Book Reviews

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

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

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 Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison and John Jay

The Federalist Papers is a collection of 85 essays written between October 1787 and May 1788 by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay — published under the pseudonym "Publius" — to persuade New Yorkers to ratify the proposed United States Constitution. Originally serialized in New York newspapers, the essays remain an authoritative analysis of constitutional government and an enduring landmark of political philosophy, consulted by courts and scholars alike when interpreting the framers' intent.

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

4.7

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

4.7

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.

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.

Cathedral by Raymond Carver

4.5

Raymond Carver's Cathedral is a short story collection widely regarded as one of the defining achievements in American short fiction — a finalist for the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the work in which Carver's signature minimalism opened into something warmer and more expansive. The Vintage reissue keeps this essential collection in print and in reach of new generations of readers.

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.

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

4.4

Thirteen Reasons Why is a young adult novel by Jay Asher, first published in 2007, that follows Clay Jensen as he listens to a series of cassette tapes left behind by his deceased classmate Hannah Baker, each one naming one of the thirteen people she holds responsible for her suicide. The novel became a New York Times bestseller and a widely discussed — and debated — touchstone of contemporary young adult fiction, later adapted as a Netflix original series.

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.