Boss Pearl
$20/month — the full library on Patreon.
- Start free — 7-day trial, no charge for the first week
- Every collection, by drug & diagnosis
- Psychopharm deep dives and Case Crunch challenges
- Both books below included free with membership
The Shelf Behind the Podcast
NP Z's Most Recommended Resources
To pass your boards — and to be ready on day one for your first patient. Every book open on NP Z's desk, and the prep tools he built himself. The shelf is short on purpose: every item earns its place. Your exam date is already on the calendar — build the shelf your future patients are counting on.
A note on links: Some links below are affiliate links — if you buy through them, Pearls and Prep earns a small commission at no extra cost to you. NP Z only lists resources he actually uses and teaches from.
Start Here
From Pearls and Prep
Built by NP Z for PMHNP students and new grads — confidence for boards, and for the first patient who sits down across from you.
BOARD BOMBS™
$49.99 — one-time download, no membership needed.
- 250 PMHNP board-style questions
- Full rationale for every answer — right AND wrong
- Written the way NP Z teaches: the WHY, not just the key
- Free for Boss Pearl & Simulation Lab members
100 Psychiatric Interview Tips
$39.99 — one-time download, no membership needed.
- The must-have before you see your first patient
- Rapport, structure, and the questions that unlock a real history
- Free for Boss Pearl & Simulation Lab members
Board Prep Bundle
$74.99 — both books together.
- BOARD BOMBS™ 250 Questions + 100 Psychiatric Interview Tips
- Boards and the interview, covered in one purchase
- Instant download, yours forever
The Desk Shelf
The Textbooks NP Z Teaches From
Seven references cover nearly every question the episodes answer. Each card says plainly who it's for — buy in the order your stage demands.
Psychopharmacology · The Why
Stahl's Essential Psychopharmacology
The mechanism book. When a question starts with why — why this drug works, why it stopped working, why that side effect shows up — the answer lives here. Read it to think in receptors and circuits, not brand names. This is the foundation under every med episode on the show.
Get this book on Amazon →Psychopharmacology · The Desk Copy
Prescriber's Guide: Stahl's Essential Psychopharmacology
The companion you open mid-clinic-day: dosing, titration, switching, side-effect management, and special populations for every psychotropic you will actually prescribe. If Essential Psychopharmacology is the why, this is the how — keep it within arm's reach of your prescription pad.
Get this book on Amazon →Diagnosis · The Shared Language
DSM-5-TR
Non-negotiable. Boards test these criteria, charts require them, and every differential on the show starts here. Learn the criteria cold — then learn where clinical judgment has to carry you past them. Own the current text revision; older printings will quietly cost you points.
Get this book on Amazon →Interviewing · The First Fifteen Minutes
The Psychiatric Interview
For the encounter itself: rapport, the history, the mental status exam, and the phrasing that gets patients to tell you the truth. If your knowledge is solid but your interviews wander, this is the fix — short, practical, and written for real rooms with real people.
Get this book on Amazon →The Whole Field · Depth Check
Kaplan & Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry
All of psychiatry between two covers — behavioral science through treatment, across the lifespan. Reach for it when a presentation doesn't fit the usual boxes, or when you want the deep background behind a diagnosis you only half-know. The reference your preceptors grew up on, fully reorganized.
Get this book on Amazon →Prescribing · The Evidence Referee
The Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines in Psychiatry
When two sources disagree about a prescribing decision, Maudsley usually settles it. Drug choice, switching, augmentation, plasma levels, prescribing in pregnancy, renal and hepatic impairment — every recommendation referenced to its evidence. The prescriber's tiebreaker.
Get this book on Amazon →Treatment Sequencing · "Now What?"
Psychopharmacology Algorithms
Clinical guidance from the Psychopharmacology Algorithm Project at the Harvard South Shore program. Thirteen step-by-step algorithms that answer the hardest prescribing question — first-line failed; now what? — with the evidence graded at every node. For the clinician past the basics.
Get this book on Amazon →