Latest fromBooks

Cracking the ice queen
A new biography about talk show host Oprah Winfrey reveals more through what it cannot say.

Oprah tells staff to call her Mary
Talkshow star Oprah Winfrey's father is not actually her biological father, no one is allowed cellphones in her presence, and her staff call her Mary.

Travel book: <i>Great Kiwi Eats</i>
One of the special joys of touring New Zealand these days is the number of places you find that sell great food.

Secret Jackie Kennedy interviews revealed
A new book covers the former First Lady's marriage and years in the White House, as well as the 1960 campaign and JFK's thoughts on a second term.

Review: <i>The Surrendered</i>
Thirty years after the Korean War, an American veteran and an Asian woman are still confronting the conflict that briefly brought them together.

Review: <i>The Imperfectionists</i>
This full and funny first novel, set around a Rome-based English-language newspaper, comes with faux reporters' room coffee stains on the cover.

Oprah-power imposes a blackout
Despite her carefully cultivated "woman of the people" image, Oprah Winfrey takes a dim view of any outsider impertinent enough to wonder what makes her tick.

Settler's saga
Natasha Solomons skilfully weaves refugee tales into a novel about adjusting to life in a new land.

Long friendship leaves its mark
A book about Samoan tattooing - tatau - records a story that has been 30 years in the making.

Profile: Francesca Price
Being green doesn't have to mean deprivation and sacrifice. Eco-journalist Francesca Price shows us how.

Bookshops: Don't treat us like babysitters
A children's bookshop is working with security staff of a nearby tavern and casino over the growing problem of parents leaving children to read while they gamble.

<i>Review:</i> Book Of Lost Threads
Novels, for all their categorisation as fiction, must, to some extent, draw on the writer's own experiences. Or they must, at least

<i>Review:</i> Tigers At Awhitu
Sarah Broom, who has a PhD from Oxford, is the author of a book on contemporary British and Irish poets and has just released her

On the edge of the world
Dylan Horrocks, author of newly published graphic novel Hicksville, said he grew up in two places: In New Zealand and in comics.

Beyond the plot
Mitch Albom has realised people are hungry for stories that touch them deeply.

How sex, food and war drive technology
Writer Peter Nowak starts his survey of technology by linking war, porn and fast food - the idea surfaced after he saw the lurid sex tape of Paris Hilton.

Dark times as chickens come home to roost
McEwan shows us all the fear and loathing of the modern world in a packet of crisps.