The Castrato and His Wife, By Helen Berry Pandemonium, By Lauren Oliver Greekonomics: The Euro Crisis and Why Politicians Don't Get It, By Vicky Pryce How to Climb Mont Blanc in a Skirt, By Mick Conefrey Journey to the End of the Night, By Louis-Ferdinand Céline The Castrato and His Wife, By Helen Berry Oxford £9.99 How does a eunuch marry a wife and produce a child? In late-18th-century London, when celebrity gossip was as salacious as it is now, all talk was of the famous Italian opera singer, Giusto Fernando Tenducci, and the wealthy young Anglo-Irish heiress who defied her family to be with him. Tenducci's origins weren't just humble, they were brutal. Thanks to the subsequent divorce between him and his young wife, we have court documents testifying to what happened to impoverished young boys who had good voices. Tenducci's mother couldn't stay in the room while her son was being castrated: ..." and when she heard him Cry out, Ayi My Mama, which was in the very Instant of the Operation, she thought to have Died of the pain she felt at that instant." Castration wasn't lawful in Italy, but many turned a blind eye to it. Berry, in a calmly dispassionate account of a troubled life, questions the father who would inflict this operation on his son, but explains how, as a castrato, he would be protected by the church and encouraged in a singing career. The extraordinary "marriage" between Tenducci and Dorothea Maunsell, when Tenducci was at the height of his fame, was useful to both parties, saving her from an arranged marriage and allowing him to prove his manhood. Dorothea, alas, wasn't as in love with her husband as he was with her, but the journal she published on her part in the affair is a rare example of a woman speaking out about the physical details of the most intimate of matters. Pandemonium, By Lauren Oliver Hodder £6.99 This second title in the Delirium trilogy can be read as a stand-alone, but it also follows Oliver's young heroine, Lena Haloway, after she flees her dystopian society where love is forbidden and everyone has to undergo "the Cure" when they turn 18. Lena has reached safety with the Invalids (those who have rejected the Cure) in outlying forests, and she joins them to try to help overthrow the DFA, or Deliria-Free America. But a set of anarchists - the Scavengers - kidnap the DFA founder's son, Julian, at a rally, and Lena is caught up in a huge conspiracy. In the same mode as Suzanne Collins in her Hunger Games trilogy, Oliver, too, posits a feisty, physically able heroine, giving as good as she gets, in a fast-paced YA thriller: this trend is a welcome one. Greekonomics: The Euro Crisis and Why Politicians Don't Get It, By Vicky Pryce Biteback £12.99 Given the politicians' endorsements on the cover of her book, it's possible that they do get it, but Pryce, a Greek-born economist, does an admirable job of rescuing her homeland from the scurrilous portraits of it that have recently dominated the press. She reminds us of Greece's much-troubled past, which should have given Europe's politicians pause for thought before welcoming it into the euro, and blames political expediency, not a racist stereotyping of Greek laziness, for the financial mess. Some of the economic detail is a little hard to follow, but Pryce works hard to be accessible, and highlights key facts that are contributing to people's anger in Greece - unemployment benefit, for example, is paid out for just one year and, even then, only if you have contributed enough. After that, you're on your own. How to Climb Mont Blanc in a Skirt, By Mick Conefrey Oneworld £8.99 The male dominance of his earlier work, The Adventurer's Handbook, made Conefrey realise that he needed to redress the balance and consider the many - largely forgotten - female explorers who have traversed deserts, seas and continents. He focuses on various examples of discrimination, such as companies' reluctance to back women explorers financially, or the Royal Geographical Society refusing to admit women. The mountaineer Arlene Blum, for example, was turned down by large expeditions because women weren't considered "emotionally stable" enough to cope with high altitude. How to Climb Mont Blanc is serious and informative, yet fun, too. The tale of Susie Rijnhart, who attempted with her husband to reach Lhasa in 1898, and suffered disaster after disaster, was particularly touching. Journey to the End of the Night, By Louis-Ferdinand Céline Alma Classics £9.99 Céline's novel was a huge commercial hit when it first appeared in 1932, but few probably read him today. If Parade's End is a chronicle of the First World War by a Tory modernist, then this is an account of the same subject by a cross between Henry Miller and Jack Kerouac. It's a cynical and angry spit at the world, related in prose that spikes and jabs all the way through. His Parisian anti-hero, Bardamu, frequents prostitutes, lies to women, feigns madness to get out of fighting, flees to colonial Africa, then hops on to New York. He is dismissive of everything, but sharp-witted: "New York was a standing city .... We laughed like fools. You can't help laughing at a city built straight up and down like that.