The Economist's "Pick of the Pile" - 6

Here is the sixth section of The Economist’s best of 2008.

Culture and digressions

Artists in Exile: How Refugees from Twentieth-Century War and Revolution Transformed the American Performing Arts. By Joseph Horowitz. HarperCollins; 480 pages; $27.50 and ₤27.50.

Salon to Biennial: Exhibitions that Made Art History: Volume I, 1863-1959. Edited by Bruce Altshuler. Phaidon; 410 pages; $90 and ₤45.

The Secret Life of Words: How English Became English. By Henry Hitchings. Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 440 pages; $27. John Murray; ₤16.99.

How Fiction Works. By James Wood. Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 288 pages; $24. Jonathan Cape; ₤16.99.

Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionised American Music. By Ted Gioia. Norton; 448 pages; $27.95 and ₤16.99.

Cold Cream: My Early Life and Other Mistakes. By Ferdinand Mount. Bloomsbury; 384 pages; ₤15.