Our top six books this week: how soccer has lost its soul and much more

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  Goebbels by Peter Longerich. He was Hitler’s minister of propaganda and master of the dark arts. But in this “revelatory” biography of Joseph Goebbels, we find a man dogged by insecurities and so consumed by the Nazi cause it led to the grisly mass suicide of himself along with the rest of his family. (Bodley Head, January 8)

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  Becoming Richard Pryor by Scott Saul. He was the comedy genius who revolutionised America. This is a meticulously well-­researched biography on Richard ­Pryor’s early difficult life, how he harnessed the black freedom movement and the counterculture into his comedy and ­became a star. (Harper, January 15)

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  The Possibilities by Kaui Hart Hemmings. After her 22-year-old son is killed in an ­avalanche, Sarah St John must try to pick the pieces of her life. She wants to be left alone but everyone seems to want something from her. Second offering from the author of the best-selling The Descendants. (Cape, January 15)

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  The Room by Jonas Karlsson. A Kafkaesque novel about a meticulous bureaucrat who discovers a secret room at the government office where he works – a secret room that no one else in his office will acknowledge. But Bjorn’s bizarre behaviour leads to his work colleagues trying to have him fired. (Hogarth, January 15)

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  Summertime by Vanessa Lafaye. Based around a devastating 1935 Labour Day hurricane, the story is set in a small, racially divided town in Key West and revolves around several characters. These include a war veteran, society wife and domestic help – lives about to be changed for ever by the gathering storm. (Orion, January 15)

A look at the book we’re reading this week.