BOOK OF THE WEEK

Some Luck by Jane Smiley is published in hardback by Mantle, priced £18.99 (ebook £7.19). Available now

Some Luck is the first volume of Pulitzer-prize winning novelist Jane Smiley's new trilogy The Last Hundred Years. This volume runs from 1920 to 1953, following the fortunes of the Langdons - a farming family in Iowa - and covers the Great Depression and World War II, complete with Pearl Harbour and the atomic bomb.

But these events form the backdrop to everyday family life. The Depression is seen in the need to kill half the chickens on the farm as the local fancy pastry maker in town goes out of business because no-one can afford his cakes and he no longer needs the eggs.

Walter the head of the family is deeply embedded with the land and holds old-fashioned values. He doesn't see the value of a tractor, as you can grow the feed for the horses but have to buy the fuel for the tractor. He is envious of his father holding his land free and clear.

Smiley has a deep understanding of farming but wears her knowledge and learning well. While you might get told the yield to the acre or how to hang up a horse harness so it doesn't tangle, you feel these nuggets help you understand the trials of being a farmer in the period.

Each chapter covers a year - some are momentous, others merely domestic. In the early part of the book, Smiley is particularly good on getting in to the mind of a child as Frank and then his siblings are born. How children torment one another and feel things deeply.

The novel is all about subtleties, rather than plot driving narrative. The characters develop and grow over the course of 30 years and to see the impact of their actions, you will be waiting eagerly for the next instalment in the trilogy.

8/10

(Review by Bridie Pritchard)

FICTION

The Fires Of Autumn by Irene Nemirovsky is published in hardback by Chatto & Windus, priced £16.99 (ebook £8.49). Available now

In 1914 naive, idealistic teenager Bernard Jacquelain joins up, against his parents' wishes, and goes off to war. He returns four years later, a changed man. Dazzled by the hedonism of post-war Paris and seduced by the lure of money and success, he embarks on a decadent life of easy virtue and dodgy financial deals. When his lover dumps him, he turns to his wholesome childhood friend Therese for succour and comfort. But when war breaks out again, everything Bernard had clung to starts to crumble, including his marriage, and the consequences of his shady business deals come back to haunt him. The Fires Of Autumn paints a tragic picture of the human cost of war, but it also depicts the grubby aftermath, corruption and greed and the breakdown of morals. It's a sobering glimpse of the lives and loves of ordinary Parisians, and the best and worst of human nature.

8/10

(Review by Catherine Small)

The Suicide Club by Andrew Williams is published in hardback by Hodder & Stoughton, priced £17.99 (ebook £9.98). Available now

Former Panorama and Newsnight senior producer Andrew Williams returns with his fourth novel, a gripping thriller set in Occupied Belgium in 1917 during the dark days of the First World War. Williams tells the largely unknown story of the espionage battles fought behind the lines. Miltary spy and soldier Sandy Innes is transferred from Belgium to France by the Secret Service under the guise of training the next batch of spies. However, that's not all there is to his new mission. He finds himself attached to an advanced assault group known as The Suicide Club. He takes on the task to dig for answers as he finds that his boss' agenda doesn't match that of the battle. Treachery is afoot, and the lives of hundreds of thousands of soldier lie in his hands. The Suicide Club is a well-paced thriller balancing a race against time alongside a rich historical tale.

7/10

(Review by Rachel Howdle)

The Beat Goes On: The Complete Rebus Short Stories by Ian Rankin is published in hardback by Orion, priced £19.99 (ebook £6.99). Available now

Edinburgh cop John Rebus has already been resurrected once by his creator, who brought him out of retirement for a new novel a few years ago and now he is back again in this short story selection. It collects together previously published work with a handful of new stories tracking Rebus from his first days on the force to the end of his career. They reveal Rankin as a master of the short story art, with tightly-contained twists and turns and memorable characters fleshed out in just a few pages. Readers new to Rebus would be better off beginning at the beginning with the novels, but for fans who have read and re-read them already, this is a special treat - like getting an extra pint in long after last orders have been called in the detective's beloved Oxford Bar.

8/10

(Review by Robert Dex)

Honeyville by Daisy Waugh is published in paperback by HarperCollins, priced £7.99 (ebook £5.35). Available now

Daisy Waugh's latest book offers an insight into a piece of American history that rarely makes it into historical fiction; the 1914 miner's strike in Trinidad, Colorado. It was this strike that led directly to the Ludlow Massacre, killing more than 20 people and leaving the town of Trinidad shaken to its core. Twenty years after the events that left a small town reeling, we find Dora Whitworth being presented with a letter taking her back to her time in that town and retelling the story of her, a woman of questionable reputation and Inez Dubois, a lady of high social standing in Trinidad and how these two very diverse yet equally strong women started to cross one another's paths. Waugh has given this story depth through strong and colourful characters set in a town that is painted with precision, a place where you would not want to be, yet the rhythm of the book draws you in. I found this book a pleasant and easy read that kept my interest until the end.

