The Annawadi slum in Mumbai ©Getty May 12, 2012

Life on the edge

Katherine Boo’s ‘Behind the Beautiful Forevers’, which shows despair and dreams in an Indian megacity, is as vivid as great fiction

Cover of 'End this Depression Now!' by Paul Krugman May 12, 2012

Austerity bites

Paul Krugman’s ‘End this Depression Now!’ has a good case against spending cuts, but proposals on economy revival are modest

Cover of 'La Roja: A Journey Through Spanish Football' by Jimmy Burns May 12, 2012

Pitch battles

Jimmy Burns chronicles the bitter rivalry between Real Madrid and Barcelona in this vivid survey of Spanish football

Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduces the Apple Nano May 12, 2012

Keep it simple

‘Insanely Simple’, by ad agency executive Ken Segall, tries to explain Apple’s incredible success through one attribute: simplicity itself

Cover of 'Mrs Robinson’s Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady' by Kate Summerscale May 12, 2012

Secret testimony

Kate Summerscale’s ‘Mrs Robinson’s Disgrace’ treats an adultery case as a detective story that sheds light on Victorian life

Cover of 'The Juice: Vinous Veritas' by Jay McInerney May 12, 2012

Grape nuts

‘The Juice’ compiles columns Jay McInerney wrote on wine, all written with enthusiasm and eloquence

Cover of 'Facing the Torturer: Inside the Mind of a War Criminal' by François Bizot May 11, 2012

Confronting our evils

François Bizot’s ‘Facing the Torturer’ is a powerful philosophical meditation on the nature of humanity – and inhumanity

Cover of 'Civilization: The Six Killer Apps of Western Power' by Niall Ferguson May 12, 2012

From west to east

‘Civilization’ by Niall Ferguson identifies the features of western progress to explain the current power shift to China

Bees on a honeycomb ©Corbis May 5, 2012

The buzz word

Eusociality is the key word at the heart of Edward O Wilson’s ‘The Social Conquest of Earth’

Cover of ‘The Man Within My Head’ by Pico Iyer May 5, 2012

Shades of Greene

In his literary meditation on the English novelist, Pico Iyer reflects on his own journey in ‘The Man Within My Head’

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