Latest from Books

The Hewitson Profile: The magical world of My Octopus Teacher’s Craig Foster

Craig Foster spent years swimming with sea creatures, falling in love with an octopus.

Book review: Lauren Oyler’s new essays criticise criticism

'No Judgement' examines anxiety, gossip and reviews website GoodReads.

NZ’s long history of "mental depression" revealed in new book

First cultural history of depression in NZ finds love among the sadness.

Top 10 best-selling NZ books: June 22

There's a new number one best-seller.

Short cuts: Three books to check out this weekend

Biographies with a twist make for intriguing reading.

How Rachel Cusk’s 12th novel Parade pushes fiction’s boundaries

It’s a novel designed to get the reader off balance, even compared to her previous work.

Three hot crime books for cold winter nights

Sidekicks with stories, violent acts in a small town, and a Halloween deadline.

Exuberant historical fiction proves you shouldn’t judge a book by its title

The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club is a chunky chronicle of post-WWI lives.

Is nostalgia a dangerous emotion - or can embracing it make you happier?

Nostalgia was once a medical term describing an illness that could, and did, kill people.

The Hewitson Profile: The curious case of the poetic pathologist

Cynric Temple-Camp on writing about NZ's most infamous cases.

War’s waste: A time-travelling romance gone wrong

New Japanese time-travel novel shies away from moral issues it raises.

Deadly Animals: Marie Tierney’s ambitious tale of teen detective Ava Bonney

Author draws on her own life experience for macabre whodunit set in 1980s Birmingham.

Blooming brilliant: The strange smarts of plants

A joyously curious investigation of the surprising senses and smarts of plants.

Top 10 best-selling NZ books: June 8

There's a new number one, and some Matariki favourites return.

The King and Dai: Two biographies to check out this weekend

Short cuts: Two new books for biography lovers.

How a tour of Iraq convinced a Kiwi soldier to quit

Dario Nustrini's reasons for joining the army weren't unusual; the way he left was.

Blue Sisters: Sunday Times-bestselling author’s new funny, gritty novel

Three sisters face some home truths when they gather on to remember a lost loved one.

The future is imperfect in Jenny Ackland’s novel Hurdy Gurdy

Hurdy Gurdy explores a world no one wants to be part of.