I also just started preparing and I first started with the Kaplan Overview Book- strategies, practice, and review book because I thought an overall one would be good to start and then get additional ones to dig in deeper. What I found is that the Kaplan book assumed a basic level of knowledge that I didn't have (for me, in Quant), and even the explanations were confusing to me because I didn't understand the basic rules and concepts. So, after looking at reviews on Amazon, I got a book called "Gmat Hacks" by Jeff Sackman, both Quant and Verbal. I haven't looked at the verbal one yet, but the math one is awesome... it explains every concept in separate chapters, and then gives you easy practice "drills" to test that you get it, and then harder real gmat like questions incorporating it so that you can test it in an actual difficult question that you know how to apply it.
I feel like for me this was an excellent place to start, not that I have any proven results yet!!
Give me Kudos please