The Ultimate Guide to Mad Men
Edited by Will Dean
Guardian Books, £8.99
As season four of Mad Men, heartbreakingly, draws to a close on BBC Four, addicts of the stylish US TV drama, set in a New York advertising agency in the 1960s, may find some solace in this compilation. Edited by Will Dean, who runs the Guardianblog on the series and here writes detailed notes on each episode of seasons one, two and three, it has selected blog posts from various obsessed readers (most of them entertaining and thought-provoking, if a tad earnest) and interviews with Jon Hamm, who plays Don Draper, Vincent Kartheiser (Pete Campbell) and Elizabeth Moss (Peggy Olson). There is a danger that the programme, complex and rich as it is, may collapse under the weight of all this analysis: is Joan Holloway's declaration "1960, I'm so over you" in season one, episode 10 really a nod to Sex and the Cityand Mary McCarthy's The Groupor just a linguistic anachronism accidentally left in? That said, this would make a fun stocking filler for the Mad Menfan in your life. Cathy Dillon
Kaddish for an Unborn Child
Imre Kertész
Vintage, £8.99
Tim Wilkinson's translation of Nobel prizewinner Imre Kertész's autobiographical novel, published in the original Hungarian in 1990, is a fine and powerful piece of work. Kertész's disorienting, claustrophobic style is almost as unsettling as the subject of this, perhaps his most unusual work. A friend asks whether the middle-aged Hungarian Jewish writer has children; he answers "No!" – the first word of the book. Equally, it was what he said to his wife when she said that she wanted a child. Character and author alike are Holocaust survivors, and the Kaddish in question is both a Jewish prayer of thanks that a child was never brought into this cruel world and, to a lesser extent, a mourning prayer for the life that wasn't to be. Dark, at times cryptic, and hugely energetic, this is a phenomenal piece of writing, showing the depth and breadth of the effects of war on its survivors. Nora Mahony
On Paris
Ernest Hemingway
Hesperus Press, £7.99
The opening paragraph of the Kansas Star's style sheet says: "Use short sentences. Use short paragraphs. Use vigorous English." It was advice that Ernest Hemingway famously used to create his brand of sparse fiction, the genesis of which can be seen here. On Parisis a collection of articles Hemingway wrote for the Toronto Star. In terms of subject matter he was given free rein by the Canadian newspaper, and so the topics are diverse, ranging from the gargoyles of Notre Dame Cathedral to French manners on public transport.The articles are pared down and adjectives are scarce, but Hemingway, by blending reality and fiction, manages to capture the essence of post-war Paris. The articles also capture an often overlooked aspect of Hemingway's work, his sense of humour – he describes one nightclub as "a good place to get a headache". All of this makes for a beautiful read and a book that anybody who appreciates Hemingway's work will cherish. Ian McCourt
Six Months in Sudan
James Maskalyk
Canongate, £8.99
This account of a young Canadian doctor's time volunteering for Médecins Sans Frontières in Abyei, a contested town on the border between north and south Sudan, is powerful and shocking. The author weaves into the narrative passages from the field blog he wrote from his sweltering hut, and through these we share his immediate, intimate experience as he confronts so much death (so often of little children) and struggles with limited medical resources in often chaotic circumstances. Heartbreaking scenes are recounted with searing honesty and without a trace of self-satisfaction or self-congratulation. Maskalyk's time in Sudan affected him in ways he had never anticipated. "Just as our friends wonder at our distance from their familiar world, we marvel at theirs from the real one." Although the situation was desperately sad, and at times he despaired, it was also a privilege for him to be involved, he says. It is a privilege for us to read about that involvement. Brian Maye
