Man with a Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucian Freud by Martin Gayford
Frances Spalding is captivated by an inside account of the creation of a Lucian Freud
Fame by Daniel Kehlmann
A celebrity novelist criticises the trappings of celebrity. Edmund Gordon is not convinced
The Fry Chronicles by Stephen Fry
The second volume of Stephen Fry's memoirs recalls his Cambridge years and rise to fame in perfect prose and excruciating honesty, writes Euan Ferguson
Selected Poems by Robert Bringhurst
Robert Bringhurst's work – funny, fond and devastating – grasps the essence of what it is to be alive, says Kate Kellaway
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
Funny and poignant, this long-anticipated book's only trouble is the weight of expectation it carries, says Curtis Sittenfeld
Small Memories by José Saramago
Hermione Hoby is charmed by the late Nobel laureate José Saramago's memoir
Debut fiction: Quilt by Nicholas Royle; The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai by Ruiyan Xu; The World Beneath by Cate Kennedy
Experimental, beautiful language is one thing, but novels need heart. Mary Fitzgerald on three debuts that try for both
David Lloyd George: The Great Outsider by Roy Hattersley
A new biography reveals some startling parallels with Tony Blair, writes Geoffrey Wheatcroft
Under the Sun: The Letters of Bruce Chatwin, edited by Nicholas Shakespeare and Elizabeth Chatwin
This collection reveals how hard Bruce Chatwin worked to create an aura of effortlessness, says Adam Mars-Jones
Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error by Kathryn Schulz
The mind's capacity for error can be astounding, says Rafael Behr
Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer by Michael Mansfield
by Victoria Segal
Walking to Hollywood by Will Self
Beneath the wit and contempt of Will Self's fictionalised memoir M John Harrison detects something darker
Taliban: The True Story of the World’s Most Feared Fighting Force by James Fergusson
Emma Duncan finds a portrait of the Taliban convincing – but dull
A Million Shillings: Escape From Somalia by Alixandra Fazzina
Intimate images of refugees in search of a new life are intensely moving, writes Sean O'Hagan
My Father’s Fortune: A Life by Michael Frayn
Michael Frayn's memoir of his father is an engaging, touching read, writes Elizabeth Day