Latest publications reviewed
Dream a Little Dream of Me: The Life of "Mama" Cass Elliot Eddi Fiegel Pan, £7.99
Fiegel traces "Mama Cass"'s transformation from plain Ellen Cohen, an outsized Jewish girl from Baltimore with a love of Broadway show tunes, into the charismatic lead singer with the hugely successful Californian group The Mamas and the Papas. Her genuine talent and warm personality meant her homes in LA and London were hang-outs for musicians and actors (The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Mick Jagger, Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty were regular visitors). As well as friendship and fun, though, there was a constant battle with her weight, a troubled love life and a persistent problem with drugs, all of which signposted an underlying unhappiness. The exact cause of Cass's untimely death at 32 has never been clarified but Fiegel's well-researched, readable biography is welcome not least because it scotches the myth that she choked on a ham sandwich.
Cathy Dillon
Golden Apples Bill Cullen Hodder, £7.99
It's almost 70 years since Dale Carnegie published his famous book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, which has sold millions of copies and has been translated into every known language. It was possibly the very first self-help book and for a period graced the bookshelves of every self-respecting young businessman.
Bill Cullen's new book is in the same mould and follows his bestselling memoir of growing up in Dublin, It's a Long Way from Penny Apples. Written in a folksy, homespun style, it relates Cullen's philosophy for getting on in life and business - survival skills he picked up from his parents and grandmother in the tenements of Dublin. It's hard to fault the logic of much of what he has to say: Stay Positive, Dump the Negatives, Know Your Core Values, Do it Now, Believe You Can Achieve. Bill Cullen certainly does.
Eugene McEldowney
Rosebery: Statesman in Turmoil Leo McKinstry John Murray, £10.99
For writing Rosebery, Leo McKinstry is to be commended on a number of fronts. He has researched with breadth and depth, and it shows. The reader is not spared any lesson from the life of Victorian Britain's most glamorous peer and PM. Although informative, this could rapidly become tiresome if it weren't for the fact that McKinstry has written with such genuine and obvious enthusiasm that what could have been stodgy (let's face it, 500 pages on Victorian politicos is no guarantee of riotous fun) becomes engaging, enlightening and entertaining. The intricacies of 19th-century society, politics and power are brought to life in a seamless and thoroughly enjoyable read. This is a book that correctly celebrates its subject, warts and all, rather than relying on his obvious achievements as a raison d'être. For this, McKinstry deserves high praise.
Marcus Keane
Runaway Alice Munro Vintage, £7.99
Like many short story collections, Runaway opens with a passionate defence of the genre as at least the creative equal of the novel, if not its superior. In addition to their mundane benefits to busy readers, short stories demonstrate a writer's dexterity while refusing them the slightest slip or tangent. Munro fans won't need convincing but even adamant prose snobs will appreciate the excellent introduction by novelist Jonathan Franzen. Runaway is an incomparable collection of eight, chapter-length stories which are demanding and flawlessly written. Munro's appeal is as broad as the scope of her stories, which examine relationships in which no one is clearly a victor, and no one a victim. A stellar example of the genre which, with the likes of Munro in its corner, stands to surpass the novel as the natural contemporary home of exquisite storytelling.
Nora Mahony
Going Sane Adam Phillips Penguin, £8.99
A psychoanalyst, child psychotherapist and writer on literature, philosophy, child psychology and psychoanalysis, Adam Phillips has become an insightful social commentator of our times.
In this book, he offers sharp, often paradoxical reflections on contemporary living and our inherited Judeo-Christian belief system in his search for a definition of sanity. He teases out what it means to be autistic, schizophrenic and looks at the meaning of depression.
Phillips's writing style is both intellectual and chatty, provoking the reader to think about what he says, rather than to simply accept his theories. Quoting Leslie Farber, he says, "real talk between a man and a woman offers the supreme privilege of keeping the other sane, and being kept sane by the other".
Sylvia Thompson
1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare James Shapiro Faber, £8.99
James Shapiro's richly detailed biographical study of a single year in the life of Shakespeare explores how the social and political landscape of Elizabethan London had a profound influence on his creative development at a crucial point in the great playwright's career. A climate of fear and political censorship gripped England in 1599. Satirical work was outlawed by the Queen, "treasonous" books were burned and criticism of the government forbidden. Shapiro charts the honing of Shakespeare's craft during this period, culminating in the apotheosis of his literary powers with Hamlet. Plays such as Julius Caesar held particular resonance for London theatregoers at a time when many in London predicted a coup d'état against Elizabeth herself. Packed with anecdotal and historical evidence, Shapiro's book will appeal both to Shakespearean scholars and novices alike.
Kevin Cronin