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Editors' picks

- 'I wanted to like this book...'
  
  John Dugdale: MacKenzie Bezos's one-star Amazon review of a book about her husband, Amazon boss Jeff, is the latest example of literary support between spouses
- Biography of Italian fascist wins Samuel Johnson prize
  
  News: The Pike by Lucy Hughes-Hallett tells how Gabriele D'Annunzio transformed himself into a national hero
  - Samuel Johnson shortlist: From the Romans to Thatcher
- How much do you know about conspiracy literature?
  
  Quiz: Celebrate Guy Fawkes Night by testing your secret knowledge of the literature of conspiracy
- We can now find rare second hand books online - this might not be good for novelist or publishers but that is not the concern of the reader
  ChampionshipGlory16
  commenting on Ebooks and discounts drive 98 publishers out of business
- Randi Zuckerberg warns of social media's risks in two new books
  
  News: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's sister suggests adults and children should limit time online
- The 100 best novels: No 7 – Emma by Jane Austen (1816)
  
  Robert McCrum: Jane Austen's Emma is her masterpiece, mixing the sparkle of her early books with a deep sensibility
- 'Yes we can' – a lesson in American rhetoric
  
  On the fifth anniversary of Barack Obama's acceptance address, David Edgar explores what unites – and divides – the great American speeches of the last 150 years
- What's the best way to kill a novelist's passion for writing? Success
  
  Lindesay Irvine: Lionel Shriver is nostalgic for the good old days before she was well known
- John Pye on self-publishing: 'I am in control'
  
  Self-publishing showcase: The hit crime writer explains why he struck out on his own
- I'm curious about the recent vogue for very 'blocky' poems that are closer to prose in appearance. Has anyone else noticed this? Did I miss a meeting?
  Automaticslim
  commenting on Poem of the week: Cartography for Beginners by Emily Hasler
- Doctor Who: Nothing O'Clock by Neil Gaiman
  
  Extract: Sample Neil Gaiman's new Doctor Who story, featuring the Eleventh Doctor and creepy monster Kin
- Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life by Hermione Lee
  
  Review, Philip Hensher: Hermione Lee has succeeded in capturing the novelist's elusive personality
- The Embassy of Cambodia by Zadie Smith
  
  Review, Louise Doughty: Smith creates a poised, vibrant world in just 69 pages
  - Philip Hensher: why small is sweet
- The Notes of Doctor Newgate by Alan Franks
  
  Nicholas Lezard's paperback of the week: This diary of a doctor may at first seem like a genteel, upper-middle class comedy – but don't be fooled
- Love, Nina: Despatches from Family Life by Nina Stibbe
  
  Review, Kate Clanchy: These letters from a nanny working in a literary London household show a brilliant comic touch - but also say much about the taboos of a privileged class
- The Pure Gold Baby by Margaret Drabble
  
  Review: Alex Clark enjoys Drabble's 17th novel, which has echoes of The Millstone
- The Mistress Contract by She and He
  
  Review: They had an affair. She offered sex for money and security. But are their conversations as revealing as billed? By Zoe Williams

Latest news

Bob Carr diaries: Labor's foreign minister under fire for memoir

5 Nov 2013: 'To publish diaries so soon after leaving office is indiscreet and it won’t reflect well on his successors,' says Alexander Downer
Jeff Bezos' wife slams 'misleading' biography in Amazon review

5 Nov 2013: 'Everywhere I can fact check from personal knowledge, I find way too many inaccuracies,' writes MacKenzie Bezos. By Stuart Dredge
Morrissey's Autobiography audiobook to be read by … Morrissey

4 Nov 2013:
Liverpool-born actor David Morrissey named as man to read the singer's bestselling memoir in audio version
From Dickens to Thatcher: secret history of the £3m council house

2 Nov 2013:
Behind the sale of Britain's priciest local authority home lies a backstory involving a famous brewery and the Globe theatre
Lawsuit divides town which inspired classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird

1 Nov 2013: Pulitzer-winning author Harper Lee accuses local museum in Monroeville, Alabama, of exploiting her literary fame

