Latest fromBooks

New future for printed books that smarten up their act
The publication of The Waste Land app marks the end of the beginning.

Fiction Addiction: Introducing 'The Larnachs' by Owen Marshall
Anyone glancing at the three books currently stacked on my bedside table would suspect a pre-occupation with love affairs.

Whitcoulls - the next chapter
In an exclusive interview, the book and stationery chain's new owners tell Karyn Scherer about their plans for one of the best-known names in NZ retailing.

Fiction Addiction: Review: The Conductor
It can be a good or a bad thing if you finish a novel wanting more. In the case of Sarah Quigley's The Conductor it's both.

Book Review: <i>Train To Budapest</i> & <i>The Silent Duchess</i>
The latest novel from one of Italy's most eminent writers follows a young journalist from Florence as she sets out into Eastern Europe in the mid-1950s.

Charlaine Harris: Energised by the supernatural
Stephen Jewell talks to American author Charlaine Harris about why readers must not confuse her True Blood novels with the television series.

Gabrielle Hamilton: Food for thought
Chef Gabrielle Hamilton’s memoir is searingly honest, and funny. By Nicky Pellegrino.

Book lover: Janet Evanovich
Janet Evanovich is the US author of the best-selling Stephanie Plum stories and has just released the latest in the series Smokin' Seventeen.

Fiction Addiction: Five hot new books
So many books, so little time. Selecting books for Fiction Addiction is a delicious but sometimes difficult task, so this month we sought help by asking you what makes a good book club read.

Book Review: <i>The Girl In The Polka-dot Dress</i>
The Girl In The Polka-dot Dress could be described as a "road novel", since most of the action takes place on the freeways of America as Harold Grasse drives his newly bought, second-hand camper from Maryland to California in the 1960s.

Travel book: <i>New Zealand Landscapes</i>
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.

Book Review: <i>Smut: Two Unseemly Stories</i>
Two middle-aged ladies are central to Alan Bennett's reflective pair of comedies in Smut.

Book Review: <i>A Widow's Story - A Memoir</i>
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.

Book Review: <i>The Silence Beyond</i>
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.

Book Review: <i>La Rochelle's Road</i>
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.