There are memoirs that are about a personal life lived, and then there are memoirs about a specific subject on which an author wishes to ruminate at length. Annie Proulx's non-fiction Bird Cloud very much falls into the latter.

Roy Orbison didn't show a lot of emotion, but his songs and voice were brimming with them, writes Graham Reid.

On their third album, Twickenham band Noah and the Whale is slightly evangelistic in its take on life, and the way one can meander through it.

A couple of years ago, PNC's album Bazooka Kid set local hip-hop on a renaissance trip of sorts with its flashy and fun mix of styles, cheeky bravado and rhymes like "Looking for the chicks with Brooke Fraser lips".

Dunedin rock stalwart David Kilgour's previous album, 2009's Falling Debris, had him setting music to the words of Sam Hunt. That project has a slight hangover here.

When Herbie Hancock was last here in 2007 he played a show that spanned his classic work - and really, that's what you want to hear.

A British actress' first novel reveals her comedic talent.

Nervous readers need not fear, Jason Webster's new Spanish detective, Max Camara of Valencia, hates bullfights.

One of the fun parts of watching an elimination show like MasterChef is trying to second-guess the producers.

The off-beat British singer is determined to keep at it, and so drags her voice through her 18th studio album, a collection made up mostly of covers.

For those expecting the ear-splitting riffs similar to the ones J Mascis lets rip with in Dinosaur Jr. then take a chill pill.

Guitar hero B.B. King singing the blues with a chorus of sock puppets? What the ... ?

New Zealand popera star Hayley Westenra has teamed up with a legendary Italian composer for her latest album.