the attack against the Hessian forces in Trenton. Days later, Washington’s men hold off Britain’s Lord Cornwallis defeating his men at Princeton. Battling the Hessians and British through terrible weather during the winter of 1776-1777 shows that Washington’s only goal was to have an independent nation.
Recommend: Yes
Which books on Amazon did you read last month? What books do you recommend? Please let me know in the comments or by sending me an email on my contact page.
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