Author: John H. Sailhamer
Publisher: Zondervan
Why I like it: Sailhamer does a great job of pulling you up from an overly technical study of the Torah into the underlying narratives. A good switch for me in reading this one was to start looking at how the laws in Leviticus-Deuteronomy serve the narrative (the story of how YHWH relates to humans and what it means to reflect His image and associate with His holiness) vs. just being a communication of a law code.
It won’t scratch every itch you have for details, but it’s a great place to start to make sure we’re actually asking the right questions of the text.