The Echo Maker by Richard Powers
Philip Womack is unilluminated by Richard Powers
Culture
Ghost Hunters by Deborah Blum
Michael Binyon visits the Victorian spritualists with Deborah Blum
Natural truth
Marybeth Hamilton celebrates the passion of a record collector
Love, life, Goethe
The great German writer was that wonderful contradiction, a romantic rationalist, says John Armstrong
Piss, shit and blood
In laying bare the entrails of 18th-century society, claims Martin Rowson, Hogarth was the first modern journalist
Diary: Comic timing
Shappi Khorsandi reflects on the glamorous life of an atheist stand-up
Murder City: The Bloody History of Chicago in the Twenties by Michael Lesy
Michael Binyon is not blown away by the Windy City
Terra Nullius: A Journey Through No One’s Land by Sven Lundqvist
Daniel Miller is battered and bruised by Sven Lundqvist
The Comet Sweeper: Caroline Herschel’s Astronomical Ambitions by Claire Brock
Brenda Maddox is swept off her feet by an astronomical biography
The Blackest Bird: A Novel of History and Murder by Joel Rose
Martina Evans is haunted by the ghost of Poe