This weeks paperbacks
PS, I Love You
Cecelia Ahern
Harper Collins, £6.99
This will surely be the last year chick-lit novels are churned out like glossy magazines and there's been more hype that usual for this book, written by the Taoiseach's daughter for an eye-popping advance. Whatever about all that, this is the most enjoyable book of its type this year. It's a cute plot with 30-year-old Holly being left a bundle of letters by her late husband. There's one for every month of the year and each contains a task designed to help Holly get over his death. Ahern has a way with funny, sparky dialogue and there's also plenty of heartbreak - both moods perfectly balanced by the first-time novelist. For the most part the scenarios ring true though maybe Holly and her giddy pals' devotion to Bewley's is a bit unusual, and she does seem a bit on the old side to be so keen on Westlife but that's being picky. A perfect, bitter-sweet, easy-on-the-brain summer read.
Bernice Harrison
Hey Nostradamus!
Douglas Coupland
Harper Perennial, £7.99
One of several post-Columbine attempts at understanding the impact of random massacre, this is among the strongest. The shockwave of a high school bloodbath over four people, over 15 years. It begins with teenager Cheryl, posthumously describing the events leading up to a massacre at her high school, and then moves to her boyfriend Jason, who is still traumatised 11 years on. His new girlfriend, Heather, takes up the story, before it is concluded by Jason's father, Reg, a man whose faith in and fear of God has skewed his moral compass terribly. Hey Nostradamus! asks serious questions about belief, martyrdom and victimhood but doesn't seek easy answers. It is also another reminder of Coupland's abilities as a storyteller. The story is expertly unfurled, with wit and rhythm and through characters that evolve without becoming predictable. Excellent.
Shane Hegarty
Cosmopolis
Don DeLillo
Picador, £6.99
Eric Packer is so rich he is probably insane and duly cruises the streets of Manhattan in his giant stretch limousine which doubles as his office. He also owns a 48-room apartment and a decommissioned nuclear bomber. Well, good old Eric has recently wed Elise, a beautiful heiress and poet, who is almost as crazy as he is. Their cryptic conversations suggest they don't really know each other and Eric still sleeps with mostly everyone else he knows. Anyhow, the happy couple and their oddball relationship are not really the point, nor is the guy who is intent on killing Eric. DeLillo, satirist and master of the layered observation, is more concerned with the chaotic sickness that stalks contemporary US society. Although he's capable of writing tremendous, sinister mood pieces such as The Body Artist, an off-form DeLillo somehow misses the mark with this spectacularly bizarre tale.
Eileen Battersby
A Thing in Disguise: The Visionary Life of Joseph Paxton
Kate Colquhoun
Harper Perennial, £8.99
This is the story of the rise and rise of one Joseph Paxton, best remembered, perhaps, as the man who designed London's Crystal Palace, a wonder of its time. Yet in ways this is a distraction as he was acknowledged as the foremost botanist and gardener in Britain. A man of humble origins and with no formal education, his genius with plants eventually brought him to the attention of the sixth Duke of Devonshire, under whose patronage and extreme generosity, Paxton created some of the most stunningly beautiful gardens of England and "Lismore in Co Wexford". (Thankfully, in later pages Lismore is transferred to Co Waterford). Their relationship developed into a close lifelong friendship, too close perhaps for Mrs Paxton's liking. A scrupulously researched and lucid tale of a remarkable man.
Owen Dawson
Into Africa
Martin Dugard
Bantam Books, £7.99
When Stanley found Livingstone in deepest, darkest Africa after a long arduous search, did he actually say "Dr Livingstone, I presume"? The evidence is inconclusive. But Martin Dugard has no doubt about the enormous significance of that moment. "The opening of Africa" - how innocuous the phrase sounds yet what unfathomable human suffering lay behind that frenzied European imperialism. However, that is not the narrative of this book, which instead dramatically retells the Stanley-Livingstone story. It does so superbly, recounting Livingstone's last desperate quest to discover the source of the mighty Nile, and thereby revealing so much about his extraordinary and contradictory personality. This year is the centenary of Stanley's death. The insights the reader gets in this book into what drove him on are not likely to be bettered.
Brian Maye
Revenge
Mary Stanley
Review, £6.99
This is a gripping story that is both detective novel and psychological thriller. It's clear from the first page that the happy domestic life of the McHarg family is about to be shattered. The growing sense of foreboding draws the reader in - the threat that something terrible is about to happen is palpable. After a horrible crime has been perpetrated, this ditsy and charming family must rally and try to solve the mystery of what exactly has happened to Prunella, the eldest daughter. Set in Dublin, the characters, all daughters, are likeable, funny and real - in spite of their weird pet names. They all live with their mother, Maria McHarg and their wonderful grandmother, Millicent McHarg. The story turns into a gripping whodunnit with the vengeful Millicent heading up the various professional and amateur sleuths to find the culprit. A great read.
Catherine Foley