More books news

Regular series

Nicholas Lezard's choice 16hr 39min ago

The Notes of Doctor Newgate by Alan Franks – review

Nicholas Lezard's book of the week: This diary of a doctor may at first seem like a genteel, upper-middle class knowing comedy – but don't be fooled
Self-publishing showcase 17hr 29min ago

John Pye on self-publishing: 'I am in control'

The hit crime writer explains why he gave up on print publishers and professional editors and struck out on his own
Carol Rumens's poem of the week 1 day ago

Poem of the week: Cartography for Beginners by Emily Hasler

Carol Rumens: Ambiguity and precision overlap in these very personal instructions for map-making
More books series

Latest blogposts

Books blog

Open thread: who would be the best audiobook narrators?

4 Nov 2013:
David Morrissey is a surprise choice to read the audiobook of Morrissey's memoir. A good one? And which voices match which books best?
Books blog

Reader reviews roundup

1 Nov 2013:
William Boyd, Morrissey, and Jhumpa Lahiri are among the writers under review this week
Books blog

More me time: The Rest Is Noise festival reaches the 70s

1 Nov 2013: Sam Jordison: With a weekend of literary events focused on Thatcher-era Politics and Spirituality, there's lots to self-interest you
Books blog

Poster poems: Villains

1 Nov 2013:
Billy Mills: Evil characters make for good literature, they say, so we're looking for great bad things from you this month
Books blog

Inside job: 10 crime writers turned detective

1 Nov 2013: In claiming to have solved a real-life murder mystery, PD James is in distinguished company. John Dugdale dons his deerstalker and gets on the trail of other literary detectives

Talking points

- Ebooks and discounts drive 98 publishers out of business
  
  Number of closures is 42% up on last year, as digital books and huge pressure on margins push companies over the brink

- Lionheart by Justin Cartwright, reviewed by stormwrecker
  
  It feels as if Lion Heart is almost a parody of his previous novels. The same key themes are there: a young man struggling to identify and yet dis-identify with a hard-to-love (or far too easy to love) father, a parallel attempt to love a beautiful, alluring yet elusive woman and a troubling sense of the ungraspable history of the human race and one's place within it. It is easy to read - a cracker for plane flights or bus trips - but in that crucial place - the reader's heart - it fails to grip.
  - Write your own review

I think the original template for this was The Bostonians by Henry James, hence the term Boston Marriage
OttoMaddox
commenting on Multi-storied: fictional female flatshares

- Tips, links and suggestions: What are you reading this week?
  
  The space to talk about the books you are reading, and find out which ones we are reviewing

Latest Guardian and Observer reviews

I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai

Fatima Bhutto on Malala Yousafzai's fearless and still-controversial memoir
The Pure Gold Baby by Margaret Drabble

Alex Clark enjoys Drabble's 17th novel, which has echoes of The Millstone
The Mistress Contract by She and He

Transcribed conversations between long-standing lovers speak volumes about the differences between the sexes, writes Lucy Scholes
Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life by Hermione Lee

Hermione Lee has done a superb job, capturing the novelist's elusive personality and telling a complex, sometimes harrowing story, writes Philip Hensher
The Embassy of Cambodia by Zadie Smith

Zadie Smith manages to shrink the novel yet create a poised, vibrant world in just 69 pages, writes Louise Doughty
Gravity's Engines: The Other Side of Black Holes

Nicholas Lezard's paperback of the week: Scharf makes complex ideas easy to grasp and explains why we need black holes
Train Songs edited by Sean O'Brien and Don Paterson

A collection of poems and lyrics, from Tom Waits to Philip Larkin to WH Auden, makes for an enchanting tribute to the railways, writes David Wheatley
Petit Mal by DBC Pierre

This strange repackaging of bits and pieces does the Man Booker winner no favours, says Sam Leith
The Encyclopedia of Early Earth by Isabel Greenberg

There is something magical about this retelling of ancient tales through the modern medium of the graphic novel, writes Jess Richards
Music in the Castle of Heaven by John Eliot Gardiner

