If modern life is a battlefield, then everyday etiquettes are the mines hidden across it, many laid where you least expect them. So why, asks Greg Dixon, do people not tread more carefully?

The final scenes of my December feature read, Animal People by Charlotte Wood, seem especially appropriate at this time of year.

Nicky Pellegrino checks out a pithy perspective on self-improvement.

Being chosen to write the first official Sherlock Holmes story since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle retired the famous detective has to be the dream job for a writer of mysteries.

An offbeat thriller with dementia as a theme absorbs Nicky Pellegrino.

This slim volume, which purports to "provide a guide to the many art galleries of all types that are scattered throughout New Zealand", is by no means comprehensive.

Characters in good books have a way of lingering long after the final page is closed. For author Charlotte Wood it was, Stephen, from previous novel, The Children, who worried her so much she wanted to see him progress through the next stage of his life.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is said to have hated the character of Sherlock Holmes, which he first created for a short story in 1886.

With Christmas almost here, Canvas book reviewers take the hassle out of gift-shopping with ideas for all ages and tastes.

Going by the feedback we’ve received in the last month, there’s been a great deal of interest in Paula Morris’s new novel Rangatira.

New Zealand's own favourite food writer dishes the dirt on what it's like to be a bookworm.

The characters, once they finally arrive, are great, writes Nicky Pellegrino.

Mirabel Osler, as one friend has said of her, "could make a shopping list seem lyrical".

The default opening for any review of a Neal Stephenson novel is the "cult author, but not really" explanation. Here's how it goes.

Many of us go through the daily grind, but sometimes, even those ordinary moments add up to an extraordinary and life-changing day - that's the premise of December's feature book, Animal People.

The epic scale of a tragic story numbs and grips Nicky Pellegrino.

Boyd Tonkin talks to Victoria Hislop about being inspired by landscapes and why she is ready for passionate criticism of her new book.