Ngā pukapukaBooks

The best-selling writer and psychiatrist's 2020 book of Māori sayings made Oprah Winfrey's Book Club. Now she's back with a guide for navigating mental mayhem.

Back in the 1970s, the Pacific Northwest was home to some of the most notorious serial killers in US history.

Best-selling writer Bill Bryson has “interrupted” his retirement to update A Short History of Nearly Everything.

After working outside on her high-country sheep station, the Kiwi chef-turned-farmer loves listening to rain on the roof beside a crackling fire.

Five books in to his Thursday Murder Club series and British author Richard Osman’s four senior sleuths are as popular as ever.

Stephenie Meyer’s debut novel, Twilight, was published in 2005 – the first in a series that went on to sell over 100 million copies worldwide.

How many books do judges have to read? How fast? How much money is there in the win? And why has it been the source of controversy?

153 books were whittled down to six. Judge Sarah Jessica Parker described the process as "real agony".

An extraordinary Dutch couple who risked their lives sheltering a Jewish girl in World War II, wound up living peacefully in Paekākāriki.

Opinion: In Elizabeth Gilbert's shocking new confessional memoir, she falls in love with her dying best friend, enables her addiction – and once again serves a perfect example of 'priv-lit'.

"It's lazy writing, but it is a literary device that's been around forever, so people cling to it quite dearly," says British author and disability rights advocate Jen Campbell.

Adam Kay's best-selling debut memoir about being an NHS gynaecologist, This Is Going to Hurt,spawned a hit TV series. He's back with his first novel, A Particularly Nasty Case.

An old recipe sheds new light on the feminist pioneer’s life.

A bold orange and green book celebrating women in art has taken out the PANZ Book Design Award.

Beyond literacy and reading pleasure, a mobile library helps those seeking social connections, self-reflection or even a bit of tech advice.

"I don't believe that I aired my dirty laundry in public," Prince Harry said.

Oleg Lyalin was a somewhat hapless, hard-drinking KGB agent, who provided so much information to MI5 in 1971 it led to the largest mass expulsion of Soviet spies from any country.

A new book Dianaworld: An Obssession explores "the princess’s people".

Chloe Adams' biological grandmother Mary, who became pregnant during post-war military service in Japan, was the inspiration for her debut novel The Occupation.

Andrew Lownie's latest royal biography, based on four years of research and interviews with closely placed sources, paints a damning picture of Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.

From struggling to learn to read at school during the war Joy Cowley went on to become one of New Zealand’s most beloved and prolific authors. Now, a new documentary looks back at her extraordinary life.

Set in a post-climate change future where survivors are haunted by the richness of a lost world, the acclaimed British author's latest novel is a quest, literary thriller and love story.

Megan Dalla-Camina helps women in the corporate world stand up to their "inner patriarch" and turn their ideas into action.

Book clubs are as much about socialising as they are about a love of literature. One woman, who has been a member of the same club for 50 years, says the key to success is loyalty and respect for other’s views.

One of the world's most successful thriller writers isn't giving up any secrets about his new subject.

This is the second time Margaret Atwood has commented on the proposed book ban in the Canadian province.

The blogger's name raises a few eyebrows, but it was just a “flippant comment” she made when people asked what she did.

Robert Sullivan (Ngāpuhi, Kāi Tahu) of Ōamaru has been announced as Poet Laureate for the next three years.

There was Māori representation in almost every category of the awards.

Māori writer and historian Ross Calman unpacks the complexities of Aotearoa / New Zealand's founding document in an accessible way for younger readers, judges say.

While he’s on record saying he hates rock 'n' roll books, band manager Alan Niven has nonetheless written one of his own.

Owner Warwick Jordan is hoping for a miracle to find a home for more than 200,000 books.

Romance writers are challenging social norms with best-sellers set on tennis courts, soccer fields and racing tracks.

"There are moments when you feel trapped by the life that you are on as if it is a commuter train ride in and back every day and you go in, you give the best of yourself to your work and you come home tired in the evening."

For so long, Casey Johnston considered her body the enemy. But whilst she was trying to 'get healthy', she was actually making her body weaker.

In her memoir Boogie Wonderland, 58-year-old journalist Kate Halfpenny gets real about the alcohol addiction that took hold of her husband when they left locked-down Melbourne for a simpler life on the coast.

In a world of fear, creativity can be our guiding light, says Wellington artist Jo Randerson, author of the new book Secret Art Powers.

"Can you ever really know your kids?" That's the question at the heart of Sameer Pandya's new novel Our Beautiful Boys.

In his 2000 memoir Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain lifted the pot lid on what goes down in professional restaurant kitchens.

If we want to continue living in a golden era, be like the Athenians not the Spartans, says Swedish historian Johan Norberg.

For eight weeks Steve Braunias was at the High Court writing a diary on the Polkinghorne trial and has now published a book about the notorious case.

Few criminal trials in recent history have piqued the public interest like Erin Patterson’s conviction for poisoning three extended family members with a beef wellington spiked with death-cap mushrooms.

Raynor Winn, author of the award-winning memoir The Salt Path, has been accused of "lies, deceit and desperation".

While they still make headlines, do these scandals around fabrication have the same impact they once did, in today’s era of “fake news”?

A birthday dinner at Melbourne's fanciest restaurant at age nine was all it took for award-winning restaurant critic Besha Rodell to get hooked on fine dining.

An investigation by The Observer found some of Raynor Winn's claims about her husband's illness and the events that led to the couple losing their home were misrepresented. The author says the article is "highly misleading".

