Book Reviews

4.8

Profit First, reissued by Portfolio in 2017, presents Mike Michalowicz's counter-intuitive financial framework for small-business owners: take profit out first, then operate on what remains. Drawing on case studies, step-by-step guidance, and Michalowicz's characteristic humor, the book is designed to replace the conventional revenue-minus-expenses accounting model with a behaviorally driven system built around predetermined profit percentages. This review is based on published sources and the book's documented contents — not hands-on application of the method.

Jul 2, 2026

Ingredienti: Marcella's Guide to the Market (A Cookbook Bestseller) by Marcella Hazan, Victor Hazan

4.6

Ingredienti is Marcella Hazan's final gift to the kitchen — a compact, authoritative guide to selecting, storing, and using the fresh produce, pantry staples, and salumi at the heart of Italian cooking, assembled from her handwritten notebooks by her husband and longtime collaborator Victor Hazan and published by Scribner in 2016. Critical coverage calls it "an indispensable reference volume for professional and home cooks," and chef Daniel Boulud names it "a timeless reference for any serious home cook." This review assesses the book's content, organisation, and published reception, not a kitchen test.

Jul 3, 2026

Marcus Aurelius - Meditations: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader (Greek by Marcus Aurelius

4.6

James Harris's adaptation of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations brings one of antiquity's most revered philosophical texts into a form designed for modern readers, preserving the private Stoic reflections of a Roman emperor while reshaping the language for contemporary accessibility — a worthy entry point for those new to Stoic philosophy, though readers seeking scholarly rigor may prefer a traditional critical edition.

Jun 29, 2026

Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek

4.6

Simon Sinek's Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action argues that the most influential leaders and organizations in history succeed not because of what they do or how they do it, but because they are clear about why they do it — and that clarity, communicated outward, is what drives genuine inspiration over manipulation. Originally published in hardcover in 2009 and reissued in a paperback edition with a new preface and afterword by Portfolio in 2011, the book draws on case studies including Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Jobs, John F. Kennedy, and Apple to build its central framework: the Golden Circle. According to NPD BookScan data, it ranked as the bestselling leadership book by printed paperback copies sold in the mid-2016 to mid-2017 period. Business readers, aspiring leaders, and professionals in sales and organizational culture represent the book's core audience, though those seeking granular operational tools may find the framework's broad scope a limitation.

Great Circle: A Read with Jenna Pick: A Novel (Man by Maggie Shipstead

Great Circle is a sweeping literary novel by New York Times-bestselling author Maggie Shipstead — a Booker Prize finalist and Women's Prize for Fiction nominee hailed as a masterpiece by critics and named one of the best books of the year by TIME, NPR, the Washington Post, and others. Its dual-timeline structure follows Marian Graves, a fictional aviator pursuing a pole-to-pole circumnavigation, alongside a present-day Hollywood actress preparing to portray her on screen. The novel is praised for its meticulous research, emotional depth, and the kind of sprawling ambition rare in contemporary fiction — though its very scale makes it demanding reading.

Jun 29, 2026

The Things We Never Say: A Novel by Elizabeth Strout

Elizabeth Strout's eleventh novel, published by Random House on May 5, 2026, marks a deliberate departure from her celebrated interconnected Maine universe, introducing a new protagonist — 57-year-old Artie Dam — and exploring male loneliness, the weight of secrets, and the slow, painful work of honest self-knowledge in a compact, scene-driven narrative set in Massachusetts.

Twenty Years Later: A Riveting New Thriller by Charlie Donlea

Twenty Years Later is a cold-case thriller from Charlie Donlea — a USA Today, IndieBound, and #1 internationally bestselling author — in which a TV reporter hiding her own dark past pursues the truth behind a gruesome murder that investigators walked away from two decades earlier. Published by Kensington, the novel earns praise from critical coverage for its "breathtaking pacing and clever plot twists," and from critical coverage for being "excellent" and "propulsive," cementing Donlea's reputation as a master of tightly wound, twist-driven suspense.

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J. D. Vance

J. D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy is a memoir that traces his family's roots in the Appalachian hills of Kentucky through to the socioeconomic struggles of Middletown, Ohio — a book that became a genuine cultural touchstone, spending more than a year on The New York Times bestseller list, and that remains as contested as it is widely read.

When The Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker

When the Moon Hatched is a New York Times bestselling new adult romantasy and the first book in Sarah A. Parker's Moonfall series — a richly imagined world where the calcified bodies of deceased dragons become the moons overhead, and where those moons occasionally crash back to earth in a catastrophic event known as a moonfall. The German-language hardcover edition was published by Penguin Verlag in July 2024, bringing Parker's debut to German-speaking readers under the Moonfall-Serie banner. The novel follows Raeve, an assassin fighting for the Fíur du Ath rebels against the tyranny of The Fade, and Kaan Vaegor, a grief-stricken ruler on a relentless search for a moonshard, whose path leads him to a notorious prison — and to a discovery that reshapes everything he believes. The book has earned significant acclaim for its world-building and emotional depth, though some readers find its pacing deliberately slow.

World's Greatest Classics (Call of the Wild; Frankenstein; The Art of War; The Great Gatsby; Sense and Sensibility; The Importance of Being Earnest; The by Jack London, Sun Tzu, Jane Austen

4.2

Published by Fingerprint in August 2023, World's Greatest Classics is a boxed set gathering ten canonical works — spanning adventure, gothic horror, military philosophy, social satire, romance, and poetry — into a single paperback collection designed for readers who want a broad, genre-crossing foundation in world literature.

Venture Capital Investing

Venture Capital Investing addresses the practice of investing in small- and medium-sized businesses from the investor's perspective, covering venture capital and leveraged buyout scenarios. The book is directed at venture capitalists, LBO fund professionals, angel investors, and private investors. I

Jul 4, 2026

She Who Holds the Wind

She Who Holds the Wind follows Birgit, a woman who returns to San Aluna, a desert town in the borderlands of southern Arizona, this time with the intention of putting down roots. The narrative centers on her experience of a place where memory, ritual, and daily life appear inseparable, and on her re

Jul 4, 2026