Book Reviews

4.9

Julia Donaldson and illustrator Axel Scheffler's The Gruffalo is one of the most beloved and best-selling children's picture books of the modern era, combining a clever trickster narrative, rhythmic rhyming couplets, and a memorably invented monster into a read-aloud experience that has sold over 13.5 million copies worldwide and won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize — a record that speaks for itself.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

4.8

First published in 1989 and reissued in an anniversary edition by Simon & Schuster, Stephen R. Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a foundational business and self-help book that has sold over 40 million copies and was named the #1 Most Influential Business Book of the Twentieth Century — a record that makes it one of the most consequential works in its genre.

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

4.8

Becky Albertalli's debut young adult novel follows Simon Spier, a closeted gay sixteen-year-old whose secret email correspondence with a classmate named Blue is weaponized against him by a blackmailer — a premise that earned the book the American Library Association's William C. Morris Award, a place on the National Book Award Longlist, and a celebrated film adaptation. Kirkus Reviews called it "funny, moving and emotionally wise," and the novel stands as one of the most decorated YA debuts of the past decade.

Wonder by R. J. Palacio

R. J. Palacio's Wonder is a contemporary children's novel published on February 14, 2012, by Knopf Books for Young Readers, following ten-year-old August "Auggie" Pullman — a boy with Treacher Collins syndrome — as he navigates his first year at Beecher Prep after years of homeschooling. A New York Times bestseller that has sold over 16 million copies worldwide and been published in more than fifty languages, it received strong critical praise from outlets including Entertainment Weekly and Common Sense Media, and its message inspired the Choose Kind movement. The multi-perspective structure, which gives voice not only to Auggie but to his sister Via and classmates, is one of its most discussed structural choices; readers who prefer a single narrator may find the shifting viewpoints an adjustment, though many critics consider them a strength. It is designed for readers aged roughly 9–11 and remains one of the most widely assigned middle-grade novels of the past decade.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

V.E. Schwab's The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is a New York Times bestseller published by Tor Books on October 6, 2020, following a young French woman who trades her freedom for immortality only to be cursed so that no one who meets her can ever remember her — a premise that drives a centuries-spanning fantasy novel about legacy, erasure, and the stubborn human will to leave a mark on the world.

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall

Christopher McDougall's Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen is a bestselling work of non-fiction that traces the author's journey into the Mexican Copper Canyons to find the reclusive Tarahumara tribe, weaving together adventure narrative, evolutionary science, and a provocative argument about modern running shoes — a combination that has sold over three million copies and spent more than four months on The New York Times Best Seller list.

Feb 22, 2026

The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, and Long-Term Health by T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell

First published in 2005 and expanded in a 2016 revised edition from BenBella Books, The China Study by T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell is one of America's best-selling books about nutrition, making a forceful case that a whole-food, plant-based diet can help people escape, reduce, or reverse a wide range of chronic diseases — a claim that has driven both widespread adoption and sustained scientific debate.

Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness by Jon Kabat-Zinn

First published in 1990 and substantially revised in 2013, Jon Kabat-Zinn's Full Catastrophe Living is widely regarded as a defining text in mind-body medicine and the secular mindfulness movement, offering a comprehensive guide to the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program he developed at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center's Stress Reduction Clinic. The book covers the full eight-week MBSR curriculum — from body scan and mindfulness of breathing to mindful hatha yoga and walking meditation — while also surveying scientific research on the benefits of mindfulness for chronic pain, stress, and illness. With a preface by Thich Nhat Hanh and a scope that spans medical symptoms, emotional disturbance, work pressure, and relationship stress, this revised edition remains the essential reference for anyone serious about mindfulness as a clinical and personal practice.

The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli

Machiavelli's The Prince is a 16th-century political treatise — composed in 1513 and first published posthumously in 1532 — that has endured for half a millennium as one of the most controversial and consequential works in the history of political thought, offering a bracingly pragmatic guide to acquiring and holding power.

Feb 22, 2026

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson

Walter Isaacson's Benjamin Franklin: An American Life is a comprehensive biography of Benjamin Franklin — statesman, scientist, printer, and Founding Father — that traces the full arc of his remarkable life while arguing for his enduring relevance to American identity, pragmatism, and political thought.

Feb 22, 2026

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

Adam Silvera's third novel — originally published September 5, 2017, by HarperTeen — is a young adult romance that follows two teenage boys, Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio, through the single day they have left to live after receiving calls from Death-Cast, a company that predicts its clients' imminent deaths. A #BookTok phenomenon that returned to The New York Times Best Seller list in 2020, the novel earned four starred reviews and a wide sweep of year-end honors, cementing its place as one of the defining YA novels of its era.

Roman History: A Captivating Guide to Ancient Rome, Including the Roman Republic, the Roman Empire and the Byzantium by Captivating History

4.4

Captivating History's Roman History: A Captivating Guide to Ancient Rome, Including the Roman Republic, the Roman Empire and the Byzantium is a three-part popular history guide covering Roman civilisation from its mythological foundations through the Republic and Empire to the final days of the Byzantine state. Published in 2018 via CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform as part of the Exploring Rome's Past series, it is designed to give general readers a compact overview of more than a thousand years of history without the density of academic textbooks. The breadth of its scope — from Romulus and Remus to Constantine Dragases at the fall of Constantinople — is its defining feature, and that same breadth naturally limits how deep it can go on any single period or figure.