The latest paperbacks reviewed
Live and Learn Joan Didion Harper Perennial €9.99
A compendium of some of Joan Didion's most read essays spanning nearly three decades, Live and Learn comprises Slouching Towards Bethlehem, The White Album and After Henry. In the first collection, originally published in 1968, Didion set the bar for personal essay writing in the 1960s. Covering the Kennedy assassination, the Black Panthers, the lost children of the Haight-Ashbury district, Vietnam, and the Reagan years, Didion's prose is clean, sharp and effective. Heralded as an unbiased observer by critics through the years, Didion's political and social leanings peek out between the lines, making her work all the more thought-provoking. She has progressed from personal-social essays, still contributing regularly on controversial issues to The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books. An introduction for new readers or reference for long-time fans. Nora Mahony
Ulysses Unbound: A reader's companion to James Joyce's Ulysses By Terence Killeen Wordwell, in association with the National Library of Ireland, €19.50
No longer need the high-voltage, aesthetic pleasure of encountering Ulysses be deferred. Why? Because now a 'companion' is at hand. Each episode of Ulysses gets its due by way of a number of plainly written, informative sections: summary; correspondences (how the novel fits with the Odyssey); style; commentary; a biographical and historical section and a glossary. Additional short, illuminating essays include a preface, life, the writing/publication story and an afterword. This marvellous final essay puts the reader in thinking mode - thinking about Joyce's Ulysses in the light of modernism; thinking about the scope and significance of the work and how it engages the reader with its style(s) and originality. It's very easy to see this "companion" snug on the shelf beside the great work itself. Kate Bateman
The Oxford Book of Exploration Robin Hanbury-Tenison Oxford University Press, £16.99
In this fascinating anthology, the famous explorers speak in their own words. Hanbury-Tenison, a noted explorer and campaigner for the rights of indigenous peoples, gives short biographical introductions and follows them with extracts from the explorers' writings. "Their achievements, and indeed their failures, have a lasting significance that may affect the destiny of mankind," he writes. When one thinks of how Columbus's arrival subsequently affected the lives of the natives of Central and South America, one realises the tragic truth of this statement. The extracts featured here certainly give the flavour of what exploration is really like - it "may be tasted in the pages". Lots of suffering, sadness, courage and inspiration come through, as well as baser motives. For better or for worse, the greatest significance of exploration through the ages has been the advancement of knowledge, and this gold mine of a book can be dipped into on any page. Brian Maye
The Catholic Bulletin and Republican Ireland with special reference to JJ O'Kelly ('Sceilg') Brian P Murphy Athol Books, €22.50
JJ O'Kelly ('Sceilg') was a man of high but narrow intelligence. He was a Gaelic evangelist, Sinn Féin ideologue, and editor of the Catholic Bulletin. He formed part of the Sinn Féin rump which entrusted the grail of the republic to the IRA army council in 1938. Two years later O'Kelly was praising Hitler for freeing Germany from the "heel" of the "Jewish white slave traffic". The weed of anti-Semitism had been nurtured earlier. In 1916 the Bulletin promoted a series of articles alleging ritual killing with a poster which read: "Murder by Jews". The publication of Murphy's research is a reminder that it is time for republican militarism to go away. Brendan Ó Cathaoir
My Trade: A Short History of British Journalism Andrew Marr Pan Books, £7.99
In this engrossing book, equal parts personal memoir and colourful history, Andrew Marr proves an entertaining insider as he attempts to demystify the process behind the production of news. As the BBC's political editor and a former editor of the London Independent, Marr is in a unique position to offer the story of British journalism in both print and broadcast forms. From early writers such as Defoe to proprietors and editors including Beaverbrook and Scott, right up to the Hutton inquiry, Marr fills the pages with fascinating characters and stories. His own anecdotes, however, especially the tales of Tony O'Reilly and David Montgomery battling over the Independent, are the most insightful and entertaining. For anyone interested in news and journalism, this is a most rewarding read. Davin O'Dwyer
Himalaya Michael Palin Phoenix, £8.99
Michael Palin's latest travel extravaganza (an accompaniment to a televison series) sees him follow a 1,500 mile route through the Himalayan mountains. Along the way he observes stunning scenery, endures many hardships, and meets some wonderful characters; sherpa guides, sadhus, even the Dalai Lama. Palin is very strong on descriptions, employing a succinct, direct prose style which manages to be both informative and personal at the same time. He is not, however, the type of traveller who immerses himself in the moment; instead, he opts for a bit of distance. This aloofness, whilst effective in allowing the reader to imagine a furious polo match at the Shandur Pass, can also manifest itself as priggishness, or worse still condescension, as exemplified by his insistence on quoting verbatim the broken English of the many people he encounters along the way. Ken Walshe