The battle of the book reviews
Lionel Shriver: Professional critics are no more reliable than Amazon ratings, a study shows. So do we really need them?
Cannes film festival set to honour the bookworm
Coveted Palme d'Or likely to go to a screen adaptation, with many of this year's entrants borrowing from literature
Hitler and the Nazi Cult of Celebrity by Michael Munn – review
A ludicrous study of Hitler recasts the Führer as a precursor of Simon Cowell, writes Peter Conrad
In defence of self-help books
Alain de Botton: The ancient philosophers recognised we all need help navigating our lives – so what explains self-help books' decline in prestige?
The Second Sexism is just victim-envy
Suzanne Moore: It is perfectly possible to understand that many men are suffering at the moment without blaming it on feminism
I’d rather be a Catholic than be ‘respectable’
Catherine Pepinster: Hilary Mantel says the Catholic church is no longer a place for 'respectable people'. But respectability is a problematic notion
Carlos Fuentes obituary
Mexico's most celebrated novelist
Crime writer Petros Markaris channels Greek rage into fiction
Murders at heart of new book resonate strongly with a mass readership furious at Greece's tax-dodging elite
Name of Federico García Lorca’s lover emerges after 70 years
Box of mementoes reveals that young art critic Juan Ramírez de Lucas had brief affair with Spanish poet
Maurice Sendak’s dark visions delighted generations of children
The author who won fame with the brilliant but unsettling Where the Wild Things Are refused to patronise his young readers
Maurice Sendak, who let children be just what they wanted
Morven Crumlish: Where the Wild Things Are, like Maurice Sendak's other books, is far less unsettling for children than it is for adults
Maurice Sendak: the fight in him was an expression of life
Emma Brockes: When I interviewed Maurice Sendak last year, he was furious with everything. That fury came from love – and it drove his art
Why shouldn’t paganism have a place in RE lessons?
Liz Williams: Cornish schools won't be 'teaching witchcraft and druidry', less still black mass – religious education doesn't equal indoctrination
Machiavelli’s The Prince, part 7: the two sides of human nature
Nick Spencer: How to believe: The author's dark view of human nature was out of tune with his age, but his talk of the beast within is almost post-Darwin
The beguiling power of mystery that can make us forget a family’s pain
Henry Porter: Our desire for life to be dramatic can lead us to merge real-life stories such as the death of Gareth Williams into fiction
Why is there so much misogyny online?
The conversation: Why do women face such misogyny in the media, particularly online? TV presenter Miriam O'Reilly and feminist writer Nina Power share their thoughts and experiences
Taliban poetry book denounced by former British commander
Anthology of war, love and nature poetry called 'self-justifying propaganda' but publishers say it reveals universal experiences
Tehran International Book Fair launches crackdown on ‘harmful’ titles
Annual event that attracts 500,000 visitors a day has revoked licences of publishing houses and banned them from attending
Microsoft invests $300m in Barnes & Noble’s Nook ebook business
Barnes & Noble shares soar as deal with software giant eases fears that bookseller lacks capital to compete with Amazon
Women’s Library campaign boosted by celebrity support
Sandi Toksvig and Shirley Conran back renowned collection threatened with drastic cuts, and signatures mount on e-petition to Michael Gove
Toni Morrison to receive presidential medal of freedom
The Nobel prize-winning author of Beloved will be given the United States' highest civilian honour
Machiavelli’s The Prince, part 6: was Machiavelli an atheist?
Nick Spencer: The book's short chapter on 'church states' is a masterpiece of subtle, savage anti-ecclesiastical irony
Sandstorm: Libya in the Time of Revolution by Lindsey Hilsum – review
Ian Black surveys three accounts of Muammar Gaddafi's deposition
Republishing Mein Kampf is a good idea
David Cesarani: Elements of Hitler's rant still hold some power, but it has lost its relevance even to the far right
Mein Kampf to be re-released with notes countering Hitler’s arguments
German officials hope distributing banned book will demystify views held by Nazis
On her majesty’s silver service: expats dust off tuxedos for BritWeek in LA
Britons famous, once famous and perhaps to be famous again are beating the drum for the UK in Hollywood this week
Deny the British empire’s crimes? No, we ignore them
George Monbiot: New evidence of British colonial atrocities has not changed our national ability to disregard it
The white whale’s dark message
Philip Hoare: Our delight at Iceberg, the albino killer whale, is not so very different from the dread Moby-Dick inspired in Herman Melville
Machiavelli’s The Prince, part five: reversing the virtues
Nick Spencer: How to believe: Machiavelli's subversion of the humanist paean to virtues is clearest in his questioning of generosity, compassion and honour
Karl May: the best German writer you’ve never heard of
A century after his death, the writer – who counted Einstein and Hitler amongst his fans – is being feted across Europe. So why isn't he better known here?
The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt – review
A compelling study of the morality of those on the left and right reaches some surprising conclusions, writes Ian Birrell
The War is Dead, Long Live the War: Bosnia – The Reckoning by Ed Vulliamy – review
Ed Vulliamy's intelligent analysis of the Bosnian war does not linger on the horror but tries to explain it, writes John Simpson
Christopher Hitchens’ wit and warmth remembered as New York pays tribute
Salman Rushdie and Martin Amis among those at Cooper Union to celebrate life and work of 'pioneer at the frontier'