Danube blues

Review: Street Without a Name by Kapka KassabovaYou will know and feel for Bulgaria much more deeply than you did when you started, says Nicholas Lezard

Welcome to the Science Book Club

Tim Radford launches our new online book club by introducing the inaugural book, Life: An Unauthorised Biography, by Richard Fortey

Much ado about nothing

Review: Lucky Kunst by Gregor MuirThis YBA memoir is full of amusingly drunken antics, but isn't questioning enough for Matthew Collings

Audio round-up

Review: The Essential Abraham Lincoln | Nation | It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet

A family affair

Review: Gunpowder by Joe HillHill shows what happens when the needs of the many impact upon the desires of a potent few, writes Eric Brown

The good, the bad and the ugly

Review: The Last Supper: A Summer in Italy by Rachel CuskA tendency to sneer mars a singular travel memoir. By Justine Jordan

Shakespeare on Toast

Review: Shakespeare on Toast by Ben CrystalCrystal ends up admirably succeeding in providing a toolbox for reading with Shakespeare's plays, writes Steven Poole

JCVD review

It’s bizarre, certainly, but bold. Is Jean-Claude in therapy or something?

Now every night can be Burns night

Review: The Bard: Robert Burns, A Biography by Robert CrawfordCrawford has delivered a living Burns: smart, arrogant, chivalrous, says Brian Morton

Just following orders?

Review: Standard Operating Procedure: A War Story by Philip Gourevitch and Errol MorrisThe traget of this book is the political and military culture cultivated under the Bush regime, says Mary Fitzgerald

An imaginary oeuvre

Review: My Unwritten Books by George SteinerAs conceits go, it's certainly conceited, writes Victoria Segal

A miserable old Scrooge

Review: Artificial Snow by Florian Zeller, translated by Sue RoseThis novella propelled Florian Zeller to literary celebrity in France, writes Alfred Hickling