Some paperbacks are reviewed
Shakespeare's Wife
Germaine Greer.
Bloomsbury, £8.99
Everyone knows the name Ann Hathaway: the rest of her life, to quote one of her husband's most famous lines, is silence. History records that the Shakespeares were married in December 1582, that the bride was pregnant, and that the groom was eight years her junior. Germaine Greer argues that Hathaway has been slandered by generations of misogynistic male biographers, whom she dubs "bardolators" - which is probably true. To redress the balance, however, is no simple matter. Greer's exhaustive (and occasionally exhausting) trawl through the minutiae of Elizabethan life presents a three-dimensional and hugely detailed portrait of womanhood, late 16th century-style. But it's not a shapshot of Ann Hathaway: she remains as unknowable as ever.
Arminta Wallace
The Road Home
Rose Tremain
Vintage, £7.99
Lev, an economic migrant, has left Eastern Europe to find work following his wifes death. The Road Home is the story of his struggle to earn a living in London and to rebuild his life so he can contemplate the physical and psychological journey back to his native village and the young daughter he has left behind. Rose Tremain chronicles the many challenges of adapting to life in a new land with great sensitivity, and shows the reality of the immigrant experience in a manner that is often tender, but never trite. As kebab shop owner Ahmed says: "British people look at me like Im going to poison them. Best known for her historical novels, Tremains ability to empathise with characters in contemporary settings is every bit as accomplished. A worthy winner of this years Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction.
Freya McClements
Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything
By Don Tapscott Anthony D Williams
Atlantic £8.99
Wikipedia, the ubiquitous online encyclopedia, is based on wiki, software that allows simultaneous updating of its entries by voluntary contributors. Tapscott and Williams extend this idea to business in general. Their message is that openness, collaboration and sharing of information represent the future. At the book's heart is the conflict between the idealism of contributors and the profit-driven motives of big corporations; the authors try, not always successfully, to reconcile the two. Although it could benefit from a good edit to eliminate repetition, this is a book which any self-respecting business strategist should read.
Tom Moriarty
Zoom: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future
By Iain Carson and Vijay V Vaitheeswaran
Penguin £8.99
This investigation of the complex union of elements at play in fuel and global warming problems is an astute work. The stability of both the global economy and the Earths environment depend on our ability to break its "addiction to oil", but such a break will not be easy as the book shows. The authors examine the history of the relationship between the leading car companies and "Big Oil", as well as considering various nascent innovations in the auto industry, the impact and potential of the rapidly developing economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC), and the "Great Awakening" among the American public to the threat of global warming. It is extremely well-researched and every policy-maker, car manufacturer and oil magnate should read it.
Colm Farren
La Bella Figura
By Beppe Severgnini
Hodder Stoughton, £8.99
The bella figura is the pretty face or façade presented by Italy to the unsuspecting foreigner. This is the basis for Severgnini's book, a light-hearted hybrid of travel writing and social anthropology. It's a breed that owes something to the style of Bill Bryson. Severgnini, though, does not communicate to the same degree that same sense of playfulness, contagious enthusiasm and sheer energy. His premise is interesting and his commentary is intelligent, often witty; however, the gestures at self-deprecation are rather unconvincing and give this appraisal of his homeland a rather self-satisfied flavour.
Theoretically the book is structured around a ten-day trip through various regions of Italy, but this is a rather thin device. The whole reads as an interesting, if rather unfocused, series of musings on the nature of Italy and Italians.
Claire Anderson-Wheeler
Brothers. The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years
By David Talbot
Pocket Books, £9.99
Was Lee Harvey Oswald the "lone nut" author of John F Kennedys nightmare on Elm Street? The Presidents brother, Robert, never believed so. Indeed, as soon as the ghastly news from Dallas reached his ears, the young Attorney General became America's first assassination conspiracy theorist. The next four-and-a-half years saw him quietly plotting to reopen the case should he ever become president himself. But alas, Bobby never made it to the White House. He was gunned down on June 5th, 1968. In this riveting, disturbing and at times unbearably sad book, David Talbot ties in both assassinations with the fear and loathing which the Kennedys aroused in certain groups. On Talbot's unashamedly counter-revisionist presentation, JFK and RFK died because they were two rare and dangerous beasts: statesmen whose moral courage was growing with time.
Daragh Downes