Life's A Picnic

Miracles of Life: An Autobiography by JG Ballard

The Sunday Times paperback pick of the week by Trevor Lewis

Ettie by Richard Davenport-Hines

The Sunday Times review by Frances Wilson: the first biography of one of the most unfailingly positive women who ever lived

The Famous Five's Survival Guide

The Sunday Times review by Nicolette Jones

The White War by Mark Thompson

Sunday Times review by David Gilmour: the tragic, untold story of Italy's disastrous involvement in the first world war

A Strange Eventful History: The Dramatic Lives of Ellen Terry, Henry Irving and Their Remarkable Families by Michael Holroyd

The Sunday Times review by John Carey: a dramatic portrait of the dynamic duo who revolutionised Victorian theatre

Fifty Years of Carry On by Richard Webber

The Sunday Times review by Antonia Quirke: the French got Truffaut, Britain got Charles Hawtrey and Kenneth Williams sat in pairs of cotton...

The Wasted Vigil by Nadeem Aslam

The Sunday Times review by Peter Parker: a dazzling novel about modern-day Afghanistan - its savagery and its beauty

Death in a White Tie by Ngaio Marsh, read by Benedict Cumberbatch

The Sunday Times review by Karen Robinson

At a glances

The Sunday Times reviews by Ed King

The Private Patient by PD James

The Sunday Times review by Penny Perrick: dark and devilish goings-on in a private clinic in Dorset; Adam Dalgliesh investigates

When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson

The Sunday Times review by Joan Smith: the past comes back to haunt an Edinburgh GP in this immensely powerful novel from the author of Behind...

Man in the Dark by Paul Auster

The Sunday Times review by Hugo Barnacle: the hero of Auster's cool thoughtful novel tries to beat insomnia by imagining a world in which...

Summer reads for kids

Amanda Craig reviews three books to occupy children until the summer holidays end

The Gum Thief, by Douglas Coupland

The Times review by Christina Koning

Classic - Hothouse, by Brian Aldiss

Kate Saunders' fiction reviews of the week: August 30, 2008

Deluxe: How Luxury Lost its Lustre, by Dana Thomas

The Times review by Ross Leckie

The Deportees, by Roddy Doyle

The Times review by Christina Koning

What Will Survive, by Joan Smith

The Times review by Christina Koning