Wellington writer Una Cruickshank explores earthly curiosities and patterns in her award-winning essay collection The Chthonic Cycle.

Malaysian authorities raided a bookstore this week to seize two books on the grounds of morality. But for the bookstore staff and publishers, it was just another day.

Here is a small selection of favourites so far (we have brilliant books still to come in the second half of the year) that includes a new novel from Nobel winner Han Kang, two local memoirs, and the start of two new fiction series that I predict are going to take off.

Respected Kiwi writer Maurice Gee - author of Plumb and Under the Mountain - has died, aged 93.

The 80-year-old writer shares his "extremely humbling" experience of learning to speak and write the Māori language in the new RNZ podcast Witi Underwater.

Hard To Find Books owner Warwick Jordan says he couldn’t sleep last night, thinking about the various offers he's made to take all the books from the National Library.

The British thriller writer wrote more than 20 novels, short stories and other works. He died aged 86, his literary agents said.

Irish author John Boyne’s latest novel, Air, is the final in an interlinked quartet of novellas.

An idyllic summer holiday on the Kāpiti coast inspired Wellington writer Jennifer Trevelyan’s debut novel.

A new book pays tribute to the pioneering women of New Zealand’s medical profession.

When former Canberra Raiders player and farmer Luke Bateman joined TikTok, he went viral for his love of fantasy novels. A month later he announced a book deal, but the news sparked controversy.

Winners will be in the running for the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year Award.

The former New Zealand prime minister says her dad wasn't sure she could handle politics, but Ardern says she led with empathy, and now talks to others about how to do the same.

The former prime minister's book covers her tenure as well as upbringing, but some reviews say it lacks any direct reflection on her resignation or decision-making outside of crises.

The 79-year-old never expected the global success of her first memoir. She now has a personal assistant to help answer all the fan mail.

Eamon Dolan tried to set boundaries with his abusive mother for years. He says severing all connections was one of the best things he's ever done.

For almost 40 years, Scottish crime writer Sir Ian Rankin has explored the dark side of Edinburgh and himself via the adventures of mysterious police inspector John Rebus.

The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards celebrate literary excellence for books written by New Zealanders.

Kiwi novelist Catherine Chidgey says she keeps hustling to avoid a scenario like the one she had where she went 13 years without publishing anything.

Graci Kim writes fantasy books for kids, but the real world forces sometimes working against her aren't imaginary.

YouTuber Campbell Walker (aka struthless) is encouraging people to put their phones down and fill the freed-up hours with creative adventures.

The Ockham Award-winner's ninth book is full of hidden secrets and plenty of suspense, says Josie Shapiro.

In 1985 we see the adults through a child’s eyes, and the distance of memory, but his is not a one-dimensional lens. Hoey writes about disappointed people coping via escapism.

National security has become incredibly complicated in the digital age, says the MI5 boss-turned-novelist, but the secret agent's most powerful skill hasn't changed a bit.

Shilo Kino’s latest novel All that We Know is about a young woman reclaiming her reo as a disconnected urban Māori.

A clash between two food influencers over a caramel slice and a baklava recipe highlights the grey area of recipe ownership.

Coffee influencer and author Celeste Wong says we're getting a good deal comparing the quality and cost to our UK counterparts.

Just as we might set up parental controls on our devices, should we be censoring what our children read?

Former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter got in Trump's firing line after coining a description of the business tycoon that has now become a running joke in pop culture.

Art historian Mary Kisler delves into the prisoner-of-war ordeal that shaped her father Jack in the new book Dark Dad: War and trauma - a daughter’s tale.

Libraries in New Zealand are no longer just for books. They are learning hubs, language schools, havens for the homeless and support centres for those who have nowhere else to go for help.

Abdulrazak Gurnah - a Nobel laureate who moved to the UK at 18 - continues to explore the immigrant experience in his new novel Theft.

Thirty of William Shakespeare's "underwritten" female characters speak their mind in a new book of speeches by English actress Harriet Walter.

When Sissay was 12, he was given back to social services by his foster family who had taken him in as a baby. He knew from then he wanted to be a poet for life.

One hundred years on from making her mark with botanical artwork, Emily Harris' unseen poetry and diary entries come to light.

In her new novel Dream Count, the Nigerian literary star tackles the tense sibling-like relationship between African Americans and Black people who are not from the US.

Graci Kim said the call to skip the US leg of her Dreamslinger book launch was out of her hands.

If you love New Zealand honey, then you have an intrepid 19th century Englishwoman to thank.

Christchurch writer and former Flying Nun bass player Rachael King hopes her new book series Violet and the Velvets will encourage preteen girls to join rock bands.

This week, the Ministry of Education released a proposed list of suggested texts for New Zealand school students.

Gabrielle Kervella, now in her 80s, fell in love with cheese making on annual visits to South West France to visit her husband’s parents.

Classifying all stories about women who find love as ‘chick lit’ or ‘romance’ does a disservice to readers and the female experience, says bestselling English novelist Jojo Moyes.

Award-winning authors and global thought-leaders form a diverse line-up for the largest literary festival in the southern hemisphere.

The New Zealand artist calls on his very vivid memories in his new memoir, Hastings: A Boy's Own Adventure, which he wrote in pencil.

A year ago Kate Evans became the "mad feijoa lady of Raglan".

"There are so many powerful scenes which have stayed with me long after I finished it and shows how societal judgements on women have changed over time," one of the judges said.