Book Reviews

4.7

The Bearded Dragon Manual, 3rd Edition, published by CompanionHouse Books in 2022, is a comprehensive reptile care reference co-authored by five specialists — including herpetoculture pioneer Philippe de Vosjoli and veterinary nutrition diplomate Susan Donoghue, VMD — covering the full spectrum of bearded dragon husbandry, from enclosure setup and feeding to breeding, disease, and species characteristics. This review is based on published sources and the book's documented content and reception, not hands-on use.

Jun 3, 2026

Partypooper (Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book #20) by Jeff Kinney

4.7

Partypooper is the twentieth entry in Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, published by Harry N. Abrams on October 21, 2025, and following directly from Hot Mess. The book sends Greg Heffley spiraling from a forgotten birthday into an over-planned blowout party, a viral social-media shaming of his parents, and a parallel hunt for a rare misprinted trading card — all of which collapse in classically Wimpy Kid fashion before Greg stumbles into an unlikely party-hosting side hustle with best friend Rowley. It is a reliably plot-dense, gag-driven installment aimed at readers aged 9 and up, and it arrives at a genuine milestone for the series.

Jun 2, 2026

Projectile Science: The Physics Behind Kicking a Field Goal by Matthew Brenden Wood

4.6

Projectile Science: The Physics Behind Kicking a Field Goal and Launching a Rocket with Science Activities for Kids by Matthew Brenden Wood, illustrated by Tom Casteel, is a STEAM-focused nonfiction title from Nomad Press targeting readers ages 10 to 15. It unpacks the physics of ballistics — from three-pointers and field goals to rocket trajectories — through hands-on science activities, essential questions, and real-world examples. Barnes & Noble's product listing notes it as "an extremely readable yet factually accurate account of mechanics and its applications to projectiles," and it sits within Nomad Press's four-title Technology for Today set alongside titles on industrial design, big data, and artificial intelligence.

Jun 6, 2026

The Inner Life of Cats: The Science by Thomas McNamee

4.6

The Inner Life of Cats: The Science and Secrets of Our Mysterious Feline Companions by Thomas McNamee is a work of popular science that weaves rigorous scientific reportage with personal anecdotes centered on McNamee's own cat, Augusta, to explore what research has uncovered about feline cognition, emotion, and behavior — and what it means for the humans who share their lives with cats.

Jun 4, 2026

Cold Lake (David Wolf Mystery Thriller Series Book 5) by Jeff Carson

4.5

Cold Lake is the fifth entry in Jeff Carson's David Wolf Mystery Thriller Series, published by Cross Atlantic Publishing in November 2014. Sheriff David Wolf is pulled into a cold case his own father failed to solve twenty-two years earlier, racing against unknown adversaries determined to keep the truth buried — literally. Readers who enjoy small-town procedural thrillers with personal stakes woven into the investigation will find this installment a strong continuation of the series.

Zak George's Dog Training Revolution: The Complete Guide to Raising the Perfect Pet by Zak George, Dina Roth Port

4.5

Zak George's Dog Training Revolution is a thorough, chapter-by-chapter guide to raising and training a dog, co-written by YouTube personality and Animal Planet trainer Zak George and award-winning journalist Dina Roth Port, and published by Ten Speed Press in 2016. The book covers everything from choosing the right dog to troubleshooting common behavioral problems, all within a positive-reinforcement framework. This review is based on published sources and reception from named outlets, not hands-on use.

Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter

4.5

Lynn Painter's Better Than the Movies is a young adult romance novel that follows Liz Buxbaum, a romcom-obsessed high schooler who enlists her lifelong frenemy and next-door neighbor Wes Bennett to help win her long-term crush Michael — only to find her feelings shifting in an unexpected direction. Originally published by Simon & Schuster in May 2021 and reissued in paperback in July 2022, the novel became a BookTok phenomenon and has spent 40 months on the New York Times Young Adult Paperback Best Seller List as of March 2026. Critics called it a "charming, fluffy concoction" that packs every conceivable romcom trope into one plot, while School critics praised its quippy banter and lovable characters. A sequel, Nothing Like the Movies, was released in 2024, and a Netflix film adaptation was announced in May 2026.

Jun 2, 2026

Angle of Repose (Pulitzer Prize Winner) by Wallace Stegner

4.4

First published in 1971 and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1972, Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose is a structurally ambitious novel that layers a wheelchair-bound historian's present-day reckoning with his own fractured life against a deeply researched portrait of frontier America — and it remains one of the most celebrated works in the American literary canon, ranked #82 on the Modern Library's list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Its sweep, its dual-timeline architecture, and the ethical controversy surrounding its source material make it a book that rewards serious engagement — and equally serious scrutiny.

THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (illustrated, complete, and unabridged) by VICTOR HUGO

4.4

Victor Hugo's 1831 French Gothic novel — originally titled Notre-Dame de Paris — is a cornerstone of world literature, centering on the deformed bell-ringer Quasimodo, the Romani street dancer Esmeralda, and the obsessive Archdeacon Claude Frollo against the vivid backdrop of 15th-century Paris. This Kindle edition presents the text as complete and unabridged, making it a substantive entry point to a novel considered a classic of French literature. Its ambitions run far beyond a love triangle: Hugo designed the work as a sustained argument for the preservation of Gothic architecture and France's cultural heritage, and readers who come expecting a streamlined narrative will encounter something richer, stranger, and more architecturally digressive than the story's many film adaptations imply.

Jun 2, 2026

The Woman in the Woods (Dean Steele Mystery Thriller) by A.J. Rivers

4.3

The Woman in the Woods launches the Dean Steele Mystery Thriller series with a high-stakes premise: a private investigator who has suffered memory lapses since childhood wakes up beside a dead woman he cannot identify, with no recollection of how he got there — and then the body vanishes. Published independently in September 2022, this series opener stacks personal vulnerability against professional peril, building a mystery in which the detective is simultaneously investigator and suspect.

Flights by Olga Tokarczuk

4.1

Flights — originally published in Polish as Bieguni in 2007 and translated into English by Jennifer Croft — is a fragmentary novel by Olga Tokarczuk that won the Man Booker International Prize in 2018, the first time a Polish author received the award. Structured as 116 short pieces narrated by a nameless female traveller, the book weaves fiction, memoir, philosophical digression, and cultural anthropology into a sustained meditation on travel, mobility, and the human body. Major outlets including critical coverage and Kirkus Reviews praised it as both a literary achievement and an ideal entry point into Tokarczuk's work, though critics have also noted that its recursive, theme-heavy architecture can tip into abstraction.

James A Novel (Hardcover) Book by Percival Everett

Percival Everett's James, published by Doubleday in 2024, retells Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of the enslaved Jim — recast as a secretly literate, deeply calculating man performing ignorance for survival — and swept the major literary awards of its year, winning the National Book Award for Fiction, the 2024 Kirkus Prize, and the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Jun 6, 2026