The genesis of this startling first novel is already en route to becoming a New Zealand literary legend.

The newest edition of the New American Bible will replace the words "booty", "holocaust" and other phrases.

A fantastic companion for a trip around New Zealand, offering fascinating insights as to why the passing countryside looks the way it does and how some of the more remarkable tourist attractions came into being.

Paula Green reviews three new volumes of poetry from New Zealand writers.

What went wrong at Whitcoulls?

It is a truism in the publishing industry that very few Kiwis get rich by writing a book.

Though Sue Orr's new collection of short stories, From Under The Overcoat, references short stories by literary greats such as Nikolay Gogol (The Over Coat) and James Joyce (The Dead), don't hold that against it.

One of the pleasures of reading an essayist as eclectic as Geoff Dyer is that one can go within a few pages from regarding him as a fount of wisdom (when his opinions match yours) to thinking he's a pretentious phoney (when they don't).

For women of a certain (or uncertain) age, remembering nothing is not difficult. Remembering something is more problematic. Thus, women of a certain age will be enchanted by Nora Ephron's take on memory, or lack of it.

It's been six months since the last Joyce Carol Oates, so it's not surprising to find she has another book out. Her productivity is astonishing, she's Barbara Cartland in black instead of pink.

Confession time: I'd never read anything by Anne Rice before this. For a while, I thought she was another name for Stephenie Meyer. She's not (of course), but she could be.

I began this book when a William Lobb rose was in its first flowering in my garden. Every time I went out to get the mail the perfume hung in the air and I breathed it in and felt good about being alive.

Between books, TV shows and travel, it's a wonder this chef still gets time to bake.

A new cookbook written by two old friends exploring their culinary heritage should reignite your zest for Italian food.

Lynch fans will delight in her latest offering of love and heartache in the Italian hills. Sarah-Kate Lynch even helped smooth the reviewer's own path to love.

David Larsen talks to career film buff David Thomson about his revised classic.

One of the many funny lines in the profanity-strewn satirical film In The Loop came from the character Jamie Macdonald, the senior press officer in 10 Downing St and the "angriest man in Scotland".

It may be boring for parents - but reading the same book over and over again to children is the best way to develop their vocabulary.

A group of Californian surfers have discovered a new wave: off an iceberg in the Antarctic.

If it followed the pattern of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, Eva Gabrielsson's book might be called "The girl who was cheated of millions".