What exactly is Britishness?
George Alagiah shows us multiculturalism's failures as seen through an immigrant's eyes, in A Home From Home, says Sarfraz Manzoor.
I wouldn’t say this is unreadable …
Sean O'Hagan finds himself exhausted by Mark Z Danielewski's dense and overly-complicated tome, Only Revolutions.
All about the birds and the bees
Jenny Uglow's biography of Thomas Bewick highlights how he revolutionised the way the British public looked at nature. Hilary Spurling finds out more.
Face to face with Iowa’s bustiest barmaid
In The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid Bill Bryson returns to where it all began for him - the Midwest in the Fifties, a time for hope and superheroes, says Carole Cadwalladr.
Great diagnosis, but what’s the cure?
Washington insider Joseph Stiglitz highlights many issues in Making Globalisation Work, but his call for a new world order doesn't go far enough, says Rebecca Seal.
Hot air from a big fan
David Thomson's paean to Nicole Kidman is a world away from Iain Johnstone's sober biography of Tom Cruise. If only they weren't both so incurious about their subjects' inner lives, says Peter Bradshaw.
Symphony of sighs
Anne Carson's new collection, Decreation, challenges the boundaries of poetic form, says Fiona Sampson.
The politics of drink
Greg Hurst's biography of Charles Kennedy is admirably even-handed, says Michael White, but would the former leader have been any more successful if he had been teetotal?
Rootless in Seattle: an interview with Jonathan Raban
Jonathan Raban's solitary journeys have inspired books that blur the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction. His latest novel is a dystopian vision of post 9/11 America.
Children of Men review – explosively violent future-nightmare thriller
This adaptation of PD James novel by Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón looks extraordinary, and opens a window on a world of Arctic fear and despair
To Kill a Mockingbird
West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds
What really makes Uncle Sam tick
Greil Marcus's analysis of the US, The Shape of Things to Come, is dazzling and wise, says Peter Preston.
Genius was in his DNA
Matt Ridley's biography of Francis Crick pays due tribute to one of the greatest scientists ever, says Robin McKie.
Hope lives on in ‘cancer country’
The Enduring Melody is terminally ill Michael Mayne's account of living with cancer of the jaw. There will be few more affecting books published this autumn, says Robert McCrum.
A nonagenarian nonpareil
Selected Journalism 1931-2006 shows there is little WF Deedes hasn't covered in his long career, says Nick Greenslade.