This book was honoured as the best pictorial book in this year's Cathay Pacific Travel Media Awards and it's easy to see why.

Two middle-aged ladies are central to Alan Bennett's reflective pair of comedies in Smut.

When Michael King died in a road accident in 2004 at the age of 58, New Zealand lost one of its most admired writers and this collection, edited by his novelist daughter Rachael King, reminds us how he earned his reputation.

Tanya Moir's first novel is an example of historical fiction that brings to life a moment in time in a way that is graceful and thoughtful.

When anyone precious dies, most people attempt to keep their memory alive. This can be done by using their name a lot. Valuing the things they once touched. Or even wore.

One of the hazards of this job it that I feel compelled to read books about finance from time to time.

Sarah Quigley - or should I say Dr Sarah Quigley, for she has a doctorate in English literature from Oxford, no less - has long been recognised as one of New Zealand's finest writers.

We ask the author of more than 60 books what he loves as a bookworm.

It's a pop-up world of panama hats and outdoor reading (when it's sunny), scarves and cups of coffee (when it's not), and an erudite audience.

Save dishes, save time, save money and eat well. Clarissa Dickson Wright shows us how in her new cookbook.

Authors discover the brazen pioneers and their wheelings and dealings to create the affluent area.

It could be a scene from a cheesy Hollywood movie. An aspiring writer receives a cardboard box containing $6000, and a note: "No Strings Attached".

Those TV cooking shows may be inspiring a new generation of Kiwi chefs. By Gill South.

Sarah Quigley is a novelist, poet and critic whose latest book, The Conductor (Vintage, $39.99) is on the NZ fiction bestseller list.

As with many of his generation, American president Franklin D. Roosevelt had been taken by the idea of "Shangri-La". Writer Mitchell Zuckoff shares this fascination in his new tale about a collision of cultures during the early war era.

Hedda Hopper was a remarkable woman. Not necessarily likeable, but her influence and reach as Hollywood's premier gossip columnist through the middle of last century is without dispute, as this enlightening book makes clear.

Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series gained massive success in the shadow of Harry Potter. Expansion into the tricky adult fiction market is the next mission, writes Susie Mesure.

Glee star Chris Colfer has signed a book deal.

When I have a spare half hour to browse in my local independent bookshop, it's usually a combination of the cover and the title that tempts me to pick up something new.

Read extracts from the new book by Lesley Elliott, detailing the life and death of daughter Sophie, killed in a frenzied attack...

With a new cookbook out, one half of Two Fat Ladies, Clarissa Dickson Wright, is happy.

Despite the glowing book-jacket recommendations from writers much loftier than me, I started out disliking Elizabeth Day's début novel, Scissors Paper Stone.