A sickbed obsession culminates in moving musings about the beauty of our world.

One of the pleasures of reading an essayist as eclectic as Geoff Dyer is that one can go within a few pages from regarding him as a fount of wisdom (when his opinions match yours) to thinking he's a pretentious phoney (when they don't).

For women of a certain (or uncertain) age, remembering nothing is not difficult. Remembering something is more problematic. Thus, women of a certain age will be enchanted by Nora Ephron's take on memory, or lack of it.

It's been six months since the last Joyce Carol Oates, so it's not surprising to find she has another book out. Her productivity is astonishing, she's Barbara Cartland in black instead of pink.

Confession time: I'd never read anything by Anne Rice before this. For a while, I thought she was another name for Stephenie Meyer. She's not (of course), but she could be.

A new cookbook written by two old friends exploring their culinary heritage should reignite your zest for Italian food.

They are small, yellow and designed to endure nothing more stressful than a quick journey around a bathtub.

Lynch fans will delight in her latest offering of love and heartache in the Italian hills. Sarah-Kate Lynch even helped smooth the reviewer's own path to love.

David Larsen talks to career film buff David Thomson about his revised classic.

One of the many funny lines in the profanity-strewn satirical film In The Loop came from the character Jamie Macdonald, the senior press officer in 10 Downing St and the "angriest man in Scotland".

If it followed the pattern of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, Eva Gabrielsson's book might be called "The girl who was cheated of millions".

Sure, books are one of life's pleasures, but who said every kid has to love reading?

Shortland Street actor Kiel McNaughton tells us what his big week would involve.

Why are so many good books turned into bad films? Geoffrey Macnab reports.

Having led a lonely childhood, Lesley Pearse knows what it is to seek a better life. Now she is helping women to help others. She tells Stephen Jewell how.

Here's a story about how to become middle-aged and middle-class - without noticing it.

Dan Shanan is a trustee of the Documentary Edge Festival.