Legumes have been branded as ‘slow runners’ due to their marginal growth in yield and production. Soybean and groundnut are exceptions. This book's primary focus is to have a comprehensive review of the latest literature on the breeding of food legumes. Eighty-three authors from 18 countries have contributed 26 chapters. The editors could have organised the contents of the book better to have smooth information flow. For example, the first two chapters, history, origin, evolution and domestication could have been combined to avoid duplication. Breeding for improvement of cool season, warm season, biotic stresses, abiotic stresses, protein content and nutritional quality could have been in successive chapters. Similarly, all molecular-related topics could have been organised in sequence to provide continuity. Methodologies such as wide hybridisation, polyploidy, micropropagation, haploidy and mutagenesis could have been in one group. Plant genetic resources could have been placed after the biology of food legumes. Soybean and the mention of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault of the Global Crop Diversity Trust and the food legumes are missing in the plant genetic resources.

The book is a mixed bag of some excellent chapters, while others are marginal. There is redundancy in the contents among chapters. References for the claims are either missing or unsubstantiated. There are errors in preface, chapter 1 and several other places. Better copyediting would have improved this book considerably.