Ro's Recz

Since I have been pretty busy recently, I have not had as much time to write new blog posts. While I am still constantly finding new things I love to recommend, I wanted to share some of my previous favorite recommendations. Over the course of this blog, I have now written over a year’s worth of posts (370 and counting), so you may have missed some of these along the way!

The Monk of Mokha is about the true story of Mohktar Alkhanshali, who is an American whose family is from Yemen. The Monk of Mokha chronicles Mohktar’s life from a struggling youth up to becoming a successful Yemen coffee trader. I think this book shows the power of human determination. For a majority of his life, Mohktar was a man without a mission; however, once he heard about Yemen coffee, and how Yemen was the country that first grew coffee, Mohktar made it his mission to bring back the trade to his ancestral homeland.

In addition to covering Mohktar’s journey, Dave Eggers also does a great job of talking about the history of coffee. The combination of both stories makes for both an interesting, as well as historically important book. I think this book would appeal to many types of readers, as it is informative, positively uplifting (while also being realistic and showing Mohktar’s struggles), and not too difficult to read.

I think Mohktar’s story is something that really needs to be read about, and his determination was really incredible. He went through so many dangerous, difficult, and near death experiences that it is tough to imagine how he was able to persevere through it all. After reading the book, you will see that just him being alive now is incredible, much less him also successfully bringing the coffee trade back to Yemen. This book really demonstrates that with hard work, dedication, time, and a lot of luck, people really can make a huge difference in the world.

Please give it a read when you have some time!

The Monk of Mokha Recommendation Rating: 4

This post has now been updated to reflect a new ratings system that I have implemented, which is scored as follows:

1: Something worth checking out if you have time

2: Something that is a hit for some people, but not a must for everyone

3: Something worth prioritizing if interested

4: Something worth making time to check out

5: An absolute home run, worth going out of your way for