Book Reviews

From Crook to Cook: Platinum Recipes from Tha Boss Dogg's Kitchen is a New York Times bestselling cookbook from Snoop Dogg, published by Chronicle Books in October 2018, that pairs soul food recipes and personal stories from one of hip-hop's most iconic figures. This review assesses the book's content, structure, and reception from published sources — not a kitchen test.

The Science of Cooking: Every Question Answered to Perfect Your Cooking (The by Dr. Stuart Farrimond

Dr. Stuart Farrimond's The Science of Cooking: Every Question Answered to Perfect Your Cooking, published by DK in 2017, is a food-science reference book structured as a Q&A guide covering more than 160 culinary questions across all major food categories — from meat and poultry to eggs, grains, and vegetables. Designed for curious home cooks who want the reasoning behind recipes, not just the steps, it pairs practical technique instruction with scientific explanation. This review assesses the book's content, organisation, and reception from published sources and publisher materials — not from a kitchen test.

Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert A Caro

Robert A. Caro's Master of the Senate is the third volume in his ongoing multi-book biography The Years of Lyndon Johnson, winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. It chronicles Lyndon B. Johnson's tenure in the United States Senate from 1949 to 1960 — his rise from freshman senator to Senate majority leader — and his pivotal role in passing the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first such legislation since the Reconstruction era. Combining exhaustive institutional history with granular political biography, the book stands as one of the most ambitious works of American political nonfiction ever published.

The Official Game of Thrones Cookbook: Recipes from King's Landing to the Dothraki Sea by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel

Chelsea Monroe-Cassel's The Official Game of Thrones Cookbook (Random House Worlds, May 2024) collects eighty recipes drawn from the world of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, framed as the in-world manuscript of a Citadel maester and introduced by Martin himself — a satisfying convergence of worldbuilding and culinary craft for dedicated fans of the franchise.

The 48 Laws Of Power by Robert Greene

4.7

Robert Greene's The 48 Laws of Power distills three thousand years of historical power dynamics into 48 discrete laws, drawing on the philosophies of Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, and Carl Von Clausewitz alongside case studies from figures ranging from Henry Kissinger to P.T. Barnum. A New York Times bestseller that has sold over 1.2 million copies in the United States and been translated into 24 languages, it remains one of the most discussed and debated self-help books of its era — celebrated for its historical breadth and condemned in equal measure for its unapologetically amoral worldview.

Living in the Present with John Prine by Tom Piazza

4.7

Tom Piazza's Living in the Present with John Prine, published by W. W. Norton & Company in September 2025 with a foreword by Fiona Whelan Prine, is a national bestseller that blends first-person journalism, oral history, travelogue, and elegy into a compact but resonant portrait of one of American music's most beloved singer-songwriters. Born from a 2016 Oxford American magazine profile and a friendship cut short by Prine's death from COVID-19 complications in 2020, the book is an honest, warmly received tribute that Kirkus Reviews calls "a heartfelt blend of first-person journalism, oral history, travelogue, and elegy."

History's Strangest Mysteries: An Investigation For Young Readers (Adventures in History) by Rex Langley

4.6

Rex Langley's History's Strangest Mysteries: An Investigation For Young Readers delivers an episodic, investigation-themed journey through some of history's most enduring unsolved puzzles — from the Bermuda Triangle and the Wow! Signal to the Ghost Ship Octavius and the Money Pit of Oak Island — structured as fast-paced chapter-length case files designed to develop critical thinking in readers aged nine and up.

All the President's Men by Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein

4.5

First published in 1974, All the President's Men is the definitive non-fiction account of how two Washington Post reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, unraveled the Watergate scandal — a story that reached from a June 1972 break-in at the Watergate Office Building all the way to the upper echelons of the Nixon White House. Gene Roberts, former executive editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer and former managing editor of critical coverage, has called their reporting "maybe the single greatest reporting effort of all time," and the book that captures it remains one of the most important works of American journalism ever committed to print.

The Beekeeper of Aleppo: A Novel by Christy Lefteri

4.4

Christy Lefteri's second novel, The Beekeeper of Aleppo, follows Syrian couple Nuri and Afra Ibrahim across a shattered Europe in 2015, anchoring one of the defining humanitarian crises of the decade in an intimate, three-timeline narrative. Winner of the 2020 Aspen Words Literary Prize and a Sunday Times bestselling paperback, it has sold over a million copies internationally — numbers that reflect both its critical standing and the breadth of its readership.

First Lie Wins: Reese's Book Club: A Novel by Ashley Elston

4.3

Ashley Elston's adult debut novel First Lie Wins is a tightly constructed psychological thriller built around Evie Porter — a woman whose entire existence is a fabrication — and the high-stakes game of identity, deception, and morally gray choices that defines her life. A New York Times bestseller and Reese's Book Club pick, the novel earned praise from major outlets for its intricate plotting and relentless pace, making it a strong recommendation for readers who prize unpredictability in their suspense fiction.

The Story of Philosophy: Lives, Ideas by Will Durant, Original Thinkers Institute

4.2

Will Durant's The Story of Philosophy, first published in 1926 and revised in 1933, remains one of the most enduring popular introductions to Western philosophy, profiling thinkers from Plato and Aristotle through Nietzsche, Bergson, Russell, and Dewey — tracing not just their ideas but the lives and historical conditions that shaped them. The edition under review (ASIN B0CLL5XDCR) is a Kindle release published by Grapevine in October 2023, co-credited to the Original Thinkers Institute. Critical coverage called the work "a delight," and its place as a foundational text of accessible philosophy writing is well established — though its exclusive focus on Western, predominantly European and American thinkers is a documented limitation Durant himself acknowledged.

Kingdom of the Feared (Kingdom of the Wicked) by Kerri Maniscalco

4.2

Kingdom of the Feared closes out Kerri Maniscalco's Kingdom of the Wicked fantasy romance trilogy with a sin-fueled murder mystery, escalating supernatural warfare, and the culmination of Emilia and Wrath's enemies-to-lovers arc — delivering the shocking twists and dark romance the series built toward, even as its crowded plot tests readers' patience.