A witty, irreverent and gutsy heroine carries this new novel.

Lindsey Dawson is the host of Let's Talk, a weekly women's issues show on Stratos TV. She was also the founding editor of Next magazine and has authored seven books.

The best thing to come out of Auckland's Super City amalgamation is that you can borrow 3.5 million items from 55 libraries from Wellsford to Waiuku. Here we choose our favourite handful.

UK journalist James Fergusson tackled questions on the Taleban at the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival.

Just when you thought Sex and the City had taken its last gasp, the creator of the iconic characters releases two novels for younger readers. Rebecca Barry Hill talks to the original Carrie Bradshaw, Candace Bushnell.

Britney Spears' life has been turned into a comic book.

The disintegration of American dreams into nightmares is the leitmotiv of this first novel. Its narrative punches you from the first paragraph: "I'm ten years old ... I opened our front door and found my mother hanging from the rafters..."

Sick of cheesy 'chick-lit'? A new novel about brain injury revises the genre.

David Mitchell is a UK author whose most recent novel is The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. He will be appearing at the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival.

Buying ebooks may be convenient but it can't compete with the personality and charm of our best bookshops, writes Danielle Wright.

Brimming from the excitement of the royal nuptials, a story about a self-exiled princess proves timely for writer Monica Ali.

Popular historian Niall Ferguson tells Stephen Jewell how television democratises knowledge and why colonialism wasn't all bad.

Family treasures helped create a stunning, unique cookbook with nostalgic appeal.

Tanya Moir is a Southland writer who recently published her début novel La Rochelle's Road (Random House, $39.99).

This author's début is less than the sum of its brilliant parts.

It is a tale of two cities and two sisters. Atka and Hana were parted as girls in war-torn Sarajevo but then reunited as young women.

Americans love their 'special days', each dedicated to some section of society.