Books news, reviews and author interviews | Books

Webfeed

Editors' picks

- The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
  
  Review: Adam Roberts enjoys an absorbing collaborative effort from two giants of SF
- Room for London: Maya Jasanoff
  
  Podcast: Maya Jasanoff talks about her stay in the Room for London, and reads her essay about the experience
- Jon McGregor: My desktop
  
  The winner of the 2012 Impac prize explains why his wallpaper is a picture of his bike saddle - and why he always backs up his photos
- Too many literary prize-winners put on the laurels of diplomats and social scientists. Ms Walker has done herself proud as a writer. Enough said!
  entEmesTeller
  commenting on Alice Walker turns down Israeli edition of The Color Purple
- How rural writing inspired the Olympic opening ceremony
  
  Jamie Andrews: Danny Boyle's choreography celebrates a literary conception of the British countryside
- Jeffery Deaver: 'I like one-on-one terror'
  
  Video: The thriller-writer talks to Jonathan Freedland about his forthcoming Lincoln Rhyme book - and how he goes about creating a sense of fear
  - Video: Deaver reads from his latest book, XO
- Geek culture wars: women fight back
  
  Damien Walter: The makers of Game of Thrones and Grimdark novels must realise they're not just catering for a bearded audience
- Myra Hindley: a new chapter
  
  Interview: Jean Rafferty tells Deborah Orr why she was compelled to write a novel based on the imagined release of Myra Hindley
- New John Fowles poems published
  
  News: Deciphered over five years from rescued papers, poems throw a fascinating light on reserved author
- Colm Tóibín: Joyce's Dublin
  
  To mark Bloomsday Colm Tóibín revisits the city that has become a sacred place to Joyce lovers
  - Ulysses on the radio: how was it?
  - From the archive: Ulysses reviews
- Gitta Sereny 1921-2012
  
  Obituary: Writer and journalist known for her books on Mary Bell and members of the Third Reich, she strove to understand the nature of evil
  - News: Gitta Sereny dies at 91
- Out in paperback
  
  Paperback Q&A: Stella Tillyard on Tides of War
  
  Stella Tillyard explains how she moved from non-fiction to the world of the imagination
  - Tides of War by Stella Tillyard – paperback review
- Fold by Tom Campbell
  
  Nicholas Lezard's paperback choice: It's time to relax with a few hands of poker
- The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq
  
  Archive review: Alex ClarkMichel Houellebecq may have 'relapsed into charcuterie', but he's still a great read
- The English Lakes: A History by Ian Thompson
  
  Paperback brief: PD Smith An evocative history of one of England's most beautiful areas
- The Happy Numbers of Julius Miles by Jim Keeble
  
  Paperback brief: James Smart on a novel which brings multicultural London to life
- Swimming Home by Deborah Levy and Tom McCarthy
  
  Reader review: Stpauli on a smart and unsettling novel

Latest news

Andrew Sarris, influential film critic, dies aged 83

20 Jun 2012: Andrew Sarris, the American writer who popularised auteur theory, championed Alfred Hitchcock and had a print feud with Pauline Kael, has died in New York
Children's books

Pop Up Festival of Stories makes a noise about children's books

20 Jun 2012:
Children's illustrators, writers and poets are descending on London for a free two-day festival that includes a Roald Dahl disco and a Jacqueline Wilson quiz
Sebastian Barry wins Walter Scott prize

19 Jun 2012: The Irish writer's novel On Canaan's Side has won the 2012 award for historical fiction set at least 60 years in the past, writes Alison Flood

More books news

Regular series

Damien Walter's weird things 1 day ago

Women are fighting back in the battle for geek culture

Damien Walter: Geek culture is growing, and the makers of Game of Thrones, Catwoman and Grimdark novels must realise they're not just catering for a bearded audience
Nicholas Lezard's choice 1 day ago

Fold by Tom Campbell – review

Nicholas Lezard finds it's time to relax with a few hands of poker
Paperback Q&A 1 day ago

Paperback Q&A: Stella Tillyard on Tides of War

Stella Tillyard explains how she moved from non-fiction to the world of the imagination
More books series

Latest blogposts

Books blog

Book fairs get a new lease of life

20 Jun 2012:
Faye Lipson: While secondhand bookshops are struggling, book fairs are thriving. Why should this be?
Books blog

