100 Buildings, 100 Years review – ‘A battle between modernism and tradition’

What are the best British buildings of the last century? And do the critics’ favourites match those of the people, asks Simon Jenkins

Germany: Memories of a Nation by Neil MacGregor review – Germany’s past is indeed another country

A detailed analysis of Germany’s history goes a long way to understanding its people and its turbulent politics, writes Antony Beevor

Bumf by Joe Sacco; Best of Enemies by Jean-Pierre Filiu & David B review – gross, and vastly entertaining

Joe Sacco lets loose in a biting satire of western foreign policy, while Jean-Pierre Filiu and David B offer a more sober take on Middle Eastern history, writes Rachel Cooke

Royal Society books shortlist: Seven Elements That Have Changed the World by John Browne – review

Ian Sample: Carnegie and Rockefeller feature in this engaging history of how the use of natural resources has underpinned greed and dramatic industrial development

Spoiled Brats by Simon Rich review – James Thurber for the iPhone generation

This latest collection of essays from the American humorist is a work of joyous, untrammelled imagination, writes Tom Cox

The Architect’s Apprentice by Elif Shafak review – architecture as metaphor for building lives

The sultan’s court in 16th-century Istanbul provides the setting for this multilayered tale of ties that bind and grand designs, writes Anita Sethi

The Ark Before Noah by Irving Finkel review – the story of the Flood retold

An account of the Flood significantly different from that told in the Bible should have resonances with modern audiences, writes Nick Fraser

Moriarty review – Anthony Horowitz steps into Conan Doyle’s shoes

A new super-criminal stalks Victorian London in a clever but contrived hymn to Sherlock Holmes’s nemesis, writes Robert McCrum

Letters to Véra by Vladimir Nabokov review – scenes from a happy marriage

The letters Nabokov wrote to his wife Véra form a compelling, sensuous record of a man enraptured, writes Ian Thomson

My Life in Houses by Margaret Forster review – a house is not always a home

A memoir of upwardly mobile living is marred by the author’s sense of entitlement, writes Rachel Cooke

Let Me Be Frank With You review – Richard Ford’s Frank Bascombe enters his dotage

The great American everyman confronts the ageing process in four brilliant overlapping tales, says Kate Kellaway

The Edge of the World review – a radical perspective on the modern world

Michael Pye’s argument that the North Sea, not the Roman Empire, has been at the heart of Europe’s greatest recent advances is persuasive and eloquent, writes Anthony Sattin

Royal Society books shortlist: Cancer Chronicles by George Johnson – review

Robin McKie: A life-affirming and reassuring analysis that treats cancer as a subject of study for the natural historian and social scientist

Set Fire to the Stars review – catastrophe looms as Dylan Thomas arrives in US

The story of how the poet was lured to the States and set off down the road to ruin fails to engage, writes Peter Bradshaw

Royal Society books shortlist: Gulp by Mary Roach – review

Nicola Davis: An alimentary voyage packed full of fun factoids shines a light on the fate of food inside us