Books

Casting With a Fragile Thread. By Wendy Kann. Henry Holt and Co., €25

A new guide to the World Cup, which gives a rundown of every country competing, is good for the lapsed football fan but often has nothing to do with football. By Michael McCaughan

Is Irish poetry is finding new favour across the water? The BBC has been reporting that Seamus Heaney has become the top attraction at the upcoming Edinburgh Literary festival (12-28 August), an offshoot of the annual Arts festival.

Just when you thought there was no medium left for football to invade Donald Mahoney compiles this summer's essential soccer reading list

A review of Pageboy Danny by Brianog Brady Dawson. Illustrated by Michael Connor. O'Brien Press €5.99

A recent UK poll of book sales showed that the ever-growing number of outlets that sell books are catering to vastly different tastes.

John Updike's new novel tells the story of an 18-year-old New Jersey high-school student who believes that his faith in Islam is threatened by the materialistic, hedonistic society he sees around him in a slumping, suburban factory-town in America. Reviewed by Robert Stone

Now that the dust has settled on this year's Bisto Book of the Year awards I thought that it might be a good time to make my own list of books that didn't win and which should not be forgotten, as can so often happen when awards are handed out. So here is my aide memoir, in no particular order.

As fast food outlets colonise the world, there is even a McDonalds in Guantanamo Bay. 'Chew on This' chronicles the growth of this industry, the tactics it uses to attract children and the detrimental effects it has on the world's health. Rosita Sweetman reviews Eric Schlooser's latest critique of the fast food industry.

We think it's the underpants that did it. While other dictators have maintained, in death, their air of menace and evil, the carefully orchestrated shots of Saddam Hussein in his jockeys were as effective and emasculating as the US administration intended.