Books

We think of New Zealand literature as matter of fact, no-nonsense, social realism territory. But beneath the stoic surface we seem to have an extraordinary fantasy life. Margaret Mahy, The Vintner's… Audio

Hera Lindsay Bird of Unity Books reviews Skunk and Badger by Amy Timberlake, pictures by Jon Klassen, published by Allen and Unwin. Audio

Paul Diamond reviews Shining Land: Looking for Robin Hyde by Paula Morris and Haru Sameshima. This book is published by Massey University Press. Audio

John King reviews The Autumn of the Ace by Louis de Bernieres, published by Penguin Random House. Audio

Jane Westaway reviews Consolation by Garry Disher, published by Text. Audio

Carole Beu of the Women's Bookshop reviews Remote Sympathy by Catherine Chidgey. This book is published by Victoria University Press. Extraordinary and engrossing. Set in Nazi Germany, this novel… Audio

Seattle band Pearl Jam have recorded 11 studio albums, sold 85 million+ albums, played over 1000 shows, and had 5 albums reach number one. But after over thirty years of success, why isn't Pearl Jam… Audio

David Hill reviews Landmarks by Grahame Sydney, Brian Turner and Owen Marshall. Published by Penguin Random House. Audio

NZ's top research award, the Rutherford Medal, has gone to Brian Boyd, whose work spans Shakespeare to Nabokov to Popper, & weaves arts and sciences together. Audio

Kiran Dass of Time Out Bookstore reviews Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart, published by Pan Macmillan. Audio

Bronwyn Wylie-Gibb of University Book Shop, Dunedin, reviews Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. Published by Bloomsbury. Mysterious, haunting, quite peculiar. Piranesi explores the echoing halls of The… Audio

Critic and Director of Verb Wellington Claire Mabey shares some favourites for your summer reading list. Audio

Michelle Rahurahu Scott reviews Navigating the Stars by Witi Ihimaera, published by Penguin Random House. Audio

Despite the trend in recent years towards e-books, independent bookshops are popping up all across the country.

Four new shops opened in the past few months, and another is due to open in Wellington… Video, Audio

A new book, Eat the Buddha by foreign correspondent Barbara Demick, focuses on protests by Tibetan monks in one town in China to peel away layers of hurt and history.

A new history, The Story of China, tackles how China has managed to organise its state and the growth of its civilisation over centuries. Video

Stella Chrysostomou of VOLUME Books reviews The Harpy by Megan Hunter, published by Pan Macmillan. A marriage, a betrayal and a punishment. An exploration of love, revenge and female rage drawing on… Audio