Paperbacks: Art of Colonial Latin America1968Literary Occasions: EssaysOrchestraThe Secret Power of BeautySick NotesCloud Atlas

Wide-ranging and handsomely illustrated, this survey plunges the reader into profoundly alien cultures that produced beautiful, often awesome artworks.

Art of Colonial Latin America by Gauvin Alexander Bailey (PHAIDON £14.95 (447pp))

Wide-ranging and handsomely illustrated, this survey plunges the reader into profoundly alien cultures that produced beautiful, often awesome artworks. After a brief account of the pre-Hispanic civilisations - the involved stylisation of a Nazca textile from AD500 retains a striking power even today - the book moves on to the Iberian invaders, characterised by "a strange mixture of avarice and religious zeal". The former quality is exemplified by the silver mines of Potosi, "a place of astounding wealth and unspeakable horrors" that for a while became the second largest city in the world. The missionary urge endowed Latin America with a prodigious wealth of churches. Greatest of these triumphal temples is the cathedral in Mexico City, the largest building in colonial America. In the earliest days, colonial architecture was intriguingly infused with native elements, but this hybrid rapidly died out. Isolated from the artistic currents of Europe, the art of the region became dominated by the Baroque. In both paintings and architecture, the impression is of a tremendous energy and fertility. Many of the paintings can be seen in Madrid, but for the staggering architecture we have to follow in the steps of the conquistadors. CH

1968 by Mark Kurlansky (VINTAGE £7.99 (441pp))

After tackling cod and salt, Kurlansky heads for soixante-huit. He handles the events of that remarkable year - Prague, Paris, Chicago - with panache though his cultural grasp is variable. It's good to know about Leonard Bernstein's admiration for Ginger Baker's contribution to Cream ("I mean they've a drummer who can really keep time"), but Kurlansky's suggestion that the Beatles' Yellow Submarine was an LSD fantasy ("Lennon's imaginary voyage... was reported to be the result of acid") that presaged Sgt Pepper is odd. In any case, the ditty was written by McCartney. CH

Literary Occasions: Essays by V S Naipaul (PICADOR £8.99 (203pp))

Despite the ponderous title, this is an engaging guide to the writing life, full of interest for the would-be novelist. When Naipaul achieved the breakthrough of "writing more or less intuitively", he came to understand Waugh's view of fiction as "experience totally transformed". Comparing the "delightful" detail of Nicholas Nickleby with the "rhetorical... manufactured" prose of A Tale of Two Cities, Naipaul insists: "Writing always has to be new; every talent is always burning itself out." Of his own work, he modestly states: "Every book has amazed me... The greatest miracle is getting started." CH

Orchestra by Richard Morrison (FABER & FABER £9.99 (306pp))

What do Chuck Berry and Igor Stravinsky have in common? Both demanded payment before performing. At least that was the rumour about the maestro when he conducted the London Symphony Orchestra. (Certainly, his assistant Robert Craft performed the rehearsals.) This enjoyable biography is packed with anecdotes and rich in drama. Founded in a railway carriage in 1903, the LSO nearly went down with the Titanic. The orchestra was rarely free of ructions - it nearly foundered in 1932, 1955, 1967 and 1983 - but Andre Previn now says it is "very conservative". CH

The Secret Power of Beauty by John Armstrong (PENGUIN £6.99 (172pp))

At last, a book on aesthetics that is both thoughtful and entertaining. Armstrong adds savour to his musings with generous dollops of irony. We learn Winckelmann's explanation when Casanova caught him "withdrawing from a youth". (The historian claimed he was engaged in the "selfless pursuit of ethical excellence".) Noting that a supermodel ascribed her success to "the perfect symmetry of her lips", Armstrong notes that the same applies to Ronald McDonald. By keeping them engaged, Armstrong tells his readers much about the nature of beauty and where to find it. CH

Sick Notes by Gwendoline Riley (VINTAGE £6.99 (198pp))

This grim slice of life comes with epigraphs from Dostoyevsky and Oscar Wilde. Both seem in some way appropriate to Riley's intense portrayal of urban desolation and psychic pain. In the squalid flat she shares with her best friend, Donna, Esther scribbles in her note-books and tries to fill the void with gin. Her life,"a maze with no middle", is leavened only by a brief encounter with a grungy American lothario. Riley's second novel is weirdly hypnotic and moving. CP

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (SCEPTRE £6.99 (529pp))

A wizard of playful but entrancing narrative in each genre he chooses (from Victorian exploration to post-apocalyptic SF by way of noir thriller and campy social comedy), David Mitchell can do just about what he wants. Open up this astonishing box of six linked stories - which nearly won the Booker - and you might think of the young Picasso, in command of every style. But where is the focus of his vision? For Mitchell, maybe, it has to do with storytelling both as a form of coercion - and the swiftest route to liberation. Essential fiction for the 21st century. BT

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