The tale of a nun's betrayal proves shocking - and thought-provoking, writes Nicky Pellegrino.

Some evenings when I pick up my October feature read, The Cat's Table, I feel like a spectator at a variety show.

Viva photographer Babiche Martens shares her journey to create a cookbook with leading chef Michael Van de Elzen.

Amy Winehouse's father Mitch is set to publish a memoir to tell the true story about the soul singer's life and to aid his recovery.

When the stone deer was placed in position in the pool in front of the Chalabi home in Kazimiya, near Baghdad, locals immediately named the palatial home the Deer Palace.

Minrose Gwin clearly had a miserable time of it. Her father, Al the airman, only stuck around long enough to witness her birth, then fled to parts unknown, never to be seen again, although, to be fair, he did send Minrose a birthday present every year.

Murders, battles, seduction, witchcraft ... and a water goddess. It would be hard not to write a ripping history of the English War of the Roses.

Christchurch-born, Britain-based Edlin's first novel, The Widow's Daughter, was a crammed narrative of World War II Auckland, and the reverberations of a sexual liaison across decades and oceans. It was commendably ambitious and inevitably uneven.

Out with vampires, in with other-worldy romance, writes Nicky Pellegrino.

When I picked up my October feature book, The Cat's Table, I recalled a radio interview I had once heard with New York Sun columnist Lenore Skenazy.

Radio personality and bibliophile Lily Richards tells her story to Viva.

"Life is hard" is one of the Noble Truths and Yang Pao, as a young boy landing on the streets of Jamaica in the 1930s, learns that lesson quickly.

Bronwyn Sell turns to the bookies to help her decide what to read and comes up with The Sense of an Ending.

A decade after it opened, the rail trail has become - to use an overworked phrase - a New Zealand tourist icon.

Wine writer Michael Cooper has recently released 100 Must-try New Zealand Wines (Hodder Moa, $34.99)

This author deserves bouquets for her insight, writes Nicky Pellegrino.

In an uncharacteristic fit of efficiency, I started reading my September feature book, Rules of Civility, on the same day I finished my August novel, There But For There.

British author Stef Penney tells Christian House about moving the setting for her second novel from the Canadian wilderness to a sinister England.

Constructed in the manner of ensemble films such as Nashville, Grand Canyon and Crash, this novel by the award-winning Australian writer Carroll again refracts the lives of some characters who have populated his previous work.