The best thing to come out of Auckland's Super City amalgamation is that you can borrow 3.5 million items from 55 libraries from Wellsford to Waiuku. Here we choose our favourite handful.

Auckland Mayor Len Brown has ordered an urgent report assessing ways to save the iconic St James Theatre.

Bronwyn Sell opens the discussion on her feature book for May 2011, Sarah Winman's When God was a Rabbit.

Colin McCahon's house reveals another side of Titirangi, says Liz Light.

The play Mary Stuart brings Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots face-to-face, as played by two of our own leading ladies.

On First Looking into Chapman's Homer, by Michael Parekowhai, comprises a Steinway grand piano carved with Maori patterns, two blackened bronze pianos with bulls on top, a life-size sculpture of his brother as a security guard, and some bronze pot plants.