Reviewers are, I suppose, expected to be dispassionate but I admit to being an enthusiastic fan of Simon Winchester. I have never read a book of his that was not thoroughly rewarding and this latest, from a prolific production line, is one of the best.
Some NZ regions have been singled out as overpriced, overhyped or just plain boring.
The Atlantic ocean might not be the world's largest. But it is, writer Simon Winchester tells Stephen Jewell, the centre of the world and deserving of its own "biography".
The letters between the two start with a "Dear Miss Frame" in March 1954, soliciting a particular poem for Landfall and any other work, poetry or prose. Her reply
Irish author Cathy Kelly talks to Stephen Jewell about her new novel and the importance of multi-tasking.
In the ocean of supernatural teenage fiction it is a huge relief to wash up against something truly original.
Kimo Houltham presents youth show I AM TV, which screens Saturdays on TV2.
Fashion writer Mitchell Oakley Smith has put together a new definitive collection of Australasian fashion designers.
Jonathan Franzen, the literary great who delivered award-winning novel The Corrections, reappears after nine years with a new taste of Freedom.
Welsh town Hay-on-Wye is the perfect spot for bookworms, finds Geraldine O'Sullivan Beere.
As a soldier in Vietnam, Karl Marlantes came face-to-face with war. Thirty years later he has turned that experience into a New York Times best-seller.
Just weeks after a prominent critic proclaimed American literary fiction dead, Time magazine featured a living author on its cover - for the first time in 10 years.
She's gorgeous. She's an acclaimed poet and dancer. She's been praised by Salman Rushdie and Louis de Bernieres. How astonishing is her first novel?
If you loved watching benign British drama in the 1970s, you'll love The News Where You Are.
British author Louis de Bernieres has set most of his stories in exotic places, but now, in this interlinked collection of short stories, he explores the exoticism to be found on his home turf.
A new book documenting New Zealand's restaurant history busts the myth that dining out is a recent Kiwi hobby.
Inexperience hasn't stopped Alison Wong from winning literary gold, writes Nicky Pellegrino.
Maxine Braham is associate director and movement director of the NBR New Zealand Opera's Genesis Energy season of Macbeth.
Revelations about Gordon Brown and Britain's involvement in the Iraq war emerged in Tony Blair's book, out today.
Paula Byrne says she set out to write this book to redress what she believes is the misrepresentation of Evelyn Waugh as "a snob and curmudgeonly misanthropist".
Two big names in British thriller writing visit New Zealand next week. Craig Sisterson talks to Peter James and Peter Robinson.
Hilary Thayer Hamann's novel, Anthropology of an American Girl, has been heralded as both the hottest book on the block and as the worst novel ever.