o is the Internet likely to break barriers and bonds? It is, so goes the widespread hype, the media of the future. The scope, we are told, is beyond imagination. The world is becoming one. The science fiction of yesterday are the facts of today. The future of the world lies in the Net. Listen to what Robert W. McChesney has to say and you will slowly realise that all this needs to be taken with a fistful of salt. Advancement of technology is fine, but when technology and the media become a tool in the hands of big corporations, sharing and dissemination of information plays second fiddle to commerce, argues Subir Ghosh

Although global climate change raises dreadful problems that the Kyoto Protocol does little to address, Michael Grubb's book hails it as a "remarkable achievement". This should be taken with a pinch of salt. If you asked people from the Maldives what they felt about the Protocol, they would probably say, frightened about their lack of a future. They know that accumulating greenhouse gas emissions warm the planet and expand the oceans and obliterate them, and God knows whom and what else. Their fears have a message for us all: this problem is global and needs a global solution. "Equity and survival" sums it up. Everyone has to be in as no one is saved until everyone is saved, contends Aubrey Meyer

Bird watchers in the Indian subcontinent have long awaited a well-illustrated, comprehensive yet concise guide to all 1300-odd species. This book finally appears to have met that need, albeit its size (25x17x5.5 cm) and weight (>2 kg) hardly conform to the conventional concept of field guide. Although illustrations of Indian birds in field guide style have appeared before, this is the first time a detailed text focusing on field identification has been combined with a comprehensive set of high-quality illustrations, and, as such, this book represents a milestone in South Asian bird literature, write Ragupathy Kannan and Priyantha Wijesinghe

David Guterson's first novel, Snow Falling on Cedars, was a true ensemble piece, in which even a high-stakes murder trial seemed like a judgment passed on the community at large. In his eloquent second novel, however, the author swings dramatically in the opposite direction. East of the Mountains is the tale of a solitary, 73-year-old Seattle widower, says Amazon.com

Horror lit's head chef Harris serves up another course in his Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter trilogy, and it's a pièce de résistance for those with strong stomachs. In the first book, Red Dragon (filmed as Manhunter), Hannibal diabolically helps the FBI track a fascinating serial killer. (Takes one to know one.) In The Silence of the Lambs, he advises fledgling FBI manhunter Clarice Starling, then makes a bloody, brilliant escape, says Amazon.com