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Editors' picks

- The battle of the celebrity memoirs
  
  John Harris: As Christmas approaches, it's time to pit the year's celebrity autobiographies against each other. Clare Balding or Cheryl Cole, David Walliams or Rod Stewart: who will win?
- Poem of the week: Starfish by John Wedgwood Clarke
  
  Carol Rumens: Ode to mysterious sea creature is as much heartfelt homage as grisly lesson in marine biology
- The digested read
  
  Guinness Book of Records 2013: 'After extensive remeasurement, we can confirm that Everest is still the highest mountain'
- UK lost more than 200 libraries in 2012
  
  News: Amid a continuing fight to keep public libraries open, figures show an increase in the rate of closure
- Rachel Carson's Silent Spring
  
  Margaret Atwood considers the impact and legacy of arguably the most important environmental book of the 20th century, reissued after 50 years
- Writers' favourite classic book illustrations
  
  Gallery: Writers and artists describe the illustration that means the most to them
- BBC biopic to mark Dylan Thomas's centenary
  
  News: TV film focuses on writer's last days in New York and shows how drink turned possible triumph into tragedy
- Poster poems: December
  
  Billy Mills: Write about the aspect of December - snowy fields or slushy streets, warm beds or Christmas - that inspires you
- Rick Riordan: 'Myths are universal'
  
  Interview: The bestselling children's fantasy author on the magic of myths and their relevance to children today
- Live webchat: Colm Tóibín
  
  The author is was online earlier answering your questions. See what he said
- How I came to write Wolf Hall
  
  Hilary Mantel: 'It wasn't that I wanted to rehabilitate Thomas Cromwell. I do not run a Priory clinic for the dead'
- Philip Pullman on Grimm Tales
  
  Guardian Books podcast: Pullman reads from his new book of Grimm Tales and talks about why fairytales matter
- Britain Begins by Barry Cunliffe
  
  Review: Tom Shippey on a story of settlement, invasions and new opportunities
- The Moomins and the Great Flood by Tove Jansson
  
  Review: Esther Freud is enchanted
- Makers by Chris Anderson
  
  Review: Steven Poole on advice for entrepreneurs
- The Savage Storm by David Andress
  
  Review: John Barrell challenges a book too admiring of Britain's ruling elite
- The Polish Boxer by Eduardo Halfon
  
  Nicholas Lezard's paperback of the week: A postcard from the other side of the world
  - Nicholas Lezard's paperbacks of the year
- My First Wife by Jakob Wassermann
  
  Review: Rachel Cusk is moved by the candour and extremity of an account of a divorce

Latest news

Arts organisations and museums face further funding cuts of £11.6m

10 Dec 2012: Cuts to Arts Council England budget will be passed straight on to the 696 bodies it funds
François Hollande intervenes in Valerie Trierweiler case

10 Dec 2012: Critics accuse president of putting pressure on magistrates as he writes letter to court hearing partner's defamation case
Jamie Oliver overtakes JK Rowling in race for top Christmas sales

7 Dec 2012: After strong start for Harry Potter author's adult novel The Casual Vacancy in September, 15-Minute Meals has surged ahead
Bret Easton Ellis: Kathryn Bigelow is 'overrated' because she's a 'hot woman'

7 Dec 2012:
Ellis delivers latest Twitter gaffe by suggesting a man wouldn't have won best director Oscar with The Hurt Locker
Angela Carter named best ever winner of James Tait Black award

6 Dec 2012: The James Tait Black award chooses 1984 novel Nights at the Circus from nearly a century's worth of great names

More books news

Regular series

Carol Rumens's poem of the week 15hr 30min ago

Poem of the week: Starfish by John Wedgwood Clarke

This ode to the mysterious sea creature is as a much heartfelt homage as it is a grisly lesson in marine biology
Classical music 3 days ago

John Copley: a life in opera

'I caught opera like other people caught measles, and La Bohème changed my life'
My hero 3 days ago

My hero: Charles Baudelaire by Roberto Calasso

7 Dec 2012: 'Even when he is most harrowing, he gives pleasure'
More books series

Latest blogposts

Books blog

The Literature Prize secures a sponsor

10 Dec 2012:
The UK's most high-minded literary prize has announced a sponsorship deal to support an annual £40,000 award. But who is stumping up the cash?
Shortcuts

Lena Dunham's leaked book treatment: what have we learned?

