Dad and the Mad Cow Roundabout
Dad and the Mad Cow Roundabout is number seven in the Chimps series from The Children's Press for young readers
Books
Where maths and metaphysics meet sex and death
Seth Lloyd's tome is an explanation of one
of the most basic questions in science: why is the world so complex? His big theory explanations are interspersed with quirky personal anecdotes. Reviewed and revered by Corey Powell
In defence of Orientalism
Robert Irwin's new book is a response to Edward Said's take on Orientalism, the ideological justification for European attempts to penetrate and subdue the Arab Orient. But is Irwin just shooting himself in the foot, asks Conor McCarthy?
When a scorpion meets a scorpion
Waltzing scorpions, frying grasshoppers and the disappearance of the locusts are among the treats that await the reader in three new nature books. Tim Flannery reviews these books which will reawaken our interest in the natural wonders of the world
Reclaiming a lost Irish poet
This collection of essays on an under-rated yet highly influential Irish poet, Michael Hartnett, retrieves him from obscurity. Seamus Heaney and Declan Kiberd are among the twelve contributors. Reviewed by Eamon Maher
Saint Patrick Retold
Now that the streets are, comparatively speaking, safe again this might be a good time to remind our children about who St Patrick, in whose name all this annual extravaganza takes place, was.
The branches
The heroine of Susan Straight's novel is marked from birth by the light colour of her skin, and the knowledge that she is a 'cadeau-fille' the product of the rape of a black slave by a white man. Her journey through life is not only a moving historical tale but is written so beautifully that it almost salves history's wounds, says Megan Marshall
Seeing things clearly
The hallucination-lade, absinthe-soaked, world of one of the pioneers of photography.
But how much of it is true? By Max Byrd
Rooney signs new contract
Village wrote recently of the bidding war which broke out over Alan Greenspan's (ex-Chairman of the US Fed) eagerly anticipated (!) memoirs, the dubious prize being eventually claimed by Penguin for $8,000,000.
No sweating about it
Two new books offer and insight and hope to lead to action so that we don't burn ourselves out of existence. Review by Carl Zimmer