The Accordionist’s son by Bernado Atxaga (Vintage £8.99)

“All books, even the harshest, embellish life,” declares David Imaz, the principal narrator of this superb novel. Atxaga’s book moves skilfully between David’s time in America in the 1990s, his youth in the Basque country in the 1960s and his parents’ experiences during the Spanish civil war. At its heart is a wholly convincing account of families and friendship, which, along with the dextrous interweaving of themes and vibrant evocation of people and places, make this novel not an embellishment of life but a celebration of its richness. (Reviewed by Tom Deveson)

The Wrong Kind of Snow by Anthony Woodward and Robert Penn (Hodder £9.99)

In theory, this should be very dull indeed. A day-per-page book about the weather? Yet this idiosyncratic accumulation of strange weather-related factoids, quotes and anecdotes has bags of charm. It’s good to learn the day when suicide is most likely (April 6) or the date of Sussex’s only killer avalanche (September 27, 1836). I also loved the entry for August 22, which includes 16 different Welsh expressions for rain including tollti (pouring), byrlymu (pouring very quickly) and mae hi’n bwrw hen wragedd a ffyn (it’s raining old women and sticks). (Reviewed by Susannah Herbert)

The Race by Richard North Patterson (Pan £6.99)

Previously a middle-ranking thriller writer, Richard North Patterson raised his game spectacularly with last year’s Exile. Now he brings hot political topics into fiction with a novel about a US primary race between two senators that is decided only at the party convention — and in which race and religion are both crucial in influencing who wins. The novel is far from flawless, but scores in putting you in the room when deals are done, dirty tricks are plotted, painful compromises are agreed to and votes are won or lost. (Reviewed by John Dugdale)

Roxy: The Band That Invented an Era by Michael Bracewell (Faber £9.99)

Conventional wisdom has it that Brian Eno was the brains behind the band Roxy Music, and Brian Ferry merely the frontman. This book takes a different tack, suggesting that the energy of popular music in the early 1970s owed much to the teasing iconoclasm of pop art. Bracewell is an adroit cultural analyst, and he uses Ferry to frame his narrative, recounting how, as the son of a Durham miner, he early on found all he needed in the northeast: from Bill Haley at the Sunderland Empire to mod clothes in Newcastle. Everything fed Ferry’s performative bent. His story ends in 1972, with Roxy Music’s debut album, by which point Bracewell has uncovered an entire world of art, fashion, glamour, friendship and music. (Reviewed by Frances Spalding)

Times Recommends

• The 100 Best Books of the Decade
• The Times picks the 50 best paperbacks of 2009
• The conversation: James Ellroy