Why it's OK that some children think Aslan is a giraffe

19 Jun 2012: Alison Flood: It is depressing that the novels that defined my childhood are now scarcely read – but, let's be honest, Beatrix Potter couldn't write for toffee
Books blog

Live webchat: Carlos Ruiz Zafón

18 Jun 2012:
The author will be here between 1-2pm BST on Tuesday 19 June. Post your questions now

Talking points

- Poster poems: June
  
  Billy Mills: Packed with wild flowers and love trysts, the poetry of June sees many a writer overcome by the exuberance of nature. For others, it's the perfect opportunity to seek the shade

A tragic loss to the world of reasonable and unemotional (century 2000 style) historical and psychological insight. Not frightened to tackle the things and dark places that other people shunned
McCallum
commenting on Gitta Sereny dies at 91

- Tips, links and suggestions: Our review list and what you are reading
  
  Our review list, plus your chance to tell us what you'd like to see covered on the site

Latest Guardian and Observer reviews

Here Comes Everybody by James Fearnley

Alexis Petridis enjoys a memoir of the Pogues and their self-destructive frontman
Missing Out: In Praise of the Unlived Life by Adam Phillips

James Lasdun is both fascinated and frustrated by a mix of lit crit and psychology
2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson

An engaging but often bewildering love story set in a time when much of humanity has escaped an overheated Earth, writes M John Harrison
The Colour of Milk by Nell Leyshon

Carol Birch delights in a richly stylised novel about rural life in 1830
The Man Within My Head by Pico Iyer

An enchanting discussion of 'the parents we never quite know' from an author besotted with Graham Greene, writes Samanth Subramanian
The Old Ways by Robert Macfarlane

Alexandra Harris admires a meditation on pathways that always leads back to the human heart
Banksy: The Man Behind the Wall by Will Ellsworth-Jones

Caught between the art world and the tag painters, Banksy is still an enigma, finds Owen Hatherley
The Deadman's Pedal by Alan Warner

Alan Warner has realised his potential triumphantly, argues Stuart Kelly
Darwin's Ghosts by Rebecca Stott

Was Darwin's theory of evolution merely an idea whose time had come? By Richard Fortey
The Lower River by Paul Theroux

Christopher Hope predicts a stormy reception for Paul Theroux's new novel
Canada by Richard Ford

John Banville on a skilful novel that catches the loneliness of American life
Underground, Overground by Andrew Martin

Will Self has fainted on a platform, been drunk on it and had sex on it – he's in love with the tube
The New Few, or A Very British Oligarchy by Ferdinand Mount

You know you're in trouble when even the Tories say inequality has gone too far. By Ian Jack
Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel

Laura Miller considers a furiously literary memoir from the 'lesbian Woody Allen'
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

Margaret Atwood watches Anne Boleyn's downfall in the sequel to Wolf Hall
In One Person by John Irving

Steven Poole applauds a comic celebration of polymorphous perversity

Latest reader reviews

Pelt
by Sarah Jackson

Reviewed by Canfan
No Rest for the Dead
by Jeff Abbott, Andrew F Gulli (edited by), Lori Armstrong, Sandra Brown, David Baldacci (introduction by) and Lamia J Gulli (edited by)

Reviewed by Lakis
Precocious
by Adam Lowe

Reviewed by peepaltreepress
Maker of Footprints
by Sheila Turner Johnson

Reviewed by Trudyhod
Arabella Parker and the Chinese Snakehead Gangsters
by Ray Murray

Reviewed by SarahJoanne
Darwin's Ghosts: In Search of the First Evolutionists
by Rebecca Stott

Reviewed by DAGDAY
Spit
by Stephen Watt

Reviewed by Paul O'Brien
Lionel Asbo: State of England
by Martin Amis

Reviewed by JConmy
The Marble Orchard
by Sandeep Parmar

Reviewed by EvelineR
Swimming Home
by Deborah Levy (author) and Tom McCarthy (introduction by)

Reviewed by stpauli
Death by Bikini
by Linda Gerber

Reviewed by Texasgirl777
Derilium
by John Stearn

Reviewed by jdavids38
Building Jerusalem: The Rise and Fall of the Victorian City
by Tristram Hunt

Reviewed by julian6
The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot
by Robert Macfarlane

Reviewed by dogboytim
This is How it Ends
by Kathleen MacMahon

Reviewed by msscorpio
The Fifth Woman
by Henning Mankell

Reviewed by nicolassydney
The Pearl
by John Steinbeck

Reviewed by RedBirdFlies
Burton and Swinburne in The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack
by Mark Hodder

