I've been a fan of William Boyd for some years now, and especially like his epic novels, particularly Any Human Heart. Sweet Caress is in that territory, in fact, it could be seen as a female companion to that novel, in that it's a kind of cradle-to-grave telling of the story of the Twentieth Century through one woman's eyes, whereas Any Human Heart had a male protagonist.

I've read quite a few Oliver Sacks books, but never really knew much about the man himself, other than what he revealed in books which were, for the most part, about other people. He's always written with a great deal of humanity and compassion, curiosity and articulacy. I've now discovered that he was much more than his patients and the curious cases he has written about. He was a restless spirit, a man who never really fitted in anywhere, a shy man with particular obsessions - motorbikes, body building, swimming, the outdoors, and writing, always writing.

I, like many others, loved the first three books in Steig Larsson's Millennium Series, and I, like many others, was very sceptical about its continuation by a different author. When it started to get very good reviews, however, I decided to give it a go, and I'm very pleased I did. Although the prose is ever so slightly clunky in places, especially early in the book, this may be due to the use of a different translator to the earlier books. The characterisation and plotting are superb, at least as strong as in the originals.

Phew! This book will mess with your head! An epic novel, in the tradition of David Mitchell, it's long, frustrating, confusing, but also exciting, satisfying and quite brilliant. There is also an app, which I don't have, where you can follow many of the individual characters' stories chronologically, rather than in the woven narrative of the book. Apparently, there are 10 different story strands, 3 different interlocking worlds - one of which may or may not actually exist - and many, many characters - one of which seems to exist in two of the worlds simultaneously.

This is the novel, first published in Japan in 1987, which made Murakami famous, much to his dismay. It was first published in English outside Japan in the 2-volume red and green editions in 2000 by Harvill Press, but is now available in a single volume edition. The 2 volume version echoed the original Japanese edition.

In this book, Robert Macfarlane explores the linguistic and literary landscape of the British Isles, and how words shape our sense of place. He investigates cultural reactions to landscape through naming of rock formations, rainfall, agriculture and many other aspects of the natural world. The book is arranged with chapters on mountains, woods, rivers, hunting, farming etc, and he discovers early writers on these subjects and describes their legacy, and then the chapter closes with a glossary of lost or traditional words and their meanings relating to that subject.