Statistical Mechanics: Few introductory books and papers

Some books and papers that I recommend in my statistical mechanics courses at undergrad and grad level. For more, see Statistical Mechanics: Resources.

Books

Böttcher, L.; Herrmann, H. J. (2021) Computational Statistical Physics, Cambridge University Press

Kennett, M. P. (2020) Essential Statistical Physics, 1st ed.; Cambridge University Press

Böttcher's and Kennett's are two beginner friendly, undergrad-level recent books covering computational and theoretical aspects of statistical mechanics.

Reif, F. Statistical Physics: Berkeley Physics Course, Vol. 5; Mcgraw-Hill College, 1967.

Huang, K. (1987). Statistical mechanics (2nd ed). Wiley.

Broad yet concise. The chapter on the general properties of the partition function has a nice discussion on the zeroes of the partition function and connections to phase transition.

Entropy

Styer, D. Entropy as Disorder: History of a Misconception. The Physics Teacher 2019, 57 (7), 454–458.

Bhattacharjee, S. M. Entropy and Perpetual Computers. arXiv October 29, 2003.

Bhattacharjee, J. K. Entropy à La Boltzmann. Resonance 2001, 6 (9), 19–34.

Baez, J. C. What Is Entropy? arXiv September 13, 2024.

Much more detailed than the ones listed so far.