10 Dec 2012:
Details of the book proposal that earned the Girls writer an advance of more than $3.5m have surfaced. So what can we expect from the 26-year-old's first offering?
Books blog

Ebooks may yet save hardback books

10 Dec 2012:
Robert McCrum: Why condemn populist ebooks when they sit so comfortably alongside the 'elite' of high quality hardbacks
Books blog

Reader reviews roundup

7 Dec 2012:
Novels from Richard Russo and Diego Marani and a self-help book from Gary Markwick impress this week's reviewers
Books blog

The Hobbit: A fan fights back

7 Dec 2012:
It's one thing to get your elves mixed up, but to make a mistake about JRR Tolkien's Arkenstone is to invoke the wrath of hobbit-lovers the world over

Talking points

- Poster poems: December
  
  As the northern nights draw in, we come to the end of the posters poems year-in-verse. In your final poem, write about the aspect of December - snowy fields or slushy streets, warm beds or Christmas - that inspires you

Just packing up for a 2 thousand mile move the only books I'm putting in my suitcase are a collected Rilke and EN Sargent's love poems
tufsoft
commenting on What's on Stephenie Meyer's ideal bookshelf? The works that made the artists

- Tips, links and suggestions: Our review list and the books you are reading today
  
  Your weekly space to tell us what you're reading and what you'd like to see covered on the books site, plus our review list

Latest Guardian and Observer reviews

The Moomins and the Great Flood by Tove Jansson

The Moomins' original adventure has at last been published in the UK. Esther Freud is enchanted
My First Wife by Jakob Wassermann

Rachel Cusk is moved by the candour and extremity of this account of a divorce
Dominion by CJ Sansom

A gripping thriller about Britain under Nazi rule impresses Mark Lawson
Britain Begins by Barry Cunliffe

Do the English exist? Tom Shippey on a story of settlement, invasions and new opportunities
Raffles and the Golden Opportunity by Victoria Glendinning

Bernard Porter enjoys a life of the right-thinking founder of Singapore
The Savage Storm by David Andress

John Barrell challenges a book too admiring of Britain's ruling elite
The Richard Burton Diaries edited by Chris Williams

Simon Callow on the booze, the money, the life with Liz …
Bruce by Peter Ames Carlin

For many fans, the Boss is not simply a recording artist, he's a way of life. By Giles Harvey
Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The author of The Black Swan has now written a baggy, dispiriting, antisocial mess of a book. By David Runciman
Cruel Britannia by Ian Cobain

A history of Britain's involvement with torture is essential reading. By Clive Stafford Smith
1912: The Year the World Discovered Antarctica by Chris Turney

A cup of boiling water thrown in the air will freeze with a whoosh – Frances Stonor Saunders on life and exploration in the Antarctic
The Crocodile by the Door by Selina Guinness

When a love of fields trumps property prices. By Belinda McKeon
Derrida: A Biography by Benoît Peeters

Terry Eagleton enjoys a superb biography of an original thinker
Border Vigils: Keeping Migrants Out of the Rich World by Jeremy Harding

Andy Beckett on the troubles of refugees and economic migrants
On Helwig Street: A Memoir by Richard Russo

J Robert Lennon on a curious and revealing memoir
Inside the Centre: The Life of J Robert Oppenheimer by Ray Monk

Steven Shapin salutes a biography of the 'father of the atomic bomb'
The War We Never Fought by Peter Hitchens

Peter Hitchens's hysterical moralising fails to convince Jonathan Rée
Iron Curtain by Anne Applebaum

Anatol Lieven on a cold warrior's account of the creation of the Soviet bloc
The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín

Colm Tóibín offers a striking vision of the Virgin Mary. By Alex Clark
The John Lennon Letters, edited by Hunter Davies

Jarvis Cocker loves the Beatles, but not everything they touched is a relic
Spillover by David Quammen

Caroline Ash on Ebola, flu, the plague and other 'zoonoses'
Who I Am: A Memoir by Pete Townshend

The Who's songwriting maestro has written an unflinching account of his life. By Dorian Lynskey

