Another in this tremendously good series on the making of particular rock albums - this time on Neutral Milk Hotel's 1997 album 'In The Aeroplane Over The Sea', which was a major cult album in the 90s and onwards. The band dispersed after this album was released, but reformed recently, and played an ecstatic show at the King's Arms last year. They clearly still have a faithful and enthusiastic following. This is one of the better books in the series, I think.

There has been quite a lot of talk in the trade about this book, suggesting that it's in the same vein as Guernsey or Major Pettigrew; it's easy to see why. I'd come across Gabrielle Zevin a few years ago with her wonderful YA novel Elsewhere, but hadn't realised she also wrote for adults. The novel is set in a bookstore owned by the rather grumpy AJ Fikry, located on a small island in the Cape Cod region in Massachusetts.

Swimming In The Dark is an unsettling thriller about Serena, a bright 15 year old girl, from a dysfunctional family in Otago, who is being abused by the local cop. The story is told from different narrators' perspectives, initially Serena herself, and her older sister Lynnie, who has escaped their toxic family and moved on to Wellington. Serena's schoolteacher, Ilse becomes involved, and at this point the story broadens to tell the story of Ilse's parents' escape form the brutality of the East German regime during the Cold War.

This is another of Chicago's entertaining and intelligent cultural travel titles. In this one, Erin Hogan, director of public affairs at the Art Institute of Chicago, hits the road, alone, in her Volkswagon Jetta, to discover the great works of American land art in the deserts of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. She takes in Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty on the Great Salt Lake, Walter de Maria's Lightning Field in New Mexico, and half a dozen other landmark works.

Having recently read and enjoyed her Just Kids, I was delighted when I found a copy of this in my office, and read it immediately. It's a very cute little book, first published in the US by Hanuman Books in 1992 as a limited edition, and in a slightly different form. It is a collection of fragmentary reflections and memories, mostly about Patti Smith's childhood, some of which is dreamlike and oblique. Other parts are crystal clear and unsettling - especially her memory of seeing her dog killed by a truck.

A short but truly delightful little history, description and guide to the famous pilgrimage trail across France and northern Spain. Conrad Rudolph economically and movingly describes his journey over two and a half months and a thousand miles, blending history, spirituality and memoir, as well as describing how to research and equip oneself to follow in his and many others footsteps. I think I'll just read the book..