This big, bright book celebrates our vibrant cafe scene, travelling the country from Northland to Dunedin visiting cool and quirky places, meeting the people who run them and sharing their signature recipes. It covers 50 spots in all, from Rawene's Boatshed cafe sitting out over Hokianga Harbour, to Auckland icon Bambina, Martinborough newcomer Pinocchio and Christchurch survivor C1 Espresso. With lavish photography it's as much about the design and vibe of each as it is about the food - in fact, as a book to cook from this is unashamedly uneven; a salad here, a slider there, a taco beside a tart. Rather than cook, I am inspired to eat my way around the country. I'd particularly like to breakfast on a dish called The Spaniard at the Raumati Social Club - a potato rosti topped with tomato sauce, chorizo, spinach and a poached egg. For any food-lover heading on a road trip this summer, it's worth making space for this book when you're packing.
The Dust That Falls from Dreams
By Louis de Bernieres (Harvill Secker)
As a de Bernieres virgin (and seemingly the only person on the planet to have not read the 1994 epic Captain Corelli's Mandolin) I didn't know what to expect from The Dust That Falls From Dreams. Centred on the life of the eccentric upper-middle class McCosh family up to and during the Great War, the book provides a gut-wrenching view of the horrors of conflict from a very personal perspective. Rosie McCosh, the beautiful eldest daughter in a family of four girls, is the linchpin of the story; her romantic liaisons with two neighbours underpin the novel's themes of love, loss and the search for happiness in the wake of tragedy. A classic page-turner, The Dust That Falls From Dreams offers insights in the machinations of war.
• Review by journalist Joanna Mathers.
Lullaby
By Bernard Beckett (Text)
New Zealand author Bernard Beckett returns with another mind-bending young adult offering. Rene's twin brother Theo lies in a hospital bed, unconscious and with massively disrupted brain function. A risky experimental procedure is on offer - a chance for Rene to save Theo's life but what is the cost of that chance? Lullaby is an amazingly complex novel, exploring the nature of identity and shared memories as well as how we shape the story of ourselves. The questions it raises stay with the reader for a long time after the book is finished.
• Review by Ngaire Atmore who blogs about books at www.bookiemonster.co.nz
Fairy House
By Mike and Debbie Schramer (Familius)
Never mind about the painstaking craft of making fairy houses for your family's garden, simply flicking through the pages of Fairy House by Mike and Debbie Schramer is fun for kids. The book details how to make fairy furniture, miniatures and plenty more from natural materials such as twigs and bark. For a non-crafty person, it all seems much too fabulous to be easily made by a layperson. But the full-colour photographs and clearly set-out instructions make me think I could attempt to make the beautiful miniatures for our garden.
• Review by journalist and author Danielle Wright.
Nicky's best read
Lots of authors have Twitter accounts but who to follow? Worth a look are Joanne Harris who shares great writing tips, smart, outspoken Joyce Carol Oates and Jennifer Weiner if only because she's so prolific.
Book lover: Geraldine Brooks
Pulitzer prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks' latest novel is The Secret Chord. She is touring New Zealand next month. Find event details at hachette.co.nz
The book I love the most is...The Norton Anthology Of Poetry because there's always a wonderful new poem to discover. I dip into it nearly every day.
The book I'm reading right now is...Skyfaring: A Journey With A Pilot by Mark Vanhoenacker. It's a very poetic account of piloting a 747.
The book I'd like to read next is...My Name Was Judas by C.K. Stead because it's a bit similar to what I have tried to do in The Secret Chord and I'm curious to see how Stead approached the problem.
My favourite bookshop is...Powell's City of Books in Portland, Oregon, because used books are shelved alongside new ones, and the store is vast.
The book that changed me is...Pilgrim At Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard because it forced me to look at the natural world and that has become a sustaining passion.
The book I wish I'd never read is...I was going to say The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, because the writing is dreadful and the polemics insufferable, but I'm quite glad I read it, so I have the right to hold that opinion.
