The Book of Books by Melvyn Bragg

This is a history of the King James Bible and its impact on the world since first publication.
It's a very wide-ranging book, beginning with earlier Bibles and covering such themes as feminism, philosophy, the American Civil War, 19th century philanthropy and socialism, to name but a few. It makes the case well but I feel is a little too wide-ranging at times, straying into territory (for example, taking on Dawkins) which would be better covered in another book, though fascinating nevertheless and of course well-written. It certainly kept my interest throughout the 350 or so pages and altered my perspective on what I had previously considered a rather outdated book.
 I'd recommend this to anyone with an interest in church or American history,  language or social change.

Notes from an Exhibition by Patrick Gale

This is another one with an interesting structure; here, each chapter begins with the gallery notes on what is presumably an item in an exhibition, and the events in that chapter serve to illustrate or explain that particular item. There's a lot of jumping around through different times and places, which can be confusing at first, but as the book progresses a more complete picture emerges. 
The characters are not particularly distinctive , in my opinion, nor is the main character a particularly attractive one - in fact, she is downright irritating, but more sympathy is evoked from the reader as the book progresses, throwing light on the character's problems. My husband gave up on it, but what kept me reading was the desire to find out what happened as the jigsaw of events is pieced together. The ending is rather abrupt.

Salmon Fishing in The Yemen by Paul Torday

Really interesting structure: a series of emails, interview scripts and diaries adds up to a gripping story with interesting characters. This has recently appeared as a film, but the book itself paints a colourful picture of the places visited - imagination is free! The relationship between the main protagonist and his estranged wife is an interesting one - not explored fully in the film, where the relationship between the main character and his female colleague takes centre stage instead - to its detriment, I feel. Don't see the film - read the book instead; it's way superior.

Love and War in the Apennines by Eric Newby

This is a brilliant memoir of an Englishman's time as an escaped POW during World War 2. It reads almost like a novel, certainly with as many twists and turns, full of geographical details, local characters, narrow escapes and, yes, romance. The good news is Newby became a writer after the war, so there are other books for me to track down and hopefully enjoy as much as this one.