Book Reviews

4.8

Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training (3rd edition) is a rigorously detailed strength training manual that has sold over 500,000 copies and earned a reputation as the most thorough barbell instruction text in print, making it an essential reference for anyone serious about building strength with a barbell.

Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy by Thomas Sowell

4.8

Now in its fifth edition, Thomas Sowell's Basic Economics is a non-fiction economics reference designed to explain the fundamental principles of how economies create prosperity or poverty — written entirely in plain English, without charts, graphs, or equations, for a general audience.

Becoming a Supple Leopard: The Ultimate Guide to Resolving Pain, Preventing Injury, and Optimizing Athletic Performance by Kelly Starrett and Glen Cordoza

4.8

Becoming a Supple Leopard is a densely practical reference guide by Kelly Starrett, Doctor of Physical Therapy and CrossFit coach, co-written with Glen Cordoza, presenting a systematic movement and mobility system designed to resolve pain, prevent injury, and optimize athletic performance across a wide range of athletes and practitioners.

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Journal by Mark Manson

Published by Harper Paperbacks in May 2022, this interactive companion journal translates the core philosophy of Mark Manson's internationally bestselling The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck into hundreds of guided prompts and writing exercises, organized across five thematic sections covering emotions, values, and purpose — designed for readers who want to move from reading Manson's ideas to actively applying them.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

Dating from the late Spring and Autumn period of ancient China (roughly the 5th century BCE), Sun Tzu's The Art of War is a 13-chapter military treatise that Wikipedia describes as one of the most influential works on strategy of all time — a judgment borne out by its continuous use across nearly 2,500 years of military, political, and intellectual history. This Fingerprint reprint edition makes the text newly accessible in hardcover, carrying forward a work whose reach extends far beyond its original battlefield context.

Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! by Robert T. Kiyosaki

First published in 1997 and now in a 25th Anniversary edition from Plata Publishing, Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki is one of the most widely read personal finance books ever written, with over 32 million copies sold and more than six years on the New York Times bestsellers list — yet it remains as contested as it is celebrated, praised for shifting readers' mindsets around money and criticized for vague, parable-style advice that critics argue rarely translates into concrete action.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Angie Thomas's debut young adult novel, The Hate U Give, follows sixteen-year-old Starr Carter as she navigates two worlds — the poor neighborhood she calls home and the elite private school she attends — until a white police officer shoots and kills her childhood friend Khalil before her eyes, thrusting her into a national reckoning. Originally published in 2017 by HarperCollins imprint Balzer + Bray, the novel debuted at number one on the New York Times young adult best-seller list and stayed there for 50 weeks, drawing widespread critical praise for Thomas's writing and the timeliness of its subject matter. It remains one of the most celebrated and most challenged YA novels of its era.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

4.6

Markus Zusak's The Book Thief is a historical fiction novel set in Nazi Germany during World War II, narrated by Death and following young Liesel Meminger as she navigates loss, foster care, forbidden friendship, and the transformative power of words. Originally published in 2005, it has since sold 17 million copies, been translated into 63 languages, and been adapted into a 2013 feature film — a record that places it among the most widely read works of literary historical fiction of its era.

Feb 11, 2026

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

4.6

Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind is a macro-history that traces Homo sapiens from the Stone Age to the 21st century across four defining revolutions — Cognitive, Agricultural, the Unification of Humankind, and Scientific — arguing that humanity's singular ability to believe in shared fictions is the engine behind all large-scale cooperation. Originally published in Hebrew in 2011 and in English in 2014, it is a genuinely ambitious work of popular non-fiction that integrates natural and social science, and has drawn both wide acclaim and substantive scholarly criticism for its breadth and interpretive boldness.

The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed by Jessica Lahey

4.6

Jessica Lahey's The Gift of Failure makes a research-backed, practically structured case that over-protective parenting undermines children's capacity for self-reliance — and offers targeted, concrete guidance for parents and educators who want to change course.

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

4.4

Jhumpa Lahiri's debut short story collection, first published in 1999, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award in 2000, sold over 15 million copies worldwide, and remains one of the most celebrated works of Indian American literature — a collection that renders the interior lives of immigrants and their families with precision and emotional depth.

The Thursday Murder Club Series - 5-Book Box Set by Richard Osman

Richard Osman's five-novel Thursday Murder Club series — collected here in a single paperback box set — brings together the complete adventures of four sharp-minded retirees who turn a quiet Kent retirement village into the unlikely epicentre of Britain's most entertaining amateur detective operation, cementing Osman's place as one of the defining crime writers of the 2020s.