Polina Zherebtsova’s diary of the second Chechnya war – extracts

'A bright flash lit up the sky. We hid under our table. A blast! Then another. It seemed the same thing was being blown up over and over'

Kindle Fire given cautious welcome by publishers

While device can boost ebook sales, latest devices intensify concerns over Amazon's increasing dominance of marketplace. By Benedicte Page

Leningrad: Tragedy of a City Under Siege 1941-44 by Anna Reid – review

Anna Reid's scholarship makes living history out of a wartime catastrophe, says Ian Thomson

Ghosts of Afghanistan: Hard Truths and Foreign Myths by Jonathan Steele – review

Just as the Soviets ran aground in Afghanistan so America is busy repeating their mistakes, writes former ambassador Rodric Braithwaite

Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest by Wade Davis – review

A magnificent new account puts the British assaults on Everest in the 1920s in the context of imperialism and the aftermath of the first world war, writes Geoff Dyer

Julian Assange autobiography reaction – Thursday 22 September 2011

Canongate publishes 'unauthorised first draft' of WikiLeaks founder's autobiography

Gabriel García Márquez book inspires Iran’s opposition movement

News of a Kidnapping sells out in Tehran bookshops as detained opposition leader cites it as accurate reflection of his experience

Christopher Small obituary

Musicologist and writer with radical views on education

The political Bible, part 7: nationhood

Nick Spencer: How to believe: From early efforts to unite warring tribes onwards, Britain's sense of shared identity has been shaped by the Bible

No frills please: don’t chick-lit my books just because I’m a woman

Polly Courtney: I write women's fiction and I'm fed up with my books being branded as chick-lit. That's why I've given my publisher the push

Arguably by Christopher Hitchens – review

A collection of essays shows the polemicist at his best and his absolute worst, says Fintan O’Toole

Sarah Palin alleged to have used cocaine and marijuana

Biography of the Tea Party politician alleges that she used drugs, and had a long affair with her husband's business partner

The political Bible, part 6: welfare

Nick Spencer: The Age of Atonement in the early 19th century featured a powerful Christian opposition to state-based welfare provision

David Servan-Schreiber obituary

French-born author of a bestselling guide to the treatment of cancer