The latest titles reviewed
The Faber Book of 20th Century German Poems, Ed by Michael Hofmann, Faber and Faber, £9.99
The big drawback to editing a poetry anthology, of course, is not legitimately being able to include any of your own. Which is a pity, but at least editor Michael Hofmann represented himself through many of his excellent translations. The wealth and scope of this collection, including gems from writers like Rainer Maria Rilke, Gottfried Benn, Georg Trakl, Kurt Schwitters, Nelly Sachs, Paul Celan, Bertolt Brecht, Ernst Jandl, Ingeborg Bachmann, and Günter Grass - to name but a few - present an unmatchable insight into the psyche of a country through a turbulent century. Nothing lays bare the self, world and society more minutely, more surgically than verse. Thank heaven for the poets who belie Theodor Adorno's famous comment about poetry being impossible after Auschwitz - it was never more necessary. Christine Madden
An End To Suffering: The Buddha In The World, Pankaj Mishra, Picador, £8.99
The title suggests a bit of fluffy spiritualism or a Buddhist self-help manual, but Mishra's book turns out to be so much more than that. In telling the story of Buddhism - how it grew, then withered in India but blossomed in the wider world - he has crafted what is at once a travelogue, biography, history and memoir. Along the way, Mishra delves into such topics as India, Hinduism, Nietzsche, Alexander the Great, ancient Greece and modern London, and yet he never lets the whole thing unravel as it so easily could. Most impressively, he makes every subject utterly readable and despite it being a deeply personal book, remains impressively objective when necessary. It is an excellent introduction to the ideas underlying Buddhism, but those already familiar with the religion will also enjoy this rich, erudite book. Shane Hegarty
Who the Hell's In It, Peter Bogdanovich, Faber and Faber, £9.99
Chronicler of and friend to the stars Peter Bogdanovich is now in his mid-60s but still comes across like the smartest kid in the class with this new book on actors, a follow-up to his directors tome, Who the Devil Made It. Although there's plenty of rhapsodising of Ford and Hawks, this is less cahiers du egghead as Bogdanovich profiles some 25 actors, most of them legends (James Stewart, Cary Grant, Sidney Poitier, John Wayne, Audrey Hepburn, Frank Sinatra). Bogdanovich was once a superb journalist, and many of the pieces first appeared in Esquire magazine. Some of the jawing goes on for too long, but Bogdanovich also sheds a new, sometimes funny, often poignant light on the disparate likes of River Phoenix, Marilyn Monroe and John Cassavetes. The book also has an autobiographical context, as Bogdanovich matter-of-factly charts his own wayward personal life and spotty career. Kevin Sweeney
England's Lost Eden, Philip Hoare, Harper Perennial, £8.99
Midway through the 19th century Mary Ann Girling experiences a number of religious visions. With alarm bells ringing amongst orthodox religious authorities and the supposed pillars of society, this woman, bearing the marks of stigmata, embarks on a newly emboldened spiritual mission. The New Forest Shakers are born and a startling quest for Eden begins. A strange hallucinatory time of faith, evangelism, fantasy and mysticism emerges. Biographer of Noël Coward, Stephen Tennant and Oscar Wilde, writer Philip Hoare, goes deep into the New Forest near Southampton for this acclaimed account of an unusual tale in Victorian England . He follows the convergence of eccentrics, radicals, aristocrats, spiritualists, the Pre-Raphaelites and others on their inevitably doomed search for Utopia. Those interested in the era will find this alternative history fascinating. Larry Ryan
Lost Worlds, Michael Bywater, Granta. £ 7.99
A collection of journalistic curiosities, a sort of compendium of thoughts on a myriad of subjects; Bakelite, Ancient Greek, Meccano, The Nasal Membrane of the Rhinoceros. The title of the last one gives the game away and illustrates perfectly the kind of idiosyncratic mind on offer in Lost Worlds. In less than 500 words Bywater manages to discuss and connect the superb olifactory capabilities of the aforementioned Rhino with Tom Stoppard via Rosecrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, the US Patriot Act and the (then) British Home Secretary, David Blunkett. As the title suggests there is a certain elegiac tone to the arguments, a kind of nostalgia which gives them depth but in pieces such as "America, The Idea Of", Bywater is coruscating in debunking the mythological nature of The Past. Ken Walshe
The Best of Times: Memoirs of a Countryman, George Briscoe, Bellinter Bridge Publications, €12.50
The hunting, shooting, fishing life of an Irish gentleman in a bygone era is evoked here by George Briscoe. In a memoir glancing back over most of the 20th century - Briscoe was born in 1921 - he conjures up the fields and bogs of Co Meath; of the Big House world as he witnessed it on such demesnes as his ancestral home, Bellinter House, and on the opposite bank of the Boyne at Bective House, which he managed for many years. Hunt balls, pranks, colourful characters are all here in spades. One of Briscoe's finest hours was when he saved an old stone bridge over the Boyne near Belinter when it was about to be demolished with the end of the old Navan railway line. He bought it for the princely sum of £60. It was a time when life was fun: a social document for an era when the Celtic Tiger hadn't yet begun to roar. Esther Murnane