How do you like your stake?
Bram Stoker is brought to vivid and glorious life in Paul Murray's new biography, From the Shadow of Dracula.
The poet conqueror
Adam Feinstein's dazzling Neruda: A Passion for Life sheds much-needed light on one of the most complicated of modern cultural figures.
A friend in need
Ann Patchett's extraordinary account of her friendship with Lucy Grealy, Truth and Beauty, is a tale of commitment to both joy and tragedy.
Inside a city of war and whispers
Joe Sacco returns to Sarajevo on the trail of the ghosts of the Bosnian war in The Fixer
Sufi Steve and the Peugeot dealer
James Buchan follows Ziauddin Sardar's quixotic quest to reclaim the soul of Islam in Desperately Seeking Paradise.
Rivers of crud
The destructive nostalgia of Michael Collins's The Likes of Us should have no place in modern Britain, says Mike Phillips.
Bowled over
Malcolm Knox continues his examination of modern Australia with a story of porn and cricket, Adult Book.
Freddie and Henry: a mother’s struggle
Henrietta Spink tells the story of her struggle to look after two children with severe disabilities in Henrietta's Dream.
Soyer sauce
Veronica Horwell savours the story of the Frenchman who taught the English to cook in The People's Chef: Alexis Soyer, a Life in Seven Courses by Ruth Brandon.
Any of his smells
Andrew Motion revisits the marriage of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath through Diane Middlebrook's Her Husband
Out of steppe with Anton
Rosamund Bartlett's Chekhov: Scenes From a Life concentrates on his travelling - and somehow manages to ignore his writing.
How to get ahead in Hollywood – leave
Appalled by the excesses of Tinseltown, Mimi Hare and Clare Naylor wrote a novel about the movie industry. Now it's a bestseller ... in Los Angeles
More power to the tower
These days, everyone is interested in buildings, so the Phaidon Atlas of Contemporary World Architecture is timely and welcome.
Are you sitting uncomfortably?
Theatre: Kate Kellaway on Old Times | House of Desires | We Happy Few
Guard of honour
Edward Pearce on Simon Ball's The Guardsmen, a study of political lives in the 20th century.