Book Lover: Janet McIntyre

Janet McIntyre. Photo / Supplied

Janet McIntyre is a correspondent on TV One's current affairs show Sunday.

The book I love most is ... always the one I have just read. Often it's a little gem off the "recently returned" trolley at the Auckland City Library. Last week it was Ian McEwan's, The Comfort of Strangers - small, perfectly formed and deeply disturbing. At first it seems to be a gentle portrait of a suburban couple on holiday in Venice, then something weird happens and just before you get to the can't-stop-turning-the-pages point, you're gate-crashing a nightmare. McEwan is a great observer of human imperfection and is the master of the killer twist. One of his earlier books, Amsterdam stays with me, years after I first read it.

The book I'm reading now is ... what my husband read last week (also from the library). It's Thank you for Smoking by Christopher Buckley, and arch satire about big tobacco. Loved the movie - the book, raw and funny, is even better - particularly as my husband is now a non-smoker.

The book I want to read next is ... within arm's reach, on the desk of my producer colleague, Steve. It's Pol Pot, by Philip Short, a biography about the radical leader of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Oddly enough, in between mouthfuls of his salmon bagel and morning latte, Steve gives me daily, blistering reviews of massacres, death by starvation and prisoners forced to dig their own graves. Although poor for digestion, Pol Pot, according to Steve, is essential reading. I also want to read Custard the Dragon and the Wicked Knight by Ogden Nash, out loud to my nieces and nephews. It was my childhood favourite and I like doing the voices.