Latest reader reviews

Melanchrini
by Maria Taylor

Reviewed by ROYMARSHALL
A Lancaster Alphabet: Letterforms from the Stones of the City
by Simon Hawkesworth

Reviewed by gothamrounded
Before I Go to Sleep
by S. J. Watson

Reviewed by stpauli
Napoleon's Travelling Bookshelf
by Sarah Hesketh

Reviewed by JTStone
Raven Black
by Ann Cleeves

Reviewed by stpauli
New Finnish Grammar
by Diego Marani (author) and Judith Landry

Reviewed by Christopher Philip Howe
The Strain: Volume 1
by David Lapham (author), Mike Huddleston and Sierra Hahn

Reviewed by Lakis
Raffles: The Man in His Moment
by Victoria Glendinning

Reviewed by Jakartass
Now It Begins
by Gary Markwick

Reviewed by Isabella
Stuff You Need to Know for University
by Richard Osborne, John Reid and Mary Reid

Reviewed by jenniferharrow
Loss De Plott
by Stephan J. Myers

Reviewed by JonathonH
Nobody's Fool
by Richard Russo

Reviewed by julian6
Triangulation
by Phil Whitaker

Reviewed by tiojo
Shantaram
by Gregory David Roberts

Reviewed by r9mcgon
A World Between Us
by Lydia Syson (author) and Jan Bielecki

Reviewed by PutneyCommon
The Forgotten
by David Baldacci

Reviewed by Lakis
Tinkers
by Paul Harding

Reviewed by asrivathsan
Mid-term Report
by Phil Redmond

Reviewed by reatham
The Daylight Gate
by Jeanette Winterson

Reviewed by AnnSkea
Under the Skin
by Michel Faber (author) and David Mitchell (introduction by)

Reviewed by stpauli
Mrs Dalloway
by Virginia Woolf (author), Stella McNichol (edited by) and Elaine Showalter (introduction by)

Reviewed by NickVirk
La Dame Aux Camelias
by Alexandre Dumas (author) and David Coward (translator)

Reviewed by Courtrb
The Vicomte De Bragelonne
by Alexandre Dumas (author) and David Coward (edited by)

Reviewed by Courtrb
La Reine Margot
by Alexandre Dumas (author) and David Coward (edited by)

Reviewed by Courtrb
Louise De La Valliere
by Alexandre Dumas (author) and David Coward (edited by)

Reviewed by Courtrb
Twenty Years After
by Alexandre Dumas (author) and David Coward (edited by)

Reviewed by Courtrb
The Black Tulip
by Alexandre Dumas (author) and Robin Buss (translator)

Reviewed by Courtrb
The Count of Monte Cristo
by Alexandre Dumas

Reviewed by Courtrb
Economic Growth
by David N. Weil

Reviewed by AlexBe
The Empty City
by Berit Ellingsen

Reviewed by VanessaWu
Miss World
by Randi Black (author) and Carrie Bailey (illustrator)

Reviewed by VanessaWu
The Age of Innocence
by Edith Wharton (author) and Stephen Orgel (edited by)

Reviewed by VanessaWu
The Man in the Iron Mask
by Alexandre Dumas

Reviewed by Courtrb
The Three Musketeers
by Alexandre Dumas (author) and Richard Pevear (translator)

Reviewed by Courtrb
Once You Break a Knuckle
by D. W. Wilson

Reviewed by OpinionsLtd
The Prague Cemetery
by Umberto Eco (author) and Richard Dixon (translator)

Reviewed by Christopher Philip Howe
The Magic Mountain
by Thomas Mann (author) and H.T. Lowe-Porter (translator)

Reviewed by David Gunning
The Home We Build Together: Recreating Society
by Jonathan Sacks

Reviewed by chrishadland
Nikki Heat: Frozen Heat
by Richard Castle

Reviewed by Lakis
The Body Artist
by Don DeLillo

Reviewed by dion2015

See all reader reviews

Latest video

Caitlin Moran and John Lanchester: The Artangel Longplayer Conversation 2012 - video

From celebrity culture to internet politics, royal babies to Jedward, Caitlin Moran and John Lanchester discuss the issues of today - and tomorrrow - as part of a series inspired by Jem Finer's 1,000-year Longplayer project

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