Blazing Saddles: The Cruel and Unusual History of The Tour de France Matt Rendell (Quercus, £9.99)

From Lance Armstrong's incredible comeback from cancer, to Tom Simpson's death on the slopes of Mont Ventoux, the Tour has been the stage for some of cycling's most dramatic moments. This illustrated history covers 104 years of the world's toughest race. It's difficult for Britons to appreciate the passions it arouses - or the constant drug-testing scandals that bedevil the sport.

Rancid Pansies James Hamilton-Paterson (Faber, £12.99)

Hamilton-Paterson's hero Gerald Samper specialises in revolting recipes. Ghostwriter to unbearable sports celebrities and rock stars, his dream is to write the libretto of an opera. We left him at the end of Amazing Disgrace, having survived a landslide in which his Italian villa disappeared during a dinner of badger Wellington farci with gun-dog pâté and magic mushrooms. After poisoning guests in Suffolk with a meal of mice krispies and after-eight mince, our hero returns to Tuscany, where he discovers that the ruins of his house have become a shrine to Diana, whom villagers believe saved Gerald and his dinner-party guests. The novel ends with the premiere of a truly awful opera based on Diana's life.

The Road Home Rose Tremain (Vintage, £7.99)

Rose Tremain deservedly won this year's Orange Broadband Prize for this empathetic story about Eastern European immigrant Lev, seeking work in Britain. He has left his daughter and his outrageous friend Rudi, who dreams of the wealthy West. Through Lev's eyes, we see the peculiar life of the British, obsessed with celebrity and living lonely lives. As well as a job and money, Lev is looking for friendship, sex and some simple human understanding.

The Ghost Robert Harris (Arrow, £7.99)

The narrator of Harris's novel is a professional ghostwriter - cynical, mercenary, and with a nice line in deadpan humour. Accustomed to working with fading rock stars and minor celebrities, he jumps at the chance to ghost the memoirs of Britain's former prime minister in a secluded house in the upmarket US resort of Martha's Vineyard. But he soon discovers that his predecessor on the project died in suspicious circumstances.