James Gardner, the New York art critic, has set himself a gargantuan task in categorising the Louvre, its history and the world-renowned works of art that line its walls

A new biography of Charles Dickens attempts to get under the skin of the psychologically troubled storytelling genius

Nadine O’Regan and Andrew Lynch pick out the best books to read this summer, in politics, biography, culture and fiction

A new book by George W Bush’s former speechwriter suffers from a certain predictability in its attacks in Donald Trump

James Patterson brings little new to light while dwelling on the salacious and sometimes sordid details of the lives of the most famous Irish-American family of all

A new book about the dining habits of dictators such as Saddam, Hoxha and Amin is not to be read on a full stomach

Dutch historian Rutger Bregman sets out to disprove the theory that civil society is thin protection against our natural savagery

Philippe Sands puts himself into contention for history book of the year with his account of a Nazi who tried to flee from justice and his son’s attempt to clear his name

Rachel Johnson’s political career went up in smoke, unlike that of her more famous brother, but she has fashioned a highly entertaining book out of it

Private Eye diarist Craig Brown takes a collage approach to his retelling of the story of the Fab Four, with entertaining results

Too many wisecracks, outdated attitudes and the dismissal of any criticism of his actions makes Allen’s disappointment in mankind entirely mutual

Michael Heney’s exhaustive and admirable new book concludes that Jack Lynch knew much more about the plot than he pretended to let on

Jim Maher presents a character who, despite being remembered mostly for his failures, was in fact a charming, energetic man who played a key role in the forming of the Irish state

A collection of the Boomtown Rats singer’s lyrics is oddly edited with relatively little commentary from the man himself

Andrew Gimson profiles the men who have taken charge of what one called the ‘lonesomest’ place in the world

This collection of Paul Krugman’s columns will be useful for economics students, but other readers might be put off by the relentlessly angry tone of the writing

The French superstar economist has many ideas about inequality in society and how capital should be shared fairly, but we might all profit if he would get to the point

Guardian journalists argue that Tory austerity and stagnation have cost Britain ten full years of wasted potential

It’s almost 60 years since he was fired from the Beatles, but the former drummer has long since come to terms with his past

The former Speaker of the House of Commons has written a smug, long-winded and ultimately tedious memoir