If its subject were less illustrious, this memoir would probably receive little attention.

This is very good, with an unusual proviso; this narrative has more routine everyday mountain climbing than anything I've read.

The 19th century novels I still like give a strong sense of demanding to be read aloud to an audience. But by 1950, I would say, that lingering expectation of how a novel delivers had changed, in most languages and even most genres.

All sorts of unexpected, unsettling things happen in these 30 short stories. In Phoenix, Arizona, jobless Victor heads south with his nation's worst-ever storyteller to reclaim parental remains.

This fishing fleet has nothing to do with cod or snapper. It’s a witty, whimsical account of the boatloads of British belles, who, from the mid-18th century to the mid-20th century, were shipped out to India to marry English males.

Compare these two statements. "If the foreign forces are ready to leave our country ... then we can help them. But if they insist on continuing the war, we don't have any other way than fighting." An Afghan warlord, speaking in 2009.

The premise of New Finnish Grammar is inspired: a wounded soldier is found by a German crew on the quay at Trieste in September, 1943. He has no identification on him, no memory whatsoever and, crucially, no language.

Steve Braunias' collection of travel essays on 'places no one went to' is pure gold.

If you really want to know about Epicurus, this isn't the book.

Recipes from around the world never fail to entrance, whether you are a keen home cook or prefer to pore over the beautiful photos.