A sickbed obsession culminates in moving musings about the beauty of our world.

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.

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".

A photo exhibition about flowers is the result of a life-changing experience for Joanne Cunningham.

Sure, books are one of life's pleasures, but who said every kid has to love reading?

In a week when one billion Valentine's Day cards are sent worldwide, we might wonder where the tradition of the passionate avowal came from.

Having led a lonely childhood, Lesley Pearse knows what it is to seek a better life. Now she is helping women to help others. She tells Stephen Jewell how.

Here's a story about how to become middle-aged and middle-class - without noticing it.

Dan Shanan is a trustee of the Documentary Edge Festival.

Craig Cliff's first collection of stories heralds the arrival of an electrifying new voice on the New Zealand writing scene. These stories are standalone gems, but the collection also brings together satisfying harmonies as a whole.

John Irving is the king of the long, multilayered novel. In the tradition of Dickens, he cleverly weaves together the intricate threads of cross-generational storylines.