Latest from Books

The truth about 'Hollywood Moms'
Were the pushy parents of Brooke Shields, Judy Garland, Shirley Temple and other Hollywood stars really as bad as all that, asks Geoffrey Macnab.

Books: An intriguing monster
You can buy a deluxe edition of this new, independent New Zealand publisher's handsome production, with "Yulong cream paper ... Woodfree real leather ... foil stamping".

Books: The illusion of control
S.J. Watson’s ambitious follow-up to his best-seller Before I Go To Sleep delves into the murky world of cybersex, he tells Stephen Jewell.

Books: Will Smith is a Swiss army knife
Known as an actor in TV satire The Thick Of It and as a comedy writer for Veep, Will Smith has written a mystery thriller set in the Channel Islands. It’s John le Carre meets Middlemarch, he tells Alice Jones.

Business Books: 'Bold' - how entrepreneurs will control world's fate
Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World, by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler

Books: Secrets behind ordinary
Untangling the dramas of a seemingly normal family makes for an authentic read.

Where the Gruffalo roam
Julia Donaldson’s most famous book, The Gruffalo, has won the hearts of children around the world. During a fleeting visit to Auckland and Wellington, Britain’s best-selling author talks to David Larsen.

Social justice advocate Celia Lashlie dies
Celia Lashlie, the Kiwi author whose work on the raising of teenage boys earned her respect around the world, has died this morning after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Advocate for social justice: I'm dying
Acclaimed social researcher and author Celia Lashlie has cancelled all speaking engagements to stay home with her family in Wellington after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Author diagnosed with terminal cancer
Celia Lashlie, the Kiwi author whose work on the raising of teenage boys earned her respect around the world, has terminal cancer.

Books: On the trail of a melody
Kiwi author’s first novel explores fantasy and memories set to a compelling tune.

Confessions of an erotic writer
Award-winning Auckland playwright Elisabeth Easther was once an erotic fiction writer. As Fifty Shades of Grey hits our screens, she reveals the highs and lows of her short-lived career in smut.

Books: Rich storytelling has ending that satisfies
New Zealand-born Peter Walker has been living in Britain for nearly 30 years now. He's made a considerable reputation as an author there, under as many as six nom-de-plumes, writing well over 100 books.

Books: The love of Link
I would rather read Kelly Link than breathe. Writing about her is another thing again. I do not know why her new book is called Get In Trouble.

Books: For whom the bell tolls
Debut novel combines writer’s love of music with her love of words, writes Rebecca Barry Hill.

Twelve Questions: Paula Morris
You're in the running for the Sunday Times EFG prize: How do you wish you could blow the winning 30,000?

Books: Mad fun in animal satire
Orwellian theme conjures up masterly and witty parable for our times.

Potter puzzles answered
JK Rowling has finally answered three very important questions that have been bugging the most devoted of Harry Potter fans for years.

Books: Patience brings its rewards
Back in the familiar rural midwest of her previous novels, Moo, Horse Heaven and A Thousand Acres, Pulitzer prize-winner Jane Smiley presents us with the first volume of a projected trilogy.

Books: Revelation and disintegration
A novel is a place where past and present versions of one person can co-exist, and in his fifth novel Andrew O'Hagan movingly explores the way the "flotsam" of a life can rise to the surface as old age and memory go about their strange and poignant work.

Books: Expert guided tour through rich history
To modern eyes, the little wagon in a Berlin museum looks like a model of an old horse-drawn cart. Solidly made, about as big as a baby's cot, it is in fact a handcart, to be pulled by people, not animals.

Books: Unsettling presence in everyday life
Plaudits to the publisher for their tactile, trim presentation of this small-is-beautiful novella. And to the Australian author herself for a rewarding — and riddling — little read.

Mockingbird sequel draws concerns
The announcement that Harper Lee is to revisit the characters of To Kill a Mockingbird has been greeted with delight and suspicion.

Paula Morris: NZ condemned to margins unless we shift cultural gaze
Many writers resist national labels. Like Salman Rushdie, we'd rather belong to "the boundless kingdom of the imagination ... the unfettered republic of the tongue".

Brian Rudman: Catton clash shabby, but trumps the Harawiras
As we head into the Waitangi Day circus, Titewhai and her whanau have been gazumped by literary prima donna Eleanor Catton, writes Brian Rudman.

Deborah Hill Cone: Catton success illuminated nation
Je suis hua, writes Deborah Hill Cone, as she asks: "weren't we all just gargling on about free speech in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre?"

Books: Love and how to forgive
What is normal? And what if you don't fit in with society's idea of it? Those are the issues raised by US author Amy Hatvany's thoughtful and compelling new novel