The Piano Player of Budapest by Roxanne de Bastion audiobook review – music and survival
The musician traces the story of her grandfather, from his life as a pianist and composer in Hungary to surviving the concentration camps in wartime Austria
Britney Spears memoir The Woman in Me headed to the big screen
Universal has acquired the rights to the bestselling tell-all, with Wicked’s Jon M Chu set to direct
Let’s Be Honest by Jess Phillips review – the case for democracy
Mixing memoir and polemic, exasperation and enthusiasm, the Labour MP offers a candid account of clickbait politics and Tory misrule
July 2024
All the Worst Humans: How I Made News for Dictators, Tycoons and Politicians by Phil Elwood review – a spin doctor for despots
Melania Trump to tell her story in memoir scheduled for this fall
Thom Gunn by Michael Nott review – sex, drugs and San Francisco
Book of the day
Paul Foot: A Life in Politics by Margaret Renn review – revolutionary intellect or posh trot?
‘A life too immense for only one book’: Cher announces two-part memoir
Book of the day
Thom Gunn: A Cool Queer Life by Michael Nott review – the poet laureate of Haight-Ashbury
Travelling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell by Ann Powers review – the myriad faces of a musical maverick
Other lives
Michael Franklin obituary
Credit at last for female screenwriter airbrushed from Hollywood history
When my mother died, I thought her violent boyfriend had won. But she had secretly taken back control
The Uptown Local by Cory Leadbeater review – exploding the Joan Didion myth
Book of the day
Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed by Maureen Callahan review – a lacerating exposé
Book of the day
Travelling by Ann Powers review – a dazzling life of Joni Mitchell
June 2024
‘He was greater than Bob Marley’: the shocking tale of Jamaican ska pioneer Don Drummond
My Family: The Memoir by David Baddiel review – sex, lies and the making of a standup
Observer book of the week
The House of Beckham by Tom Bower review – a sex-obsessed hatchet job
Summer reading: 50 of the best new books to dive into