Reviewed by acorn01
Pilgrimage of Love
by Anaiya Aon Prakasha

Reviewed by Sarah Rose
The Angels of Atlantis: Twelve Mighty Forces to Transform Your Life Forever
by Stewart Pearce (author) and Richard Crookes (illustrator)

Reviewed by Sarah Rose
Spirit Junkie: A Radical Road to Discovering Self-Love and Miracles
by Gabrielle Bernstein

Reviewed by Sarah Rose
2012: A Clarion Call: Your Soul's Purpose in Conscious Evolution
by Nicolya Christi

Reviewed by Sarah Rose
Whole-Brain Path to Peace: The Role of Left-and Right-Brain Dominance in the Polarization & Reunification of America
by James Olson

Reviewed by Sarah Rose
Choice Point: Align Your Purpose
by Harry Massey, David Hamilton and Sasha Allenby

Reviewed by Sarah Rose
The Storm Before the Calm
by Neale Donald Walsch

Reviewed by Sarah Rose
Deep Truth: Igniting the Memory of Our Origin, History, Destiny and Fate
by Gregg Braden

Reviewed by Sarah Rose
Aleph
by Paulo Coelho

Reviewed by Sarah Rose
Perlmann's Silence
by Pascal Mercier

Reviewed by Nequivocator
3: 41
by Dennis Aiden Lockhart

Reviewed by deeaiden
Azuri Fae
by India Drummond

Reviewed by Jackie25
The Graveyard Book
by Neil Gaiman (author) and Dave McKean (illustrator)

Reviewed by Lakis
The Super Spud Trilogy: 3 Stories in 1 Book
by Michael Diack

Reviewed by adamrobinson85
The Wager
by Edwin Matthews

Reviewed by OliviaFulton
Less Than Nothing: Hegel and the Shadow of Dialectical Materialism
by Slavoj Zizek

Reviewed by Sahirbillalahmmaddar
The Road to Lisbon
by Martin Greig and Charles McGarry

Reviewed by mtait1
The Burqa Master
by Cid Andrenelli

Reviewed by Joseph01899584
The Demon-haunted World
by Carl Sagan

Reviewed by Voiceofferney
The Devil's Tune
by Iain Duncan Smith

Reviewed by Alica Jones
Bomber Jackson Does Some
by Bob Boyton

Reviewed by multigums
Salammbo
by Gustave Flaubert (author) and A.J. Krailsheimer (translator/introduction by)

Reviewed by frustratedartist

See all reader reviews

Latest video

The Antidote by Oliver Burkeman - video animation

Guardian columnist Oliver Burkeman discusses his latest book The Antidote in this video animation about happiness

Find books to review, discuss, buy

Find any book

Thousands of titles, plus Guardian, Observer and reader reviews

Rate and review

Share your thoughts about what you've been reading

Build your lists

Favourites? Books to read or buy? Books you've reviewed? Compile your book lists here

Last 24 hours

Guardian Artangel books podcast: Maya Jasanoff
The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter – review
Quiz: were these sex scenes written by a man or a woman?
Alice Walker declines request to publish Israeli edition of The Color Purple
Book fairs get a new lease of life
More zeitgeist
What is Zeitgeist?
Zeitgeist is an experiment in showing trending news, topics and articles from the Guardian. Find out more in our blog post.

Last 24 hours

Add books to your lists

Search here

What are you reading? Which are your favourite books? Can you recommend 100 must-read novels? Make lists of these things and more, and share them on Facebook and Twitter, by searching for a book and clicking 'add to list'

Guardian Books on Twitter

Latest news and views from the Guardian's books team

Sarah_Crown: Jon McGregor explains why he has a picture of his bike saddle on his desktop http://t.co/YkLM3vVu #books
about 10 hours, 27 minutes ago
Hannah_Freeman: Weekly instalment of Tips, links and suggestions is live. What you are reading today? http://t.co/rCZmLeKu #books
about 1 day, 6 hours ago
GuardianBooks: Live webchat with @ZafonOficial (author Carlos Ruiz Zafon) just started. Join in here http://t.co/mZiKaY56 #books
about 1 day, 11 hours ago

• Find more tweets from our books team
• Follow our books team on a Twitter list

Have your manuscript read

Find out more about the literary consultancy

TLC is the UK's leading manuscript assessment service, providing expert editorial appraisal to writers at all levels