It can be a good or a bad thing if you finish a novel wanting more. In the case of Sarah Quigley's The Conductor it's both.

The latest novel from one of Italy's most eminent writers follows a young journalist from Florence as she sets out into Eastern Europe in the mid-1950s.

Stephen Jewell talks to American author Charlaine Harris about why readers must not confuse her True Blood novels with the television series.

Chef Gabrielle Hamilton’s memoir is searingly honest, and funny. By Nicky Pellegrino.

Janet Evanovich is the US author of the best-selling Stephanie Plum stories and has just released the latest in the series Smokin' Seventeen.

Philip French looks at a new biography of Robert Redford.

So many books, so little time. Selecting books for Fiction Addiction is a delicious but sometimes difficult task, so this month we sought help by asking you what makes a good book club read.

The Girl In The Polka-dot Dress could be described as a "road novel", since most of the action takes place on the freeways of America as Harold Grasse drives his newly bought, second-hand camper from Maryland to California in the 1960s.

This book was honoured as the best pictorial book in this year's Cathay Pacific Travel Media Awards and it's easy to see why.

Two middle-aged ladies are central to Alan Bennett's reflective pair of comedies in Smut.

When anyone precious dies, most people attempt to keep their memory alive. This can be done by using their name a lot. Valuing the things they once touched. Or even wore.

When Michael King died in a road accident in 2004 at the age of 58, New Zealand lost one of its most admired writers and this collection, edited by his novelist daughter Rachael King, reminds us how he earned his reputation.

Sarah Quigley - or should I say Dr Sarah Quigley, for she has a doctorate in English literature from Oxford, no less - has long been recognised as one of New Zealand's finest writers.

We ask the author of more than 60 books what he loves as a bookworm.

Michael Robotham's wife keeps him grounded, finds Nicky Pellegrino.

It's a pop-up world of panama hats and outdoor reading (when it's sunny), scarves and cups of coffee (when it's not), and an erudite audience.

Save dishes, save time, save money and eat well. Clarissa Dickson Wright shows us how in her new cookbook.

Authors discover the brazen pioneers and their wheelings and dealings to create the affluent area.

It could be a scene from a cheesy Hollywood movie. An aspiring writer receives a cardboard box containing $6000, and a note: "No Strings Attached".