Books

The O'Brien Press certainly seems intent on cornering the junior fiction market when it comes to the 1916 Rising.

John Perkins poacher turned gate keeper of money from the world's poorest country exposes the inside story of an economic hit man. Michael McCaughan reviews this page-turner

Conventional wisdom and daytime television would have it that there is never a winner in court battles. Like closing-down sales and companies that insist that “your call is important to us”, this is patently untrue.

More than 30 years after the writer's death and 75 since the publication of The Good Earth, the saga of a farming family in pre-Communist China, Buck remains stranded between two worlds. In China she is admired but not read; in America, she is read but not admired. Mike Meyer writes about the author and her books

Word from his publishers is that Douglas Coupland's new book is called iPod A Novel. We know nothing more, but salute Coupland's dedication to the zeitgeist.

Things piratical seem to be back in fashion for younger readers. Close on the heels (or should it be the gums) of The Legend of Captain Crowe's Teeth by Eoin Colfer, we have Marie Burlington's Lighthouse Joey.

While Bremer's accomplishments deserve our gratitude, he bears a heavy responsibility for his failure to admit to the true state of affairs in Iraq. By Dexter Filkins

John McGahern's powerful memoir is grounded in the natural world and based on the understanding of life's purpose. Review by Verlyn Klinkenborg

Book Notes often wonders how stupid publishers think we are. Then we see illustrated copies of The Da Vinci Code on all our shelves or Jordan's second autobiography topping the charts and it all becomes clear – they think we're as bloody stupid as they are lazy.

First published in 1968 Ted Hughes's The Iron Man is now back in the shops with wonderfully dark and sinister illustrations by Tom Gauld that will rouse many young people to read the tale that inspired them. And what a tale it is!