7/10

(Review by Sarah Scoffin)

Forgotten Fitzgerald: Echoes Of A Lost America edited by Sarah Churchwell, is published in paperback by Abacus, priced £8.99 (ebook £4.99). Available now

The notion of Fitzgerald's short stories as merely lucrative distractions from magnificent novels like The Great Gatsby has faded, but his biographer Churchwell contends that we are still only and overly familiar with a small selection. She then undermines her own thesis by admitting that two thirds of these 12 pieces are already in print elsewhere, compromising what could have been a more distinctive, if more niche, book. These are all very much the sort of story one associates with Fitzgerald; class conflict, lost love, the ideal of America. Yes, his one murder mystery's here, and the absence of his misfiring medieval yarns is for the best, but you'd never know from this assortment, say, how hauntingly he could deploy the supernatural. Still, this is work by one of America's finest writers; these stories are all flawed gems, but in Fitzgerald's own words, each contains "some sort of epic grandeur".

7/10

(Review by Alex Sarll)

NON-FICTION

My Life In Houses by Margaret Forster is published in hardback by Chatto & Windus, priced £14.99 (ebook £7.49). Available now

A cunning way of structuring a memoir, this slim (beautifully presented) volume takes us through author Forster's life according to the various homes she's inhabited, from a Carlisle Council Estate to Portugal and Hampstead via Oxford University - and through marriage, illness and visits from the Beatles. Though Forster has lived an interesting life, this book is in danger of reading at times as the recollections of any esteemed literary author - readable, but not different. So the structure is what sets this apart, as what stays with the reader is Forster's fascination with, and musings on, the impact of your house - your home - on your mental state and your health. Having suffered serious rounds of cancer, her thoughts on the healing power of a home are moving: "When everything in my body is changing... my house, by staying the same, is a huge comfort." A clever little tome.

8/10

(Review by Emma Herdman)

Chaser: Unlocking The Genius Of The Dog Who Knew 1000 Words by John W. Pilley and Hilary Hinzmann is published in paperback by Oneworld, priced £9.99. Available now

What retired psychology professor John W. Pilley has achieved with Chaser is quite astonishing. Intrigued by animals who exhibited the ability to understand and learn, Pilley began an experiment with Border Collie Chaser when she was just a puppy. In his own home and u sing the dog's natural herding instinct, as well as laboratory-standard checks and controls, Pilley found Chaser understood a whole host of words. Play had a lot to do with the experiment and Chaser often took the lead as Pilley became little more than an observer. In his fascinating account of how Chaser went about showing she could understand what he was telling her, Pilley has not only brought the experiment to life but he has also confirmed what so many dog lovers already know about man's best friend. Dog lovers will enjoy reading this book, as will anyone interested in animals and those with a leaning towards science.

7/10

(Review by Roddy Brooks)

CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK

Snow by Walter de la Mare, illustrated by Carolina Rabei, is published in paperback by Faber & Faber, priced £6.99. Available now

Poet Walter de la Mare, who won the Carnegie Medal for his Collected Stories For Children, would be delighted by this reimagining of his classic poem, Snow. With the lines, "No breath of wind,/No gleam of sun-/Still the white snow/Whirls softly down", we're introduced, from the perspective of a robin perched in a tree, to an idyllic village covered in snow. Down below, a dog bounds into his house and takes us through Christmas Eve with his family - the three children hang decorations on a tree, leave sherry out for Santa, then dutifully brush their teeth and go to bed. Santa comes, leaving snow on the hearth, and the children gleefully spend Christmas Day sledging and building a snowman, until "shut of day", when a robin "shrills his lonely tune". Illustrated simply in a palette of reds, browns and grays, this wonderful book will bring a smile to the face of every child and adult this Christmas.

8/10

(Review by Kate Whiting)

BESTSELLERS FOR WEEK ENDING DECEMBER 6

HARDBACKS

1. Private Eye Annual: 2014, Ian HIslop

2. Girl Online, Zoe Sugg

3. Guy Martin: My Autobiography, Guy Martin

4. The Miniaturist, Jessie Burton

5. The Churchill Factor: How One Man Made History, Boris Johnson

6. Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, Jeff Kinney

7. Guinness World Records 2015

8. Lamentation: The Shardlake Series, C J Samson

9. Awful Auntie, David Walliams

10. The Sunrise, Victoria Hislop

(Compiled by Waterstones)

PAPERBACKS

1. Mystery in White: A Christmas Crime Story: British Library Crime Classic, J Jefferson Farjeon

2. The Guest Cat, Takashi Hiraide

3. Test Your Dog:Is Your Dog an Undiscovered Genius?, Rachel Federman

4. Test Your Cat: The Cat IQ Test, EM Bard

5. Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn

6. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler

7. Alan Turing: The Enigma: The Book That Inspired the Film, the Imitation, Andrew Hodges

8. This Boy, Alan Johnson

9. The Best of Matt 2014, Matt Pritchett

10. I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban, Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb

(Compiled by Waterstones)

EBOOKS

1. There's Something I've Been Dying to Tell You, Lynda Bellingham

2. Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn

3. The Letter, Kathryn Hughes

4. The Photographer's Wife, Nick Alexander

5. Because She Loves Me, Mark Edwards

6. Look Behind You, Sibel Hodge

7. Medieval - Blood of the Cross, Kevin Ashman

8. Coming Home For Christmas, Julia Williams

9. Captivated by You: A Crossfire Novel, Sylvia Day

10. Leaving Time, Jodi Picoult

(Compiled by amazon.co.uk)