The Virgin Suicides
By Jeffrey Eugenides Bloomsbury, £8.99
Choreographed with daunting measures of menace and grace, this elegiac celebration of beauty, philosophical acceptance, youthful longing and lasting regret remains one of the finest literary debuts of all. Reissued to coincide with the publication of The Marriage Plot,its Pulitzer-winning author shows exactly how good he is in a deceptively low-key family opera featuring the five Lisbon sisters, who are united in the belief that life just isn't worth the effort. Their parents stand helpless as the ritual leave-taking commences. With the first death the sheer strangeness becomes apparent; the remaining four sisters file past that coffin, and, as one of the neighbours recalls, "It was like they were giving her a wink." The neighbourhood boys tell the story, some 20 years later, as a besotted chorus lamenting the death of romance and the end of childhood. Eileen Battersby
Tintin: Hergé His Creation
By Harry Thompson
John Murray, £8.99
Vilified in Brussels for returning to work as a cartoonist under Nazi occupation, Tintin's creator, whose real name was Georges Rémi, faced public disgrace over false accusations of collaboration. Jailed and unable to work for two years, a humbled Hergé found himself at odds with the heroism of his fearless boy reporter. But any hint of aiding the enemy is roundly refuted by Harry Thompson in his outstanding biography. Indeed, he points to Tintin's final adventure before the outbreak of the second World War, King Ottokar's Sceptre, as a brave satirical swipe against Nazi annexation of Austria. For more than 50 years Hergé handcrafted Tintin's globetrotting exploits. A tortured perfectionist prone to psychosomatic illness, he grew to hate Tintin but reconciled with him as a son untainted by his "harsher traits". Kevin Cronin
Women Mean Business: One Woman’s Journey into Entrepreneurship
Rosemary Delaney
Orpen Press, €14.99
Five years ago Rosemary Delaney started Women Mean Business magazine. Out of that she runs corporate publishing, an awards scheme, an annual conference and other events. Within a year of her start-up, the financial projections were out the window, but she is not a person to be deterred. This is not a business book but it is, in part, a primer in entrepreneurship with women in mind. It is also part biography; interesting and revealing. It should inspire women who work outside the home – and those who don't but wish they did. Delaney has had her share of problems and setbacks, including losing her father when she was just seven, and then her mother and her brother. However, her book, which is written in a fluent and engaging style, exudes positivity with a focused determination to get ahead while keeping a grip on a balanced lifestyle. Eoin McVey
Something Was There . . . : Asham Award-Winning Ghost Stories
Edited by Kate Pullinger
Virago, £8.99
Actually, not all of these short stories by women are ghost stories, but most provide a satisfyingly creepy read. Dead narrators abound. Red Branwen, by Janet Tchamani, is a cheering, feminist take on Jack the Ripper. In Kate Clanchy's hilarious The Real Storya brassy contemporary literary agent crosses paths with the Brontë sisters, is deeply unimpressed, and signs their dad to write a parenting book. On the Turn of the Tide, Jacky Taylor's story about selkies, has an excellent twist. The collection is made up of 12 stories shortlisted for the Ashram Award, which is open to unpublished women living in the UK. It also contains three commissioned stories and a recently discovered story by Daphne du Maurier, who may be a master of the macabre ( Rebecca, The Birds), but the story included here is predictable and old-fashioned. This entertaining anthology is a good read, especially as the nights lengthen. Mary Feely
The Last Man on the Mountain: The Death of an American Adventurer on K2
By Jennifer Jordan
WW Norton, £18.99
The title tells all in yet another extreme- mountaineering book, which has become a publishing mini-industry since the success of Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air. But this is an unexpectedly fascinating and epic read. Jordan, a journalist and documentary film-maker, lived at the base of K2, where in 2002 she literally stumbled on the long-dead remains of her subject. Dudley Francis Wolfe was a wealthy Boston socialite, climber and yachtsman who, in 1939, at the age of 43, joined an American team and their exploited Sherpa guides aiming to reach the summit of the unconquered K2. Wolfe was no Hooray Henry with more money than sense; his bravery, integrity and fitness are never in doubt, but he was dangerously out of his league on K2. Jordan sympathetically but unrelentingly details the mistakes made by the inexperienced team and its ambitious leader, a German-American climber on his second attempt. Kevin Sweeney
