: Books - bookcase.

Eight Men and a Duck by Nick Thorpe (Little, Brown, pounds 12.99)

Judging by this book Nick Thorpe either has a commendable sense of adventure or is completely mad. Either would explain his decision to board a boat made from reeds and sail with an inexperienced crew on a 2,500-mile expedition through shark-infested waters.

The epic journey from Chile to Easter Island on the 60ft Viracocha was to emulate the voyage of the late Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki more than 50 years before.

Travel writer Thorpe's adventure began on a South American bus trip when he overheard a conversation about the planned voyage and managed to blag a space on the boat. He joined a crew which included a tree surgeon, a jewellery salesman and two ducks. The navigator quit at the last minute but, undaunted, they set off with high hopes.

Amazingly, the crew and their vessel pitched up in Easter Island 45 days later, despite some close shaves including storms and sharks. Even more worryingly, their boat was gradually sinking for the whole journey and was almost run over by a freighter - but the only casualty was one of the ducks, which escaped during one near disaster. Thorpe, an award-winning feature writer, has produced an entertaining and insightful work, especially about the relationships between the crew, which became strained at times.

Private Dreams of Public People by Lauren Lawrence (Assouline Press, pounds 24.95)

From the ancient times of the Delphian oracles to present-day psychoanalysis, dreams have always fascinated as a gateway to the mysteries of our unconscious.

Here dream expert Lauren Lawrence analyses the dreams of a host of stars including Madonna, Juliette Binoche, Michael Douglas and Ivana Trump and comes up with some revealing insights.

Madonna's dream that her baby has died in the womb reflects her lamenting the loss of her own youth, Lauren observes.

Michael Douglas's dream of visiting his father on a film set represents his wish for paternal identification.

Meanwhile, Gore Vidal's recurrent actor's nightmare of forgetting his lines on stage shows indicates that he bears a certain guardedness or conscientiousness - and here the dream acts as a line of defence.

With a foreword by Larry King, and illustrated with excellent pictures of the subjects, this book is a dream of a gift for star-spotters.