David Rutgers has taken the "unpopular" position that is contrary to the generally accepted version of agency history that William J Donovan played a significant role in establishing the Central Intelligence Agency. This volume is carefully crafted, eloquently written, and meticulously researched, and its persuasive, compelling arguments make it essential reading on the history of the creation of the agency, says Charles C Kolb

The language and culture of ancient Egypt (first and foremost the Rosetta Stone) have a remarkably broad influence on Western culture as well as Egyptian studies. This book shows how exciting the study of Egyptology can be especially when ancient Egyptian writing and culture are treated as normal every-day functions. Books such as Parkinson's Cracking Codes are a rare and valuable contribution : meticulous in scholarship, but also accessible to the general public, writes Francesca Jourdan

This book joins a flood of recent publications that diagnose the ills of the American educational system and attempt to prescribe remedies. Many of these books, such as Eric Hanushek et al's Making Schools Work and Quentin Quade's Financing Education: The Struggle Between Governmental Monopoly and Parental Control, argue for setting incentives to make teachers and administrators responsive-rewarding them for success and punishing them for failure, says Robert Whaples

The world of Christopher Hitchens' journalism is populated by worthy and patronised masses and the occasional numinous hero (usually a figure of, by and for the literary imagination). But it is more often troubled by unsaintly demi-urges of power. Hitchens' Clintons are the latter, less politicians than a nexus, now assertive, now recessive, adapting to the pursuit of a plurality of selves and votes, points out Myron C Noonkester

It's not just dogs that know when their owners are coming home; its cats, parrots, horses, chickens, even an owl. Rupert Sheldrake tries to look for alternative explanations and deals with possible objections, but concludes that the evidence that certain animals seem to have some kind of telepathic power is just too overwhelming, says Omar Ali