US newsTwenty years after the attack that killed 168 people, Bud Welch talks about his bond with the bomber’s family and why he campaigns against the death penalty Oklahoma City bombing: 20 years later, key questions remain unansweredRead moreOn the morning of 19 April 1995, at 9.02am, Bud Welch was getting ready for his shift at the Texaco garage when his entire home shook. To the south, windows as far away as 25 miles cracked.

Pierre Hermé’s memories: ‘I knew I wanted to be a patissier from the age of nine.’ Photograph: Ola O Smit/The GuardianPierre Hermé’s memories: ‘I knew I wanted to be a patissier from the age of nine.’ Photograph: Ola O Smit/The GuardianA taste of homeFoodChristmas at his parents’ home in Alsace, with the aroma of traditional sablé biscuits baking, is master patissier Pierre Hermé’s taste of home Coming from a family of baker-patissiers, I grew up with the smell of baking bread.

World libraryGlobal developmentReviewOur literary tour of Chile explores political repression under Pinochet through fact and fantasy, and magic realism’s merging of the two The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, translated by Magda BoginAllende’s classic, hugely successful family saga is a masterwork of magic-realism. Fusing the personal with the political and fact with fantasy, it tells Chile’s recent history through several generations of the Trueba family, ending with a savage military coup that leads to the death of a president.

BooksReviewThe Politico reporter and MSNBC host’s book is an indictment of the former president but also his Republican party Joe Biden sits in the Oval Office but Donald Trump occupies prime space in America’s psyche. Mike Pence’s most senior aides have testified before a federal grand jury. An investigation by prosecutors in Georgia proceeds apace. In a high-stakes game of chicken, the message from the Department of Justice grows more ominous.

Children's booksChildren's booksThe Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky – review‘Although the book is, at times, very upsetting, it is ultimately uplifting and life-affirming’ The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky is narrated by Charlie, the titular ‘wallflower’, in a series of letters that he writes to a stranger, beginning the night before he starts his freshman year of high school in 1991. These letters catalogue Charlie’s attempts to “participate”, as he wanders wide eyed through a series of house parties and Rocky Horror Picture Show productions with his new, older friends.