Rose Watt

The Thick of It: The Missing DoSAC Files is a part-accompaniment part-spin-off book to the TV series created by Armando Iannucci. It's written and compiled by the same team behind the BBC series, so it is perfectly in-keeping with the show, without the air of trying-too-hard emulation that many tie-in books have. The character voices hit the same uncomfortable recognition buttons as the television series; Nicola Murray's overuse of exclamation marks being particularly familiar to anyone who has ever received a message from an overexcited mother who has finally worked out how to use the email. The book centres on Malcolm Tucker, the conceit being that the Head of Communications has lost his file on the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship.

The Interrogative Mood by Padgett Powell is a compilation of questions strung together without discernible order, importance, or intention. Reading the first paragraph, which includes queries on horses, love, athletic ability, potatoes, and Constantinople, produces an acute sense of confusion but also intrigue. Is this it? Is this the whole book? Well, yes and no. Yes in the sense that all that is on the page is question after question, seemingly unconnected and entirely at random. No in the sense that the reaction to this is incredibly personal. It becomes almost a private psychological study into yourself as you work through questions.