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Lonely Planet's high praise of NZ comes with lowlights
Some NZ regions have been singled out as overpriced, overhyped or just plain boring.

An ocean's life
The Atlantic ocean might not be the world's largest. But it is, writer Simon Winchester tells Stephen Jewell, the centre of the world and deserving of its own "biography".

Book Review: Dear Charles Dear Janet - Frame And Brasch In Correspondence
The letters between the two start with a "Dear Miss Frame" in March 1954, soliciting a particular poem for Landfall and any other work, poetry or prose. Her reply

Delving into the heart of community
Irish author Cathy Kelly talks to Stephen Jewell about her new novel and the importance of multi-tasking.

Book Review: <i>This Is Shyness</i>
In the ocean of supernatural teenage fiction it is a huge relief to wash up against something truly original.

Book lover: Kimo Houltham
Kimo Houltham presents youth show I AM TV, which screens Saturdays on TV2.

The state of our style
Fashion writer Mitchell Oakley Smith has put together a new definitive collection of Australasian fashion designers.

Book Review: Freedom
Jonathan Franzen, the literary great who delivered award-winning novel The Corrections, reappears after nine years with a new taste of Freedom.

Wales: Tiny village a mecca for book lovers
Welsh town Hay-on-Wye is the perfect spot for bookworms, finds Geraldine O'Sullivan Beere.

Apocalypse then
As a soldier in Vietnam, Karl Marlantes came face-to-face with war. Thirty years later he has turned that experience into a New York Times best-seller.

Alive and writing
Just weeks after a prominent critic proclaimed American literary fiction dead, Time magazine featured a living author on its cover - for the first time in 10 years.

Book Review: The Pleasure Seekers
She's gorgeous. She's an acclaimed poet and dancer. She's been praised by Salman Rushdie and Louis de Bernieres. How astonishing is her first novel?

Book Review: Notwithstanding
British author Louis de Bernieres has set most of his stories in exotic places, but now, in this interlinked collection of short stories, he explores the exoticism to be found on his home turf.

The early sitting
A new book documenting New Zealand's restaurant history busts the myth that dining out is a recent Kiwi hobby.

Book lover: Maxine Braham
Maxine Braham is associate director and movement director of the NBR New Zealand Opera's Genesis Energy season of Macbeth.

First edition
Inexperience hasn't stopped Alison Wong from winning literary gold, writes Nicky Pellegrino.

Gordon Brown savaged in Blair's memoirs
Revelations about Gordon Brown and Britain's involvement in the Iraq war emerged in Tony Blair's book, out today.

Book Review: Mad World
Paula Byrne says she set out to write this book to redress what she believes is the misrepresentation of Evelyn Waugh as "a snob and curmudgeonly misanthropist".

A tale of two Peters
Two big names in British thriller writing visit New Zealand next week. Craig Sisterson talks to Peter James and Peter Robinson.

Book Review: Anthropology of an American Girl
Hilary Thayer Hamann's novel, Anthropology of an American Girl, has been heralded as both the hottest book on the block and as the worst novel ever.

<i>Gill South</i>: The lesson from BP It doesn't pay to lose focus on sustainability
Large and small business must embrace green concepts to help the bottom line, say authors of a new book.

Common touch (+recipe)
Two friends who lead very different lives but have a great deal in common talk to Nicky Pellegrino about their latest book.