A brilliant, festive study of JS Bach uses literature and painting to illuminate his 'dance-impregnated' music, writes Peter Conrad
Darling Monster: the letters of Lady Diana Cooper to her son 1939-1952

The letters of the renowned British beauty and socialite to her son are filled with wit, indiscretion and anecdotes that only occasionally fail to cover the cracks, finds Rosemary Hill

Latest reader reviews

Writing on the Wall: Social Media - The First 2,000 Years
by Tom Standage

Reviewed by AnnSkea
The Last Dark
by Stephen Donaldson

Reviewed by acorn01
I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban
by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb

Reviewed by sukigarson
Right Royal Bastard: Chills and Chuckles
by Ann Morven

Reviewed by Cathymacleod
A Ghost in the Machine
by Caroline Graham

Reviewed by Cathymacleod
Shaman: A Novel of the Ice Age
by Kim Stanley Robinson

Reviewed by safereturndoubtful
The Red House
by Mark Haddon

Reviewed by Livvy Peacock
Wake Up Do, Lydia Lou
by Julia Donaldson (author) and Karen George

Reviewed by Mymodelmummy
Lion Heart
by Justin Cartwright

Reviewed by stormwrecker
One World Together
by Catherine Anholt and Laurence Anholt

Reviewed by Corinne Mullins
The Great Fairy Bake off
by T. Bugbird (author) and Lara Ede

Reviewed by Corinne Mullins
The AL-EX Project (ALternative EXistence) Testing the Limits of Dream Control
by C.M. Donaldson

Reviewed by Carole Donaldson
Alone in the Classroom
by Elizabeth Hay

Reviewed by safereturndoubtful
A Land More Kind Than Home
by Wiley Cash

Reviewed by safereturndoubtful
Pop. 1280
by Jim Thompson

Reviewed by safereturndoubtful
The A26
by Pascal Garnier (author) and Melanie Florence

Reviewed by safereturndoubtful
I Remember You
by Yrsa Sigurdardottir

Reviewed by safereturndoubtful
The Discovery of Slowness
by Sten Nadolny (author) and Ralph Freedman (translator)

Reviewed by safereturndoubtful
Burial Rites
by Hannah Kent

Reviewed by safereturndoubtful
Solo: A James Bond Novel
by William Boyd

Reviewed by safereturndoubtful
Neverwhere
by Neil Gaiman

Reviewed by alanwskinner
Autobiography
by Morrissey

Reviewed by flabbyshambles
Fraud at Snowfields
by Daniel Klock

Reviewed by fantalilies
Priscilla: The Hidden Life of an Englishwoman in Wartime France
by Nicholas Shakespeare

Reviewed by AnnSkea
Spider Sandwiches
by Claire Freedman (author) and Sue Hendra

Reviewed by Emma78
The Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China
by Jung Chang

Reviewed by Cardan
A Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition
by Ernest Hemingway

Reviewed by RedBirdFlies
Mr Darwin's Gardener
by Kristina Carlson (author), Emily Jeremiah and Fleur Jeremiah

Reviewed by RedBirdFlies
A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar
by Suzanne Joinson

Reviewed by ID0056492
The Musical Life of Gustav Mole
by Kathryn Meyrick and Patrick McNee

Reviewed by Kusstard
Marsh Pony
by Fran Evans

Reviewed by Kusstard
Elephant's Birthday Bells
by Carrie Grant, David Grant and Ailie Busby

Reviewed by Kusstard
The Lowland
by Jhumpa Lahiri

Reviewed by Amritachoudhury1225
Happiness Comes from Nowhere
by Shauna Gilligan

Reviewed by Nicola Timmis
The Death of King Arthur: The Immortal Legend
by Peter Ackroyd

Reviewed by ID3017368
The Glass Ocean
by Lori Baker

Reviewed by EricaGrossman
The Time Machine
by H. G. Wells

Reviewed by LakerFan
The Luminaries
by Eleanor Catton

Reviewed by harbinger
Atlas Shrugged
by Ayn Rand

Reviewed by Jonathan51
A Farewell to Arms
by Ernest Hemingway

Reviewed by daveportivo

See all reader reviews

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