Latest from Books

Writers Festival: Food for thought

Graham Reid talks to Australian writer Wayne Macauley about food porn and creativity.

Book lover: Clayton Carrick-Leslie

A life more ordinary

Tired? Stressed? Unhappy and pressed for time? Well broadcaster Wallace Chapman has some words of advice for you, writes Greg Dixon.

Libraries lend a hand to youth

Far from becoming irrelevant in the digital age, libraries are adapting to become more like youth clubs, finds Danielle Wright.

Binding commitment

Danielle Wright finds a busy kids' book club in Mangere Bridge that's about a lot more than reading and writing.

Book Review: Bangs

Steven Eldred-Grigg is a well-known and respected popular historian and novelist. <i>Bangs</i> is the fourth book in a series of novels that began with the much loved Oracles and Miracles, published in 1987.

Writers Festival: For whom the bell tolls

She’s best-known for her detective novels but British author Kate Atkinson’s latest work is a change of direction, writes Linda Herrick.

Writers Festival: A sanctuary of magic

Carlos Ruiz Zafon tells Stephen Jewell why he likes visiting bookstores and supermarkets.

When robots take over essential tasks

Sherry Turkle shows up begging for a latte. She's left her wallet in her hotel room. She's exhausted, she says, and could do with a coffee.

One man's extraordinary steps

A running regime that would defy most of us is soul food to Malcolm Law, writes Andy Kenworthy.

Book Review: Secret Life Of James Cook

A few years ago I visited the charming English port town of Whitby and was intrigued to discover its crucial role in the lives of two very different men whose names continue to echo down the centuries: Count Dracula and Captain James Cook.

Book Review: She Rises

For those readers eagerly anticipating the next effort from Sarah Waters, the queen of historical revisionism, look no further than Kate Worsley's debut novel.

Book Review: The Writing Class

People write - or want to write - for many reasons. For some, it is a compulsion, an itch that must be scratched. For others, it has more to do with the narcissistic conviction that the world wants to know what they're thinking and feeling.

Writers Festival: A brief history of seven centuries

The master of historical sagas, Edward Rutherfurd, talks to David Larsen about the symmetry of his writing.

Would you judge a man by what he reads?

If the adage "you are what you eat" rings true then I'm some sort of pickled mollusc given my penchant for clams, mussels, oysters and a crisp chardonnay. But I suspect "you are what you read" is more to the point.

Rebecca Kamm: The oldest romance writer in the world

Meet just-turned-105-years-old romance novelist Ida Pollock, the world's oldest producer of bodice rippers.

Book Review: Cooked

Nicky Pellegrino bones up on the damage fast food does.

Book lover: Nici Wickes