The Irish Times reviews a selection of paperbacks
Protection Molly McCluskey Penguin, £7.99
This sparky, confident debut novel takes the ball of 21st-century Irish prosperity, and runs with it into a future where everything is managed, reality is virtual and everyone is suffering from information overload. (The alarming thing from where we're standing, of course, is that this future is all too close.) Gillian runs an upmarket self-help haven for high achievers who want to "decelerate"; Damian is the public face of a heritage village which attempts to recreate 1950s Ireland; their daughter is hooked on a futuristic TV soap; and their marriage is in trouble. Themes of memory, love and loss are explored with engaging warmth and an impressive lightness of touch - but McCloskey, who was born in Philadelphia but has lived in Ireland since 1989, uses her insider-outsider status to aim a few hard-hitting satirical bulls'-eyes - Arminta Wallace
A Plea for Eros Siri Hustvedt Sceptre, £ 8.99
Salman Rushdie has described Hustvedt, the author of What I Loved, as that "rare artist, a writer of high intelligence and profound sensuality". Smart and sexy, in other words. The beauty of this absorbing collection of essays is that it features the inner riches that a complex writer such as Hustvedt must leave out of her fiction: the whys and wherefores of her own developing sensibility, its influences and her own way of moving in the world. Liberated from the whip of plot and tyranny of character, Hustvedt is a luminous thinker on subjects as varied as F Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, the wearing of corsetry and the unsettling experience of looking in a mirror and failing to recognise herself. She describes the restless, altered state of fiction writing as being like listening to voices before falling asleep. Intoxicating stuff. - Kate Holmquist
State of the Union Douglas Kennedy Arrow Books, £6.99
This 600-page blockbuster is about rebellion and expectation, and how the two can often clash in unexpected ways. Its heroine, Hannah Buchan, rejects the radical values of her radical counter-culture 1960s parents, flees into middle-class respectability as a doctor's wife in Maine, and proceeds to live a dull, blameless and boring life. Except for one moment of madness; which, naturally, comes back to haunt her. State of the Union is the third in Douglas Kennedy's series of novels which explore the identity of America's hidden women. Like its predecessors, The Pursuit of Happiness and A Special Relationship, it is poised between wry humour and steely observation, and like them, it's an undemanding but not unintelligent summer read. - Arminta Wallace
Happiness: Lessons from a New Science Richard Layard Penguin, £8.99
As Western countries have increased dramatically in wealth over the past 50 years, why has there not been a proportional increase in happiness? This question serves as the springboard for Richard Layard's timely investigation into the true causes of human happiness, which effectively debunks the myth that money, beyond that needed for survival, adds much to the quality of our lives. We are thus trapped on the "hedonic treadmill" and have to keep running after wealth for our happiness to stand still. As an economist, Layard argues that the goal of every government should be to achieve the greatest possible happiness of its citizens, and touches upon topics as diverse as human evolution, genetics, psychology and Buddhist philosophy in determining their bearing upon happiness. Idealistic without being naïve, Layard's polemic comes as a breath of fresh air, serving as a counterpoint to the "greed is good" mentality of those in the financial rat race. - Kevin Cronin
The Colonel of Tamarkan: Philip Toosey and the Bridge on the River Kwai Julie Summers Pocket Books, £8.99
David Lean's movie The Bridge on the River Kwai tells the story of Allied POWs, under the command of the eccentric Col Nicholson, bridging a river on the Burma/Thailand railroad during the second World War. The exploits of the colonel were loosely based on Lt Col Philip Toosey, a Territorial Army volunteer and a remarkable soldier. During the defence and subsequent surrender of Singapore, Toosey's leadership qualities had been recognised. It was, however, as officer in charge at the prison camp at Tamarkan that his genius for organisation, his diplomacy in dealing with the Japanese and his exceptional bravery, helped save the lives of many hundreds of his men. Using accounts from those who knew him, Julie Summers's poignant biography does justice to the memory of a forgotten war hero. - Martin Noonan
The Book of Lists: Football Stephen Foster Canongate, £8.99
This is one for budding Alan Partridges the world over, a kind of football trivia utopia, featuring more than 300 pages of useless but amusing quotes, information, and "Top 10" lists concerning the world's most popular game. From the high-brow ("In football, everything is complicated by the presence of the opposite team" - Sartre) to the low-brow (Andrei Kanchelskis is an anagram of "He's a lad in knickers"), there's plenty here to impress your friends with in the pub. And while it's inevitably heavily weighted in favour of English football, there's local interest too, with the bizarre musings of George Hamilton well worth their inclusion - "Real Madrid are like a rabbit in the glare of headlights in the face of Manchester United's attacks. But this rabbit comes with a suit of armour in the shape of two precious away goals." - Ciaran Murray