The White Tiger was recently voted winner of the prestigious 2008 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. As such it is guaranteed literary immortality and a vastly increased worldwide readership.

I re-read the recommendations on the back of the book for the twentieth time, wondering whether I had read something quite different by accident...

Beckwood Brae, by Australian Christian author David Webb, is a recent addition to the crowded field of fantasy novels. Clearly influenced by both Tolkein and Lewis this is a well written and engaging offering that stands in its own right as an example of the genre as well as exploring overtly Christian themes along the way.

Twilight is surprisingly good, and the series’ influence is likely to reach far beyond the high school-aged girls it is clearly aimed at. The book succeeds in tapping into a very human ache for something far beyond this dreary world.

The Art of Racing in the Rain is an unforgettably engaging tale, which takes you on a journey through the eyes, mind and nose of a dog.

Philippa Gregory's newest historical novel The Other Queen, set during the first three years of Mary Queen of Scots' house arrest, paints a dreary picture of Elizabeth's England.

The ‘truths’ chronicled by Perrotta in The Abstinence Teacher are mostly concerned with sex, a subject with which most of his characters are unsettlingly obsessed (and one which saturates the book, in some fairly distasteful ways).

Funny Boys is set in a time when New York was run by the mob. The book is a good window into the reality of how people get caught up into and trapped into a life of crime.

What’s immediately obvious is that Prince Caspian does not have the overt gospel parallels that highlight The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Judging from secular reviews I’ve surveyed, this makes Prince Caspian more palatable to a wider audience.

No Eye Has Seen is rich in biblical themes and provides an interesting glimpse of heaven and hell.

The world admires its pop stars. And Robbie Williams is one of the more outrageous ones.

You always know when you’re on to a good book when you decide you have time to read one chapter then look up some time later to discover you’ve read four.

Belinda Castles’ second novel, The River Baptists, is a fluid and engrossing novel of interlocking stories and overlapping lives.

Like most recent Booker winners, The Gathering is not feel-good fiction. Enright, herself, admits that “when people pick up a book they may want something that will cheer them up, in that case they shouldn’t really pick up my book”.