One can forget that, in non-fiction, the action keeps going when the book ends. Two years ago the world clutched Norwegian Asne Seierstad's The Bookseller of Kabul in delight.

Darina Allen on her love of picnics all year round

Steven Green served for a few months in the terrible "Triangle of Death", south of Baghdad. Foot patrols. House raids. Roadside bombs. An Apocalypse Now in a Humvee. There is no way that we can yet know the particular horror of that one evening, but a US Army report states that Green and four other members of his company got drunk, went out into the town of Mahmudiya, camouflaged in dark clothing, kicked down a door, burst into a home, went to the bedroom, killed a mother, a father, a young girl, and then raped another child at gunpoint.

Oops, they did it again. That pesky microphone problem that plagued George W Bush and Tony Blair in St Petersburg struck again at their White House news conference on 28 July. The president told technicians to make sure his real thoughts would not be overheard this time, but somehow someone forgot to turn off the feed to my office. As a public service, I'd like to reprint the candid under-their-breath mutterings they exchanged in between their public utterances.

There is an easy intelligence about Andy O'Mahony's Dialogue (Saturdays 6.30pm, Radio One). The guests are provocative, Andy is clever, without having to show off his cleverness (unlike you-know-who). Respectful interchange between two thoughtful people is the hallmark of the programme, so different from most talk-radio, where there is usually a disrespectful interchange between thoughtless people.

Writing in the Sunday Business Post on 16 July, Pat Leahy claimed that, according to "senior government sources", relations between Fianna Fáil and Tony O'Reilly were "non-existent" after the government had failed to respond adequately to lobbying by Independent Newspapers executives. However, Leahy took pains to point out that "there is no evidence or suggestion that the editorial coverage or reporting in any of the group's newspapers was or is affected by corporate relations".

On 28 July a year ago, the leadership of the Irish Republican Army formally ordered an end to its armed campaign. All IRA units were ordered to dump arms. They were directed to assist the development of purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means. "Volunteers must not engage in any other activities whatsoever" the IRA leadership declared. The IRA also authorised its representative to engage with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) to complete the process to verifiably put its arms beyond use as quickly as possible.

Pankah Mishra's vivid, uncompromising look at the modern Indian subcontinent might not win him many friends, but it lays bare Western cliches and rhetoric about south Asia. By Ben Macintyre

I must own 40 books about the Beatles, 30 about Bob Dylan, and maybe 20 more about Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys. Then there are the CDs and DVDs by these artists overflowing my meager New York City shelf space, not to mention the back issues of Mojo and Uncut piled up beside my bed.

Sometimes, public readings or book launches can be all about the venue. Any journalist will tell you how dim a light is shone on a book from a grey cold hall or plastic cups of warm Chardonnay. A bit of imagination can go a long way, writes Ronan Browne.