You can't beat a good list - and a good bit of travel bragging. Lonely Planet knows it, and this is their contribution to the debate, writes Winston Aldworth.

Even razor-sharp detectives grow old and slow down.

Fish ladders are structures that Britons began building in the 19th century when they started damming and blocking waterways.

There are too many Michael Moorcocks. I don't mean the books - although there are a bewildering number of those, there could never be too many for his admirers.

In this final volume of Graeme Lay's fictional trilogy on the life of James Cook, we confront a very different man to the legend or, for that matter, the first two books in the series.

It begins near the end of the 20th century. The Big One has finally hit; on a strangely warm July afternoon, the Wellington Fault tears asunder, and New Zealand's capital is wrecked.

Like every other book of Stephenson's, this one uses formal language to position itself a small, strategic distance from its readers, like a speaker standing behind a lectern.

A grinding, persuasive power binds this collection of short fiction and essays, many of which have been published elsewhere in the past two or three years.

When he founded Te Araroa - the national walkway - Geoff Chapple encouraged us to go out and see the extraordinary beauty of this land of the long white cloud.

In Benjamin Markovits' vivid new novel, the city becomes a symptom of America gone wrong. He tells Mick Brown about losing out and fitting in.

In Say Her Name, Francisco Goldman wrote cleavingly of his new wife's death in a surfing accident. Four years on, he lauds and laments another love - Mexico City's Distrito Federal.

Saviano made his name with Gomorrah, documenting the reach of the Neapolitan Camorra. It reaped awards, death threats and permanent police protection, an accolade shared with author Salman Rushdie.

Roberto Saviano's exposé of the Mafia earned him an armed guard. Now he's taken on the cocaine trade. Ian Thomson meets him.

If only commercial realities allowed New Zealanders to enjoy long-form journalism.

Stephen Jewell talks to Daniel Silva about the latest outing for his Israeli spy, Gabriel Allon.

Without intense focus, triple narrative strands can trip readers.