Ice Tea and Elvis: A Saunter Through the Southern States, by Nick Middleton (Phoenix, £7.99 in UK)

If I were Nick Middleton I'd be looking for a new publisher, because few books can have been given a more misleading and potentially off-putting title: the King, fortunately, gets only a look-in. What helps to make this a genuinely interesting and entertaining travelogue is that Middleton is not a smartass. It would be easy to smirk at the region's curiosities - including the human ones - but Middleton keeps the cynicism in check and the tone is sympathetic. His one-liners may not be as sharp as Bill Bryson's, but he's clever enough not to try to compete.