"It's very hard to live in a studio apartment in San Jose with a man who's learning to play the violin." That's what she told the police when she handed them the empty revolver.

So goes Richard Brautigan’s wonderful two-line short story “The Scarlatti Tilt” which appears in his fantastic collection Revenge of the Lawn (1971).  By now, Brautigan’s fame – arguably, a fading one – rests on his bizarre cult classic novel, Trout Fishing in America (1967), but for many modern readers Trout Fishing can read as a big Beat Generation in-joke that they are not a part of.  However, Revenge of the Lawn – Brautigan’s sole collection of short stories – is, in contrast, a hug of a book, open-armed in its welcome to the reader.  And as the above story shows: it’s a funny book too.

Like his 2002 novel, Super-State, Brian Aldiss’ HARM is a remarkably timely book, dealing as it does with matters we are only reluctantly beginning to examine in any kind of detail. With Super-State, climate change was the main focus. With HARM, Aldiss is looking very closely at the line beyond which the ‘West’ should or should not cross in ‘its’ ‘war on terror’. Of course, both books, typical of Aldiss, are about so much more, but it’s the examination of what governments decide is the acceptable course of action in protecting what they decide are the interests of its citizens that occupies centre stage in this novel.

Note the quote marks around ‘West’, ‘its’ and ‘war on terror’ in the above paragraph. As with all things Aldiss, nothing is ever quite that simple or necessarily what it seems. What constitutes the ‘West’ is open to discussion and the idea that this catchall misnomer somehow represents or speaks for all of us in the ‘free world’ is rapidly shown to be a very shaky concept. ‘its’ would suggest some kind of unified approach or strategy in the actions of governments occupied in combating terrorist activity. Again, this is open to speculation. And the very notion of a ‘war on terror’ is assessed throughout HARM.

We live in a world swamped with books on how to write, all of which pander, with varying degrees of success, to the vast army of nascent novelists amongst us. It is, very much, an industry in its own right, somewhat comparable to the even vaster self help industry. Picking the right book for you, should you feel the need of one, can be a daunting task.

Oscar and Lucinda was the first of several novels I've read by Peter Carey and it's still my favourite of his books. It tells the story of clergyman Oscar Hopkins and heiress Lucinda Leplastrier, both addicted gamblers of opposing type: one obsessive, one compulsive, both necessarily secretive, both bound by the strictures of mid-19th Century Australia, and both drawn to each other in a love that cannot be permitted by the code of the day…

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy tells the story of a down in his luck ordinary guy (Llewelyn Moss) who stumbles across the scene of a major shootout in a middle of nowhere section of scrubland down near the border with Mexico. Finding a briefcase full of money amongst the dead bodies, he makes a run with it, along with his girlfriend. Soon, of course, the missing money is noted by one or more of the people involved in the 'business transaction' gone wrong and a killer in the shape of Chigurh is dispatched to retrieve it. Into the fray enters Sheriff Bell as he follows a trail of destruction left by Chigurh in his pursuit of Moss.

As you will guess from the title, The Gates of the Alamo is about the famous siege of the Alamo in 1836. There have been numerous books and a couple of movies dedicated to this pivotal moment in US and Mexican history and the event is ingrained in the popular consciousness of most Americans.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay kicks off in 1939 and tells the story of Josef Kavalier's escape from German occupied Czechoslovakia with the sacred symbol of the Jewish people, the Golem. It also tells the story of Sam Clay, a young boy growing up in New York, and cousin to Josef. The two meet in New York when Josef's sojourn branches away from that of the Golem. This opening section of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Michael Chabon is gripping in the extreme, but is only the jumping off point for a sprawling story that largely mimics the real life story of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the creators of Superman…

I've always ranked Brian Moore as one of Ireland's premiere writers, up there with John McGahern and William Trevor. In my mind's eye, I see McGahern presenting the viewpoint of Catholic Ireland, Trevor giving the dispossessed Protestant angle on things and Moore representing Northern Ireland. Of course, I'm being unfair in ring fencing three of our greatest writers in such a cavalier fashion. All are far more versatile that that…