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Bill Gates Includes 2 Vietnamese-American Authors in List of 5 Top Books in 2017

Bill Gates has included two books by authors with deep connections to Vietnam in his recent list of five great titles he read this year.

Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, wrote a post on Gates Notes, his personal blog, earlier this week titled "5 amazing books I read this year."

The short list features two books by Vietnamese-American authors: The Best We Could Do, an illutrated memoir by Thi Bui and The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen.

Of Bui's book, Gates writes: "This gorgeous graphic novel is a deeply personal memoir that explores what it means to be a parent and a refugee. The author's family fled Vietnam in 1978. After giving birth to her own child, she decides to learn more about her parents' experiences growing up in a country torn apart by foreign occupiers."

He then describes Nguyen's Pulitzer Prize-winning hit: "Most of the books I've read and movies I've seen about the Vietnam War focused on the American perspective. Nguyen's award-winning novel offers much-needed insight into what it was like to be Vietnamese and caught between both sides. Despite how dark it is, The Sympathizer is a gripping story about a double agent and the trouble he gets himself into."

The other three books featured in the list are Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond; Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens by Eddie Izzard; and Energy and Civilization: A History by Vaclav Smil.

[Photo via Gates Notes]


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