This is not your standard rosy love story. Samuel Johnson, creator of the famous dictionary and irascible London literary personality and wit, develops an affection and dependence on Mrs Hester Thrale after an introduction to her husband, Henry.
According to Queeney by Beryl Bainbridge (Abacus, £6.99 sterling)
Johnson becomes a fixture in the Thrale houshold, and joins the family for meals, on their trips and in the bizarre goings-on of 18th-century domestic England. Told through the eyes of Queeney, the Thrale's daughter, the story takes on the pallow tinge of resentment, jealousy and bitterness - although a favourite of Johnsons's, Queeney is perennially side-lined by her self-centred and childish mother, and views the proceedings throughout her childhood with helpless disdain. Bainbridge stitched together her narrative cleverly, balancing an absurd, somtimes grotesque third-person narrative with Queeney's first-person reports in letter form to a Miss Hawkins greedy for information. The coy interplay between these two elements makes this an absorbing tale. -Christine Madden
The Eternal Frontier, An Ecological History of North America and its Peoples by Tim Flannery (Vintage, £8.99 sterling)
An ecological Sherlock Holmes, Tim Flannery uncovers the compelling, astonishing tale of the creation of North America. Beginning more than 65 million years ago, Flannery, with humour, style and vigour, traces the evolution of the continent - its land, climate, animals, plants and peoples - and the complex, often controversial discoveries of palaeontologists and archaeologists, to the US position today as a global superpower. The breadth and depth of his research is impressive - as is his analysis of modern environmental exploitation ("the audacity and imbecility of which leaves one fairly gasping for breath") and the effects of aggressive capitalism. At the dawn of the 21st century, Flannery speculates that the frontier mentality - of freedom and unrestrained growth - is over. Though space, that final frontier, still beckons. - Sarah Marriott
Pass Thru Fire: The Collected Lyrics by Lou Reed (Bloomsbury, £9.99 sterling)
If New York wanted to appoint its own poet laureate, it would probably find no one better suited to the job than Lou Reed. Woody Allen may have captured the heart of New York on celluloid, but Reed has it nailed down on vinyl, on such albums as Coney Island Baby, Street Hassle, Set The Twilight Reeling and New York. This book gathers all the man's songs together, from his Velvet Underground days to his most recent album, Ecstasy. Taken together, Reed's lyrics add up to a coherent, often candid, slice of life, a twisted mythology for a city where myths and urban legends walk the darkened streets. Reed's word-power lies in his simple rhyming couplets, and the poetry often lies in the short, sharp observations and miniature dramas which play out in each song. You probably wouldn't recite many of these lyrics out at a poetry reading, but you will smile wryly at the wealth of experience and street smarts which Reed puts into every line. -Kevin Courtney
The Blue Mountain by Meir Shalev (Canongate £6.99 sterling)
Once the many diverse characters with their unusual names become as familiar and intimate as your neighbours, this earthy, quirky tale of early Jewish pioneers in Palestine - to become Israel - is a rich and entertaining read. Baruch, who was adopted from the age of three by his strong, idiosyncratic grandfather, Ya'akov Mirkin, after his parents are killed by an Arab bomb, charts the history of the settlement as a well-woven series of incidents and anecdotes. Starting from his current situation as the wealthy proprietor of a graveyard, in which wealthy Jews from the US pay huge sums for the privilege of being interred there, Baruch describes the development of their small community - the births, deaths, dramas, joys and tragedies over time. Shalev's prose evokes the tastes and smells of that harsh part of the world, and the lavish narrative depicts past and present simultaneously within the dryly antic Jewish story-telling tradition.. - Christine Madden
Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson (Virgin Books, £9.99 sterling)
This edition of Richard Branson's autobiography has everything one would expect from the life of a self-made billionaire - from make-or-break nail biting phone calls to private island hideaways most of us mere mortals can only dream of visiting. Updated from the original to include the events of the past four years, it is, if not a literary masterpiece, at least a thoroughly gripping read. Fuelled with the intense charisma and enthusiasm Branson is famous for, it drags the reader through a constantly shifting landscape of business formation and decay, interspersed with often funny, sometimes poignant but always relevant anecdotes from the author's life. Essentially, this book, like all Branson's other ventures, excels in no area as competently as that of customer satisfaction - happily for him, this is the key to a successful commercial adventure, and this is sure to be no exception. By the way, for those among you who are more voyeuristic than bibliophilic, he actually loses his virginity on page 48. - Marcus Keane
Forty-Seven Roses by Peter Sheridan (Pan,£5.99 sterling)
Almost at the end of this book, the author tells us of the only time his father gave him advice on how to stay happily married - "don't ever try and love two women. Don't try because it's not possible". Much that has preceded this observation concerns the writer's mother and Doris, "that other woman" from Bolton. What was Da really up to? Was it simply platonic or, heaven forbid, sexual? Sheridan's recount of this saga and of family life in Dublin's north inner city is written in a sharp and humorous style, laced with moments of heart-wrenching sadness. This book follows on from his hugely successful 44: A Dublin Memoir, but this time the story "floats somewhere between memory and invention". For all the pleasure this rich and compelling story offers, there remains the nagging wish to separate fact from fiction, if only because we care so much about his marvellous characters. This frustration apart, the story, written with deceptive fluency, tugs at our emotions. A thoroughly entertaining read. - Owen Dawson
Young Farmer Seeks Wife by Nicholas Furlong (Marino, €9.95)
Young Farmer Seeks Wife is filled with comic episodes that are worthy of Dickens at his funniest. Furlong, the young hero, recounts his escapades in the 1940s and 1950s with a number of young women, such as the girl from Rathgaw, the sergeant's daughter and the girl "who later married into a post office". His story is based in Wexford, where his mother is a constant source of wisdom and highjinks as she urges him on to find a suitable wife. "Shopkeepers aren't gentry and neither are dentists," she cautions him. "To be really gentry, you have, of course, to own land or be a gynaecologist or a judge or a colonel in the British army or a Protestant who is rotten with money." The book is peopled with characters such as Miss Josephine Darcy, who "could divine water, stop bleeding, forecast the weather, wire houses, repair plumbing, cultivate plants on concrete and manage clergymen." It's written with relish, a tongue-in-cheek sauciness and a real fondness for the rural world of those days of yore. - Catherine Foley