Book Reviews

4.8

Published by Nomad Press in April 2021 as part of the Inquire & Investigate series, this illustrated nonfiction title for readers ages 12–15 guides young learners from the moment of the Big Bang through the large-scale structure and eventual fate of the universe, pairing content with hands-on STEM activities and research projects throughout.

Truly: An Inspirational Journey Through the Life of by Lionel Richie

4.7

Published by HarperOne on September 30, 2025, Truly is the long-awaited memoir of pop legend Lionel Richie — a candid, deeply personal account of his journey from a shy, anxious childhood in Tuskegee, Alabama, to global superstardom. Kirkus Reviews calls it "wildly entertaining, utterly charming," and the book lives up to that billing by blending music history, personal revelation, and an infectious spirit of gratitude across its nearly 500 pages.

Betty Crocker Lost Recipes: Beloved Vintage Recipes for Today's Kitchen by Betty Crocker

4.6

Published by Harvest in October 2017, Betty Crocker Lost Recipes is a cookbook that rescues from-scratch American classics — hot crab dip, applesauce doughnuts, Waldorf salad, slow cooker sauerbraten beef, and more — from the margins of modern cooking, pairing them with archival stories, anecdotes, and artwork from Betty Crocker's history. This review assesses the book's content, organisation, and reception from published sources, not a kitchen test.

The Bronze Bow: A Newbery Award Winner – A Novel About Hate, Revenge, by Elizabeth George Speare

4.6

Elizabeth George Speare's The Bronze Bow is a Newbery Medal–winning historical fiction novel set in first-century Galilee, following Daniel bar Jamin — a young Jew consumed by hatred for the Roman Empire — whose encounter with Jesus of Nazareth forces him to confront whether vengeance or love will define his life. Originally published in 1961 and reissued by Clarion Books, it remains a staple of middle-grade historical fiction and classroom reading.

Inside Out: A Memoir of Entering by Alexandra Stein

4.6

Alexandra Stein's Inside Out is a memoir documenting her recruitment into, life inside, and eventual escape from a secretive Minneapolis political cult known as the O — a rare firsthand account praised by major voices in both literary and academic circles for its passion, insight, and unflinching honesty.

Apr 28, 2026

Chaos: Making a New Science by James Gleick

4.5

James Gleick's Chaos: Making a New Science is the book that brought chaos theory out of specialist journals and into the public imagination — a New York Times bestseller, a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and, according to Wikipedia, the first popular book ever written on the subject.

The Principles of Creation: The Underlying Spiritual Forces to Guide Life, from by Tejas Hiremani

4.3

The Principles of Creation by Tejas Hiremani is a self-published spiritual nonfiction work that distills seven timeless principles — spirit, freedom, karma, dharma, purpose, mortality, and truth — into a unified framework intended to guide readers from inner peace to broader questions of humanity's technological and civilizational future.

Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

4.2

Coco Mellors' debut novel follows Frank, a successful Manhattan ad executive with a worsening drinking problem, and Cleo, an aspiring British painter twenty years his junior, who meet on New Year's Eve and are married six months later — a whirlwind union that slowly unravels under the weight of infidelity, addiction, and unresolved childhood wounds. Published by Bloomsbury, the novel is both an intimate portrait of a damaged marriage and a satirical panorama of downtown New York's creative class. Publishers Weekly called it "involving if strained," while the Evening Standard described being "intensely consumed" by its world — a tension that captures the book's essential duality: genuinely magnetic at its core, inconsistent at its edges.

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

4.0

Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead is a co-recipient of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and winner of the 2023 Women's Prize for Fiction — a sweeping, Dickens-inspired novel that transplants the story of David Copperfield to the opioid-ravaged hills of Appalachian Virginia, following red-haired Damon Fields from a squalid foster system through the devastating grip of addiction.

The Compound: A GMA Book Club Pick: A Novel by Aisling Rawle

3.7

Aisling Rawle's debut novel The Compound is a GMA Book Club Pick published by Random House (June 24, 2025) that drops protagonist Lily into a high-stakes reality show on a remote desert compound, using the ruthless logic of competition television to dissect desire, desperation, capitalism, and the collapsing world beyond the cameras. Named a Best Book of the Year by critical coverage, critical coverage, Oprah Daily, Good Housekeeping, The Globe and Mail, and Chicago Public Library, it arrives as one of the most decorated debut novels of its season — a propulsive literary thriller with genuine cultural teeth.

Strangers Again: A Memoir of Marriage, Betrayal, and Becoming Whole by Sam Joe

Strangers Again: A Memoir of Marriage, Betrayal, and Becoming Whole is an independently published memoir by Sam Joe, released in 2026, chronicling a personal journey through marriage breakdown, betrayal, and self-reconstruction — a compact, intimate account offered directly to readers outside traditional publishing channels.

Popular Philosophy by Siqi Ai

Ai Siqi's Popular Philosophy is a foundational text of Chinese Marxist thought, originally written in the 1930s and now made available to English-language readers in a translation by Lili Tao, published by Cosmos Publishing Group INC. Structured across five chapters covering materialism, epistemology, and dialectics, the book was designed to bring Marxist philosophy within reach of ordinary readers using plain, vivid language — a mission that earned it an enduring place in twentieth-century Chinese intellectual history.