Another in this terrific series - this time on Nick Drake's third album Pink Moon, the last recorded before his tragic and untimely death in 1974. Nick Drake was almost completely ignored by the music industry and the public until well after his death. This book traces his career, his depression, likely suicide (some still maintain his death was accidental); and the subsequent, almost miraculous growth in his reputation and album sales.

Having just seen Television play at The Powerstation late last year, and also read Patti Smith's Just Kids in which Tom Verlaine appears, I was keen to read more on the background of the recording of this legendary album. The 33 1/3 books, now numbering 86 titles, is an amazing series of cute little paperbacks describing the creation of key rock and pop albums. They describe the social and historical context of the period in which the album was made, and reveal insights into the artists creative influences.

Patti Smith is a legendary figure in the New York music, poetry and art scene, known primarily for her 1975 album Horses, and for her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe. This beautifully poetic memoir focuses mostly on the period from her arrival in New York as a rebellious teenager in the late 1960s, through her meeting and relationship with Mapplethorpe in the 1970s. It's an extraordinary love story, which continued to largely define both of their lives even as Patti Smith eventually married, moved away from New York and semi-retired from the music business.

This is, I think, the second volume of monthly diary style book reviews, as originally published in the US magazine Believer. Nick Hornby is a charming book companion - curious, enthusiastic, discerning and funny. His reading tastes are wide and varied: there is fiction, non fiction and poetry, heavy and light, but Hornby has an amazing ability to make ALL of these books sound interesting. These are not scholarly reviews, and he doesn't write about books he doesn't enjoy, the reviews are all generally positive, apparently in keeping with Believer's editorial policy.

I still can't believe that I hadn't read this until this summer! I was intending to read the new one, The Goldfinch, but realised I'd never read The Secret History, so went for that first. I'm pleased I did - what a tremendous book! I can see why people were so excited about it at the time.

These are both short story collections, and although they share nothing in style, they share a lot in theme, and in quality - both are brilliant. They are both, in a way, state-of-the-nation collections, regarding contemporary America with a very acute eye. They also both use the family in various forms to explore modern domestic and suburban life in America. In tone, however, they differ significantly.