Where the Stress Falls by Susan Sontag
An eclectic volume unified by Sontag's tireless interrogation of the aesthetic impulse, finds PD Smith
How God propelled Stephen Hawking into the bestsellers lists
Tim Radford suspects divine intervention was partly responsible for the miraculous success of Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time
Charles Dickens’s England
A bland, old-fashioned documentary with a bland, old-fashioned view of Dickens, says Philip French
Many voices in Zambawi
Review: Jerusalem by Patrick NeateBernardine Evaristo welcomes Patrick Neate’s most inventive book yet
Leviathan or The Whale
Review: Leviathan or The Whale by Philip HoareWritten with great elegance, enthusiasm and insight, says Aimee Shalan
What to say about … The Black Album at the National Theatre
Reviews for Hanif Kureishi's adaptation of his 1995 novel have largely been scathing - bluff your way through the reasons why
The Informers
In structure and location the film resembles Robert Altman's Short Cuts, though it's much inferior and far less interesting, says Philip French
To some, he’s a champion, to others, a cheat
Review; Lance Armstrong: The World's Greatest Champion by John WilcocksonFew sportsmen polarise opinion as much as Lance Armstrong. Tim Lewis finds that anger could well be the key to his phenomenal success
Not all doom and gloom
Review: We Danced All Night: A Social History of Britain Between the Wars by Martin PughOrwell described the age as "restless", and so is Pugh, says Ian Pindar
Whodunnits for summer days
Review: The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell HammettI'm a sucker for tough-guy dialogue, says Sue Arnold
Play it again
Review: Shakespeare and Elizabeth by Helen HackettAndrew Dickson is intrigued by rumours surrounding the player king and real-life queen
Charity aids the art of storytelling
Review: Ox-Tales - Air, Water, Fire and EarthA series of short stories commissioned by Oxfam may sound unbearably worthy, but William Skidelsky is hugely impressed
Your next box set: Tales of the City
Stephen Brook: The mysteries and melodramas that took place at 28 Barbary Lane remain a delight even now
Chefs who have too many stars in their eyes
Review: The Rise and Fall of French Cuisine by Michael SteinbergerThis lively attack on Michelin-starred French restaurants fails to address a deeper malaise in the nation's food culture, writes Jay Rayner
From Ceylon to suburbia
Review: Black Orchids by Gillian SlovoThis novel is hard to put down but other writers have taken similar journeys with rather more panache and resonance, writes James Smart